# Your first electric train



## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Who was the manufacture, what gauge, and approx what year did you receive it.

For me, it was a Lionel O Gauge 2026 steam set for Christmas in 1951. Still have and actually ran it a week or so ago.

Bill


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

About 1973, Lionel 027 steam engine with 4 cars. A caboose, yellow UP flatcar, blue gondola coal car.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

I must have been about five years old. I recall what I think may have been a Lionel Flying Yankee under the Xmas tree. The next year it wasn't there.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Aurora Postage Stamp train set, N scale, Christmas 1968….12 years old….still have it in the original boxes….


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

1972. HO AHM set with a CNJ Alco. Opened the set and the locomotive’s motor was heavily corroded. My dad took it back and they didn’t have any replacement sets. They were all water damaged…

Ended up with a AHM/Rivarossi 0-4-0 B&O tank engine in HO.

Tom


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## ERIE610 (Jan 19, 2015)

1955 for sure. This is the year that the Erie 610 Switcher arrived. The Erie 610 was only offered in 1955 BTW. The 1130 Steamer set made its presence known about the same time frame. 30- & 40-Watt transformers and a KW190 were present as well.


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## TundraBoy (Nov 5, 2012)

Christmas 1955. It was a Lionel 2055. Had a couple of operating cars.....log dump car and a coal dump car. Also a 397 coal loader. All powered with a 1033 transformer. Still have everything and have run them recently......to my amazement. Talk about built to last.


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## beachhead2 (Oct 31, 2017)

Christmas 2017. Not even five years ago. I bought the new LC with Bluetooth Polar Express set. The sound died on it almost immediately. The dealer replaced it. After the holidays, I sold it and started looking at scale stuff. Off to the races!


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

My first train was my Dad's old wind-up Marx from the 1930 time frame. All tin plate loco, tender, rolling stock and caboose and two-rail tinplate track.. My first _electric _train was a three-rail Marx 0-4-0 set in for Christmas in the mid 1950s. It came with all-plastic rolling stock and caboose.


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## Chaostrain (Jan 27, 2015)

A Lionel that was always there as far back as I can remember. I was born in 1957.


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## vinsk (May 21, 2014)

seayakbill said:


> Who was the manufacture, what gauge, and approx what year did you receive it.
> 
> For me, it was a Lionel O Gauge 2026 steam set for Christmas in 1951. Still have and actually ran it a week or so ago.
> 
> Bill


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## vinsk (May 21, 2014)

Remember it well I was 5 yrs old 1951. Lionel 2026 steam engine and 3 6440 passenger cars with 6441 observation car. Still have them today and run them regularly. They are in practically pristine condition. Engine runs perfectly.


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

vinsk said:


> Remember it well I was 5 yrs old 1951. Lionel 2026 steam engine and 3 6440 passenger cars with 6441 observation car. Still have them today and run them regularly. They are in practically pristine condition. Engine runs perfectly.


Pictures?


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## Opus (Jan 14, 2020)

I got a Lionel train set when I was 7 years old. My mother used books of S&H green stamps to get it. I still have the set in the original boxes and it runs great after all these years.


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## RedJimmy1955 (Aug 23, 2021)

My brother and I...and probably also intended for my sister, received three or so beer boxes loaded with some Marx, but mostly Lionel early Postwar from my older cousins.
Loved playing with them until I turned about 12 years old. It was about then I overheard my (jerk of) a mother telling her sister, "despite what the boys are asking, I don't want them playing with trains ANYMORE! They need to grow up!"
A few months later, she sold them at her garage sale. And exclaimed that some man took at look and offered her several (not much) dollars for all!
I remember an orange with brown doors Baby Ruth boxcar. Three disappearing switchmen, several stations (#146?), a kool Marx windup bridge made of, I think aluminum.


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

Not a pleasant memory but train related none the less. Sorry to hear about that event.

We all have less than stellar recollections here and there. It makes us human…

Tom


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

Ahh yes. The family owned Lionel set ( for Xmas use only) that was originally purchased by paternal Granpap in the late 40s. I came into this world in 1962.
671 Turbine, 12 whl tender, orange cattle car, white reefer that spit out milk cannisters, black LeHigh hopper, Sunoco triple dome tanker, reddish gondola w/6 propane tanks, offset cupola caboose. Loco, Tender & caboose were marked PRR. Four 022 turnouts and a huge mess of 0 track. Lost it all in a house fire in 1968.

Continuing the story;
I was allowed, within a year, to choose a new Lionel set from ‘Trains & Things’ of Pittsburgh PA. A huge O scale 2-8-4 Berkshire type set. Oh happy day right?! The a Loco was so heavy it both took hands of this 8yr old to hold it! Built up that set through to the middle 80s.
Well, that set was stolen from me in 1986. I found out later that, it was sold to a local hobby shop. Grrr! Guess I was never ment to own three rail trains....
I got started in H0 scale around 1971-2 but, it got semi serious in 1986, then developed exponentially from there. Still into that scale to this day. 75+ Locomotives & 250+ rolling stock now. That’s a whole different story to be told...

I have though, as of late, been working on collecting, piece by piece, the original set created by Lionel in the latter 40s that came from my Granpap. Shelf Queens they shall be, as a tribute to how it all began.
“Model trains. A life long hobby for me.”


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## petrifiedagg (Jun 1, 2021)

202 Alco, 1957. Run forever. Prob the only 202 to transition to Super O.


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## Norton (Nov 5, 2015)

This set from the 1950 catalog. I sold it later but rebuilt the set when I got back into three rail.
This my first electric train but a year earlier I had received a Marx windup set.









Pete


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## ERIE610 (Jan 19, 2015)

RedJimmy1955 said:


> A few months later, she sold them at her garage sale. And exclaimed that some man took at look and offered her several (not much) dollars for all!


I had a similar experience. Not with trains but comic books. During high school I managed to collect some first issue + Marvel Comics. Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Hulk others etc. I had them neatly stored in an old suitcase under my bed. I went off to college. Came back on Christmas break and lo and behold. My mother gave my bedroom to my sister and in the process of cleaning and moving my sister to the room found the suitcase of comics. I guess that she determined that I was to old for comics and therefore gave them to a kid at church. Gee I could have retired a bit earlier if I had been allowed to keep them high value to be comics.


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## callmeIshmael2 (May 28, 2012)

Received Lionel #1525 small 027 set, manufactured in '55, but bought new in '56. Had the #600 MKT switcher, yellow log car, Baby Ruth red box and brown #6017 caboose. I loved that set and a few years ago bought the exact same set without a box. A few years ago I found the original box and now that set is complete for me. Last year I found a #600 with the rare grey frame and yellow railings, but I will keep my set with the ordinary components to stay real...


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

1948/49 Santa brought the engine, orange box, tank car, black gondola, and red caboose. The tender must be in the attic.

One thing about the old trains that we have, most, when placed on the track, take off like the day they were made. Proper care, new brushes and rollers, are usually enough.


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## vinsk (May 21, 2014)

Millstonemike said:


> Pictures?


would like to send you some pics, but unfortunately do not know how to execute this task.


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

vinsk said:


> would like to send you some pics, but unfortunately do not know how to execute this task.


Using PC or Phone? Microsoft, Apple or Android?


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## vinsk (May 21, 2014)

Millstonemike said:


> Using PC or Phone? Microsoft, Apple or Android?





Millstonemike said:


> Using PC or Phone? Microsoft, Apple or Android?


iphone


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## vinsk (May 21, 2014)

iphone


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

vinsk said:


> iphone


Can't help with that. 

Anyone? How to post pics from an iPhone?


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## Norton (Nov 5, 2015)

Assuming the pictures are on your phone you simply hit the icon that looks like a picture. Between the link icon and camera icon. You will be prompted for the location (hit here) with one option being your photo library. Select the photo and hit OK.

Pete


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

I use the paperclip icon on my phone ( not an I phone) then select from my gallery on my phone. Hit select and it uploads it.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

My first set. Only, it was a familly set and was part of the familly way before me. Transformer was a zw dad found in the dumps and fixed up. I have the set and the zw. The both work. The set was used on a peice of green plywood set up in december for Christmas. It had lead figurines skating and skiing on cotton. Notice the price and the playe it was stamped. I am told my father picked it up where it was made. Hillside, newark and irvington were a 5 min drive from the house. Price was 1889 .


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

sjm9911 said:


> My first set. Only, it was a familly set and was part of the familly way before me. Transformer was a zw dad found in the dumps and fixed up. I have the set and the zw. The both work. The set was used on a peice of green plywood set up in december for Christmas. It had lead figurines skating and skiing on cotton. Notice the price and the playe it was stamped. I am told my father picked it up where it was made. Hillside, newark and irvington were a 5 min drive from the house. Price was 1889 .
> View attachment 579150
> View attachment 579151
> View attachment 579152


$18.89? Trade you for a gallon of gas


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

callmeIshmael2 said:


> Received Lionel #1525 small 027 set, manufactured in '55, but bought new in '56. Had the #600 MKT switcher, yellow log car, Baby Ruth red box and brown #6017 caboose. I loved that set and a few years ago bought the exact same set without a box. A few years ago I found the original box and now that set is complete for me. Last year I found a #600 with the rare grey frame and yellow railings, but I will keep my set with the ordinary components to stay real...


Im with you Ish, the original set only gets stored by itself, and run by itself. Just memories i guess. Tbh, i dont kbow why. It gets stored by the train stuff but kinda has its own spot away from it. Same with the first Christmas train and the thomas train I got when my daughter was born. There still trains, but also something more.


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## petrifiedagg (Jun 1, 2021)

Norton, my college roommate had the exact same set.


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## Jim Noel (Sep 1, 2013)

My first train set was given me for Christmas 1935. It was a Lionel freight set which I enjoyed until it just wore out. My next one was another Lionel with a slope back tender. I dn't remember the numbers, but overall I had 5 Lionels, one of which I stil have and run each Christmas.


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## rpxmayor (May 6, 2016)

Lionel 0-27 2026 steam engine for Christmas 1948. Still have it. It's quite interesting since it is a 2-6-4 but has all the features of the 2-6-2. Slides for pickup, smoke and metal rails.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

rpxmayor said:


> Lionel 0-27 2026 steam engine for Christmas 1948. Still have it. It's quite interesting since it is a 2-6-4 but has all the features of the 2-6-2. Slides for pickup, smoke and metal rails.


Intresting as I was just running mine. 





LIONEL TRAINS 2026 LOCOMOTIVE


Identification details about the Lionel Trains 2026 Prairie Type Locomotive that Lionel made during the Post-war period.



www.tandem-associates.com




What does your rear truck look like? You may have got a one off in between production, or someone may have changed out the truck? Somehow I think we had this discussion here. Lol.


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## Djsfantasi (Mar 19, 2019)

I was 8 (1962). My Dad bought me a complete 4x8 Lionel 027 mostly railroad. It had several accessories that weren’t connected. The automatic train station. The milk car station. The lumber loader. Part of the fun was wiring then all up (and I learned a lot about electricity in the process). Particularly the automated train station! As I got older (12-13), I sold it and bought an Aurora Postage Stamp set…. Then when I got married and bought a house in New England, I filled the 24x32 basement with HO. After the divorce I now have a 2.5x5’ N scale layout.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Your lucky you dont have z now! Lol. It happens.


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## Farmboy856 (Dec 10, 2021)

1973 Lionel “Cannonball” (?) 027 set with a 2-4-0 locomotive and a slant back Nickel Plate tender. It was a Christmas gift from my grandparents with a flatcar, gondola, and caboose. Seems there was another car, but I can’t remember what. It’s all down in the basement stored in the original styrofoam shell it came in. I played with it heavily that winter and into the summer. In June, the lady next door had a garage sale and had two banana boxes full of 0-27 Marx trains, and sold them to me for 15 bucks. That’s when I really get interested in train collecting.


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## 5kidsdad (Nov 28, 2021)

seayakbill said:


> Who was the manufacture, what gauge, and approx what year did you receive it.
> 
> For me, it was a Lionel O Gauge 2026 steam set for Christmas in 1951. Still have and actually ran it a week or so ago.
> 
> Bill


Roughly 1980, HO Tyco set. Burlington Northern GP 30 I believe. Assorted rolling stock with a Union Pacific caboose. Ran it for 4 or 5 months until the loco burned out. Around 1989 I inherited my uncle's Lionel collection. Burlington GP 7 that was rebuilt in the LHS. Couldn't save the horn system due to battery leakage. Ran them on a caster equipped 4x8 that fit under my bed. Now running N scale for the past 2 years.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

The story os "Too old for trains, comic books, etc", is all too familiar.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

Bill Webb said:


> 1948/49 Santa brought the engine, orange box, tank car, black gondola, and red caboose. The tender must be in the attic.
> 
> One thing about the old trains that we have, most, when placed on the track, take off like the day they were made. Proper care, new brushes and rollers, are usually enough.
> 
> View attachment 579137


Isn't that the truth. We go to train meets, buy some 70 plus year old trains and without much tinkering, they run like tops.


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## superwarp1 (Dec 13, 2016)

I might of answered this before but my family has pictures of me in 1969, running a 773 Hudson with a Pennsylvania tender, on a superO carpet layout. (I was two at the time). With my hand on a ZW throttle. My father sold a coin collection he had to purchase the trains I had growing up as a kid, and if I remember correctly he kept a ledger of everything he purchased. That Hudson was around 60 dollars, 736 berkshire was around 40 if memory serves. All sold off to pay for college in the late 80's.


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## GTW son (12 mo ago)

Probably in the mid sixties we got a Tri-ang??? set, pretty sure it was Tri-ang.
Loco's is still in a display with the rest of my fathers collection of HO loco's.
He was into steam, there's a Union Pacific Big Boy, Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson and few others I just can't remember they're heritage.
Most never run, he just liked to look a them.


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## Rich1853 (Jun 25, 2018)

Tillig starter set 01429, TT (1:120) scale, purchased 2018
with extension sets 01833, 01834, 01835, 01836
I had to find a hobby after my stroke (4 years ago today 03/18/2018) I was 65
Purchased from MSL in Germany





01424 - Tillig Modellbahnen







www.tillig.com




This is all of the extension sets


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## jackmack (Dec 12, 2012)

My first set was (and still is) an American Flyer S gauge K5340T Yard King Freight Set with a 343 0-8-0 switcher. Got it from Santa in 1957 or 1958. Original engine is "parts only" now but I acquired another a few years ago. Pic is from internet.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The family had a set, a pair of 205 Missouri Pacific's in Super O. It was set up on a ping pong table and run by an older brother. My age was slot cars. It was during college out on the antique trail with my future wife, I purchased my first my first set of trains. Only four cars they were old with no engine or transformer or track. It was something I just had to have.


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## Chaostrain (Jan 27, 2015)

Madman said:


> The story os "Too old for trains, comic books, etc", is all too familiar.


This makes me feel pretty good. It was my mom that got me interested in model trains and my wife is my model train partner.


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## Taylor622 (Jan 31, 2013)

1952 Lionel 027 track on a 5 X 9 my father built for me and him. I was 3 years old. 2023 Union Pacific passenger train and freight trains. Only 70 years ago. 🙀


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## arkady (May 15, 2013)

seayakbill said:


> For me, it was a Lionel O Gauge 2026 steam set for Christmas in 1951. Still have and actually ran it a week or so ago.
> Bill


Same here! My father was still going to school on the GI bill in 1951, when he bought my 2026 set. It incuded a black NYC gondola, a Sunoco tank car and a bare-bones (no lights, no smokestack, no window "glass") SP caboose.

My family was dead broke that Christmas, and even though the set only cost twelve bucks, Dad had to pay it off in installments. The dealer threw in an extra tank car at no cost, because the 2026 was a demonstrator on the store's Christmas layout.

I still have all the cars and the locomotive, which runs even better than it did when new (it gets better maintenance, now). Between Christmases, it occupies an honored place on our coffee table. Thanks again, Dad!


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

arkady said:


> Same here! My father was still going to school on the GI bill in 1951, when he bought my 2026 set. It incuded a black NYC gondola, a Sunoco tank car and a bare-bones (no lights, no smokestack, no window "glass") SP caboose.
> 
> My family was dead broke that Christmas, and even though the set only cost twelve bucks, Dad had to pay it off in installments. The dealer threw in an extra tank car at no cost, because the 2026 was a demonstrator on the store's Christmas layout.
> 
> I still have all the cars and the locomotive, which runs even better than it did when new (it gets better maintenance, now). Between Christmases, it occupies an honored place on our coffee table. Thanks again, Dad!


*Ah, the Lay-Away plan. I'll bet, no I know that young folks today haven't a clue what it was. And if it's explained to them, they cannot fathom it. *


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

Madman said:


> *Ah, the Lay-Away plan. I'll bet, no I know that young folks today haven't a clue what it was. And if it's explained to them, they cannot fathom it. *


Add to that "Christmas Club".


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## Opus (Jan 14, 2020)

Here are photos of the Lionel train set my mother got for me with the S&H green stamps . i think it was 1960.


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

About 1965 my Dad used S&H green stamps to get me my first Co .049 control line airplane. A silver bomber (albeit single front engine). I can't recall enough to identify it. I wore that thing out.


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## Booly15 (Aug 16, 2017)

1060 engine in front of a very basic set that my mom got with S and H green stamps when I was 4 years old. Money was very tight growing up, but she made sure there was always Lionel under the tree and encouraged me to enjoy all aspects of this wonderful hobby.


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## Opus (Jan 14, 2020)

Millstonemike said:


> About 1965 my Dad used S&H green stamps to get me my first Co .049 control line airplane. A silver bomber (albeit single front engine). I can't recall enough to identify it. I wore that thing out.


Back in the early 1960s there were two brothers in our neighborhood who flew gas engined tether controlled airplanes . They each had several different planes. They used the A&P parking lot to fly the planes. Back then all the stores and business's were closed on Sunday.


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## Millstonemike (Aug 9, 2018)

Opus said:


> Back in the early 1960s there were two brothers in our neighborhood who flew gas engined tether controlled airplanes . They each had several different planes. They used the A&P parking lot to fly the planes. Back then all the stores and business's were closed on Sunday.


The Cul-de-Sac next to my childhood home. Perfect for flying. The single engine 0.049 Cox planes didn't have enough power for long control lines. Did I mention I wore it out? The engine was so "tired" at the end the plane would just hover coming around into a strong breeze.

The slight uphill towards the circle made for a great shorthanded, street baseball field. Until my older brother picked up a grounder at third (left) and gunned it at me for the force at first base. I just moved out of the way (he was 11, I was 6). I remember my dad replacing the pane in Mr. Hansen's basement window on the right.

Past the Cul-deSac was the Washington Twp., Swim Club. I was a member for one year but I preferred Pine Lake. A dam, artesian well and lots of trucked in Sand at the very bottom of my block, West Place. Spent all the summers of my youth there.


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## Midnight Goat (Dec 19, 2017)

What a great thread. Love reading about everyone's story and how their interest got sparked. 

I grew up with trains but they were Dad's trains except a snoopy hand car that he bought for me specifically. My mom actually got him involved with the hobby when she got him a set (don't know which set and neither does she after all these years) for one of their early anniversaries sometime in the mid 70s. He used to ride trains cross country frequently or on business after Vietnam so it was a natural fit. Most of his purchases were during the MPC era and I still have all of his original receipts from Trainland in Lybrook, NY. Boy they were still expensive back then! 

He passed away sadly about 5 years ago but we keep his memory very much alive through trains. Some of his trains I gave to my sisters to enjoy with their kids but the bulk of it came home with me since we are the only ones with a dedicated layout (and the most interest). Right before he passed we all chipped in and got him a lionchief+ Santa Fe Mikado for Christmas like this one.









He was so impressed with it and got a lot of enjoyment out of it in the short time he had left. This was also our first taste of a command control loco since everything we had was conventional. 
This really supercharged my interest in the hobby and is more where my own chapter begins. I've added a few Lionchief, TMCC, and legacy sets to the collection since. I've become a bit of a Santa Fe fanatic even though dad was a PRR man. 

I get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of the hobby whether it's tinkering with Dad's old trains, taking the kids to a train show, or running the trains with the kids. Lionchief/bluetooth capability has been a fantastic way to share trains with the younger generation. Super easy to control, can easily run multiple trains without having to crowd a transformer, and lots of great features for the price. Plus they can run them off a tablet which they are obsessed with. The tablet is not my cup of tea but they sure love it. Hope that one day they will be the ones waiting on Lionel parts to fix some of "Poppy's" old trains.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

A 1964 Lionel set when I was two.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

I received a Lionel O-27 "New York Central Flyer" set from my dad in December of 1997 when I was just shy of my third birthday. It was used and abused over the years in the care of my young hands but I've managed to keep it together and running. I always make a point of running it at Christmastime along with my Grandfather's childhood Lionel stuff. My dad bought my set so that my little hands wouldn't destroy the family "heirloom" trains that are now also in my care.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

Opus said:


> Back in the early 1960s there were two brothers in our neighborhood who flew gas engined tether controlled airplanes . They each had several different planes. They used the A&P parking lot to fly the planes. Back then all the stores and business's were closed on Sunday.


*Sounds exactly like the guys in our neighborhood. Did you grow up in NE Philly by any chance ?*


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## cman22 (5 mo ago)

Norton said:


> This set from the 1950 catalog. I sold it later but rebuilt the set when I got back into three rail.
> This my first electric train but a year earlier I had received a Marx windup set.
> View attachment 579109
> 
> ...


Looks identical to the set I recently bought on ebay to begin my new hobby. except for the 2035. Mine came with a 2025


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## Rich1853 (Jun 25, 2018)

After my stroke in 2018 I needed a hobby so I picked the engineering scale TT (1in = 10ft) being a newly retired Aerospace Quality Engineer and Metrologist. The set was Tillig 01424 with the following extension sets, 01833, 01834, 01835, 01836
Currently working on the Duisburg-Wedau DB werkstatt in the interior. I have all the different DB Gleisbau locomotives and rolling stock and cranes, and even the Wasserturm in the background.

View attachment 587147


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## Rich1853 (Jun 25, 2018)

Madman said:


> *Sounds exactly like the guys in our neighborhood. Did you grow up in NE Philly by any chance ?*


Same here, two older guys one being an older brother of my friend, started with multispeed bikes with chrome bars and many lights running off of a generator. Than gas power mini bikes and go carts than ending up with both of them getting brand new 64 GTOs. Started late 50s in the NE corner of the Bronx.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

Rich1853 said:


> Same here, two older guys one being an older brother of my friend, started with multispeed bikes with chrome bars and many lights running off of a generator. Than gas power mini bikes and go carts than ending up with both of them getting brand new 64 GTOs. Started late 50s in the NE corner of the Bronx.


When I was about fifteen, I read an article in Popular Science magazine on how to build a mini-bike using wood. I copied those plans as best I could, building the frame. I saved forty dollars to buy a side shaft Briggs and Stratton gasoline motor. Sears was another place for things like a centrifugal clutch. Pep Boys was good for the drive belt, headlight and other safety items. 

When I completed the bike I went to Keystone AAA and registered it so that I could ride it on the street. When the clerk asked the make of the bike I had to use my own name, Padova. And that's how a one time wonder came into being. Sadly, no one including myself took any pictures of it.


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

1956 Christmas. A Lionel 027 Scout. The photos are from April 1959 of my layout in the living room.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Spence said:


> 1956 Christmas. A Lionel 027 Scout. The photos are from April 1959 of my layout in the living room.
> View attachment 587364
> View attachment 587365


Hi Spence, neat photos, looks like you made a few trips to the hobby store for Plasticville buildings.

Bill


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## cman22 (5 mo ago)

Spence said:


> 1956 Christmas. A Lionel 027 Scout. The photos are from April 1959 of my layout in the living room.
> View attachment 587364
> View attachment 587365


Very nice! Actually, gave me a couple ideas!


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## nyfirepatrol (7 mo ago)

Lionel set 1591 USMC...1958...got Christmas eve 1959....still got it in the box...


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Marx - a 0-4-0 steamer set with a few cars, a loop of track and power supply. Christmas 1954


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

seayakbill said:


> Hi Spence, neat photos, looks like you made a few trips to the hobby store for Plasticville buildings.
> 
> Bill


When our parents bought a huge, used set of Lionel trains for us in the late fifties, all they could afford was Plasticville. Lionel accessories were too expensive. They spent $50.00 for the trains.....which was probably almost a week's salary.


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## callmeIshmael2 (May 28, 2012)

Although I was lucky at 9 to receive a Lionel #600 MKT switcher set, I managed to score the gift of a lifetime when the brother of a troubled guy from Tennessee that, like me, lived in Calgary & allowed me to befriend his basement load of postwar LIonel. The trains had been rescued by my Calgary friend who got tired of me coming over to gawk at his brother's badly-kept collection. For $40, he let me take a #2343 ABA, six 25000-style O gauge passenger cars, seven 6464 boxcars & about 30 pieces of O gauge track home with me in late November of '57. I was ten and my parents didn't know what to make of it, but it was my money, saved from making other train deals, etc. I think the kind fellow also was glad to see the trains going to someone who'd take care of them. HIs brother also had a #2373 CP AA and a #2240 Wabash AB that were totally scratched and looked like they'd been trashed somehow, so the Santa Fe's were in better shape. What a score! Wish I still had them, but like many - or most of us - the trains thinned out a bit later in my teens. Fond memories - how I loved those trains, and most of them were in original hard-time boxes, and even tho' I never thought boxes were going to be such collector's items, I kept 'em in as good shape as I'd gotten them. After they were home, it took me two weeks of chores to earn ten bucks to buy a used #1033 transformer to run them. I realized how underpowered my transformer was, but even an AB crawl made me soooo happy.


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## Bighanded (Dec 8, 2020)

1957 Marx loco, brown flat car, red box car, caboose. Ran like a scalded dog, smoked great It's in a box in the attic waiting for it's 65th Christmas tree run.
Still have Dad's tinplate 226E set and even older was his first 251E electric with the 700 series pullmans. I refreshed wiring, lights, etc on that rig 2 years ago in celebration of it's 90th Christmas. Dad's long gone, but my mom got to throttle the ol Z transformer to send the train on some laps around the family Christmas tree.


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## Booly15 (Aug 16, 2017)

lionel 1060 outfit purchased for me at the age of 4 with S&H green stamps (if you know, you know) First early favorite was my 2046!


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## Farmboy856 (Dec 10, 2021)

Millstonemike said:


> Add to that "Christmas Club".


I still have a Christmas Club account at my bank!


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The first set was my oldest brother's. An AA set, Missouri Pacific 205. I believe it was a set and came with super O track. The time frame was late 50's and it was used. It came from a relative. In those years it was set up in the cellar on the ping pong table in the winter. There was also a Marx 1666 engine with it. It was always his set but I spent many hours watching. I played with the plasticville gate house. The one with the wood bin in the back and the gate in the front.


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## Donnie Kennedy (Jan 31, 2021)

In 1985 when I was 8 my dad stayed up till 2a Christmas eve\christmas. He made a small table and top was a complete Tyco GI Joe ho switcher set. It had vehicles, plastic solders, parachutes, and all kinds of neat stuff. One of my best memories growing up! Unfortunately as I got into my earlier 20's I didn't appreciate it anymore and it got tossed. Love to have that back even though I converted to o gauge.


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

A Lionel Hudson 4-6-4 with a whistling caboose. Started adding track, accessories, more cars and a caboose until I had a nice running consist. Kept most everything from back then and it's now sitting in a display case in my train room.


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## jay jay (Aug 30, 2016)

Lionel set #2227W from the 1954 catalogue, received at Christmas, 1955. Santa Fe F3 A-A and freight cars. Still have it.


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## Ridgelyman (Dec 13, 2020)

seayakbill said:


> Who was the manufacture, what gauge, and approx what year did you receive it.
> 
> For me, it was a Lionel O Gauge 2026 steam set for Christmas in 1951. Still have and actually ran it a week or so ago.
> 
> Bill


Bill , I received my Lionel 681 passenger set for Christmas in 1951. I still run it every day on my layout.


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## Jimmmyrb (29 d ago)

In 1958 Santa brought a Marx 0-4-0 with 4 or 5 cars and was a fairly large circle track. It was a test to see how I treated it. Must have been O K the following year Santa brought a #247 2-4-2 Lionel kit with a tender 3 flats #'s 9120/9121/9122 and a couple of 027 Marx turnouts. I still have and run everything with the grand kids.
Everyone enjoy your holday!


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## Steve on Cattail Creek (11 mo ago)

For Christmas in 1953 or 1954 (when I was 6 or 7), my grandfather, a retired Pennsy signals engineer, built a beautiful low (about a foot high) table layout, in two four foot square sections, out of a single sheet of lacquered plywood. The track had one outer loop running near the perimeter, and bisected in the longer dimension with an alternate inner loop with a switch at each end. The track and all rolling stock AFAICR was all Marx,and more than likely the core of the rolling stock was a 36566 "steam-type freight set" :









At least, that set had all the freight cars that survived from my childhood set, and my memories of the missing engine match the configuration of the non-smoking Marx 1829 that came with that set. My grandfather also apparently separately purchased three lighted Santa Fe passenger cars, including a dome car and an observation car (the observation car went MIA at some point, but has since been replaced). The layout also included a Marx 0446 rotating beacon, which also survived but without a bulb or rotating lens housing. For several years, I just substituted a flame-shaped bulb from an antique serial Christmas tree light string, but I have since replaced the bulb and beacon with repro parts:
*







*







​For years, I struggled with that lacquered layout at Christmas (it was only allowed out of the attic during the holidays), trying to make it look like anything but the shiny wood it obviously was, covering the top at various times with green construction paper or white, all to little avail. Eventually I abandoned the layout, and in my teen years I experimented with an HO layout custom-fitted around the desk in my bedroom, eventually abandoning that effort when I discovered that, even with flex track, there wasn't enough room around my desk to reliably run a train!

When years later my wife and I had kids of our own, I was astounded to locate a box with most of my childhood Marx rolling stock and the rotating beacon, all nicely wrapped in decades-old newspapers! The original layout, with the track, switches, controls and transformer attached, had disappeared years ago, but all but two pieces of the original rolling stock survived, along with the base structure of the rotating beacon. I found a small train shop near where I worked at the time and bought a small transformer, a used engine, and enough well-used track (and eventually four battered Lionel switches) to create a dual crossover loop around a floor-level layout custom-fit around the base of the Christmas tree in out two-story family space. After several years, and my wife complaining about the noise in the two story space, the layout and rolling stock were retired to the back of the basement. A few years ago, and with _grandkids_ entering the right age bracket, I dragged out the old around-the-tree layout . . . and the rest is a story for another day! 

BTW, I always thought my story was, if not unique, certainly a relatively rare occurrence, but after reviewing other posts in this thread, I gotta say my experience is a lot more common than I would have believed! Of course, I suppose there's a better than average chance that those with this type of "origin story" would be more likely to have found this forum, and been willing to share their similar experiences with like-minded hobbyists!


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## Jeff T (Dec 27, 2011)




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## Mike-R (Dec 25, 2016)

The sorry looking example on the top row is my first, a Lionel 1963 O-27 promotional set, #19306 (Sears p/n 9816). 

Headed up by the 1065 UP Alco and several inexpensive freight cars, it was purchased used from our next door neighbor and I received it for X-Mas in 1966. As you can see, it received plenty of use growing up. 

Although I have trains of of much greater value in my collection, this one is priceless to me.


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