Any body ever find a train or given a train?

Yes, my wife (then girlfriend) gave me an old train set that she had in a box. A steam engine with Marx tinplate cars and a caboose. It still runs quite well.

Yes, it did happen to me once. My wife's uncle passed away and he had one set of Lionel postwar trains. None of his kids wanted the trains so the family gave them to me. Unfortunately, they are in rather poor condition and worth very little. I may restore them someday and give them to his grandchildren if they are interested. (He passed years before his grandchildren were born)

All the time...

Had a neighbor give me a AF S gauge set Atlantic 4-4-2 with a couple of cars and track.

Not to me but.... I work at a University, every May we are always amazed at what the kids toss in the trash or leave behind. Last year one of my guys found a G gauge steamer and two coaches in a dumpster. He happens to run G so lucky find. The steamer was a 4-4-0 General (I think) with the open coaches. It had a few broken pieces but he cleaned it up and it runs great.

Growing up, every Christmas and Birthday from the age of 8 on had trains or train related gifts included. All HO too. The three that stand out- my first Lionel ATSF Alco AB set with 5 lighted streamline coaches, NYC Hudson, and Y6b Mallet by Rivarossi.

Yes, I have been given trains many times in the past. As a matter of fact, that's what started me in the hobby. My uncle gave me some postwar trains when I was 10 years old. Now as they say, the rest is history.

One of the best stories though happened years ago when my mom and grandmother worked together at a food store. As they were leaving work one day they see a runaway cart running thru the parking lot. This lot was on a hill was known for runaway carts. The cart just missed my grandmother's car, hit the curb next to it and flipped over. Inside the cart was a cardboard box. They were expecting to see some shopper frantically chasing behind the cart but no one was around. My mom looked in side the box and found it was filled with trains and track. Since no one claimed the runaway, they took the box home.

When my mom called and relayed the story, I didn't get too excited. But then she explained they were like the trains I got from my uncle, Lionel postwar. I headed right over to my mom's house to inspect the find. Inside was a 2026 steam with the whistling tender, some common cars, some HO sized tin cars from a windup set, a Plasticville switch tower and a bunch of track. Pretty neat, but I still was not overly excited as the front truck was off the engine as though it was in the middle of being worked on. Besides, who abandons a good set of Lionel trains in a shopping store parking lot.

Once I got the trains back home, I reattached the locomotive's front truck. I put the engine and tender on the track, gave it some juice and lo and behold it worked! After a good cleaning it worked well looked great. A nice addition to the collection.

To this day I wonder why, out of all the people that could have saw that runaway cart and the cars it could have stopped by, why it was my my mom and grandmother and their car it almost hit. It must have been fate, or the trains somehow knew just how to find a good home. 

Absolutely! I've been given trains plenty over the years as gifts from family and friends. 

I've also done the same and given away trains to friends and local acquaintances. I especially enjoy giving trains to a few of the younger hobbyists in the area. 

I had a few memorable ones.

When I was just starting out, my aunt gave me her family's set. It was a 1946 2020 set. It had the smoke bulb. The set came with a 2454 Merchandise car, 3459 coal dump (black), tank car and metal caboose. Everything was boxed, but the loco had a chipped flange. I still have it all (except the track), with some of the boxes, but the boxes have seen better days. (I just looked it up, it was set 1415WS)

As an adult, I had a woman who was big into doll collecting give me her childhood Marx set. It was a die cast metal steam engine with grey passenger cars. The loco needed minor repair.  A number of years later I sold it because I don't collect Marx. That was a mistake, I should have held onto it because it was a gift.

Another piece that comes to mind is a Standard gauge electric. I am not certain , but I think it's a #33. It was found in a dump, and is completely rusted into a solid mass. I think that if the rust was cleaned away, there would be nothing.
I have it on a shelf in my shop. It was given to my by my buddy's dad, who was an antique collector, as was my buddy's mom.
As I write this I recall that they also gave me a Lionel sound effects record.

 My older brother is also into trains.
I fix his stuff and pick up the cost of parts.
He gives me trains he thinks I'd like now and then.
Recently he gave me a boxed 1613S set. Everything is in nice shape except the loco. As is common on those engines, the pilot is snapped off. Fortunately I happened to have the correct orphan engine.

My grandfather, the one who has gotten me into trains, is moving and giving all his trains to me. I have already taken a Milwaukee Road S3 from Lionel, and some others, but soon will take all his trains and his layout. Where I will put everything, I have no clue. 

I have actually been offered trains twice.  Once by friend, the other by a relative.  Both were old Lionel 027's.  I had no use and did not want to try and sell them so I declined.  I suggested that they pass them on to their grand kids.

My cousin was given a Lionel 2037 set when he was a kid, but he never did develop any kind of an interest in trains or railroading.  So he gave it all to me on my birthday.  Needless to say, I gave them a good home!

My Grandmother gave me my Grandad's Lionel and Marx sets after he passed away in 1960.   I didn't receive another set until the late 1990s at which time I received two.  One was a Lionel  tinplate passenger set circa 1917-1927 which is  headed up by a 153 engine and which still runs great.  That set was given to me by my wife's cousin with the explanation that the set belonged to her father and she wanted it to have a good home.  The other was a tinplate Marx freight set manufactured around 1948 which was given to me by a co-worker of my wife with the same thought in mind.  This set also still runs very well.  I have been very fortunate.  

A few years ago my friend called and asked me if I still collected trains.    After telling him yes he told me he had just picked up his trains at his Moms and asked me if I wanted them.   He mentioned that they only ran them a few times at Christmas.    He came over later that day.    I thought maybe he had a little set with some common cars.    After he arrived and we opened the box I almost died. Inside was a complete 1966 freight set headed by 665 engine.   All boxes were there.    It included two 6464 boxcars, and the rare flatcar with two trailers and a Midge tractor.     I offer him money but he refused.   Best train I ever received.

my boyhood home was next to a cemetery. There was no safe place to ride my bike, so I would head over to the cemetery.The newer section was high on a hill, and I could look down on the Ohio River and watch the barges, and see part of the town. The older section I would walk around and I was amazed at the really old headstones. I was in the old section one day, and I noticed someone get out of a car next to the flower dump. I headed over there when they left, and I saw a cardboard box. I went for a look, and was shocked to find a Lionel 3656,2419,Rock Island 6464,657 Caboose,2689 whistle tender,a Santa Fe B unit. I spent an hour looking for anything else. I still have it all except for the B Unit which was missing a truck and beat up, and the 3656 which I sold.

Dad passed his Lionels onto me when I got married, and I inherited my Uncle Jim's trains when he passed away.

I was doubly blessed to have friends that gave my grandson trains on two different occasions, three if you count one of them giving twice�� The first was basically a complete set of MPC (I think) engine and cars, tracks n switches, the second time, more nice looking cars and a steamer. The gondolas are amongst his favorites since they hold so many Minecraft toys! The other friend was simply a generous friend of a friend who wanted her recently departed husband's stuff to have a good home, and learned that my grandson liked trains.

I have to remind myself from time to time whose trains those are, but my grandson is a very generous kid who was raised to share, so he understands when grandpa is down on the floor with him. ��  

Got a Railking Steamer, and about 25 Boxcars and Reefers and 7 passenger cars 

"I have to remind myself from time to time whose trains those are, but my grandson is a very generous kid who was raised to share, so he understands when grandpa is down on the floor with him. ��"

and he'll remember all those times that Grandpa WAS on the floor with him!

Yes, my wife and I where at Church and after Mass a coworker of my wife came over to me and said I have something I would like you to have. She said I know you are into Trains and I have my fathers old Lionel set I want you to have. I offered her money and she said no ,I want this set to have a good home, about a month later my wife brought it home. I took it out checked it over and it's like new from early 40s Lionel it now displayed with my childhood sets, sometimes you never know what's coming your way.

I don't collect Marx 6", but once a guy in a financial office in another part of the facility I worked at mentioned he had a neighbor who wanted to give a Marx set a good home. I went out to look and it was an older lady who had inherited a probable pre-war mixed train set (freight and pass. cars), pristine in the box, from her brother. I thought it would make a less common 6" example, since l had none, for my collection and offered her a fair price. She refused, and gave me the set. The only other 6" set l have is a Marx army train l was offered out of Western PA. from an ad l ran in a farm magazine :"Old Trains In The Attic?" Like the first, it was too good to pass up.

My father-in-law gave me some trains that had been sitting in his basement: a complete Tyco set with twin Santa Fe F-3s, an AHM set led by a Rivarossi steamer, and an American Flyer set. The Flyer set was the end of the line set, so it was a bottom end set, but it was all there and in good shape. I had the loco rebuilt, and used to run it once in a while. Now, it mostly sits on a shelf. 

 A few years ago my sister-in-law offered me her Dad's pre-war Lionel set. She and my brother have 4 sons and 1 grandson, but she insisted they would not be interested. I told her I would not take them until she asked all of them. One said he wanted them, but as of a few months ago, they were still in her closet. I won't push for them, but I'm still hoping.

20 or so years ago a co-worker gave me a Lionel starter set from the 1960's. The engine was a low end yellow Alco. The set is lost to life's misadventures. A current co-worker gave me a 394 beacon that he found in the space over his garage. Probably from a previous home owner. It's on my layout now and powered by a small computer fan. Other people through the years have promised to bring me trains they had, but they never came through.

I have not received trains but, you might say, I have given them. As a youngster during the 1950s, my father and grandfather bought me a Lionel steamer set (I don’t know which one) and a Santa Fe warbonnet ABA diesel set. I also had an operating milk car and a culvert loader. My dad built a 4-by-8 train table on which I built a layout. At the age of twelve or thirteen, I began to prefer HO trains and converted the layout. So, Dad gave all the Lionel trains to a co-worker whose young son was interested. To the best of my knowledge, the trains were a gift. I do wish I had them now.

So far, I have given a few train cars and bought a few sets for my grandkids.

MELGAR

A family that I know gave me the remnants of what I think was their childhood Tyco and Lionel HO layout.  I tested the locomotives a few years ago, and most of them still worked. I haven't had the time to do anything else though, so the trains and a large quantity of brass and steel HO Tyco brand track (I think it's Code 83) have sat either on my shelf or in a box under my O gauge layout. 

I've never had trains given to me like this, but my Dad did.

Back in the early 60s, a friend of my Dad's offered to give him the set of trains he had as a kid. Dad went to look at them, and immediately told his friend that the trains were worth a lot of money and wanted to have them appraised before accepting. Dad had the set appraised, went back to his friend, and told him what they were worth. His friend's response: "I don't care if it's worth 10 times that. If you want the set, I want you to have it." 

The set? A Lionel Standard Gauge Outfit #396E Blue Comet in excellent condition, with all the boxes including the outer set box. And that's how my Dad started his train collection. 

Maxrailroad posted:

My grandfather, the one who has gotten me into trains, is moving and giving all his trains to me. I have already taken a Milwaukee Road S3 from Lionel, and some others, but soon will take all his trains and his layout. Where I will put everything, I have no clue. 

You are very blessed to have such a grandfather.

Back when I was a kid.A classmate gave me some ho trians for my birthday.Which was pretty nice thing for him to do.I was in to ho trains at the time.I like to thank all who replyed here.

  I haven't been given any but from time to time I have given one to someone else.

  At one point in my life I was renting a two bedroom duplex.  The master bedroom was huge and the secondary bedroom was very small. Every winter I would move myself and the furniture out of the master bedroom and take up residence in the small bedroom.  I would then spend about 4 weeks (evenings and weekends) assembling a huge floor layout in the master bedroom.  Once it was up and running I would invite the neighbors and their kids over for an evening of running trains.

  The socioeconomic standing of the families in the neighborhood was all over the map and one winter the situation had been made worse by layoffs at the local steel mill.  Winter faded into spring and one afternoon as I returned from work the son of one of my laid-off neighbors came over with the parts and pieces of various HO gauge trains he had scrounged from dumpsters and tree lawn garbage.  He told me that after seeing my trains he had asked for one for Christmas but the family finances were such that a train was not an option so he had just started rummaging and had assembled one on his own.  The problem was the engine, he knew the transformer worked because his caboose would light and he wanted to know if I could take a look at the engine to see if I could fix it. 

  I said I'd try to see what I could do.  The diesel was a kluge consisting of an ill-fitting Athearn F3 shell mounted on a cheap Life-Like chassis. When I took it apart I could see the motor was cooked and the chassis was a complete loss.  Oddly enough the Athearn shell was in great shape.  As I was staring at the mess on my work table a line from one of my first person accounts of working on the railroad drifted up from my memory bank.  It had come from a book written by a shop foreman during the age of steam and the author was describing the behavior of one of the less popular engineers and he said ,"The only way to satisfy that guy was to jack up the bell and build a new locomotive underneath."

  It struck me, given what I was looking at, that was a pretty good idea. Fortunately, we had a fantastic train store in town and I was one of the regulars.  I walked in the door with the engine and set it on the counter.  The owner took one look at the train and wanted to know if I was now going in for HO trains.  I said I wasn't and then I told him what I wanted to do.  He liked the idea and said I could do the rebuild right there.

  So, I got a brand new powered Athearn kit from off the hobby shop shelf and went to work.  Once the chassis was finished and thoroughly checked out on the test track I looked over the remains of the Life-Like chassis to make sure everything else looked the same.  The trucks had been painted silver so a little dab of silver paint on the Athearn trucks took care of that.  There was a small scratch on the left side of the rear most truck which exposed some black plastic underneath so I used a safety pin to add that detail and then, since the front truck of the Life-Like had a bit of rust on one of the pins I used some rust colored paint to fix that.  Once the chassis was complete I attached the original F3 shell and we gave it a good running to make sure everything was fine. The last item to be added was the air horn - it was broken on the original shell but I was able to remove the remains and put the new kit air horn on in its place. When all was finished I thanked the hobby shop owner, paid my bill, and went back home. 

  I waited a couple of days and then one evening I took the engine over to the kids house.  Both parents were home. The kid took the engine over to his loop of track, set it down, cracked the throttle, and that engine moved like oil on water.  His father suspected something was up and wanted to know how I got it running.  I told him that it just needed some cleaning and a replacement drive shaft.  He noted the presence of the air horn and wanted to know where that came from.  I told him that when you build model trains you have all sorts of odds and ends lying around and that was left over from a project I had helped someone with recently.  All this time the engine was just gliding around the track and the kid was one happy camper.  You could tell Dad wasn't quite convinced but my countenance was the image of helpful innocence (I was the division dog robber in the Navy so my facial expression was pure muscle memory) and nothing more was said.

  A few months later his family moved away and I never saw them again.  I had a lot of fun doing that rebuild and from time to time I wonder if that jacked up air horn with a brand new mill underneath is still running on someone's HO layout somewhere out there.

Hello friends:

Great thread!  Gifts usually come from friends and relatives, and I have received my share.  In my early twenties, I was fortunate that my uncle knew that my Dad and I were into American Flyer trains.  When my younger cousin lost interest in his toy trains, Uncle Gene suggested that they be given to me.  So I received a nice Gilbert AF Atlantic freight set at a time when I was starting a new job and a family of my own, and I had few funds to spend on trains.  

About 20 years later, my Dad's old partner in our Ford dealership called me.  He remembered that both his son and I had AF trains that we played with together, so when his grown son did not want the box of old trains left in the family home that was now being sold, Joe Sr. thought of me.  A few weeks later, a heavy box arrived parcel post containing an assortment of AF trains in well used, very good to fair condition.  The 332 Northern and 343 0-8-0 switcher I had coveted so many years ago were among the  trains in that box.

About the same time, my sister was planning a garage sale at the home she and her husband rented.  She asked the landlord if she had any objection to them having the sale at the house.  The landlord not only said to go right ahead with the sale, but also to feel free to sell any of the stuff in the cellar that had been left behind by former tenants years earlier.  She told my sister to keep the money.  She just wanted the cellar cleared out. A box of old toy trains was found among the stuff in the cellar, and, fortunately, Marilyn hadn't forgotten that her big brother liked toy trains.  She held them out of her sale in case I might be interested, which I was!  It turned out be quite a bit of AF including an NP Alco PA A-B-set among other treasures.

But my favorite toy train gifts might be more like "re-gifts."

My Dad may have used my birth in 1947 as an excuse to purchase our first American Flyer S gauge trains that Christmas, but he didn't actually give them to me outright until the Christmas I was 13.

The first toy train that I was actually allowed to play with right away and by myself was a new Marx tinplate set that my folks gave me for Christmas when I was 5 years old. It was Marx set #8994.

I played the heck out of that Marx set until the Christmas my father finally entrusted the AF S gauge trains to me. The faithful Marx O-27 set was relegated to the closet and later given to good family friends who had younger sons. 

Fast forward about 30 years for "the rest of the story." My folks came down to Oregon to celebrate Christmas with us, and my Dad handed me a wrapped present. To my amazement it was my original Marx set, still in the original box and in as good as condition as I remembered having it!  It seems our old friends were moving out of their long time family home after their children had grown, found the train set in the attic and said to themselves, "We had better get this back to Alan."  They later passed it on to my folks to do so.

What a great gift! It was not only the best gift I could have gotten as a 5 year old, but also one of the best Christmas gifts I have gotten in the last 20 years. Not bad for a relatively common and inexpensive Marx tinplate train set.

Cheers!

Alan 

This thread makes me think about our old "family" trains. I'm the only - and have been the only - train nut in the family. My grandfather's brother (grand uncle? ) is and was a big Lionel guy. He always enjoys seeing photos/videos on Facebook so I try to post them occasionally there. He had one heck of a layout. 

Some of his trains went to my mother's family. With 6 kids, they got a lot of use. Sometime in the 1980s I believe, my grandmother threw them all in the trash. She still says she regretted doing it. I believe there are some photos of them around. It was good stuff - Lionel Santa Fe ABA Postwars and more....

Other than gifts from my parents or grandparents,No. 

>>>> opens GOOGLE<<<<< "What is a Toaster?"

When I bought my house 40+ years ago, there was an old oak dresser in the basement. One day, when all the moving settled down, I opened the drawers. In the bottom drawer was the air force missile car, exploding box car and a few miscellaneous rolling stock as well as a plastic starter engine and tender.

When I was 12 in 1965 I found some flyer in the trash in Upper Darby,Pa. Which included a 1947 312 K-5 Pacific, 300AC Atlantic and a 293 Pacific plus cars and track. I still have them and still can't understand why they were disposed of, they were in great condition.  

And about 25 years ago my Uncle gave me his American Flyer 4 rail O Gauge UP City Of Denver set which he bought new around 1934. 

A few years ago a couple, not members of our club but very supportive of our efforts, lost their home in a fire. All was lost including their trains. The club got together and put together a small layout and members donated trains and accessories to them after they rebuilt.

Pete

In the early 70's before Lionel and American Flyer became real "collectable" I got interested in Lionel trains again. Friends got me to join the TCA. I wanted the trains I couldn't afford when I was a kid so I put a small add in the Penny Saver paper every month. "Wanted, Lionel and American Flyer trains. Please don't them rust away". I got tons of calls. Many, many trains were given to me just to get them out of the garage. One guy had a very nice set with a 736 engine. He was going to drill a hole through it and make it into a lamp. I talked him into selling me the set but he gave it to me. He said the engine didn't run anymore. It ran fine after I cleaned and oiled it. I got a Texas Special passenger set free from an old lady that just wanted it out of the house. A guy called about getting rid of a bunch of old trains. Turned out he had a double A F-3 freight set and a set of passenger cars made by American Models. Things were in this old house were in many different rooms. We found track in one closet and some cars in another. I asked if there was a B unit with the double A. He asked what that was. I told it sometimes came with the F-3s. He thought for a moment then said yes there might be one in the garage. He found it but it was a New Haven electric in great shape. He refused any money for the stuff and seemed a little surprised anyone wanted these toys. I got a lot of American Flyer in those years and used them for trades. The strangest thing I got was an AF Alco A-A diesel set. The Alco was in factory paint of the Santa Fe but you could see the outline of the "Comet" paint job under it. I guess the "Comet" wasn't selling well and they repainted some into Santa Fe. Don

Two come to my mind.  My father-in-law gave me a boxed Marx windup set from the Fifties when he was "deaccessioning".  And a coworker of my wife's once bought an old farmhouse and discovered within it a Fifties  Marx set.  Knowing I collected trains, she offered it to me.

Does finding trains I forgot I had count?    

What, me worry?

I only received one "train" as a gift in my life, and THAT was for Christmas 1944!  I have NEVER found a train however, as I have purchased everything else since.

Yes, inherited my uncle's trains. Took the 1948 GG1 set and passenger cars, the 2 bascular bridges, type Z 250 watt transformer and the ultimate prize in excellent condition, a #115 Lionel station. I sold the rest of the trains as it was stuff I did not want for my cousin who had them in her possession.

She is glad that the good pieces are still in the family, something I truly valued to have.