My first train as a kid was a marx o gauge. Then a tyco HO and then Arnold N gauge. Trains went dormant in my life from 1970 until about the early 80's when my sister gave me a Lionel 8E with a 337 and 338 car. I had never seen such a behemoth , the hunt for parts led me to a train show and then TCA and I joined that in 85. I can remember going to York and getting a 384E and thinking wow if only I could get a few more pieces and maybe 1 day a 400E. Wll I have yet to find out the number that equals enough, Now I have numerous state sets, blue comets, various colored 400e's, 390, 392, 385, 1835, 408, 402, 318, 381E and 381U, 9, 9E and 9U and on and on and on. Wife likes the accessories so we have a bunch of those. Postwar I like the service station stuff (I have a 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5F test set), tools etc,. Dealer displays have become an acquired taste and are becoming more difficult to find. I have many originals, and they often needed repaired and/or restored so I did that and worked my way up to reproducing them in house in my shop. The two ferris wheel displays and 10M displays above are reproductions I produced.
If you look in the back ground you can see some of the trains
Welcome Carey! Gotta love that tinplate. I run standard gauge and O-gauge on my layout.
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Welcome to the Forum!
Congratulations on your engagement and on your marriage in May!
During your honeymoon to Niagara Falls and North Carolina, I hope you can visit Strasburg and stay in The Red Caboose Motel. While we were planning our wedding, my beautiful and charming fiance, Beverly, suggested we stay there during our honeymoon. The cabooses were repainted and renumbered after that. But the General Manager tracked down our caboose and we celebrated our 30th anniversary there. Lots of old and new Standard Gauge trains are displayed and run on a new layout at the National Toy Train Museum next door.
West of Strasburg, this replica of a Civil War passenger train [completed in 2013] runs on the historic Northern Central Railway between New Freedom and Hanover Junction south of York, PA, under the auspices of Steam into History Inc.
President Abraham Lincoln changed trains here at Hanover Junction when he delivered his Gettysburg Address. The curve in the foreground is a remnant of the branch to Hanover and Gettysburg. No. 17 is facing New Freedom on the main line to Baltimore. Behind her, the main extended through York to Harrisburg and Sunbury.
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Here is an "O" Gauge tinplate set on The Christmas Putz in The Lutheran Home at Topton, PA, along the East Penn Branch of the Reading (now Norfolk Southern) at the top of the grade halfway between Allentown and Reading. The Reading station is now a bakery and a deli.
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Carey,
Welcome and good luck. Wait until you go to a few train shows!
Tom
MNCW, have done too many train shows out here over the years for G-Scale.
BUT, going to a new-to-me trains shop in San Francisco today. Its been there for years, just never got there. They do carry Standard Gauge...
A hearty 'Howdy Y'all" and Welcome, Carey Tearose.
This is a most informative group of folks as ever one could wish.
I always welcome more females to the wonderful world of toy trains. 
And glad to see you're into tinplate trains, too. Although I don't have room for standard gauge, I love the standard gauge tinplate. Can't go wrong with MTH for their reproductions - they look beautiful and run terrific. I do have room for O gauge tinplate, though, and love to run it side by side the more scale items.
Frank Mulligan posted:You started with a very cool set. And, I see you have the extra add-on stock car. You need to track down the other add-on car:
Congrats and good luck on your engagement. May I suggest a pre-honeymoon in York this April?
Do you know if they ever (re) produced a circus caboose??
welcome Carey, that's a great looking set......
Welcome aboard Carey!!
Welcome Carey--lots of great info here!!
