What was your first trainset/locomotive?

[Iskra]

Obviously, we all started somewhere. So what was your first foray into railways?

Mine was a Lima Motorail Express train set in the early 1990's. It was a Dutch liveried 26 (I believe) with an Intercity MK1, an Intercity GUV and motorail wagon with cars. Also included was a loading ramp. I remember the 26 having a Highland Westie on the side. It was probably purchased mainly for the play value, but looking back now I think I had pretty good taste in traction and it possibly subconsciously partly explains my fondness for Scottish railway modelling, despite being from West Yorkshire and having no Scottish connections!

 

[Cowley]

I think it was the little GWR 101 tank and a couple of four wheeled coaches but it’s such a long time ago that I can’t properly remember.
I’ll ask my father tomorrow and see if he knows.

My dad also made me a board up with an oval of track and a siding complete with green painted scenery and paint mixed with sawdust for ballast.
it also had fencing made with nails and cotton and I think I may have had a couple of extra trucks too.

There’s a slightly embarrassing story about this actually...
About three weeks before Christmas (I must have been about 8 years old) I was talking to my mum as she was getting something out of their wardrobe and I spotted the unmistakable Hornby boxes right up on the top shelf. I couldn’t believe my eyes and became ridiculously excited, at which point my mum realising that my Christmas Day surprise was about to be ruined did the only thing a rational person would do when faced with such a dilemma and told me that she was storing them for Christmas as a favour for the parents of my best friend (and arch nemesis): Flipping Gavin Bodenham!
I’d wanted a train set for ages, and he didn’t even like trains!?

I spent the next three weeks walking around the house like I was in mourning and I must have completely done my poor mothers head in...

Anyway I added to the railway bit by bit over the next couple of years and learned how to make scenery with papier-mâché etc. I can’t remember what became of it now but for most of my life I’ve had some kind of railway to tinker with somewhere.

 

[Gloster]

Around 1967 or 1968 my parents bought a mixed collection of 00 bits being sold off by another family and my father put the track up in the shed. Over the next couple of years I was given the various items of motive power: a red Princess Royal, a 3F 0-6-0T, a three-car SR EMU and an EM2; the last could work off the model OHL and was the pride of the line. There may have been a fifth loco, possibly a Trans-Continental switcher, or that may have been one of the secondhand items I acquired subsequently.

My parents probably regretted it later as I went straight from a moderately well-known public school to working as a cleaner for BR. I don’t regret it one bit.

 

[sprinterguy]

I started off with the Hornby 'Twin Train Set' for Christmas in 1995. It included a class 47 in a fictitious parcels livery with assorted 'modern image' wagons and a Pacer in Tyne and Wear PTE yellow livery. Living in Sunderland, the TWPTE Pacers were daily performers passing the front of the house on Durham Coast services, and I was besotted with the parcels and freshly painted RES 47s I used to see at Newcastle, so it was the ideal train set for me. It also comprised "a loop and a half" of track (Complete circuit plus extended passing loop) and a goods shed, so it gave a bit more than the basic oval and short siding that was (and is) the Hornby train set standard.

 

[Iskra]

I think it was the little GWR 101 tank and a couple of four wheeled coaches but it’s such a long time ago that I can’t properly remember.
I’ll ask my father tomorrow and see if he knows.

My dad also made me a board up with an oval of track and a siding complete with green painted scenery and paint mixed with sawdust for ballast.
it also had fencing made with nails and cotton and I think I may have had a couple of extra trucks too.

There’s a slightly embarrassing story about this actually...
About three weeks before Christmas (I must have been about 8 years old) I was talking to my mum as she was getting something out of their wardrobe and I spotted the unmistakable Hornby boxes right up on the top shelf. I couldn’t believe my eyes and became ridiculously excited, at which point my mum realising that my Christmas Day surprise was about to be ruined did the only thing a rational person would do when faced with such a dilemma and told me that she was storing them for Christmas as a favour for the parents of my best friend (and arch nemesis): Flipping Gavin Bodenham!
I’d wanted a train set for ages, and he didn’t even like trains!?

I spent the next three weeks walking around the house like I was in mourning and I must have completely done my poor mothers head in...

Anyway I added to the railway bit by bit over the next couple of years and learned how to make scenery with papier-mâché etc. I can’t remember what became of it now but for most of my life I’ve had some kind of railway to tinker with somewhere.

A very geographically logical start for yourself! It sounds like you had a good little set up That's a funny story!

Around 1967 or 1968 my parents bought a mixed collection of 00 bits being sold off by another family and my father put the track up in the shed. Over the next couple of years I was given the various items of motive power: a red Princess Royal, a 3F 0-6-0T, a three-car SR EMU and an EM2; the last could work off the model OHL and was the pride of the line. There may have been a fifth loco, possibly a Trans-Continental switcher, or that may have been one of the secondhand items I acquired subsequently.

My parents probably regretted it later as I went straight from a moderately well-known public school to working as a cleaner for BR. I don’t regret it one bit.

You had some good stuff there! I heartily approve of the LMS stuff and the EM2, amazing that you could run if off OHL too! My initial collection was equally eclectic: a highland tank loco, Southern Schools class and carriages, IC 225, Eurostar, GNER/MML HST's, a Britannia... I think I was attracted to the colourful, fast, poweful and exotic

I started off with the Hornby 'Twin Train Set' for Christmas in 1995. It included a class 47 in a fictitious parcels livery with assorted 'modern image' wagons and a Pacer in Tyne and Wear PTE yellow livery. Living in Sunderland, the TWPTE Pacers were daily performers passing the front of the house on Durham Coast services, and I was besotted with the parcels and freshly painted RES 47s I used to see at Newcastle, so it was the ideal train set for me. It also comprised "a loop and a half" of track (Complete circuit plus extended passing loop) and a goods shed, so it gave a bit more than the basic oval and short siding that was (and is) the Hornby train set standard.

Very good, I remember always wanting a slightly later version of that set that came with a Northern Spirit liveried pacer. Yes, it does sound like a great introductory layout, you don't see many like that anymore.

 

[sprinterguy]

Very good, I remember always wanting a slightly later version of that set that came with a Northern Spirit liveried pacer. Yes, it does sound like a great introductory layout, you don't see many like that anymore.

Yeah I recall that in the Hornby catalogue circa 2000, the "Spirits of the North" set: Northern Spirit Pacer alongside a Virgin liveried 47 with a pair of mark 2s. Looked like a decent set, though my childhood layout was well established by that point after five years of additions each Christmas and birthday.

I think it was the little GWR 101 tank and a couple of four wheeled coaches but it’s such a long time ago that I can’t properly remember.
I’ll ask my father tomorrow and see if he knows.

My dad also made me a board up with an oval of track and a siding complete with green painted scenery and paint mixed with sawdust for ballast.
it also had fencing made with nails and cotton and I think I may have had a couple of extra trucks too.

There’s a slightly embarrassing story about this actually...
About three weeks before Christmas (I must have been about 8 years old) I was talking to my mum as she was getting something out of their wardrobe and I spotted the unmistakable Hornby boxes right up on the top shelf. I couldn’t believe my eyes and became ridiculously excited, at which point my mum realising that my Christmas Day surprise was about to be ruined did the only thing a rational person would do when faced with such a dilemma and told me that she was storing them for Christmas as a favour for the parents of my best friend (and arch nemesis): Flipping Gavin Bodenham!
I’d wanted a train set for ages, and he didn’t even like trains!?

I spent the next three weeks walking around the house like I was in mourning and I must have completely done my poor mothers head in...

Anyway I added to the railway bit by bit over the next couple of years and learned how to make scenery with papier-mâché etc. I can’t remember what became of it now but for most of my life I’ve had some kind of railway to tinker with somewhere.

That's a great story. The things our parents did to keep the big surprise hidden until the big day!

 

[hexagon789]

A Flying Scotsman Hornby set for Xmas many years ago. The first one I purchased myself was a Lima GNER HST from a model shop in Carlisle, I often wonder if it's still there.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

A Hornby Class 12 (08) 13012, a circle of track and a Hammond transformer/controller (and very heavy it was too). I remember a Hornby bracket semaphore signal - with metal arms - not the tacky plastic ones they do now

My parents bought me some wagons and as a kid (think I was about 7 or 8), which I filled up with water or stones from the garden to make up a freight train

 

[beardedbrit]

My first, in the early '50s was a Hornby clockwork '0' gauge tank engine(I think a model 101) with a couple of coaches and some extra track and points. I remember my handyman uncle made a wooden station platform for me. In the mid 50s I graduated to a Hornby-Dublo set - the BR Standard 4MT tank. with saved pocket money and presents I added quite a lot of extra goods wagons and track, 3 sets of points and a level crossing, though there was never a good place in our house for a permanent layout.

The set stayed in the family for many years - inherited first by my cousin (12 years younger than me), and then to my nephew in the 1980s. In the early 2000s my brother-in-law asked me what i wanted to do with it as he was dejunking and moving house; since I was not living in the UK I said 'sell it'. He sold it for a very decent amount indeed and we had a fine meal on the proceeds !

A couple of years ago we visited Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland and I was chuffed to see the very same set in a room decorated as a 1950s era nursery - my American wife was very amused at my swooning over it.

 

[midland1]

Hornby Dublo 3 rail N2 0-6-2 set with 2 maroon sub. coaches plus some goods wagons to go with it. Would be about 1960.

 

[cossie4i]

Hornby LNER B12 goods set with 7 wagons and a oval of track and siding for Christmas 1979.
I still have the B12 + around another 120 odd engines.
Not really collected anything since the mid 90s but I still buy the occasional loco, the latest one being the Pink Hattons 66 which was the first loco I drove after being TUPED to Freightliner.
That was the first loco i had purchased in 5 years. Previous to that it was a 6 car 395 as I used to drive them until January 2015.

 

[RyanOPlasty]

Hornby Dublo 2-Rail N2 goods train set and two Kitmaster Mk1 coaches built by my dad - 1961

 

[Iskra]

A Flying Scotsman Hornby set for Xmas many years ago. The first one I purchased myself was a Lima GNER HST from a model shop in Carlisle, I often wonder if it's still there.

I was expecting a lot more answers to be Flying Scotsman! I had a Hornby GNER HST, that livery is still one of my all time favourite HST liveries

 

[36270k]

Christmas 1960
Triang 46205 Princess Victoria and 2 Pullman cars ( Jane and Car No 79 )

 

[AM9]

I was given the basic (ex Rovex) trains set: A black Princess and two maroon coaches with an oval of track and a switched bell-battery controller. The following year it was 'upgraded' to a folded figure of 8 with a siding on a board (6' x 4') with some goods vehicles and two 3F jintys. Power was provided by a no-name 12V DC power unit. The track added was the newer Triang 'standard' type which needed a couple of converter tracks to mate with the by then obsolete but similar design Rovex track. That was all back in the early '50s.
Later in the '70s my son and I set up a layout with some stock from a variety of manufacturers.
Locos: A Hornby class 47, an Airfix class 31 and an Airfix Royal Scot.
Coaching: Some Lima MKII coaches, three or four Mainline MKIs and a Hornby MKI buffet car, - about 12 in total. The Airfix class 31 could haul them all with ease, - not the most accurate model of the class but it was mechanically very competant for a mass produced toy. Track was mostly Peco Streamline with a couple of GF Formoway points.

 

[Non Multi]

1980's Hornby Clockwork set comprising of a bright red 0-4-0 tank engine and 3 all-plastic 4 wheel wagons (2 open and 1 tanker), with 8 curved track pieces to form a circle. Was supposed to be a gift for someone else, but I was offered it and unsurprisingly accepted it.

 

[hexagon789]

I was expecting a lot more answers to be Flying Scotsman! I had a Hornby GNER HST, that livery is still one of my all time favourite HST liveries

I know right?

It seems to be the quintessential answer to give!

I think the next thing I received would've been a Bachmann Virgin Voyager after the HST set.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Not sure of the year now, but think it was Christmas 1988 with me aged 6. I'd been begging my parents for a train set for Christmas for months. On that morning, I opened up a big box containing the Hornby "Midnight Freight" set which had 58001 in Railfreight red stripe livery, and about 7 or 8 wagons (only one of which, an MGR hopper, was appropriate for the 58). The track was a fairly large oval with two sidings and an uncoupler, with a plastic goods shed completing the package.

That afternoon was spent with my dad, him teaching me how to pin the track to the large chipboard base he'd had hidden in the shed. Over the next few years both my older brother and I slowly built up a collection and established a fairly good layout up in the loft. With hindsight we did pretty well considering our ages- I was about 14 when we started to lose interest and for many years I didn't even think about modelling. My older brother did keep the hobby going once he got settled in his own place, and served as custodian to the collection.

In the last year I've got back into the hobby myself, but the old techniques are quite ring-rusty and it's taking me a while to get set up. I have now been reunited with the aforementioned 32-year-old 58, and plan to at least try to convert it for DCC if possible.

 

[Gloster]

I was expecting a lot more answers to be Flying Scotsman! I had a Hornby GNER HST, that livery is still one of my all time favourite HST liveries

Could it be that the Flying Scotsman set looked a bit expensive and a lot of parents’ attitude would have been, “Let’s get him (very occasionally her) a starter set and if (s)he is still interested next Christmas/birthday we’ll get him/her something bigger then”?

EDIT: In my day I don’t think the Flying Scotsman model had been released. Did it first appear in 1969?

 

[Iskra]

Not sure of the year now, but think it was Christmas 1988 with me aged 6. I'd been begging my parents for a train set for Christmas for months. On that morning, I opened up a big box containing the Hornby "Midnight Freight" set which had 58001 in Railfreight red stripe livery, and about 7 or 8 wagons (only one of which, an MGR hopper, was appropriate for the 58). The track was a fairly large oval with two sidings and an uncoupler, with a plastic goods shed completing the package.

That afternoon was spent with my dad, him teaching me how to pin the track to the large chipboard base he'd had hidden in the shed. Over the next few years both my older brother and I slowly built up a collection and established a fairly good layout up in the loft. With hindsight we did pretty well considering our ages- I was about 14 when we started to lose interest and for many years I didn't even think about modelling. My older brother did keep the hobby going once he got settled in his own place, and served as custodian to the collection.

In the last year I've got back into the hobby myself, but the old techniques are quite ring-rusty and it's taking me a while to get set up. I have now been reunited with the aforementioned 32-year-old 58, and plan to at least try to convert it for DCC if possible.

Later on I ended up with that set as a hand me down from my cousin. The 58 was a good runner, although I didn't appreciate its aesthetics so much at the time!

Could it be that the Flying Scotsman set looked a bit expensive and a lot of parents’ attitude would have been, “Let’s get him (very occasionally her) a starter set and if (s)he is still interested next Christmas/birthday we’ll get him/her something bigger then”?

EDIT: In my day I don’t think the Flying Scotsman model had been released. Did it first appear in 1969?

Quite possibly. Also space may have been a consideration, an express tender loco and 3 carriages looks a bit out of place on a starter layout whereas a tank engine and a few wagons looks a bit better. It also probably looks a bit more like a serious model than something to play with.

 

[CR165022]

Mine was the bachmann Chiltern 168
I remember just seeing it and that fact that I saw them a lot and said, I want that.
It's still a good runner and is still my favourite model that I have
I think I was around 6-8 at the time?
Shame they are so hard to find nowadays

 

[Bevan Price]

Don't remember how old I was, but my first train was probably second hand, O guage, with a "freelance" clockwork 0-4-0 loco plus a couple of crude metal coaches and enough track to make a small "circle". It was eventually passed on to a family friend with a young child. By that time, I had got a Hornby Dublo "Duchess of Atholl" (3 rail) plus 2 LMS coaches..... A later addition was the first version of the 3 rail Hornby Dublo "Bristol Castle" -- surely one of the worst models they ever made, with a feeble motor that could just about move 3 or 4 coaches at a very low speed.

 

[Darandio]

This which was R546. Set up on a chipboard base when I was 3 years old, when it wasn't used it was stood up behind the sideboard.

Wish I still had the damn thing.

 

[Cowley]

This which was R546. Set up on a chipboard base when I was 3 years old, when it wasn't used it was stood up behind the sideboard.

Wish I still had the damn thing.

View attachment 85492

Wow. That’s the sort of thing you’d see for sale in the 1980s and be really desperate to own.
Working lights too.
Reminds me of those old Hornby Adverts with Bernard Cribbins...

 

[JohnMcL7]

My first train set was the Hornby Intercity 225 even though I hadn't seen one in real life as I thought they looked so good that was the first one I wanted.

 

[Iskra]

Mine was the bachmann Chiltern 168
I remember just seeing it and that fact that I saw them a lot and said, I want that.
It's still a good runner and is still my favourite model that I have
I think I was around 6-8 at the time?
Shame they are so hard to find nowadays

You’re making me feel old with that one I’m also surprised there hasn’t been more Chiltern stuff.

This which was R546. Set up on a chipboard base when I was 3 years old, when it wasn't used it was stood up behind the sideboard.

Wish I still had the damn thing.

View attachment 85492

That looks a modern classic! A great starter set.

My first train set was the Hornby Intercity 225 even though I hadn't seen one in real life as I thought they looked so good that was the first one I wanted.

I agree, I think the skirting on the DVT really helped the looks along with the tapered ends on the MK4’s.

- - - - -

I struggle to relate with some of the more classic mentions, but many of them look simple but also very elegant at the same time.

 

[SteveM70]

I think the first rolling stock I was given was a class 08 and some wagons, presumably Hornby as this would’ve been about 1975. One of the wagons was dark green and had A W DAY on it. My dad (with me “helping”) built a basic layout on a piece of 6’ x 3’ chipboard he’d acquired. I can vividly remember him spending ages scratchbuilding a house to sit in one corner, and watching him painstakingly cut out and stick on the tiles on the roof. He used to occasionally bring me home something from Barnby’s toy shop to add to it - I remember him giving me a buffer stop for the siding and being overjoyed at the surprise.

I think my second loco was a two tone green class 47. We used to go to Tywyn for our summer holidays (easy to get to by train; beach for my sister and my mum; Talyllyn for me and my dad) and there used to be a model shop in the little parade of shops down by the beach and every summer for 3 or 4 years they had one of these 47s going round and round in the window. The headcode on it was 1V03, I remember that like it was yesterday even though it’s over 40 years ago. Eventually I got one, in hindsight an expensive present given my parents’ financial circumstances at the time.

 

[birchesgreen]

Hornby Royal Mail train set, blue Class 37, two Mk2 coaches and a TPO. You could also set up the hook and grab thing around the loop. I think the second loco i got was an apple green Flying Scotsman.

 

[Darandio]

Wow. That’s the sort of thing you’d see for sale in the 1980s and be really desperate to own.
Working lights too.
Reminds me of those old Hornby Adverts with Bernard Cribbins...

That looks a modern classic! A great starter set.

Isn't it just.

And as I am in the process of trying to re-collect my childhood in terms of computers and computer games, i've decided I need this as well so i'm currently bidding on an identical set. Boxed and seems in very good condition, just how I remember it!

 

[Ianno87]

I had the plastic battery "Thomas and Bertie" Hornby set. An oval for each of Thomas and Bertie, which intersected each other at a level crossing and at a bridge.

First "proper" Hornby was "The Highlander" - Caledonian Railway 0-4-0 with two wagons, 4 wheel coach and the small oval of track.

My brother had the Class 58 "Midnight Freight" set and later the Intercity 225.