What sparked you interest in toy trains?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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What got you into trains? I’m sorry if this post has come up before, I searched them, but never found one so hopefully this the first one.

My interest was that CSX trains had always come through my town, and that Savannah has a train show every January around MLK holdiday, and I would always go and buy HO stuff. (I still have enough to make a walmart size layout [;)]) But, I, like every little boy, got my first Lionel Pennsy Flyer set one year (I think I was 9 or 10) and that was were it started, then, fell. I lost interest like evey boy, I didnt have any accessories, and, like usual, I got bored. I put it away, then would drag it out and play with it, then put it away again.

Then, about 2 years ago, I went to a HobbyTown USA in Statesboro, Georgia and bought me about 15 extra long straight sections of 027 straights. (I forgot to mention, I dindnt understand about the quality of O and stuff, but I did get a K-line set when I was about 6, and I still have the transformer, swticher, and the cars, and the track to come with it, but that was when I didnt care what kind of train it was [:D])

After that, I set it up in my living room, and got a mainline color postion signal as my first accessory. My second was a 397 coal loader, and that was the messiest thing I have ever seen. Now, everywhere you go in my house youll find some coal on the floor. [;)].

Then, last Christmas, I went on a shopping spree on trains. I bought a station, 151 PW semaphore, a PW 394 beacon, a PW 154 crossing flasher, and some other nice accesories. I also bought a modern milk car, and a modern coal dump car, as well as a operating track section and uncoupling track section. I set it up, and ran it. Then, on my birthday this year in April, I picked up my favorite postwar set, a modern #2269W B&O freight set, with the 3356 horse and corral car, 3361 log dump car, 6518 double tru

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When I was a kid every Christmas my uncle had a huge 3 to 4 loop 072 layout with postwar steamers running- 681, 671, 2065, etc. I will never forget it. From that day on I said I will have that…still working on the 25x40 basement part though [:)]

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Every year around Christmas time my dad would set up his O gauge trains, mainly pre war stuff, and a Lionel scout set from the 60’s. I started setting up the trains around 69 and continued leaving them set up almost all year long in the basement, had only 031 track at that time. Bought a ZW in Stratford CT a year before moving to Reading PA, the ZW needed a wire put back on one of it terminals, parents paid $30.00 for it used and I am still using it today. Did not have a whistling tender in the 60’s or 70’s, got a whistling tender in the 80’s in north Miami FL.

I got to see some New Haven freight cars as a child in Stratford CT, also rode on the NH to NYC to see the Empire State building, went to the 102nd floor.

Also my paternal grandfather worked for the Reading Company doing building repair and maintanance.

Lee F.

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…Lionel

Stan.

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My interest started with my daughter and buying her Thomas and Friends wooden trains. My wife then got me a Lionel Christmas set and now I’m addicted [:)]

PJ

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Good stories guys!

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My Grandfather had two Marx Tinplate set’s that ran around his layout in the basement.

One of which I still have and run, along with some accessories and switche’s.

My Cousin has the other set, I think!

Mike

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My Dad had a 623 switcher in the attic that he would let me play with sometimes. I had some Ho guage trains when I was little but they didn’t hold up to the abuse of a 10 year old boy. The 623 took some what of a beating but is still in one piece. Still have it but it needs some work.

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  1. My dad’s Lionels

  2. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

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We lived, initially, with my Grandparents in North Brunswick, NJ. This a 1/4 mile from the NorthEast Corridor. The reason was that my Great Grandfather worked for the Pennsylvania RailRoad. I think he was a track inspector then a resident of a crossing shack for a time. This coupled with the fact my Dad had Lionels when we moved to our own home with a basement didn’t help. Dad had 4 - 4X8 sheets of plywood for a really big layout. He still has those goodies like a real 275 watt ZW, bascule bridge, signal beacon and a lot of Plasticville. Not to mention the post war steamers (I can’t remember what they are) and a Santa Fe A unit.

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Grandad’s post war Berkshire under the Christmas tree in McLean, VA. BTW, that’s dad operating the robot arm and my back as a kid.

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When I was about 3, my grandfather called my to show me something, It was a postwar lionel set up! I used to use it for hours, When I was 6 I finally got the New your Centrial flyer set and I just got addicted.

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my dad always had trains, i wish i had the ones(lionel PW) he SOLD when i was 5. i vowed to NEVER sell any of mine, EVER. Now i just need to get this old house done so my wife will let me start on my layout. i thought if i kept taking more of the living room each X-mas she would get the idea. last year it was 7.5 X 16. dad comes over and just sighs when he sees it and says wish i had those old ones. so it would have been my dad who got me interested.

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When I was a kid we lived about a block from Train Avenue in Cleveland. My Uncle was forever taking me on walks along the tracks. My Grandmother lived right next to the Big Four line and there was a pedestrian walkway over the rails. When I was real little my Dad would pick me up and show me the train running beneath that walkway. I loved it. A neighbor’s father had a ton of big old Lionel equipment he ran in his attic. GG1, steam etc. I cannot remember any of their numbers… and then my Sears Allstate, Marx 1666 set arrived about 1959 or so. Yahoo! I’ve been enjoying them all ever since.

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I had quite a collection of New Brights when I was a kid. I always loved runnin them, and it only stands to reason that I moved on to Lionels. My first one was given to me by an uncle, a #8904 Steamer. I still have her, but she mostly pulls shelf duty lookin perty with some of my other favorite locomotives.

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My father sold North British and other (mainly German) companies steam and diesel engines, so he had a lot of photographs and sample parts lying around the house, like whacking great Timken roller bearings. He also had his own small collection of Trix Twin which was an OO 3 rail AC system that was very advanced for its time, you could control two locos at once on the same track. As a very small boy I loved to watch this when he got it out but I wasn’t allowed to play with it by myself. To stop me from trying to get at his he got me a Hornby O gauge clockwork set when I was about 4. That was how I got started and my interest in trains was fuelled by Dads taking me to see famous trains on the Welwyn viaduct and other stretches where you got a good view of them at speed and my travelling on trains a lot as grandpa worked for British Rail and we got free passes. So I was used to travelling long distance as well as local branch lines. As steam was starting to get phased out in the 60’s I also skipped school a lot to travel around the various London temini to make sure I got to see as many locos as possible. My schools all had train clubs too and all my friends had trains or were train spotters,m you couldnt really escape from trains if you wanted to!

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I recieved my first Lionel set on the day I was born.Have had trains ever since.It was the “worlds greatest hobby” long before that phrase was born.

Ed

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Welcome to the sight Ernie

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Relatives live a block away from the Union Pacific line. We could feel the trains go by in the night, and would watch them during the day.

My father built a 4x8 HO layout for me at about 7, Tyco Cars, buildings (houses), and Atlas track. The switches and building lights were remote controlled. I still have the engines and cars, and occasionally pull them out, and wonder how they stayed in such good shape.

When I was 14, my father and I would visit flea markets, and garage sales in search of Lionel trains. Everyone called him the train man, and I still have those trains. Now that I have children, I have a renewed interest, and have been collecting.

Kurt

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When I was very young (age 1) my family moved to a neighborhood with a GTW spur behind our house. It saw several trains each day, enough to have flashers at the grade crossings. Then I got my first Lionel set at age 5.

Joel