How were you introduced to the Hobby as asked by " Alan Arnold"

For me it stems from my Uncle Dick. Every Christmas he would run his trains(all the great post war favorites) much to our delight(my brother and sisters, my oldest brother would be socializing, and cousins). We would ask him to run his S2 turbine, then the Santa Fe F3's. After that he would usually run something new. He always found time to run the cows in and out of the stock car, have the newspaper stand working, passenger station, sawmill, you name it he had it. He gave me one of the old tin plate Commodore Vanderbilt engines with plastic cars for Christmas one year(after my father I believed asked him). I had some good times with that of which only the engine I still have.

The way my uncle got into trains was quite more interesting. The farmhand my grandfather had was moving back to Germany IIRC, and his family wasn't taking their trains with them. The farmhand sold the trains to my grandfather which he gave to his son(my uncle) I think either for his birthday or Christmas, not sure. His big became my big.

by our Father 1948

My parents got me a small Lionel set for Christmas in 1955. (I still have the set and it runs great). I was hooked on trains from then on. Every year for Christmas I got another Lionel item for the train set, and I guess that helped keep me interested. I have never been without Lionel trains since that 1955 Christmas day.

Jeff

Well, anyone growing up in the fifties was introduced to trains simply by growing up in the fifties.  Much as my kids grew up in the age of video games, in the eighties.  

My parent bought my older (by 10 years -there was a war in between) brother every piece of Lionel accessories and trains they could. I was maybe 4 or 5; I destroyed every single piece of equipment. Fortunately my brother was more interested in baseball and girls. So the Lionel stuff was eventually discarded.

I felt a severe loss and sorrow  for many years before I repurchased and replaced every piece that I broke.  

I was born about 2 weeks before Christmas. My parents always told everyone how they brought me home from the hospital, and in a very short time I was on the floor beside the train that was circling the Christmas tree...…..and the rest is history. 

To be fair, I was introduced to toy trains even before that; my parents attended the 1968 TCA convention in Cleveland, while my mother was pregnant with me. That's about as early a start as one can get. 

John

I sure do remember distinctly being in an isolation hospital at 5 years old for 2 months, had my 6th birthday in there.

My father brought in this strange box and it was very heavy, he slid the most beautiful black steam engine from that box and I was hooked.

Couldn't run it but could hold it and be impressed by it's solid weight. When I got home we ran it and ran it round and round couldn't get tired of it.

Little by little pieces were added. A milk car that really worked then a cattle car with rubber cows that really moved. There was a tank car a gondola caboose etc.

Then a 622 diesel switcher, life was great. Still have them all 70 years later and life is great.

Being an old timer, a kid in the 1950s Christmas trains were common and we had a Marx 999 freight set, layout up for two weeks at Christmas.  One friend up the street had Lionel and another had American Flyer and we spent the Christmas holidays going house to house running trains.  All of us each usually got a new car or signal or accessory each following Christmas. 

Later at age 10 so and in a new house in St. Louis county my brother and I begged Dad to put it up full time in the basement and we got tired of it in a few months and the layout was scraped and train set saved.  Trains were boring compared to model planes and model building, u control airplanes and later tube radio controlled scratch built boats.

The train interest started again with the building of Christmas train layout when my two kids were like 1 and 3 years old.  I still had the Marx 999 set to start with.  The layout is the one I have now and was up for a week before Christmas and the month of January.  They enjoyed it for a many years and I kept trains as a winter hobby ever since.  I have used model trains as one of my part time hobbies along with boating, water skiing, tennis, softball, vintage stereos, workshop, and golf.  I have learned for me concentrating on one interest full time gets over done and interest is lost.  Spreading out interests makes them last a life time if you are still able.

Charlie

My grandfathers bought me a set from Madison hardwar when I was 5 years old and each Christmas my brother and I got a piece of rolling stock. For our birthdays we typically got accessories or operating cars. I still have the missle launcher and the exploding box car. One of my favorites. My mom and dad for my 10th birthday gave me a 2026 engine and tender and I still have that as well. 

Me and grandpop . This would be Christmas 1967, I would have been 10mo. old. My first Christmas. That's a Lionel double motor 42 on the front end and two 29 day coaches. Granpop passed in 2001. I inherited his collection, including the very set pictured above.

Early 1952, when my mother was told by the Doctor that she was pregnant, she decided it was going to be a boy and he would love toy trains, so she went out and bought me a set of Lionels (which I still have and run). Mom died two years ago at 88. 

Thanks Mom.

BlueComet400 posted:

I was born about 2 weeks before Christmas. My parents always told everyone how they brought me home from the hospital, and in a very short time I was on the floor beside the train that was circling the Christmas tree...…..and the rest is history. 

To be fair, I was introduced to toy trains even before that; my parents attended the 1968 TCA convention in Cleveland, while my mother was pregnant with me. That's about as early a start as one can get. 

John

I'm hoping to do this with our son. I've been running trains the whole time my wife has been pregnant with her in the room. Also he jumped quite aggressively when we went to see 4014 and the whistle blew

1957,  received as a Christmas present.

Still have it. That is my sister learning the hard way to keep her hands off the track.

My father commuted to Manhattan every day.  My mother would drive him to the Morristown station, and I'd see him get on an Erie-Lackawanna MU car. (Many years later, I would ride those same MU cars to law school in Newark). To me, those trains looks so imposing and cool.  That same railroad line ran behind our house, so I got to see the passenger and freight trains from our backyard. My older cousin, who would go on to become an electrical engineer, had a very nice Lionel set up with several engines running, and lots of lights and accessories. I couldn't imagine anything cooler than my cousin's ZW transformer and his 60 trolley car.

I was hooked on trains, and for Christmas 1956, my parents bought me a Lionel freight set, along with a 1033 transformer and two manual switches. We have family photos from that Christmas, and they show that I was just as thrilled with those trains as I remember being.  I played with that set for years, adding some engines, accessories, rolling stock and Plasticville with my Christmas and birthday money. My parents let me use a spare bedroom for my trains, but the catch was that that room could fit only a 4x8 layout. Despite the space limitations, I spent countless hours playing with those trains, revising the layout (as much as can you do on a 4x8 board), and just having fun. Those trains took a beating, but Lionel made durable products, and all those trains are still running today. Neither of my parents had had electric trains as kids, and I am still amazed at how supportive they were of this hobby (even if it probably puzzled them at times). 

CSXJOE posted:

1957,  received as a Christmas present.

Still have it.

 

That is a most cool home movie CSXJOE.

You are most lucky to have it, thanks for sharing it with us

I've had trains for as long as I have memories. I remember having a circle of track a Lionel steam engine and tender and army men and playing in the basement for hours. When I was 8 or so my dad built a new garage and made his old workshop into a train room. If we could all go back in time I think most would love to thank someone, for me my Dad & Mom for giving me a lifetime hobby.  I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with joy and trains and most important the love of your family and friends.

I got my first American Flyer for Christmas in 1955.  I still run the 307 Atlantic and the cars that came that Christmas.  The collection has grown over the years.  I still enjoy going back to the train room and running them.  I never get tired of watching them run. 

I really introduced myself to it. Yes, I was given a Lionel set when I was about 10, but nothing ever came of it. Looking back much later, I think my Dad might have hoped I would build a layout, but I don’t think it occurred to him that I had never even seen one. 

 Anyway, after my 35th birthday, having made a major change in my life, I went looking for a hobby. I really got into diecast cars, especially direct mail from Matchbox. For some reason, I started thinking I would like a train around my tree. I never knew anyone that did this, so I don’t know why I wanted it. Sure enough, I get a Christmas catalog from Matchbox, and it has an HO set listed. I ran it around by the tree the first year. The second year I upgraded to better track, and over the holidays I built a small layout in the basement. My HO collection really took off. 

 When my first son was born in 2000, my Mom gave him a Lionel set, which was something my Dad had done for my nephews when he was alive. Unlike my siblings, I did not want the train to disappear into the back of a closet, so I built our Christmas tree layout. This is the 19th year we’ve run it. 

 My second son also got a Lionel set for his first Christmas. Now, I was running out of space. I took down my HO stuff, and built a layout for the Lionel. Eventually, I sold almost all of my HO, and I am all O all the time.

I don't know. Strange I never asked who bought my train set. I suspect I got it sometime around 1961. It had to be either my father or one of my grand fathers. As far as I know this may have been the first trains around a family Christmas tree. Neither of my grand parents ever had a train set under the Christmas tree.

I have vivid memories of my father setting it up and playing with them together every year. The only years with no trains were after my second daughter was born. They sat in the attic from 1997 to 2004.

Then it all changed in 2005. My youngest was helping me get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. She saw the trains and asked what are these. So for the past 14 years the trains have been runing under the Christmas tree again. That year I bought both girls there own sets, Polar Express and Hogwarts. This years marks the first time that two of the sets have been opened for the first time as my youngest has her first Christmas tree. The other sets are still waiting for their owner to set up her first tree. I continued the tradition by buying my new grand daughter a Polar Express set. Well two actual a G set for now and a O set for her future tree.

I wish I could tell the story of a long tradition but it started with me. But I sure wish my dad was still here to play with the trains again. I miss that very much.

Back in 1975 I was venturing through my parents attic (the house my late father grew up in) and discovered his old box of Marx trains.

I brought I believe a steam engine downstairs and asked him how this worked.

He was a little shocked at first I think because he probably hadn’t seen it since he was a kid and then asked why I was up in the attic.

Well before the night was over we had dug out all of his old trains including his original Lionel 6220 Santa Fe diesel switcher and ran them for hours on the floor.

I got my first train set the Lionel Santa Fe 8351 diesel that Christmas of 1975.

I enjoyed many years sharing the love of model trains with my best friend (my dad) and still enjoy collecting them since he passed in 2008.

 I’ve always loved trains, but got hooked on model trains when my parents bought me a Lionel Santa Fe Steam set for Christmas one year when I was little.

 My parents met each other while working for the Long Island Railroad in New York, so growing up I was around real trains all the time. Since they both worked different shifts and didn’t want to leave me with a babysitter, I got to spend a lot of time at the LIRR’s Hillside Support Facility in Hollis while growing up. My Dad would drive me there in the morning to start his shift and would take me to the various parts of the shops where trains were being worked on. By the time lunch came around, my Mom would be finishing her shift up in the offices and would drive me home. So many great memories form there!

 One Christmas, they decided to get me my first actual train set! It was a Lionel Santa Fe set with a steam locomotive, box car, three flat cars, and a caboose. The next year, they then got me another Santa Fe set from Lionel, but this time it had an ALCO FA unit and three passenger cars. I still have both sets to this day and both still run. Back then, they were only taken out during Christmas time, but I always enjoyed running them immensely!

 As the years went by, I started off by collecting N Scale trains followed by Ho a few years later. O Gauge trains were kinda reserved for under the Christmas tree every year, but several years after both my parents retired from the LIRR is when I really got into collecting Lionel and MTH trains. It’s been my favorite hobby ever since!

1966 introduced my son to the trains but he grew up with many other interests, but maybe when I'm gone..................

Lionelski,

Thx for the complement.  

rtraincollector posted:

After reading this article I realized how important this really was, My first set was a 2572 B&M GP9 Freight set. It was about a week before Christmas, My father came home and set it up around the tree while I was at school. It had Super O track. Now not until I read his story did I really realize how much of an effort my father put into doing this. See My father lost his left arm in an automobile accident in 1959. So it meant he had to get down and lay on the floor to put this together using is stump of and left arm and his right hand. This really must of been a feet for him to do. That was his love of this hobby he passed on to me. back in the 60's things didn't have to be complete/perfect for us to enjoy them. My set was missing the rear coupler and the flood light part of the 3535 security set, it was missing the brake wheels and missiles from the 6544 missile firing car, it was missing the submarine, and the satellite launcher and satellite from the satellite car, but it was my first and introduction to O gauge. We had Ho prior to this but this was all it took to convince me O was the way to go. 

To this day I still buy items that need help and try to fix them to where they are what they should of been, sometimes I even get help from a good friend.

What is your story. 

I forgot to say it came with a exploding boxcar but all it had was the end pieces. It also has a 2359 B&M GP9

I had been playing with my dad’s prewar tinplate set.  When my parents discovered I like playing with my neighbors more durable LGB trains they got me a set of my own. We still do both LGB and O gauge.     

A familiar story, my parents  got me a 2055 freight set in 1956 for Christmas.  An oval of track with a semaphore on the living room carpet.  I’d spend hours in the dark watching the head light and the red/green glow from the semaphore.  Just magic, I was hooked.  The following year, my Dad built a train table for me.  We set it up every year from October to April.  By 1970 the trains were stored in my parents arctic and the layout hung from the garage ceiling.  But in the mid 80’s there was an awaking and I introduced the trains to my son.  Didn’t take, but I was hooked again and have been at it ever since. I still have the 2055 fright set and that semaphore which resides on my layout as a beacon of days gone bye.

I grew up with trains, both the real thing and the Marx set my uncle had over at my grand parents home.  My dad worked for the SP when I was born and he was in the signal maintenance section, he rode the motor cars and lots of times I got to ride with him.  My uncle had a Marx set that we literally ran the wheels off of them.  I always thought his trains were Lionel but I learned the real truth about them a few years ago.   Boy was I shocked when he told me they weren't really Lionel trains, well a couple of the cars were actually Lionel but the majority were Marx.  I loved those trains but my dad always thought that HO trains were the way to go, so I always received HO trains instead of Lionel trains.  Whatever they were, I've loved trains for as long as I can remember, I'm 71 now and that fire is still burning strong.  This is the greatest hobby bar none.  I also like building model air plane kits but if I had to choose, it would most definitely be the trains.

When I was 2 (1948) Uncle Roland, a UPRR Engineer, took me up on an engine at UP's East Yard roundhouse in Los Angeles.  That did it!

I grew up alongside or near the Route 50 trolley in Center City and South Philadelphia,  so I was into rail at an early age.  Still have my dad's HO Fleischmann trains that he bought in the late 50s.  I got my first Lionels at age 5 or so, a secondhand set with a 242, couple of gondolas and a M&StL caboose.  From there, it was a steady path downhill...

Mitch 

My parents told of how their one year old son would crawl around on the floor lining up loose objects in a row, and calling it "his train".  Where did that come from...who knows?  All these decades later, I still have clear memories of holding my mother's hand in the variety store as my parents selected a Lionel set to purchase.  The next memory is of me lying on the floor watching the locomotive come straight toward my face before it curved away to the left.  

I do not know how to explain an introduction to this hobby.  It has always "just been there". 

I was introduced to O gauge trains in 1962(?) when my mother got me a Van Camps Pork and Bean set pulled by a #242 steam engine. It had a Van Camps scout box car, a turbo missile car and a SP caboose. I ran it for hours on end and I still have it to this day, except for the turbo missiles that got lost somewhere along the way. I later re-purchased and replaced those missiles. The engine still runs. This was not a Christmas present. My mother saw it advertised on the side of a can of Van Camps Pork and Beans. I think  she sent the money and a label off the can in to Van Camps to get it. A Marx New Haven E-8 pulling freight train came later. I got other train objects in subsequent years. 

Sorry guys/gals but I can't figure out how to paste here from a WORD file, and I'm not gonna retype how I got started 'cause I type with one finger, but my story is in the FAQ section of my website. Please check it out there.

This has to be one of the best threads ever, Love it

Hello all, I received my first Lionel trains as a small child but was not allowed to play with them until I was about 6. The story goes like this: my father's father had emigrated from England and did not believe in giving toys to children and he had wanted electric trains for Christmas. So when I was born just before WWII, my father had a reason for buying a set of trains. He eventually built a layout in the basement and I was allowed to "help" him until I was old enough to run the trains. After I got married, I bought a set to go around our Christmas tree and now that we are retired and living in a condo, I have constructed a 8' by 24' layout in the basement. However, my expertise does not cover all aspects of the hobby, so I hired an expert to offer suggestions and do the scenery. So I just have to add bits & pieces here & there on the layout because we all know that a layout is never really finished.

Alan, I’m in both scale and toy trains as you know my scale interest is high, my passion for the post war Lionel is high as well. I was introduced to these trains by my father and his dad a Lionel Scout set 1952 vintage when I was a child maybe 1980. Ron Hollanders book All Aboard did the rest by 1985 I was coupled drooling over anything Lionel vintage 1940’s through 1957. Scale trains for me started in N scale 1982 and evolved into 1/48 o scale and currently I do both the toys and scale equally and at times I prefer my Lionel post war over my scale stuff. Amazing they are.  

guess who is next!?

In the early 1950's my Uncle bought an American Flyer trains set for my dad to run "for the boys". But, I have always loved trains. It is only with retirement that the 3 essential elements of model railroading came into alignment:

1. Time

2. Money

3. Space

I received a Model Power HO freight set at age 3 (1993) from my grandparents.  That turned into a 4'x8' layout in the basement.  After moving in 1994 we found my dad's Lionel set from 1964 which didn't work so it went back in the box and back to storage.  In 97 or 98 a distant cousin of my dad's shows up with his Lionel set from 1948, it was a freight set headed by a 2026 with a couple extra cars and a couple common accessories.  I had been long frustrated with little HO couplers that broke and the difficulty of working on them.  O gauge was easier to handle, easier to work on, and easier to build a layout; even at age 8 I could figure out the electronics and mechanics of it.  We dabbled in G and N, but eventually got rid of those along with the HO.  Moved that same 4x8 sheet of plywood from room to room over the years.  Fast forward through sneaking a loop of track whenever I could during college and my early 20s.  Trains are currently in storage awaiting my planned purchase of a train room with a house attached next summer.  I'll be 30 at that point and have collected a lot of materials and pieces for that room sized layout I always wanted to build.

I was talking to my dad last month about the trains and commented on how much money he must have spent as we went from gauge to gauge before finally landing on O and even then within O finally landing on Postwar/traditional stuff.  He said, "eh, you did the right thing; you bought what you could, learned to fix and maintain it, sold and reinvested where needed, and in the end built a quality collection."

Dad was smart. He could run a business. He could repair cars. He could put on an addition to a house. Bricklaying? Stone masonry? Go see him. So, he thought his sons should have the same talents and a good way to foster working with machines, etc was with toy trains. Well, you could lead the horse to the water and all that. But my development stopped with trains. That was the way it was. It is. Any my son carries on the toy train tradition. However, in fairness to Dad, he was also an avid stamp collector/dealer and there are many similarities between stamp collecting and toy trains. So, there is continuity but in an unforeseen way.

Mark

I've always loved trains since I was young.  I still have some of my old crappy HO Tyco stuff from when I was 6-8 years old mainly for sentimental reasons.  I remember my dad having a new Lionel set in the mid 70's but never knew what became of it.  

But as far as O Scale is concerned, i've been in this hobby for a year or two now.  I was at Value Village (a chain thrift store, used goods) a couple of years ago and bought a K-Line set from the mid 90's.  Was a neat little set.   I then started scouring the secondary markets for Lionel stuff especially passenger stuff and got hooked.   Found this place and have really enjoyed lurking here and posting on occasion.   Good people here. 

I now have trains ranging from z scale (found a Marklin z scale set also at Value Village a couple of months ago) all the way up to a Bachmann Big Hauler G scale set.  I may not have the nicest most fancy stuff but what I do have, i like to play with. 

One day I hope to get a home where my wife and I can finally have a hobby area for layout and her crafting stuff.  

I was born with a ZW in my hands. LOL

Seriously, I have had a ZW for as long as I can remember. My introduction to Lionel trains happened when I was 2 or 3 years old. I got them as Christmas and birthday presents throughout my childhood and early teen years. They included the freight set in the early/mid fiftees led by the 2065 steamer, the little black US Army switcher, the bump and go  yellow trolley and orange and black gang car, several remote control switches and numerous accessories.

Both of my parents loved the trains as much as I did.

I just remembered that I also had a non-electric wind up black locomotive, some metal train cars and 2 rail track that I played with as a very young child. I have no idea who made this wind up train set, which got thrown out. Arnold