as I read the post on the montgomery ward found set at auction, I wondered if any like myself miss the old stores that had train layouts and sold trains along with rest of retail wares. I look at toys today and wonder why so much for so little amusement. whatever happened to the friction cars you know the toys you had to use your imagination to play with! what do you think post your thoughts and memories for all to share.
I assume you are a baby boomer like me. Who amongst this group DOESN'T miss the old department store train displays, especially at Christmas-time. I live in southwestern Ontario, Canada, about an hour's drive from Detroit, MI. The old J. L. Hudson downtown store was an absolute MUST to visit. If my memory serves me right, it was the twelfth floor that was a virtual train and toy heaven during the Christmas season. I couldn't get up the old escalators fast enough to that floor. Even in my own small city, there were a half-dozen stores that stocked electric trains. Like J. L. Hudson's flagship store, all the local stores are long gone, but the memories of them are as vivid as ever. Your'e right in saying that you nowadays seem to get so little amusement for so much cost. Everything is relative though; kids nowadays love electronic gadgets (which to me, are so much instantly obsolete throw-away junk, whereas trains are ageless). It's all part of the natural evolution of things-to each his own, I guess.
As I've gone into Menards and see the boxed Lionel sets stacked up along with their Christmas village pieces, light sets, and trees, I've often wondered if they would let someone do a Saturday workshop on building the first layout - beside buying the trainset there, they could buy the wood and screws or insulation board all at the same time. It would be neat to have an operating train set there with a list of needed materials alongside.
Terry
Born and raised in Yorkville, a neighborhood on the island of Manhattan (NYC), I remember two long-gone dime stores (Grants & Woolworth's) that dedicated aisles of toys (to the delight of kids and not to say their parents who always looked forward to pacifying them) on a daily basis.
(Dinky, Tootsietoy, Buddy "L", Wolverine etc. and Marx) While I do not recall seeing Lionel, I do have to this day, some original Plasticville items purchased from those stores. My first O27 (a Marx) came from Woolworth's.
Of course, the holiday season demanded a trip to Macy's. As I recall, during the late 40's and 50's they had extensive train displays. My first HO items, a Riverossi 0-4-O engine and Varney kits came from Macy's.
In a "nut shell", yes I do miss the opportunity to go into a store (while the "chief engineer" shops) and get lost in the toy departmnent.
I have never seen a macy store display grew up in twin city area so my store of choice was called the emporium. I too remember woolworths, grants and ben franklin stores. I also remember all the christmas lights the city would put up in the downtown just after thanksgiving. the train displays in the department store windows the season starting only a few short weeks before christmas and not starting in late august! a movie called home for the holidays the dad said {quote} I wish I had those days and displays all on tape 10 seconds tops. thanks for all who have shared their thoughts here. a side note do you think the movie called Polar Express will be the next Miracle On 34 th Street anual event?
I definitely miss Two Guys, Monkey Wards, Sears (as it used to be), and all the local Mom&Pop hardware stores that had Day-after-Xmas sales of all the Lionel stuff for incredible prices. *sigh*
I worked at a Montgomery Wards christmas season of 94 but no Lionel trains displayed there. I remember in the 70s going to Apache Mall in Rochester Minnesota they had running Lionel display trains in the center of the mall but you had to go up to the 2nd level to guy the sets on display.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
I'm just old enough to catch the tail end of what these stores use to be like. They didn't sell Lionel there then but remember around here how JC Penny's use to have the moving window displays and Sears toy section wasn't on a rolling cart in the corner of the children's clothing section. Most these stores physically are still there but have been empty for close to 7 years here.
The stores I really miss are the 5 & 10 cent stores, while not big on trains(most had some Marx)they had a little of everything else. Toledo had the big Dept. store displays but I was lucky in that we also had several year round Lionel/Flyer dealers with permanent displays.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Having been born in 1990, I don't think that many department stores had toy train displays when I was growing up. But I recently applied to Macy's at the Polaris Mall for a job this summer (might get it, I'll find out sometime this week) and the first thought that came to my mind was "I wonder if I'll be able to sell trains during the Holiday Season? Maybe with a nice layout set up too?" I'd very much like to get them to build such a display for the Holidays, it'd be a nice thing for the families to come out and see the trains in action.
Just last night whilst building my new nephew's first layout (see my post bringing a newby into the hobby, elsewhere in this forum) which I have called the Tike Pike, I had a similar discussion with my wife which prompted an explanation to my children about the way our eyesore downtown area used to be... I remember The Wren's Window (see Higby's in A Christmas Story as a point of reference) It was a little boy's fantasy come alive, trains, bb guns, G I Joe with the Kung Fu Grip, and war toys, all creating the backdrop for a lionel layout fit for a king... Then there was Woolworth, Penney's, and Sears in the mall who did a similar thing but on a more serious note, Sears always had a lot of operating accessories on their layout, Penney's was more of a token figure 8, but Woolworths played with trains the way all of us did... They had the track, some nice but not Lionel buildings and set pieces, and they used little rubber people, cast iron figures and lots of odds and ends... No wonder they always sold out of stuff....
Traindaddy, we may have been neighbors - I grew up on east 87 street around the corner from Woolworth & Grants (my Mom still lives there). I dont remember either store having toy trains but they were the local place to shop - I remember buying Mom & Dad presents there. It was always a treat to go to stores like Macys & Gimbels for the toy departments - not just trains but I remember admiring the toy soldier set ups (as a kid I thought the best job in the world would be setting up the toy displays).
Down south in North Carolina, we did not have all of the exposure of the Northeast and the upper Mid-west, but it seemed in the early 60's, regardless of where we went, there were trains around. My favorite place to go was to Sears in Cameron Village in Raleigh, NC. We used to visit to see Santa Clause (the real one) who was located in the toy department near a small train layout. Around the layout would usually be boxes of Lionel and Marx trainsets. I would usually show Santa, and my Dad which one I would like. Also in Cameron Village was the Hobby Shop which had a lot of Lionel Trains up on shelves at the rear of the store. Both are gone now, but I do keep the memories. During the early 70's, I used to visit JC Penny at the North Hills Mall in Raleigh. They had a great train area with several MPC Lionel sets and most engines. The Air Force took me to San Antonio, Tx in the late 70's. Montgomery Ward carried a nice line of Lionel trains, but no layout. Thanks for your question.
Marc
I was born on the Northwest side of Chicago in 1954 (Logan Square area for you Doug). I grew up with the motto "Christmas isn't Christmas without a day at Marshall Fields". I remember yearly trips during the Christmas season to see the lights and windows on State Street. The toy department in Field's moved around over the years, but I think it was most frequently located on the 4th floor. I still remember walking around and around the layout. Many of the other downtown State Street stores had displays too: Carson Pierie Scott, Woolworths, Goldblatts.(Heaven forbid that Macy's would ever show up in the Midwest) During my years in college (at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle) I worked on the first floor of Marshall Field's on the Wabash side of the store. I worked two Christmases and while I worked hard, there was a lot of magic. On a friday night the store would close and by Saturday morning the entire store was decorated and ready for the Christmas season.
Chicago was also home to Sears and Montgomery Wards. Both of the main office buildings had retail stores and catalog outlet stores. My partents would frequent both of those places for bargains. I can remember that both of the outlet stores had layouts at the holiday season. I could be parked there and my parents would shop. What was even better was that sometime after the first of the year all of the catalog overstock and clearance items started to appear. I can still remember a store layout being put out for sale at Wards, and a huge stack of boxed American Flyer S gauge switches sitting by that layout. One of those boxes is still a part of my collection.
Someone mentioned the movie "A Christmas Story" I laugh and cry every time I see that movie. It captures so much of my childhood - sans leg lamp.
Thanks for jogging some very pleasant memories folks.
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Although I have lived in Ohio since early 1976, I grew up in Charleston WV. My mother called the store Monkey Wards. In the 40's right after WWII ended, the electic train displays went up during the Christmas season in the Charleston downtown area. Wards did have a display of Lionel as did Sears.
The biggest display was 'The Diamond Department Store which had a nice display layout in the front window, on the fourth floor it was a layout to blow your mind. Both Lionel and Flyer, simply awesome.
Yes.
Bob Nelson
Montgomery Ward was Monkey Wards
Sears and Roebuck was Shears and Sawbucks
I was born in the early '40's, bred and partially raised on the Lower East side of Mann., N.Y.C., N.Y.
In addition to Macy's, Gimbles and all of the other large stores (Uptown), in our neighborhood, we had a store which sold stationary, toys, games, sporting goods and LIONEL TRAINS,
There was also, a small appliance store which sold LIONEL TRAINS, (why capitalized, because I was old enough to know more and understand about LIONEL TRAINS), and had a window display of the '54 Trainmaster 'Lackawana' maroone roof locomotive. I would look at that engine and eat my heart out, because I wanted it, but we couldn't afford it!
By the mid. '50's we moved to the 'COUNTRY'-Staten Island, N.Y.C., N.Y., ( 'COUNTRY' is Capitalized, because compared to Manhattan Island, N.Y.C., at the time, S.I., N.Y.C. was not as built up and had more 'COUNTRY!' ), and at that time the Big Show in town were: Sears Roebuck and Co., J.C. Pennys, Montgomery Ward, W.T. Grant's and Majors Discount Dept. Store, they and other small retailers around, for the most part, carried LIONEL TRAINS. Macy's and Gimbles came to S.I. later, in the mid. '60's.
Ralph
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