I'll begin this tale by saying in no way can I or do I blame my mother for making one of the great train related mistakes of all time because she was simply in way over her head. Let me explain, My father was severely wounded during WW II and died of his wounds at the tender age of 33 in 1953. My mother at age 29 was in essence a war time widow with three little children to raise which was more than a handful.
In any event, my paternal Grandfather was an engineer on the old Baltimore and Ohio railroad so consequently my Dad grew up loving trains. In the late 1940s before he passed he purchased an original Lionel 5x9 O Gauge Display layout from a hobby shop in northeast Philadelphia. I remember just about everything about that layout. It was completely pre-wired with boulevard lamps, semaphore, an operating milk car and an automatic gateman. The roadways were crisply painted in white bordered by perfectly manicured green dyed sawdust which adhered remarkably well to the layout. The layout was powered by a KW transformer. Curiously, the Lionel Set which ran on that layout was an 027 Gauge 1423W Freight set headed up by a die cast 1655 2-4-2 Columbia style steam locomotive. Our layout was set up only at Christmas time with the layout placed under the tree. Of course, running the trains on a well lit layout at night in a darkened room with only the tree lights on was nothing short of magical. The entire scene is indelibly etched in my memory.
For several years after my Dad died my brother, sister and I pestered my mother to set the layout up so we could run our lionel set at Christmas but no matter how hard she tried she was unable to correctly hook up the transformer to get the engine to run. I can remember her manipulating the wires in every possible sequence but it was all to no avail. Apparently, there were no instructions and the electrical connections were beyond her capability. My Mom so busy raising three children and working a full time job she simply did not have the time nor the money to have someone come in determine why the trains would not run. So, the layout and trains sat dormant from 1953 to 1959.
In May of 1959 we moved from Philadelphia back to Martinsburg, West Virginia which was where my mother and father were both raised. I can remember my mother trying to decide whether to take the layout, transformer and trains with us to West Virgina. She told us she planned to put the layout in the trash because it was just to big to take to West Virgina and she was concerned about the cost of the move since we weren't actually rolling in dough. Since the trains didn't seem to work anyway it and the transformer would simply be excess baggage. We didn't object but I did ask if it would be OK if we took the trains with us since it might be possible to get them fixed someday. She agreed. So that beautiful layout which was still in pretty much pristine condition was unceremoniously dispatched to the trash heap. I managed to rescue the semaphore and Gateman along with the entire freight set.
Ironically, in 1960 while running my deceased Grandfather's trains I decided to see if I could get the little 1655 to run. By then I had learned how to hook up a transformer and knew something about how to maintain an engine. As it turned out all the engine needed was a little lubrication and it ran as smooth as silk. I remember thinking at the time that the transformer no doubt had worked as well but my Mom had been baffled by electricity and the mechanics of a Lionel train set. She certainly can not be faulted for that, after all how many 29 year old women in 1953 knew how to hook up a train set and operate a complex layout with accessories. I still have that entire 1423W set to this day and it still runs perfectly and even the engine's tinplate tender still whistles albeit a tad raspy.
It wasn't until many years later that I became aware of the incredible monetary value of original lionel Display Layouts. Regardless of the monetary value the sentimental value of that layout to me would have been priceless if it had survived. Over the years I have thought many times about that layout and the decision my Mom had to make to leave it behind. Despite the fact that at the time it was basically a 5x9 piece of framed out plywood with no apparent monetary value I remember she actually wrestled with the problem of leaving it. I'm quite sure she realized she was leaving a cherished memory behind. To be sure I do miss that layout but I miss my Mom a heck of a lot more. She passed away two years ago at the ripe old age of 91. Happy Mother's Day Mom.
