Just dreams of trains
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I greatly regret getting rid of my Lionel trains in the mid 1960s. But I was (and still am) in HO, a "serious scale model railroader" and, thinking like a teen thinks, I thought the mere presence of the Lionel trains in the house was just plain embarassing. So I sold them off for what I now know to be a song (all were in the original boxes). I also regret not saving the Marx wind up trains that preceded the Lionel set in 1957. Clockwork trains are great fun. In fact there are any number of toys I had that I regret getting rid of because many toys from the 1950s were quality items. Real metal and very durable. Tonka trucks for example.
Years later as an adult my mom knew that while I was not going to be a Lionel type modeler or collector again, I did regret selling those trains. She kept her eyes open at rummage and garage sales. She got me an entire Lionel set of plastic steam locomotive, cars, track and transformer for $15 at a rummage sale. Pretty nice deal! Then she found a die cast steam locomotive with cars and track at a different rummage sale for, are yhou ready for this --- one dollar! And then a Marx set -- true tinplate freight cars -- with plastic locomotive and track for $5. None of them have original boxes but those were great deals (maybe I should be posting this in Classic Toy Trains' forums in one of their "hobby is too expensive" threads lol).
It has been a few years since I set those trains up under the tree. I should do that next year. They cannot replace the actual trains I had but the heft and feel of O scale, the sounds and smells, and the whole process of putting the Lionel tubular track together does help kindle some of those same old feelings and memories.
Dave Nelson
This was my first "middle grade" train & DCC conversion from 2005: A Lifelike P2K 0-8-0 USRA C&O (Yeah I know it's not prototypical)I put it under the tree this year and my son played with it for hours each day it was out. (The tree is half decorated here)
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
The Christmas Tree train here is a Bachmann On30 PRR passenger set, with an extra coach.
Sorry, no photos handy, but has been serving that duty with a bunch of ceramic houses for 20 years now.
And it is controlled with an Aristo Train Engineer wireless throttle.
Sheldon
slammin Four cats.
Four cats.
I only have one cat, but that is all that was running under my tree as well.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I had my lionel Santa Fe Warbonnet starter set that I got sometime near 2000 when I was around 10 years old. It is a passenger set with four cars, one dome and and observation car. I just put up a simple loop this year, and my wife said she thought I ahould have made it bigger (she may regret that next year). The best part about setting it up was my four month old daughter loved sitting next to the tracks and watching the train go round. I was also very lucky to get an NCE starter set, my first dcc/sound loco a Bachman GP40 alaska RR, and some Ebay giftcards wrapped under the tree. It was a great Christmas and I hope you all had a great one too
Not much under the tree as far as trains go, but still a little something. My wife said I should buy some materials to start building, always a bonus. I bought a few books the last few weeks and a few Black Friday deals, too. My parents field my book collection with:
"A Colorful Look At: Chicago & North Western"
and
"Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Omaha Railway: Photo Archive"
I love those old Lionel sets. I would have loved that Santa Fe one.
I have the Lionel Pioneer Dockside Switcher set. It has an oval track with a spur. I got it for Christmas in 3rd grade. Good times. Sold it in bad times. But last year I found one which was new old stock, never opened and bought it. Now it will always be a Christmas train instead of an everyday play with until it dies, fix and and wear it out again train. The original was my best gift ever. The start of a life long hobby.
My Lionel trains are up all year in my home office, and the inside of the oval happens to be where I've been putting my tree since 2008 after adopting my cats so that I can keep the door to the room closed, and they can't get in to the train or the tree.
All white-lights mode
Multi-color mode
Couple full views of the tree
This year, however, was a special anniversary for me. It was 40 years ago on Christmas 1976 that Santa brought me my first Lionel train set.
While I've moved on to HO, that original set and the several cars and another locomotive that I've gotten over the years since are still very special to me. So, this year, I took a few special pics to commemorate the event.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
For me, it was a circa 1958 Gilbert train set, my big Christmas gift when I was 8 years old. It consists of a gas-electric switcher (looks like a 4 wheel diesel with side rods) pulling an orange Morrell reefer, a white D&RGW "Cookie-Box" boxcar, a black B&O hopper, a brown D&H gon with cement containers and a red B&O caboose. The gon was extra to the set. This was my first HO train and it set me on the path to a life-long hobby.
... and yes I layed down on the floor to get a ground level view of it running, just like I did back then. Nostalgia is alive and well here!
Jim