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On December 12th. at Old Poway Park in San Diego, the motormen will be having their annual Prewar Christmas display up at Old Poway Park in the Rose Room of the Porterhouse. The room will be set up to match 1920's décor with Jazz music playing on a restored Columbia gramophone, the centerpiece of course will be a twin track tinplate layout with antique toys and cards. Anyone is the area is welcome to visit as well as ride the full size train. We are now being backed by the AGTTA, so I hope that we will get the chance to operate some standard gauge this year (and hopefully get some new track). I've already started cleaning and polishing my rolling stock to get them all nice & shiny for the event.

 

https://www.facebook.com/themotormen

 

http://poway.org/Calendar.aspx...day=12&calType=0

 

 Rough Draft of the new Christmas poster. (I'm aware that gauge is spelled incorrectly)

PosterMk.I copy

 

Some pictures from previous years.

 

2013

 

 Our Old Poster.

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2014

(The pictures were taken after the event so it was a bit messy)

 

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Images (8)
  • PosterMk.I copy
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Last edited by Brian Liesberg
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HEY HEY     I Will START THE BIDDING ,    I have a  one dollar bid RIGHT HERE for the original misspelled card , VERRRRY VERRRRY FEW EXIST!!!     EARRRRLY PRODUCTION RUNNNN !!!  OR MAYBE ITS A RARE PROTOTYPE ??? . Are there any other bidders ?  How about YOU !!!  YOUNG MAN STEP RIGHT UP !!! Take those hands out of your pockets and place a BID !!!

 

Brian , Thanks for posting I'm in Indiana and theirs no way I can be there  but I love the enthusiasm and time you have put into the cards . Fantastic . Wishing the very best or you and with your show. And most of all thanks for the laughs,

 Just another old guy with funny ideas, Gary

 

Gee ! I lived pre-war and WW II Xmases. They were a whole lot different then, a true holiday celebration. Anything and everything you got(not much) was greatly appreciated.  Things made out of paper and wood plus a fired clay toy tank. Of course, the huge, big old Standard gauge Lionel rattling around the track. Xmas morning, 1941, I came downstairs to find an army of 200 or so toy soldiers on the dining room table. Still have half of them.

the instance of me starting a conversation about trains with someone out of the blue being very slim, when i do find myself talking with a person who has given me some reason to bring up the topic, i can often tell immediately whether or not they will understand the terms pre- and postwar.  it is usually only a matter of a minute or two to explain metal shortages in the early 1940's to those who have no knowledge of this, but it is still something i try to avoid if i can, only referring to the years of production rather than using the more general tinplate definitions to someone not familiar.

please know that i have no problem with discussing prewar or postwar trains in forums like this and i do not bring this up for any matter of "political correctness", but if i could use the proposed poster as in example, that is, something probably meant to be displayed in public, i'm not sure if highlighting "PRE-WAR" will be understood by the majority of the public who very likely have little or no knowledge of the aging term gradually becoming even more nebulous with, unfortunately, other wars.  i could possibly even submit that if totally misunderstood some might even wonder what future war is on the horizon that this display will precede?

just a thought or two.
cheers...gary

Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:

If you have a better term let me know, but pre-war sounded a lot better than "A 1915-1941 Christmas".

 

you certainly picked an era that could best be defined by prewar, though i'd tend to go even earlier.  i got nothing right now, but i'll keep it in mind.

 

what i find the most remarkable about those years, however, is the growth of the electric grid throughout the country.  it's hard to believe that just 100 years ago, the chances of your having electricity on demand in your home was very slim.  by 1920 a little over a third of all households were wired and by 1930 it was only up to about 70%.

 

a better representation of the time might also include a loop of 2rail/ clockwork track.  if it has a mainspring, it's still called a motor.

 

cheers...gary

If I use the term "pre-war"  of "the war" I usually qualify with, "You know the big one" and they know which one, then to be nasty, I say "the last one we won".  Usually gets a laugh. I miss the lead tinsel, I would salvage all I could to melt it down then cast toys out of the lead. No cars so we took the trolley in to downtown Pittsburgh to look at the store windows and shop. Good times-no Wally World.

Originally Posted by overlandflyer:
Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:

If you have a better term let me know, but pre-war sounded a lot better than "A 1915-1941 Christmas".

 

you certainly picked an era that could best be defined by prewar, though i'd tend to go even earlier.

I say 1915 because my earliest locomotive is from 1915.

 

I don't own any clockwork locos, I think it might be a pain to run them for 4-5 hours and have to wind them up every 20-30 seconds

Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:
Originally Posted by overlandflyer:
Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:

If you have a better term let me know, but pre-war sounded a lot better than "A 1915-1941 Christmas".

 

you certainly picked an era that could best be defined by prewar, though i'd tend to go even earlier.

I say 1915 because my earliest locomotive is from 1915.

 

I don't own any clockwork locos, I think it might be a pain to run them for 4-5 hours and have to wind them up every 20-30 seconds

you're right there!

windups are operationally intensive!

 

my earliest is from 1915 also, the first of what i hope will be many i'll be around to acknowledge their 100th year in service.  it's a clockwork, though.  with my preference for steam outline, my first electric (also Flyer) won't hit the century mark for a few years yet.

 

have a great run.

cheers...gary

Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:

The term "pre-war" is still in use in areas other than model railroading, I don't think anyone will take it the wrong way. But if you have a better term let me know, pre-war sounded a lot better than "A 1915-1941 Christmas".

 

I don't think there is any term that will not cause the younger generations to scratch their heads.

 

They coined the term "The Silent Generation" or "The Lucky Few" for those born during this time. The tough times of the depression and lingering effects caused fewer births.

 

Fads and trends yielded no clever terms. "A flapper to zoot-suit Christmas" doesn't work.

 

Stick with "pre-War". It offers intrigue and can be answered quickly. Before WWII.

And they thought WWI was "the big one".

 

Edit: I like the misspelling of the words. The younger generation seems to relate to phonetics better and will prolly understand.

Last edited by Moonman
Originally Posted by Brian Liesberg:

If I knew it would be this easy to sell sketches I would have done it years ago

 

The radio is a 1929 Brunswick, I picked it up for $50 last year for this exact event and we restored it. It resides in my bedroom and more or less matches the décor.

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Beautiful job. Many people restore these cabinets incorrectly - with a dull finish and open grain. Yours looks like it should - closed grain and shiny. Very nice.




quote:
I explained to my 21 year old niece's boy friend that my trains under the tree were prewar. He asked, "Pre Viet Nam?"




 

I guess I've had a couple of similar experiences myself. It is easy enough to explain that the term refers to World War II, and in the case of Lionel trains, its the years 1945 through 1969.

 

But the terms "Prewar" and "Postwar" are well defined in the Toy Train Collecting and "O" gauge model railroading community. Most of the folks participating on this board belong to one or both groups. If we are going to worry about what folks who are not members of either group understand, then I think we should start be eliminating the use of acronyms and abbreviations. (Let's not)

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