# How old were you when you got your first train?



## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Toy Trains or model trains, how old were you when you got your first train or maybe when you got the bug to play with trains?

I had a train layout in my bedroom when I was 3 or 4 yrs old.

Toy trains have been a part of my life for 56 or 57 years.

I had HO all my life. I still have a little switcher from when I was 3 or 4 years old.

In 1965 my grandmother gave me my late twin uncles American Flyer trains

In the 90s, my father got an LGB train. I helped him with the little layout in his screen room.

I bought him some trains.

Then in 2009 when my father past away, I inherited his G gauge trains and with that I am here today.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

I was actually about 6 months old when I got my first train (December 1940). Dad bought several used Lionel trains, both standard gauge and o gauge. We had that until we got into HO in 1948. Unfortunately, he sold, or gave away, the Lionel trains when I was in College. I still have all of the HO trains.

I don't think that he ever understood why I was upset when he told me he had gotten rid of them. 

Cheers,

Chuck


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## Polaris1 (Jan 22, 2010)

Marx 999 Steam set with track, two O-27 switches & 3 Accessories.... Year was 1949 in Racine, WI.... Gift from my parents for brother & I at Christmas. 

1st Lionel set was an Erie 610 Switcher set in 1955 bought with my snow shoveling money.. in Green Bay, WI... Price $12.00..... 

Now I got a ton of 3 rail O gauge & 1/5 ton of G Gauge & the two layouts........ 

Dennis M.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I was six months old, and my father went out and bought a tyco/mantua starter set for under the Christmas tree. I stil have most of it, and the loco stil runs


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

Got my 1 st Lionel train for Xmas in 1939, I was a couple weeks short of my 5 th B-D, been fooling 
with these damn things ever since.... hehe
Paul R...


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Born into it Dad had a big Lionel set sent to him while he and the rest of my family were at Subic Bay. They returned to the states for my birth and every Christmas he'd put it up in the living room, through the dining room and down the hallway and back. We had the Pennsy S-2 Turbine, many freight cars, plus the work train and the motorised hand car that would reverse direction when it bumped anything blocking the track. 
When we moved to Oregon, we got quarters with a basement and I got permission to set them up year 'round, I was 7. At the age of 10, in New Jersey, I was converted against my will to HO. He made up for it, 7 years later when he brought home a Tenshodo GN S2 from Tokyo... the next year I packed it up and went to college... 10 years after that I had a home where I could have a layout and set it up again. 15 years later I converted to On3 which lasted until I realised On3 wouldn't be pratical outside here..... 

John


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## Gravy Train (Mar 6, 2011)

I was about 5 years old or younger when I got my first, key wind-up, metal train. It was o gauge size. I would sleep with the key under my pillow. I think I was born liking trains, which was 52 years ago.


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## Gravy Train (Mar 6, 2011)

I'm sorry I ment 57 years ago when I was born. I guess I was trying to wind the time back.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Christmas 1943, an American Flyer set from a little store in Glendale, CA, around the corner from where we lived. I was about two months old then. My Dad and Mom always commented that with the scarcity of metal during the war, they had to grab it right-away. I STILL have this set! AND I've been playin' with trains ever since, 68 years plus.


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By W3NZL on 05 Feb 2012 03:16 PM 
Got my 1 st Lionel train for Xmas in 1939, I was a couple weeks short of my 5 th B-D, been fooling 
with these damn things ever since.... hehe
Paul R...
Were kind like Paul... My mom told me that a few days before Christmas, Dad set up my xmas present. A wind up train to test it out and hearing the bell, I found a way to get out of my crib.. That was 1935. ( I was 6 month old ) Been in to this choo choo's every sence. Laf with you Paul.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

I grew up feeling as poor as a Yorkshireman in a Monty Python sketch so my parents first choice wasn't the most auspicious. I got a battery powered made in Chekoslyvakia POS that ran once then petered out. Later they got me a Marx Big Rail and all was forgiven. That set lasted for years.


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

I was young went I got my 'first' trains- Wooden BIRO trains. I'm not to sure when I got those, but my first real trains was a 4x8 HO layout that my grandpa built for me on my 7th birthday. Since then I've dabbled in HO, N, and G. I've seriously considered selling off my N scale equipment to purchase more large scale equipment. But not so sure about the HO. I still have my 4x8 original layout, although it's been moved quite a few times and has seen better days. I'm torn between keeping my HO scale equipment, or selling it off as my grandpa has quite a bit of HO equipment and has told me when he dies I get it. I'd love to have room for both a midsized HO layout, and the large scale outside. 

One thing that I've done to record all of my equipment for reselling/insurance reasons is to take a picture of everything. 1 picture of the piece of equipment, and then 1 of the box if I still have it. My home owners company (USAA) told my wife and I that we should either take pictures of everything that we own, or make a video while walking around the house. Open all the drawers, etc to show exactly what you have. That way when your house/apt. gets ruined from fire, or theft you have a visual evidence of what you owned. 
I've also started an Excel spreadsheet that lists the equipment type, name, company, etc. 

Craig


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## pethia (Jun 10, 2011)

I am 61 and first was an American Flyer in 1955. Jordan Marsh store in Boston used to set up a fantastic Christmas train display!


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

My first was an HO train set that my parents got me for Christmas when I was in 4th grade in 1957. Every year after that I got more cars etc for birthdays and Christmases until I thought I was too old for it and sold all of it after graduating from high school. About 5 years later (while in graduate school and now married) I started up again.
Bob


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

1950 Lionel, 2333 Santa Fe A-A with four passenger cars. O gauge track on a 8x8 table.


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## JPCaputo (Jul 26, 2009)

Before I can remember, from what my parents tell me about 1 or 2, duplo, then a couple battery operated ones after each wore out... Ive been hooked ever since. That was around 84 or 85. 

I grew up with screwdrivers and a soldering iron in my hand.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

An interesting side question, is what other scales have you run, modeled, collected and are you currently active in any scales other than "G". That is a generic G for our gauge (45mm).

In my case I have Z, N, HOn3, HO, and O. No S. I started in G about 1980 and haven't touched any other scale since about 1993 when we moved to Virginia. They never got unpacked. 

Chuck


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## dawinter (Jan 2, 2008)

It was a long ,dark, cold January in Northern Alberta. We thought we were lucky to have 4 channels on the TV. A MiniTrix 0-6-0 Donkey engine 'starter set' was on display with the watches and other jewelery at the local HBC store. $16.00 and it was on. 
Dave


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

I was probably less than 2 years old (about 1947). Couldn't ask my natural father, as my folks separated when I was about 3, then were divorced by the time I was 5. Only have the locomotive shell from the original set, but I do know it was a pre-war Lionel Torpedo freight set. Found a very close cousin to my set a few years ago. My first set had a whistling tender and more cars had box couplers, but the set I own now is close enough.



















The train gets cleaned and lubed each December for service under the tree. I like the "retro" look of the Lionel pre-war with Plasticville buildings and other tinplate accessories.

Best,
David Meashey


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## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

Looking at old photos over Christmas we came across one of my birthday party when I was 4-5 and there was a little train decoration on the cake and my wife stated "so this train obsession started way back then!" As a youngster I played with my Moms Lionel set until HO was discovered and that hobby grew and grew well into my teen years in the 1980's when it was sidelined by girls, work, college, other hobbies and interests until I was married in 2006 and I picked up a LGB set to go around my wife and my Christmas tree. Now large scale trains are my passion. I still have the HO, my Mom her Lionel but one of the earliest pieces I remember playing with was a metal trolley that my grandfather played with when he was a kid in the 1920's. I have fond memories of pulling it along behind me all over his driveway. That one is on a shelf to help remember him.


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

My Dad bought our first Lionel set, which had a locomotive exactly like Dave's, sometime around 1950, when I was 10 years old, but my grandad had gotten me hooked with his Marx wind-up trains long before then. Our set had three blue/silver pressed steel passenger cars with the "box" couplers, which were a real pain. He traded that set in for a new Athearn HO Santa Fe passenger set when I was about 12 years old. Today, I wish I still had that original set, but at age 12 I was thrilled with the HO. Have since been into HO, HOn3, N, Sn3, On3, and now the large scales, the latter almost exclusively since '86. It's been a great ride!


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

I had a plastic push toy train as a kid sort of a made in (the old) Japan version of Brillo. 

I got an HO mantua 0-4-0 switcher (some assembly required) when I was 12 or 13 and kept at HO though college and a little beyond. returned to it a bit with my kids. 

Got my first G-gauge mid-late 1980s starting with an LGB 4 wheel caboose then an Aster Climax live steam....I jumped in with both feet so to speak! electric didn't come 'til later.


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## alecescolme (Dec 20, 2010)

I got my first train set when I was about 7- downhill since then! 
It was a Hornby 0-4-0 freight, bought lots more Bachmann OO, Hornby and Dapol/Airfix after that. 
Some years later, I got my first train in largescale in 2004, which was a 1:29 Aristo 0-4-0 with Sierra passenger cars. 

Alec


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

when i was five or six i got my first H0 oval. and more items over the following years. 
from ten to fourteen i spent my pocket money for H0m things. 
when i was 18 i got the second starterset produced by LGB to go with my toy collection. stayed with 45mm since then.


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

My dad bought an American Flyer train set for me when I was 1 year old. The pictures from that time in 1956 show the train running around under the tree with me standing in front. I still have that train set. 
Ron


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

I had trains as long as I could remember,

When I could barely walk, I would run into the extra room (my dad and my uncle built a great big HO layout in there) and I would grab and engine, then run into my parents room to try to get them to run it for me (yes this little diesel was missing all its detail parts lol). 
This was probably in 1981-1982 ish.

Then we received a new LGB Stainz set with the 2 euro passenger coaches and a Chiquita banana car, had that for a while. Moved into a new house and built a great big garden railway in the backyard, didn't build it quite right and all the brass track turned black as night and the weeds took over (My dad gave me a mountain bike for pulling all the weeds once, a lot of work!

Personally, my first set was a little LGB yellow side-rod engine with 2 small cars. I still run them to this day (it came from Toys-R-Us from all places). I just keep her well greased and oiled (LGB german transmission fluid oiled lol)









Sincerely,

ChooChoo Andy


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## stevedenver (Jan 6, 2008)

wow 

i was 2-perhaps 3!! 

around 1956-1957 
i can recall my "snap trains" -the US version of Brio, with harbor and boats and trains-all plain blonde wood 

i can remember special saturday trips down to Uncle Bernies in LA to get a new piece to add-what a joy! 

and 1958 -american flyer New Haven PA-1's and A_A set with freight cars, on a 4x8 with station and bubbling oil well and other stuff 
that set forever burned the McGinnis scheme into me and i love it to this day- 

i think then around 1960-my love for detail took over and HO was started-i recall tyco and revell, and occasional problems with my steam engines motor and the seemingly endless wait for the engine to come back from repair 

i really never had any help with my trains from an adult, 
and it wasnt until my thirties that i had enough money to really start a gorgeous train layout, with the ability, tools, and slowly, the skills to get something clse to what was on the 'box top', 
or in all those years of model railroader 
still working off the baggage....LOL


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## Fred (Jan 2, 2008)

I was 12 when my mom (Santa Claus) brought me a Lionel train set. Although I built an 4x8 table & set it up, never really got interested in it. While spending the summer back in NY in 1961 on my 14th birthday I had my grandparents take me to The Farmer's Market where I was able to use my birthday $$$ and buy a Varney HO trainset. That got me going in model trains. Since my mom & I lived alone, all the building of my layout was on trail & error (A LOT of errors). I stayed in HO until 2004 when I decided to devote all my hobby time & money to Largescale which I had gotten into in 1990 while reading MR. Getting into model trains was something I have always looked back on with fond memories. Been lucky to have a layout which others have enjoyed operating on now resulting in some great, long time, friendships and a closer relationship with my sons.


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## ShadsTrains (Dec 27, 2007)

Don't remember exactly how old, but I was younger than 9..


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Three years old.


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## livesteam53 (Jan 4, 2008)

The year my brother was born (he was born on Christmas day) so I was 2 yrs 5 months old.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I had a Lionel train set about first grade or just before. It was a black steam engine and about 6 cars. I was given two engines like Dave Meashey's only one of them ran.

One of my Uncles painted a layout on two 4 ft square panels of plywood. It was all green. Then the area of the road bed was gray. It had a siding that ran down the center. There was a crossing and gate. He painted a cobble stone sidewalk down the middle one stone at a time. I had a station, water tower with a glass tube in the middle. There was a light bulb at the bottom of the tube that heated it. and bubbles would float to the tip inside the tank. I had a conveyor and matching dump gondola. The conveyor loaded the fake coal into the gondola. There was a crossing gate. and two bridges. 


I don't remember what happened to that set but I got another one in Fifth Grade. It had a Diesel engine on that one. Drop center flat car, tank car, box car, hopper car, and Caboose. I still have that one.

The track had cross ties on it with a copper rail down the middle. I still have that.

I bought a train set from a nurse in the early 70s. I still have that too. 

My mother gave away the conveyor, station , and water tower, and crossing gate. 

Around 7th grade I had a HO set. I would play for hours and hours with my trains. 


JJ


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Does the Fisher-Price 2-2-0 count? 
Otherwise it was a used Marx when I was about 8


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

I can remember getting my first "new" electric train set at Christmas time mid seventies. I was younger than 9 but not much. Had done the matchbox & Hot wheels thing pretty regularly I can remember running my sizzlers cars for hours on a banked oval of track in the basement while my father fiberglassed an old wooden boat before second grade. I had toy trains and was in love with some of my more well to do friends Brio type trains as well. We moved at one point during second grade and then I got a train table. I can remember going thru my father's old trains, he had HO with a high School friend. And looking at his stored away in the attic Lionel set. He let me play with some of the HO trains and I collected what I could. At some point his brother gave me his old Aurora model motoring slot cars and I integrated them together on my play table in the basement. That all lasted until high school. College started and I needed a fix. RC cars had cought my interst and I went hru that phase of my life which lead me to working part time at a small hobby shop in my hometown and another in the Buffalo Ny area where I had my introduction to Large Scale trains. It was a slippery slope but once I took that first push with a used LGB starter set after Christmas one year...been finding MORE every year. 

Chas


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

First train,I believe was a Marx wind up. Had t o be over 70 years ago. More recently, Spouse strted me with an LGB starter set in 1987. Boy did she ever start something. As you know I am into live steam as well now. Could not have a better more enjoyable hobby.


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## Doug C (Jan 14, 2008)

finally in December 1998 ! sooo subtract it from that, and yrs from now = 42 !


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

This thread should get some STARS, but I have no idea how to do it. It is very informative. Most of us got started when we were less than 10. That makes it a little difficult to attract new model railroaders.

THANK YOU THOMAS. 


Chuck


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## Grimm (Oct 5, 2009)

I was 3 or 4, and it was a LEGO battery operated train. I thought it was the coolest thing. That would have been around 1969 or so, I think.  

Jason


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

It was Christmas of '76 or '77..I was 7 or 8 years old.. 
Got a Tyco HO scale set..a few years later as a teenager I was totally into cutting and kitbashing locomotives and cars.. 
virtually nothing was unmodified! but even then I had sense enough to not modify that very first locomotive..it is the only 
one I kept untouched and original..still have it! and its still one of my favorite locomotives..even though it hasn't turned a wheel since 1987: 









I got quite into HO scale as a teenager..custom painting quite a few diesels..then I dropped out of the hobby when I went to college, then all of my 20's, 
and got back into trains, with Large Scale, when I was 33..which was 10 years ago now. 

Scot


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

I can't remember back that far.


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

I've already commented on this, but I feel the need to add a few details. Maybe it's therapeutic. Anyway, my brother got an American Flyer set when I was about 4 or 5. I wanted a train of my own. Finally when I was about 10 my dad got me an HO set for Christmas. For the next 8 years that was my favorit activity and everything I had went into it until I graduated from high school in 1966. I was too old for trains, they had to go, I sold everything for $20. My dad was discussed with me; it was worth a lot more. Five years later, after graduating from college and getting married, I bought an N gauge set. Two kids later, in 1977, I sold it and went back to HO. In 2002 I bought a Bachmann Big Hauler set. And also a Z scale set. I now have Z, N, HO, and G. And soon I will pick up an O gauge set. Trains are fun for those of us who are now retired and have time for it all. Bob


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## d_sinsley (Mar 29, 2011)

I earned the railroading merit badge in Boy Scouts and that started it. I had one in my youth for a few years then forgot all about it until adulthood. Since I have attempted to put together several layouts that never saw the light of day. Now I am just a builder. I have HO and now Fn3 no track but plenty of rolling stock in HO and starting my first G build. I love building, nothing I have is stock. At the very least it is weathered but most has been super detailed.


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Well before I discovered... 
Girls,
Sex,
Hot Rods
&
Rock-n-Roll

(Not necessarily in that order.)


Rediscovered ? I can't remember when...

.


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## Slagmar (Apr 4, 2012)

Got my first wooden toy train when I was about 2 ( "bu choo-choo" ). Had a tin toy train at 5 and started with Lionel 027 at 8. Switched to HO in 1952 when I was 9 (it took 6 months to convince my parents I was serious) ! My father built our first "Pike" in '53 with Atlas brass flex track. I built the boxcars & Ideal cardstock structures. Got to do some filing on the Varney Zamack die-cast F3's - but he did the mechanisms. Mother painted them. I got to do the 15 hours of break-in running recommended then! In highschool I superdetailed the 1953 Ideal cardstock interlocking tower. Still have it and the Varney F3s on my current layout! Slagmar


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

I don't remember not having a train. Both of my parents had trains as kids. They were both Lionel. My Dad ran his until his death. I still have the very small set that was Moms and all that Dad had accumulated over the years. I didn't get into Large Scale until after Dads death and feel kind of bad about that.


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

I was 5, received a Lionel passenger set, and a steam engine freight set from my uncle. It was .027 3 rail, had the steam loco until I was around 20, don't know what happened to it. Wish I still had it, along with other childhood toys like my Mattel shootin shell fanner 50's, I still do have the 2nd generation AC Gilbert slot car racers and track, took em out a few years back and they still ran, I also had the first generation one too.. Regal


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

My first "electric" train set was a Meccano set, not the erector style but a full metal train set my parents found used somewhere. I sure wish I hadn't lost track (no pun intended) of it.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

I was around 6 or 7 years old, got a Tyco HO scale Royal Blue set for Christmas. We were at my Grandparents in Ohio celebrating that year. I killed the motor in the locomotive within an hour. Grandpa went down to the garge and got the 1948 Lionel set that was my dad's when he was a boy and set it up for me. At my birthday the following march, I got my own Lionel starter set as I was not trusted to have dad's old set just yet. Dad took all my HO scale stuff to a local shop and traded it all in toward a MPC era Lionel set. I stayed active in 3rail O scale even while also modeling in HO scale, then finaly moving up to large scale this past year. On my 12th Christmas, dad's Lionel set wasnt set up under the tree that year. Nothing was said and you didnt question things like that in our family. On Christmas morning, I recieved that set from dad, it was wrapped up under the tree. It was a 1655 2-4-2 starter set with a few Marx accesories. I will remember that Christmas above all others, that set is still with me, still runs every year at Christmas time. Cheers Mike and Michele T


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Mike Toney on 14 Sep 2012 07:27 AM 
I was around 6 or 7 years old, got a Tyco HO scale Royal Blue set for Christmas. We were at my Grandparents in Ohio celebrating that year. I killed the motor in the locomotive within an hour. Grandpa went down to the garge and got the 1948 Lionel set that was my dad's when he was a boy and set it up for me. At my birthday the following march, I got my own Lionel starter set as I was not trusted to have dad's old set just yet. Dad took all my HO scale stuff to a local shop and traded it all in toward a MPC era Lionel set. I stayed active in 3rail O scale even while also modeling in HO scale, then finaly moving up to large scale this past year. On my 12th Christmas, dad's Lionel set wasnt set up under the tree that year. Nothing was said and you didnt question things like that in our family. On Christmas morning, I recieved that set from dad, it was wrapped up under the tree. It was a 1655 2-4-2 starter set with a few Marx accesories. I will remember that Christmas above all others, that set is still with me, still runs every year at Christmas time. Cheers Mike and Michele T 
Wow Mike! Your story hit close to home for me. I was ten years old in 1953 and I had been saving my allowance for a Lionel AA Union Pacific silver FA. I had the money stashed in a glass jar in the back of a cupboard. My Mom had a cleaning person come in one day and wouldn't you know, that person found my jar and it "disappeared". Well my grandfather wasn't going to let that happen, because Christmas Eve 1953, he gave me a brand new AA UP silver diesels and 8 silver passenger streamliners. I both cried like babies in front of that tree as we set-up his layout and put my shiny new Lionel on the track! I'll NEVER forget that Christmas! I STILL have that set along with HIS Lionel #671 steam turbine 6-8-6 and a Santa Fe switcher (SW?) and a load of freight cars and all his accesories. Thanks for your post. Brings back great memories of long ago Christmas'.


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## Mike Toney (Feb 25, 2009)

Your welcome Gary. I think its time for a "how were you exposed to large scale or what got you into this scale" post, cause thats a whole nother story! Mike


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Born 1962, older brothers born '56 and '57. I don't know what the year was but pre-school was playing with the wooden trains and wooden track that was in the house already. Older brothers had moved on to an O gauge Lionel train. My Uncle always had O gauge trains running under his Christmas tree from earliest recollections of Christmas. Oldest brother got a N scale Aurora postage stamp train set in about 1972. The F unit from that set is currently running around my N scale layout, and [usually] still smoothly pulling trains of 12 cars or more. I got into HO and N scale in the 70's and 80's briefly. I returned to model trains in 2008 with 1:20 and 1:29 and have been collecting and enjoying them ever since. This year i decided to give N scale another try and have found the new locos and track to be quite satisfying as well. 
Over the years, like many boys of the 60's we had trains, O, HO, N as well as 1:32, and 1:24 and HO scale slot cars, gas powered airplanes, RC, free flight and control line and even boats. Mostly all gone now but for some remnants but the trains keep going and going.


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## TonyLou (Sep 3, 2009)

I have my first model train when I was 11. My uncle bought for me as birthday gift. This was a HO scale British tank steam LMS with two passenger coaches which made by Lima. I am still remember the power control with 4 pcs of batteries which was not transformer. All tracks were snap track. I had not built the layout yet because my home was so small where was an apartment at 3rd floor.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

1 and a half. 


Was a wooden train set a little like the modern ones except the track pieces snapped together and the cars had cup hooks for couplers.


I was 4 when Dad brought home a battery powered HO set. Naturally, the batteries ran down the first time I played with it. Dad built a "Transformer" in a pink recipe box so I didn't have to worry about batteries any more.


At age 9, we moved to a tiny house. Mom and Dad got me an N gauge set because there wasn't room to set up the HO loop.


At age 12, we moved to a bigger house and I played with both the HO and the N sets, though at different times. The selenium rectifier Dad used in the recipe box transformer blew and stunk up the whole house. The N set was my "Model Railroad" and the ancient HO set was my toy train.


At age 44, the shrink said, "Tom, you need a hobby." So when I managed to reestablish a little income, I bought a broken Aristo 0-4-0 on ebay for $40. Only took a few minutes to get it working.


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