@Bob Bubeck posted:Our Gilbert Flyer family Christmas layout from 1956 ---
Bob
Glad to learn that several of you enjoyed the ’56 layout picture. Although the photo is almost self-explanatory, there is a nostalgic back story. Although Dad did the heavy stuff, this was the first year in which I did much of the work for the ‘platform’. We called them platforms rather than layouts in those days. It was easier for me to scurry under the layout to do the wiring than my father, who had first shown me the ropes. A big give away that this dates from the mid-50’s, aside from the S gauge AF (New Haven, Conn.) and Plasticville (Bachmann, Philadelphia, PA) looking next to new, is the copious use of Jefferson Sales (Norristown, PA) Easy Build mountain paper, a truly OSHA uncompliant product made with multi-colored Mauer-painted brown paper with mica loosely applied for ‘snow’. One first dampened the paper, then crunched it up, and finally uncrunched it before stapling the paper down. This process had to be done somewhere that could be easily vacuumed later because the mica scattered every which way in a metaphysical blizzard. I still laugh out loud at the memory. The trains and accessories were the accumulation of seven year’s Christmas gifts. My brother and I had a lot of fun running the Flyers with the Silver Rocket being the queen of the fleet. My nephew and I still possess most of what was on this platform. Another aspect that strikes me today when looking at that picture is that aside from some of the diecast figures everything on that layout down to the Life Like imitation grass was made here in the good ol’ USA.
Bob
