# Your first train set.



## Toy train hobby (Aug 3, 2019)

What was your first train or train set and do you still have it? Here's mine... from Christmas of 1960. Nowadays, it mostly sits on display with other trains.

This is intended for all-scale discussion. Electric, wind-up, battery powered or push-along type trains. Hopefully, this topic has _not_ been discussed before.


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## ebtnut (Mar 9, 2017)

Well, when I was about 2 or 3 I got a wooden pull-toy train that had a loco and a couple of cars. I remember trying to drag my fingers across the carpet to raise the nap a bit to sort of look like rails to pull the train along. First electric train set was a Marx set - had a pair of F-unit locos (one a dummy) in SP paint, 3 cars (IIRC) and a caboose. Once in a while I see that set at train shows.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Mine was the Lionel 600 diesel switch engine. I cannot remember what cars it had, but I faintly remember a gondola and a flat car. My Mom gave it away while I was in the Air Force...wish I still had it. It had no great $$ value, but was dear to my heart while I was a kid.

Mine had the black frame and rails, as I remember...and definitely had the 2-axle magnetraction.

https://postwarlionel.com/motive-power/diesels/nw2-switcher/600-mkt/


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## Tallaman (Oct 23, 2012)

In about 1965 mom and Dad (yes Mom gets credit too) bought a used set from a family friend and Dad set it up for Christmas. It is an American Flyer 290 and a 300 AC with a handful of cars (red box car, yellow box car, flat car, grey hopper and a few red cabooses). I still have them and the sight of the set with the colorful cars takes me right back. I have always wanted to refurbish them. What a blast my brother and I had playing with them at Christmas on the 4x8 layout that was still way too big for our small house. But Mom and Dad put up with it for our sake...and Dad had a little bit of fun with it too.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

I received a Lionel set when I was two years old, but don't remember it for a couple of years later. That would have been 1964 when it was a Christmas present.


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

Mine was an American Flyer passenger set. Green New Haven coaches and a steamer. I forget which model but I’m thinking an Atlantic. Also had the ‘talking’ station with it. 
Later on we got a NH EP-5. That was a sweet loco. 
I still have the Penn Line HO passenger set that I got in 1963.


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

Christmas, 1955, Lionel work train. Long gone as I traded it to a dealer in 1964 for some HO stuff.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Me in 1953


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Never had a train set, per se. My father got a bunch of stuff a la carte and put it under the Chrismas Tree. That was 1971. That stuff served me through my teenage years, until girls, cars, and sports pulled me away. Then college and the Navy kept me away. The whole shebang was given to my cousin. In 2001, they shipped it all back. A bunch of new stuff, but some of the old is still soldiering along, even today. Most of it has been given away or sold, though, in favor of a layout with a more unified theme (1950s New Haven).


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

Mine would have been a Lionel 2026 handed down from my brother. 

It was a set from the 50's. Loco/tender, tanker, gondola, caboose.

I probably claimed rights around 60-63. Had it set up in basement on 4X8 covered with grass roll paper. Oval with passing siding.

It's still here somewhere!!


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## MikeL (Mar 21, 2015)

Great thread.

My first layout was a Triang Hornby, probably the late 60s / early 70s from my Uncle George. I kept the steam locomotive and will eventually put it in a place of honour somewhere on my latest layout 

I also had the Triang Hornby book of layouts. I had Layout 1 (or maybe 2) and dreamed of one day having Layout 20 (or whatever layout was at the very end of the book!)

Mike


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## MikeL (Mar 21, 2015)

Great thread.

My first layout was a Triang Hornby, probably the late 60s / early 70s from my Uncle George. I kept the steam locomotive and will eventually put it in a place of honour somewhere on my latest layout 

I also had the Triang Hornby book of layouts. I had Layout 1 (or maybe 2) and dreamed of one day having Layout 20 (or whatever layout was at the very end of the book!)

Mike


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## Chaostrain (Jan 27, 2015)

My first train set that I remember was a Lionel 3 rail. It was an oval mounted to a board that folded up against the wall. It was always there according to my memory. That was in the early 60s and thanks to my mom. Later mom got me a Marklin HO set which disappeared over the years.


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

I barely remember it but mine was a yellow wind up strange looking diesel and some cars. Later I got a Marx NYC steamer and some freight cars. We lived in a small apartment so it only came out at Christmas.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

There are likely few of you who can remember
the annual Sears Christmas catalog...it was full of
toys, decorations and other gift ideas. Us 'kids'
always looked forward to it and it became the
'wish book'.

For me, that 1941 Sears wish book showed a
$10.98 Marx electric train with 2 turnouts.
Hardly a day passed without turning to the pages
to that train. And, it came to pass, come
Christmas Eve, there it was in all it's tin plate
glory. A very happy little 11 y/o Donnie.

Don


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## Tallaman (Oct 23, 2012)

DonR said:


> "that 1941 Sears wish book"


20th century Amazon! Good story Don


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

I didn't get a set, just a couple of boxes of what I suppose was a dismantled layout at a yard sale. Bought it with a weeks worth of lawn mowing money, so it didn't cost much. I think I was about 12 y/o, so that would have been 1975. With the next weeks "pay" I got what I needed to make a couple of sawhorses, a sheet of 4x8 plywood, some green paint for grass and went to town. I don't remember what locos or cars I had, but I had enough track to make the oval with one siding and one spur. I do remember that styrofoam mountain/tunnel. More lawn mowing begat buildings, trees and other scenery. 

Then we had to move and the layout couldn't go. Sold it to a kid from church. He wanted it "as is", so his dad came with his pickup (with camper shell) and slid the whole 4x8 sheet in the bed (minus locos & cars of course) and away it went.


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## cschroeder6 (Jan 13, 2014)

My first would be a bunch of wooden Thomas the Train I played with as a toddler. As I got older, I was allowed to play with my fathers trains he had as a child in the 50s. A few years later when the interest peaked, I was gifted the Polar Express as my first official train set, which was expertly tested and hidden by my father right before christmas morning. Along with that came a bunch of Atlas track, to help get a layout up and running.


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## gimme30 (Jul 26, 2018)

My first set was the Hogwart's Express. (first release somewhere around 2007, without the bluetooth) It's seen a few minutes runtime here and there over the years but mostly just sits in it's box, waiting for Salma Hayek to move me into her mansion where I'll have space to set up an O gauge layout.

I never had a train set as a child!


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

About Christmas 1956 or 1957. A Lionel Scout 027 set. This is a photo of me in April of 1959


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## Darrenmb (Nov 13, 2018)

Mine wasnt actually mine, my grandad bought it for me, but kept it, got it out a few times when I was 3 or 4, but that's all remember, it was a hornby flying scotsman, it actually became mine last year after my nan moved to a nursing home and we had to clean out the house... it was broken when I finally got it, but I found a replacement body and now it sits in a nice trunk awaiting me to build a layout....






here she is with the broken body.. somewhere on this forum is a pic with the new body, probably over in oo.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Christmas 1968.....Aurora Postage Stamp train set.....N gauge....

Still have it in the original boxes......


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## Darrenmb (Nov 13, 2018)

Guess I should have stated it was around 1970 or so..


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

My first set was at Christmas 1972. I don’t remember the maker but it was HO and had red Alco Century unit, Lehigh Valley, and five cars, track and transformer.

The motor in the locomotive was rusted solid. My father returned it to Sears, I think. 
They said a number of sets were damaged by water in the store room.

Never got a replacement. Never had trains given to me again after that...

Tom


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Krieglok said:


> Never got a replacement. Never had trains given to me again after that...


Man, that's sad! I bet a psycho-analyst could have a ball figuring out why you are the way you are...all because you didn't get a toy train as a kid. :laugh:


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

It would answer a lot of questions! Lol. 

I got into model trains on my own. Not much parental guidance...

Tom


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

LifeLike Toys R Us Express set around 1986 or so.

Money was really tight and I'm pretty sure it was the best they could afford. The next year they got me a slightly better LifeLike set with a SF GP38-2, and an operating tipping logging car.

Not my pic below, but I'm pretty sure this was the same box. It's definitely the same cars.


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## Stan D (Feb 1, 2019)

In the mid 60s, my Dad and his best friend stayed up all Christmas Eve building the main oval on a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood, that would become a layout out of the Atlas book, "Six HO Layouts You Can Build". I can't say much about the make of the locos and rolling stock, but the locos were a Bangor & Aroostook F (7?), and a C&O GP. In an act of foolishness, I sold it as I was entering adulthood, to a guy that I bought my first motorcycle from. I ran into him just a few years ago, and he has no idea what happened to it.

As a side note, about 25 years ago, I had the opportunity to meet the man that illustrated that book (as well as other books). Thaddeus Stepak's daughter worked in my wife's office. He and his friends gathered weekly to play trains. Sadly, he passed before I could act on that opportunity.


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## Panther (Oct 5, 2015)

Mine was the Marx set below. 
I was playing with it on our back porch in 1952. I forgot and left the box out all night, when the trash man came the next morning and took it. I'm sure he knew it was not trash. I finally got another set about 20 years ago. I have never set it up. I'm afraid I might forget it again, my memory is about as good as it was in 1952..

Dan


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## cramden (Oct 13, 2015)

Here's mine, an American Flyer set #5510T from1955.


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## lovin it (Nov 21, 2012)

My first train was a Lionel set in 1948. My grandfather got it for me and built in on a 4 X 8 foot table. He built a 2" green fence all around the layout so it wouldn't fall off the table. I had the depot, the tower lights and and 4 turnouts that had lights to tell which way the turnout was thrown. It had smoke pellets for the engine and the only car I remember was the red search light car. I was 4 years old then and really wish I still had it.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Panther said:


> Mine was the Marx set below.
> I was playing with it on our back porch in 1952. I forgot and left the box out all night, when the trash man came the next morning and took it. I'm sure he knew it was not trash. I finally got another set about 20 years ago. I have never set it up. I'm afraid I might forget it again, my memory is about as good as it was in 1952..
> 
> Dan


Beautiful train set! Always nice to see the original box as well!

:thumbsup:


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## Viperjim1 (Mar 19, 2015)

Mine was a Tyco Switcher set with 3 cars and 36” circle of track at 7 years old , and transformed itself into a half of a basement layout. 3, 4x8’ 2, 4x4’ and a 4x5’ layout in a e shape and run 7 trains at once. But this took years and a lot of leaves being raked, lawns being mowed, and digs being walked, until I got a real job and then had to take it all down because of company Christmas parties for my moms employer. But ah the memories!!!


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## Panther (Oct 5, 2015)

Old_Hobo said:


> Beautiful train set! Always nice to see the original box as well!
> 
> :thumbsup:


Thank you very much, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Dan


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## spikedrivingblues (Dec 11, 2018)

What a great topic, Doug. I don't know why I'm posting here because the truth is I don't really remember. I can't even remember if it was for Xmas or a birthday or something else... and many of you even have pictures! I'm jealous 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my first one was an HO oval with some piers to elevate one side of track. An F Unit engine (Santa Fe, I'm pretty sure) and probably 5 cars. 

Enjoyed reading this thread so I just wanted to join in!


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## Luke 221 (Feb 12, 2013)

Mine was given to me at Christmas in 1984 by my Aunt. It was a Model Power HO set. IT had a Blue Conrail F9 Diesel, an orange Tropicana Reefer, a red tank car, a black gondola, a brown swine car, a brown Conrail boxcar and a caboose. I remember that the engine broke several days later. I have since re-purchased the train set individual cars from train shows.


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## quigly7777 (Oct 21, 2017)

American Flyer S Gauge, about 1957. I still have it but not set up.


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## danpuckett (Dec 31, 2014)

*First Train set*

My first set was a Marx steamer around 1952 when I was 10 years old.. It was a full layout, but was set up and taken down on every occasion it was used. It somehow was lost in a move or two. Next set was an HO for my boys. Sold it at a garage sale. Then about four years ago, we got back in; me with HO and O, and my wife with HO and N-scale. It is a great hobby.


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## jimben (Jun 27, 2018)

HO set in late 1950s. Cannot remember the brand, but had dock with milk car and it would unload milk cans with an electric button.


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## alaska railroad (Oct 20, 2015)

It was 1980, when i was 10 years old.
Santa brought me a Ho scale tyco silver streak train set.
I will never forget how just about every month dad would have to run to the hobby shop to get me a new gear " the small one on the loco drive motor ". That gear stripped out more times than i can remember.


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## Opus (Jan 14, 2020)

My first train set was a Lionel set my mom and dad got with S&H green stamps. I still have it.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Deleted...sorry, I replied back on page 1.


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## Steve Rothstein (Jan 1, 2021)

The first set I had, as opposed to my father, was a Bachmann Amtrak set in HO that I bought back in the late 70's or early 80's. It would not surprise me if my wife still had it stashed somewhere, but I don't think we have it anymore.


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## Dave NYC 1962 (Oct 17, 2020)

My Dad had a Lionel set in an old cardboard box I used to set up and tear down each time. MY first set was Tyco HO Spirit of ‘76 set. I left them both behind when I went to college. 40 years later I got the bug and bought a pair of Broadway Limited F7 A/B sets.


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## Ridgelyman (Dec 13, 2020)

Toy train hobby said:


> What was your first train or train set and do you still have it? Here's mine... from Christmas of 1960. Nowadays, it mostly sits on display with other trains.
> 
> This is intended for all-scale discussion. Electric, wind-up, battery powered or push-along type trains. Hopefully, this topic has _not_ been discussed before.
> 
> View attachment 509770


1951 a Lionel steam turbine with 3 passenger cars and 3 freight cars with a caboose


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## Ridgelyman (Dec 13, 2020)

The steam turbine and cars are on my layout and the boxes are in the closet


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

Gramps said:


> I barely remember it but mine was a yellow wind up strange looking diesel and some cars. Later I got a Marx NYC steamer and some freight cars. We lived in a small apartment so it only came out at Christmas.


Since this has been reopened after more than 4 years, I will add that I don't know what happened to those trains. But years later after my Dad bought a house on the GI Bill, I got a Lionel Pennsy red stripe steamer set which I set up in the basement. I got into my teens and left them to my younger brother and I really don't know where they went. I'm curious as to how many of us don't know where their trains went.


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