The recent “How did you get into O” thread contained several postings from people who got into miniature railroading because their parents already had an interest. I’d be curious to know how many of us on this forum came from families in which their parents had Lionel/Flyer/Marx before them.
In my own case, my father had a Lionel 252 with three passenger cars, which was given to him on Christmas, 1928 (we think). And my mother (and her sisters) had a Christmas layout with a Lionel #1400 streamliner set. I still have all of the above, and they both have a place of honor on my display shelves right now.
I didn’t get my own Lionel until 1951, but I’ve been slowly accumulating equipment ever since.
Nope, but my maternal grandfather had early postwar Flyer and my uncle had prewar Marx. All my Uncle’s Marx and some of my grandfather’s S are in my basement.
My parents didn’t, but I think my mom’s younger brother did. One time I saw a couple of old photos taken during Christmas when my mom and uncle were young, around the early to mid forties. The pix weren’t all that clear but I did see a frieght consist set up under the tree. I should ask my uncle about that, see if he remembers.
Well, my grandpa had a Lionel Postwar 1513S set (2037 steamer) and a 2055 4-6-4 as a kid that he and his two brothers shared. They got passed down to my dad when he was a kid and now I have them.
Nope. Dad was #2 of 8 kids and mom was #2 of 10! So neither family ever had any money! In fact, my dad was sent away from the family farm at age 10 to live with one of his aunts because my grandparents couldn’t afford to feed so many kids anymore. [(-D] Dad was born in 1902. Can you imagine what kind of toys I’d have in my collection if he did have and save them? [sigh] Oh well, at least he was one of the first Boy Scouts in the USA! [tup] Mom was born in 1940, and had similar issues of having to work practically from the day she was born. Usually picking beans!
After my dad came back from WW2 and married my mother he pick up several American Flyer sets from the late 40’s. This was prior to my older sister or me appearing on the scene. When we were young he would set up carpet layouts multiple times through out the year. He continue to purchase additional sets through the mid 50’s. When He gave me the trains he had two steam and three diesel locomotives, 32 Freight and 3 passenger cars. We actually never had a train under the Christmas tree at all when I was young but on the plus side I didn’t have to wait until December each year to run the trains.
Yes, my dad had a smattering of Lionel - a 248 and other tinplate - which occasionally appeared to run around the Christmas tree. I didn’t really notice it. He did build my brothers and me a nice HO figure-8 on a large ping-pong table - but that disappeared when my sister was born. So the trains were ‘around’ but I didn’t really pick up on them. Not until I was an adult many years later and actively looking for a hobby.
Dad received his set in '52. Twin Erie FAs with horn, stock car, two dome tanker, hopper and lighted caboose. He also had the cattle car and corral. Dad was the 4th of 5 kids, and I have to think it was a big sacrifice for grandpa, on a carpenter’s wages, to buy such a nice set. The set is still around, and everything still works. Though the train mostly rides the shelf nowadays, the cattle corral has found a permanent place on our layout.
My dad’s train set was an American Flyer “Trail Blazer” set from 1953. A real nice Pennsy K-5 loco with mail pick-up and 3 heavyweight passenger cars. This set was under our Christmas tree every year and afterwards it would go down to the basement on the ping pong table for a few more months.
My Dad was the guy that insisted all little boys get a train for their first Christmas, a tradition my Mom carried on after his death, so I know he very much liked trains. However, I have never heard or seen any evidence to suggest he had them himself. I like to think he did, but there is no one left to ask. Despite his passing 10 years before my first son was born, both my boys know it was my father’s idea to get them the trains that run around our house.
Scramble and all. You stirred up a lot of thoughts on this topic. Good ones.
My Dad (R.I.P.) had American Flyer growing up in the 1920s. The Great Depression turned things upside down, and the trains were sold off to put food on the dinner table, except for a water tower which he kept and passed on to me. It sits proudly displayed in my wife’s china cabinet, and it looks somewhat out of place to some…but not to me! Thanks to Northwoods Flyer (check out his stellar thread), I got some history on the water tower, and a connection to my Dad’s past.
During and after WWII, my father started a family, with a stint in the military thrown in for good measure. Two daughters later, he must have anticipated having a son and felt the odds were now in his favor. So he started picking up some Lionel pieces, one at a time.
The first was a Lionel 2046 (1950) and the second was a 2031 Rock Island ALCO AA pair (1952). $40 was real money back in those times, so I can just imagine how my Mom reacted when she saw that first engine, a year before I was in the picture. No, these engines were not the top end nor were they the bottom end. But it was wh
You hit the nail on the head. My only concern is for families to be able to afford a set these days, meaning of course young families. My best memories were not of the trains themselves but of my Dad’s and Grandads …encouragement and three generations of participation…playing with trains even though as kids they had none of their own. Brought out the kid in them… My young buddies too, making up goofy scenarios using army men, toy trucks…our imaginations…Remember soap box racers, balsa wood planes…? Kids playing video games by themselves, folks talking on cell phones, I-Pads practically tripping over each other. A different world indeed…better in some ways, worse in others.
**Wally…**you are so right about the affordability factor. I didn’t mean to gloss over the expense. But… let me digress for a moment.
Very good friends of ours, a couple with two children, are having trouble making financial ends meet. They have chosen how they wish to spend their money…on the cars they drive, the upper end cell phones they purchase (with insurance), the unlimited talk and data plans they have selected, the upper digital level of service and the movie channels and sports packages they selected from their cable company, etc. They have had a beautiful 46" leading brand flatscreen HDTV long before I did, complete with DVR. The list goes on. What does a Polar Express set cost, a one time hit of $250?
When they come over to our house with their children, their boy remains glued to the running of the trains the entire time he is here. Then light bulb goes off in my head.
I came out and said to them plainly, “for all you have been and are to us,” I offered to “give” them a “new in box” starter O gauge train set I had and didn’t need/want so that they could give it to their son themselves for Christmas, told them they would be doing me a big favor by putting it to good use. They countered with an issue…the room in their house to set it up. OK, go smaller. I countered with a “new in box” starter HO gauge set I had and don’t need/want (have 2 of them, never opened, their choice). More excuses. These are the nicest people you would ever have the privilege of meeting.
If they feel funny about taking my wife’s and my gift, as a small token of
Well, I’d try to put that in perspective. My father, a WWII Army Air Corps vet, was going to school on the GI Bill when I was born. And our young family was broke. I mean, really broke. As in when the battery in our well-used '38 Plymouth died, Dad had to go to the police station to beg them not to ticket him for parking on the street overnight, until he could afford to buy a new battery from the paltry income of his gas-station night job.
All the same, in late summer 1951 he decided to get his 3-year-old kid an entry-level Lionel train. Though it only cost $12.50, he had to put it on layaway and pay it off in small installments so he could buy it by Christmas.
And yes, I understand about inflation and the relative value of the dollar. All the same, it makes me wonder how many “young families” actually can’t afford a modern equivalent of that set. I’d suspect that other factors are coming into play.
I am reluctant to stereotype all young families as rolling in dough and I don’t think the economic picture supports that picture for the majority, although I agree that the wheels have come off the rails as far as what is important in a consumer society. My Dad was in the same situation as yours after WW2 and as I understand it, my grandfather bankrolled the train, and