At this time of the year I get the urge to tell a story that captures the magic of trains at Christmas. I have great memories of family gatherings and good food and playing trains with my dad and brother. Dad was collecting trains even before I was born. Here is my offering for 2012. Get a cup of coffee and enjoy - its a long one.
An American Flyer Tale for Christmas
2012 Edition
Toby wasn’t sure how he felt about Christmas coming. Of course he was excited about the presents that he hoped to get from mom and dad and there was always the growing anticipation to see if Santa would bring the special gifts that he had asked for. He had written two copies of his letter to Santa to make sure that he knew what Toby wanted. He had given one copy directly to Mr. Clark the mailman and the other copy he had put in the big mail box at the department store downtown labeled Direct Delivery – North Pole. Mom had started baking cookies before Thanksgiving and storing them in big tins that had old timey pictures on the covers of people in horse drawn sleighs and wearing old fashioned clothes. Great Aunt Ruby ordered a fruitcake from Texas every year and had it sent to Toby’s family. It always came in one of those tins. He knew that the cookie supply was secure. He had been practicing the songs that his class would sing for the Christmas Concert at school; one of them was in German. He had memorized his lines for the Christmas Pageant at church. This year he was one of the Wise Men with a speaking part. He liked dressing up in the royal looking robes. He had to wear a fake beard made out of brown fuzzy cords. It tickled his nose and he was afraid that it would make him sneeze. His dad had teased him, telling him to be careful not to sneeze so hard that he blew the beard off and it would land in the manger on the Baby Jesus. That had made Toby laugh, but he still worried about sneezing.
All of these things made him feel excited and happy as Christmas approached. They were the things that he looked forward to each year. But there were some big changes that had happened in the last year and Toby wasn’t sure how he felt about them or how they would effect Christmas.
Toby’s grandparents lived in a different state. His family went to visit them several times each year and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit often, especially when Toby or one of his sisters had a special event like a school program or a big game. His family always went home to Grandma and Grandpa’s big house for Christmas. Dad and his brothers and sisters had grown up in that house. Grandpa had grown up in that house too. Last year as they were preparing to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Christmas mom and dad told them to pay special attention to this celebration because it would be the last Christmas at the big house. Grandma and Grandpa had decided to put it up for sale and move to something smaller and easier to take of.
Toby loved Grandma and Grandpa’s house, especially when all of his aunts and uncles and cousins were there at Christmas. It was fun to eat their meals together. The grown ups would sit at the big table that filled the dining room. The cousins all sat at two folding tables in the living room. The windows in both rooms were large and had stained glass panels with faceted jewels at the top. When the sunlight was just right it made rainbows dance around the room. He liked sitting there hearing the stories his cousins told, but he especially loved hearing the stories that the adults told about when they were children. He had learned some very interesting things about his dad by listening to these stories. The house had another room on the main floor that Grandma called the parlor. In that room stood the huge Fraser fir decorated with more ornaments and lights than some of the trees in the department store back home. At the base of that tree there was always a mountain of gifts. Toby was interested in those, but what fascinated him the most was the big train that ran around the base of the tree through the mountains and tunnels made by the stacks of gifts.
Grandpa told him that he remembered that train circling the tree every year when he was a boy. Grandpa and Great Aunt Ruby would lie on the parlor floor watching the train travel round and round and imagine the places that it was carrying its passengers; “New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and all points west!” It was a big train with a big black steam engine and dark blue passenger cars. Toby knew it was an American Flyer Presidents Special from 1927. He also knew that the black steam engine was one that Grandpa had purchased from a friend. The set had a big electric style engine, but Grandpa liked it better headed by the steamer. The matching blue engine was there under the tree too, and Grandpa would occasionally run it.
You could get to the second floor of the house by either of two stair cases. One set started in the front entry hall. The second set started in the kitchen. They met at a landing and then one more set of stairs set at a right angle to the other two led to the second floor. Toby and his cousins loved playing mountain climber on those stairs, spending hours going up one side and down the other. Sometimes they even tried to yodel when they reached the top. That usually brought peals of laughter from the adults downstairs. The second floor had a long corridor, off of which were doors that led to most of the bedrooms. Each family had one bedroom to sleep in. Toby thought that it was probably the room that his aunts or uncles had when they were growing up. He knew that the bedroom his family stayed in had been his dad’s room. The adults slept in the big comfy beds while the children slept on the floor in sleeping bags or under cozy down quilts. Some of the bedrooms had fireplaces. It was hard to fall asleep during the nights before Christmas, but Toby would snuggle down into his comforter and watch the flames lick at the logs behind the glass doors of the fireplace. Before he knew it the sun was shining and he could smell pancakes and bacon cooking down in the kitchen.
At the end of the central hallway was another staircase that led to the third floor. Of all of the places in the big house the third floor was the one that Toby liked best. The stairs led to a large room that had funny angles to the ceiling because it was right up under the roof. It was filled with big comfortable chairs and cases with glass doors filled with books. It was stocked with all the toys and games that his aunts and uncles had played with as children. It was a fun place to be on a rainy day because you could cuddle up in a chair, read a book and listen to the wind blow and the rain beat down on the roof. There was a wooden door in the back wall of the room, and it led to the place that Toby loved more than any other in the big house. He still remembered the first time that Grandpa had taken him there. He opened the door and at first all that Toby could see were the three windows at the other end of the room. There was a tall central window that had a rounded top and two shorter windows, one on each side, that were flat on top. The middle rounded top window went from the floor almost to the point of the ceiling. Then Grandpa pushed one of the two round buttons in the light switch on the wall and Toby gasped. The room was almost filled with tables that held a train layout spread out on them. As far as Toby could see there was a maze of three rail track with switches and sidings, metal buildings and signals. Everything was bright and colorful. Toby and his dad had a train layout in their basement at home, but it was much smaller, and it was HO. This was an O gauge layout. The track was smaller than the Wide Gauge train around the Christmas tree. Dad told Toby that Grandpa had trains from when he was a little boy but he had also been collecting toy trains ever since dad could remember; and all of them were made by American Flyer.
Toby and Grandpa spent hours and hours in that room when he visited. He knew what all of the trains were because Grandpa had told him about them and showed them pictures of each train in the original catalogs. As he got older Grandpa let him put them on the tracks and run them. The engines and cars had names in the catalogs. He liked some of the really old ones like “The Frontenac” that was all green, “The Oriental Limited” that was orange, “The Bluebird” that was a deep dark blue like the Presidents Special that ran around the Christmas tree downstairs in the parlor, and “The Ambassador” that was bright red and had lots of brass on it and passenger cars that were 11 inches long.
There was one train that Toby liked better than any other. It wasn’t the oldest and it wasn’t the most colorful, but whenever Grandpa asked him which train he wanted to run Toby pointed to the No. 304 Freight Train from 1939. The engine was a streamlined steam engine. It looked sleek and powerful. It was different than the other steam engines because it had a front that reminded him of a Roman soldier’s helmet. Grandpa told him it was a copy of a real steam engine that had been created by a famous industrial designer; but Toby could never remember his name. The set had several freight cars that he would hook up to the engine and move from town to town on the layout. Sometimes Grandpa would have the set stored away in the boxes under the layout. The original box the set came in had a paper label on it with a steam engine and a streamlined engine. Toby knew just where Grandpa kept it stored under the layout.
At the end of the Christmas holiday last year Toby and Grandpa were up on the third floor running trains until it was time for his family to leave. Dad had come up to the train room and watched them for a few minutes and then softly said “Its time to go.” Toby stood at the door and took one last look at everything. Grandpa stood behind him, placed his hands on Toby’s shoulders and looked too. Then he leaned over and kissed the top of Toby’s head. Grandpa reached over and pushed the button on the light switch, gently closed the door, and they down the stairs together.
Saying goodbye always took forever in Toby’s family. There were kisses to give and words of advice and encouragement. It amazed him that there were still questions being asked and information exchanged even after spending days together. Finally Toby climbed into the car and took his regular spot. Grandma and Grandpa stood on the big front porch and waved. Grandma wiped her eyes with a tissue. Toby let his eyes wander up to the third floor windows for just a second. The sun was reflecting off the round top of the tall middle window. Then dad turned the corner and it was all gone.
Back home life settled into the usual busy routine and Toby had little time to think about Grandma and Grandpa. Dad would be on the phone with one of them fairly often and he would give updates on the changes taking place. First came the news that Grandma and Grandpa had found a house they liked. Dad was a little sad the day that he reported that the real estate agent had put a For Sale sign in front of the big house. Then Grandma and Grandpa made an offer on the smaller house, it was accepted and they were setting a day to move. One week during the summer mom and dad traveled to the big house and Toby and his sisters stayed with friends. They were going to get furniture and other things that were dad’s because the new house was much smaller and there wasn’t enough room for Grandma and Grandpa to take everything with them.
Then one day a moving van pulled up to Toby’s house and some men started unloading boxes and furniture wrapped in heavy pads and blankets. As the men unwrapped the furniture and put it in the garage he recognized the furniture from the bedroom in the big house where his family stayed. They carried in the bed with the headboard that was at least six feet tall with all kinds of carved curlicues at the top and the dresser with matching carvings, and a big mirror. Eventually they unwrapped all of the furniture from dad’s room at the big house. There was one particularly large wrapped piece that puzzled Toby until they took the padding off. It was his favorite chair with the big wings from the third floor playroom. Mom had the movers put that directly into Toby’s bedroom right by the window. He sat down in the chair, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. It smelled like Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and he smiled.
It took mom and dad several weeks to rearrange the furniture in their house and move the things from the big house in from the garage. The old bedroom furniture went into their bedroom. There were plenty of boxes from the big house too. It took even longer to unpack those. Toby was mildly interested, but not one of them contained any trains. He wondered what had happened to Grandpa’s train collection, but he was afraid to ask. Dad had talked about many things being sold at an auction and Toby feared that other people were playing with the trains he had known all his life.
Finally it was Christmas break and Toby’s family was on their way to Grandma and Grandpa’s new house. Toby had not been there yet but he had seen pictures of it. It looked nice but it was small and only one story. He knew that his family would be staying at a motel not far from the new house. And all of his aunts and uncles were staying there too. As they drove along he tried to imagine what the new house was like inside. His thoughts wandered to the third floor of the big house, and he wondered where the trains had gone, and he wondered if Grandpa was sad. He didn’t like those thoughts so he shook his head and tried to imagine all of the good food they would eat and where everyone would sit for Christmas dinner, and what Santa had left under the tree for him.
When they got to the motel the rest of the family members were there already. There was much hugging and kissing and exclamations of “Oh my, Toby you look like you have grown a foot!” It wasn’t that much, but it made him feel good. All of the families had rooms very close to one another and all of the cousins wandered back and forth among the rooms.
After a while dad called Toby’s family together and said it was time to go to the new house. The ride wasn’t long but it seemed that his feelings were very mixed up. He felt both excited and worried at the same time. Dad pulled the car up in front of a house that Toby recognized from the photos. The windows were all aglow. He noticed that there were lights around the windows; the same lights that had been around the windows at the big house. As the family started to get out of the car, suddenly the front door opened spilling the warm light from inside on to the small porch and sidewalk. It seemed like Grandma and Grandpa were spilling out of the house too. There was a great deal more hugging and kissing and exclaiming. As Toby walked through the front door he recognized a familiar aroma. Grandma was cooking something wonderful. The new house seemed as familiar as the big house. Everyone hung up their coats and started to walk into the living room where a fire was crackling in a small fireplace. Immediately Toby spied the Christmas tree, it was still a Fraser fir. It was smaller than other years but it was just as tightly packed with the lights and ornaments that he remembered. There were mountains of packages around the tree as usual. Toby could hardly believe his eyes. Circling the tree was the big black steam engine pulling the 1927 American Flyer Presidents Special. He broke into a big smile. He looked up at Grandpa, who was smiling too; and he winked at Toby.
Very shortly the other family members started to arrive and it was chaos for a while. Eventually the adults all sat down at the big table that didn’t quite fit in the dining room. It intruded into the living room and one of the chairs was almost in front of the Christmas tree. All of the cousins still sat at folding tables placed in a room that Grandma called the sun porch and in the front hall. Everyone still fit.
When the meal was finished and the last morsels of pie eaten it was time to open presents. It was another time of chaos. The folding tables were taken down while dishes were being washed and dried. The extra leaves were taken out of the table and the chairs repositioned. The adults found places to sit on chairs. Most of the cousins found places to sit on the floor. It was the job of Toby’s older cousins to distribute the gifts. He sat and waited for the packages with his name on them to be handed to him.
It took a long time for everyone to open their gifts. Toby was most curious about the oddly shaped gift that had a tag on it saying it was from Grandma and Grandpa. When it came time for him to open it he chuckled because it was several boxes taped together and a wad of cloth here and there to give it its odd shape. He opened the biggest box and found it stuffed with crumpled up newspaper. Digging through it he found another box wrapped in red and white striped paper. Something seemed vaguely familiar about its shape. He started to tear at the wrapping paper. The first thing he saw was the familiar American Flyer label with the steam engine and the streamlined engine. Toby drew in his breath sharply. In his hands was his beloved No. 304 Freight Train from 1939. “I thought it was gone forever.” That brought some chuckles from the family. When the next person began opening their present Grandpa leaned over to him and whispered “I have something to show you later.” Toby nodded and whispered back “Thank you Grandpa, Thank you so much.” He had a hard time paying attention to the rest of the gift opening. He carefully opened each of the old boxes and examined the car inside. The gun metal engine looked and felt powerful in his hands. He could hardly believe that it was his now. It was going to be difficult to wait until he could watch it pulling the consist of freight cars along the track. He noticed that Grandpa had included enough track in the box so that he could set up an oval of track, an oval that would go around his Christmas tree at home.
When the presents were all opened the adults sat talking and sipping a cup of coffee or tea or a glass of egg nog and nibbling cookies. The cousins were all busy playing with a new toy or trying out a new game. Toby sat contentedly with his old friend resting in his lap. Grandpa motioned for him to come over to him. Softly he said, “Get your coat and come with me.” Toby slipped on his coat while Grandpa put on his. He followed Grandpa through the kitchen and out the back door. It was dark out but the moon was bright enough for Toby to make his way. He noticed that there was a path through the snow that led to the garage. Toby hadn’t paid much attention to it when they arrived but now he noticed something unusual about it.
It had a second floor that loomed above the two sets of garage doors. He was surprised to see that on the second level there were three windows grouped together. The center window was taller than the other two and it had a rounded top. Grandpa led him to the service door of the garage and unlocked it. They stepped inside and turned on the lights and stamped the snow off their feet. Along the back wall there was a flight of stairs that led to the second floor. Grandpa led the way up the stairs. As Toby’s head cleared the floor he could see the moonlight shining through the three windows. Grandpa turned on the lights and Toby let out a cry of delight. There in front of him was Grandpa’s train collection. The second floor of the garage was filled with tables that held a maze of tracks and switches and sidings. The layout was even larger than the one at the big house. Here were all of the colorful building and accessories that Toby knew and loved. Even better, there were rows and rows of shelves on every wall where Grandpa had every one of his American Flyer trains on display.
“Grandpa, I thought you had sold everything!”
“Not a chance Toby. I still have lots of collecting to do; and you and I have trains to run.”
Toby smiled and said. “Thanks for the freight set Grandpa; you know it’s my favorite.”
“I sure do. I couldn’t think of anyone who would appreciate it more, and your family needs to have a real train around your tree. Besides, I have a lead on an early variation of an Illini set and I need space to display it. Just don’t tell your grandmother that I am buying another train!”
Toby hugged Grandpa as they laughed about that.
Here are some photos of Toby's No. 304 Freight Train from 1939.
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
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American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Great Aunt Ruby; wasn't she the one that always smelled like mothballs....?
Nice story.
fifedog Great Aunt Ruby; wasn't she the one that always smelled like mothballs....? Nice story.
That's the one! But only when she took her full length mink out of storage at the beginning of the cold season. And if you got too close to her she grabbed you, gave you a big smootch, and you smelled like her dusting powder for the rest of the day.
Thanks fife.
Great story, thanks.
Ray
Bayville, NJ
Life is what happens to youWhile you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
Great story. The CBS news this morning had a boy who worked to save $100 for [I hope I get the name right] a LEGO green train. When he got his money, they were discontinued. He sent a letter to LEGO. Got a I'm sorry reply. This week got a box from LEGO and inside was his prise. He was videoed opening the box. The boy screamed with joy. When the Co-host asked her C-host what in his past made him scream with joy. He replied when he got his train set.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Northwoods Flyer,
Wonderful story. Wonderful train. The joys of tinplate.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Wonderful story, and what a great ending. And that locomotive! It's the first time I've ever seen one. you know, 1939 has been called the "Watershed Year" for American motion pictures, a year never matched for the sheer volume of classic films that came out. Looks like it was a watershed year for American Flyer as well.
As a rule, I'm really not that interested in prewar tinplate, but I'd have a hard time passing that one up!
Thank you for the story. I really enjoyed it. Enjoy the Christmas Holiday!
John
So is that where you got all your inventory from? A gift from grandpa?
AF53 - Ray,
I wish that I was fortunate enough to have gotten trains from my grandfather as Toby did. I did inherit some trains from my father, and those have formed the core of my collection. I have been the one to expand the collection (much like the grandpa in the story). This is one of the sets that I received:
Set 1716 from 1937
Pennsylvania Freight
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