Might have been around 1969, I remember my Dad taking me an my brother across the street to my Grandma and Grandpa's house to run Grandpa's American Flyer trains.. lots of fun and great memories. 
1967? I missed that by about a year. I was 11 in 1967, saving my money to buy a train set. My dad said a train set was too expensive for a Christmas gift, so I should save my money to buy one. I'm pretty sure I was 12 when I bought my first set.
Thank you, all of you who were serving our country then. I prayed for all of you every night. Vietnam really scared me.
Nope. Was struggling through organic chemistry and wondering if I would have to think about studying law instead of medicine 
.
@mikey posted:Were you at TET in 68
Oh, yes. . . every minute of it from start to finish with 101st. First at Bien Hoa Air Base and then at Hue and Phu Bai. Second tour was spent with USARV.
nope, not born yet !
@Allan Miller posted:Oh, yes. . . every minute of it from start to finish with 101st. First at Bien Hoa Air Base and then at Hue and Phu Bai. Second tour was spent with USARV.
Allan, did you know Alan Greenstein in the 101st Airborne? Not a train guy, but a very good lawyer who is a friend and colleague of mine.
Yes. I was in 7th grade so more than likely the trains got set up at Christmas.
George
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:Allan, did you know Alan Greenstein in the 101st Airborne? Not a train guy, but a very good lawyer who is a friend and colleague of mine.
No, I can't say that I knew him. Of course, the 101st was a big division, with units spread at various locations throughout the country, so often the only way we got to know each other was via the Screaming Eagle shoulder patch.
@Allan Miller posted:No, I can't say that I knew him. Of course, the 101st was a big division, with units spread at various locations throughout the country, so often the only way we got to know each other was via the Screaming Eagle shoulder patch.
Alan Greenstein told me that he and his fellow 101st Airborne Division men would go in to the situations that the Marines could not handle. LOL.
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:Alan Greenstein told me that he and his fellow 101st Airborne Division men would go in to the situations that the Marines could not handle. He said this with a smile on his face. LOL.
Yes I was. I had a 4x8 layout on saw horses that my Father built. Had 2 027 loops. One on lower level with a pair of 1122 switches and a siding. The other loop was on a overhead trestle set. I had just bought my brand new 2346 at Manor Sporting Goods in Woodhaven to add to my 2029/234W which I got for Christmas of 1965.
I just graduated high school. in 67 girls were what I remember running for. Trains were in card board boxes in the closet.
For me, trains were seasonal affairs, i.e., around Christmas. In 1967, however, we "traded" the annual Christmas layout experience for the real deal: a trip aboard the WP leg of the California Zephyr to visit my father's family in Utah... something we would do again the following year.
In 1967, I had this approx N scale trains with plastic track. No idea what happened to it. Remember I took it on a trip to our cousins in Wisconsin, and on the way back home, I remembered I left the box on my great aunt's table, so we had to go back. Don't think my dad was too happy about that. My older brothers had S and Lionel. One time they set up tables in the garage and ran trains there, maybe 1968 or 69. Later on I had N scale, HO scale, but three rail O gauge won my heart. I looked into switching to scale S S Helper Service with DCC around 2005, but I was going to lose too much. Glad I didn't, their product line is dang near wiped out. My oldest brother still likes O and AF style S, and my younger brother has more O than I do. Brother #2 no trains. Wife wants to move to a condo some day, might have to switch to N scale, join or club, or both. Some other day's problem.
I was 5 and happily running a 242 steamer and a couple of gondolas on an O27 oval...
Mitch
No. The only thing I ran in 1967 was a 1600 hp, Fairbanks Morse 10 cylinder opposed piston diesel engine on a submarine. Earl G.
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:Alan Greenstein told me that he and his fellow 101st Airborne Division men would go in to the situations that the Marines could not handle. LOL.
Arnold,
That is a myth or a real "sea story". I have many friends who were Marines in VN. A few of them were KIA. I am sure that the 101st was a fine fighting unit but the Marines were equally as good and just as brave. NH Joe
Nope , no trains. I was a 19 year old Corporal with 5th Marines just getting in Vietnam October 67.
And I got to visit Hue and Phu Bai in 68 as well Allen.
During '67, as a 15 year old in KC, I would have been in various stages of enjoying my 12' x 8' L-shaped HO layout that I had built all by my lonesome. (Dad wasn't a hobby type, but he did support my hobbies in many ways, including driving me to hobby shops all over KC so I could spend my hard-earned $$ on toys!)
My hobby time was also shared with home set slot cars and control line airplanes.
Looking back, I had a wonderful parents and fantastic childhood and teen years, for which I am very grateful.
Andre
I was in high school. Built an L shaped layout with 2 sheets of plywood Dad helped me bring home. 027 equipment. I added an appendage with a freight yard, and an elevated section.
He got a Girl's set for $17 (new) as they did not sell in 58. We took good care of that with a flat black can of paint.
I went off to college in 1969 and did not do any more model railroading until 1982 when I got a house.
@New Haven Joe posted:Arnold,
I am sure that the 101st was a fine fighting unit but the Marines were equally as good and as a brave. NH Joe
No disputing that fact!
Starting running Lionel trains in 1963 at 2 years of age, and I still remember going to the variety store in Quanah, TX to buy it and watching it run in the floor of the living room. I would lay on the floor and watch it come straight at my face until it curved away to the left. Lionel 2-4-2, Swift boxcar/penny bank, LV open hopper, Lionel gondola, brown flat car, and red waycar. Figure 8 track.
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:
Interesting remark. If it was worth it I would tell you some stories, but it's not.
You have a good day.
Larry
E Company 2/5
Only had a Marx set at that time. Set it up in the basement.
@Rob Leese posted:I would lay on the floor and watch it come straight at my face until it curved away to the left.
I still do that only I don't lay on the floor (could never get back up if I did)
Brendan
Lessee - in 1967 I a) graduated from college, b) got married and c) came to the west coast for grad school - so no trains (though we did ride the CA Zephyr from the Bay Area back to Nebraska at Xmas time - not realizing at the time that its demise was almost upon us). My dad died in the spring of 1968 and my mom sold their house and moved out of state, so she sent me the boxes of American Flyer trains, track, etc. that I had accumulated as a kid. I set it up on the floor of our apartment the following X-mas. I realized then that one of the reasons I had gravitated towards experimental physics was due to those trains - by the time I was ten, I could take all the engines apart, lube them and reassemble them. Something about knowing which end of the screwdriver to hold...
@Putnam Division posted:Great pictures......
I have a video that shows train layouts 1958-1963......starting at around 2:10 in the video....
Peter
Love this video, Peter. Thanks for sharing.
Joined the USN in 65, deployed to Vietnam in 67, 68 and 68, later I took my training to a Army National Guard Nike Guided Missile, wound up back on Active Duty and retired in 95. Trains have always been set up somewhere, mostly at Dad's place, or my brothers, or mine. Today all three collections reside in AZ with me as the operator, maintainer and train room docent. My buddy Rick lost his legs in Nam, see him often, Semper Fi to him please, and to all the other Leather Neck Devil Dogs. Same respect and thoughts regarding all. To our Greatest Generation, Thank You. To the Korean veterans of the Forgotten War, you are not forgotten, to my brothers and sisters who were not welcomed home, Welcome home, and today, perhaps especially today, to our National Treasure, God Bless those who kept us safe for the last two decades. More will follow, pray for peace. Lastly, I know this is a train forum, I love my trains, they are a joy and I like this forum very much, and it should be about trains, and no excuses, these have been a few bad 'news days' for veterans. Thanks for sharing trains, and thanks to those who were able to make a difference. Chuck, USN/USA (USS Colonial/242d Engineers)
Short Answer - No.
In the past year and before that in the fifties.
John
Nope.
In '67 we in New England were all focused on the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox...
Mark (now) in Oregon
It was 1967 that Santa brought us our first Lionel set - a 736 Berkshire and a set of Presidential streamlined passenger cars. I was 2. I guess Santa wanted to get us started early in life with trains 
!
It still rides the rails every December.
Attachments
I may have been. I still had my postwar Lionel sets from when I was born in 1947, but I was starting my career in film archiving, and also getting interested in HO. It wasn’t until I moved to Pennsylvania in 1995, and started a large HO layout, that I re-kindled my love for 3 rail O-Guage,and dismantled the HO layout, just keeping a 4x8’ one, and picked up a 5x9’ ping-pong table, and built my current layout. By this time, my old sets had been sold, and I started collecting anew.
1967 I wasn’t even walking yet
Gary, that's why you run them on the floor!
john
used to live 100 yards from the 470.
I was a junior in high school at the time. Focused on playing football and basketball, getting good grades, applying for colleges, and chasing girls, not necessarily in that order. However, my love for model trains, which commenced when I was a very young child, was very much alive, but in the background at that point in my life. Of course, we always had our Lionel layout under our Christmas Tree, but that was about it as far as model trains went at that time.
Pat
In 1967 I had been married two years. I was buying post-war trains for a future layout. I was driving 100 miles one way to work at Edwards Ait Force Base. Gasoline was $.17 - $.19 per gallon.
I was 12 years old and in second form at Secondary School. I had a OO Tri-Ang layout at that time...
I was in 6th grade in '67 and my Dad had bought this HO scale pre assembled 4'x4' layout with a train and slot car track combined for my brother and I. It was fully landscaped with a tunnel for the train. I believe is was a Revell product. I wish I had a photo of it, darn. A close friend of mine and I used to pretend one of the slot cars was running moonshine and the other car was the FBI. LoL The road/rail crossing was a dangerous place for to cars in chase. Many accidents, train always won!! Even with the many train vs car accidents, they were tough as nails and never broke! The Locomotive was a 0-4-0 with two freight cars and a caboose. I spent many hours with that set. I got back into trains about 13 years ago one Xmas with a train around the tree (Lionel Polar Express). It expanded from there.
Many, many thanks to our Military folks!
Nope, I am a product of 1973. No clue if my birth father was running his trains(if he had them) back then as I am adopted. But I have been into trains since before I could walk. AD
Nope! Trying to figure out how to graduate from College, find out what was happening wiht my draft status, get a job (if needed), decide on grad school, and get married against my mother's wishes. it was a tough year getting started out on my own and trains were not part of the equation, but not far away.
