Since trains weren't my dad's thing, I never had to worry about sharing them, so I still have my humble Marx train.

my Mom tossed them OUT. back in the 1960s still hurts!! The Good news. I have a picture of my Dad setting up the Marx set under the tree. I could make out the cars and Locomotive.

years ago, I went into Ebay, found all those cars and locomotive. Bid, Won and have that set again to run on my board. Yippee Skippee!!

"Brotherly Love"

I still have one. Wish I still had all the track that went with it...

The trains from childhood, my dad's, are at my brothers currently where is is cleaning, repairing, and generally keeping them in working order.  They are PW so he gets more enjoyment out of them than I do.  I'm confident that they are safe long term and will operate for years to come.

The 2356 Southern freight set, 671 Turbine freight set, a Lionelville trolley.

Interestingly enough, I did not have Lionel trains when I was younger...I had all Lego Trains.  

My mother would buy me one new set each year, until I effectively had a massive Lego empire. 

I am currently 30 years old, and I am proud to say...I still have every single one (in storage obviously).  

Perhaps one day I'll pass down to my nephew (he's still a little too young to appreciate them).

Best,

Michael

My childhood trains have become the basis do 46 years of collecting and operating which over the years have expanded to two rail O, garden trains, Marklin Gauge 1, and even HO. I consider my official train entry date December 8, 1968 when I drilled my first whole on the family layout in the basement. My dad stood behind me, helping me hold his big Sears all metal, made in the USA, drill, as "I" drilled my first hole. He is long gone, as well as the layout, but I still have all the trains and accessories.

All the best,

Miketg

I still have my American Flyer 350 Royal Blue set from 1948.  Had it serviced recently and it still runs.

Mark

My younger brothers weren't in to trains like I was/am, so when I flew the coop to run away with the rock'n'roll circus my parents gave my Flyer stuff to a family that was less fortunate than we were, a decision I never have regretted.

Pete

I still have mine in storage at the house, although, officially, I have passed them on to my eldest son.  He's recently married and moving soon.  My intention is to have some magic maintenance completed on the set a then deliver them to his new home.  It's a good feeling.

Ron L.

Still have them packed away.

I run them on my postwar layout. They were my dad's and he passed away when I was five. My mom gave me his trains for my 8th birthday and I took very good care of them. My best memories of my dad are running trains on a 4x8 board and around the Christmas tree. Running these from time to time brings back those memories.

Bob

Set 1475WS, from the 1950 catalogue. Still have it and it runs very well ( with maintenance)!! 

I have no idea, but I replaced the Lionel postwar 224 engine/tender and metal caboose. I also bought a PW American Flyer passenger set that my best friend owned. So far, I have resisted re-buying my '67 Mustang.

My first engine, an American Flyer 283 4-6-2 was cannibalized to make 2 other engines with die-cast boilers run. (A K-5 and a Hudson.) I still have the boiler shell, and tender, and have since bought a running chassis to make it whole. Everything is packed away awaiting The Great Move. (Coming the fall of 2015.) [And people who really know me will say I'm being optimistic on the year.]   

Still have mine, and in pretty good condition. My parents packed up my trains when I left, and several years ago my father was cleaning house and told me that if I wanted them, I'd better take them. So I did. I had always taken good care of them, so when I unpacked them almost everything was complete and in decent shape. I never had anything very high-end, but I'm glad to have gotten them back just for the sake of having them. I mostly don't run them, except for a couple of items that I especially like, such as the 460 Piggyback Platform. 

My 2026 Lionel freight set from 1948 is packed up for my first grandson.  It runs just fine with the original 1032 transformer.

He just turned 6 and loves trains.  He's learning from the RTR Thomas set at the moment.  He lives 800 miles away but will be here after Christmas when we run a PE, girl's set, and a few locos I bought this year.

Still have them.  This engine...my first in 1954... pulls my Polar Express cars around the tree.  Matt

I got a couple of HO sets, never really cared for them because I knew they weren't the same as Dad's or my Uncle's Lionels. I did get a Marx PC steam set in the early '70s I wish I still had.

I'm 24, so it probably wouldn't seem like too long ago to you "more experienced" model railroaders, but 4 years in a college fraternity does seem to seperate my childhood pretty well.  Anyway, my early plastic sets are long gone.  still have my wooden brio imitations in a box in the attic.  my first HO set has seen better days and i doubt the engine runs, but i kept them for the shelf.  When I got into O-gauge and got some early postwar from a distant family member, my dad found his original trains, a late lionel postwar.  It didn't work anymore so he sold it and put the money towards my our growing collection. Can't wait to get home for the holidays and run trains with dad again

My mother donated them to the church toy drive along with all my Tonka Trucks, Matchbox, Hot Wheels and GI Joe's.  She said the poor kids needed them and I no longer played with them.

My original set was the Santa Fe F3s freight set from the 1954 catalog (Set 2227W), which I received for Christmas that year,  and they are still on the layout. Here is that battered powered unit, trailed elephant style by the less battered dummy, both of which still run well, of course.

I still have my first Lionel set and have it displayed in an antique writing desk in the foyer of our home.  I promised my mother that I would never sell it and won't.  Every time I look at it, it brings back pleasant memories of my mom and that part of my childhood.

Art

Traded one set for the labor to install a dual exhaust system on a 65 Mustang.  Sold the remainder for $200 in the late 80's.  Turns out, my stuff was worth much more, but I had no idea at the time.   

"What became of your childhood trains?"

   I still have mine, 1957 era Athearn GP7 and caboose. They have been updated over the years and still run fine.....DaveB

Mine, went the route of mom giving it away. But more valuable to me was my brothers train set. Just a Sears Allstate set he loved and we had it set up in our bedroom. He was 5 years old when he died. It took over a year for me to pack away. To this day, I still take and run it on my layout occassionaly, and as it run, memories flood back to those day in our bedroom of 1961.

I still have my Dad's set which he purchased in 1948.  It is Lionel set 1423W which is a freight set headed up with a nice little die cast 1655 steam locomotive with a whistling tender.  I still have all of the set components and the engine and whistle tender work just fine. 

I also still have my Grandfather's set which my Grandmother bought for him in 1958.  It is also a Lionel freight set.  The set number is 1590 and it is headed up by a plastic 249 steam locomotive with no headlight or whistle and a two position reverse unit.  However, the engine and its tender have matching orange stripes which gives them a nifty looking appearance.  The engine still runs great. 

As I was growing up I unfortunately trashed both of the set boxes for these sets even though I kept the individual component boxes in decent shape.  However, E-Bay came along and I was able to buy both set boxes which now gives me two fully intact sets which I can pass on to the next generation. 

Still have them all safely packed away in air conditioned space. Some are brought out this time of the year when I set up my carpet layout. 

I still all the Lionel trains I received when I was 1-2 years old. They were un-cataloged outfits and I have been able to identify what engines and cars went together. 

Some wear and tear of course but I've been able to fix and replace broken parts with new old stock parts.

I need to post some pix. stay tuned!

Top shelf, from 1955, now retired; forgive the just-grabbed-the camera shots. 2055 Hudson; Burro crane and a couple of other add-ons, later. My tank car that I kept

taking apart for some reason and finally managed to lose one of the trucks:

Regrettably, I sold them to my Chem Professor in college.       Contacted him years later (when I renewed my interest in trains) in hopes of buying them back, to no avail.   He claimed to have sold them.  

Rick

Great, Lee Looks like they are in good condition.

I still have mine from my youth, which I purchased with my own money, however they are American Flyer and now I am running Lionel. Maybe some day.

I stll have my 0-4-0 Scout set from 1958. I still use th loco and slope backed tender t from time to time to check out tranformers under repair. It's pretty much indestrcutable at this point, so if there is something goofy going on with the TXFMR, then no electronics get damaged.  The plastic body is getting a bit rough, but the internals just keep on going. 

r0d

Still have them; they were "hand-me-down"s from my uncle (who is 7 yrs older).

Bruce

still have them all and cost a small fortune to have them all either restored or repaired. All of them now fully functional and restored.

HO Lionel numerous engine and freight cars many of them operate. Set up a layout with every piece I own either shown on a siding or on the mainline running.

O-Gauge lionel scout set with air whistle and freight cars.

O-Gauge Marx William Crooks fully restored all new decals, new pick up sliding shoe. Smoke and headlight work. Tin Plate passenger cars fully restored with new chimneys.

Although not trains just bought a absolute mint HO Aurora slot car set off ebay. I plan on setting up the slot cars on the HO layout. My Dad bult my very first train table. I had both HO slots and HO trains on that table. I plan on replicating it best i can.