Remember Your First O Scale Set?


NYO&W

NYO&W

Member
Maybe it was 50 years ago and you have pictures or maybe it was just this year. Either way it’s always special!

Here is the Lionel set my Dad set up circa 1959 with me sitting on the table. I still have the Berkshire and the GG-1 and many of the freight cars in this photo. They are set up once again and featured in my other thread “A Return to O scale":
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11342.
 
well youve seen my first lionel train
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aswell as the lucky charm i recieved after my grandpa's passing, his is the one on the left ill get a better shot later.
l_7dcc533196fe4a8da0be558d0709730b.jpg

the one on the right is just one my dad got from from an Antique store
 
Mine was 1953 and was a figure eight with a 44 tonner and three freight cars and a Santa Fe warbonnet F unit with three lightwight passenger cars. It had one of those rotating airport beacons, the water tower with the bubbling water column, a log dumper, and a stock car with a stock yard that loaded cows into and out of the car. My dad and two uncles built if for Christmas. I can see it clearly in my mind's eye but, as far as I know, my family never took a picture me and my brother with our layout. I'd give my left testicle for such a picture now. :( I still think that was the best year of my life.
 
aww man im sorry to hear that, i know a few people with just such a story like yours, there heartbroken now when they think back on how much fun they had, but now its all gone, only thing left is memories.
 
UP2CSX said:
Mine was 1953 and was a figure eight with a 44 tonner and three freight cars and a Santa Fe warbonnet F unit with three lightwight passenger cars. It had one of those rotating airport beacons, the water tower with the bubbling water column, a log dumper, and a stock car with a stock yard that loaded cows into and out of the car. My dad and two uncles built if for Christmas. I can see it clearly in my mind's eye but, as far as I know, my family never took a picture me and my brother with our layout. I'd give my left testicle for such a picture now. :( I still think that was the best year of my life.
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Midnightchief is right. I've heard so many stories like yours myself. I guess I'm very lucky my Dad took a picture and didn't lose it after all these years.
 
Im just a youngin here (22 Years old) but my first set was when I was about 4 years old. My dad bought me a used mix n match postwar lionel set with what I believe to of had a 2026 with the whistle tender and a couple old cars and a nice setup of track for the carpet. We had it for a couple of months really as the engine actually never worked the whole time, but I believe it was the transformer dead. Anyway, that one never lasted, but always stuck with me. I am now a Huge Postwar and Pre war enthusiest/collector/operator. I just love the sense of imagination and all the operating accessories of the time frame. It just brings out the little kid in me and just to have fun and get lost. On the other hand, Im also a big fan of the full scale proto typical O guage stuff. All the bells and whistles, and seeing a scale GS4 with full sized coaches whistling through an 084 has always been a favorite.

Anyway, Onto the photos. This is more or less my Lionel Shrine as it where, but I have a 2026 in there just like my first, try and spot it. ;)

 
Thanks! I saw your setup from your childhood, and am quite jelious. :) You had probably the nicest setup as a kid then anyone else I know of from that timeframe. Very Impressive.
 
Sprinkles said:
Thanks! I saw your setup from your childhood, and am quite jelious. :) You had probably the nicest setup as a kid then anyone else I know of from that timeframe. Very Impressive.
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Thanks, Sprinkles! My Dad was very proud of it too!
 
First?

I was deprived in childhood. It was my oldest brother who got the set. A Missouri Pacific AA Alco on Super O Track. He also had a Marx 666. The table was an aging ping pong made from homasote. Aside from that the only other layout I enjoyed was on television, Captain Kangaroo. It was a yearly display. The set was well cared for and packed away. When I came of age I got into slot cars. The old ping pong table was still in use. Trains reappeared much later. I got interested in Antiques. Where I shopped I found trains. Plastic HO was becoming popular too. So my early childhood interest was renewed.
 
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Dub said:
I was deprived in childhood. It was my oldest brother who got the set. A Missouri Pacific AA Alco on Super O Track. He also had a Marx 666. The table was an aging ping pong made from homasote. Aside from that the only other layout I enjoyed was on television, Captain Kangaroo. It was a yearly display. The set was well cared for and packed away. When I came of age I got into slot cars. The old ping pong table was still in use. Trains reappeared much later. I got interested in Antiques. Where I shopped I found trains. Plastic HO was becoming popular too. So my early childhood interest was renewed.
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Nothing beats a ping pong table for quick and easy benchwork! I set up my first HO layout when I was 16 on ours...right next to the bigger O scale layout in the attic. Don't remember the train layout on Captain Kangaroo but I was a big fan of Mr. Moose. :)
 
Never had an O scale set when I was a kid. Didn't get into trains till I was almost 22yrs. old & that was HO scale. That was 49 yrs. ago.
 
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