What was your first real model railway loco and do you still have it?

[MalcolmInN]

Every now and then he will see a model he used to have and say "I used to have one of those"   :'(

That is so sad !
but look on the bright side, you have his birthday & xmas present list all sown up for the next ##years

Mine was "Sir Nigel Gresley" Hornby Dublo 3-rail, xmas present and yep, still got it ! Also I still have several other Dublo birthday/xmas presents from that era as well as the Dublos I swapped an extensive bird's egg collection for.
( !!! eeeek, well it was a long looong time ago when young people spent lots of time roaming fields and hedgerows and did that sort of thing: at least I can keep these models whereas the egg collection would have become an embarrassment ! )

I am wondering about the thread title - - what would be an un-real model 

PS. My wife had a Hornby clockwork set but sadly no longer  :'( boohoo.

[D1042 Western Princess]

My first N gauge was a Poole BR Blue Western Gauntlet that i bought mail order in 1994. I still have it, mint in the box it was posted in. It was supposed to be a one off, but ended up sparking my rather more extensive collection, that now includes 30-odd Westerns and a whole lot of other classes too.

"30 Westerns    Impressive.
Well done.

[Roy L S]

Triang English Electric Type 3 D6830 and three Pullmans in 00 making up the Intercity Express set (About 1967 I would think) all long gone..

First N loco a Lima Class 31 in BR Green about 1975, didn't last very long, went to the great scrapyard in the sky...

Roy

[Skyline2uk]

Farish Class 56 Triple Grey Construction as part of the "Size 3" set.

Christmas 1993 I should think. No longer have the wagons but the old girl is still with me.

She has been to BR Bob twice, dropped of a board circa 1m and still just about going.

Now I have the Dapol 56 her faults are plain to see, but will never part with her. Currently arranging an alternative use as a "display piece".

Skyline2uk

[jivebunny]

Mine was the classic Hornby Dublo Southern R1 Class, numbered 31337 and manufactured a good 25 years before I was born! It was also my dad's first locomotive back in the early 60s and he handed it down to me when I was three or four years old, just before the same Christmas I received my first train set.

It's seen a huge amount of use from both my young dad and young me so is in "not quite mint" condition, but I recently gave it a bit of a dust-off and a well-deserved clean.

It's now found a new home away from the dust in a Jouef display case, the base of which it's pictured on.

Still works.

JB

[d-a-n]

Thanks for sharing all of your first locos, a real trip down memory lane!

Dad collected Hornby and Bassett Lowke O gauge clockwork and live steam locos which I was privileged to play with from a young age. I reckon my first model railway loco was an 0-4-0 clockwork Thomas The Tank Engine although I don't remember having the full set with the two carriages.



My first electric loco was the apple green Flying Scotsman set and was for me, at 6 or 7 years old, the definitive image of this locomotive - I was all sorts of confused when I saw models of this same loco in a shade of dark green, or with a different dome, or with smoke deflectors, or with a red name plate, or with a different chimney, or with TWO tenders...



I always yearned after some N gauge but no-one we knew had any and it was an exotic mystery although this has been addressed now that I have enough pocket money to cover the costs!

[D1042 Western Princess]

I suppose mine was the old classic of the 1950s, the Tri-Ang 'Jinty' in BR black. It was in a set with two coaches and some Series 2 track. There were also a few wagons, a point or two, a few lengths of plain track and (of course) a H&M 'Minor' controller (or transformer as we called them then) all sent by 'Father Christmas'. In reality mum and dad, various aunts and uncles etc had got together and purchased a few bits but as I recall when all laid down on a board (6x4) was a very nice present and one I played with for years, other bits being added as time went by.
This was all for Christmas (about 1958) and I can't remember not having a 'train set' from that day to this. Of course all that went to the scrap yard many years ago.
My first N Gauge loco was the GraFar 08 in 1979 which too has now been disposed of but only last year when it finally stopped working while being used to test the electrics on my present layout.

[Bealman]

A Hornby clockwork similar to MinzaPint, but with a tender in BR green, followed by Lone Star push along stuff, followed by a Triang Britannia with smoke and magnahesion, followed by Peco Jeanette 009 on an Arnold chassis, before finally arriving at N gauge and Pennsylvania diesel set. Finally swapping to British prototype and acquiring a Minitrix Sir Nigel.

Phew! 

Don't have any of 'em anymore.

[Chetcombe]

Mine was a Hornby Minitrix Warship D823 Hermes in BR Blue. Not sure of the year, but probably early / mid 1970s. My dad bought it for me in Raynes Park not long after we moved from inner London to Surrey, so it could be as early as 1973!

Yes, I do still have it but sadly it is a non runner. I do still run sister loco D819 Intrepid, which has been converted to DCC and is still running well.

[Greybeema]

Triang Hornby 46201 Princess Elizabeth. C. 1972. I repainted it from LMS Maroon to BR Green.  Yes I still have it proudly displayed in the case.  Last time I tried it (about 15 years ago) it still worked, as did the chuff noise and the smoke generator...

[PGN]

For my 12th birthday, in 1979, I got my first model railway items. We bought them whilst on holiday in Helston. A Graham Farish "General Purpose" 0-6-0T in LMS black no. 7313, six Peco trucks (assorted private owner opens and vans, including a Ffyfes banana van, a Colman's mustard van, a Saxa salt wagon, a Shaka salt wagon and a couple of opens), a Peco LMS brake van, a Hammant & Morgan "Clipper" controller, and some track.

Pocket-money additions included a few LMS coaches (the 4-wheelers were only £1.05 in those days), a Lima 4F in LMS black no 4547, and a Farish class 4P in LMS black no 1118 (I think all the birthday and Christmas money went towards that one). Friends bought me wagons for my birthday, which was very irritating. What was I to do with a Lima NCB 15' coal wagon? It didn't belong in an LMS era goods train, but I could hardly show ingratitude ... and they MEANT well.

Anyway, then along came home computers, the railway fell into disuse, and I sold it all to make a bit more room ...

[D1042 Western Princess]

Friends bought me wagons for my birthday, which was very irritating. What was I to do with a Lima NCB 15' coal wagon? It didn't belong in an LMS era goods train, but I could hardly show ingratitude ... and they MEANT well.

I know the feeling - a favourite aunt gave me a Christmas present for my 'train set'  !
Sadly by that time I was modelling N gauge, BR blue Western Region and the loco was an OO gauge LMS Jinty........
But a nice thought, all the same.

[johnlambert]

My first electric train was from a Hornby set.  I can't remember the set name but the loco was an 0-4-0 Caledonian 'Pug' in red livery with the name Desmond.  I still have it, in a box somewhere.  You can just see it in the photo below, in front of the Jinty.



All the other Hornby stuff in the photo was sold on Ebay.  I was a bit sorry to see it go but meeded the space.

[Webbo]

Here is my first train set although not the one I actually owned many years ago. Is it real? I have an Observers Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain (revised edition 1962) that list V-2 locos as having numbers running up to 60985 and the B-1 locos starting from number 61000. Both LNER 4-6-0s. My Hornby O gauge clockwork has a number (60985) that fits in the gap. Suspicious? Doesn't look much like a 4-6-0, but the chimney does look LNER.

[smg id=28182 type=preview align=center caption="First Hornby train set for me"]

Second train is an interesting one. It is a Maurlyn model of a New South Wales Government Railways C38 + 2 coaches. This company started manufacturing trains in Sydney in 1951 but was dead in the water by the end of the 50s apparently. Unfortunately, I don't have this set anymore.

[smg id=28183 type=preview align=center caption="Maurlyn C38 + coaches"]

The beginning of me into model railway modelling was the Xmas present of a Trix Twin Pytchley trainset when I was 8. This lead in the years following to the acquisition of a TTR Britannia, Class 5, and a Warship which were all fine models for the time.

[smg id=28184 type=preview align=center caption="Trix Twin Pytchley train"]

Finally, I arrived at N scale in the late 70s starting off with a Minitrix K4. I'm still with North American although I have shifted from Santa Fe to Canadian Pacific.

[smg id=28185 type=preview align=center caption="Minitrix K4 in N scale"]

Webbo

[Wonham]

I wonder if there are other members of this forum who remember their very first model loco and still have it?

I still have my first loco, bought with my pocket money, a Lone Star 000 push along Jinty. It is over fifty years old, a bit battered and has survived countless house and country moves. I think it must have influenced my decision to model in N gauge.

Hornby City of London in 1965 I no longer have the train my father gave her away on me leaving home!!