# Christmas and Train Memories



## Guest (Dec 2, 2015)

I have to go back many years ago when I was just a kid. One Christmas morning I came down the stairs to the living room, and there it was, a train layout. My Dad had purchased the store display that was a 4 by 8 sheet of Masonite board that was painted green with roads painted in grey. There were several Plasticville Buildings as well. Then there was that magnificent Berkshire freight set. One of the best Christmas presents I have ever received.

This launched an interest in O-Gauge model trains that has never vanished. Thereafter, many Christmases were filled with new items to add to the layout which over time has grown. But it all started with that first train set under the Christmas Tree.

Many of you have similar stories. So this Christmas season, how about sharing your Christmas train stories with all of us.


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## josef (Jun 20, 2015)

I never had many toys, I remember I could store them all in a shoebox. Some plastic cowboys and Indians, plastic pirates, and a tin wind up tank that sparked from it barrel. Also some army men. Christmas was mostly new clothes, shoes and socks, and maybe a single toy wrapped, another nickel cowboy on a horse, or army man. But we were happy, and didn't know the difference that getting toys was more important to a kid then clothes. In 1958, I received a Marx Battery operated train set, which I still have.
But my most treasured item from all the Christmas that came and went, and one that stirred my interest again in trains. Is the Allstate electric train my younger brother received on Christmas Eve, 1962. Both of us played with it every day. We set it up on our bedroom floor, and when I came home each day from school, there was my brother asking if I would play with him and the train. Which I always did.
Then one day, February 18, 1963 when I came home from school our neighbor was there and said I was to eat supper at her house. After supper, my mom and dad came home to inform me my brother had died of a brain hemorrhage.
After a week I took the train and re boxed it and put it in the closet. Then after my wife and me had our 2nd Christmas, she said the tree needed a train under it. What better then my brothers train, which has occupied each Christmas since, under the tree. Many times, the odor from the motor, hum of the transformer, re-kindles a time from long ago. I have that feeling now as it's running now, under the tree.
My brother and his train.


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## Guest (Dec 2, 2015)

*I never had many toys, I remember I could store them all in a shoebox. Some plastic cowboys and Indians, plastic pirates, and a tin wind up tank that sparked from it barrel. Also some army men. Christmas was mostly new clothes, shoes and socks, and maybe a single toy wrapped, another nickel cowboy on a horse, or army man. But we were happy, and didn't know the difference that getting toys was more important to a kid then clothes. In 1958, I received a Marx Battery operated train set, which I still have.
But my most treasured item from all the Christmas that came and went, and one that stirred my interest again in trains. Is the Allstate electric train my younger brother received on Christmas Eve, 1962. Both of us played with it every day. We set it up on our bedroom floor, and when I came home each day from school, there was my brother asking if I would play with him and the train. Which I always did.
Then one day, February 18, 1963 when I came home from school our neighbor was there and said I was to eat supper at her house. After supper, my mom and dad came home to inform me my brother had died of a brain hemorrhage.
After a week I took the train and re boxed it and put it in the closet. Then after my wife and me had our 2nd Christmas, she said the tree needed a train under it. What better then my brothers train, which has occupied each Christmas since, under the tree. Many times, the odor from the motor, hum of the transformer, re-kindles a time from long ago. I have that feeling now as it's running now, under the tree.
My brother and his train.*

Things come at us when we least expect them. I know. To learn that this trains set had another opportunity to bring joy into your world is very gratifying. Thanks for sharing your story with us.


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## kstrains (Sep 19, 2015)

Great thread Brian and wonderful memories! :appl:

In 1980, I woke up on Christmas morning by my dad. Still very sleepy, I made my way to the living room. I hardly noticed it but underneath the Christmas Tree, was Lionel Southern Crescent Limited Hudson Passenger Set. In the smoke stack was some cotton to give the appearance of steam coming out of the stack and tag saying from Santa Claus. I was very surprised. My dad bought the set from hobby shop a few miles down the road from our house. It was running in the window display at Christmas time. This set was the “it” set for Lionel back then (the MPC Era for Lionel) with “Mighty Sound of Steam.” I remember after Christmas we had to go back to hobby shop to get some 0-31 tubular track because it would not run 0-27 track without derailing on the curves. I still have this set and take out every now and then to run it. 

View attachment 111289


View attachment 111321


Growing up Christmas was always a special time in our house. Almost every year, my Dad along with my brothers would set up a Christmas Train Layout. That tradition continued when I bought our first home. A few years ago, I created the video below that contains photos I have of my families Christmas Train Layouts. The photos begin over 50 years ago starting with my Dad up until 2012 with my layouts. This is one of my most watched video's on my YouTube Channel. Enjoy!


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## Jeff T (Dec 27, 2011)

josef said:


> I never had many toys, I remember I could store them all in a shoebox. Some plastic cowboys and Indians, plastic pirates, and a tin wind up tank that sparked from it barrel. Also some army men. Christmas was mostly new clothes, shoes and socks, and maybe a single toy wrapped, another nickel cowboy on a horse, or army man. But we were happy, and didn't know the difference that getting toys was more important to a kid then clothes. In 1958, I received a Marx Battery operated train set, which I still have.
> But my most treasured item from all the Christmas that came and went, and one that stirred my interest again in trains. Is the Allstate electric train my younger brother received on Christmas Eve, 1962. Both of us played with it every day. We set it up on our bedroom floor, and when I came home each day from school, there was my brother asking if I would play with him and the train. Which I always did.
> Then one day, February 18, 1963 when I came home from school our neighbor was there and said I was to eat supper at her house. After supper, my mom and dad came home to inform me my brother had died of a brain hemorrhage.
> After a week I took the train and re boxed it and put it in the closet. Then after my wife and me had our 2nd Christmas, she said the tree needed a train under it. What better then my brothers train, which has occupied each Christmas since, under the tree. Many times, the odor from the motor, hum of the transformer, re-kindles a time from long ago. I have that feeling now as it's running now, under the tree.
> My brother and his train.


Josef - I write this with tears in my eyes. May the memory of your brother stay strong in your mind and in your heart.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

josef said:


> I never had many toys, I remember I could store them all in a shoebox. Some plastic cowboys and Indians, plastic pirates, and a tin wind up tank that sparked from it barrel. Also some army men. Christmas was mostly new clothes, shoes and socks, and maybe a single toy wrapped, another nickel cowboy on a horse, or army man. But we were happy, and didn't know the difference that getting toys was more important to a kid then clothes. In 1958, I received a Marx Battery operated train set, which I still have.
> But my most treasured item from all the Christmas that came and went, and one that stirred my interest again in trains. Is the Allstate electric train my younger brother received on Christmas Eve, 1962. Both of us played with it every day. We set it up on our bedroom floor, and when I came home each day from school, there was my brother asking if I would play with him and the train. Which I always did.
> Then one day, February 18, 1963 when I came home from school our neighbor was there and said I was to eat supper at her house. After supper, my mom and dad came home to inform me my brother had died of a brain hemorrhage.
> After a week I took the train and re boxed it and put it in the closet. Then after my wife and me had our 2nd Christmas, she said the tree needed a train under it. What better then my brothers train, which has occupied each Christmas since, under the tree. Many times, the odor from the motor, hum of the transformer, re-kindles a time from long ago. I have that feeling now as it's running now, under the tree.
> My brother and his train.


Josef, Thanks for sharing your story.


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

My fondest memories of my trains is not the day I got them but every Christmas after that. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, I would start setting up my trains. My father helped me at first but I quickly learned and took over the job. We lived in a 7 room apartment in a 3 family home in the Bronx. The 4X8 train board was stored standing up behind my parents bureau. It was wallpapered to match the room. The legs were in my closet. The table would be set up in the front room. Grass paper would cover the wallpaper and I would get to work. I always enjoyed setting up the trains. I liked the wiring best. I attribute my love for wiring my trains and what I learned doing it to my eventual selection of Electrical Engineering as a career. Every Christmas, I always got one new train car or accessory. The trains would remain set up until late January and then be boxed up until next year.


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## chipset35 (Sep 4, 2015)

Jeff T said:


> Josef - I write this with tears in my eyes. My the memory of your bother stay strong in your mind and in your heart.
> 
> God Bless and Merry Christmas!


Same here...tears and all.
God Bless and Merry Christmas


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

First train Lionel Lines 027 2-6-4 in 1948 (born 02/48). Added to over the years, our kids got Christmas trains, and even Paula got one last year. Trains have been a part of my life ever since I can remember.

Now fueling boat in West Palm, running to Key West and Mexico... while trying to find out status of MTH shipping date on N/S Executive Train. Have to put Polar Express under the tree tree when get home. Christmas is a time for trains.

Thanks Brian for this thread. Lots of neat memories of those gone on who were a part of the season and trains.


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2015)

Thanks guys for sharing these wonderful Christmas stories. 

And Bill, be safe on that crossing.


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## dennisb (Jan 15, 2012)

Josef, that's quite the memory thanks for sharing.


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## dennisb (Jan 15, 2012)

My Christmas Memories. I've posted this about 3 years ago but it seems to fit here.

I was born in 1956 one week before Christmas. My earliest Christmas memories are waking up and coming down stairs on Christmas morning to many great gifts but the biggest present of all was the train under the tree. When I went to bed the night before, the living room looked like it always did and somehow the next morning our little row house was completely changed. You see Santa had come and not only delivered our presents but also put up our tree on what we called the "platform" and under the tree was the greatest train ever, a lionel 2020 from 1946. We also had a Lionel Trolley and a Marx handcar. We had a lot of plasticville houses that my father had all lit up using C7 bulbs, street lights that lit up, roads and cars and everything you can imagine and to top it off somehow "Santa" did this in one night. My father worked shift work and sometimes he was not even home Christmas Eve some years he was at work, some years he was not there when we woke up Christmas morning he was at work, but somehow "Santa" had time to do all of this by Christmas morning. He died when I was 15 and my brother 7, by then I was helping to make my brothers morning special and after 1972 it my was mission to keep "Santa" coming for my brother. In a few years this ended and we started taking our time putting the "platform" up, then when I got married and got a house I was given everything by my Mother and I carried on the tradition until my now 28 year old daughter got too old. But I never did it all in one night, it was too much work. I do not know how my Dad did. I still have it all and still put it up.
these are my Christmas memories.

Dennis


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2015)

Wonderful and moving story, Dennis. Thanks for sharing.


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## Todd Lopes (Nov 11, 2015)

I was 10 years old growing up in Western Pennsylvania when that Christmas, Dad went up into the attic and brought down "the train box." I was so excited and remember going to a local hardware store with him and getting a 4X8 piece of homasoat to put it on. When we got home, the box seemed like it didn't have a bottom because Dad kept taking stuff out of it. It is a Lionel 2056 steam engine, tender and freight cars. There was even an operating milk can car. My parents tell me that I was dancing around the living room, though I don't remember that.  

When I left home and got my own place, my parents brought it over and it's been up every Christmas since then. I remember they bought me something new each year for Christmas including a Pennsylvania 1976 Bicentennial car, an operating log car and a banjo signal. I was in heaven. It still brings a tear to my eye every year when I set it up and I'm turning 50 next week. Thankfully, Dad and Mom are still me and I couldn't be luckier to have such great parents. Not because of the train, but because they are great people who taught me how to conduct my life properly.

Like all of us, the hobby grab me and I've been in trains ever since. I did HO when I was teenager, but eventually went back to O gauge. I remember when Mike Wolf started MTH and have been buying his and Lionel trains ever since. I like them all!

I don't have my own children, but my youngest niece who is now 16, loves trains I and get to spend time with her and the trains. I want to pass down my Dad's set to her once she gets her own place and continue our family tradition. 

Merry Christmas.


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2015)

Nice story Todd. And a very Merry Christmas to you.


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

in 1958 in a cold st.paul,minnesota I woke up Christmas morning to find a sante fe diesel switcher shiny new and black setup on a 8 foot oblong rug. mind you nary a boxcar or any car just the engine but I did have the crossbuck signal and track contactor as well as a small tunnel and a metal bridge. 
I was so excited and went to where the transformer was and my older brother plugged it into the wall outlet and as I turned the handle to allow the engine to move alas it moved not!

it seems santa had misplaced one key component he only had one wire attached to the track from transformer and seeing Christmas was on a Saturday and being 1958 no stores would be open until the following Monday.

so I did the next best thing I would use hand power to run it some, and the rest of the day I lay next to it dreaming of all the places I would travel to.

we never did find that one lone green wire in the house! maybe I was on the naughty list?


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## mtoney (Oct 6, 2012)

My story is an example of my father not listening to the wisdom of his father. For Christmas 1978 I got 3 Tyco HO sets, the Silver Streak and Midnight Special on Christmas morning and a Sears Deluxe Royal Blue from my grandparents the following weekend. I took the first 2 sets along on the trip, and by noon that day, I had all 3 locomotives dead. So, grandpa had me follow him down to the detached garage/workshop. We retrieved a 4x7 piece of plywood with a loop of Lionel track on it. I do not remember seeing that in the garage before. Once we had that on the living room floor, grandma carried down a box from upstairs that held my father's Lionel set from the late 40's. The set was the 1423w set from 1948, which my grandfather had purchased second hand in 1949 from the neighbor who's son had lost interst. The set contained the 1655 2-4-2 diecast steamer with headlight and 3 position E unit, tinplate whistle tender, short PRR gondola, twin dome Sunoco tank car and the red SP type caboose. Everything was in its original boxes, a bit tattered. No set box though. Dad also had a 394 beacon tower and a couple Marx tinplate accessories. I played with that train the rest of the weekend we were at my grandparents. That following March for my birthday, I recieved a Lionel Southern Streak steam set. And from that Christmas till I turned 12, that old 1655 set was set up at Christmas at my grandparents. For Christmas just before I turned 12, grandpa deemed me responsible enough to take the vintage Lionel home. It was wrapped under the tree that year, but i kept the track board there since I had a layout of my own at home. That way I was able to run my trains there or at home. Grandpa passed before the next Christmas came. That train is still in my possession and will always be. As I type this, she is circling under my Christmas Tree. So, to everybody, have a Merry Lionel Christmas!


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## Texas Pete (Sep 28, 2011)

One of my most vivid Christmastime memories is of when dad took me to Wannamaker's Department Store way downtown in Manhattan. I got to ride in a monorail train around the ceiling of a large gallery, passing above what seemed like a great many toy train displays of American Flyer and Lionel. Boy, did I ever want an electric train! American Flyer had two rails and better proportions tha Lionel so that's what I wanted.

Christmas of 1950 or '51 was the only time we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, I guess because mine was an American Flyer passenger set, a 290 Pacific pulling the green New Haven type baggage car and two illuminated coaches. Needless to say I was ecstatic!

Christmas morning arrived and I wasn't expecting anything due to the very extravagant (for us) nature of my new electric train, but lo and behold there were a pair of remote turnouts and all the track required to make any of the 4x8 layouts in the Flyer catalog! My young mind was completely blown!

When I think of the sacrifices my parents must have made to provide such a magnificent Christmas for me, we were not rich by a long shot, I get all balled up inside, feel like a girl even. I wish they were still around so I could tell them I finally understand and thank them profusely.

Pete


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Wonderful stories, my oldest brother owned the family Lionel Train set. During the cold season it was set up on an old pingpong table in the basement. Being small I could only watch. That set was always a prized possession and was handled with care. I grew up with slot cars, and never got into trains until 1980 or so. The set was packed away and eventually came back recently into my possession. A pair of light blue Missouri Pacific Alcos on Super O track. 

The only tree train I can recall was that back in the 90's my mother bought a Pensy Flyer set and I set up around her tree. One of kids called it the "choo choo tree" when he was just beginning to speak.


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## dennisb (Jan 15, 2012)

Texas Pete, Wanamakers in Philadelphia also had a monorail in the ceiling of the toy department. It was always a treat to go there at Christmas time and ride it and look down. Then look at all the trains and other toys they had on display. Last was to get in line to see the Santa and make all kinds of requests of the things I just saw. Great memories from the early 60's.
Funny thing is I don't think we ever purchased anything there!


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2015)

These are wonderful stories, just what I had hoped for when I started this thread. Thanks so much for your contributions.


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

I started collecting trains when I was young. Christmas was a great time of year, I would get a few new items to add to the collection. My dad bought some green board and we built a 2 x 4 frame to put it on. I painted a grey road on it and laid out the track in three loops; an outer loop that was elevated, one inner oval loop and a third loop that was a figure eight. I ran that layout for years until I got into my teens, then I moved on to other interests. But the set was packed up nicely and waited for me to get older.

Fast forward to just after college. I moved to a two bedroom apartment, so I decided to get the old train set out and clean it up. It wasn't in bad shape, just needed a little sprucing up. I had it set up in the second bedroom for a while, then I packed it up and put it in the storage area of the apartment building. A short time later the basement flooded and I couldn't bear to see what had happened to the trains.

A few years after that we moved to NH and started a family. I decided to get the set out and see how bad it was. I was quite surprised that it was in pretty good shape. A little more cleaning and it was running perfectly. It's now our yearly set-up under the Christmas tree. Our grandsons enjoy watching it roll and puff smoke. We added a second train in 2008, and a G scale Polar Express last year (for our oldest grandson).


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## arkady (May 15, 2013)

I've posted this story before, both here and on That Other Forum. But since PTC asked, here it goes again:

In the late fall of 1951, my college-student father took me to a nearby hardware store, which was also an authorized Lionel dealer. They had an operating layout, and I had never seen anything like it! 

I remember an entire wall of shelves, each one holding Lionel locomotives and cars. I'd never imagined that so many toy trains existed in the entire world. And before it, an actual _layout_, with Lionel trains hurrying here and there, crossing gates bobbing before them and gatemen popping in and out of their oversized guard houses.

I was mesmerized, and could only stand with my three-year-old nose pressed against the glass, staring at the miniature locomotives and their shining headlights as they rushed about their little world. At one point, Dad pointed at the one that that was currently transfixing me and said "Do you like that one?" I could only nod dumbly, at a complete loss for words. We were living on the GI Bill and the few extra bucks Dad could bring in working nights at a local gas station, so wish-fulfillment was no everyday occurrence in my family. I took it for granted that Dad's question was strictly rhetorical.

Which is why I was in complete denial when a Lionel 2026 and three freight cars showed up under the tree in our apartment that Christmas. I couldn't believe it -- literally -- and had to be guided to the locomotive before I could comprehend the massive miracle that had befallen me. In later years, Dad told me he had gotten the 2026 and its freight cars (with a 1033 transformer and an extra Sunoco 2-dome tank car thrown in) for $12.00, since it was a demonstrator. A bargain, yes, but for us, twelve 1951 dollars was a fortune, and not to be thrown away lightly. How my father came up with that money, I still don't know.

By 1952, Dad had graduated and moved on to a job a couple of hundred miles away (but luckily, on the PRR mainline). Having a bit of real room at last, he built our 4x8 train platform that year, where the 2026 could really stretch its legs. Some of my finest holiday memories are of that locomotive and its meager freight consist, chugging smoke-pellet clouds beneath our Christmas tree, its mournful whistle announcing yet another holiday season.

In 1957, a #41 US Army locomotive joined the 2026, and some additional freight cars, along with a Barrel Loader and some Marx accessories. And, yes, I still have every bit of it. The layout appeared every year until 1968, when I left home and got married.

Oh, I confess, I had a brief flirtation with the Dark Side (HO and N) after that. But in the end I came back to 3-rail O fold, and as a first project, I completely restored my 2026, which by then was in dire need of the proper cleaning and lubricating it'd never had. When I heard that whistle again in the Seventies, I knew where my true loyalties lay.

A lot more Lionel has joined the 2026 since then. But that locomotive lives in honored retirement on our coffee table today, at the head of two Postwar 027 passenger cars (which we could never afford when I was a kid). And it comes down for some real running every Christmas, when it lights up my layout just the way it did in the hardware store all those years ago.

My father moved on to a better world ten years ago. But I never look at that humble 2026 without thinking of him. Thanks, Dad.


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## mtoney (Oct 6, 2012)

Great story arkady! Reminds me of what my father probably grew up with. I do know that my grandparents had very little but a roof over thier head as the great depression grew to a close. Grandpa worked for Frigidaire, then a part of General Motors, and my grandmother was a post mistress, thought to be one of the first if not the first one in the USA. I know dad said they had very little money wise after keeping the car going so his father could get to work. And, similar to your 2026 set, my fathers 1655 set was bought for less than it cost new. The neighbor kids having lost interest, grandpa bought the set second hand. If it was new, in that year it would have cost $29.99. While I am not sure that I would want to grow up in that era, I would love to go back in time to see those window displays of Lionel trains and other toys of that era! Keep the stories coming. Mike


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

These are all great stories. Thanks all for posting.


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## bluecomet400 (Sep 13, 2015)

Growing up, I was very fortunate to have a permanent layout in our house. We ran trains all year long, but that didn't stop Dad from building a layout for under the Christmas tree. I can still picture it. It had 2 loops of O-gauge, with crossovers that allowed us to alternate loops with the trains. Dad also had a separate box of trains and accessories, marked "Christmas Layout." It included a 124 station, a flagman, gateman, and various lamp posts and other buildings. Dad would always borrow one of his 436 power stations from the permanent layout to hide the transformer powering all the lights. The trains were mostly beat-up post-war trains for kids to play with. Then, on certain nights, when my parents would have company, Dad would break out some of his good pre-war trains. I most vividly recall him running the O-Gauge Blue Comet and the 233 B-6 switcher with the 2900-series semi-scale freights. Even then, when I was 7 or 8 years old, Dad let me run those highly-prized collectible pre-war trains. It was a magical time that I'll never forget. 

That track layout is long-gone, but we still have the same 4x8 board and plan to use it this year. The tree and trains will go up in a few days.


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## AndyH (Sep 21, 2015)

My first O gauge train was an early Christmas present to me in 1974 from my paternal grandfather. My dad cleared a space in our dining room and laid down a 4x8 sheet of plywood that he had covered in green felt. We put down an oval of O27 track, set up and decorated the tree, and then I got the honor of setting up all the Plasticville buildings that had also belonged to my grandfather before he switched his under-the-tree layout to HO. My dad then showed me how to properly run the train and how not to short-circuit the track and how to handle a short if one happened.

I couldn't begin to say how many hours I spent running that train! It was a very special Christmas, for many reasons, as it was also the last one we had with my mother.

I still have that train, and have it on display in my bedroom so I see it every day. Some day, I will have to run it again.

Andy


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## ErnestHouse (Sep 6, 2015)

My father was born, raised, went to war and returned to the same 2 bedroom house in New Jersey. A child during the depression, he awoke one Christmas to an American Flyer windup train under the tree with a red steam locomotive. He loved those trains but Lionel and electric trains ruled the day. Making trains a family tradition, he bought me a cold war Alco set as a kid but in spite of best efforts, I never fell in love with model railroading as he would have wanted. He bought some used sets along the way but it was really him having fun than me. I WANTED SLOT CAR RACERS. My sisters just tolerated the trains.

Somewhere, in one of our many moves around the northeast while growing up, the box of Dad's American Flyer trains went missing. It was always lamented that the movers stole them anytime the memory was triggered. In time, as the only child with a family of my own, the family Lionel trains came to me. My own kids delighted in the trains anytime they came out but it was more work than I was up to and tragically, they weren't out as much as they should have. 

Now retired, I enjoy the trains a lot and they are an all year thing for my adult kids, friends and grandkids to enjoy. At 90, Dad's still kicking but not raising much dust living by himself in a one room unit at a facility for the elderly. But Dad's getting a special present this year courtesy of some patience on eBay and some customization in my workshop. This year, anytime he wants, Dad can play with his red clockwork steam locomotive American Flyer train set on a table top layout made from his old 3 rail tubular track converted to two rail. Merry Christmas Dad.

It's a one way track for his dresser with a bumper at the beginning and a catch mechanism at the end. 








Bumper from scrap 1x1 cedar. 








Catch mechanism to safely catch the locomotive yet leaving it on the track. 








Regardless of excess spring power at the end, the locomotive gently skids to a stop and suspends the drive wheels while the spring unwinds.


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2015)

What a wonderful Christmas present for Dad. Thanks for sharing, Ernest.


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## Guest (Dec 20, 2015)

The Christmas Tree in the City Park, a tradition in most cities. Here is our rendition.

View attachment 119337


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## Stoshu (Jun 20, 2015)

*A few more...*

_ Just a couple more from the 2014 layout. _


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## Guest (Dec 20, 2015)

Beautiful photos, Stoshu.

*Merry Christmas* to you and your family.


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## ChessieSystem (Sep 17, 2015)

I don't remember getting the steam engine the family had. It has always been there. Mom and dad would set it up for us and we would play with 'Blacky' for hours and hours. Had little farm sets with horses and such we would use as characters. It was a lot of fun  Thanks to you guys I was able to get Blacky up and running again!
When I was a teenager my grandpa got me the MTH Chesapeake and Ohio double engines with the basic diesel sounds, bell and horn. He has a great Christmas set up in his basement with many trains running all over the place. Wish I had pictures of it to share. 
So for me, Christmas and trains go hand in hand  Can't have one without the other!


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2015)

Nice contribution Chessie. 

*Merry Christmas* to you and your family.


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## Joe Hohmann (Nov 5, 2015)

I barely remember getting my Lionel train set in 1947 when I was 5. It was set up under the tree, but I don't remember it being set up after that. Later on, at age 10, I fell in love with my best friend's AF set, mainly because it was a passenger set. I looked into getting streamlined aluminum cars for my set, but they cost $10. each. So much for electric trains until I turned 41 in 1983 and put up my first Christmas layout with 2 "HO" sets. To this day, I prefer passenger trains. I think going on a trip is more interesting than shipping stuff.


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## arkady (May 15, 2013)

Joe Hohmann said:


> I barely remember getting my Lionel train set in 1947 when I was 5. It was set up under the tree, but I don't remember it being set up after that. Later on, at age 10, I fell in love with my best friend's AF set, mainly because it was a passenger set. I looked into getting streamlined aluminum cars for my set, but they cost $10. each. So much for electric trains until I turned 41 in 1983 and put up my first Christmas layout with 2 "HO" sets. To this day, I prefer passenger trains. I think going on a trip is more interesting than shipping stuff.


Joe, I understand you about the passenger cars! I always wanted a passenger train to pull behind my 2026, but we just couldn't afford them. But now, even as I type, the 2026 is puffing around my scale layout, at the head of silver Lionel 027 passenger cars from the early Fifties. It took a while, but I finally got them.


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## Joe Hohmann (Nov 5, 2015)

arkady said:


> Joe, I understand you about the passenger cars! I always wanted a passenger train to pull behind my 2026, but we just couldn't afford them. But now, even as I type, the 2026 is puffing around my scale layout, at the head of silver Lionel 027 passenger cars from the early Fifties. It took a while, but I finally got them.



And I finally "got" my best friend's AF passenger set. It has its very own 3x6 "S" layout. Listening to the "choo, choo" sound takes me back to 1952.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2015)

*"To this day, I prefer passenger trains. I think going on a trip is more interesting than shipping stuff."*

Joe, I could not have said this better.

*Merry Christmas* to you and your family;


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