Those were the days

[Anonymous]

 

 Buffalo, NY in 1954 got you this deal for Christmas: 

 

[cnw1995]

How cool. And a great userid too - thanks for posting!

[johnandjulie13]

Wow.  And the ad included "Easy Terms."  I wonder what those were?

John O

[Bob Keller]

FWIW using the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary calculator, $39.95 in 1954 equals $299.55 in 2006 (the last full year they have data for).

Below is the URL for your own past-present calulating:

http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/

[Jumijo]

That's great! And it compares to what a new set would sell for today.

Jim 

[ben10ben]

Wow! I have that exact set! 

[Jumijo]

For real, Ben? What is it comprised of? The image isn't very clear to me. I can't even tell what type of deisel it is.

Jim 

[1688torpedo]

 $39.95 what a deal!   The Irony is how much money that was in those days & now you can spend $40.00 or more on a piece of Rolling Stock! I bet the average Car payment was around $40.00 a month in 1954? Take Care all.

[1688torpedo]

 Jim A-  That is the Black & Yellow Erie Alco with Diecast Frame & Magne-Traction & a Boxcar,Hopper,Tankcar, & Caboose. Take Care.

[Jumijo]

Thanks, Keith. I thought it was an Alco, but really couldn't tell for sure.

Jim 

[Pennvalley]

Average paycheck back then was around $55 - 60 a week.

[Jumijo]

Average paycheck back then was around $55 - 60 a week.

Still is here . . . 

[ben10ben]

Jim,
Here's the contents of the set I have.

2032 Erie Alcos

6656 Stock Car(same as the cattle car, but non operating)

6456 Lehigh Valley Hopper

6465 Sunoco Tank Car

6357 Caboose

Given the date on the ad, as well as the illustration, I'm positive that this is the set pictured in the ad.

[MartyE]

Post this on another forum and they'll tell you there is trouble at Lionel in '54 because they were discounting the set!  Cool ad!

[Jumijo]

Post this on another forum and they'll tell you there is trouble at Lionel in '54 because they were discounting the set!  Cool ad!

AND they'll tell you what is spelled incorrectly as they titter amongs themselves. Funny, I never see any one do that with MTH stuff over there in "negativity land". 

Jim 

[Jumijo]

I just read the ad again. The contents and part number of the set are listed. I know what a CTC lockon is, but what does the CTC stand for?

Connector To Connector? 

Circuit To Circuit?

Carolina To Columbus?

Jim 

 

[4kitties]

2032 Erie Alcos

6656 Stock Car(same as the cattle car, but non operating)

6456 Lehigh Valley Hopper

6465 Sunoco Tank Car

6357 Caboose

I like this consist enough that I assembled it from individual components to compliment the 2032's I already had.  I would've given my right arm for this set when I was a kid.

Is your hopper car black or maroon?  I believe the Greenberg set guide states that it could be either one.

Joel

[MartyE]

Actually in fairness they have.  And the Merrimac incident MTH took a beating.  But jeez the forums do pounce on errors.  I don't mind when they pounce on the errors in pictures as it may save some errors in production cars but just simple catalog reads... get a little, well strange we have nothing better to do.

[johnandjulie13]

Actually, I think Lionel was in trouble in 1954.  After years of big profits after the war, I think Lionel lost a huge amount of money that year.  I will have to check my Ron Hollander book when I get home later.

I have the 1954 catalog and I do not remember that set in the catalog.  Could that be a 1953 set?

Regards,

John O

[lionelsoni]

In prototype railroads "CTC" means "centralized traffic control".  I always assumed that that's where Lionel got the name.

[Jumijo]

I just read the ad again. The contents and part number of the set are listed. I know what a CTC lockon is, but what does the CTC stand for?

Connector To Connector? 

Circuit To Circuit?

Carolina To Columbus?

Jim

CTC = Classic Track Connector?

OTC = Super O Track Connector?

LTC = Lighted Track Connector? 

 

[ben10ben]

Is your hopper car black or maroon?  I believe the Greenberg set guide states that it could be either one.

Mine is black.

By the way, the set was bought from the estate of the original owner, who also added a 6414 Auto-loader and green 3461 log dumper. The evidence that I've been able to gather suggests that the original owner received the set for Christmas in 1954, and then added the log car in '55 and Auto-loader in '56. 

I think I'll get the set out and run it when I get home today.

[Anonymous]

CTC..  Control Train Circuit Lockon?  OTC .. Operating Train Circuit lockon?   Dunno!

Bruce Webster

[Anonymous]

Those were the days in more ways than one! I was 11 years old at that time. I can assure you "youngsters" here that Lionel was NOT in trouble in 1954, and Lionel trains were EVERYWHERE (ditto for Flyer and Marx).  It was a GREAT time to grow up, despite the fact that it was not a perfect world then any more than it's a perfect world now.  Truth is, it's a far less perfect and far more dangerous world today, and I'm just glad I grew up when I did.  I really feel sorry for today's kids because it looks as if they are going to be saddled with terribly important problems that couldn't even be imagined back in the 50s.

[johnandjulie13]

Hello Allan:

Are you sure that was a much better time to grow up?  You had an escalating cold war, people building bomb shelters, and Joseph McCarthy running a witchhunt (with the help of Roy Cohn, the man later responsible for running Lionel into the ground).

While there are many problems in the world today, I would be hard pressed to believe 1954 was a cakewalk.  Maybe as an 11 year old, you didn't think about those events, just like 11 year old kids today probably don't pay attention to current issues.

Anyway, according to Ron Hollander who wrote "All Aboard," after 1953's record sales and profits, sales dropped 38% through 1954 and 1955.  That would seem to indicate some difficult times.

Regards,

John O

[underworld]

Very cool ad! $39.95 was still a decent chunk of cash back then.

 

underworld

[pbjwilson]

Something sort of related to this topic of a different era - I was reading a book on baseball and it stated in 1956 the only professional baseball team west of the Mississippi was the St. Louis Cardinals. It wasnt until the Dodgers moved to L.A. that there was a team out west. Its an amazing fact when you think about it. Just about everything was in the eastern U.S. And most things were centered around New York. The Interstate road system was in its infancy. People traveled by train. 50 years ago was a very different time.

I was just telling someone the other day that I cannot imagine writing checks and mailing them to pay my bills. Everything from the kids Christmas presents to movie tickets are purchased on the computer. My bank debit card has taken the place of a teller. Could you imagine traveling with travelers checks? Do they even exist anymore? Times are changing at an ever increasing pace. So when you look back 50+ years its seen as sort of calming and more relaxed time and place. Everything was so much slower and maybe better because of it.

 

[underworld]

pbjwilson Yep....they do still have travellers checks....and they are still pretty popular.

underworld

[mickey4479]

In prototype railroads "CTC" means "centralized traffic control".  I always assumed that that's where Lionel got the name.

I know a gentlman here in town who was in CTT sometime ago.  He runs 2 rail O scale and bought a real CTC machine, had it wired and incorporated into his layout.  One of my friends operates the CTC machine with another fella when Jim runs his layout.  It is pretty cool.

That ad reminds me of a Christmas long ago when I received my first train, a Lionel, from my parents.  I can't remember the exact year now, but it was around the mid fifties, had a diecast steamer and some tinplate cars with the older couplers.  Wish I had a photo to share.

[jwse30]

 Could you imagine traveling with travelers checks? Do they even exist anymore? 

 

Traveler's checks still exist, but last year's vacation was the first year in 10 that I went without them. Just because they exist doesn't mean that the personon the other side of the counter knows they exist. The last 3 years of travelling out east proved to me that they are more trouble than they are worth, mostly due to the ignorance (lack of training?)  of retail clerks.

 

J White