I opened a box – and my life changed!!

It sounds more than a little melodramatic and yet it is true. The day I opened the box containing my first Lionel train set was the day my life changed – and all for the best!

 Let’s go back almost six decades to Chanukah of 1956. I might have been just a few months into kindergarten, but my education was pretty advanced when it came to trains. I loved watching full-size Southern Pacific freight trains amble down the long-gone line paralleling Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles where I grew up.

And each weeknight on Channel 9, right before joining my folks and older sister, I watched Cartoon Express. There, my hero, Engineer Bill, entertained thousands of young viewers and me with S gauge trains running over a small American Flyer layout.

The sight of the miniature steam engine and tender leading freight cars across the landscaped wonderland thrilled me. Yet I never would have imagined such a marvelous toy could be purchased and brought home. Engineer Bill’s display, like those incredible layouts we glimpsed in the store windows at the May Company and the Broadway, seemed to have come from a distant world. Nothing like that could be part of my life.

Or so I imagined. Then in December of 1956 I ripped open the wrapping paper concealing a huge and heavy box. I had absolutely no idea what could be packed inside.

 What I discovered to my utter amazement was what I now recognized as a Lionel no. 1561WS/710 O-27 gauge freight outfit. Of course, no five-year-old would have paid attention to the catalog number printed on the box. But the name Lionel intrigued me, probably because I had never heard of it. And the tracks with three rails also baffled me.

Luckily, everything ran smoothly once my dad had set up the big loop of track consisting of eight curves and three straights plus the no. 6019 uncoupling/operating section of track. I was off to the races – sometimes quite literally when I felt inspired!

The set was a terrific one – I knew that as a little boy and understand that many decades later. A no. 2065 small Hudson featuring an operating headlight and a smoke unit led the way, pulling a no. 6026W square tender equipped with a powerful whistle.

That magical combination served as the motive power for an impressive group of four cars and a neat caboose. Every car was infused with what we now call “play value.”

I absolutely loved watching the figure on top of the no. 3424 Wabash brakeman car duck after he hit the first set of telltales and then rise again after passing the second set. I never could guess how a man so tiny knew instinctively what to do. And the effect simply got better after my sister fashioned a tunnel out of blocks and a shoebox for me.

Only a little less spectacular to my young mind were the nos. 6262 black flatcar with wheels and 6562-25 red gondola with red canisters. I enjoyed picking up the metal wheels and rolling them along the main line or stacking them up by the track. The four canisters made an interesting cargo load. Naturally, I had fun putting other toys inside the gondola and pretending to ship them as far as I could imagine – across the neighborhood!

The fourth car in the set was a no. 6430 flatcar with two trailers. Again, they came off so I could place something else on the car while hitching the trailers to one of my Dinky trucks. There just didn’t seem to be any end to what I could think of doing with it.

Here’s what is the best part of that delightful Lionel set. More than launching a new phase of my childhood, it lit a fire in me that never went out. Truthfully, I did put aside my Lionel trains by the time I was finishing the sixth grade. A few years later, when my mom suggested we donate all my Lionel trains to an orphanage, I didn’t object. I merely asked to keep my 2065 steam locomotive and its tender – and their cool boxes.

Yet a fascination with railroading remained. I continued to watch full-size trains rumble through Southern California, North Carolina, and a few other places I lived.

And when it was necessary as an adult to switch careers and try journalism, I was thrilled to cast my fortunes with a brand-new magazine devoted to toy trains. I’ve been associated with Classic Toy Trains since 1988, immersing myself in the history of Lionel and other American manufacturers. It has been a fantastic journey, one begun in 1956!

How about you? What was your first train set? What do you remember about it?

Please tell us your own story by replying to this blog. We look forward to it!