Join the discussion on the following article:
VIDEO: Professor Carp’s Toy Train Emporium: Episode 2
Well done!
What a touching and timely story of toy train history! Well done. I too wish we could have seen the train and enjoyed the experience of that time so long ago. Yes, we all need to enjoy the spirit of youthful dreams and of future happiness. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Roger. I am glad you didn’t distract from the value of the story with a prop other than the set box.
I got drafted in 1953 so this story really meant a lot to me. Also I have a 1927 American Flyer consist that is almost the same as what the gentleman has in the article. It belonged to my dad.
All that work producing a video and no train??!! How difficult would it have been to find a substitute? That was the whole focus of the video: a train sold on Dec 9, 1941. Not everyone has the reference books to look up this train and see a picture of it. How about doing it over again and this time show the train? Somebody has to have this set that would be willing to share it for the video.
Pretty lame without showing the train.
Rod Henshaw said it all. Thanks for the look back into history
Truly enjoyed the story, I was 11 months old rhen. Keep up the outstanding articles.
Reminds me that I have a “Railroad Time Book” from 1941 that belonged to a switchman on the Southern. There, the only remarks other than carefully recorded time and trains worked is “Hawaiian Islands Bombed” and then “Declared War on Japan.” It makes you think about what these hard working people were doing at that moment and how it must have affected them and everyone around them.
should have showed the set
Enjoyed the story. Was disappointed that we could not see the train. I received my first Lionel during that time period.
Hi Professor! I was 12 years old and I recall both my brothers were in the service soon after the draft began. I recall the big steamer locomotive train that took them off to the Service. I recall the passenger station and where my folks bid them farewell near Pittsburgh. Several years later when they returned home, our Dad who worked in a steel mill took time to help me build my first layout. Lionel advertising drew us to the hobby and to this day I still run Lionel Trains! I really enjoyed your presentation. Like comedian Bob Hope used to say… Thanks for he Memories!
Why didn’t you show us the set in the box? It’s great story, but all we see is the box and bill of sale.
Brings back fond memories. I too, received my first Lionel set for Christmas in 1941. I was 11 years old. It was an O gauge 845W set with a 224 locomotive and four freight cars. I think I must have spent thousands of hours running it over a period of several years. I built my first model railroad around that set. Sad to say I sold it when I temporarily out grew trains. I now collect Prewar Lionel and my very first acquisition was another 845W complete in the set box. Thanks for the great story.
Great story - wish we could have seen the train. One could write an entire blog on this story and its meaning. Yes, our nation was plunging into war - but I’m sure that Billy’s parents when they bought that train still had hope that there would be a future for there son - without war, and with the promise of peace. Isn’t that what we fought the war for? I suspect my own parents felt the same in the midst of the Cold War when they were buying trains for my brother and I. So maybe toy trains, in addition to all of there other wonderful attributes, are also tokens of peace and prosperity… I always thought it was to Lionel’s credit, that although train production ceased with the war, they remained committed to getting back to the business of creating a hobby and selling trains as soon as feasible. What a great legacy they left!
Professor Carp is no Roy Hinkley, but he’s great! But RC…let’s see the trains!
Great story, Roger. Two points: 1) perhaps the boy was “Billy Busch” as Busch is the last name of the buyer on the bill of sale; 2 ) yeah, it would have been nice to have shown us the train as you explained which items were included in the set.
Kind of in the same vein:
The New Haven Railroad put out a promotional fim in late 1941 called “A Great Railroad At Work”. In the film a young woman makes a reservation for on a sleeper for December 6, 1941.
A bit chilling for us now, because we know what they couldn’t have known. Twenty-four hours after that train trip that young woman’s life is going to change forever. Everyone elses life too for that matter.
PS: I’d like to see what’s in the box too!
Thanks Professor,nice story.Sure would like to have seen the train set.Maybe next time?