There are no better memories than vintage toy train memories, except perhaps for memories of one's first love as a teenager. My first home layout (in the late 1940s and early 50s) had American Flyer trains -- two steamers and a SF diesel passenger set. My dad let me believe I built it, but the truth is, my role was mostly as an onlooker and his "go-fer" for tools. When in high school, I sold all the AF trains to a neighborhood kid who was assigned to bed rest for a year while recuperating from Rheumatic Fever. Those trains became his pastime - hopefully with a therapeutic benefit. My boyhood trains were gone, but those memories remain -- as affirmed by other contributors to this thread.
After dad passed, I re-entered the hobby at age 50 with an interest in Lionel rains of the Rock Island, the RR that served my home town (Peoria, IL). Over decades, I collected every RI train made by Lionel, then gathered RI trains by other makers: MTH, Marx, Weaver, Williams, and others. After a stroke and a cardiac incident, I sold nearly all of the trains via Stout Auctions -- all eight pages of my RI trains list were sold in a weekend.
During the past two years, I built an L-shaped layout at our house. Memories of enjoying trains with my dad now live again, so I can share "Train Fever" with my two great-grandsons.
Mike Mottler LCCA 12394
mottlerm@gmail.com
