Close. Fun to see those items. Mine, acquired new late in 1972, was Burlington Northern, with power pack. The BN merger was 1970, so it was produced somewhere between 1970 and 1972.
When I received the A1G set, my brother got an AHM set like the one pictured, except Santa Fe instead of New Haven. The flat car with autos and IC boxcar were the same in that set. The third car was another flat with two "Freightliner" containers-- early COFC! Never mind that the prototype paint scheme of the containers was likely for British Railways...
Thinking of earlier times, I was recalling that in the Chicago area where I grew up in the 1970s, N Scale trains could also be found at area department stores and even some sporting goods stores. Just about all towns had a bicycle/plastic model/slot car/model rocket/model train hobby shop with new hobby shops opening up as the suburbs grew. It was a good time to be a kid.
My HO first train was given by my Uncle in 1967 when he was chaining to N scale. In 1984 Cynthia gave me my first N scale train. She used her last maternity check to buy it. Still have both trains. Joe HO scale first train.
In the mid seventies, the Woolworth store at Apache Mall in Rochester, MN had a bunch of N scale trains at cut-rate prices. They had the layout expander sets from AHM with four switches (the same ones as the Atlas switches, at the time, only with aluminum rail), about 8 - 10 5" straight tracks, and some curves, for 3 bucks. I used some of those on the two level layout I had in the seventies-eighties. I remember I got my first MRC RSD-15 (B&O) there for six dollars! It ran/runs smooth as silk and I have never reached the limit of its pulling capacity. I'm pretty sure I got my MRC C-420 there, too. Yeah, there was a thing about bicycle shops turning into bicycle/train shops. Ralph's Bicycle Shop in Mason City, Iowa was one. I bought some cars there. Thanks for the kind words about my site, Dan. It's hard to believe it's approaching 20 years old. And thanks, George, for hosting it since 2008! And thanks to everybody for sharing their memories. The early N scale days were so exciting. Doug
Really enjoying this thread. My first set was an O Lionel and my second was a Tyco set with a Santa Fe 0-4-0. Still have the trains but not the original boxes. It was early 80's when I made the turn to N and never a set, just piece meal.
My first ever train set was Lionel, one of the limited edition set for the year I was born. Since it was Milwaukee Road, I have a soft spot in my heart for the old Milky Way. Here's a set like it. https://www.ebay.com/p/2256086471 My first N scale trains were Atlas. They weren't a set, but rather bought individually from a hobby shop, a group of 40 and 50' boxcars as well as an RS-11 in BN. I don't have pics of that first setup, though. Sold the engine years ago for another project, the cars as well. In fact, I think some of them helped fund my camera setup. In a way, then, they live on!
How do you like that. There is a Montgomery Ward Treble-O-Lectric basic train set on eBay, catalog number 48-3015 (my deluxe set was 48-3016), with a Santa Claus Christmas gift tag attached to a boy named Philip from "Daddy and Mommy". Christmas of 1962, the same year I got mine. It looks like it was never used. Doug
My first Atlas stuff I began buying in 1967 were individual pieces too, the first being the red Norfolk Southern composite gondola. It wasn't until a few years later I bought three sets from the hobby shop, a Santa Fe passenger set with an E8 and three corrugated side cars, one freight set with an EMD SD45 demonstrator, and another freight set with a Burlington GP40. This was all first generation Atlas and I still have it all. The Milwaukee Road was the railroad in town here, too. At one time, Austin was a fairly major Milwaukee Road division point with pretty much the works for operation. A roundhouse, engine house, water tower, coal tower, etc. A long pedestrian bridge was built across the yard in 1895 and was there until the nineties when it was dismantled and short sections were used as small bridges over streams in Todd park and the Hormel Nature Center. Here is a link to a picture of it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainchaserpics/4518935197/in/photostream/ I used to sit up there for hours on my bike, in the sixties, watching them switch cars. Doug
