Aurora "Postage Stamp" train set when I was in 8th grade. I'm guessing the loco was a F unit of some sort. I'm sure I still have it. Maybe I can get a photo. I don't remember much about it except that there was not much room to set it up until we moved. My first layout was a 2x4 foot switching layout with no loop.
My first N scale stuff came from a lot of trains, track, and power packs my mentor, Albert Bacci had off his spectacular layout in Hallandale, Florida, way back in the mid eighties. I offered to pay him for them, and he gave me some very valuable advice, which in effect says, "if you give freely without expectation of payment, you will receive payback many times over". At first, I didn't believe it, but after a while with this friend, I learned it was true only payback has come a million times over. I still have and cherish that first stuff, not knowing what it was then, but it was a Bachmann Northern which ran, a Kato PA/PB, and a ConCor set of F3AA's. I know he got paid back because he sold his layout for $8000 to a fellow city employee. I would have never believed it, but I saw money change hands, and helped deliver it and set it up. Then Al built an even newer greater layout. and still had money to boot on his wife. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
Atlas RS-11, BN #4186. It was 1987.... It came with a batch of assorted Atlas 40 and 50' boxcars. Dad bought it for me. The engine was new, the cars were for mom, who had no interest in it. So the cars went to me. A small loop of track, and I would run 'em for hours! Sometime after, I went to a hobby show in town, and bought a Bachmann SD40-2 and C40-8W in Conrail. Both Spectrum engines, ran decent. That was 1994 or something. Fast forward to 2001. I had just married my wife, and for some reason which is lost to history, I got back into trains. I bought 2 C44-9W's, fresh from Kato, and the accumulation really started in earnest.
An Atlas PRR double door boxcar purchased in a dime store in Valdosta, Georgia, 1969. I still run it and have made a few modifications.
I got an Atlas 4-6-2 for Christmas in 1969. I added an Atlas 2-8-2 early in 1970. The Mike is still operatable, but out of service due to my change to code 55 rail on the new layout. Alas the Pacific has been dead for many years due to frame curl. A friend has turned down the flanges on one of my Mikes to accomidate the code 55. Now I have to get the layout rebuilt and a decoder installed to test it. The old engines may not have the current level of detail, but they were rugged and run for ever. Glenn Samuel Mobile, AL
Wow I really don't remember the first one. But...I do know what my current oldest piece of equipment is. I have a PRR passenger car that I purchased in the mid 1980s from a hobby shop that was literally located in a barn on a farm a few miles from North Augusta, SC. So when you ask this car, "Were you raised in a barn?" it could answer "Yes!" That car has moved with me a half dozen times over the last 20+ years. I also have some junky locomotives that came from Toys-R-Us circa 1988. They run about an inch or two without having to nudge them, which for these locos, mean they are in the original condition at the time of purchase! Jamie
I started with an Atlas train set somewhere around 1970. My dad bought it for my birthday and he bought himself one as well. Mine had a Santa Fe E-8, a couple of cars, caboose, track and transformer. Craig
My parents bought me an Aurora Postage Stamp train for Christmas in 1967 or 1968. It was a B&O F unit, cars, caboose, power pack and track. The box opened like a book. The next year they bought me an Atlas PRR E8 passenger train. I later traded them to my brother's friend for HO equipment. As an adult, I regretted it and I did manage to get the PRR passenger train back, still in the box.
My first N Scale piece was a Carnation Milk Car, I think it was Arnold or Minitrix? Anyways, I got it around 1972-73 after I finished my 4'x8' HO Scale layout. That was the turning point from HO to N for me. I had never seen N Scale before, and was totally blown away at how small the car was. I was hooked!
My first loco came in a set with a few cars and a power pack. I have lost track of the cars but the Rapido 0-6-0 (now a 2-6-0) is still on the layout and is numbered 1.
Disregarding ‘70s era stuff when I was a kid, my first locos when reentering the hobby were a pair of Atlas/Kato Gp 35s in Union Pacific colors.
The first N Scale setup I got was GP38 some Atlas code 60 track and a Atlas power pack when my ex was pregnant with our daughter.
My first piece of equipment was a MRC transformer in about 1975. The following week I was able to get a Minitrix engine. I got these from a store in Cincinnati Ohio called Swallens. It's gone, but I have good memories of getting toys there as a child.
I bought an Aurora (Minitrix) set in the summer of 1970 with the earnings from my first full time job. It had the Trix F unit in CPR, and 4 or 5 freight cars. Unfortunately, the paint didn't stand up on the diesel. David
Mintrix F9(7) and 3 cars with a caboose. Christmas present 1966 - came from WT Grants for $16. Still running it. Al
