[:$][soapbox]A little clarification & apology: I am perfectly fine with Brio, Thomas the Tank Engine, even bright red-and-green Christmas colors (my first electrically powered train set was a TOMY Plarail Thomas with Anne & Clarabel that I loved to death), but specifically I was talking about the subcategory of these plastic train sets that are EL CHEAPO JUNK, not Thomas Wooden Railway, or LEGO trains, or even Marx tinplate!
[#oops]
Now, for the “More Positive Tread”.
Share with us all those “first train sets” that you knew, loved and then (probably) managed to destroy in a (the destrustion being a purelyhypothetical scenario[A])
My first “real” train set was the aforementioned TOMY, which I loved on in conjunction with my Thomas Wooden Railway. There later came more TOMY, then DUPLO, then LEGO, and then at last a HO Bachmann set containing an FT, D&H hopper, Wabash gon, and accompyning AT&SF caboose.
Like Larry, i skipped this phase. Dad built a 4x8(ish) set for my older brother for christmas one year. Older brother got bored after ten minutes or so; little Stu ran it till the wheels fell off. Still got the old locos – one BB SW1500, one Model Power Sharknose – and planning to fix and convert them to DCC one of these foggy Fridays.
My first HO Scale train set was Life Like Main Line with a Santa Fe GP38-2 yellow bonnet #3500, 2 40’ boxcars one being a ATSF reefer and CNW yellow/green stock car with a ATSF caboose.
I really don’t remember what happened but I still the box.
My “career” as a model railroader began 53 years ago, when Santa brought me a Marklin starter set consisting of an oval of that typical Marklin tinplate track, 2 4-wheeled tinplate passenger cars and a simple, but rugged tank engine. Those were the days way before Thomas The Tank Engine.
Mind you, the set was a simply one, but good quality stuff, and with the additions rolling in for each birthday and Christmas in the following years, it grew into a humble empire. Marklin trains were not the most detailed ones, but certainly the most durable - with a little maintenance, they are literally indestructible, very much unlike today´s trains, wich are highly detailed, rather expensive pieces of quite often overpriced junk.
The only train set I had was a Lionel three rail 2-6-2 with 4 cars that my dad gave me Christmas 1945. Things were tough during WWII, I have no Idea how he came by it. 16 sections of track and the Lionel biggie dual lever transformer. My younger brother was in the hanger that Christmas and everything was rationed.
My dad needed a tire for our car but my train came first and he walked 3 miles to work everyday that winter in 3 foot of snow. That Lionel train was my start in model railroading. I did my own thing at the ripe old age of 14 and bought an HO Roundhouse 0-6-0 Kit with paper route money and I’ve been an HO model railroader ever since.
The Lionel bit the dust in 1968 when my oldest boy (6) tried to find out what made it tick. That was one of my saddest model railroading days finding parts of it scattered all over the living room floor.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My earliest trainset (that I remember anyway) was a Fleischmann locomotive and a few cars. Oddly enough it survived (my brothers each had a set and we staged wrecks with them) and I have it now. And it still runs.
My first train set was one of two Hornby MO sets. One had a red locomotive and the other was green, and one had two passenger vehicles and the other goods stock. The two, which didn’t last long are confused, but one was a gift from a neighbour (who was subsequently blamed for my interest by my parents). These were the early post WWII versions, before the adoption of British Railways colours.
My first electric train was a Hornby Dublo three rail BR black N2 0-6-2T goods set. It was obtained in Singapore and shipped back to Sydney on HMS Telemachus, a Royal Navy submarine. This was organised by a (different) neighbour who was the RN Squadron engineer, since the Australian price was a bit high for my parents.
Personally, I think ANY trainset is a good one. We have higher expectations for some than others.
While cheap sets can disappoint, they also plant the seed for doing better and really deriving enjoyment from the hobby. If they are what’s in the budget, better to go for it and sort out later how to improve the exprience, rather than miss a play opportunity that might create a life-long impression.
my first experience with trains was an Lionel set which I still have in wood box.
But if you, a model railroader, were asked to a get a nephew or friend’s child a train set, would you go out and buy a set or would you spend a bit more on individual locomotive, rolling stock, track and throttle if you thought it would really be an introduction of model railroading instead of just taken out at Christmas time?
Not necessarily. Both of my only experiences with train sets were not good. My first train set had a red/silver F7 Santa Fe war bonnet diesel. I got it home and the diesel didn’t run so it went back to the store and there were no more so I was trainsetless at that point. I didn’t get another until a few years later and it was the basic Tyco set with the hustler switcher diesel, a couple freight cars and a caboose. The switcher didn’t run very well and that trainset was a disappointment. I had to start buying seperate items to try to improve on things. An Athearn F7 ran pretty well. My 3rd diesel was an SP SD45 which didn’t run very good at all, wouldn run through #4 turnouts to save it’s life. My early HO experiences were overall pretty poor as a teen, but only because I was a train nut did I perserver. I switched to N scale by the time I was 18 or 19 and my experience with it was actually better and enjoyed N for about 8 years before switching back to HO because N didn’t have the type of rolling stock I wanted, like tunnel motors etc. Yeah, so train sets were basically a hinderance to my early train experiences. If I was a “so-so” train fan, I could have easily abandong trains from it, but it as in spite of train sets that I perservered on.
I’m pretty sure that I was 8 when Santa brought my first train set- that would have been 1959. It was a Revell HO set with a Union Pacific SW7, a PFE reefer, a NYC open gondola car, and then a “wood”-sided UP CA caboose. That locomotive was durable and always ran fine with a rubberband transmission. I could bring the transformer up slow and make the locomotive “idle” just like a real diesel before increased rpm would cause it to move.
When I was off in college and my parents were moving, I was able to set aside a box of some things that I would like to save, and that SW7 went off to a local teacher who bought my trains in one lot. Years later, I gave several Revell buildings and perhaps that PFE refrigerator to Mr. Jim Revell, who ran a model train store in Lynchburg, VA.
I still have that original train set caboose, repainted and lettered for my private line. It is more often in the display case than on the layout, but I’m very pleased to still have that reminder of those early days with a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and the entire Union Pacific system running on it in my imagination.
A neighbor recently asked me to render an opinion on the relative worth of a Christmas train set given to his kids by the grandparents many years ago. It was sold under the Sears lable and the loco was an F unit diesel that was obviously originally designed with a dual shaft motor that powered both trucks through u-joint drive shafts and truck gearing… but the rear shaft and truck gears were omitted, so the F unit was 4 wheel drive only. Obviously Sears was trying to hit a low-budget price point.
But what the heck, I’m sure the kids loved it, and running a train in circles under the tree certainly doesn’t require a high end mechanism.
I told my neighbor not to bother taking the set to Antiques Roadshow!
More often than not, old train sets aren’t worth more than a few dollars. It would have to be a Lionel train set sold over 50 years ago in mint contition to be worth something. At Timonium you see old train set stuff for sale all the time and it just gets hauled from train show to train show - tons of it and it’s only worth pennies or a few dollars max. Half of it should be landfilled; it probably will after it’s made 50 trips without being sold.
My first train set in HO (after years in Lionel 0-27) was a Penn Line set with F7 and some freight cars, undoubtedly on special sale because of Penn Line’s bankruptcy.
And my folks were talked into a good MRC power pack that contnues to serve!
While the Penn Line stuff was not wonderful it was durable (all metal flat cars, all metal wheels) and it ran reliably. The packaging was designed to protect the models and not have them be broken even before the box was opened.
These are the most important features to keep the train set recipient interested in and happy with the hobby.
My first on, when I turned 8, birthday is a few days before Christmas, so I did get at Christmas. It was the Chattanooga Choo Choo HO scale. That thing and its Old Maid Boxcar and I dont remember what the other 2 were maybe a flat with spools and a hopper or gondola, plus the caboose. They did 1000`s of scale miles on my bedroom floor. Never had any kind of problems with it at all!
I had an earlier version of the Hornby locomotive illustrated. Mine was a light olive green lettered for the LNER, although it came in a set with coaches lettered for the LMS. Interestingly that loco was painted green and black rather than being lithographed, although the coaches were lithographed and a red LMS tank I obtained later was lithographed. my trains, both the O gauge and later OO gauge were passed on to cousins when my mother decided I had outgrown them.
My first experience with trains was a Child Guidance pull train. Even today I have some of Guidancetown USA buildings on my layout. The best part was the crank turntable
My older brother of course had a real train er I mean a Lionel train which of course made me jealous.
