Your Trains Your Parents Couldn't Afford

Funny you should mention that Arnold.  I have been thinking about that lately, about what I can have now vs what I had and what I wished for when I was a kid.  I got my first train set when I was six, it was a used Lionel Santa Fe Freight set with F3s, I still have it 53 years later.  When I got that set my dad also gave me a brand new Lionel for 1966 Catalog, I literally read it until it fell apart, dreaming of the pieces I would one day own.  I have many of those today and treasure the thoughts that some young boy or girl and their parents had when they bought or were given the trains many years ago that I now own.  I gravitate towards the toy train spectrum as in your train in the video as they remind me of when I was six getting my first.

Thanks for the reminder of simpler days.

Chris S.

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Many of us have experienced the euphoria of getting later in life what was unaffordable for our parents and us when we were kids.

Took me about 60 years to get these top of the line Lionel Postwar NY Central F3s with Magnetraction from the early 1950s:

Better late than never.

Arnold;

First, do you lay awake nights thinking of all these interesting topics??? 

Second, “Don't they look good circling Yankee Stadium“ - in a word, NO 

Now, as to you query, two stories...

I got my love of trains from my mother. When she was young, she spent many a summer going from Brooklyn down to Asbury Park on the Jersey shore, so she was well acquainted with the PRR GG-1’s. She always wanted one, but it just wasn’t ever in the budget. When I was in college, she gave me an MPC 8753 (which I still cherish), so when I graduated and got my first job (on 26th Street and Park Ave. South), I walked down to Madison Hardware on 23rd and Park Ave. South and bought her a 2360. Would have preferred a 5-stripe, but really love the larger keystone. 

As for me, I always LOVED the Santa Fe F3’s (also not in the budget) - so colorful and they looked like they were speeding along even when standing still!!! I finally went down to Madison Hardware and bought myself a 2383 set. 

One of these days, I’m going to have to set up a conventional track to run some of my old memories.

Enjoyed reading the responses.  Great thread.  Thank you!

Arnold, I have a memory of showing my father a Lionel catelog with the gorgeous Santa Fe  F3's with aluminum passenger cars and on the next page the NYC F3 set with aluminum passenger cars. "look dad, the whole  set only costs $99!  This led to a stare with that look. Ok.  not until forty + years later as an adult did I aquire a worn A-A set from a friend and collegue. Wow! They were beaters, but that did not matter. I also was gifted his childhood trains magically realizing my childhood wish list, a 2360 GG1 and beater Santa Fe F-3's A-A, a ZW, some rolling stock. I was on a time machine adventure! They hadn't been run since the Sixties.  

Recently I bought a decent NYC f-3  A-B-A. Growler power. 

I agree that encircling your  Yankee stadium All postwar is king.

APPLES55, as an adult  you bought your mom a 2360. This was very moving. Thanks for sharing.      Also, Arnold IS the topic master.

FIREONE, History of joyful  first time experiences are imagined in the postwar ones I own now and run as well.  

Mass produced durable 50's and 60's  American toy trains still are an available thrill for me no matter what condition. Run 'em in good health everyone.

Arnold, I didn't even try to get my Pop to buy me the center fold Santa Fe and passenger cars. Knew it would never happen. I would get a log car or crossing gate for Christmas and was happy with those. One of the first things I bought when I went to my first local TCA meeting was a A-A Santa Fe with four passenger cars. $100 was the going price at the time. Got a baggage car a little later. They were going for $25 depending what size doors. Then a Santa Fe B unit. That set was every boys dream but only for the rich kids. Don

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Many of us have experienced the euphoria of getting later in life what was unaffordable for our parents and us when we were kids.

Arnold,

You are exactly correct in my case. My father's family could not afford to buy him any Lionel trains when he was a youngster. By the time I came on the scene, he was able to buy me a small set when I was four years old and a Santa Fe 2207W ABA diesel freight set a few years later. I believe they were the first Lionel trains he ever purchased. They were for me, but he liked them too...

MELGAR

Good thread. My parents could afford a Marx set, sorry Lionel was a bit out there. The big splurge was a rossmoyne doepke la France ladder truck. Had to be a big part of a weekly pay check back in the day. 

Apples55 posted:

Arnold;

First, do you lay awake nights thinking of all these interesting topics??? 

 

Paul,

No.

They pop into my head when not even trying. Why that happens is a total mystery to me. 

This Lionel Postwar NH EP5 may be the one I coveted the most as a child, and did not get until my mid-50s. My mother and I would take the New Haven from downtown Mt. Vernon, NY to Grand Central Station when I was a young child.

Arnold

Since a lot of the focus here is on Santa Fe engines and cars I might as well share my story.

I guess it must have been in the early 60s that my Dad built a basement O gauge layout - two ovals and a figure 8 in the middle on trestles that he made himself. My best friend, whose father modeled in HO in a serious way, was very dismissive - "Call that a layout?" he said. At that time we had the old Santa Fe O scale layout in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and I recall being totally fascinated by that when he took me to see it a number of times.

But it was not until nearly 30 years later, when I got into the hobby myself, that I realized how significant was my Dad's investment in time and money in what he had. Aside from the layout being constructed on a table that was about 8' x 12', there was a massive ZW transformer, Super O track, a Lionel Lines steam turbine and a fine Santa Fe F3 A-A set. Of this, the turbine and one of the F3s survive and are, respectively, in my brother's and my possession. The amount all this must have represented out of a steel mill worker's pay was very considerable. 

I don't remember much about the rolling stock other than there was a vintage operating milk can car. I always wanted an aquarium car and eventually bought a couple myself.

So this is an example of stretching the budget to get something that was and is prized. I have no doubt I have exceeded my Dad's spending and I think he'd have been fascinated by what I have, which includes a few VL and MTH Premier engines the likes of which just did not exist way back when.

I am delighted you'all seem to enjoy this topic. 

It occurs to me that many of the original trains we wanted were top of the line Postwar Lionels. We may have gotten those exact same trains as adults. Or, we may have gotten modern trains by different manufacturers later on that reminded us of what we wanted and didn't get as kids. I think MTH has done a great job fulfilling those childhood dreams for us.

For instance, I never got a Lionel FM Trainmaster diesel, which I regarded as an awesome impossible dream as a child. My first FM Trainmaster was this MTH Railking Proto 1 smoking diesel that I bought about 20 years ago:

Arnold

Just about all of my model trains are modern, although some of them are more than twenty years old. Whether running them, looking at their detailing and paint schemes, listening to their sounds, or just admiring them, I am impressed by every one of them. I couldn't have imagined having such trains as a youngster.

MELGAR

My mum would take me down to the toy shop/hobby shop and buy me a small die cast "Dinky Toy" and I would grab any free train catalogues or flyers take them home and pretend this is what I would buy if I had any money. I don't have to do that anymore but I still look and pretend....sometimes!  Roo.

Melgar, yes you can I'll bet. I remember to this day laying on the carpet just looking at the detail of my 2026 loco. Got it in 1948 Christmas. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. What detail. Don

Sorry, but I could not.

MELGAR

For me as a kid it was Marx. It wasn't that my parents couldn't afford the more expensive Lionel or Flyer but rather they chose to spend $$ differently. Our neighbor would kid my Dad saying we must be rich to take all those long vacation train trips. Dad would laugh and say that is why we didn't have any money because we spent it riding trains . Instead of Lionel F3s I had this:

Breakfast aboard the City of Portland Dome Diner, C. 1963.

And yes, today I do have the trains I dreamed of while pouring over the pages of Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman: an O scale switching pike:

So it's, indeed,  all good.

geysergazer posted:

For me as a kid it was Marx. It wasn't that my parents couldn't afford the more expensive Lionel or Flyer but rather they chose to spend $$ differently. Our neighbor would kid my Dad saying we must be rich to take all those long vacation train trips. Dad would laugh and say that is why we didn't have any money because we spent it riding trains . Instead of Lionel F3s I had this:

      

Breakfast aboard the City of Portland Dome Diner, C. 1963.

And yes, today I do have the trains I dreamed of while pouring over the pages of Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman, an O scale switching pike:

So it's, indeed,  all good.

That's pretty awesome - your dad had his priorities straight! It was one thing for me to wish for a set of F-3's with some shiny passenger cars in tow, but actually riding in one of those cars never even occurred to me. Apparently it was beyond my imagination. So when my first opportunity appeared on the horizon many years later, I jumped at it, and loved it! 

My Mom got us nice Christmas presents each year, but other than a Tyco HO set I got at 8 years old one Christmas - which was an added gift from St. Nick ~ probably because of my sledding accident a few weeks prior - trains were not included. I learned later in life why: they were prohibitively expensive compared to other toys and games. Of course, if I really wanted them, I could've opted to include them in my letters to Santa, but as kid I knew what was and what wasn't reasonable to ask for.

To this day, I consider trains expensive. In the 1990s, I could barely justify buying a Railking steam engine. Now, I am buying scale steamers from MTH and Lionel.

Its amazing how the change in disposable income has changed from the generations.

geysergazer posted:

For me as a kid it was Marx. It wasn't that my parents couldn't afford the more expensive Lionel or Flyer but rather they chose to spend $$ differently. Our neighbor would kid my Dad saying we must be rich to take all those long vacation train trips. Dad would laugh and say that is why we didn't have any money because we spent it riding trains . Instead of Lionel F3s I had this:

      

Breakfast aboard the City of Portland Dome Diner, C. 1963.

The closest experience I had to this was riding with my mother on a PRR passenger train pulled by an awesome GGI from Penn Station in NYC to Princeton Junction train station in NJ to visit my aunt and uncle, and eating peanut butter/cheese crackers and having a sida during the train ride, and I loved it. LOL, Arnold

I used to get as Christmas presents what was sold the day after Christmas the year before. I still have a Generator car with a marked-down sticker of $2.75 on the box. At age 67, I've managed to buy all the accessories, operating cars, passenger cars and engines that I couldn't afford (but dreamed about) when I was a kid. and finally built that dream layout I envisioned back in the 50's.

It's been a lot of fun, and I get a big kick every time I go down to the basement for any reason.

I'm really enjoying everyone's responses!  Arnold, no doubt, being the avid baseball and train fan, you have now hit another home run by starting this thought provoking thread.  Thank you!   I want to circle back around this weekend when I have more time and contribute my story as well.  Thanks everyone for your stories!

And Arnold ... any train on your layout that circles Yankee Stadium is a home run for sure!

I got my first Lionel 736 Berkshire freight set on the Christmas just before my 3rd birthday in 1953. Every Christmas thereafter, Santa Claus would add to the set.

My mother's side of the family was a Railroad family. My grandfather, William Schubert, worked for 42 years on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and retired as a freight conductor. I loved hearing his railroad stories from the time when I can first remember. Therefore, I fell in love with my Lionel trains and could not  wait until Christmas each year to see and run them again. My younger brother also had a set, both of which were incorporated into a basement, "Christmas Garden" as seasonal train layouts were called in the Baltimore, Maryland area. When the 1957-58 Lionel catalog came out, I was given a copy. From that I realized what a significant investment my father had committed to the original Berkshire locomotive. Being a PRR GG-1 fan, I wanted one, but did not have the nerve to ask for one because of its price.

Fast-forward to the late 1990's after my only son Christopher was born. He became a lover of Thomas the Tank Engine videos. So, Santa brought him a Lionel Thomas the Tank Engine set that appeared on a platform around the Christmas tree. The following year, the layout moved to our finished basement and expanded.

The first addition to the layout was a  MTH GG-1 and a set of PRR, heavy weight passenger cars., something I had wanted as a child. Chris is now 24 years old and, though his time for the layout is more limited by work and his lady friend, He still has a great interest in the trains and enjoys running them in addition to occasionally scratch-building an O gauge structure or two.

To sum things up, We still have and run my original Berkshire locomotive and all of the rolling stock that came with it among many other trains that we have acquired over the years including a Santa Fe, F-3, ABA with aluminum passenger cars from the post-war era. The hobby has enriched my life and solidified the relationship with my son. My wife also enjoys the trains seeing the nostalgic reactions from visitors who remember trains that they or their fathers had in Christmas' past.

Randy Harrison posted:

I got my first Lionel 736 Berkshire freight set on the Christmas just before my 3rd birthday in 1953. Every Christmas thereafter, Santa Claus would add to the set.

My mother's side of the family was a Railroad family. My grandfather, William Schubert, worked for 42 years on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and retired as a freight conductor. I loved hearing his railroad stories from the time when I can first remember. Therefore, I fell in love with my Lionel trains and could not  wait until Christmas each year to see and run them again. My younger brother also had a set, both of which were incorporated into a basement, "Christmas Garden" as seasonal train layouts were called in the Baltimore, Maryland area. When the 1957-58 Lionel catalog came out, I was given a copy. From that I realized what a significant investment my father had committed to the original Berkshire locomotive. Being a PRR GG-1 fan, I wanted one, but did not have the nerve to ask for one because of its price.

Fast-forward to the late 1990's after my only son Christopher was born. He became a lover of Thomas the Tank Engine videos. So, Santa brought him a Lionel Thomas the Tank Engine set that appeared on a platform around the Christmas tree. The following year, the layout moved to our finished basement and expanded.

The first addition to the layout was a  MTH GG-1 and a set of PRR, heavy weight passenger cars., something I had wanted as a child. Chris is now 24 years old and, though his time for the layout is more limited by work and his lady friend, He still has a great interest in the trains and enjoys running them in addition to occasionally scratch-building an O gauge structure or two.

To sum things up, We still have and run my original Berkshire locomotive and all of the rolling stock that came with it among many other trains that we have acquired over the years including a Santa Fe, F-3, ABA with aluminum passenger cars from the post-war era. The hobby has enriched my life and solidified the relationship with my son. My wife also enjoys the trains seeing the nostalgic reactions from visitors who remember trains that they or their fathers had in Christmas' past.

 

Randy, your whole family has exquisite taste in model trains, as is evident from the fact that you started out with, and continued to have, the best. Arnold 

trumptrain posted:

I'm really enjoying everyone's responses!  Arnold, no doubt, being the avid baseball and train fan, you have now hit another home run by starting this thought provoking thread.  Thank you!   I want to circle back around this weekend when I have more time and contribute my story as well.  Thanks everyone for your stories!

And Arnold ... any train on your layout that circles Yankee Stadium is a home run for sure!

Thank you, Pat. One of my goals is to entertain. And I always enjoy your positive posts with photos and videos of trains surrounded by the beauty and splendor of autumn colors. Arnold

What is very moving is everyone's contribution to this thread is very special, expressing great gratitude for what we had as children and have today. Arnold

My late father had a OO model railway in the basement of our shop and house in Islington, North London in the early 1960s. It was mostly Tri-Ang which even then, was regarded as inferior to the die-cast Hornby Dublo (although Hornby Dublo had just gone out of production). 

I remember seeing Lionel at the Gamages’ Xmas layout in the West End, I knew about Lionel because I had cousins in the US but never really thought of owning it. 

Now I’ve got some and I’m pretty pleased with it. As someone else has already said, it’s a sign of the change in disposable income (and don’t forget, we Brits regarded America as the “Land of Plenty” in those days..)

Arnold, I agree w you that MTH has done a tremendous amount  for the postwar minded  enthusiast with railking. Let us not forget the Williams reproductions (red box, pre Bachman) trains. Affordable and run strong but possibly reachable in today's economy, particularly on the secondary market. 

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

geysergazer posted:

For me as a kid it was Marx. It wasn't that my parents couldn't afford the more expensive Lionel or Flyer but rather they chose to spend $$ differently. Our neighbor would kid my Dad saying we must be rich to take all those long vacation train trips. Dad would laugh and say that is why we didn't have any money because we spent it riding trains . Instead of Lionel F3s I had this:

      

Breakfast aboard the City of Portland Dome Diner, C. 1963.

Hey, that was me - about 8 to 10 years earlier.  My family used to take the City of Portland from central NE to the Pacific NW on family vacations.  They had to pry me out of the dome cars.  In the early 1950's UP was still running big steam (Big Boys and Challengers) and Gas Turbines, all of which I could see from the dome cars (though as a kid, I could never figure out how the GTELs worked, as I thought it was the thrust from the turbine that drove the train, and it was clearly pointed up and not straight back -- hadn't made the connection to spinning a generator...).  We just returned from chasing the 4014 in southwestern UT (topic of another thread) - so this picture doubled the nostalgia.

On the original topic - the beginnings of my Flyer 'empire' was the same as many other posters here - a Xmas gift when I was ~6.  Successive Xmas gifts were cars, track, switches, accessories, etc.  Pretty much SOP until teenagedom and my discovery of girls...  I still have all of my Flyer stuff, to which I've added post retirement.

My Dad couldn't afford to buy me trains on a $90.00 a week paycheck. He did get me a cheap Marx set that I played with for hours on end. Today I have many modern and some post war and prewar trains. I haven't built a layout yet but I'm working on that. But I would give it all away if I could see my Dad again. He was the best Dad a kid could ever have.

My father was a Shift Foreman at an Alabama Power Co. steam generating plant when I came along, so he could afford most of the cataloged items (NOT multiples of them; we were working-class) in the Lionel catalogue. In fact, I have no memory of asking for a particular "train" - or, indeed, of asking for an electric train at all! But, I am sure that I had expressed an interest, and do remember being interested in the real thing very much. We did not live near the tracks, but I was always wanting to go to the waterfront to "see the trains" and the ships. We often did.

I digress. Sorry. Anyway, I got a nice "set" (dept. store made up?) with a 2055 Hudson, several cars, and he built me a layout - 4 switches for 1 siding and 2 spurs. Scratch built buildings. (I've never seen my "set" in a catalogue.)

Now, after all this, I occasionally asked for a second loco. Nope. One was enough, I guess.

I specifically wanted the 6-8-6 Turbine or the 0-4-0 switcher (it looked more realistic than most Lionel locos). Nope. "You have an engine." (The 1930's 5344 scale Hudson that I had discovered in magazines was the Holy Grail; I might as well have asked for a new $5000 '57 Chrysler 300C - actually, I did ask for one of those, come to think of it .)

So - as time went by, I got the Burro, the Allis-Chalmers car, the track cleaning car and the single separate-sale passenger car - but no more locos. He chose to not "afford" it.

No doubt this scarred me for life and explains all those d**n steam locomotive now in the house with me.

Remember that PRR GG1 passenger train from Penn Station to Princeton Junction I told you about?

Now, its mine! LOL

Postwar Lionel in Brunswick Green. 

Arnold

D500, sounds like you ended up getting sweet revenge. Now, you can enjoy all your steam locomotives even more. Arnold 

Well Arnold, you've done it again...another fascinating topic.

I was treated as well a financially possible as a child but there were still voids in what I could have.  In my twenties I was able to acquire some of the missing items; 2332 GG1, 746 J, and 2321 Lackawanna FM.  Those items came my way by a local collector who always found a good deal for me, Paul Rowlen (fellow forum member John Rowlen's father).  These were truly delightful additions to my collection and I still have them.  

One item that did not escape me as a child was a 681 turbine.  The local second hand shop run by a fellow known only as Yaro had the turbine.  It was the princely sum of seven bucks.  I ran the wheels off it.  I found that my father also liked that engine.  Sometimes after school I would head downstairs to see that the train on the layout was changed to the 681 and my father had been running it while I was at school.  This was in the early 60's.

Small world that it is, years later I had lost a hubcap off my Olds 98 and stopped at a second hand shop called Hubcap Heaven.  I got my hubcap and found that the owner was a chess champion.  Sometimes I'd just stop in for a game on lunch and one day we were talking about second hand shops like his and I mentioned getting a train from a guy named Yaro on Miles Road at East 123rd.  The owner of Hubcap Heaven smiled and said Yaro was his father-in-law!

Lou N

My cousin had a pre-war Lionel latch coupler Lionel set that my brother and l were allowed to run....l asked for and got a train set, but it was Marx 3/16..l was thrilled and ran it until l discovered HO in my teens.  We had little money, but relatives were, some, much better off and gave two brats money for Christmas.  However, while both of us had similar Marx freight sets, neither set ever added freight or passenger cars, for the store that had those cleared them out/sent them back?  immediately after the holiday.  I set out to fill that void much later, and did, for many of the Marx 3/16.  Now l run Lionel compatible with those roadnames and prototypes of interest, but would acquire more if made. Teen camping trips to Colorado exposed me to Colorado narrow gauge, and standard.

Hmmm, good question ?  I do remember wanting a New Haven 2350 EP-5 which I received one christmas.  I still have that.  I was always rather fond of the Lionel Jersey Central Fairbanks Morris.  Later in life I purchased the Williams version: a good runner too.  I always wanted passenger cars but that was not to be.   There was an interference issue created by passenger car overhang on tight turn radius.  Today, I have many passenger sets.  On my layout today, the overhang issue is still with me.  This time, it's the giant locomotives, like Big Boy, which will never be.   Like father, like son, I guess.

The first train I purchased that my parents couldn't afford was actually purchased while I was living at home and going to high school.  I had always been impressed by Lionel's #773 (by both the looks of the engine and the price ) but I knew it was way beyond anything I could hope to ask for as either a birthday or Christmas present.  The good news was I managed to land well paying summer jobs during my Junior and Senior years.  Most of the earned money was earmarked for college tuition but, since I was earning my own money, Mom and Dad said I could use some of it for trains if I so desired....so, it was over to Joe The Motorists Friend with $50 I went and home with #773  I came. 

  Once home I opened up the engine and tender and set them up on the dining room table.  I was sitting there admiring my #773 when the doorbell rang and Mrs. Cooper, a friend of my Mom's, stepped in for a short visit.  As she came in she looked over at me sitting in the dining room, noticed the engine, and promptly asked," How much did THAT cost???"  I just  smiled and said, "$50 dollars Mrs. Cooper."  She didn't say anything more but the look she gave me said, "Mrs. Butler, you have raised a fool for a son." 

  I was aware that she and other adults in the neighborhood considered the Butler kid to be a little off when it came to personal choices for monetary expenditures so her look was not unexpected.  I'm sure if I had spent my money on some beat up car (like her son's $500 Volkswagen) the reaction would have been much different.  As an aside, I should mention my railroad was all 0-27 so I couldn't even run #773 (she didn't know that and I didn't volunteer the information) thus it was a long time before I was able to put the engine on the rails and run it.

  We now must fast forward to 1978 and my attendance at my first York meet.  By this time Mrs. Cooper was a long forgotten memory.  I was strolling down one of the isles in Blue Hall when I came upon a boxed #773 in the same condition as mine sitting on a dealers table with a price tag of $1,100.  I stopped and looked in amazement and from the depths of my memory came the vision of that day at the dining room table. The memory was accompanied by a mental voice whose shout echoed down the canyons of time and queried, "So, Mrs. Cooper, where's your son's long ago scrapped Volkwagen now??? "  

I still have #773 and it runs just fine.

Mr. Butler...l don't often post "likes", but l did for your posting.  I just LOVE for butinskies to tell you how to spend your money...NOT!  

Arnold, when I was a youngster, my mom and dad never gave me any Lionel or even Marx trains for Christmas  or even my birthdays.  My uncle always had Marx trains that we literally ran the wheels off of them at Christmas, for some reason, I always thought they were Lionel and I guess I got that impression because we would go to the Sears store and go back to the garden area and my uncle and I would watch the trains run on the huge layout they had for displaying of the newest trains as well as whatever they had in stock.  My parents would go shopping while my uncle and I would walk around the layout for what seemed like hours and watch the trains and all the latest accessories.  I would tell my mom and dad how great they were and I always wanted the Santa Fe A-B-A passenger car set and I hinted and hinted but come Christmas morning they were never there.  Those Silver and Red War Bonnet's never seemed to make it under the tree, maybe Santa wasn't listening to me for some reason, not even at my grandmothers house would they show up.  This was  back in the middle 50's.  I don't remember what year it was but I got up on Christmas morning and there was a train set under the tree but to my surprise and dismay, it was an HO set, an NW-2 in a Santa Fe Zebra Stipe paint scheme from Athearn.  I never ever got any O-Gauge trains when I was little, I found out later that my dad thought the HO was a better deal and the gauge of the future.  It wasn't until a number of years ago that I bought my first train set, it was the 2026 set with a number of cars and a ton of track (that was in pretty bad shape or so I thought)  and a 1033 transformer.  I basically stole them from this woman who didn't care a thing about them because they were her ex-husbands trains.  For some reason, she got them as part of the her divorce settlement from him.  She worked with my wife and they got to talking and next thing I knew, my wife was asking if I was interested in them and that was the start of getting my cake and starting to eat it too.  I would pick up a few pieces here and there but since there were no train shows here in the arm-pit of Texas, I never got to go to any of the stuff like York or any others so I just kind of put them on the back burner until a few years ago.  I was in my local hobby shop (I hate to say it but the guy was a crook) and he would give people pennies on the dollar for their Lionel trains and turn around and sell them like they were in mint condition.  That was when I discovered Classic Toy Trains magazine (I know, they are the competitor) however, they didn't carry OGR so I didn't find out about the OGR magazine until I happened into Barnes and Knoble book store and was looking thru the magazine racks and that is when I came across OGR and not to long before I found this Forum.  I love my trains and when I buy a new locomotive or piece of rolling stock, I feel the same way each time I buy one.  It is like the Christmas I never had.  I have to say, I owe it all to my lovely wife, she has bought me trains and supported me all along.  I wouldn't have all I have if it wasn't for her.

Arnold, thanks for this thread, there have been some really great answers and it has been fun reading everyone's reasons why they are where they are at now.  Cool thread.

Arnold, another great topic and great reading everyone's stories.

My story is from Christmas of 1960 when Santa brought me a Lionel 1629 C&O set which I still have as shown below on the 3rd shelve from top.

Looking at the Lionel 1960 catalog this set listed for $29.95. I ran the inflation calculator and that works out to $259.80 in today's dollars. My Dad had a pretty good job working at USS in Gary Indiana but I'm sure that was still a good amount to spend on one toy at Christmas for one of three boys. My older brother had a 1461S set which had a Lionel 6110 steamer, tender, box car, gondola, and red caboose. Between us we had these two trains, a Lionel gateman, a milk car, 2 switches, and a Lionel 1033 transformer. My older brother lost interest in trains but I was lucky to have kept all these through the years. My Dad took a part of our basement and built shelves for our toys and a fold down table we could run our trains on and also run our Strombecker slot cars from another Christmas on. We were very lucky and I am thankful to Mom and Dad that we had what we had.

What I always wanted, but knew was too pricey, was the Lionel ZW transformer. To a small boy of 7 in 1960, that thing was a beast. As most of us that grew up in the 50s and 60s know , usually the only time we got stuff was Christmas and on our birthdays. In addition to trains I also liked baseball, ice hockey, cars and trucks, plastic army men and equipment ,radios, etc. so others things were asked for. 

When I got older and back into trains the first thing I bought was that ZW. I was in train heaven and now have 2 ZWs, a KW, and a few more. I always liked the Lionel Santa Fe diesels but chose to buy the Williams Trains reproduction and have added a few more over the years. I have all the trains now I could have ever wished for and really don't need anymore even though every now and then something catches my eye.

My older brother never had any of his toys from his youth so a few years ago I gave him his 6110 steamer set for Christmas. He's not a big train buff but he runs that train around his Christmas tree every Christmas.

Oh, what is my favorite train you might ask... that would be that Lionel 1629 C&O set that Santa gave me back in 1960. In my mind, I can still see it clear as day setting under that Christmas tree on Christmas morning.  Brings back memories of Christmas past with brothers and Mom & Dad.

Dean

As I said in an earlier post, I've totally enjoyed reading everyone's stories.   Here is mine:

For Christmas when I was two years old, I received a little tin train that ran on a piece of tin ... basically monolith graphics painted on a tin base.  I still have a vague memory of this little wind up train. The following Christmas I received a wind up train, with an oval of two rail track, which I ran and ran until the little steam loco broke.  At that point I pretended that the tank car was the locomotive as I pushed it, the gondola and caboose around the oval of track.  At age 4 Santa brought me a Lionel electric train ... out of the 1957 catalogue ... the 2065 Hudson steamer with automatic milk car, NYC Pacemaker operating boxcar, operating log dump flat car, a Sunoco 3 dome tank car, and Lionel Lines porthole illuminated caboose .   A Lionel 1033 transformer powered my little oval empire.  I ran that train around the Christmas tree all day Christmas Day.... until the locomotive gave out.  My father had to take the locomotive back to the dept store in Baltimore so they could send it off to Santa to be repaired ... luckily Santa had made sure that dept. store was well stocked with Lionel engines and the store gladly exchanged the broken with a new one.... that is the story that Dad told me anyway  I still have this Lionel train set today in running condition!  I do run it on occasion too

My Lionel train was to be put up at Christmas time only ( usually a couple weeks before Christmas to about 10 days after ) as we lived in a small house with no space for a permanent layout.  Dad built a 4x8 train table so the layout could be expanded with additional track and switches for my 5th Christmas.  My mom contributed her scenery talents and created a tunnel made out of painted grocery bags strewn over some chicken wire which looked way cool to me!  She also had tiny cardboard houses and churches , found in five and dime stores, which she place on the layout and of course she covered the whole layout in snow.  I thought this layout was delightful!  

Each year I received add ons .... at age 6 Santa brought my first add on car, a N&W black 4 bay covered hopper.  This is when I learned about the Norfolk and Western Railroad and that my grandma's cousin's husband Floyd, was a locomotive engineer on that railroad.  That same  Christmas I also received the operating newstand which was a huge hit with visitors!  

Each year the rolling stock and accessories increased.  I received the operating barrel car, a Pennsy porthole caboose with couplers at both ends,   and an aircraft beacon ( all are part of my existing layout ) for Christmas at age 7.  The barrel conveyor at age 8.  When my brother turned 4 Santa brought him a Lionel train set as well.  That same year my uncle Leon gave me an HO freight set with a Union Pacific SW1000 switcher.   Uncle Leon was the traffic manager for Kennecott Copper Corp and he dealt with all modes of freight transportation so he knew all the railroads that existed from the east coast to Nevada and Montana.  He gave me my first engineers cap too ... a real NYC engineers cap with the insignia The New York Central System.

With my brother and me involved in trains, my father built a second train table.  The trains were moved to our bedroom for the Christmas season only.   We had a 8x8 empire of trains in our room and nothing like waking up every morning and looking at those trains!!! I just absolutely loved it!!  Eventually we had 3 loops of track with sidings/spurs and a loop up on an elevated section/plateau.  With houses and streets lit up the layout was a sight to see in daylight or dark.  I was grateful then and somehow even more grateful now,  I guess better put, profoundly grateful now , for the trains my parents bought us kids.  My brother was never into train as much as I was but he certainly totally enjoyed constructing the layout each year.  Running trains was never his thing really but putti then together the train tables certainly was ... as a matter of fact he built the benchwork for my present layout and he did an exquisite job too!!  

As a kid I was always satisfied with the trains I had.... the 2065 Hudson ... Santa Fe NW2 .... and the 216 Also FA twin AA diesels plus the rolling stock and accessories.  I bought my first set of 3 passenger cars, Santa Fe streamliners,  when I was in 6th grade with money I saved from cutting neighbors lawns.  I still have all of these locos and original cars in operating order.   Of course I had those Lionel catalogs and would certainly dream ... of one day having Super O track,  a GG1, Santa Fe F3 diesels, a Virginian Trainmaster, RS3, GP7, and that glorious scale Hudson.... oh heck I wanted the entire Lionel catalogue! LOL!!  I now pretty much now own all of these locomotive ( not the Santa Fe F3s but I do have the B&O F3s ).  

The browsing of the Lionel catalogue, going to dept. stores and train shops and just starring at that wall of trains and locomotives, getting lost in the watching of trains speed around dealer layouts,  intensely longing for those trains and to better improve my own layout , stimulated my imagination beyond belief!   I had plenty of fuel for my imagination,  upon coming home returning to our layout after every one of those dept store outings.  I never felt let down or disappointed with our home layout because to me our layout was just fabulous and my imagination certainly filled in any blanks. 

  As I'm now realizing, my imagination is actually the gift I'm most grateful for.  Imagination is the most important part of this hobby ... at least for me ... as I suppose it may be for others of you too.  Of course my parents worked hard to put those trains on the table, if you will,  and without those trains  ( and the trains they said "no" to "because those trains are just too expensive" ... further stimulating my longing for  and thus simultaneously my imagination   my imagination would probably not have been so greatly stimulated ... so most of all thanks Dad and Mom for the wonderful gift of imagination.  

Wow many of you received Lionels at 3, 4 ,6 years old'... That was pretty good..  My Dad had a set of pre war Lionels from the 1930's.  He kept them boxed up.  One time I took them out and set them up on the attic floor.  He came home from work heard that Hudson running',... and oh boy was I in trouble.   I was about 10.  The next Christmas, I was gifted a Marx, US ARmy set.  It was great, the few cars and engine, olive drab'.. I ran that set to wheels fell off.  AT 14, I received an HO Union Pacific set by AHM .

A family of six, Lionel' were out of the question... Being raised frugal,,, I still am, and have only two Lionel locos.  But several each of MTH and WIlliams'...  It was a good 39 years before I got back into trains.  And finally had the means to build a decent layout'...  It is nice to have that means now.  It  would have even been nicer as a kid, but I think I appreciate it more today'... Now if i could only get over being so dam frugal...

Nice thread Arnold'..Many good stories here.  And as stated' better late than never'...

I was 4 when I got my Lionel set for Christmas in 1946. My dad had missed 3 years of my growing-up thanks to WWII. When I turned 8, I really wanted Lionel aluminum passenger cars, but they were $10. each (about $100. in today's money). We were upper middle class, but my parents were frugal. The ONLY debt they ever had was a mortgage (they paid cash for used cars). So, forget the passenger cars. I did not start earning my own money, with summer and after school jobs, until I was 13. Most of that money went into my "college fund". My own kids worked jobs to help pay for college. NO one had "student loans" to bog them down. None moved back in after schooling was over.

Arnold Great topic and great reading all the entries. I have been trying to replace some of the trains my uncle got for his son my cousin who was about 10 to 12 years older than I. One of those trains was 2344NYC A-B-A that I am still looking for. Mostly I buy stuff that my dad always liked and could not afford. Last year I picked up the PW Lionel 746 J and this year the 2331 FM Virginian. It only took me 55 years to find the missing 2534 from my very first set I got at Christmas in ‘53 my set had two 2333’s and no 2334 now the set is complete it include both versions of the 2330 Baggage Car. Again wonderful topic.  

ARNOLD: I just wanted you to know that I understood your intent and good will in that other thread! I am not a religious person but I was not offended. Your threads are delightful and a breath of fresh air! Please keep 'em coming. THANK YOU!  ☺

Great thread.  I had an interesting history with my early years of electric trains.

I was very young, probably 5 or so and my dad had bought some HO trains if I remember correctly.  They didn't last long, they were probably Tyco.  This was about 1973 or so.   Then I remember a year or two later, my dad bought some lionel stuff.  I remember a basic steam loco, probably the smallest that Lionel had at the time.   I also remember a Soo switcher diesel and matching Soo caboose (I think).   We had them for a  year or so then they disappeared.  No idea what ever happened to them.    And I only remember we set them up a few times. 

Then around 1976-77 I bought with my xmas/birthday  money my first train set of my own.  It was another crappy Tyco set but I was so excited to get it.  I really liked it because it was a Tyco Broadway Limited trainset.  Had Tyco's version of the GG1 (no middle trucks, just the 2 outer trucks) and 3 cars, sleeper, dining, observation.   I loved that set even though it never ran right.   Still have the cars and the loco but the loco is missing the motor drive and I tried to poorly repaint it back in the mid 80's.   I just keep it since i bought it new when I was a kid.   

Around 1980 or so I started buying more decent train stuff, bought a bunch of Athearn blue box HO kits, mainly Amtrak stuff.  I grew up in CT near New Haven and took the train to New York grand central so I have lots of fond memories of passenger trains so i've always been drawn to more modern passenger stuff.  

I also have memories of one of my step-father's best friend who had a spoiled kid who had a rather big collection of post-war Lionel stuff.  I mainly remember seeing how he didn't take care of the Penny F3 engines that he had.  He was  a kid that liked destroying stuff.  I was jealous of the trains he had.

I never really ventured into O scale in my later years.  I would buy HO stuff and the later on N stuff over the years.  However it wasn't until over a year ago when i was at Value Village (thrift store) and they had a new -in- box K-Line train set from the 90's in there.   Was 40 dollars but I had a 30 percent coupon so I bought it and then started buying O scale stuff ever since. 

I can't afford much but I do buy what I can when I see a good deal.  

Bought a neat Pennsylvania Lionel Trainmaster engine and 6 matching older Williams Pennsylvania Madison passenger cars a few weeks ago for I think 200.  All still in boxes and in perfect shape.  Went to the train show yesterday and bought a pair of MTH long wheelbase Madison passenger cars "new in box" for 43 dollars.   

I also have a few other Williams passenger sets, a beautiful Santa Fe A-B-A set with 5 cars, a Great Northern passenger set with an A-B.

One of these days I want to setup a layout but that is going to wait until we buy a different house which i hope has a shop.  Then I can have a larger set finally. 

I also enjoy buying older Lionel stuff and rebuilding/resurrecting them.   I don't like seeing older Lionel stuff that was abused and abandoned just wasting away, I would rather try to fix it up and get it working again. 

trumptrain posted:

 

Each year the rolling stock and accessories increased.  I received the operating barrel car, a Pennsy porthole caboose with couplers at both ends....

Patrick,

Wasn't that an amazing moment; a caboose with couplers at both ends?

We currently have at our disposal almost any train we can think of, yet in the experience of youth a simple caboose was a special joy.  May we never loose that feeling.

Lou N

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Many of us have experienced the euphoria of getting later in life what was unaffordable for our parents and us when we were kids.

You're calling my name, Arnold.

I got my first Lionel when I was three, at Christmas, 1951.  It was a Korean War 2026, with two 027 Sunoco tank cars, a black NYC gondola and a generic SP caboose with only one coupler and no window "glass."  My father was an undergrad at that time, and I still can't figure out how he was able to afford that train.  It was a demonstrator set that ran on the dealer's Lionel layout, so that must have helped.  Many years later, he told me he paid twelve dollars for it, and as tight as cash was for us in those days, he must have paid it off a little at a time.

He graduated in 1952, and very soon thereafter, we moved to a Pennsylvania small town.  Dad built a fairly large Christmas train platform, and I loved it.  I spent hours running the 2026 and its freight cars.   But we still didn't have a lot of disposable income, so no extra equipment was added to the roster for a long while.  All the same, that platform went up every Christmas

Meantime, Dad would always bring home Lionel catalogs in the fall (I never did know where he got them), and I would pore over them like a Talmudic scholar, gazing at all the colorful illustrations of Lionel's glory years.  The 681; the 736; the 2046...and most of all, the big GG1.  It was the stuff of which dreams are made, and I dreamed plenty of them.

When I started doing well enough in my IT career, I decided it was time to make those childhood dreams come true, no matter how belatedly. And eventually I managed to find near-mint examples of all those high-end Lionel locomotives.  I even got myself a beautiful GG1.  I seem to be the only one around here who was never attracted to the Santa Fe F3s, but when MPC Lionel appeared in the Seventies, I bought one of their ABA Canadian Pacific sets.  Still looking for a good postwar chassis to put under that shell.

They're all around me on shelves, now, right off the pages of those long-ago catalogs.  In fact, my 2046 is on my layout right now.  The original 2026 is upstairs on our coffee table, along with the three 027 Lionel Lines passenger cars that I wanted but couldn't afford in the Fifties.

My only regret is that Dad isn't around to see them run; he passed away ten years ago.  And I never run any of the postwar trains without remembering him and Christmas, 1951.

Well I'm much younger than most of you so my wants as a child were not Postwar Lionel. I've always like Southern Pacific's GS4 class locomotives, especially 4449, since I was young. I think the colors captured my imagination as a child. So in 1998 before my 13th birthday MTH came out with a full scale model of 4449: https://mthtrains.com/20-3029-1

Being not quite 13 I didn't have $1000 dollars to spend on a scale model of 4449. Then a few years later high school, college, and grad school come along. Last year I had some money and was able to find the model I wanted 20 years prior, but it was even better than original as it had been upgraded with PS2. It now runs on my layout at the head of a Golden State passenger consist. It took 20 years but I finally got 4449.

Lou N posted:

trumptrain posted:

 

Each year the rolling stock and accessories increased.  I received the operating barrel car, a Pennsy porthole caboose with couplers at both ends....

Patrick,

Wasn't that an amazing moment; a caboose with couplers at both ends?

We currently have at our disposal almost any train we can think of, yet in the experience of youth a simple caboose was a special joy.  May we never loose that feeling.

Lou N

 

 

Lew - you are so right on the money!!  A simple little things like a Pennsy caboose with couplers on both ends was a joy in itself!  I longed for that caboose and was so happy to receive it from Santa.  I coupled the Lionel Lines porthole caboose ( with a single coupler ) to the Pennsy caboose and pretended that they were passenger cars.   Yes, may never loose that feeling! 

I got my first set in 1962, a Lionel C&O GP7 with some space cars. Only 5 years old, so needed help getting them on the track. Switched to HO when I was about 8 - Dad was an HO guy, so we had a lot of stuff to play with

Added a Super O layout in 1968, from a large group of trains owned by a deceased Vietnam soldier.

Started into Standard Gauge at about the same time - all 3 gauges running in separate layouts on top of each other, snaking through a converted 2 stall garage

What we (Dad and I, always together at meets and building layouts) didn't have then

Standard gauge (which is my current obsession) - 400E, State Cars, 200 series freights, 381E, and none of the new fangled Modern Era stuff (Lee Lines Daylight, Hendrichs GG1, Richart Cascade, McCoy Cascade, MTH Ives 1134 and AF Brass Piper, Williams 408E, Glenn Toy freight cars, and on and on.

In O - I lusted for a GG1 for a long time - one finally came around on an HO for O trade (imagine that). Never had the Jersey Central FM (but did score a nice Virginian late one). Still don't. Congressional Set (settled for a repro).

Many others that didn't exist when I was young, especially the ones with sound

Jim

While having a number of various toy train sets when I was young (a disney and a playskool set come to mind) I recieved my first "real" set at age 3 in 1993 from my grandparents.  It was a Model Power HO frieght set headed by a Santa Fe F3.  That went on a 4x8 table in the basement and various pieces were added over the years until at age 8 or 9 when I recieved an 1948 Lionel frieght set headed by a 2026 with some extra cars and basic accessories.  The transition to O gague didn't take too long once I discovered these trains were much easier to handle and I could repair them myself.  Also, they didn't break as easily (plastic HO couplers snapping off were a constant frustration as a child).  My parents were supportive of my hobby giving me space and occasional additions while staying within reason; my table never was bigger than 4x8 and I never got the postwar Lionel Santa Fe F3s and 2500 passenger cars until I could afford to buy them myself.  For me the cataloges I poured over were K-line, which usually had two versions of many of the items they produced with a lower end line that was in my reach.  Looking back I do feel a little guilty about how much my parents probably invested over the years while we were in the "buy a whole bunch of different trains (including different gauges)" phase until I narrowed down my interests.

One particular thing we couldn't afford comes to mind.  Early in my teen years my uncle's friend wanted to sell his childhood Lionels.  He had about 8 paper boxes full.  He offered them all to my Dad for $2000 or we could sell them for him for a comission.  That was a big investment and we were too unsure so my dad said he'd sell them on ebay for a comission.  I enjoyed helping going through the boxes as I got to test everything on my layout.  Well the first item we sold was a New Haven F3 AB with the master carton; we watched as the bidding skyrocketed over the greenburg book price of $300 (or about there) to sell at over $4500.  One of the bidders messaged us and said it was because of the master carton.  We then learned the importance of boxes.  Anyway, I don't recall what the rest of the collection sold for, just that after that they guy thought everything was a goldmine, so he insisted everything sell.  I do recall there was a N&W J, a turbine, barrel car, and plenty of other rolling stock, as well as some accessories I don't recall.  In the end he gave my dad a few hundred bucks and I got a 4 wheel red cab crane car and a 1033 transformer that didn't sell.  If only, if only...

In college and afterwards though I was without a layout (except for a few brief months) and still am, I got into the habit of buying postwar lots off ebay, fixing everything up, keeping the items I really wanted and selling the rest.  So I've managed to build a pretty good collection ready for when I (plan to) buy a house next summer with a large basement.

This was defiantly a good read, thanks all for sharing your memories .

Re “plastic HO couplers snapping off”, Tri-Ang always had metal couplers despite being very much at the “toy” end of the market. Bend ‘em straight or change a broken one with one screw..

Paul Kallus posted:

My Mom got us nice Christmas presents each year, but other than a Tyco HO set I got at 8 years old one Christmas - which was an added gift from St. Nick ~ probably because of my sledding accident a few weeks prior - trains were not included. I learned later in life why: they were prohibitively expensive compared to other toys and games. Of course, if I really wanted them, I could've opted to include them in my letters to Santa, but as kid I knew what was and what wasn't reasonable to ask for.

To this day, I consider trains expensive. In the 1990s, I could barely justify buying a Railking steam engine. Now, I am buying scale steamers from MTH and Lionel.

Its amazing how the change in disposable income has changed from the generations.

Paul 

thats what I always got was a HO Rock Island Tyco set but I still enjoyed it. Never new much about O scale when I was young all the neighbor kids was like me poor and couldn’t afford it 

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

 

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

My mother told me that my father liked trains but since he had only sisters his father never bought one. So my father took good care of us:

This picture, taken by my much older brother Ben around 1956, shows my older brothers Dick (right) and Theo (left) and me playing with a Märklin H0/00 clockwork train and some other toys (amongst others Mobaco, Dinky Toys, Schuco). We were the three youngsters of a large family and were often playing together with our toys. From Sinterklaas (a Dutch kind of Santa Claus) my brother Theo had received the Märklin S837/2 trainset with a 0-4-0 streamlined clockwork locomotive with tender and 2 goods wagons; I had received set S837/1, the same set but with two passenger cars. The locomotive of these sets was based on an American PRR streamlined prototype while the rolling stock was typical German. This first train has influenced me very much, since my main interest in collecting is still streamlined passenger trains. The viaduct you see is part of a Schuco clockwork car system. The houses are made from the Dutch wood and carton construction toy Mobaco. You can also recognize some Dinky Toys including a Dinky Toy Super Constellation airplane, owned by Dick. As you can see, we mixed scales without bothering about that.

Regards

Fred

Fred

Who made the P.I.E truck with the drom box behind it never seen one like this one 

I’m enjoying everyone’s input on this thread as well. Another Home Run Arnold. Mom and Dad always bought me Tyco Train set when I was young but I was still very grateful I got one because I knew they really couldn’t afford it but they would pull it off some how. We was poor but didn’t know it they always provided for me and my two older brothers. Now that I’m older have a good job I can buy the trains that fit my budget yet I enjoy. There was a older gentleman on the forum once said buy big ticket items when your young and have money so you can enjoy them when your old and that’s what I did. I don’t have any Lionel Legacy locos but I’m happy with my Post War Lionel, Weaver and MTH Steamer. I would never had  dreamed I would ever own these. I’ve been very blessed. 

lee drennen posted:

I’m enjoying everyone’s input on this thread as well. Another Home Run Arnold. Mom and Dad always bought me Tyco Train set when I was young but I was still very grateful I got one because I knew they really couldn’t afford it but they would pull it off some how. We was poor but didn’t know it they always provided for me and my two older brothers. Now that I’m older have a good job I can buy the trains that fit my budget yet I enjoy. There was a older gentleman on the forum once said buy big ticket items when your young and have money so you can enjoy them when your old and that’s what I did. I don’t have any Lionel Legacy locos but I’m happy with my Post War Lionel, Weaver and MTH Steamer. I would never had  dreamed I would ever own these. I’ve been very blessed. 

My family wasn't exactly poor in the 80s when I was a teen but the parents were frugal.  My mom though was rather poor during the mid to late seventies before she got remarried in 79.   from 74 to 79, she was a single mom who worked as a school nurse.  She couldn't afford much but I had relatives who gave me money so that was how I got some nicer toys that I desired.  However she did what she could.  My parents had gotten the Lionel trains before they divorced in 74 (I think) and I don't know what happened to them soon after.  I only really remember playing with the Lionel twice when I was young. 

However i did get a couple of Tyco sets like you did when my mom was single.  I remember getting a typical freight set from Tyco from her one Christmas and I believe that was the same year I saved my Christmas and Birthday money and got the Broadway Limited Tyco trainset that started my love of passenger stuff. 

I'm now finally at the stage of my life where I can indulge a little bit.  I can't afford any of the high end engines but I do what I can.   I try to spend about 100-200 a month on buying train stuff.  To me that is a reasonable amount and doesn't negatively impact me.   But that means I can't afford a $1000 dollar engine unless I were to save up for 5 or more months but I always seem to find irresistible deals during that saving period.  So i'm happy with the same kind of stuff as you have.   

lee drennen posted:

 

Fred

Who made the P.I.E truck with the drom box behind it never seen one like this one 

I do not know who made, but I think it was Japanese. It was a tinplate truck with friction motor, much larger than our Dinky Toys. It is already gone for more than 50 years!

I saw a similar one on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133202820602

Regards

Fred

This is a bit of the reverse. I got this AF 21140 when I was eleven in 1960. It was a replacement engine after my Dad dropped my AF 282 putting it away after Christmas. This particular AF Steam engine is quite pricey today because they are rare. I don't think I'd be buying one now.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

This is a bit of the reverse. I got this AF 21140 when I was eleven in 1960. It was a replacement engine after my Dad dropped my AF 282 putting it away after Christmas. This particular AF Steam engine is quite pricey today because they are rare. I don't think I'd be buying one now.

Wow, Paul, that is a sweet engine. I have always been a Lionel person, so I am not too familiar with AF trains, but that is a beautiful engine. The cast in detail is amazing. Great memory.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

This is a bit of the reverse. I got this AF 21140 when I was eleven in 1960. It was a replacement engine after my Dad dropped my AF 282 putting it away after Christmas. This particular AF Steam engine is quite pricey today because they are rare. I don't think I'd be buying one now.

That is a beautiful Flyer locomotive, Paul.  The year my sister was born (1956), my dad worked part-time at a local store during the Christmas season, selling American Flyer trains.  I remember seeing a locomotive like yours on one of the shelves, and being greatly impressed.  May you enjoy it for many more years!

sncf231e posted:

lee drennen posted:

 

Fred

Who made the P.I.E truck with the drom box behind it never seen one like this one 

I do not know who made, but I think it was Japanese. It was a tinplate truck with friction motor, much larger than our Dinky Toys. It is already gone for more than 50 years!

I saw a similar one on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133202820602

Regards

Fred

Thanks for the help Fred 

When I was a small urchin, I wanted a Lionel F3 locomotive. Didn't really care if it had passenger cars or freight...I just wanted that dang F3 loco. Times being what they were in the 50s, I ended up with a 3 car American Flyer steam loco set with chuffing sound. The box car doors didn't open and it was probably the cheapest set AF made. Now, I lost count of the F3 locos I currently have.  Probably compensation for what i couldn't have back then. 

My father purchased the following in September, 1940:

225 locomotive with tender 17.50

152 crossing gate 2.75

RCS tracks(4) 6.00

Red passenger cars 2600, 2601 and 2602 10.50

Type R transformer (still in use) 8.95

2 lock ons 1.00

45N operating gateman 3.95

19 pcs straight track 5.80

20 pcs curve track 4.00

88 Controller   no price shown.

1pr remote switches(track) 11.95

1pr hand throw switches(track) 7.25

John in Lansing, ILL

A 224E freight set $17.50 at Christmas 1938. I was 8 years old.