Being a kid in the early 1970's, I had 1 friend that had a K-Line starter set and a few extra items. I thought his trains were weird because they weren't Lionel. I remember running our trains together, though.
I convinced another friend to ask for a Santa Fe diesel set for Christmas so we could build a layout together in my basement. I had 2 starter sets: an MPC plastic steam set I had for several years that my grandmother bought me, and my brand-new DT&I switcher set I got for Christmas. We somehow squeezed together enough money to buy a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, a can of green spray paint for grass and black spray paint for roads. His mom took us to a hobby shop and bought us a bag of dirt and black rock. When we attached the track to the plywood and sprayed the paint, we realized we could never build a layout because we did not have the money to buy anything else. So, my friend grew bored with his trains, decided to light his train cars on fire and smash them because he thought the simulated train wreck would be cool. He then proceeded to run his Santa Fe diesel off our plywood table and let it crash on the floor. At some point i asked him if I could keep the remains of his set and he said yes because, otherwise, he was going to trash them.
Today, I still have his Santa Fe diesel and the transformer that came with it along with that plastic steam engine starter set and my DT&I set. I always knew that someday, when I could afford to build a layout, I would. I'm now building my 4th layout and have dozens of engines and hundreds of cars and more buildings and accessories than I ever dreamed of owning. Man, the switches and crossing signals alone would have seemed like striking gold in my childhood eyes of the early 1970's.
Mike
