Your first train set?

[Cowley]

Mine would be an oval of track nailed to an old flat door I believe. It had a point with a siding coming off it and some fencing made of nails with some cotton thread wound around it to look like wire.
Ballast was made of sawdust mixed with grey paint (a bit gooey for real ballast) and the grassy areas were just green spray paint.
Stock was a Hornby 0-4-0 with some four wheeled carriages and a few trucks including the ubiquitous 'Bolsover' open wagon and a tanker wagon. 1982.
Hours of fun
Anyone else?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Midnight Freight. It was a class 58 with 8 wagons, not sure if there was a siding with car ramp along with the oval of track

 

[shredder1]

Clockwork tin plate, Coronation Scot circa 1955, my life sort of went downhill from then :roll:

 

[sprinterguy]

In my very early years there were a couple of plastic efforts, and sufficient consecutive wooden Brio sets to build up quite an extensive network, and then have endless fun forming up different layouts every time it was brought out.

My first electric train set, though, was the Hornby Twin Train Set at Christmas 1995:
http://www.hornbyguide.com/item_details.asp?itemid=1441

It consisted of a circuit of track with a long passing loop, a class 47 loco in a fictitious Royal Mail livery with five 'modern image' wagons and a Pacer in the locally relevant Tyne and Wear PTE livery.

 

[richw]

I had a plastic set, which my mum found in her loft and my children now play with.

My first electric set was the same as Sprinterguy in the mid 90s

 

[sprinterguy]

My first electric set was the same as Sprinterguy in the mid 90s

Must have been a popular one at the time!

 

[eastdyke]

Hornby Dublo 3-rail EDP14 Tank Passenger Train set containing 2-6-4 BR lined black Std. Class 4 Tank Loco 80054, 3 x (tinplate) Suburban Coaches and an oval of track. Circa 1957. Sadly no longer with me!!

 

[dgl]

Hornby Intercity 225 with 91 Loco and 2 carriages (poss could have been 1) and DVT. Track was a simple oval.
Brought as a Christmas present from Toys 'R' Us in Poole (if you take your kids shopping for Christmas they know what they are going to get )

 

[Ash Bridge]

As eastdyke above, a secondhand Hornby Dublo 3 rail set which my dad acquired from a work colleague, it seemed quite extensive at the time but the only two locomotives I can recall are a Stanier Pacific (Duchess of Montrose?) I think, and an N2 tank engine.

 

[Cowley]

As eastdyke above, a secondhand Hornby Dublo 3 rail set which my dad acquired from a work colleague, it seemed quite extensive at the time but the only two locomotives I can recall are a Stanier Pacific (Duchess of Montrose?) I think, and an N2 tank engine.

I recently sold all three of the above named models, they were the two rail versions though. They were a friends and he'd had them since new. Best part of fifty years old and still working.
The Standard Tank was a really impressive model and nicely proportioned, a quick squirt of switch cleaner and it ran perfectly despite being in a mouldy box in his loft for years.

 

[Johnnie2Sheds]

Triang R.052 Jinty with solid wheels, Oval of Series 3 track with a siding and four Triang wagons with cast metal frames. Track laid on a piece of braced hardboard, that got laid on my bed. Power supplied from a 1950s Heyberd (sp?) battery charger and Triang controller. I remember you could see into metal box of the battery charger though the louvres. I played with that unattended age 4 or 5.

 

[GusB]

My first set contained a Lima Deltic in green with assorted wagons and some kind of container terminal (which I had completely forgotten about until I googled it). This was followed a couple of years later by the Hornby Freightmaster set (class 37).

 

[Ash Bridge]

I recently sold all three of the above named models, they were the two rail versions though. They were a friends and he'd had them since new. Best part of fifty years old and still working.
The Standard Tank was a really impressive model and nicely proportioned, a quick squirt of switch cleaner and it ran perfectly despite being in a mouldy box in his loft for years.

Just out of interest Mr C, can you remember if the Duchess was Montrose or was it Hamilton?

 

[TheEdge]

What a set

Still have bits of it hanging about 20 years later. Started it all, went from British OO to British N, then a break, then back to British OO and now I've finally settled on Continental N.

 

[richw]

Must have been a popular one at the time!

It was only available for about 18 months in the mid 90s. At a guess we may be similar ages to get the same set as our first!

 

[Cowley]

Just out of interest Mr C, can you remember if the Duchess was Montrose or was it Hamilton?

It was Montrose Mr Bridge. It was the most battered out of the three but still a bit of money and it still ran. Did the tooling for that and the others and up becoming Wrenn? I can't remember now but I had a Wrenn 8F and something else that I sold too. Quite a weighty package to post that's for sure.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Midnight Freight. It was a class 58 with 8 wagons, not sure if there was a siding with car ramp along with the oval of track

Had the same set, got it for Christmas as a 7 year old. 58001 in Red Stripe. This was the only Hornby set at the time which came with 2 points rather than 1- and it did have a car ramp and a goods shed, at least my version did. It took me several years to acquire more HAA hoppers to go with the one which was included in the set!

 

[Cowley]

What a set

Still have bits of it hanging about 20 years later. Started it all, went from British OO to British N, then a break, then back to British OO and now I've finally settled on Continental N.

Brilliant. The old Hornby tunnel was hilarious. You'd think the engineers would have just built the railway around that rather than go right through it?
Mind you, they must have been scratching their heads when they finished tunnelling and realised they were back where they started...

 

[Darandio]

This little beauty in 1982.

http://www.hornbyguide.com/item_year_details.asp?itemyearid=1154

Simple oval tacked to a piece of board. Felt like the biggest train set ever at the time.

 

[Cowley]

This little beauty in 1982.

http://www.hornbyguide.com/item_year_details.asp?itemyearid=1154

Simple oval tacked to a piece of board. Felt like the biggest train set ever at the time.

Working lights too. Excellent

 

[MaxB]

First model railway? Trix Twin, three rail system allowing you to run 2 engines at once. For a long time I only had a BR tank, then I purchased a green express engine which didn't like the sharp bends. I had the layout on a board built over the stairwell so it was very difficult to reach the far side. But still gave me a lot of fun. Long gone.

 

[Ianno87]

Technically, my first Hornby set was the plastic Thomas & Bertie battery-powered set: http://hornbythomastrains.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Bertie?file=Hornby_Thomas_and_Bertie_set.jpg

My first "proper" set was The Highlander (basic 0-4-0 loco and oval of track).

My brother had Midnight Freight and Intercity 225.

 

[507021]

Mine was the Hornby Virgin Trains 125 set. I still have it.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

A Lima Class 13 (13.012 I think) in green and a couple of trucks followed by acquirement of some Dublo coaches and a Triang "2 EPB". Also, a couple of Hornby lattice Home, Distant and junction signals which I regret giving away as at least the signal arms were metal...

Since them, I never looked back....:roll:

 

[70014IronDuke]

Triang R.052 Jinty with solid wheels, Oval of Series 3 track with a siding and four Triang wagons with cast metal frames. Track laid on a piece of braced hardboard, that got laid on my bed. Power supplied from a 1950s Heyberd (sp?) battery charger and Triang controller. I remember you could see into metal box of the battery charger though the louvres. I played with that unattended age 4 or 5.

Oooh, Series 3 track AND a SIDING ! We really are on a one-upmanship ride tonight, aren't we

I had to make do with the old standard track (plastic psuedo-ballast). I think my first loco was the Jinty (47606, which was a 6 Division locomotive until about 1961, when it went to Bletchley.) But I also had a Black Princess (46201) very early on, impossible to remember which was first. Probably 1956 Christmas, possibly 1957. I also got the LMS 3F quite quickly after and then .. I got a fourth. I think it must have been the sort-of SR 2-car EMU, which had the little bulb behind the V for Victoria (I suppose). Later I got the Brush 2 (which was a v poor runner) and the L1 4-4-0.

 

[Busaholic]

First model railway? Trix Twin, three rail system allowing you to run 2 engines at once. For a long time I only had a BR tank, then I purchased a green express engine which didn't like the sharp bends. I had the layout on a board built over the stairwell so it was very difficult to reach the far side. But still gave me a lot of fun. Long gone.

Mine too - my father was a train buff, a bit obsessive really, so when the train set came out, only once or twice a year as my mother considered it cluttered the place up, I hardly got a look-in. I do know that shops selling Trix were few and far between, so a trek across London to a shop in a parade opposite Southgate tube station was needed. I remember a black-liveried BR tank, but I think I (we!) had a couple of other engines too. I certainly remember engines falling off the track.

 

[gg1]

My first set contained a Lima Deltic in green with assorted wagons and some kind of container terminal (which I had completely forgotten about until I googled it). This was followed a couple of years later by the Hornby Freightmaster set (class 37).

That was the set I had too

A second oval with a Hornby 08, a steam 0-4-0 tank engine and a very random selection of wagons and coaches came later.

 

[AJM580]

Hornby Intercity set from about 1975, Hymek D7063 in blue, plus 3 MKII coaches and an oval of track.

 

[96tommy]

Hornby Smokey Joe set. Yet to see anything as fast as that.

 

[Howardh]

Not a train set as such, but I loved the Babbacombe cliff railway, and when I was about 9 Dad made me one! Same angle, carriages pulled on wires up/down rails (think he used 12v), magic! Used to play with it on the stairs and the beach was the bottom (sand on a towel...nothing like authenticity!) and the ticket-office at the top (box with a little man in...).