Whats your first train?

My first trains were all inherited from 1953 to 1960.  My Dad's Lionel 1655 Steam Locomotive from 1948 with whistle tender and associated freight cars and my Grandfather's Lionel 249 Steam Locomotive from 1958 with its appropriate tender and freight cars and his 666 Marx Steam loco and tender from 1959 with freight cars.  All sets are still completely intact and all still run perfectly.  I couldn't afford to buy my own trains until about 1975 and that's when I started buying MPC stuff, all of which I still have and all of which still run.. 

Christmas 1947 Santa brought a Lionel passenger set with a 2025 and three madison cars.

Ron

Marx 898 set ATSF tank and CRIP gondola(blue) and NYC caboose, still have it

I think My dad Had that when he collected HO trains in the 1970's because I looked through his old train box and I remember seeing an engine and caboose like the ones in the picture.

Santa Fe freight set from the 1954 catalog, received for Christmas that year. I still have it.

Santa brought an American Flyer PRR K5 No 310 freight set for Christmas 1949. I was just 5 1/2 but was sure glad that he chose the 2 rail trains!

I still have the original set.

My first set was a Model Power HO set with a Santa Fe F3, geen Rio Grande cattle car, silver Texico tank car, and a red SF caboose.  It was a gift from my grandparents when I was 3, and started about a 10 year journy with HO.  Now the rest of the HO is gone, but I still have the loco and cars from that set, I don't think the engine runs or all the wheels or couplers are intact, but I keep them still.

When I was 8 I recieved my first O-gauge set in the form of a clothes hamper full of postwar trains from my dad's second cousin.  All early postwar in the original boxes headed up by a 2026 with maybe 10 cars (including milk car, dump car, and crane car), gateman, crossing gate, and coal loader.  We eventually made the transisiton to O-gauge, and turned out my dad had a late postwar frieght set with set box in the attic the whole time.  By the time we dug it out the engine didn't work, so although my dad loved his childhood set, he sold the plastic set and put the money towards some nicer postwar items like the rotating searchlight car, minuteman missle launcher, and some modern accessories.  I quickly started saving my money for a postwar SF F3 to substitute for my HO version, and within a few years I found a good one with some missmatched aluminum cars on ebay.  And the rest as they say is history.

Sorry, I realize the question was about your first train, but to me, it's all part of the story

I agree AXP889, it's all part of the story.  

I'm glad some folks started replying to this thread again.  I had to check back to remember I had added my story about the Tyco HO F9 set I bought back in 1969.  ;-)

The stories are all good,

my first train set was purchased by my grandfather in december 1948 at amer's hobby shop in youngstown ohio a 675 loco and freight set. what makes the story more interesting is when when he went there he asked howard amer what train set should he buy for his grandson, howard asked how old the boy was he stated his grandson was to be born in july 1949. howard asked him how he knew that it was a boy and my grandfather said what else would his grandson be? for years every time i went to amers howard always mentioned that story to everyone there. the last lionel loco i got from howard was a 773 bought by my grandfather in 1966. yes i still have them both.

Nick,

Great story!  Your grandpa must have been a great guy!

mark yes he was i lived in chicago at the time and spent the summers with my grandparents in youngstown. we built a 14x28 layout which had 7 trains running. every xmas went day after to buy either a set or more cars. he lived till he was 81 and always went down to the basement to run the trains. great memories of him as well as he got me started in racing and auto repair. as a side note jan 15th my family will be in the automotive business 100 years 4 generations.

Looks like my grandparents ate plenty of oatmeal!

Congratulations on the centennial of your family's business!

Christmas 1941.  A train set with a 224 loco, dumping log car, red gondola car, Sunoco tank car, PRR caboose, Type R transformer, #167 whistle controller.  Cars now have knuckle couplers and are still in everyday use.  Loco is only run at Christmas around the tree, because my layout is all DCS and I don't find running conventional to be as much fun.

Hah! wow...that was my first set too!

it all runs, the parts that got broken in my youth (bell, caboose smokestack and end ladder) have been replaced. I did manage to wear out the driver gears, and am scouting out a shop in the NYC area that can replace the drivers with the proper tools.

---PCJ 

Here it is.  A friend, Bob Taylor, has the one of the very Tyco HO set I bought in 1969 that I mentioned early in this thread.  Many thanks to Bob for the photos!!!

My Dad bought a 675 freight set circa 1954 on lay-a-way.  As a factory worker and my Mom working as a school crossing guard supporting 3 young children and my wife's parents, money was tight.

I still have that set and the 2356 Southern AA's and 2530, -31, and -33 aluminum cars that were added a couple of years later, along with a bunch of Plasticville all with their original boxes. 

More than the train sets, I remember learning from my Dad how to set-up the trains, helping my younger brother learn how to do it, and after a few years being left to do it with my brother with only nominal supervision from Dad.

Good topic, especially at this time of the year.

Carl

PS:  At some point while I was still quite young and would see the annual Lionel catalog, usually featuring those beautiful warbonnet SF's, I asked my Mom why they bought the Southern diesels when we lived in New Jersey.  Her answer was very pragmatic--the Southerns were on sale and the SF's were not.

I wish I still had my originals.

I got a set like this for Christmas when I was small.

This was my first set in 1972.  My father found them in the trash and had them fixed up mechanically.  I still have them.

1952: A 2025 steamer (PRR K-4) with whistle tender, NYC gondola w/wooden barrels, Sunoco 2 dome tank car, SF Animated boxcar (027), and SP-style caboose. Still have it all, still runs like a charm.

My first set was a #25000 Marx set, with #999 with the embossed spoked pilot.

I have heard Marx made 300,000 sets a year at their peak...dunno how many of those

were 999 sets.  I'd think the smaller, cheaper 6 inch sets were made in greater

quantities.  It cost $21.95 but was on the basement floor when the water heater

failed.  I saved the rusty contents, and replaced it many years later.  My brother's.

#25249, with a later #999, received by him several years later, cost #14.95 and was on a high shelf.  I have it, in good and little used condition. Like to know how many of those were made at the peak, but neither set is anywhere near rare.

American Flyer #312 Pennsylvania steam engine freight set.

Lionel O Gauge train set as a Christmas present from my father in 1955, still have Lackawanna Trainmaster engine, all cars and LW transformer. D cell horn battery was removed for storage,no engine corrosion, runs like new in 1955.

My first train that was all my own was a Marx set.

I remember I busted the engine and my head, (5 stitches) trying to do a hand stand when I was about 10.

Jerry

We broke the very first train my family had, and out it went. We didn't know it could be fixed, and we lived in an apartment with no space for broken toys. It was a 1960's scout type engine, no smoke or whistle.

The first train I purchased was a 1062 set. It came on a blister pack. I don't have that particular one any longer. I do have a couple of others.

Jerry,

Great story!  Why do we do what we do when we are kids?  My wife works as a grade school nurse and tells me about students who come in for treatment before school even starts.  I was one of those kids over 50 years ago.  One day before classes started, I was riding in a red wagon and somehow fell forward and hit my eyebrow right on the corner of the wooden chalk tray.  I didn't get stitches, just a band aid.  However, I was told later I should have had stitches.  The scar is still visible behind my blond eyebrow.  Not a train accident, but still a four-wheel vehicle!

Your set looks very similar to one my daughter's boyfriend tried to buy for me on a local internet garage sale site.  Someone else beat him to it.

In 1965, a Lionel Scout Freight Set with it's original box, of which I still have and run, and it has never received maintenance of any sort.

Runs like brand new.

My first train set I received for Christmas in 1958.  It was a Marx Allstate Freight sold at Sears.  It consisted of a 333 Santa Fe Steamer, Operating Milk car with platform, Auto carrier,Searchlight car, Crane car with searchlight, & work caboose.  I still have it and it runs and smokes like crazy.

Paul Edgar

MM,

   My 1st train was a Tin Plate Lionel 263E work train, we still own and operate it along with the new DCS MTH 263E, my favorite is still the original, every time it runs my Grandpa still holds me in his arms.

PCRR/Dave

Mine was a Hornby Dublo 3-Rail Sir Nigel Gresley passenger set.  Yeah, my folks were British.  The only problem was I had never seen an engine with buffers so my Dad took it back to the shop and traded for a Canadian Pacific passenger outfit.  Best investment decision he ever made.  The Gresley set today is quite common, while the CPR set is one of the rarest HD sets and has a value ten times the Gresley today.  I still have the set, in original box, but haven't run it for years. Merry Christmas. 

1973 MPC Cannonball set.   Gets running orders every December with the next generation.

Apologies for posting same video four times!!!  BTW, I'm the geeky looking kid with glasses.  Thirteen years old.  The other debonair kid is my younger brother.  HaHa.

get that Hornby out and let it stretch her legs!

My actual first was a Santa Fe HO set in the Warbonnet scheme.  I can seem to find any information on it.  I still have the powered and non-powered locos that came with it and they even run.  The first O gauge train was this Lionel Chessie GP20.

And I still have it?

Mike,

Is that the used one you cleaned up and repainted?  That one sure looked good as does this one.

Third one up from the bottom.

Received Christmas 1938 when I was two.

Wore out armature bearings, replaced by dad with miniature ball bearings.

Wore out tender trucks, replaced by dad with 6 wheeled ones.