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You're not alone Jim.  Growing up in Philadelphia, my parents would take us down town to shop.  Wanamakers, Gimbels, Strawbridges, Lit Brother and Snellenbergs were the major department stores then.   Wanamaker had the largest and most elaborate toy department.  But they all had toy departments.  The display windows along Market Street were always packed with Lionel and American Flyer layouts.  And the crowds would gather there all day.  

None of those department stores exist now.  Wanamakers has become a Macys.  Strawbridge sold out not too long ago and I believe it may be a Kohls now.  Gimbels and Lits became part of the Market East complex.  Snellenbergs closed some time in the early '70s and the top floors removed.  If I am not mistaken it houses numerous stores now.  

So much has changed sine I was young.  Even PRR's Chinese wall, which was there until I was very young, I still recall.

Growing up in Scranton, PA, we went to look at the layouts in the Globe, Scranton Dry, and Penn Furniture and, then, a trip to Scranton Hobby Center (at it Adams Avenue Location) for something for the under-the-tree trains. American Auto never had a layout, but had a big Lionel Display window. Just out of town was Eynon Drug with a large train department. Woolworths and Kresges had PennLine HO trains.  - Something to do every Saturday!

Jim,

I miss those displays and stores in Pittsburgh as well. We always made a trip to Pittsburgh (from Warren) during the Christmas season to see the spectacular window displays with all the animation as well as the trains. I wish I could show my kids what that was like. Today no one would give up the window space for anything but merchandise!!!! 

Jim, I visited your store in late 2010 just as you were clearing out all of your inventory.  I was lucky enough as a child to visit the original Bowdish display in Brookville before it was moved to Buhl Planetarium.  It was a real thrill to see the massive display every Christmas with the Lionel trains, animation, at least four  transformers, a large number of controllers and relays clicking.

Penn Traffic was a well run general merchandise chain than morphed into groceries with its Riverside and BiLo stores in western Pennsylvania and Ohio, headquartered in Johnstown with a large grocery distribution warehouse in DuBois.

Lou N posted:
rockstars1989 posted:

I can remember pushing my whole face against the glass and launching myself into LA LA land. Dream is all I could do. Nick

Nick,

Do you remember the trains displays at Halle Brothers 7th floor toyland in Cleveland?  I remember when Super O came out. Oh to have had a camera.  (Keep in mind I'm 68).

Lou N

LOU, I remember Hallies Downtown! We used to go down at a very very early age. Higbees - May Co And Halle's.

We only knew the small trains sets we had, so when we seen those displays our eyes swelled into tennis balls.

I remember how many people there were down there it had to be in the tens of thousands.

I can remember going to sleep at night and dreaming of those trains. I asked god to let Christmas last forever. Nick

Last edited by rockstars1989

Penn Traffic had 3 divisions...Penn Traffic department stores...Riverside markets...and the Sanitary Dairy. Penn Traffic went through at least 3 bankruptcies after being taken over by raiders. Subsequently the Sanitary Dairy was sold to Deans Foods...and they just went chapter 11.Deans Closed the dairy in the 90's  and kept all of the ice cream recipes, and auctioned off all of the equipment. Also at the last bankruptcy they liquidated the company and the supermarket arm that also had Quality Markets was closed about 5 of those stores in Crawford and Erie counties (in Pa.) became TOPS markets.... a chain in NW New York.  What an end to a once profitable corporation. Only folks who lived in NW Pa would know this. From my 13 years living in Johnstown I can attest to this.

 

 

 

jim sutter posted:

When I was a young boy, my mother and father would take me to Pittsburgh to see the train displays at Kauffman's, Horne's and Gimbels. We also went to Johnstown, to the Penn Traffic store to see their displays. If we could only turn back time.

All the same for me.  Penn Traffic was my favorite.  Fond memories!!!  There was as also some department store in Sharon that had trains upstairs.  Jim, do you recall what would have been the store in Sharon?

Lou N posted:
rockstars1989 posted:

I can remember pushing my whole face against the glass and launching myself into LA LA land. Dream is all I could do. Nick

Nick,

Do you remember the trains displays at Halle Brothers 7th floor toyland in Cleveland?  I remember when Super O came out. Oh to have had a camera.  (Keep in mind I'm 68).

Lou N

Mr. Jingaling at Halle’s!  And The Hobby House on Huron, Trading Post on Pearl Road and my favorite, Jaye and Jaye Trains in East Cleveland. All Cleveland area train stores. Those were good times. 

When I was a later grade schooler my mother would take me "shopping" in Pittsburgh on Friday after Thanksgiving.   It was real adventure for me to ride the bus from Glenwillard and spend the day in the really big city.    She would let me visit all the toy departments at Gimbels, Hornes, Kaufmanns and maybe there was still a Rosenbaums.     I remember walking through the old diamond market.     And the trip always included lunch at an Isaly's in the city.     That was my only experience at eating out when I was a kid.    I remember I loved the fried chipped ham sandwiches, the grilled cheese, and the milkshakes were a must.   

All the stores had train displays and took up a good deal of my visit just looking and day dreaming.

jim sutter posted:

When I was a young boy, my mother and father would take me to Pittsburgh to see the train displays at Kauffman's, Horne's and Gimbels. We also went to Johnstown, to the Penn Traffic store to see their displays. If we could only turn back time.

Hi Jim:

As I posted in a recent thread which mentioned Kaufmann's, back in the day Kaufmann’s was The Place in Pittsburgh to see toy trains during the Holidays!  Even before you got inside the store you could watch the trains running in the window displays along the street and then once inside see many more trains up in the toy department.  They had Lionel and American Flyer layouts and all sorts of inventory.  My first electric train, a Lionel set, came from there and not from Santa as I found out a few years later!

MTH even made a Christmas boxcar with an artist's drawing of the front corner of the store showing their famous clock which was a popular landmark under which friends and family would meet to go shopping in the store.

Fond memories for sure!

Bill

WRGMILW posted:

Hi Jim 

is Kauffman's,  still around ?  

If not , is the store building still there ?  

What street is it on ? What is the intersection ? 

 

Thanks in Advance 

 

The building is located on Smithfield Street between Forbes and Fifth Avenues.  Kaufmann’s was bought by Macy’s and in 2006 they changed the name of all of the Kaufmann's stores to Macy’s.  Then in 2015, Macy’s closed the downtown store.  The building was sold and remodeled and converted into a hotel which just opened last month under the name EVEN Hotel.

Bill

What a nostalgic thread!  to PRRJim:  My first job at Wal-Mart was managing a deli.  We were always so busy and short of help.  I had to spend plenty of time on the counter slicing cold cuts.  When a customer would ask for "chipped chopped ham" I would tell them that I would slice it so thin that they would think it came from Isaly's. "How do you know where I'm from!" would be the surprised reply.  It seems that only in that part of the country (western PA, eastern Ohio) was it called that way.  I am so glad that there are so many of us from the same part of the country.  I routinely go to the posters profile page to find out what I can. Our experiences are so much alike.  Happy Thanksgiving.  This has been such a wonderful thread to participate in.

As a little kid in SW PA the 70s, there was a whirlwind trip into town for shopping and trains. 

Aside from Kaufmanns and Hornes, there was a stop in SW Randalls with those funny European HO trains (Marklin) on one of the upper floors.

My dad worked in one of the Gateway Center buildings, and sometimes there would be trains in the lobby. 

Of course there was also a trip to Buhl Planetarium.

 

Wasn't Bill and Walts up by the B&O station at one point? I think that's where Santa shopped.  

I miss those larger-than-life department stores, too. In Philly, I remember taking the train from Trevose station to Reading Terminal, and then walking to Gimbels for their Charles Dickens Victorian display, and then to John Wanamakers for their fantastic train layout and toy department, with the grand finale being their spectacular light show. I was told at one time they had a working monorail that kids could ride in, but I don't remember that. The train layout I later learned was set up by the original Nicholaus Smith train shop.

Today, we have Boscov's - which is a nice department store with good prices and that old-time customer service...and they do setup a Dept. 56/Lemax display, and sell trains.

 

 

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No question about it, Lionel trains were VERY pervasive in the 1950s and 1960s.  I'm 74 now, but I can remember like it was yesterday, going to the J. L. Hudson store in downtown Detroit around Christmas, every year for many years and being absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of trains they had on display and for sale.  I grew up and still live in a small Ontario city of about 40000 people.  Back in the fifties and sixties the population was even less, and yet I can still remember at least six different stores (all within the downtown area) that sold Lionel trains.  They were literally, everywhere, albeit not nearly as plentiful as in that Hudson store.  BTW, that department store, like so many, is long gone.  Great memories though.

 

WftTrains posted

The building is located on Smithfield Street between Forbes and Fifth Avenues.  Kaufmann’s was bought by Macy’s and in 2006 they changed the name of all of the Kaufmann's stores to Macy’s.  Then in 2015, Macy’s closed the downtown store.  The building was sold and remodeled and converted into a hotel which just opened last month under the name EVEN Hotel.

Bill

I still have my Kauffman's credit card from many years ago.

Growing up near Dayton Ohio my Mom would take us kids to go see Santa at Rike's. The line to see Santa went right past a huge HO train display. The display windows down on the streets were filled with all the toys for the Christmas season. This is where the Lionel and American Flyer trains were displayed. Kinda like you see in the movie, "The Christmas Story". I believe there was even a Daisy Red Rider BB gun on display. I could have stood there and watched those trains for hours.

I'm glad someone knows where those stores were.     I grew up and moved and moved and didn't spend anytime in downtown Pittsburgh when I was old enough to remember locations and directions.    I do remember that Kaufmans, Gimbels, and I think Hornes were sort in a triangle relative to each other and a block or 2 apart.     I also remember walking through that Diamond Market area which was always dark and interesting but fell to remodeling and all.     

Greg Nagy posted:

As a little kid in SW PA the 70s, there was a whirlwind trip into town for shopping and trains. 

Aside from Kaufmanns and Hornes, there was a stop in SW Randalls with those funny European HO trains (Marklin) on one of the upper floors.

My dad worked in one of the Gateway Center buildings, and sometimes there would be trains in the lobby. 

Of course there was also a trip to Buhl Planetarium.

 

Wasn't Bill and Walts up by the B&O station at one point? I think that's where Santa shopped.  

Greg,

Bill & Walt's was in several different locations on Smithfield St over the years, including one just a few blocks from the B&O station. 

Bill

The second photo from Scalerail reminds me of the display the Montgomery Wards store on Monroe St. in Baltimore MD used to set up in the 50's. Not much in the way of scenery, but it had (it seemed at the time) everything that was made that year in all the scales, including the early imports of TT. Above all of it was a man in a control tower running the whole works - it had to be the best job in the world!

Kennilworth Bazaar in Towson still does a large display every Christmas

Baltimore was also famous for all the displays in many of the Fire Stations. The Wise St. Station has had one every year to this day.

I think many of us of that generation had our first dreams of one day having a layout "just like that, only bigger!" It only took me 66 years to finally have mine.

 

bc6ca63a27e34cc129e68ab4a7df2aa1Paul Kallus posted:

I miss those larger-than-life department stores, too. In Philly, I remember taking the train from Trevose station to Reading Terminal, and then walking to Gimbels for their Charles Dickens Victorian display, and then to John Wanamakers for their fantastic train layout and toy department, with the grand finale being their spectacular light show. I was told at one time they had a working monorail that kids could ride in, but I don't remember that. The train layout I later learned was set up by the original Nicholaus Smith train shop.

Today, we have Boscov's - which is a nice department store with good prices and that old-time customer service...and they do setup a Dept. 56/Lemax display, and sell trains.

 

 

They did, Paul.  As a young child, I begged my parents to let me ride it.  The line was long and I think my parents were tired, but I got to ride it one time.  By the following year, I was getting too old, they said.....LOL

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As a native new yorker, I had Macys and gimbels. With dad we would make our annual trip into the city. We would go first to lionel and get a new catalog, then up to Madison hardware to purchase a car or a trackside piece. Then onto American Flyer showroom. Then the bus ride up to 34th street. Spent lots of time watching the big layout at macys. Then over to gimbels witch did not have that much,  then the long bus ride over bridge to Sunnyside Queens. We  had a Sears and Strauss store which stocked a large amount of Lionel. And we had Sunnyside Hobbies next to the Center Theater which only had American Flyer. I am still attached to the large department stores as I collect charge coins and most are front the larger department stores (gimbles, macys, lit bros., bush & bhul, kaufmans, etc. I have over five hundred charge coins.

As a native new yorker, I had Macys and gimbels. With dad we would make our annual trip into the city. We would go first to lionel and get a new catalog, then up to Madison hardware to purchase a car or a trackside piece. Then onto American Flyer showroom. Then the bus ride up to 34th street. Spent lots of time watching the big layout at macys. Then over to gimbels witch did not have that much,  then the long bus ride over bridge to Sunnyside Queens. We  had a Sears and Strauss store which stocked a large amount of Lionel. And we had Sunnyside Hobbies next to the Center Theater which only had American Flyer. I am still attached to the large department stores as I collect charge coins and most are front the larger department stores (gimbles, macys, lit bros., bush & bhul, kaufmans, etc. I have over five hundred charge coins.

initagain posted:

No question about it, Lionel trains were VERY pervasive in the 1950s and 1960s.  I'm 74 now, but I can remember like it was yesterday, going to the J. L. Hudson store in downtown Detroit around Christmas, every year for many years and being absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of trains they had on display and for sale.  I grew up and still live in a small Ontario city of about 40000 people.  Back in the fifties and sixties the population was even less, and yet I can still remember at least six different stores (all within the downtown area) that sold Lionel trains.  They were literally, everywhere, albeit not nearly as plentiful as in that Hudson store.  BTW, that department store, like so many, is long gone.  Great memories though.

 

I was looking to see if anyone mentioned J.L.Hudsons. I am a former Detroiter,72 y/o. Fond memories of the Hudson Christmas train layout and the stacks of RTR sets ready to go home to some lucky kids. Not a store but the Ford Rotunda Christmas display was my first viewing of a large O/S gauge layouts.

I wish today’s youngsters could have something similar to what we had with these magnificent and even breathtaking department “ CHristmas Toylands “of our era.  They obviously provided us with not only amazing pleasure at the time but enduring fond memories of our visits there. 

I don’t believe that kids nowadays have anything comparable to treasure like that. A shame.

Dave Warburton posted:
Lou N posted:
rockstars1989 posted:

I can remember pushing my whole face against the glass and launching myself into LA LA land. Dream is all I could do. Nick

Nick,

Do you remember the trains displays at Halle Brothers 7th floor toyland in Cleveland?  I remember when Super O came out. Oh to have had a camera.  (Keep in mind I'm 68).

Lou N

Mr. Jingaling at Halle’s!  And The Hobby House on Huron, Trading Post on Pearl Road and my favorite, Jaye and Jaye Trains in East Cleveland. All Cleveland area train stores. Those were good times. 

Hi Dave,

Not sure the last time you were in town but there are no longer any department stores in downtown Cleveland, or Akron for that matter.

I did have the good fortune to interview Mr Jingaling (Earl Keyes) at his home some years ago.  I must find that tape.

Hobby House on Huron was always the last stop downtown because the 15 Union Avenue trackless trolley stopped there.

Lou N

 

It wasn't just a city phenomenon.

Department-store toylands and window displays, once such a vital part of the holiday season all over America, seem to have gone the way of the Triceratops.  And we are all the poorer for it.

When I was a kid during the Fifties, we all eagerly awaited the opening of the third-floor Toyland at Miller Hardware in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.  In spite of its name, Miller Hardware was actually a well-stocked department store where you could find anything from a new washing machine to the latest record albums.  But immediately after the arrival of Santa Claus during the annual Huntingdon Christmas Parade, the Miller management would open its legendary Toyland on its third level.

During the off-season, I think the third floor housed the carpeting and home furnishings department.  I'm not entirely sure, because I never went up there during the off-season.  But at Christmastime, it became a kid magnet, a kaleidoscopic vista of every colorfully dazzling toy we could imagine, and a lot more.  When my friends and I ventured up there, it was as if we'd been elevated to some higher plane of existence.  We'd spend hours, gazing at the displays of things we knew perfectly well our parents could never afford.  That was what dreams were made of, and how we did dream!

There was, of course, an operating Lionel layout, where all the ingenious marvels we had only seen on catalog pages were brought to mesmerizingly noisy life.  I know some of the Plasticville on our own Christmas layout came from there, but not much else.  As much as we might have lusted after Lionel F-units, they were high-ticket items that only the offspring of the very well-heeled would ever see under their trees.

Nor did Miller's skimp on its window displays.  All of those glittering toys, trains included, danced before our glazed eyes in the store's big glass facade.  Seeing such treasures shining in the winter night on Washington Street, how could anyone resist going inside?  And resist we did not.

Huntingdon -- not where I was born, but where I did most of my growing up -- was a small town, but a busy and prosperous one in those days.  Across the street from Miller's was the much smaller Corcelius Hardware -- which actually was a hardware store.  But at Christmas time, the basement floor was turned into a small but well-stocked toyland of its own.  What made it even more unique was that the Corcelius toyland was dominated by American Flyer.  There was an operating Flyer layout with working accessories (I was particularly fascinated by the Oil Drum Loader, with its little fork-lift that dumped shiny little aluminum barrels into waiting S-scale gondolas).  And the tiered shelves where the Flyer locomotives were kept on display seemed strange and exotic to my Lionel-acclimated eyes.

My father worked in the Corcelius toyland one Christmas season, and he was always bringing home American Flyer catalogs, which I studied in scholarly absorption.

The town also supported two busy five-and-ten stores, G.C. Murphy and McCrory's.  Both of them sold Marx trains and accessories.  Murphy's was where my parents got the extra 027 track and switches for our Christmas layout. The Marx operating crossing gate and Marx hot-air-operated beacon were also Murphy's purchases.  Come to think of it, our Marx plastic water tank very likely came from there, too.

McCrory's Marx stock was a bit more limited, but still of considerable interest.  McCrory's was where I first saw a Marx 333 locomotive and its lithographed streamlined NYC passenger cars, shiny and new in their original box.  I was impressed.

So although we didn't live in or near a large city, Christmastime brought plenty of toy-train action our way, as we made our way from one store to another, breaths billowing in the chill December air.  And always in the background was the thunder and clatter of the 4-track PRR main line that ran along the edge of town.  How could we have imagined that within a pitifully few short years, all of it would be swept away, to live on only in memories?

I'm sure this scenario was repeated in most small towns across America.  We'll never know how many future model railroaders owed their first inspiration to those tinsel-covered toylands and gaudy window displays.



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Lou N posted:
Dave Warburton posted:
Lou N posted:
rockstars1989 posted:

I can remember pushing my whole face against the glass and launching myself into LA LA land. Dream is all I could do. Nick

Nick,

Do you remember the trains displays at Halle Brothers 7th floor toyland in Cleveland?  I remember when Super O came out. Oh to have had a camera.  (Keep in mind I'm 68).

Lou N

Mr. Jingaling at Halle’s!  And The Hobby House on Huron, Trading Post on Pearl Road and my favorite, Jaye and Jaye Trains in East Cleveland. All Cleveland area train stores. Those were good times. 

Hi Dave,

Not sure the last time you were in town but there are no longer any department stores in downtown Cleveland, or Akron for that matter.

I did have the good fortune to interview Mr Jingaling (Earl Keyes) at his home some years ago.  I must find that tape.

Hobby House on Huron was always the last stop downtown because the 15 Union Avenue trackless trolley stopped there.

Lou N

 

I left Cleveland for sunnier climes ten years ago, and they were all gone by then. Just happy memories now!

The big store set ups were gone by the time I came into the world. but the train shows around the holiday that my dad and I went to were much better than we have today.  Wall to wall people(major anxiety issue with that for me) but the layouts and the trains were magical.   I lived in Erie, PA for awhile, Kraynaks down in Hermitage PA still puts on quite the xmas tree display and sometimes a train is under one. along with carrying a nice selection of trains, toys ect.   Next best thing is Mr Muffins trains just south of me in Atlanta, IN if one wants to see a massive train display.   I do wish I could fire up the way back machine to those window layouts of Higbees and so forth, like the one at the beginning of A Christmas Story.  Ralphie might have been staring at the BB gun, but was the Lionel trains that had my attention.  I always wanted to rewrite that movie to be about the trains and not the darn gun.   Great memories, keep the vintage pictures coming!      Mike the Aspie

Oh, no, Jim. You’re not going to force me to get all nostalgic about those bygone train displays. Like the ones Dayton’s would set up in the lobby area in front of its mall store in Rochester, MN, in the 1970s. Or the window displays at Manhattan department stores that I got to see all too infrequently during that same era. Or even the American Flyer display a local Ace Hardware set up annually until about a decade ago.

Geez, Jim, now you’ve done it. I’m all nostalgic. 

For me growing up, Baltimore was the closest city.  Each first Saturday after Thanksgiving my family would catch the Greyhound to Baltimore early in the morning.   It was always a thrill coming into Baltimore on US route one, as the bus would cross over B&O's Wynans Yard, which in those days always had lots of action.  Next was the Western  Maryland grade crossing carrying the freight main to WM's seaport terminus at Port Covington.  Then in just a short distance was the B&O double track ( now CSX single track ) grade crossing at the Montgomery Ward store/whse just before Monroe Street ( MW was located at Monroe and Rt. 1 ).  In the 50's these grade crossing were protected by signal men perched in towers.  Whenever  a train was coming these guys would come out blowing whistles like traffic cops to stop traffic.  If we were lucky this happened at least once either coming or leaving Baltimore.  B&O seemed to run some pretty long slow freights which I assume were transfers from Wynans Yard to another one of the B&O yards around Baltimore or visa versa. 

We'd exit the Greyhound a couple blocks from Baltimore's then thriving downtown which was the Howard Street area. First stop was Frenche's Sporting Goods which hosted a large Lionel train layout. It was a thrill to see this layout in action.  It always had Lionel's latest stuff running on the rails with Lionels latest accessories highlighted around the layout!  French's was a Lionel dealer year round and that is where we took our trains to be fixed for many years during the 1950's and 60s.  

Howard Street played host to several department stores which all had train displays during the Christmas Season.   There was Hecht Co., Hoschild Kohn, Bragger & Gutman, and Hutzlers.   Some of these displays were more elaborate than others, but as a kid they all looked fabulous to me!   There was also Taubman's which sold trains at discount prices.   Taubman's is where we'd pick up the new Lionel catalogue which my brother and I would excitedly read at lunch..... and of course our parents were serenaded to rousing chorus of" I want that!  I want that !  Look at that!  I want that engine! I want those passenger cars!"  and so forth.  My parents always seemed to enjoy our excitement.  Of course on Christmas morning one or two of those "thats" we wanted was found on our train layout all hooked up and ready to go.  Treasured memories for sure. 

Growing up in Naperville, near Chicago, we often "toured" all those stores such as Carson, Pirie Scott....Marshall Fields....perhaps also The Museum of Science & Industry...all being big layouts.  Naperville then was so small, the Sears was just a  TINY Catalog storefront, the rest was the delivered goods section.

  We had an ACE (Soukups Hardware) that had, IIRC an Lionel "stepped" display. Didnt have any trains running, but it was eye candy for sure!

 

I grew up in a smaller upstate New York city (Schenectady) which was the home of the American Locomotive Company. Because of ALCO we had a number of stores with train layouts between Thanksgiving & Christmas. Three family owned multi-story department stores, a big Sears and even a Woolworth's. The stores seemed to my then young eyes to be in competition for which could build the best train layout. Adding to the bonanza, a few miles away  was and eight floor Wards regional mail order & retail operation with a big layout that was the destination of one or two family visits during the shopping season. All those wonderful places are gone now but at least I am lucky to have my memories.

Tony -- Up on "The D & H Bridge Line"

 

 

 

 

I’m too young for the glory days of Christmas train displays in the major department stores, but when I was a kid in the early 90’s, Fortunoff’s in Westbury, NY had a wonderful Christmas Store. 

They always had several nice train layouts that featured Lionel starter sets from the era. Lots and lots of 4-4-2’s (New York Central Flyer!). 

I remember set, track, maintenance kits, and some other odds and ends for sale. It was something I looked forward to every year.

Always wondered what it was like to walk into FAO Schwartz in the late 40’s and see  the Lionel layouts at Christmas. Must have been great.

jim sutter posted:

When I was a young boy, my mother and father would take me to Pittsburgh to see the train displays at Kauffman's, Horne's and Gimbels. We also went to Johnstown, to the Penn Traffic store to see their displays. If we could only turn back time.

Hi Jim,

 I'm not old enough to remember any of the department store displays.  But I do remember a jeweler in downtown Ebensburg that always had a little train in his window circling the diamond rings and watches during the holidays. I also remember visiting your store many times and enjoying the trains on your layout as a kid.  I took a break from trains as a teen through highschool and then college.

I  think my last visit to your place which was probably 2008-09 or so and I got my first MTH PS2 locomotive which I still run to this day.  That rekindled my interest (oh my how the hobby had changed in those 15 years). But now as an adult I have twin 3yo nephews that love trains almost as much as I do. Thanks for keeping that toy train spirit alive! 

I miss the Buhl Planterium display.  When it got moved to the Science Center it now costs a pretty penny to see.  Now if you want to see ONLY the train display at the center, one must still pay the FULL price of admission, interested in other things or not.

But since the display is on an upper floor, I guess they couldn't prevent customers from browsing other areas besides the train display.

- walt

I consider myself lucky to have experienced the golden years of electric trains in New York City. While a little boy, dad took me to see the Lionel Showroom layout.  We'd then stop at Madison Hardware or Julies on 23rd street to buy a new train item for my Christmas gift.  Also recall visiting Santa at Macy's on 34th street and the large layout that was there in Toyland. There were also train stores in NYC uptown on 48th street off 6th avenue but I do not recall their names. In Brooklyn where we lived in Bensonhurst, the Fix-All Appliance Shop on Coney Island Avenue was the go to place for repairs and the occasional after Christmas sale item.

My family was of modest means and we didn't have all that much back then but those were really great times.

Dennis LaGrua posted:

I consider myself lucky to have experienced the golden years of electric trains in New York City. While a little boy, dad took me to see the Lionel Showroom layout.  We'd then stop at Madison Hardware or Julies on 23rd street to buy a new train item for my Christmas gift.  Also recall visiting Santa at Macy's on 34th street and the large layout that was there in Toyland. There were also train stores in NYC uptown on 48th street off 6th avenue but I do not recall their names. In Brooklyn where we lived in Bensonhurst, the Fix-All Appliance Shop on Coney Island Avenue was the go to place for repairs and the occasional after Christmas sale item.

My family was of modest means and we didn't have all that much back then but those were really great times.

I think you mean West 45th Street off Sixth Avenue. That’s where the Red Caboose, the Roundhouse II and Model Railroad Equipment Corp. (later Train Shop Ltd.) operated hobby shops in the 1970s. (West 48th Street off Sixth is the street that’s dominated by Rockefeller Center. And that’s midtown, not uptown.)

To young for the Penn Traffic department store. However I do remember the last year and a half of Glosser Brothers as they closed early in 1989. 

I do remember Gimbels and Horns having Christmas decoration but too young to remember if there were trains. They closed in the 1980s. 

I was a fan of Kuafmanns then later Macy's. We would take the kids down for some Christmas shopping in the big city from early 2000s until they closed in 2015. Again I don't remember trains. However the restaurant was a decent place to eat and who didn't love their bakery that still wrapped cake boxes with string. Kids said I only went to ride the escalators.

I guess I'm just too young to appreciate the joy of large department stores and train displays at Christmas time.

My generation grew up on malls and now even the one in Johnstown is almost half vacant.

However surprisingly there are far more train shops still around then there are department stores. Go figure.

Art Howes posted:

Hello Ritchie, do you remember if Jordan Marsh had trains in the window(s) during Christmastime or Filenes?

That's a good question - my mother was a secretary in downtown Boston and my aunt was a buyer at Filene's, so I should know this. My recollection is that they did have some train displays in the windows at during the holiday season, but at my age my memory is spotty. Of course, the Jordan's blueberry muffins were to die for and became world famous.

My Mom, older sister and me would ride the Atlantic & Yadkin passenger train to Greensboro, N.C. and she would take me to Belk's Department Store to see the Lionel train display both in the front display window and one at a larger layout inside.. This was 1937 when I was 5 and I ended up with a NYC Marx winder for Christmas. Looking back during the Depression it was quite a gift considering my Dad was laid off more than he worked at the carpenter trade(feed barns mostly) and filling in on the RR Tie and Timber Crew. 

 

Last edited by Dewey Trogdon
Jim R. posted:

Oh, no, Jim. You’re not going to force me to get all nostalgic about those bygone train displays. Like the ones Dayton’s would set up in the lobby area in front of its mall store in Rochester, MN, in the 1970s.

Speaking of Dayton's, I remember seeing a Lionel Canadian Pacific F-3 aluminum car passenger set in the main Dayton's in Minneapolis when I was young. Apparently 1957, being the only year Lionel made that set. I remember it was alone on top of a circular clothes rack, which looking back seems an odd place to put it. 

Wannamaker's Department Store has been mentioned by a number of people. Lionel actually made a Wannamaker boxcar in 1982, the no. 9466, to commemorate the store. 

Image result for lionel wannamaker boxcar

Image result for lionel wannamaker boxcar

Image result for lionel wannamaker boxcar

Last edited by breezinup

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