Molded-on snow, a garish plethora of flourescent red and green, side and main rods cast in one piece that looks like scissors dropped from 20 stories, two double-A batteries for an O gauge locomotive’s power source-- I am of course talking about those christmas train sets.
Now, the door is open for everybody to share their pictures and experience of these atrocities that barely deserve to be called “toys”, let alone trains.
Let the games begin, and may the odds be ever in your favor![;)]
Since naughty words are a no-no on this Forum even if they’re censored, I’m going to assume that the missing word in your subject line is “crummy.” [swg]
Soviet seems to have something against train sets, if his recent threads tell us anything. [%-)]
Rich
Atrocity?
Below is a photo of yours truly and my friend, Jimmy, taken in 1963 when I was 7. We are playing with a plastic “train set” that I kept in a laundry basket when I wasn’t empire building. I had FUN with it. I don’t recall who made the set, Mattell maybe? and it was a pull-along. I believe they finally made a battery locomotive but by then I had out-grown (by age twelve?) this silly atrocity.
I loved that thing. I used scraps of ceramic tile for roads and I see there’s a classic Revell Weekly Herald newspaper building in there! While my dad had a 4 x 8 HO layout in the basement at the time, I had MY trains here on the living room floor and I’m not ashamed to admit that playing with it was very rewarding.
When I visit one of the local hobby shops here that is still 80% devoted to scale trains there are usually a few youngsters playing with the BRIO wood trains while dad or mom are looking at the higher priced fare intended for adults. For some reason I’m neither shocked or angry that they display such things there for all to see.
How many of those Coca-Cola, NASCAR, NFL, etc. sets have they sold. Sure, compared to what we work with in “scale modeling” there is a far stretch to these “collector” sets but they are not going to go away anytime soon.
Over the years this has been pretty much covered in these forums concerning the toy-train collectors vs. scale model railroading.
Happy Modeling,
Ed
*Steven— In my vocabulary a crummy is the last car of a train, carrying the
And lead to a enjoyable life time hobby… I know running my Dad’s 2 rail O scale trains got me rolling down the hobby.I wouldn’t take back one second of it.
Now,when I move on I hope I get to join the great model railroad club in the sky instead of hiring out on the Hades Northern shoveling coal on a Allegheny with a broken mechanical stroker and boiler that’s plum full of holes…
Accually knew someone who used things like this as a start for a fantatic scale peice. I often take peices off of junk for detailing other things (thats how they made the Star Wars ships in the original movie.
To each his own, Christmas decorated trains sets don’t boither me, and why would they?
Those wonderful sets beloved by children everywhere.
My 5 year old grandson’s favorite is the Polar Express by Lionel. A bit more than what your describing, but a kid favorite at Christmas non-the-less. His father, grandmother, and I took him on a full size polar express train ride last Christmas - he loved it. He also loves his Thomas the Tank trains - and builds many layouts on the floor at my house.
When you look at these sets through the eyes of a child they are all wonderful. This is a hobby about having fun with trains. At least it is for me. And I love all the different types of trains from the cast iron pull toys to the latest Lionel Big Boy.
Paul
Enjoy
Paul
Ran the wheels off a Tyco Alco C-636 in a garish Bicentennial scheme; it came with a highly prototypical consist that included a matching caboose and a crane and boom car - which really should be standard equipment for all trains operated by five year olds- wit a working searchlight. It aged like all toys do- the number of dings and dents make an infallible register of the impact on a child’s imagination.
The crane is gone, as is the caboose, the track, the freight cars, the boom car. At some point, the engine stopped working and went into a box: irreparable, but I couldn’t bear to part with it. I found it years later during a cleanup, just a shell, one truck gone: Rosebud.
Shock Horror, [:O] if I had known my young fellow was going to be mentally scarred for life because of the hours of fun he had with an el cheapo battery powered train set atrocity when he was three/four, I would have never bought him one. What made it worse was that the kindergarten he attended had a large wooden train set that he and friends had even more fun with. I am now so ashamed that he seems to have turned into a fine young man with a future. [:$] [
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Good grief, it would be nice if the OP had a meaningful positive post or two - rather than all the negativity…
I used laundry soap for track ballasd. sorry for the spelling.28473
Actually, we should be glad they’re there.
The point is they’ve given many of us our start in this great hobby.
How many parents would spend the money on quality equipment for a young child?
Besides, what the OP sees a garish and unrealistic, they see as magical.
Lets see this being mid-summer my 3 garish Chirstmas train sets and my homemade Hanukkah set are in the attic. Enough said.
A little clarification & apology: I am perfectly fine with Brio, Thomas the Tank Engine, even bright red-and-green Christmas colors (my first electrically powered train set was a TOMY Plarail Thomas that I loved to death), but really, did anyone read my description? I was talking about the subcategory of these plastic train sets that are EL CHEAPO JUNK, not Thomas Wooden Railway, or LEGO trains, or even Marx tinplate!
My first train set was a tin plate, Unique Art. My #2 brother was home on leave in 1948 from Eniwetok in the Pacific. I came acorss pictures taken Christmas morning–I was sitting on the couch, and my brother and Dad were running the train. As I recall I did not get much train time until my brother went back to Eniwetok. I still have the engine and the coal car, a 0-4-0 that weighs close to three pounds. If I still had some three rail track I would be tempted to run it.
herrinchoker
So… it bugs you that nobody else wants to join you in running down stuff you don’t like? Sorry. [:(]
I’m sure we all read it.
I think what most of us are having a problem with is that if you’re not 8 years old or buying a set for someone who is, why is this an issue?
Get out of the toy department and head for a hobby shop.
I don’t think I could have put it any better. This topic is really a non issue. There an aweful lot people can complain about and really it’s drag. There will alwasy be some cheap junk in many types of products. So what? Move on.
I’d rather see people post about something fun, positive or upbeat. There is a lot of great stuff in the hobby, so much so that if you look at the used stuff on the secondary market (at train shows and Ebay etc.) and add to that all the nice new products, we have so much to be thankful for.
Leave the stuff behind you don’t like and go find some of the good stuff and enjoy the hobby. Model Railroading is Fun!