Trains, our link to the past...

Frank, I don't have any pics but it started Christmas Eve 1953 when my uncles bought my two brothers (one 2 years older & the other my twin ) a Lionel freight set pulled by a 736 engine. It all took place in a small row home in Philly. They were literally the good old days and I still have that set today.

Joe B.

Tell us more, Joe B? You don't need a photo, here. Draw us a picture with words. Put us there, if you please, sir.

FrankM

WONDERFUL! They really are a pseudo time machine, especially the smell of ozone and oil, and also the odor of smoke pellets or fluid!

I spent many happy hours standing on the platform of this Long Island RR station in Hollis, LI, NY during the late '40s-early '50s. My grandparents lived 2 blocks away, and when we visited, I kissed them hello, and ran to the station. The electric locals ran on the outside 2 tracks, and the steam express passenger trains ran on the center 2. There was always a train on the horizon...or at least in my memory, there was.

I was sad to learn that this beautiful late 1800s "Queen Ann" design station fell to arson in 1967.

Ah, memories of Christmas, growing up in the fifties in Philly.  There are certain memories that make me feel good.  Going downtown with my parents to Wanamakers, Gimbals and Strawbridges.  Let's not forget Lit Brothers and Snellenbergs.  Buying a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.  My brother and I got our first Lionels around 1957.  That's not entirely true.  I recall having a Flying Yankee set, but was too young to appreciate it, so it was given back to the person who gave it to us.  Each year my mother would set up a scene under the tree.  One year my grandfather built her a platform with legs to put the tree on, but that meant we'd have a smaller tree !

The Lionels my brother and I received were set up in the basement.  A 4 x12 foot platform took up almost have the basement in our row home.  When we had to access something on the back side of it, the lime plaster walls would suffer, much to my mother's chagrin.  

So many good memories.  More come to mind as I type.  

Second floor bedroom window opened to a rail line a mile away; on a summer night, you could hear the melancholy whistle of a steamer passing by - priceless.  Similar one that showed up in the movie Christmas Story.

Very nice thread. Frank.

I have mentioned much of what appears below on other threads.

For me it started in 1954 when I was 3 years old and got a  lionel set for Christmas. My father helped me put the track together and made the electrical connections.  He smoked back then, and I remember him laughing as he put a pack of L&Ms in the red gondola that came with the set as I ran the trains powered by a ZW around the Christmas tree. That set also included the 2065 steamer and tender, the yellow cattle car (non-operating), the Lionel Lines illuminated caboose with round portals, and I believe the operating milk car and operating cattle car. It was a very popular freight set.

Both of my parents loved the trains. So did my aunt (my mother's sister) who was well to do. She gave me many trains over the years for Christmas and birthday presents, and she also bought me annual subscriptions to Model Railroader magazine (her son converted from 0 to HO as a teenager) through my teenage years and my 20s.

My mother would often take me shopping with her to NYC, including Macy's. We would see their layouts and she would often buy me something at Macy's related to the trains. I remember she loved the American Flyer cow on track accessory, and was very disappointed that it would not work on Lionel 3 rail track, so she did not buy it for me. She admonished me never to sell the Lionel trains, believing they would always go up in value. I have complied with her admonishment, not for my mother's reasons, but because I see something charming and irresistible in every train and accessory I have, so I keep and run them all.

My father built me a beautiful trestled layout on a 4 by 8 plywood board on saw horses in the basement. He also bought me the 626 B&O 44 ton Center Cab Diesel Switcher from Telly's Hardware Store in Dowtown Mt. Vernon, NY.

I still have all these childhood trains They are a little scuffed up, but in good working order. Besides the freight set with the 2065, I got the log dump car, barrel loader car and accessory, #41 Army Switcher, gang car, yellow trolley, operating coal loader, several 027 switch tracks and plenty of 027 track, various signals and crossing gates, a couple of Plasticville structures, and a ZW and  couple of smaller transformers that came with sets.

I also had 2 older first cousins and an uncle that had more and better trains with bigger layouts than I had. I am pleased to say that this is not so anymore.  LOL, Arnold

I was also inspired by train rides with my mother on Lightning Stripe NY Central and McGuiness New Haven trains from Mt, Vernon, NY to NYC, Grand Central Station and eating Nedicks frankfurters and lemon meringue pie at a bakery there, rides with my mother on the Shuttle and other subways in NYC, the original and new Penn Station (especially the original one),  and train rides with my mother on passenger trains pulled by awesome GG1s from Penn Station to Trenton or Princeton Junction, NJ.

Remember the glistening dust in the cavernous Penn Station illuminated by the sunlight that streamed through its huge ceiling windows? I sure do, like it was yesterday.

I was also in awe of the enormous PRR coal drags that thundered past the swimming pool at Hopewell Country Club in NJ, where my parents, older sisters and I were guests of my well-to-do aunt and uncle, who were members. 

And as a teenager I remember my 1st few dates with a girl from Pennington, NJ (she looked like a blue-eyed Audrey Hepburn) who I would meet at Penn Station, take to La Crepe French Restaurant for a bite to eat, take to a  Broadway show or movie, take to see the Rockettes, take to the Bronx Zoo, and/or take ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and, of course, I escorted her back to Penn Station. She broke my heart because she wanted George Harrison of the Beatles instead of me. LOL. But now I have no regrets because I found out that she's obese. LOL again!

Arnold

OK guys, maybe a long story

I was born in the Inlet section of Atlantic City in 1947. The AC trolley tracks passed just behind our apartment building. When I was 2 we moved to north Pleasantville, the next town west of AC. Steam still predominated the AC mainline and I remember running out the front door every time I heard a train. The tracks were about a mile and a half away, across the meadows.

When I was about 4 or 5 Dad put a platform under the Christmas tree with two Lionel Scout trains (still have them). The following year the platform was moved out from under the tree and placed on it's own in front of the fake fireplace (Santa had to walk over the trains).

A year or so later the layout was moved to the "sunparlor" at the other end of the house. It was propped up on sawhorses and shrouded with a green fabric skirt and featured a control panel with a KW transformer, six 027 remote controlled switches, an elaborate track plan (to me) a whistle station and flashing grade crossing light.

This was Christmas for me for many years. I would run out of the bedroom Christmas morning, glance at the tree (and all the presents) and then run to the sunparlor to see the trains.

Little did I know, until later, how this magic happened. Dad would set up the platform in the basement in early December. I was not allowed down there. He would set up the track plan, wire it, test run it, and then remove most of it. On Christmas eve, my sister and I were confined to Mom & Dads bedroom for the duration. After setting up the tree in the living room, Mom & Dad cleared the furniture out of the sunparlor and went to the basement and carried the train table up the outside stairway, thru the kitchen and into the sunparlor. Then Dad set up the remaining track, rewired the entire layout and made sure the trains ran. Dad then left for work.  Mom, in the meantime was decorating the tree (it was always a big one). When she finished, about midnight or 1:00 am,  she would put up the "village" on the train platform. This consisted of a Plasticville station and firehouse and many Japanese cardboard houses and plastic cars that were bought at the 5&10 after the war, plus grass and brown ballast. on the tracks. 

How they were able to do all this all on Christmas Eve boggles my mind. Christmas was always a big thing for mom (and eventually all of us) but it was something that a lot of families did in the 50's. Different time, different values. It's a shame we cant go back. 

I try t,o capture the feeling.  Every Christmas. i set up Dad's train table on his sawhorses in our living room and design a new layout every year, and run those antique trains, in hopes my grand kids will get the Christmas Train Spirit that I got about 65 years ago.

Buzz   

My first memory of having Lionel trains I was around 5 and we had a little track on a 4x8 sheet plywood in Midland, Texas.  We ran it only around Christmas as my Dad always worked a lot and not a lot of time off.  When we moved to a new house in 1957, we had the train, but no layout, track, etc.  Not certain why, but believe it was exposed to the weather and ruined.....??  My older brother and I received for Christmas 1958 a KUSAN set with diesel, flat, gondola, cattle car and caboose.  It was O gauge, but two rail and only lasted a couple years.  For my 7th birthday, in 1959, I received my first own Lionel, a Scout set, and still have it all, still runs great.  Over ensuing years, I got trains (complete sets) or a car, track, etc. for every birthday and Christmas after that.  Christmas morn the new set/trains would be set around the tree, I always got out all else I had and enlarged the track to cover a good portion of the living room.  My Dad and I would have the best of days running trains, checking out the newly acquired Lionel items.  I recall my Dad putting a lit cigarette in the stack of the non-smoking 200 series Scout engines, grinning from ear to ear as we ran trains until Mom called everyone to the table to eat.  All in all, my Dad and I collected and ran our trains on layouts until his passing in 1978.  Now, I have all our trains plus so much more I have collected in the years since.  My sons grew up with our trains in Houston, and now are grown, on their own and we run trains when they come to visit.  Another note, my wife and I met on the Amtrak Texas Eagle on Christmas of 2003, both on our way to Houston for the Holiday.  We talked and fell in love on the return trip back North, her to St. Louis, myself back to work in North Chicago/Great Lakes Naval.  Now retired in Oklahoma since 2014, back in 2008 my wife had a new 3 car garage built and had an upstairs "train room" added over the garage for "me" and "our" trains/layout.  Yes, trains have played a huge part in my life, and continue to do so.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275

This was a Christmas tree layout Dad had growing up. He passed the trains in the pictures down to me.

Dad's 1684 in the bottom pic

This was my Uncle Jim's (Dad's brother) layout.We were only 7 years apart, so he was more of the Big Brother I never had. I remember laying on my Grandparent's floor at Christmas time watching Jim's 2020 going around the tree. Jim would let me fire the rocket off his 6650 into the 6470 Exploding boxcar.

Jim left me his trains when he passed. Now his platform and trains run under my tree.

Wow...great stories and photos...superb topic.  This is Christmas 1954...I am three at the time. My dad and mom built this wonderful layout...dad did the carpentry and electrical...mom the scenery.  We did not have a basement at this home so the layout stayed in the living room for a whole year.  Later it was moved to an unfinished and unheated attic...I preferred the living room.

We used to take the bus to downtown Toledo and go to all the major department stores Lamson's, Tiedtke's, Lasalle's , the Lion store and view the train layouts...it was actually a thriving place back then.

I later received another diesel freight set and other separate cars. No passenger cars...but

I have some now. It appears your B/W photos have aged better than my color photo.

Thanks FrankM for starting this wonderful topic

Fendermain

1957   The set was bought for my oldest sister ( She probably never touched it  Was really for my father ) in 1952.  2056 Hudson.  Thats me with the engineer cap on.

Growing up in an apartment in the Bronx there was no room for a layout only a simple loop around the tree at Christmas.  So trains were linked to Christmas, the only time of the year we got to "play trains".

Let's not forget this monster. How many times did you climb aboard.

Oldmike

Ok Frank, here goes. The Christmas Eve I refer to in 1953, myself and my brothers were sent upstairs to get a quick nap before we went to church services at midnight. We could hear my father & two uncles working on something in that ever so small parlor of our house. There was much talking but we couldn't make out any of the words being said in an effort to figure out what they were up to. All of a sudden we heard a train whistle and we knew we got trains for the first time for Christmas. After a short period of time my mom came upstairs to get us ready for church. We were instructed not to look in the parlor as we were led out the small hallway and out the front door because they were still working on setting it up. Upon returning from church we were allowed to see our first platform in full operation. I remember services seemed to take forever to complete because we wanted to get back home and see our new present. Seeing some boyhood friends at church we couldn't wait to tell them of our new gift. I still remember my twin brother putting pieces of tinsel on the track and stopping the train in the days that followed. I don't think I'll ever forget that night.

Joe B.

For me, 1966. One rail shy of three rails, however.

Trains have always been a fascination for me.  Now I have all postwar and traditional style O gauge, though most has been in storage since shortly after college, some coming out for the holidays.

Working backwards is probably the easiest, so in 1997 I got my first taste of O gauge from a 1947 Lionel set my father's distant cousin gave me; I was 7 at the time. 

Probably when I was 3 (I distinctly remember it in our old house which we moved out of in early 1994) I received an HO set from my grandparents.  My mother told me years later it was probably something my grandmother got on a return or closeout from the department store she worked at, but it was priceless to me. 

Ended up on a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the basement.  Just because it was easier than buying a new one, I still have the sheet of plywood.  It is now in two 4x4 sections, but has formed the basis of every layout I had over the years.  It's warped now, so it will probably be replaced before the next layout.

I recall sitting at the kitchen table with my dad making buildings and tunnels for the HO set.

Even before that (and I suppose after) I recall some plastic train sets which thanks to google I've since refreshed my memory on.  Had a Playskool set which I recall being about G gauge sized if not smaller, a Fisher Price "flip track" set which was not powered but had track on one side and roadway on the other, a small Disney set which activated rides as it went by, a generic wooden brio style set (still have and recently introduced to my niece), and a very small set I haven't identified which had 4 green square sections that snapped together and a small diecast train.  Over the years I recall other little wooden and diecast trains (including the Thomas the Tank Engine ones I still have a box of) which were just push toys.

And even before that, I have distinct memories of being in a carriage and we would go over an old truss bridge that had wooden planks and passed over a local commuter rail line and we would stop and watch the trains go by.

Great posts like this one seem to surface during every Christmas season and each time I find I must respond to them because during the Christmas seasons of 1950 through 1952 I began my odyssey into the toy/model train world.  

In 1948 my Dad purchased Lionel Freight set#1423W ostensibly for my older brother who was born in 1944.  I was born in 1947 but was not old enough to appreciate the set until about 1950.  In any event he also purchased a beautiful Lionel Display layout from the dealer where he purchased the freight set.  The dealer was located somewhere on Frankford Avenue in northeast Philly.  The layout was either 4x6 or 4x8, I'm not sure which.  Like all Lionel display layouts it was completely pre-wired and had boulevard lights, an automatic Gateman, a semaphore, an operating milk car and perfectly painted white roadways and green grass plots made with green dyed sawdust. The layout was powered by a KW Transformer.  

During the Christmas holidays my Dad set up the layout in our living room and put the platform underneath the tree.   At night with all of the living room lights turned off save the tree lights he would plug in the KW Transformer and the layout would come to life.  The boulevard lights would twinkle in the dim light and the tiny red lamp on the semaphore would stand as a lone sentinel awaiting  a passing train.   Then my Dad would put our little freight set through its paces.  The effect was magical.  I would watch at eye level like most kids as the 2-4-2 engine would whip around the tight 031 curves with its whistle blowing and headlamp gleaming .    I can still smell the sweet fragrance of the pine tree, the distinct smell of warm oil along with the pungent aroma of ozone, especially when my Dad blew the tender's whistle.  I was completely enchanted and immediately became totally hooked on trains.  Unfortunately, my father died in June of 1953 from wounds he suffered in France and Italy during WWII and he never saw his train run again.

  In the years following my Dad's death my brother and I pestered my mother endlessly to set up the platform and run the trains during Christmas time but try as she might she could never figure out how to get anything to operate.  On a couple of occasions she was able to get the engine's light to come on and you could hear the engine buzzing lightly but it wouldn't move.  She always figured she just didn't have the wires on the transformer  connected properly and she attempted every configuration possible but it would not budge.  Eventually she gave up and it wasn't until Christmas of 1959 after we moved from Philly to West Virginia that the little Lionel 1655 engine and its associated freight cars once again rode the rails.   At the time my Grandfather had a little 4x6 layout on which he ran two trains, one Lionel and one Marx.  I told him about my Dad's train and wondered if he would be able to get it to run. He said it was worth the try.  I fetched the little engine from our house just up the street and brought it to him.  He spun the wheels by hand and heard a distinctive squeaking sound.  He took out a can of 3 in 1 oil, lubricated it in several places and set it on the track.  When he gave it the juice the little 1655 took off like a rocket.  In the end all it need was a little lubrication but my Mom was no engineer.  I have to say when that engine came to life I almost felt like my Dad returned to life.  That engine was his and to me it was part of him.  I still have that engine, all of its freight cars, the original set box and all of its component boxes.  The engine still runs great and its whistle tender also works although its a tad raspy but to me it sounds great.  

If anyone is wondering what happened to the Lionel Display Layout and Its KW Transformer when we moved to West Virginia my Mom thought the layout was just too bulky to bring with us and she figured the transformer couldn't work so they ended up in the trash with all of the other excess junk we had at the time.  Boy, would I like to take a trip back in time to save that layout and transformer.  Thank God we saved the train set.  Christmas time sure brings back great memories and I make sure I run my Dad's set every Christmas season at night with all of the lights off save the tree lights.   I can almost feel him sitting there smiling as the little Lionel  makes its circuit around our tree. 

Awesome personal view into the early lives of our forum members. I am very fond to read these.  Greta topic, Thank you MOONSON. 

*great topic.

Had American Flyer as a kid, never did like all my friends Lionel trains, especially the 3 rails. But now I love fastrack. It works wonderful for carpet central, and looks good. Grandma does not even mind it.

Oldmike

OKHIKER posted:

 I have to say when that engine came to life I almost felt like my Dad returned to life.  That engine was his and to me it was part of him.  I still have that engine, all of its freight cars, the original set box and all of its component boxes.  The engine still runs great and its whistle tender also works although its a tad raspy but to me it sounds great.  

OKHIKER, I loved every word of your post, but I am zeroing in on your above statement about saving the boxes.

And, I suspect that many other Forum members in their 60s and older, also saved the boxes of their childhood Lionel trains.

How did you have the foresight to save the boxes of those trains?

What was so special back in the 1940s and 1950s about Lionel boxes for the trains made then? Did the boxes have any value back then? I doubt it.

Why on earth did you save those boxes?

Arnold

Its where I lived that has helped me be hooked on trains.You see where I live you can hear the SCL trains go by.And I went to a school right beside the tracks.When ever I heard a train whistle I look out the window.And watch it go by. My teachers did not like that at all.Guys some of the trains had 6 or 7 gp9 pulling a fast freight.I had a marx train set then a ho train set.It was a santa fe f7 pulling 6 boxcars.I got my first lionel in 1995 a 736 berkshire locomotive.And it went from there.I still go through my trains and find some thing.I had for gotten about.Yes ever once in a while I think back to when I was a kid.

My grandfather had a Lionel Lines 2020 set. He also had what I believe was plastiville buildings also. Only things I have left as of right now are the orange operating cattle car, plastic fence to put around the layout, and a plasticville church.

Amazing how many of us took similar but different paths to get to be "electric train" fans .. 

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

OKHIKER posted:

 I have to say when that engine came to life I almost felt like my Dad returned to life.  That engine was his and to me it was part of him.  I still have that engine, all of its freight cars, the original set box and all of its component boxes.  The engine still runs great and its whistle tender also works although its a tad raspy but to me it sounds great.  

OKHIKER, I loved every word of your post, but I am zeroing in on your above statement about saving the boxes.

And, I suspect that many other Forum members in their 60s and older, also saved the boxes of their childhood Lionel trains.

How did you have the foresight to save the boxes of those trains?

What was so special back in the 1940s and 1950s about Lionel boxes for the trains made then? Did the boxes have any value back then? I doubt it.

Why on earth did you save those boxes?

Arnold

 

 

Arnold, just sheer luck I suppose.  I just got used to packing them up after Christmas and was careful when I did it especially with my Mom and Grandmom making sure I did it right.  Each Christmas season to follow everything was in its proper place and well secured.  I guess it became a habit.  From about age 15 to 27 when my wife Maria and I moved into our home in 1974 the trains stayed packed away and when I opened them back up they were just as they were back in1962.  I was glad I packed them away carefully.  I have handled them the same way all these years never giving a thought about value other than perhaps sentimental value.  I treasure them now more than ever.

Here's my story and I'm sticking' to it.

Well, it seems there are a few of us from Philadelphia on the forum with some similarities in our experiences.  Dad bought a Lionel 2153WS set for me in 1952(?) along with a KW transformer.  The set was priced at $49.95 which doesn’t seem like much now but for a blue collar worker in 1951 what was probably a week’s salary.  I’m pretty sure Dad bought the set at Levin’s on Kensington Avenue, in the Harrowgate section where we lived.  I still have that set at my house, although it has officially passed on to my oldest son.  

Of course, it was a Christmas gift; and, OH, what a Christmas gift.  Dad worked in the paperbox industry which meant lots of overtime during the Christmas period.  But on Christmas Eve each year, AFTER I went to bed, magic happened.  Dad put up the tree and he and Mom decorated it.  Then he carried all the components from the cellar (we didn’t have “basements”) and assembled a magical 4x8 train layout with the 2163WS cruising around in the morning when I came down the stairs.  He had Plasticville houses, school, station, church, firehouse, store and hand spread gravel roads and walkways.  Dad drilled holes in the platform beneath each Plasticville structure, then he inserted special, vampire C-7 sockets through the holes and connected them to the wire beneath the layout.  It was mesmerizing for a small boy.  Just be careful to keep the Plasticville pieces centered over the bulb or you have melted Plasticville.  We lost a few pieces that way.

Back then, I never really appreciated the sacrifices my parents made so that I would have that magic at Christmas.  I'm sorry that I never did tell Dad just how much that meant to me.  It did, Dad.

Usually, the layout stayed up long after Christmas.  

As I got a little older, I started running the trains faster and faster to the point where sometimes the #736 locomotive would launch off the end of the layout.  But Dad had a solution.  He nailed a 5” strip of masonite up at the end of the layout to contain high speed derailments.

Model trains were not the only trains of interest.  I spent many, many hours playing around the Pennsylvania Railroad Mainline tracks at Frankford Junction.  Frankford Junction was the point where the PRR mainline turned north towards New York and the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line split to head off to the east into New Jersey.  It was a busy, entertaining place for a young boy.  Watching the diesels pulling the seashore passenger consist right next to the station platform or going through the tunnel to the platform that was positioned between tracks and allowed you get closer to the thundering magnificence of the GG-1s.  What a sight.  At night the brakes on those babies glowed almost white hot as they slowed down to start the left hand turn to the north.  

If you were VERY lucky, you could put a nickel on the track and after the GG-1 passed, that nickel would be the size of a dollar bill.  The luck was in finding it after those monsters rumbled past.

In the late ’50’s and early ’60’s, the layout remained a Christmas standard but the trains became HO; a Rivarossi steamer, a little rubber band driven plymouth switcher and some others.  Then came girls and the trains faded.

Off to the military, but even there I found trains; from base to Frankfurt and, on one occasion, the US troop train through East Germany to Berlin.

When my sons were born we were back into trains both O gauge (the MPC Blue Comet) and, then G gauge, with several set as gifts from my wife.  Still have those too.

Eventually, I settled back on O gauge and have been there since.  When we moved house to closer to our children and grandchildren (8), our new house had a “conservatory” which my wife kindly allocated to me as my Train Room.  Well, after two years, I finally have a barren 9’x12’ layout with a 10’ extension.  Progress is slow but coming.  

I guess the genes passed because both of my sons have a growing interest in O gauge.  And, my two year old granddaughter is constantly asking to go see Pop’s big gold one (the PE).  She’s getting a Lionchief Plus Thomas set for Christmas.

Thanks for all of the wonderful and engaging stories.  They are most heartwarming and bring back many similar, lovely memories.  Heh, all of “youz guys” from Philly, a big shout out.  We’re in Valley Forge now but still travel to “Wanamaker’s”, now a Macy’s, to see the light show and visit the DIcken’s Village.  Any of you ever ride the ceiling monorail at Wanamaker’s toy department?

Merry Christmas, Ron from K&A.

OldMike posted:

Let's not forget this monster. How many times did you climb aboard.

Oldmike

Many times and don't forget the big HO layout they had that they always seemed to have problems with.

Gene H posted:

OldMike posted:

Let's not forget this monster. How many times did you climb aboard.

Oldmike

Many times and don't forget the big HO layout they had that they always seemed to have problems with.

The Franklin Institute was a favorite of mine and my buddies when we were young.  I remember that HO layout.  I also recall it not having much action whenever we were there.  I believe someone on this forum said that there was a O gauge layout before the HO layout.  

Those were good times.  We'd take the B bus on the Boulevard down to Bridge and Pratt.  Get on the El and off at City Hall.  Hit the Franklin Institute and maybe the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Or we'd go to Market Street west of City Hall and pick up some junk at one of the seedy shops that used to inhabit the area.  Of course we would eat at the Automat.  

I played with my trains ( mostly used Marx and Lionel) that my dad traded for things from his small grocery store. I guess most regular customers knew dad was always on the lookout for trains for me. My best years of running them was during WW2. I had the attic floor to build layout tracks on. We had one small battle light (only shined a tiny bit of light down, none up) to light up up the whole attic so the red and green from the switches really looked good to me. No light could ever show outdoors from the houses, these were air raid days. Those tiny lights  and the light on the small American flyer transformer lit up the attic once your eyes got used to the dark. How often I put my head on the floor on a curve and watched that big engine come ever so close to hitting me. Other kids came with their trains and track so we had track all over the attic floor.I remember that I thought the red and green light beams from the train switches and signals were beautiful. Merry Christmas and God Bless all of you and our fine Nation.

Hi Philly Guys

Born 1956 in Mayfair,Moved to Somerton in 1960

My Mom had a car,but we took the bus to the El at Bridge and Pratt,then to Wanamakers, remember the monorail?, then I think we would go to Gimbels,

Remember one year coming home with the 45 Snoopys Christmas,playing it and running the trains in the basement

FrankfordJunction posted:

Here's my story and I'm sticking' to it.

Well, it seems there are a few of us from Philadelphia on the forum with some similarities in our experiences.  Dad bought a Lionel 2153WS set for me in 1952(?) along with a KW transformer.  The set was priced at $49.95 which doesn’t seem like much now but for a blue collar worker in 1951 what was probably a week’s salary.  I’m pretty sure Dad bought the set at Levin’s on Kensington Avenue, in the Harrowgate section where we lived.  I still have that set at my house, although it has officially passed on to my oldest son.  

Of course, it was a Christmas gift; and, OH, what a Christmas gift.  Dad worked in the paperbox industry which meant lots of overtime during the Christmas period.  But on Christmas Eve each year, AFTER I went to bed, magic happened.  Dad put up the tree and he and Mom decorated it.  Then he carried all the components from the cellar (we didn’t have “basements”) and assembled a magical 4x8 train layout with the 2163WS cruising around in the morning when I came down the stairs.  He had Plasticville houses, school, station, church, firehouse, store and hand spread gravel roads and walkways.  Dad drilled holes in the platform beneath each Plasticville structure, then he inserted special, vampire C-7 sockets through the holes and connected them to the wire beneath the layout.  It was mesmerizing for a small boy.  Just be careful to keep the Plasticville pieces centered over the bulb or you have melted Plasticville.  We lost a few pieces that way.

Back then, I never really appreciated the sacrifices my parents made so that I would have that magic at Christmas.  I'm sorry that I never did tell Dad just how much that meant to me.  It did, Dad.

Usually, the layout stayed up long after Christmas.  

As I got a little older, I started running the trains faster and faster to the point where sometimes the #736 locomotive would launch off the end of the layout.  But Dad had a solution.  He nailed a 5” strip of masonite up at the end of the layout to contain high speed derailments.

Model trains were not the only trains of interest.  I spent many, many hours playing around the Pennsylvania Railroad Mainline tracks at Frankford Junction.  Frankford Junction was the point where the PRR mainline turned north towards New York and the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line split to head off to the east into New Jersey.  It was a busy, entertaining place for a young boy.  Watching the diesels pulling the seashore passenger consist right next to the station platform or going through the tunnel to the platform that was positioned between tracks and allowed you get closer to the thundering magnificence of the GG-1s.  What a sight.  At night the brakes on those babies glowed almost white hot as they slowed down to start the left hand turn to the north.  

If you were VERY lucky, you could put a nickel on the track and after the GG-1 passed, that nickel would be the size of a dollar bill.  The luck was in finding it after those monsters rumbled past.

In the late ’50’s and early ’60’s, the layout remained a Christmas standard but the trains became HO; a Rivarossi steamer, a little rubber band driven plymouth switcher and some others.  Then came girls and the trains faded.

Off to the military, but even there I found trains; from base to Frankfurt and, on one occasion, the US troop train through East Germany to Berlin.

When my sons were born we were back into trains both O gauge (the MPC Blue Comet) and, then G gauge, with several set as gifts from my wife.  Still have those too.

Eventually, I settled back on O gauge and have been there since.  When we moved house to closer to our children and grandchildren (8), our new house had a “conservatory” which my wife kindly allocated to me as my Train Room.  Well, after two years, I finally have a barren 9’x12’ layout with a 10’ extension.  Progress is slow but coming.  

I guess the genes passed because both of my sons have a growing interest in O gauge.  And, my two year old granddaughter is constantly asking to go see Pop’s big gold one (the PE).  She’s getting a Lionchief Plus Thomas set for Christmas.

Thanks for all of the wonderful and engaging stories.  They are most heartwarming and bring back many similar, lovely memories.  Heh, all of “youz guys” from Philly, a big shout out.  We’re in Valley Forge now but still travel to “Wanamaker’s”, now a Macy’s, to see the light show and visit the DIcken’s Village.  Any of you ever ride the ceiling monorail at Wanamaker’s toy department?

Merry Christmas, Ron from K&A.

FrankfordJunction,

          From 1954 until we moved to West Virginia in May of 1959 we made the yearly trek from northeast Philly to Wanamakers, Lit Brothers, and Gimbels every Christmas season.  I rode the Monorail at Wanamakers many,many times.  We always looked forward to making those trips.  My Mom and some of our neighbors always made the trip together.  Great fun having a bunch of boys circulating through those toy departments and looking over the train layouts.  We lived around the intersection of Deveraux and Walker streets and like you I spent a lot of my time with my buddies on the Northeast corridor racetrack watching those sleek, silent GG1's as they made their way to and from New York.  Great memories.

Christmas 1953....and so it begins...

My three rail O gauge trains are not a link to my past, but to the past in general I guess. I never had any three rail as a kid. My dad had three rail when he was a kid and when I was in my teens I became keeper of the set he had saved. I vaguely remember an uncle having Lionels that he set up in his basement sometimes and some cousins having three rail trains that I got to see maybe once or twice. When I was about 12 I got a Tyco Bicentennial set in HO for Christmas and that sent me down the whole scale model railroading rabbit hole that I finally escaped from about 10 or 12 years ago when I  set Dad's train up under the tree one Christmas.

I have always like trains, especially steam powered ones, but also old stuff like antique cars and trucks, steam traction engines, old guns, whatever. I think my current tastes in O gauge (conventional tinplate) is more a link to that part of who I am than to any childhood memories of Christmas choo choos. I find the old school tech fascinating. 

At this time of year my vintage electric trains remind me of Christmases long before I was born and make me wonder what it may have been like in the prewar and early postwar days. What was it like in '46 when my Marx closed spoke 999 was new? What was Christmas of '41 like as America became actively engaged in WWII. What was Christmas like in the mid 1920's when my AF 1200 and 1300 series coaches were new? Or the mid '30's when my other AF coaches were new? The ghosts of Christmases past intrigue me.

Dan Padova posted

Those were good times.  We'd take the B bus on the Boulevard down to Bridge and Pratt.  Get on the El and off at City Hall.  Hit the Franklin Institute and maybe the Academy of Natural Sciences.  Or we'd go to Market Street west of City Hall and pick up some junk at one of the seedy shops that used to inhabit the area.  Of course we would eat at the Automat.  

Dan, I loved the Horn and Hardart Automat in NYC, especially putting coins in the slots to open the little glass doors for their beef pot pie and baked beans. My mother often took me there after we shopped at Macy's and/or FAO Schwartz for trains and to see their train displays.

Speaking of FAO Schwartz, was there recently a picture of Frank (Moonson) at that NYC toy store working on their train layout? That's a very impressive credential for a model railroader. Arnold

Youz Philly Guy's,

I also made the obligatory trip to Wanamakers & Gimbels several times but not yearly due to lack of funding, there were eight of us kids. Grew up in Port Richmond, not far from Levins on Kensington Ave., but had a Aunt that lived in Tacony and remember seeing that GG1 running past the rear of her house many a time.  Also had Plasticville with the lights coming up thru bottom of the houses. Didn't have a pot to whiz in but we enjoyed ourselves with the little we had. Hope all have a Happy & Healthy New Year and remember the good times in your life and the special times in it.

Joe B.

Arnold D. Cribari

….we shopped at Macy's and/or FAO Schwartz for trains and to see their train displays.

Speaking of FAO Schwartz, was there recently a picture of Frank (Moonson) at that NYC toy store working on their train layout? That's a very impressive credential for a model railroader. Arnold

..yes, Arnold, it was I who was there, reinterpreting, further detailing, and polishing-up Lionel's layout at F.A.O. Schwarz, in NYC, on 5th Avenue...

FrankMIt was all a great and exciting adventure which commenced in a warehouse and continued on the selling-floor, 2011 to 2015, each time begun late at night, after the store's closing for the day, and continuing onward into the early hours of the morning. I loved every minute of it.

Thank you for noticing and asking.

gandydancer1950 posted:

Christmas 1953....and so it begins...

OMG, Gandy, it looks like your home and you were the actual inspiration for "A Christmas Story," the movie (circa 1983).!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cowboy boots. Blonde cabinet TV; tinsel. The entire magical atmosphere in that room with you.