Santa Leave Anything for You?

My problem this year was that I didn't get my wishlist out soon enough--ironically, because I was so busy getting the Christmas layout assembled!  I usually don't get any actual trains or accessories, but I do usually get train themed items.  This year, I got a nice wooden clock in the shape of a woodburning 4-4-0.  One item I did get that was on my wishlist is the book New York in the Forties.  Though not strictly railroad-related, it ought to be a good resource as that is the kind of setting I want for my O gauge layout.

 

After Christmas, I'm not sure if I want to get a MTH Z-1000 or some turnouts.  (That's right, four locomotives, 14 cars and no turnouts yet !)

 

Aaron

I got the book "All Aboard for Christmas."  

 

I read on the forum a few weeks ago that this was a good book, so I turned to my wife and told her the title as a Christmas gift suggestion, then promptly forgot all about it and was pleasantly surprised this morning when I opened it!   

Some Fastrack, a set of Pullman passanger cars, and $85 cash. Guess whos going train shopping after the blizzard!

my oldest son insisted that i needed the polar express set, so with help from  mom he gave it to me! nice set and smokes very well i was quite surprised by that! also got an NYC 8606 2-6-4, a barrel loader and the wife got my the hershey vat car just because she liked it, it goes very well with my tootsie roll and live savers car.

Dave

My first set was a Lionel X600 Quaker Oats promotional set from the early 60's. My wife found a magazine ad from back in the day.

 

It will get framed and mounted!!

Lionel Peanuts Christmas boxcar and Thomas Kinkade All Aboard for Christmas boxcar

A couple years ago I picked up the train items for an X600 set and it was over a year later that I learned it was a set and saw the related ads! Flat car not included in my photo. My train looked low-mileage and runs well for a Scout.

 

My train above.

Ad below from internet sources:

I've had various other "train surprises" come along at other times of the year - not this Christmas.

I got an American Flyer Set 20340: The New Clipper (497 Alco, and three cars), an LGB Battery Operated set, and some non-train items. In my opinion, this year was the best Christmas so far! Did anyone else get some American Flyer for Christmas?

My daughter and her boyfriend had a picture book made of my layout. They had it professionally made; hard cover, bound book. It has about 40 pages. Some have up to 20 pictures per page, some are just one large picture per page. It is a perfect coffee table size book. It was a total surprise and quite awesome. Every little scene is captured. Awesome gift idea. I will post pictures of the book sometime this week.

 

My son got me PRR original oil cans with the two foot spouts. Circa 1930. Great Christmas for me. 

Very nice Art! I assume that is Angela Trotta Thomas?

Ace - That's the ad! I have the flatcar but the auto that sits on top is long gone... As are the billboards that came with it!

Clothes from the fam. In November I found an opportunity to get a new Premier Hiawatha with PS-2 for under $600.

 

Last night I grabbed my nephew and snuck into the basement and ran it for real for the first time. It will be a favorite of mine for sure.

No trains this year; got something for my other hobby - rc boats - complete running gear set (props, shafts, struts, etc) for a project I'm working on.  Besides, we decided (gulp) on a train hiatus this Christmas since we have two 6 month old black lab puppies running around the house and thus no under the tree layout.  We'll be back next year.

 

And speaking of next year, took the opportunity to order the MTH NS Heritage Pennsy ES44, plus accompanying Hi Cube and EV Caboose from Just Trains, DE.  Supposedly due in mid-2013, but knowing shipping delays, those will be my Christmas 2013 "surprise"!

 

Courtesy of forum member Buzz, my son (and I) opened our new 1990 700e yesterday.  She sure is beautiful!  My wife got me an oak curio cabinet off of Craigslist for some of my trains.  I think she is slowly coming around!

 

John

mrs.claus came thru with a milwaukee road 4 car passenger set from mth,to go with the milwaukee road s3

                                             thanks mrs. claus

This year ended up a very nice one!  From my wife and daughter, the battery-powered Disney Christmas train set (I have a huge collection of Disney trains, so this will go nicely with all of it!), and from my parents, the Marklin/LGB FAO Schwarz battery-powered G gauge set and a 1968 or 1969 Parkway N gauge set, made by Arnold that has never been run!  Quite a time capsule!

 

Well lets see.... I got an MTH Premier DASH 9 Santa-Fe PS 3.0 scale wheel version.

Blu-Ray: The Black Diamond Railway Part III & Great Layout Adventures #8

DVD's: A Century of Lionel, World Class Hi-Rail Layouts Part 2 & 3, and

Various tools, weathering solutions, 4 pack of roller stands, lasy susan tool cradle, and a new band saw (not a train but definitely required for the layout construction and a lot of kit bashing on buildings)

 

Dad got:

Lionel Legacy Santa Fe Nothern 3759

MTH TIU version "L"

Passenger platforms, Switch Tower, Cinder Hoist, and 2 different Water Columns all from David Duhamel at Crescent Locomotive Works.

 

Guess we need to get busy on that layout!

 

I have a RailKing Daylight Special with PS2 coming in the next few days and as soon as my auction closes tonight I will be placing an order for a few missing pieces of scenery needed.  We are not close enough for the kids to drag mom to the train shop.

MAN youguys have all been sooooo good this year.I got socks.

Well I did start off with a "Real" lump of coal...but I was suprised to get a Nikon D5100 camera and a Nikon 200mm lens. Now I'm ready to take some good Train Photos and Videos!

Now if I can find a way to put that lump of coal under some extreme pressure and heat I'll have it made!

Santa didn't but Santa Fe did !!!

My dad surprised me this year. He usually does. He grew up in Des Moines and has a special love of Iowa. I also like the Iowa Interstate rr. He got me a 2 rail MTH Iowa Interstate GP-38. Last year he gave me the Rock Island Heritage unit. At some point I'll build a new layout to run them on.

Nothing train related (but that was because I didn't ask for any ).

 

However, I did make a trip to Home Depot a couple of days prior, intending to get a couple of batteries for a Ryobi jigsaw I bought to help build my basement layout (their batteries don't seem to be able to take a charge after a year or so). I was just about to get the 2-pack for $60 when my Dad pointed out a starter kit that for $20 more got me the two batteries plus a 5" circular saw and standard-size drill, with a charger and duffle bag to carry 'em all. I'll call it a "For me, to me" gift

 

So now I own three regular-size power tools, and as of a couple of weeks ago I finally figured out why a large part of the remaining gaps in my basement loop (a trio of long lift-out bridges) has so resisted completion. Resuming construction requires junking a couple of pieces of wood I had already cut (one of them badly curved) and mounted, but I still have a 4x4 sheet of plywood to make a proper pair of 45-degree bends that will carry a pair of lift-out spans bypassing a corner bathroom. One of the 'retired' pieces may fit the trackway on the opposite corner of the room, allowing the third bridge across the backyard entrance to be fitted with less work than expected.

 

So, while I didn't get any trains per se, I may have gained something (both tangible and non) that may allow me to operate more of what I already have (a lot of which has been boxed since acquisition), sooner than originally forecast.

 

---PCJ

With some money I received from Christmas,I just got home from Trainland. Picked up: - MTH Premier GE Evolution Hybrid - Lionel Culvert Loader - Lionel Culvert Unloader - Woodland Scenics Corner Emporium - Bottle of ProtoSmoke (Coal Scent) Nice! __Gromet

 A $100 dollar gift certificate for Madison Hardware with prepaid REA shipping - I can hardly wait.

 Santa dropped off most of them early. He forgot to pack these and I got them just a day late:

 

 That Charlie Santa! What A Guy!!!

My son, not Santa, gave me the complete Leave It to Beaver dvd set.  Every episode now at my fingertips ... and in greater clarity.

 

 

 

 

What, me worry? 

Santa only brought me one train related item this year.  He delivered a Lionel Nickel Plate Caboose.

Decided to get a Lionel Bethlehem Steel 0-4-0 instead.  A clever way to slip a Christmas reference, industrial-style, into my fleet.

I got a 6 car set of K-Line 21" NY Central passenger cars. They are black painted aluminum in the "lightning stripe" scheme. Can't wait to run them!

 

Happy New Year to all!!!

My wife had fun this year.

We started off with 5 large piles of gifts sorted for the Great Nieces and Nephew.

The shredded paper and cardboard pile is huge this year. Watching them was the best part.

Then the adults opened our haul.

What seemed to be a nice soft blanket was Wrapped around the NASA Flatcar with airplane on it. And what I thought to be a large heavy and somewhat ill packed box (possibly a replacement for a crashed Model Rocket) was 2 rocks ballasting a NASA 3 dome tankcar in a lot of padding. Then I got a Trackside freighthouse for the main layout and a Porcelain mill house with waterwheel for the Christmas set. All but the Freight house were unexpected so it was a very fun morning.

Hey, that's great!  You can take the PRR to New York, and redeem it in person!

NO! I`ve been a good boyso he must have gotten lost or could it be the new wood burner fitted into the fire place.

James

A Railking Southern Railway GP9 ("Tuxedo" paint scheme)and matching caboose; two books on the Southern Railway (I enjoy focusing on a particular railroad each Christmas) and 3 new TM videos.  

 

And my compliments to MTH for actually researching the sublettering and locomotive number on this engine.  Southern absorbed the Live Oak, Perry and Gulf in 1955 and received two GP9's (302 and 303) that were already on order from EMD.  The engine I received is the 303.

 

Curt

Santa brought me the Lionel Peanuts Christmas train set with the extra Christmas box car!!!  It was up and running around my Charlie Brown Christmas tree within an hour of opening the box!!!

 

Peanuts and trains...a better combination than a Moon Pie and RC Cola!

My wife got me a PRR WBB Shark with B unit during Trainworld's ongoing Williams sale. You can't beat their prices on WBB!

My wife ordered two Lionel Sixteen Wheel Depressed Flat Cars back on

the 19th of December.  One is a Santa Fe and the other is a PRR.  Not

in stock.  Hope to have them within the next week or so.

 

Many thanks,

 

Billy C