My Dad
My Dad in the 1960's.
Two Lionel Sear's sets.
Still have them.
I guess it was my dad who set up the trains in the 1960's around Christmas time in the basement in Stratford CT. I got to liking O gauge trains and 031 track & 022 switches, which I later learned how to wire up before moving from Stratford in 1969 to Reading PA.
Later found out my grandfather worked for the Reading Company as a building maintenance man, grandpa was very good at home repairs. So I have a liking for the Reading railroad.
I have two pre war sets that are my dad's; one has a 249E & 2225T tender(freight set) and the other is a passenger set(three cars) with a 224E & metal (non-whistling)tender.
My dad bought me a freight set in the 1960's that had a magna-traction engine with 027 track, I have a few pieces of that set left as I sold most of it.
I have been collecting a lot of Reading Company & reading Lines items in O gauge.
Lee Fritz
1955; I was 7 years old. Only child; comfortable working-class.
The usual - my father is to blame for ALL of this. Plus, my mother, who was anything but
a sissy, and liked her son being a normal boy. I played baseball, "army", had a go-kart
at 12, flirted with the neighborhood girls, and liked my 4X8 Lionel layout - which my
mother did not mind in the corner of the dining room, and it was there 365/7. I NEVER
had a "Christmas" layout or track under the tree. I had a layout.
It was prehistoric "hi-rail", and had sidings, spurs, roads, buildings (scratch built by my father, and built well, though he was not a modeler, as such). It had a control panel and
an on/off switch. If I wanted to run (and switch) trains behind my 2055 Hudson, I sat
down, turned it on and ran it for 5 minutes or an hour, then turned it off and did something else. No set-up/tear-down. Easy. Too easy.
Anyway. I still have all that stuff except for the table that was re-purposed many years
ago when the trains were put away, replaced by a drivers license and a '65 Dodge Coronet.
It's all my parents' fault. They have cost me a fortune.
Originally Posted by D500:
...my father is to blame for ALL of this. Plus, my mother, who was anything but
a sissy, and liked her son being a normal boy. I played baseball, "army", had a go-kart at 12, flirted with the neighborhood girls, and liked my 4X8 Lionel layout - which my mother did not mind in the corner of the dining room, and it was there 365/7. I NEVER had a "Christmas" layout or track under the tree. I had a layout.
Hmmm... I confess that I retroactively envy you, my friend.
I am the son of Toy Train Collector Paul Bidonde, and I cut my teeth on #1, #2, Standard and OO gauge trains in his collection. Every year at Christmas, my father put a loop of track around the perimeter of our living room, with a siding in front of the fireplace. Behind the Christmas tree sat a big Lionel tinplate mountain. Our cat liked to sleep in the tunnel, and more than once he had a closeup of a standard gauge train. We ran Lionel, Ives, Dorfan, Boucher, Voltamp, Bing, American Flyer, Marklin, Erector, and others I have forgotten. It was fun putting Christmas tree lights in the engine's headlights, and draping tinsel across the tracks.
I remember going to sleep at night listening to the steam commuter trains whistling for the Tulip Avenue Crossing in Floral Park. Trolley cars are another interest, and I have memories of riding the cars in Brooklyn on trips with my father.
I didn't stand a chance, its in the blood. Great Grandpa had a layout, and his son in law, my Grandpa had numerous big layouts.Gramps was a huge collector, and my biggest mentor. My first train was bought for me before I was born. Never fully forgotten, at least out for the holidays. I've had other hobbies too, but knew the trains would beat them all out eventually
even the old cars go first 
