Thanks to my mom who believed in handing everything down in the family, my 1939 Christmas gift of a little tinplate NYC Marx became a "ground runnner" and was destroyed in my ten years younger brother's sand pile in 1950 while I was off in Korea helping lose the War.
p.s:
Mom was from Ohizio! [they did have and eat Grits at Grandma's in Dennison during the 1930s-40s.
This last Christmas I watched for the first time "The Polar Express" and loved it. Watching the movie got me to thinking about my "Tyco" trains I had growing up. I called my Dad and he had kept them for me all these 40 years. He mailed them to me, I cleaned them up and all the locomotives run still. This rekindled my interest in trains, so now I have my own "0" gauge set, a combination of Lionel and MTH, which I love to run.
Rayway
Not al trains were dispossed of. My parents sold a lot of my stuff, but never did sell my cheap Lionel train from 1964. It is not worth much money but I do love it and run it once in a while.
Jim H
At least that is better than what my Father did.
I wanted an electric train from the day I was born.
When I was 8, I received my American Flier.Iit was added to from then on.
I also pick up many things pretaining to Trains, Like Rail & Sails bubble gum cards and some other stuff.
When I went into the Air Force just after High School My dad cleaned out everthing I had and sold it.
Heres another example. I remember visiting Trainland on Long Island in th 1970's. They had 3470 target ballon cars and 6801 jet boat cars, brand spanking new in boxes, in big stacks right up to the ceiling.
There were still lots of new trains sitting in hobby shops, tire stores, department stores (large and small), 5 and 10's etc.
Cwburfle is correct - it wasn't until the 80's that things really started to change as far as train prices were concerned. For example, in the late 1970's a local hobby shop had displayed on a top shelf in the store 10 of the Lionel Air and Space cars. All were brand new and every time I walked into the store their they sat. I walked in one Saturday and the store owner had marked all of them down to $3.00 each. I ignored the offer as aparently did everyone else. A month or two later and he had them down to $2.00 each and again there were no takers. About 6 months later I went into the store to purchase some painting supplies and I noticed he had the cars priced at $1.00 each. I thought about it for awhile and, since I actually had a spare $10 bill in my wallet, I decided to buy them. The owner brought out the boxes, we packaged everything up, and I handed over the ten dollars. Even at $1.00 each I didn't think I had much of a bargain but I had decided it would be worth getting them for the novelty factor - the idea that a few decades later people would be paying hundreds of dollars each for cars in this condition was a thought that never crossed my mind.
Folks,
Try to remember that up into the 1980's, the community of "O" gauge train operators and collectors was very small. While the prices mentioned in these posts seem to be a pittance from today's point of view, there is a good chance that whoever purchased them paid a fair and reasonable price.
In my opinion, it was the excellent books put out by TM that kindled the explosive growth in Lionel train collecting. These books put information about Lionel trains at peoples fingertips.
I wish I had held on to all sorts of trains that I owned at one time or another.
There were also trains in my family in the past that are now gone. My uncle on my mom's side had a Lionel Scout set with a 156 station platform added to it that was sold long before I was ever born.
My grandfather (also on my mom's side) had a clockwork train set back in the 20's with a cast iron steam engine. It was a passenger set with an oval of track. Could have been Hafner, American Flyer or Bing. Nobody has any idea what ever happened to it.
My dad and his brother had some kind of a little tinplate clockwork set. The only details that my dad can recall of it are that it had British-style brown and cream passenger cars. I'm guessing that this was a Mettoy or Brimtoy set. It probably survived the years in a shed which contained all sorts of old possessions from my dad's family. However, when I was less than a year old, the shed burnt to the ground. How I would have loved to have gone through the contents of that shed-who knows what vintage treasures were contained within!
A sad but common tale!
My mother sold my Marx trains in a yard sale years ago without my knowledge. She just assumed that I didn't want it. In all honesty, at the time (I was in college) I would have probably agreed with her. I think she got $10 for the lot. Not that it would have been worth much in dollars, but today I sure wish I had it.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
My Mother and Father just got back from snowbirding in Arizona for the winter. They stopped by my house for a visit and I had not told them about the train set I had bought for my son. When they came down to the rec room and saw our train set they were surprised. They both really liked it and my Mother told me some info which I had not heard before.
My Mothers Father had a huge layout in their basement in the 1950's involving at least 4 trains running at once and tracks that went from one end of the basement to the other. She said he had alot of Lionel buildings, trees and other accessories including crossing guards and other working accessories. My Father was dating my Mother then and saw it and said it was quite impressive.
In 1962 my Mothers family moved to Arizona after my Mother and Father got married. They boxed up all of the trains and everything train related and took them with them. The trains never saw the tracks again. My Grandfather died not too long after their move and when my Uncle got married he inheirited the trains. He never set them up and my Mother said his wife told him to get rid of them and he sold everything for a couple hundred bucks. It saddens me now to know my Grandfathers train are being enjoyed by someone other than me. At least now I know where I got the enjoyment of running my new trains from. I inherited it from my Grandfather which I barely knew. Another connection to my Grandfather which I will cherish.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month