Hi There
Lionel, MTH , and Williams produce Christmas sets ! That is a fact . My question is why there is no Chanukah train sets. I have only seen one train that has both the Christian & Jewish holiday on a box car .
You say why would a Christian care ? I lived in a neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI that had many Jewish families in it . I would say I had a few Jewish friends & classmates.
So I ask that any one here is Jewish , Do you want a Chanukah Train? If not Why ?
The train companies don’t make Chanukah train sets because they don’t think they would sell well.
I think they are correct.
Reader Bruce Brown took an activist approach and made his own, as documented in this CTT story:
CHANUKAH TRAIN
Christmas isn’t the only holiday for trains
by Brown, Bruce J.
from Classic Toy Trains January 2001 p. 77 [tup]
These sets are made based on anticipated sales. Considering how small that market is nationwide, I can see companies wanting to target their resources toward larger volume demographics.
Thanks to all that replied so far.
I will look at hobby shop for that issue . I hope to find that issue. They have a stack of old issues .
Thanks
Growing up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, I was under the impression that it wasn’t really a major holiday, at least in comparison to some other Jewish holidays. It just got added attention because it fell around Christmas. Also, despite the attempts of some retailers, it really hasn’t gotten nearly as commercialized as Christmas.
Finally, there is no tree to put the train under.
Why wouldn’t it sell? Has anyone tried, seriously?
Look, Williams reproduces the “Lady Lionel” pink Girls Train, you know the one that makes most mens blood run cold, and here in the Fortress Firelock has Lady Firestorm’s upper lip curling so much it tickles her right eyebrow? Obviously that thing sells!
By the way, it isn’t just Lady Firestorm either. When I was visiting Lady F’s sister and family I left a CTT open to a page with an ad for a Girls Train. The look of horror on my sister-in-laws face and her daughter’s faces as well was priceless!
So why wouldn’t a Hannukah Train sell? Now maybe if it had a boxcar with a digital recording of Adam Sandler’s “Hannukah Song”…
Jewish boys certainly got Lionel trains when I was young.
I doubt marketing trains just for Hanukkah would be much of a marketing success.
FWIW, I own a K-Line Chanukah boxcar and a Chinese New Year gondola, both of which date back to the late '90s, so it has been done…
Makes one wonder just what a Chanukah train would look like. Little extra flags on the loco with Stars of David on 'em? A motorized dreidel spinning car? Illuminated menorah car? A hopper car loaded with chocolate coins? Nu, it could work… 
-MMM-
I loved K-Line Because they were not afraid. To leave the mold cast in stone,
a decorated tree, trains running beneath, cookies in the shape of wreaths, eggnog & Santa… frankly i think it’s sad that just because of a name, some people miss out on the spirit of the holiday season. it hasn’t been about religion for me in decades.
perhaps it should be Festivus, … for the rest of us.
I have the K-Line Chanukah boxcar and the Lionel Mogen David wine car. That’s about it for Jewish offerings by train manufacturers. I guess train manufactures are a lot like pro sports teams, Lots of Jewish owners but few players. [:)]
I actually built a Chanukah train a few years back in HO. Have a pic somwhere There are train Menorahs so It may not be beyond the relm of reality to built an entire train set but I think a car or two as done in the past is more likely
Hasn’t anyone heard of a “Hanukah bush” to run trains around? All my trains are kosher. Especially the Mogan David vat car.
No but Facebook had ads for a Menorah Tree. A 9 branch artifical tree shaped like a Menorah. I have also seen videos of Chanukkah trains on You Tube.
Hmmm. I’ve got a beat-up 3650 spotlight car lurking about with only the cable reel left. I suppose I could dismantle that and power a menorah mounted on the depressed center…
Mitch
Typical scenes of livingrooms on Christmas morning very commonly include a toy train circling the tree’s base. Displays of trains which are not in stores are common at Christmas time–for example the one at Grand Central in New York and the Bronx Botanical garden as well. So toy trains in some way have become a hallmark of the season-they certainly are not in any way a religious symbol. Because Lionel outsold American Flyer and almost anyone else as well, I credit Joshua Lionel Cowan with enshrining toy trains in our perceptions as part of a typical home Christmas décor. Ironic that he was Jewish, as I happen to be as well. Although I got trains at Chanukah, I had no tree around which to run them–I was lucky enough to have a year around layout on which to run my UP 2023 freight (in retrospect I wish it had been the passenger set, which I never even was aware of until perhaps 1975!).
Actually What I did is I took 9 Flameless LED tea light candles Mounted 8 of them on 2 Flat cars and the Shamesh (Ninth taller one) on the cuppola of the caboose. After coloring the flames yellow with a highlighter it looked like a moving Menorah. In HO it was a bit unwieldy but on my sscale set, I think it woould work well I am going to try it this year. In O scale I will used gondolas instead of flat cars. Of Course while not essential the caboose goes in the center.
Most of those Christmas train set are broad Holiday themed, North Pole themed, Santa Claus themed, Winter themed. Very few of the individual cars and train sets are biblically based “Christ is Born Today” themed.
I think a “christ” theme trainset would be considered heresy For Hanukkah last year I used a happy holiday set.