A Bachmann train set, which I believe my Dad bought for me at a train show back in 93 or 94, featuring their overrun Santa Fe warbonnet F9. I remember that loco was one hell of a puller, but it got some ballast stuck in the gears which destroyed them, so it got replaced with a Spectrum C40-8W and eventually an Atlas GP7.
1972? Rivarossi IHB 0-8-0, still have it and still runs well (with the addition of all wheel tender P/U).
Bachmann Yard Boss set in the mid-80s followed by the Bachmann Empire Builder set a few years later. The 0-6-0 from the Yard Boss set is a joke. It just shook itself all around the track.
My first N scale locomotive was a trix 0-6-0 that I used as a pacifier. Not kidding. Probably painted with Lead paint, too!
aurora postage stamp trains for me too in 68 or 69. mine had a santa fe passenger f9 or f7 and 5 cars. it ran for years. still have it all. edit.....6 cars!
i remember seeing a special Christmas tree layout back when i was 5-6 i think. I wanted a train and dad bought me a American Flyer set with the steam loco and had smoke. And my sister/ Brother in law got me a Army military Lionel set. Had both on a 4X8 layout. Don't remember what happened but it went somewhere when mom and dad broke up. Somewhere in the next couple of years later i got another train set from dad, yep the f7 warbonnet scheme of s.f.r.r. I wore it out till it just died. That poor Lionel just run the wheels right off!! Go forward to about 1965 and I got a German train set and cars and a road race set in ho( my first and last.) Also got a road race set to go with it and got the board and all! Don't remember what happened but sis and charlie had to move somewhere, can't remember and took the layout and had me come to where they had moved to, but they had a hurricane and the layout got destroyed. Fast forward to 1970. I saw a N scale train set made by Bachmann for i think about $15.00. Had the diesel i think was a f-7? B&O rr. I run the wheels off it! I mounted it to a small hardboard and had cork roadbed and power lines and a station.Used Saw dust and it looked like weeds that were about 4-5 scale feet tall!! Again i don't remember what happened to it but that was the way things went. Zoom to about two years ago and bought a Little Joe Tank car set like ones i have seen here on this thread. Its been up and down and learn from mistakes and now am working on a layout for sometime next year. But, Bought me a another Bachmann train set called the frontiersman set. It has the 4-4-0 engine that i could care less about but the cars are perfect for the up coming layout. I can run the Shays and cars on a oval of track till i can start the new layout. Not sure how good a runner that loco is but may try and kit bash something needed on the new layout... Loved this thread..Keep it alive!:thumbs_up:
Minitrix U 30C for me. It was painted an awful BN green. It was almost a Weyco drab green. I sent it to my dads cousin in Yakima and had his paint it in NP. I ran the wheels off of it for about 20 years. I regretfully sold it about 5-6 years ago at our UNW show in Monroe. I didn't even want to sell it but the guy kept pestering me and made me an offer I could not refuse.
Mine was a box of old stuff I inherited from my dad in 1995. My first purchase was a lifelike sd9. I use it for demonstration only since I prefer ho.:tb-biggrin:d
Warm Fuzzies I just love reading this thread. Gives me the warm fuzzies. Whoever started it is a genius. Oh, yah, that was me! :mbiggrin:
There she is. the first loco I picked up, an Atlas D&RGW SD-7. I think I picked 'er up around 1993 or 1994 along with an Atlas D&RGW EV caboose. I modeled in HO for awhile before that, but going off to college meant I wouldn't have room for that. Once I saw how nice she ran I had no reservations about switching to N scale. Since I haven't had room for a layout at all since I abruptly moved in 2008 she's been sitting in her plastic jewel box along with all my other locos patiently waiting. She's not much of a display case kinda girl so I still plan to use her on the next layout as the yard switcher and to run locals between the main yard and surrounding industries. Eventually the planned upgrade to DCC goes through she'll get a decoder with some new golden-white LEDs for headlights, and perhaps a bit of weathering, given her age. =)
My first train set I got for Christmas at the age of 8 was a bachmann HO scale set, it was the CP version of this set (if I remember correctly) -> http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscaletrainsets/id55.html My first N scale loco I bought was a Kato CP AC4400CW around 2007 at the not so age of 8 .
In 2009 I picked up a Bachmann set with the 4-4-0 (this one is my little girls). Next was the Empire Builder with a 4-8-4. Then the Acela box. Here is how that went: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=115250
For me, it was a Life-Like GP38-2 which I always thought was ugly, but that is mostly because CN Zebra stripes really don't agree with me. It's also because the Spartan cab roof never really did it for me: I like curves. First generation geeps and Alcos are much more appealing. The GP38 has long since died, however, meaning I'm not sure what I can now count as my first piece of N scale gear at the moment.
It was an Atlas FA-1 in Erie Lackawanna colors from Walteria Toy & Hobby in the Autumn of 1980. That was when I switched from HO to N and joined the Belmont Shore club. I later traded that engine to Wayne Lawson and he used the mechanism to power a doodlebug. Craig
