I never heard of Ron Hollander until I read the above post and replies, which inspired me to take a look at his article in the October, 2018 issue of the TCA Quarterly.
No question about it, Ron Hollander has a great writing style. I thoroughly enjoyed the article, which eloquently describes the allure of the Lionel Catalogues, especially in the late 1940s and early 1950s. For Ron, those catalogues had a greater impact on him than the trains themselves. He starts the article by saying: "I want to be buried with it," referring to the Lionel Catalogue, not the actual toy train depicted therein.
I had a different experience as a child. I vaguely remember getting a couple of those Postwar Lionel Catalogues, but they did not get me dreaming as much as seeing the trains in action on a high, scenicked layout, especially on the layout in the toy department at Macy's in NYC, and on the beautiful large basement layouts that two of my first cousins (who were older than me) had.
Ron Hollander's TCA Quarterly article is extremely well written, charming and very enjoyable. I also highly recommend it.
Arnold
