Model Railroading > My first one and maybe my last? How about you?

On the left is my first model locomotive ever, an Athearn Hustler that my father got me back in 1966, when I was but a six year-old who loved trains.  It was decorated in Minneapolis and St. Louis red but over the years I "detailed" it and repainted it two or three times, most recently about 20 years ago for my imaginary Omaha Lincoln and Beatrice Railway.  These days I only have a few models left, I left modelling behind about 20 years ago and abandoned the OL&B soon after repainting the pictured 1-spot.  But I could never get rid of this little engine, battered as it is.

Then last week I went to a train show in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just to look around for fun with no intention to buy anything.

And I saw a red MStL Hustler.  Actually made by Lionel but I had to buy it.  Bought it.  And here it is on top of a bookcase.  I guess I am just a sentimental guy.

What was your first model locomotive?  Do you still have it?

John H.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/22 04:15 by Korigaoka1811.

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TYCO 2-axle diesel switcher (Santa Fe 241). Left my trains behind when my family moved (I was in 9th grade - new house didn't have a space for trains), and didn't get back into model railroading until my sophomore year in College.

My first was a Gilbert HO Pennsy 0-6-0. I think I still have the tender in a junk box somewhere.

My first model locomotive was a HO Penn Line PRR 2-8-2 dating back to about 1963.  It ran for a number of years on older layouts.  I still have it but never tried to convert it to DCC.  It's one of several old DC steam engines parked on dead tracks next to the engine house, all retired and "white lined".

Bob 

My first was a "Dockside" steam switcher.  I don't have that anymore and 
don't have my last one yet either?

I too had a Hustler, silver with red stripes. Also, a Varney F3 A-B set in Missouri Pacific, which didn't run very well, so the LHS at the time swapped it for a Revell F7 in New Haven paint.

TJY

I had a little Tyco Switch as a 14 year old I don't know what happened to it when I went to collage.  But my first electric train was an O27 Lionel Hudson steam engine.  I still have it but it's missing wheels.

Athearn SF warbonnet F-7.
 

Somewhere down in the catacombs is an old Mantua 0-4-0T that I jazzed up and imagined it was a Frisco shop goat.  I'll have to dig it out.
Still had raw brass tires.

My first was (and still is) a Lionel turbine (671) which had three brown colored (can't remember numbers) passenger cars. They, along with a lot of other items, remain on shelves in the basement.
DaleR

An 0 gauge green Southern Railway ALCO FA  made by Kusan in the 50's.  It is displayed in a lighted curio cabinet.  It was the inspiration for the NS Southern 4610 paint scheme I designed in 1992.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/22 11:02 by Notch7.

Technically, I guess the first one was a Marx switcher, very similar to the Athearn Hustler, painted New Haven. . That would have been Xmas of either 1964 or 1965. 

Except it didn't run worth a damn. Dad recognized this, and bought me an AHM "Reno" 4-4-0 the next year, along with a combine and coach to go with it. Ran quite well, except for the brass track that came with the set. We graduated to nickel silver a couple years later. 

I still have both. The Marx thing still doesn't run worth a damn. 

My first was also that Minneapolis & St. Louis Hustler locomotive.  It came in an HO-scale Lionel train set (I assume Athearn produced HO trains for Lionel) given by my parents.

My younger brother got a train set with a Santa Fe GP7.  I became the train enthusiast, he did not!

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For many years, I did not know anything about the Minneapolis & St.Louis, even after I became a railfan.  It was not until reading Don Hofsommer's book The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway: A Photographic History that I learned about this railroad.  No photos of Hustler locomotives, though!  :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/22 11:42 by RuleG.

This is the page from the 1972 Sears Christmas catalog that shows my first train set.  I still have most of these cars somewhere in boxes under my layout.  That Tyco F9 was gutted long ago in my first early attempts at custom painting.  $39.95 was an expensive Christmas gift when I was in the third grade.  Until I stumbled across this ad a few years ago I never realized how much my parents sacrificed to give me a merry Christmas that year and start me in this hobby.

Joe
 

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Lionel #225 with the complete catalog set ( catalog # 831w) including #97 coal loader.  My dad bought the set in 1940, a couple of years before I was born.  For 101/2 month they languish on a shelf.  The other month and a half they're running under the Christmas tree reminding me of my youth.  

Christmas 1968, Tyco C430 painted in ATSF warbonnet, long since repainted into a fictional road. Still somewhere on shelve 54 years ago!

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Athearn SP black widow F7, as part of a 6-car train set.
GK

Christmas 1966.   S Gauge was just right for a four year old's fingers.   It ran for years under my abuse, and finally gave up the ghost.  My dad held on to it and the box survived remarkably well.   40+ years later, somebody coughed up $66 for that box and the non-working train.

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Well, all I remember is my first one was a blue-ish switcher in the early 70s that I think was AHM.  My first decent engine was an Atlas yellow box GP40 (WM 3797) that I bought at a train show in 1977 because it was WM and that was my favorite road.  And I still have it and actually just converted it to DCC last week, still runs well after 45 years.  The last engine I got was a Walthers SD70Ace NS 1061 wtih sound. 

My layout I bounce back and forth between Chessie and Conrail in the early 1980's to NS and CSX in the 2010's depending on what era I feel like.

First train set was Lionel when I was only 6. I started mowing lawns when I turned 8 and bought an HO set . That set had a yellow Hustler , D&H boxcar , airplane on a flat , and a caboose ! I still have the Hustler.

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