After watching the Fabelman's I went to various web sites to find out what really occurred in Stephen Spielberg's life. Turns out that watching the train crash in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and then filming Lionel train crash scenes at home actually happened. It started his love of movie making. I had not seen the "The Greatest Show on Earth" before but it seemed that Cecil B DeMille also used model trains for his big crash scene.
It's hard to imagine that Spielberg would have remembered the exact cars he received for Hanukkah. In the movie "Sammy" receives a Lionel Lines Maplewood #2421, a brown Pennsylvania 65400 Box Car X6454, Lionel Lines Chatham #2422 and a #1033 90 watt transformer that was not new. (Obviously the scenery people couldn't find a perfectly new one but they did a good job cleaning an old one up.) Off hand, I couldn't recognize the steamer, tender and caboose. I'll leave that to others! The mixture of passenger and freight cars seemed odd. Only accessory was (what appears to be) a #252 crossing gate. The layout is the traditional 4' X 8' oval set up on low wooden saw horses. When he first turns on the train, the engine smokes up a storm. That was unrealistic but can't blame the director for wanting to show a Lionel steamer in all its glory.
