In the beginning...

[early0electric]

When I was growing up we didn't have much, but I loved trains. There are pictures of me in my crib with train books. I had rubber trains, wooden trains, wind up trains, and more. My first electric train was a red MARX Commodore Vanderbilt with 3 red cars, a hand me down from an older cousin of mine. I still have the loco although repainted way back when. I had dreams of being a railroad engineer. I had an engineers outfit and used to sit at the desk I had at home and pretend I was an engineer on a run. My first Lionel was an HO set with a AEC switcher. I hated it and traded it to a friend of mine for a 2025 set. He had painted the wheels gold and the coal on the tender gold and the inside of the gondola gold. I remember removing as much of it as I could but it's still there and I still have it displayed prominently on my workbench. Not all of us were born with a silver spoon.

[starfire700]

I was thinking about this topic, and you beat me to the punch. Excellent idea to do a personal intro about how trains got engraved into our DNA.
Most of us were not born with the silver spoon either.
My first train, at about age 4 or 5 was a Marx 400 plastic loco with 6" litho cars, and I remember having the litho 392 2-piece tunnel and the large circuit breaker. This was 1955 .
The next year I was lucky to get a Milwaukee Rd 2338 freight set with crane, hopper, flatcar with trucks and wrecker caboose. Dad built me a 4x8 layout to go with that set. It must have been difficult to afford the set, as he was a washing machine repair man for Sears at the time. The layout was reconfigured several times and the next year Grandma got me the 342 culvert unloader with car in 1957, also got the 6800 airplane flatcar and some Plasticville buildings, the Frosty bar and airplane hanger. As Dad was in many basements, repairing washers, he was given a 671 turbine by a customer. It was the 1946 version with smoke bulb. Dad had to make a cup on the top of a regular bulb with plastic aluminum, as the original was missing. It ran smooth and puffed nice smoke rings, but would not go up my hill, no magne-traction. Only the 2338 and the gang car that I got along the way, could go to the upper level.  To be continued.........

[starfire700]

The first B/W picture is me and my sis on the living room floor Christmas 1955 with the Marx Train and other toys. Note the RCA 45 record changer on top of the old TV.
Second pix is the only image that I have of my basement layout, about 1957, as the culvert loader is there.

[starfire700]

Trains remained #1 until I discovered guitars and girls, not necessarily in that order, when I hit my teens.
The trains and layout were sold to go towards a guitar amp, a garage band was started and we progressed to where we had gigs we played almost every weekend.
The General set was saved, and I still have it to this day.
I would become a prewar collector when I joined TCA in 1977, but postwar remained part of my roots.
Picture is on-stage at York HS Elmhurst, Ill, playing lead guitar for Yesterday's Children, about 1967.

[early0electric]

Ok Jim, Here you go. Here's a couple of pics I have. There's more, just have to dig them out but you get the gist of it. That's me and my brother. For some reason we used to play train robbery and he'd hold me up.

This is me and my brother on the kitchen table with my wind up MARX stuff. Rare early color photo!

These date to 1954 & 55. Like I said, I've got earlier pics and later pics somewhere. But this is enough.

[starfire700]

Thanks for sharing, Very enjoyable to see, my wife liked them too. I also like looking at the period furniture and TV's in old pictures. We kids were so innocent in those days!
I wish I had more "at home" pictures, but most photography that my dad did was on vacations.

[early0electric]

My mother took the pictures in our family so there aren't a lot of her. Vacations were few and far between so my pics are all at home and with relatives. Yeah, so innocent, so simple. My mom's parents had an outhouse, no bathroom. My grandmother used to bath me in a galvanized tub when staying there. I look at my grandkids and can't imagine going through what they endure these days. I better stop. This is all supposed to be about trains, not life.

[Pre-WarGuy]

Sorry that there are no photos available, but there are plenty of memories.  My wife started her train hobby at four years old with the Red Marx Commodore Vanderbilt wind-up with red passenger cars.  The first train in my life (besides real trolley rides on my Dad's lap in his driver's seat) was also a Marx Commodore Vanderbilt when I was 3.  The difference was that mine was black with an electric motor and freight cars.  My wife must have been given her set by her Uncle and Aunt.  She recalls each Christmas was spent in their basement watching their Lionel Sets growing to 3 sets over a period of 12 years.  Marx found two very impressionable children "in the beginning...".

[starfire700]

I was able to find another somewhat fuzzy image of my 1950's layout in my parent's basement.
This shows the peninsula siding made for the General set and hard to see, the elaborate rocket-launcher gantry and pad that my Dad made.
This photo dates to about 1960.

[Terry]

Here's a picture of me from when I was 15 years old. I saw Clyde Easterly had died in the TCA newsletter.  This picture was taken the day I met Clyde. It was at the 1978 TCA desert Division Turkey Meet in Phx. AZ.

 

Clyde was one of the old time collectors who taught me about trains. Back then you had to learn from the people who had the trains because there were no books.

I saw Clyde a few years ago at the last Cal-Stewart meet. He had a table one row over from me. I sat at my table and watched Clyde explain IVES 1 gauge trains to a 20-something collector. I don't care about the IVES, I just thought it was neat to see Clyde was still sharing information with new collectors. 

About the layout. . . My dad and I built that layout a few months earlier. It was a portable layout with one circle of standard and a circle of O inside with the bascule bridge on a siding. It had pipe legs and was in the front room of the house while we were working on it.

I kept bitching at my brother for knocking over the trains. It turned out the dog - a 80 pound wiemeraner -  was jumping up on the layout and barking down at the mailman when he was delivering the mail. The mailman left us a note saying he wouldn't deliver mail until we moved the layout.

That dog hated mailmen and cats.

Anyway, my dad and I dragged that layout around for years, and then it became the basis for the standard gauge layout my dad had under his O gauge layout in Glendale. I still have the 318 set just because I spent so much time sitting next to that layout as it went around in circles. 

Peter Atonna took the picture, and the oclor is off as I never had reddish hair.

[starfire700]

Its a great story, but you look like your mind is on something other than the trains.

[pjdog350]

I don’t have any pictures to share with everyone. However I do remember well my first train. A Lionel 224 set. Had a coal dump car, lighted metal caboose, condola and a tank car. Came with a 45 watt transformer. My dad must have gotten more track because it was on a 4 X 8 board with the Christmas tree in the middle. This was in 1946. I still have the 224. My dad had bought my uncle a chrome & red 1700e three car set in the 1930’s. However my uncle was a big guy and played sports. Had no interest in toy trains. A few weeks after I got the Lionel 224 my uncle showed up at our house and gave me his 1700. I had it for many years but I lost it in the 1960’s. I think my mom and dad forgot a big barrel in the crawl space. The 1700 was in there? My folks moved to Florida.

I should mention my dad was a Lionel train person. When I got this Lionel 224 on Christmas all the neighbors where at the house and dad was showing off the train all day. Mom kept telling dad the train is for Jack. But dad was the king at our house. He was a great dad. The best. Every year at Christmas I got something Lionel. 1949 it was a 2026 because it smoked and he wanted a smoker.

When we moved it Indianapolis dad built a nice layout in the basement. I spent most my time there. I still have the 224 & 2026 and they run like new. However all the other train things got lost. As I said they where left in a move ——— to be continued

[starfire700]

It is good to hear everyone's stories, how they got involved in trains. My Dag had an American Flyer wide-gauge Steam/freight set in the 1930's. The only thing that survived from that set was the large AF transformer, which powered my basement layout through the 1950's. Mom had a Lionel Peacock 10 electric with matching passenger cars, set 352 I think. After she described it to me, I found one boxed, and presented it to her in the 1990's. It was a very emotional Christmas.
Dad built a 4x8 layout in the basement for me about 1955 or 56, and it was added to every year. In the late 1950's he built a 2 foot tall rocket launcher of wood, complete with moving gantry tower, glow-coil from a dryer under the aluminum launch pad, flashing red light on top and a count-down bell. He serviced washers and dryers, so was good at such things. Odd that they got me a Lionel General set, no space trains to go with it.
Like you said, the trains were as much for Dad's enjoyment as it was for mine. Those were some great memories.
I thought that I had posted a picture of this layout, somewhere else.

[starfire700]

The pictures of my 1950's layout are earlier in this thread.

[pjdog350]

I got lucky today and found some pictures for my O Gauge trains back in the 1980’s. I was surprised to see some prewar engine and passenger cars. I also saw my missing 1700E.

I’m still short a motor for one of the 1700’s I’m restoring. It’s a 229 motor which I think is a real good motor. Making something so it can power the 1700 will be a challenge.

I’m going to scan the pictures I found and continue posting my O Gauge train history.