An American Flyer Tale for Christmas 2014 Edition

[Northwoods Flyer]

In the years past I have usually had the Tale for Christmas ready before Christmas Eve to share with readers.  I got a bit behind this year.  But here it is....finally.

 

An American Flyer Tale For Christmas

2014 Edition

 

 

“Its finally done.” Steve thought to himslf as he eased himself into the big upholstered wing chair in his train room.  It had been his practice for years to hide himself away in the train room after the children were tucked away in bed on Christmas Eve.  Then he could wrap presents in peace without fear of being discovered.  Each year it seemed that the job took longer as the number of presents increased.  He and his wife talked about cutting  back every year,  but that never seemed to happen.  He usually had a stack of old Christmas movies ready to watch as he did the wrapping.  He enjoyed watching “White Christmas”,  “The Bishop’s Wife”, and “Christmas in Connecticut”.  His favorite by far was “A Christmas Carol”, of which he had several versions.

 

Now that he had finished the wrapping it was well after midnight.  He had made himself a good strong Tom and Jerry and settled into his favorite spot in the train room.  Steve took a sip of the holiday beverage and gazed around the train room.  The layout looked great with some Christmas themed items placed on it.  It was particularly fun when he turned the room lights out and let the glow of street lamps and lighted buildings provide the illumination.  His eyes roamed over the walls of the room, taking in the collection of Pre War American Flyer Trains that he had gathered.  Over the years he had purchased individual cars and engines, accessories, and on rare occassions a complete set.  He enjoyed looking at the collection of Narrow and Wide Gauge trains, remembering how he had aquired the pieces and from whom.  It pleased him to think that he had brought together items that had their common beginnings at the factory building on Halsted street in Chicago.  He knew very little about where most of the trains had spent their time since leaving the factory.  A few of the pieces he had purchased from their original owners, or at least from the family that had originally owned them.  He knew their stories.  He wondered what kinds of stories the other trains would tell if they could talk.  He considered it a priviledge to be their current owner and thought of himself as their caretaker while they were in his possession.

 

He took a longer sip of his drink and started to watch “A Christmas Carol.”  He wasn’t quite sure which ghost was about to make its appearance when he had dozed off, but when he woke up the credits for the movie were rolling on the screen.  He picked up the remote and turned off the system.  The light from the TV glowed for a fraction of a second and then blinked off.  Steve settled back into the chair for  few seconds and he thought about mustering up the energy to head to bed.   

 

He listened to the antique station clock that he kept on the wall of the train room ticking at a steady rate.  Each “tick” was answered with a slightly deeper “tock” and a soft high pitched squeak as the pendulum headed back to “tick”.  Suddenly he noticed that the rhythmic “tick tock”  had stopped.  He opened his eyes and looked at the clock.  The room was gently bathed in light from the layout.  His attention was drawn to a blue point of light reflected in the glass covering the face of the  clock.  He looked in the direction where the source of the light originated.  As he watched, the light began to grow in size.   It grew until it touched the floor and stood about 5 feet tall.  Steve was fascinated by the  way the blue light shimmered and rippled as it grew.  It almost seemed alive.  The intensity of the light remained the same but at its core something began to take shape.  As he watched, a human form began to materialize.  It appeared to be a young boy, dressed in the clothes of a decade long past, bathed in the cool blue light.  The boy was facing away from Steve and it looked as if he was searching among the shelves of engines and freight cars and passenger trains for something.  Up and down the boy’s head bobed as he moved along the length of the shelves.  When he reached the end of the last set of shelves the boy was only a few feet away from where Steve sat in his chair.  Slowly the apparition, bathed in blue light, turned and looked at Steve.  Their eyes met and instantly Steve felt at ease.  The young face was alert, friendly and excited.  The boy spoke, “Please sir, can you tell me where it is?”   For some reason it didn’t seem strange to him that this spectral boy should be talking to him.  He thought for a moment and then responded.  “What are you looking for?”

“My missing car.” the boy said.  “It’s a green sand car.”

“I have several of them on the shelves.  You didn’t see one like it?  Steve replied.

“No sir.  I didn’t see my car.  It was part of my Christmas present in 1928.   I started looking at the train catalogs as soon as they arrived at Olsen’s Hardware store that year.  I looked at the Lionel catalog and I looked at the American Flyer catalog.  It was hard to decide which train to pick so I could  put it in the Christmas letter that I sent to Santa.  I finally picked the #1387 Merchant Set.  And she was a beauty mister.  The set had a #3185 electric engine, a beautiful red caboose, a machinery car, a box car, and my green sand car.  I sent my letter to Santa as soon as I made my decision.  My dad took it to the Post Office and sent it off Special Delivery for me.”

 

The boy went on; ”On Christmas Eve our whole family gathered at my grandpa and grandma’s house.  All of my aunts and uncles and cousins were there.  We had a swell time together.  All of us kids kept trying to sneak into the parlor to see if Santa had brought us anything.  At last grandpa said it was time to go into the parlor and open presents.  I spotted my present from Santa right away.  The box was the right size and it was wrapped in red paper with candy canes on it.  My oldest cousin passed out all the presents and sure enough that present was mine.  I was so excited I could hardly wait for my turn to open my present.  Finally I got to tear the paper off the box.  The label said it was the #1387 -  The Merchant.  I took the top of the box off and each box inside was wrapped in green Christmas paper.  One by one I took the boxes out and unwrapped them until the whole set stood on grandma’s oriental carpet.  Mister, It was the most beautiful train set in the whole world.”

 

“You should have seen the parlor.  It was full of torn wrapping paper and boxes and packing papers.  My cousins and I, and my uncles too, set the track up, hooked up the wires, put the engine and cars on the track and away she went.  Everybody took a turn at being the engineer of  The Merchant.  We even turned off the lights in the parlor except for the ones on the Christmas tree and pretended The Merchant was running through the night.  Before you knew it my mom and dad said it was time to go home.  I put all the cars back in their boxes and some of my cousins helped me put it all back in the big box.  The boxes and track were harder to put back in than they were to take out, but finally everything was back in the box and the lid shut.”

 

“The next day I was up early to play with my new train.  I unpacked all the cars and the track in the living room and sent The Merchant whizzing around the track.  It only took one trip around the track and I realized that the green sand car was missing.  I looked through the boxes again, but it wasn’t there.  I searched through all the presents under the tree without finding the car.  I asked mom and dad and my brother and sister but they didn’t know where it was.  I even had my mom call grandma  to see if it was still in the parlor, but they couldn’t find my sand car either.”

 

“Mister, my sand  car disappeared just as if it never existed. But I know I had it that first night because we loaded it with candy and sent it around the track.  I never did find the sand car or the box it came in.”

 

“So I came here tonight to see if maybe you had it.  You have so many trains.  I’d sure like to see The Merchant run again.”

 

Steve thought for a moment. “ I think I have all of those cars and the engine.  I didn’t realize I had all the components of The Merchant until you started talking about it.”

 

“Could you find them mister?  I sure would like to see her run again.”

 

Steve got up from the chair and made his way around the shelves.  He grabbed a #3185 from the engines on display.  Then he found a box car, and a machinery car and a caboose on different shelves that were from 1928.  He put them on the track in front of the transformer.  He was lacking the #3207 green sand car.  He went back to the shelves to look for one.

 

“You don’t have the right one mister.  I looked all over for one.”

 

Steve stood looking at his ghostly visitor.  All at once he snapped his fingers, bent down and pulled a storage box from under the layout.  He rummaged in the box for a few seconds and then pulled out a very old and fragile looking cardboard box.  He opened the box and pulled open the waxed wrapping paper that cushioned the car inside.  There in the box was an almost pristine #3207 sand car.  It matched the other cars he had assembled from 1928 that sat on the track.  He lifted out the car and showed it to the boy.

 

“Hey! That’s it!  That’s just like my missing car!  You found it!”

 

A feeling of excitement welled up in Steve.  He carried the sand car to the track and coupled up all of the cars to the engine.  He flipped the switch on the vintage transformer and the red and green lights glowed softly.  He looked up at his visitor and asked “Would you like to run her?”

 

“Oh Swell!  Can I?” the boy replied.

Steve stepped away from the transformer and the boy placed his pale hand on the throttle.  The engine came to life and the train moved around the layout.  They stood side by side watching The Merchant go on its way to make deliveries.  He wasn’t sure how long they stood watching the train when the boy finally looked down at the box that held the #3207.  He picked it up and examined it.  He let out a shout of excitement. “Holy Cats! Hey mister this is my missing sand car!  Look here on the box.  There is some paper still stuck to the box with tape.  That’s the paper all of the boxes inside the set box were wrapped in.  Holy Cats!  I finally found it!  Thank mister, thanks a lot.”

 

Steve smiled broadly as  he watched the boy bathed in blue light running the train.  As he watched, he began to feel tired, and he started to yawn uncontrollably.  He moved back to his big comfortable chair and sat down.  He watched contentedly as the headlights of the engine moved around the layout.  The next thing he was aware of was the sound of the ticking of the station clock on the wall.  He opened his eyes and looked at the soft glow of the street lamps and illuminated houses on the layout.

 

“Wow! What a dream.  Its amazing what you get when you mix a Tom and Jerry, gift wrapping and A Christmas Carol.”  He chuckled to himself as he got out of his chair and headed for the door of the train room.  Just as he was about to turn off the power to the layout something caught his attention.  On the track sat a cardboard box that usually held an American Flyer #3207 sand car.  A little further down the track was a train headed by an electric engine.  Steve recognized a Merchant freight train.  What surprised him even more was the miniature figure standing in front of the freight station.  It was a figure that he didn’t recognize. It was a young boy dressed in clothing from a decade long past.  His arm was raised in a wave of greeting, and he had a big smile on his face.

 

1928 American Flyer Catalog

The Merchant

The set assembled by Steve

The Merchant running on the layout

 

 

The boxed #3207

 

 

The box with the tape and a remnant of green wrapping paper

 

 

Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Northwoods Flyer

 

 

 

 

 

[prrstation]

... and here is a 1957 television American Flyer tale:

https://archive.org/details/DateWithTheAngels-1950sFamilySitcom-ChristmasEpisode
.

[jwse30]

Thanks for sharing your stories Northwoods. I hope you keep them coming!

 

J White

 

[stebbycentral]

A very nice tale.  And appropriate as I have just purchased a copy of "American Flyer Classic Toy Trains" by Gerry & Janet Souter.  It opened a whole new world to me, as we 50's children tend to forget that American Flyer existed as a successfull toy train manufacturer long before A. C. Gilbert came along.  It's good that there are collectors around like you sir, to preserve those early trains, and to keep that part of the company's history alive.