What became of your childhood trains?

Still have all mine (and run) and accessories (also can name who gave me what those many childhood years ago)

and while I don't have any trains I got while growing up, I have my Dad's Pre and Postwar Lionels that he passed onto to me. 

My 1950 Steam Turbine set plus switches plus track plus a couple extra cars went to my son.

My Father's 1917 Lionel passenger set I still have, awaiting restoration.

I had a number of those 'Child Guidance' train sets as a kid.

A few years ago I decided to find all the CG Trains I had. It was pretty easy to find everything. In fact I found enough to make a complete set for my grandkids to play with too....

I still have my original Lionel 2026 that Santa brought me in 1951 -- and the freight cars that came with it.  A few years later, it was joined by a #41 US Army turbine switcher and still more freight cars.  All of them still run just fine.

The 2026 is in a year round place of honor on our coffee table.  Over the years, they've all been joined by a lot more rolling stock, and accessories.  And a lot of scale equipment has taken its place in the roster, lately,

I still run both of mine every Christmas under the tree.

Have them all.

My original set from 1957 sitting on my replicated D-190 display layout also first offered in 1957.

I still have my lionel 2036 freight set that my mom bought from the neighbors around 1963 or so. I had a windup marx set and an electric marx set with plastic engine but my mom , like others here, decided less fortunate kids should have them. For some reason she decided the lionel should stay in the family and kept it when I left home until I rediscovered it in 2006.

Rob

Still have them. They were really more my brothers trains as I was a late arrival into the family. They have been passed over to me to be the keeper. Below are my two remaining brothers running them last Christmas.

Still have my 1949 AF 290 set and all the additional items I received as presents on the following birthdays and Christmas holidays.

Rich

I still have my original outfit that I received on Christmas morning, 1955. I also have a pair of 2023 Alcos, and a few extra cars I received as gifts later. I had a large collection of other engines, cars, track, and accessories, that I added over the years. That stuff all got sold when I was a young, married father of 2 girls, who needed dance lessons, piano lessons, etc. I miss having that stuff, but I am not sorry I sold it, as the funds were certainly put to good use for my girls.

 My remaining Lionel stuff runs great, and is going to be running around the Christmas tree this year for the first time in 16 years. I need to get my 3 year old grandson started on trains.

Jeff

Still Have this set from my uncle in 1959:



These are all gone:

I got my first set 1483WS, back in 1952, along with a 2020/2020W, with accessories like the 3472 and 3656 sets, and had a 8'x16' two level layout.  I had a lot of boxcars, gondolas, and the like, that were accumulated over the years when I was young.  Then the "fateful years of teenage" hit, and the trains were no longer an interest.  The train layout got disassembled, and the trains got packed away.  Along about 1961, my mother decided that she wanted to pass the trains off to my Uncle (her brother), who had two sons.  Everything that I had of Lionel trains was gone, but I totally forgot about them.  I thought that I would never see them again.

In the middle 1960's, I finished high school, joined the Navy and did my stint for 4 years.  Got out of Navy, married and life was good.  Still no thought of trains in the picture.I did buy an "N" scale set when my son was about 6 or 7, and ran that for maybe 2 years, and then boxed it all up.

About 6 years ago, my wife wanted to put a train under the Xmas tree, and we did have her old set from 1955, tucked back in a corner of our attic.  I dug it out, and had to clean it all up, and then find out if it ran.  It missed being under the tree that year, because her request was about 3 weeks before Xmas.  Got it running, and the following year we had a running train.  That is when the "LIONEL BUG" bit me real hard.  I wanted to try and recreate what I originally had, and started to pick thing up on eBay.  I just didn't remember exactly what engines I had, but I knew they were heavy.

Then February 2014, my youngest cousin contacts me and asked me if I would like to have my trains back, since they were originally mine.  Couldn't say YES fast enough.  We finally had a chance to get together, and I got the bulk of what I had when I had the layout.  Little did I know that my cousin had taken the trains with every move he made over the years.  He had lived in Missouri, Texas, & Tennessee, and the trains kept going with him.  So 53 years later, I have my original Lionel trains, back in my possession.-----Both engines needed parts, and repairs, my ZW transformer still worked, and the accessories were all checked. 

I traded all my PW trains for a hydroplane in high school then went into professional boat racing  over the next 30 years.  

A nasty racing accident scared me back into trains and I now have replaced all the early under sized Lionel models with scale length equipment.

Same road names, same prototype, just all scale sized.  Reality is now better than the memory!

My Marx #25000 set, received for Christmas in 1946/7?, was damaged by a broken

water heater on the floor of my mother's basement after I had left home.  I tossed

the rotted box but kept all the rusty components, and then, when back in three rail

trains, duplicated it several times over.  My brother's #25249 set, that we often ran

together, was high on a shelf and remains in pristine condition.  He later gave it to me when his kids were grown, and I have it and the rusty set still.  (these are both "3/16"

freight sets with different versions of the #999 loco)

Santa brought an American Flyer freight set headed by the PRR K5 No 310 and had it under the tree for Christmas 1949. I was 5 and had had a silver metal pus train before that that I dearly loved. Now we had an electric train!

I still have the 4 cars in a box but they are in poor condition so they remain in a box. The steamer was repainted Brunswick Green and sits on a shelf in my office at home.

Ping,
   Still own and operate them every Christmas season, they are part of my most favored family memories.
PCRR/Dave

15 days old on Christmas Morning 1941 just after Pearl Harbor this is what I got,probably for dad to run but stayed with me as well as all of the other trains that my dad bought never to be sold.

My dear Aunt Mary gave me a 1060 scout set for Christmas when I was 1-2 years old: 1060 plastic steamer, 1060T tender, unlettered flatcar (brown, 1877-style, with orange spools), 6042 gondola (with red canisters), and an unlettered red caboose.

This photo isn't my set, but it's the same thing:

THANK GOD she also gave me a large circle of her sons' O tubular track which allowed me to build a decent size loop around the tree.

I still have that set, including all the pieces.   On the layout I'm building, it will go on a special small 3rd-level loop above everything else.  The unspoken message will be "everything else you see descends from this train".

I wouldn't sell it for all the money in the world.

SJS

I still have every one of the trains my parents purchased....I mean Santa brought me....when I was a child. 

Alan

Still have my original 1963 Rio Grande diesel set displayed on the wall with the rest of my trains.

I still have my 1463w set with 2036 engine that my grandfather set up in his basment as a christmas present in 1971 when I was 9. After a few months he boxed it up and stored it until his passing. My mother gave it to me. I still run the engine. 

I don't know where or who my grandfather got it from, but it was like new and still is in pretty good condition for a set that was 21 years old. I always considered it a new when I got it for christmas.

My 2026 and my Dad's 2018 still see regular Christmas service. My son loves these trains and it helps that these postwar steamers are basically bullet proof. My son is making sure to test their resilience.

Just a "Thank You" to all who took the time to reply in this thread.  I read it from start to finish last night and welcomed the many heartfelt replies and stories of those childhood trains.

Merry Christmas to all.

I still have the original engine, a Lionel Minneapolis & St. Louis GP 9 2348, of the Sears set Santa gave the four of us kids for Christmas in 1960.  Most of the original cars and caboose of set were damaged so I replaced them with identical ones.  The consist consisted of an REA Express refer, a Lehigh Valley hopper, a NYC gondola with 3 orange spools, a Lionel Lines operating helicopter car, a Lionel Lines flat car with transformer load and a Lionel Lines caboose.  We also had a lighted rotating beacon. The following November my mother bought for me a used Lehigh Valley 44 ton switcher and some track for cheap that was in a grab bag sale at my grade school's yearly fall carnival.  I still have the 44 tonner.  I also have some of the original O27 track that came with the original set.  The original transformer is long gone.  I tried to upload a pic, but it wouldn't go. 

Larry

When I went to college my mother gave all my Lionel trains to Goodwill along with my baseball card collection that included 6 Mickey Mantle rookie year cards

Well....it's like this. When I was just out of college, and living the single life in LA, I made the mistake of visiting "the Whistle Stop" in Pasadena (yup it's still there) and traded the trains I got for several Christmases, American Flyer 326, 315, 293, U.P. GP-7 and a bunch of cars, track...talking station...etc. for a PFM Tenshodo Pacific Coast Shay, some Labelle, Ambroid and Central Valley "craftsmen kits", code 70 rail, ties...etc. Thus began my journey to the dark world of HO and HOn3.

Now I'm back...but in 3 rail Post War Lionel. I always found the ability to do a reverse loop without pain and suffering a nice feature...kinda whish I still had the Flyer as well though. May have to buy it all back on Fee Pay...

My first electric train set that I received for Christmas 1959, a Marx-Allstate set was passed on to my nephew in 1969 when I was drafted.

Dave

I still have mine:

It currently occupies a display track on my bedroom dresser.  My grandfather gave it to me 40 years ago this Christmas.  It was the happiest Christmas of my childhood.  In the years that followed, my dad bought us new MPC era sets:  The Empire State Express freight set, the Southern Crescent set and the Blue Comet Set.  I have the ESE and SC sets and my brother has the BC set.

Andy

All of mine were stolen from my home many years ago prior to getting back into the hobby with my son 9 years ago.

A number of them are (as I type this) running under our Xmas tree. The rest are either on my main layout or the shelves around it. I have everything.

It's sad, but I've heard so many stories from friends who no longer have them because their parents gave them away, donated them or.....threw them out. One of my neighbors came over to see my trains a few years ago and within minutes had tears in his eyes. Reason.....when he moved into his apartment during Law School, he had no room for his trains so.....he sold them for 100 bucks. When he saw my trains, he realized that my original set was the same as the set he sold. He totally regrets it. 

Cherish them.....

Roger

I still have mine after 65 years--still running with original boxes and will never, ever, sell or dispose of them.  Now...what my children do with them after I depart from this life is yet another matter.

I shared an A.C. Gilbet American Flyer Train sets, with two older brothers. 

We had one freight set and one red Pullman car set.

White /Green Station & tower. I have some of the track & switches along with the pullman cars in the attic. Engine is in the man Cave on shelf.

I had 4 sets as a kid. Over 6 years. Original #1589WS. still have.  027 General, still have. Santa Fe Switcher set went to my great nephew. Santa Fe #218 Alcos were sold like an idiot.  I bought another set last month.  They are on the first three shelves in the basement and I tell people they are what started this "sickness" hahaha 

Still have....and it still runs great. This picture was taken circa 2000, on the attic layout in my former home.

1958 Lionel catalog.....NH AB F3 freight set.

Peter

I wish I had taken a little better care of them when I was a kid, but I still have all of them... and most of the boxes they came in, too!

Pre-ramble...

As we age I suppose it's typical to lose the memory of a lot of mundane things in our childhood.  But one moment, discussion-in-a-circle, I remember when I was in kindergarten (Ms. Burrows, my teacher) was when we were talking about trees.  The question put to us was 'What keeps a tree standing up?  Why doesn't it fall over?  Why are they so sturdy when the wind blows?'  Well, around the circle she went seeking answers.  To which she got several 'The trunks!', a few 'The branches!',  fewer still 'The leaves!'.  I blurted out 'The roots!', which apparently was the answer she sought.  She then proceeded to tell everyone how and why the roots are so important to a tree.

This thread has a lot to do with 'roots', doesn't it? 

And when you read other thread responses regarding different facets of the hobby, often from the same respondents answering this particular thread question, you realize how significant, deep, broadly spread those 'roots' have been in our lives, skills, families, imaginations,...hopes. 

I read one response where a visitor to a friend's layout became teary-eyed recalling their own lost childhood trains.  Do you suppose that today's youthful generation, immersed more into ephemeral gizmos/games...cell phones, I-pads, I-phones, X-boxes, Grand Theft Auto (), etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...will someday as an adult be as teary-eyed should they spy the digit-widget of their childhood being used?

Consider that to be a rhetorical question, NOT intended to hijack this thread's question. 

Sorry for Toodling into the field to smell the daisies.  This hobby, those trains, the parental support/encouragement...they're near the top of my own list of 70-years of blessings. 

It seems to be a bit more nebulous for today's new generations. 

KD

 Well I've retained about 90+% of them since I was 6 years old ,(1975) the  I discovered my late father's old trains in the attic.

 I do have my very first train set ,a Lionel Santa-Fe 8351,with only the top part of the set box.

 And I have my dad's first train,an old windup Hafner steam engine,and his first real electric train set ,a Santa-Fe 6220.

 My dad regrettably traded around most of his trains from his youth,a bunch of Marx,when he got me started in trains.

 I've tried to receptacle the parts of the collection I don't have as much as possible over the years ,but because of my age at the time I'm not 100% sure as to what all is missing.

 But the memories of the trains I do have ,is all I need to keep my dad's memory alive when we enjoyed model trains together,truly a lifetime of happiness 

I had Lionel trains since I was10 in 1947.   I had 3 engines, a 726, a 681 and a Santa fee AA set. I also has the Lionel Lines aluminum cars, milk car, cattle car, coal ramp, etc.  When I was 17 I wanted a car so I sold them thru a newspaper ad.  -  What a mistake.

The chap I sold them to paid by cheque. 10 days later it came back NSF.  He had left town.  So, no trains and no car.  Got  back into trains in  1995.