Trains.com

Share your childhood Christmas memories! (Train related of course!)

1071 views
12 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Central New Jersey
  • 258 posts
Share your childhood Christmas memories! (Train related of course!)
Posted by 92hatchattack on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 9:10 AM
So its that time of year, and i was thinking that we could all share or memories of being a kid and bringin out the trains for this special time of year.

Now im a young guy at only 23 years of age, but my foundest memories of my childhood Chistmas was definatly the trains. I remember two thing in particular, the first being that unmistakable smell of postwar locos and their smoke. As soon as that box from the actic was opened the sent filled the house. YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT! To me, that was the spell of Christmas!

The other thing that will burn in the back of my mind around Christmas time forever was the gentle green glow from the classic ZW. Even as an adult now, visiting my old place where the ZW is still in action it puts a great warm feeling into my heart!

So those are my memories..... How bout the rest of you guys and gals????
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 6:54 PM
Christmas 1953; I just received my Sante Fe Triple Unit Frieght and was running it around the tree when the Doctor stopped by (yes, it did happen in small town America in that era) to check on my Dad's bad back. He (the doctor) then came out and layed down with me to watch the train and its lights go around and around. I still remember that vividly now some 52 years later!!
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • 101 posts
Posted by tcripe on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:23 PM
One December Sunday afternoon I was too sick to go to the church Christmas program rehearsal,so I was left home alone. I decided to do a little snooping around and found that my parents' luggage weighed more than it should have for being empty in the closet. I opened one to find a Navy Alco A & B set and the helicopter car. Toughest thing I had to do was fake surprise on Christmas eve. Since there was no surprise, it wasn't such a great Christmas. I decided that was the last time I'd do that!
- Terry
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Central New Jersey
  • 258 posts
Posted by 92hatchattack on Thursday, December 15, 2005 2:27 PM
good storries...

i remember my dad telling me all about the Blue Comet when i was young.....

and then, one Christmas, on a spare track behind our Christmas tree and little layout, ther was a brand new 0-27 Blue Comet set..... I was in shock ... that was a great Christmas!!!
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Pittsburgh, PA
  • 1,429 posts
Posted by MartyE on Thursday, December 15, 2005 2:41 PM
I don't have trains on Christmas Day persay but I do have the memories of putting up the trains with my dad. We always had a 8x12 layout 2ft off the ground. Many a night my brother and I would stay up past our bedtime to help wire and lay track. Screw track down and help with the crude scenery.

I love that hum of the old ZW and looking through my dad's old Lionel catalogs like we could still get things from them.

Trying to update my avatar since 2020 Laugh

MartyE and Kodi the Husky Dog! ( 3/31/90-9/28/04 ) www.MartyE.com My O Gauge Web Page and Home of Kodiak Junction!

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Shanksville PA
  • 311 posts
Posted by tsgtbob on Thursday, December 15, 2005 2:59 PM
Christmas 1969, I got my first accessory. Earlier that year, I got from an uncle, a '52 vintage 726rr, boxcar, gon, tankcar, and caboose, 4 switches, a bunch of track and an RW transformer.
Ran it almost to death.
In 69, I got a crossing signal, BRAND SPANKING NEW! I remember tearing the plastic package open, and chucking that bubble pack in with the wrapping paper. (how many out there are cringing yet?)
I was 7 at the time.
Now, many years later, I picked up a greenberg's of the postwar accessories.
Look up my 154. The listing says pyramid shaped base. Look at mine. Same base as a 151! Seems that I managed, on my first accessory, to get a "rare" Hagerstown piece.
Every Christmas, that 154 gets hooked up to the track, and the wheels of that 726rr roll across it.
Several years ago, I started to collect postwar items. but the prize of my collection (ruynning collection I may add) is that 154 and 726rr set.
My kids love it too, now they each have a postwar set of their own.
Merry Christmas All!!!

In the next few days, I'll post up the pic of that 154.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, December 15, 2005 3:58 PM
Dec 1970: Asked Santa for a Lionel steam engine. Refused to tell my parents what I had asked for. I knew I was a good kid, but Santa must have thought I wasn't ready for it.
Jan 1971: Mentioned to Mom and Dad what I had asked for.
Dec 1971: Santa decided I was ready!! To this day, that's the first engine to chug around the tree each year...
  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Greenacres WA
  • 176 posts
Posted by c50truck on Thursday, December 15, 2005 9:00 PM
The early 60’s, Christmas downtown at the Crescent. It was a department store in the center of Spokane WA. Would watch the animated Christmas figures and trains through the windows, but I loved the trains most , They had trains large and small in the window displays. And inside they had trains set up and running with accessories etc. My Dad and I spent our time looking, pointing, talking, and dreaming. These modern discount stores don’t realize what they are missing. Am working on a plan to put such a display for Christmas 2006 at our business next year. Easy to put together the trains. It has been impossible to find animated figures that follow a theme.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 523 posts
Posted by mpzpw3 on Thursday, December 15, 2005 9:23 PM
Christmas sometime in the 80's. I was in 6th grade and opened up a set of 2343 Santa Fe F-3's, a little beaten up, but boy oh boy were they cool!! I couldn't believe that I owned a set of these! Dad really came through that year, and I will always have fond memories of our time together!
  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: 15 mi east of Cleveland
  • 2,072 posts
Posted by 1688torpedo on Thursday, December 15, 2005 9:56 PM
Hello tstgbob! A few years ago CTT ran a article of a fellows layout ( forgot his name) Anyway, this Gent has a # 154 with a semaphore base also! What a neat variation of a common highway flasher. Hope you never part with yours. Have fun!
Keith Woodworth........Seat Belts save lives,Please drive safely.
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Crystal Lake, IL
  • 8,059 posts
Posted by cnw1995 on Friday, December 16, 2005 8:19 AM
Every year, during the 1970s, my family would troop into NYC for a Christmas outing. We would take the train into Grand Central, and always visit the Citicorp layout and the one in the window of the SwissAir office. Sometimes we'd see a show or go out to dinner. There was usually more trains on display in the Department store windows or toy departments.

Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • 6,434 posts
Posted by FJ and G on Friday, December 16, 2005 8:38 AM
A PC train in Fonda NY was deadheaded due to track problems (1970). The guys in the caboose let me inside to look around. Have photo of the caboose somewhere.
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Shanksville PA
  • 311 posts
Posted by tsgtbob on Friday, December 16, 2005 10:06 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by 1688torpedo

Hello tstgbob! A few years ago CTT ran a article of a fellows layout ( forgot his name) Anyway, this Gent has a # 154 with a semaphore base also! What a neat variation of a common highway flasher. Hope you never part with yours. Have fun!

Well, as Paul Harvey said, here's the rest of the story.
I still have that 154, it was the beginning of a collection that is pretty much complete.
Every year, Mom and Dad would get me a car or accessory for Christmas, up to the time we lost them in '96 and '00. I started that tradition, with my kids, in the gauge that they are interested in.
Most of the items that my parents got was from a man in Rockwood Pa. named Huck Wiltrout. I knew Huck since I was six or so, he was the first signature on my TCA application ( a major source of pride BTW)
Huck passed away, on my birthday in '01.
01 was not a good year.
He rebuilt the bearings in my 726rr, I had ran them till they were egg shaped.
As I sit here typing this in, I realized that it is not so much about the trains or accessories, but the people who are linked to them. Each chip, scratch, dent, faded marking and such are a memory.
I guess my collection isn't so complete after all...

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month