This Christmas was awesome. I ordered a Lionel Legacy equipped D & H GP38-2 in October and it arrived on Christmas Eve and my Grandfather gave me an MTH GS-4.
How were everyone else's holidays?
2008 was pretty good for me as a whole.For my B-Day my wife bought me the Legacy Chessie GP-30 and for X-Mas my FiL bought me the LRRC TMCC Crane and Boom car set!
I got a few HO scale things, which made me very happy. What really made this one of the best Christmas mornings was seeing the 8 year old grandson jump up and down hollering "I got a train" over and over again. That was the best gift I could receive. Ken
My bride got me a Polar Express, and daughter's boyfriend got me an AF 979 caboose!
Jim
I only got two train-related things: the new "Lionel Nation 2" DVD from TM, and "Inside The Fun Factory" by Robert Osterhoff.
I've been glued to the book ever since. It is simply the finest chunk of Lionel history ever set down on paper. The text, pictures, research and editing are all above first rate. I was an American History major in college, and have a real passion for good history. This book is as good as it gets.
Perhaps the best indicator of good history is when it changes the readers' perception of what was. This book, for me has redefined what Lionel was and is. I often hear folks on the forums talking about Lionel as if it ceased to exist in 1969. Horse Hockey!
It ceased to exist as it was in 1929 when it left the Irvington factory, in 1937 when it went public, in the early 50's when it took over Airex, in 1959 when JLC and his daughter sold out to Roy Cohn and the list goes on...
Two things really strike me from this book:
1. The Lionel of today is every bit as a much "Lionel" as the Lionel of yesterday was. Don't let anybody tell you that Lionel died in 1969. That "Lionel" was the Lionel Toy Corporation, a subsidiary of The Lionel Corporation, along with half a dozen other companies.
2. The constant at Lionel is, and has always been change. There was just as much intrigue and shell-gaming, and lawyering in 1919 as there is today.
Jon
It was great for me too. I got my 1st set of postwar F3s which are the classic santa fe ones. I also got my 1st piece of prewar from my grandfather. a 262 and 3 nice coaches. I also managed to pick up the cars to a general set for $10 the other day :P. I also got lionel nation 2 which si great.
"No childhood should be without a train!"
Good for you, now thats always nice too get train stuff for Christmas,
I didn't get any train stuff BUT my wife did get me a 10 year old Chevy Blazer (my van was always breaking down) so I guess i can't complain, now if I could just put a cow catcher on the Blazer I'd be a happy conductor!!!!
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wishing you all a good new year!
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