I had several wooden sets that my kids combined and it took over the whole floor! They really liked it up to the age of 8 and then moved on to Lego construction kits. Sadly, due to divorce, I never got the chance to introduce my sons to HO scale but I might get there as adults.
I started out with a Lionel set. Then swapped to an HO set a few years later. That grew until N scale showed up and I started that with a set also. On a side note, there was an article in MR mag back in the 80's or maybe 90's about a guy who had a N scale layout in an L configuration in his basement. He also had 2 girls who at the time were 6 & 8 I think. When they were a couple of years younger he rebuilt his layout and gave the kids the freedom to play on the front edge of the layout which included a bit of water front. Very little detailing and his buildings were all cheaper plastic kits on the front side too. He made sure the kids knew how to run it and what the rules were. Kids being kids they love to use their imagination and incorporated boats, planes, cars, and trucks. He said he always knew when they had been playing with it because the toys were spread all over the front of the layout in some unlikely places. They hadn't broken anything as of the writing the article.
My parents started me out with a set of Athearn blue box trains when I was 4 (under supervision) and over 25 years later they're still all there. I was just old enough to understand that they were trusting me with something special. Now that my own kid is almost two he plays with a wooden train set, but sometimes for a treat he gets to drive on my HO shelf.
Best HO starter sets you can still find in unopened condition is the President Choice set.🇨🇦Grocery Store(Loblaws)offer.locos were all Mehano overbuilt units.Ebay,Marketplace,Kijji. My 6060 from that.
Sometime in the late 70's or early 80's We got a Tyco Chatanooga (GP20) train set for the X-mas tree. I loved it but it would only come out at xmas and I would spend hours playing with it. I wanted a train I could play with all year long. I loved (at the time) steam engines and asked Santa every year for one. I finally got a steam engine set (Bachmann) when I was 8 years old. It was AWESOME! and the following X-Mas I got the Tyco Turbo Train which was basically a slot car on rails that could go through a loop and up a wall. When I say I was hooked at this point I am not lying. I have had either a model train sitting on display or a layout ever since... Even while I served in the Navy, I had one of my trains in my barracks room.
I'll never forget Christmas morning of 2003, the day I received the Lionel Riding the Rails Hobo Train set. My dad helped me build a table to set up all the track on. I was a very happy little lady that year. 😊
LOL Watching the bit about the Bachmann set reminded me of my Tyco set, the classic "Chatanooga Choo Choo" set with the EMD SD20(?) diesel locomotive. But what caught my attention was the re-railer. My set was designed with that piece being the "interface" for the power / throttle as well. I always thought it was supposed to be a road crossing! I went WAY out of my way to bury the wires so I could use it as such on my first layout, with the road crossing the rails at that point, because it makes a really good rail-road crossing! LOL Somehow I never figured out that it was actually designed to align the car's wheels with the rails... he he he. Now I want to dig that thing out of the box its in and set it up under the Christmas tree... :-) FYI, I was seven when I got this set. That was Christmas of 1977. Now you know how old of a child I am. :-)
I started off with the Santa Fe flyer. I found really quickly that I was not a fan of the ATSF, so moved to CSX, then BN, then BNSF, now Southern Pacific, all after 7 or 8 years. Fun fact: if you where to visit USS New Jersey (I cant say for any of the other Iowa Class battleships), you'll see a compass the Lionel made.
The wooden trains warm my heart ❤ The original ones were made by Skaneateles Handicrafters of Skaneateles New York by Marshal Larrabee beginning in the 1930s. The factory was only a couple miles from my childhood home in Skaneateles, New York, and my grandparents gifted me with one of these sets in the mid 60s (and in elementary school, I made craft items with lots of the donated wood scraps). In 1980 Skaneateles Handicrafters was sold to Habermaass GmbH (of Germany) and they still make these sets under the name T.C. Timber Trains. SH trains have also been sold by other companies, including PlaySkool.
0:38 I started with Thomas wooden Railway, mostly hand me downs from my older brothers who’s layouts I destroyed as a toddler. I still remember having a fit over loosing my Fearless Freddie in New York, he was just in a weird spot. Eventually I graduated to track master, which I still have along with Thomas wood, collected track master from the time I was 7 till I was 9 or 10 I think, lotta fun early track master. The first train set I got was a caterpillar g scale set from my Grandma. Not sure where it is but it came with a a generic Geep, boxcar, 2 flatcars and a caboose. My aunt later got me an old west 2-6-0 G scale set made my Lionel that took like 6 d cell batteries to power. It was a lot of fun. Into first grade, I got a G Scale Polar Express and I had to earn stickers for every piece of the set. Unfortunately it didn’t work so my dad had to fine tune it which was torture as an 8 year old. Last but not least, I had 2 generic classic toy train sets as a kid. One had a flat car the other had a hopper. I ran the 2 generic sets, with my g scale sets and track master simultaneously and it was awesome. After moving to Texas, my parents got me a Bachmann HO Chattanooga set, which I didn’t play with much. Finally in November of 2014, I got my first n scale engine a Kato Santa Fe F3, and here I am an avid n scale enthusiast but a small part of me wants some O scale, maybe a small switching layout one day could be fun.
I'm probably the odd man out. My first model train set was back in the late 60s, an Aurora Postage Stamp N scale Santa Fe passenger train. I've never owned a Lionel set, but I see how Lionel and the holidays go together with all of the advertising they did over the years.
We got my son Brio for Christmas and then got an expansion set of track for his third birthday coming up in February so he can have an expanded layout. also when he gets older he can have my old Micro Machines trains as long as he promises to treat them with the same care I did.
Was first introduced to model trains with 'N' scale. First set was a Tyco HO scale set. Main focus has always been HO. But I have a 1948 Lionel that runs around the Christmas tree every year. Also ave a 'G' scale set that my Dad found at Goodwill and bought for me. I have a Marx set in a box that I was given that I have never even ran. I pretty much have all of the scales covered.
This was great video on the different scales and best age groups for them . THANKS wish I had the room for O scale Lionel train layout maybe someday. GOD BLESS 🚂💖🚂💖🚂💖
Most of my O-scale traction tires are cracked, split and crumbling. Doesn't matter if they are in the box or sitting on the shelf. They need new tires every year because I live in the dry desert. I wonder if I store the tires in a vacuum sealing jar until I'm ready to run the long term storage trains.
Train sets for kids should always include a gondola and/or flat car to increase the interaction possibilities ex. loading legos, action figures or other toys onto the train.
I had the life-like Santa fe flyer, I loved it, when it worked, which is not for long, so I fell off, I loved geo Trax and I forget the name but a battery powered loco set, I got out the old kind life-like, and was reminded of how terrible it was, but at this point I watched your channel, and sams trains, and realized that model trains come ready, and aren't just a project, and decided to get an n scale set
Honestly, the classic 0-27/0-36 Lionel is the best option for a child to grow into because it's going to be the most familiar when they get older. You can also run the same locomotives and rolling stock with post-war T-style, K-Line style, FasTrack, even MTH rails and sometimes pre-war track. The 0-8-0 set featured is the perfect 0 scale starter kit that is kid friendly but I would personally use the classic die cast 4-4-2 Lionel Lines or the classic GP diesels that have the wired transformers in the set, it sort of forces kids to understand why not to destroy their toys. However the wooden sets and the battery operated sets with plastic tracks are the safest option for kids just for them have a model train to play with, my parents got me lead painted Thomas the Tank Engine wood trans as a child and I was more than happy expanding the playset.
Hi, I’m newly interested in model railroading and wondered if you had an email I could reach you? I’d love to ask a couple questions about being new to the hobby. Thanks so much! I love your videos!
Any particular reason why the 0 scale Lionel set is using a 3 rail track? I thought basically only Märklin H0 used that, and they do their best to hide the third rail. On this Lionel track the third track was very "present", thus I wonder if there is a particular reason for it. Prototypical in some way, or something.
Hello! Lionel has been 3rd rail powered a few years after it began. The middle rail is power and the outer rails serve as ground. This was done because it was the only real way to effectively prevent a short circuit on reversing loops at the time. The system became very popular and lionel has kept it.
@@DIYDigitalRailroad Thanks for answering. Yes, it solves reversing loops, but it isn't pretty, IMHO. Especially not the original "M track" like look and feel.
@@Trotters79 Lionel first and foremost is a toy train company, not a model train company like Markiln. They go for play value first over realism. It has only been in the past 30 years that Lionel started to make more realistic models with their Odyssey, Legacy, and Vision Lines. Now why do they keep the third rail? They want all their products to remain cross-compatible throughout time so older stuff can run with newer stuff. I know of no company that tries to do this which I admire them for in a world that mindlessly consumes and throws things away. With Lionel you can buy new stuff too, but your old stuff will still work. The third rail for Lionel has become an icon for that brand.
