Hi, ive been surfing the web to find some stories from people about their toy train christmas, like the kind you would find in CTT magazine lol. Anyways, if any one has some stories to share, please do!
Are you looking for true stories or fictionalized accounts? I've written stories about Christmas and trains for the last 5 years and posted them here on the CTT site. If you Google "An American Flyer Tale for Christmas" you will find all of them listed.
The story for Christmas 2016 is in the works.
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
well if the fictional ones sound good! lol ill check it out! Thanks
CTT Dec '16 did have two stories about PW Lionel and young boys desiring the great old Lionels. Beyond that - I don't recall any others.
I think CTT should of solicited stories from Readers as to their own X-Mas Holiday PW stories of either getting a nice original Lionel or AF Or Marx, or possibly some of those memorable trips to Dept Stores that had great Train Displays in Window Displays or Layouts in Toy Depts that sold those great old Trains.
CTT needs to expand their vision on focusing on the Old Pre or PW trains of past, and reach-out to their Readers more & publish stories of same. Mega Layouts of new-made trains of Lionel and MTH are getting boring to say the least! CTT needs to focus on their Mag Name.
Not a story, but I found this ghost of Christmas past recently:
That would have been for the Christmas after this one:
That's my brother, but you can make out the brim of my hat and my hand on the flatcar with orange cable reels just to the left of my uncle's knee. I still have the trains, the Plasticville Suburban Station and the Christmas tree (in my bedroom at this moment) in the background, but the other buildings are long gone. (Boy do I wish I still had that Marx Masterpieces Western Town!) My dad, nudging the 239 a bit, would only see 6 more Christmases after this one.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Wonderful photo Becky! You, your dad, and family enjoying toy trains is what this hobby is all about. Glad someone decided to take a picture to preserve the memory.
Karl
This thread on this forum has several
http://cs.trains.com/ctt/f/95/t/186329.aspx
and over the years others have posted stories like these to a number of CTT threads.
Toy Trains FTWdo you own any marx engines?
I have 4 and bits and pices of a few others. The one that sees the most rail time is a 666. I also have a 333 painted green with white and orange trim lettered for State Railways of Thailand. And 2 clockwork locos, a Commodore Vanderbilt and a generic black steamer that I restored.
Penny Trains Toy Trains FTW do you own any marx engines? I have 4 and bits and pices of a few others. The one that sees the most rail time is a 666. I also have a 333 painted green with white and orange trim lettered for State Railways of Thailand. And 2 clockwork locos, a Commodore Vanderbilt and a generic black steamer that I restored.
Toy Trains FTW do you own any marx engines?
Try putting a few drops of an acetone based nail polish remover into the smoke unit and then running the loco a bit. It may dissolve built up gunk on the wick and get you going again.
Penny, your post almost made me cry.
My first Lionel came Xmas 1986 maybe? I put too much smoke fluid in it and it never ran. My old man had to pay $60 for our local Lionel scalper at the time (now out of business) to let the train dry out. Boy was he pi**ed! Still makes me laugh though...ah memories...
You know what I remember most from that day? Not that my grand parents were there also shooting a super 8 movie I wouldn't discover until 2016! But rather that out of everyone involved, I, at 3 years old, was the only one who could figure out how to put the signal bridge together!
I missed the big years for Lionel or AF trains having grown up in the late 1970's and early '80's. My first train sets(I got 3 Tyco sets that same year) was the Silver Streak diesel set from my parents on Christmas day, then the day after we travel to Ohio to visit my grandparents where I got the Midnight Special from my mom's mother and my dad's parents got me the Deluxe Royal Blue, mail ordered from Sears(was a Sears only set). I killed the motor in the RB set within an hour or two(went up in smoke!). So grandpa took me down to the detached garage and for the first time I saw the 4x7 piece of plywood with a big loop of 0-27 Lionel track on it. We carried it together up to the house and laid it down in the living room. Grandma in mean time had gone upstairs and retrieved my father's trains from the closet where they had slept since he was a young boy. Grandpa and I unpacked them, then took the locomotive back down to the workshop in the garage to service and clean it. I spent the rest of the day playing with my fathers 1948 train set, set 1423W consisting of a 1655 2-4-2(back when that engine was a really nice engine, pre Scout days), whistle tender, Sunoco tank car, PRR gondola and SP type caboose. This train survived my childhood and when I turned 12, that Christmas it wasnt set up under the tree when we got to my grandparents. Thats because it was wrapped up and it was finaly mine to take home. Grandpa considered me old enough to properly care for it. Grandpa passed between that Christmas and my 13th birthday in March. I still have that train, I still run it on a regular basis, Its had some work done thru the years, roller pickups instead of the slides that would get hung up on O22 turnouts, a fresh power chassis as the gear studs for the spur gears were worn half way thru and starting to bind up. Found the power chassis NOS from Madison Hardware, post purchase by Dick Kuhn. I met the man at a show and we got talking about dad's train. I mentioned it was sidelined with the gear stud issue. A week or two later I got a package from Madison Hardware, and it was a NOS power chassis, complete with E unit. I still have the original chassis as well. Its only a lowely starter set, but it was a weeks wages for my Grandfather to purchase in 1949, second hand from the neighbor family who's son had lost interest. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Very Nice Story very nice
It'll be 40 years this Christmas that I got my Lionel train set that started my love of trains (http://chatanuga.org/Lionel.html).
From when I had the Lionel trains in my living room (before I got my cats)
Christmas 2014
watch?v=icM1OQ1NtVc
Christmas 2015
watch?v=z1jp2vtaz8g
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Wow Guys! Love all the posts! sorry for the late reply, i havent been on recently. Awesome videos and pics too!
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