Memories of Christmas Past

[emdmike]

Better late than never Jim, glad you found this great hobby.  I have been attracted to and obsessed with trains since I was to young to have an electric train.  They say that many high functioning autistics are model railroaders or train buffs of some kind. Espicaly the generations prior to all the computers and video games we have today.  Mike

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I did not grow up with trains.  I got into trains late in life.  It was the fall of 1998 when Bob, a friend of mine who I did a lot of carpentry work for, was asked to run his trains for a Thanksgiving Weekend Train show that was like a Christmas Season Kickoff.  He asked me to build him a layout table that was 8 x 12 and could be easily put up and taken down, and stored compactly when not in use.

Well I made him the table and he loved it.  He talked me into helping him assemble the table at the show and put the track, scenery and wiring in place, which I did.  Working on that layout gave me the train bug.  Bob had American Flyer S gauge, so that is where I got started. 

Over the years I amassed a nice collection of AF trains and accessories, and the trains deepened our already strong friendship.  For the next several years we would put our collections together and join our portable layouts for that annual Thanksgiving Weekend Train show, planning improvements for the next years show before we dismantled the layout for the current show.

Bob died a few years ago.  Work, kids and life complicated me being able to display at the train show and situations arose which reclaimed the spare bedroom which housed my permanent layout.  My “active” pursuit of my toy train hobby waned.  The Thanksgiving Weekend Train show, which is going to be this coming weekend, always reminded me of the trains and fond memories of Bob.

As I walk into my Grandson’s bedroom, with the walls still painted with the mural that was the background of my permanent layout, and a few of my favorite locos and cars displayed on the shelves, I’m reminded that yes the trains are fun, are special, and nostalgic, but the relationships that are bonded through the common attraction of toy trains, spans generations. 

My Grandkids are looking forward to playing with our trains we put under the tree in a week or so.  They will be spending hours, with the Flyers, and with a few bullet proof Marx Tinplates we have, filling the air with the smell of liquid smoke and the clickety clack of the toy trains.  I wonder what memories we are creating with old toy trains at Christmas.

Jim

 

 

 

[sir james I]

My first electric train arrived on Christmas day. It was a Marx 999 freight set with lots of straight track. I was disappointed that it was not a Lionel but I ran that train till it got so hot it wouldn't budge. It ran just fine again after my dad made me let it cool down.

[KRM]

These were the first and from Christmas 1957.

I am the kid in the front with my brother in the back.

[traindaddy1]

In 1950, the Korean War had just started and my uncle, now 100 years young, was working in a highly sensitive diplomatic position in an overseas assignment. His absence and the nature of his mission caused a great amount of family apprehension (as did, I am sure, many families with loved ones involved in the war).

A few days after Christmas, unexpectively, he was able to return state-side for a very brief visit AND if that wasn't enough, he brought me a package that he said Santa had given him for me. Opened, a tower light for my train. Wow!

PS... It must have really come from Santa because Santa had just left a Marx train set under the tree for me to find on Christmas morning.

While I no longer have that set, I will always remember that Christmas.

 

 

 

[emdmike]

I totaly wore out the mechnism in dad's 1655 in my late 20's.  I rebuild her with a NOS mechnism I got thru Madison Hardware prior to the closing and purchase by Mr. Kuhn.  I knew its time was coming and got the drive when I had the chance.  Christmas without a train, espicaly a Lionel, isnt really a Christmas.  Yes I know the true reason for the season, and I think if he was still here, he to would have a train under his tree for so many good thoughts and feelings are associated with it. Back to some memories, as I got into my teens, I had the income to buy more trains, the 2333 Santa Fe's and matching NYC F3s ect. Then I got the chance to become the repair tech for Harmon's Trains in Arcadia, IN.  What I made repairing trains was paid in store credit.  I had once heck of a collection by my mid 20's, most got sold to pay bills during a long job layoff, but I am slowly rebuilding again.  But this time with more of a focus, early to mid postwar Lionel.  Mike

[Firelock76]

EMDMike's agonys with those Tyco HO sets reminds me of when I was a kid, and all my friends had Tyco HO starter sets while I had Lionels.  Those HO trains were miserable, always derailing and unreliable, and left a bad taste in my mouth for HO trains that's lasted 50 years.  Unfair, I know, those were cheap sets, but you know what they say about first impressions.  The Lionels never failed me, solid like tanks and stayed on the rails unless I did something stupid like run them too fast.  I've been an O gauge fan ever since, except for a slight foray into N gauge.  That was my brother-in-law's fault, a confirmed N gauger, but those little buggers fascinated me.  They held the rails a lot better than those cheapy HO sets ever did.

I never really retired those Lionels until I went off to college and then into the Marines.  Got the trains back after Lady Firestorm and I got a home of our own, but didn't wake them up after the long sleep until she really, really wanted a train under the Christmas tree.  What can I say, she created a monster!

[rtraincollector]

I barely remember the HO sets we had before Dad came home about a week before Christmas with a used Lionel set 2572 B&M 2359 in charge Super O and that was all it wrote from then on it was O gauge with me. Every Birthday ( Feb 1) and every Christmas was more O guage trains. They tried to slip an HO here and there but they always took second place and they saw that quick. ( my brothers had HO) My best memory is that Christmas thou. I don't have that set any more due to some situations but I have replaced it completely and this time it will not go anywhere if I have anything to say about it. 

[tinplatacis]

Beautiful. My trains usually came at birthdays, but I did get an example of Lionel's 1001 outfit from 1955. It was my grandfather's, and in excellent condition. The only problem was that it didn't run. It was my first engine that I cleaned by myself, and got working without family help. It was around a small Christmas tree that I ran it, and downstairs the chairwoman of Spacial allocations granted permission for a train around the tree. The little 610 wasn't good enough for her that year, so my beautiful 1666 steamer lived its last days there. The drivers fell off and a siderod broke not long after, but it has been (mostly) repaired.

[emdmike]

As we enter the holiday season the memories of the Christmas were most of us got our first train set come back to us.  Mine go back to the Christmas just before my 5th birthday(which is in early March). We celebrated Christmas twice in those years, once at home and the second time at my grandparents.  From Mom and Dad I got two Tyco HO sets, the Silver Streak and the Midnight Special. Then from my grandparents I got the Sears Tyco Royal Blue deluxe set.  I had them all broke before New Years, so typical of those era of Tyco sets.  I had been exposed to Lionel by getting to operate my father's set he got for Christmas 1948 when I visited my grandparents.   I found out later in life that Grandpa told Dad to get my a Lionel but Dad insisted on the smaller scale trains, so they reluctantly followed suit. The Tyco stuff disappeared right after the first of the year and for my following Birthday I got a Lionel Southern Streak set.  Not Lionel's best effort but it survived till I could buy own Lionels with money made from mowing yards.   The MPC set is long gone, subject to the whims of an autistic teen(me) but the Christmas before I turned 12, I got my father's Lionel 1423w set to keep as my own.  That set still sees Christmas duty till this very day.  Happy Holidays from my family to yours. Mike and Michele T