I just snapped the EZ trach together for my Lionel by the tree.
Shabbat Shalom
Shabbat Shalom
OT: Anyone set up trains for Christmas.
- Thread starter Mr. Potter
- Start date
Same here. My wife and I collect the annual Christmas Car made by Lionel which has the year on it.
I have my old American Flyer from about 60 years ago. I promise myself to get it fixed around this time every year but never seem to get around to it.
I set up a train wreck every Christmas. Much easier for me. 
Remember Mary from the old board? She loved her trains.
I set up a train wreck every Christmas. Much easier for me.
I'll just watch the train wreck on Jan 2nd on television.
Welcome to the board, Gomez Adams.I set up a train wreck every Christmas. Much easier for me.
I still set up the Lionel train I had as a kid in the 1950's. The train engine and cars are from the 1940's. Always a comfort to see that old engine still chugging along.
I started collecting Lionel with my dad around '74...have thinned my collection quite a bit...now we run more LGB since they are easier for the grandkids to handle and easier to keep running. The remaining Lionel will be passed along to the kids...the Standard gauge Lionel are displayed thru the house.
I have a room downstairs where I set up 3 sets of post war Lionel trains on an elevated table. My father used to set them up every Christmas when i growing up. Brings back a lot of fond memories. A simpler time.
My dad worked on the DL&W before it merged with Erie to become the Erie Lackawanna. Every year I set up my train and recall the times he took me to the Taylor Yard to ride in the caboose.
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I took my childhood Lionel apart last year and cleaned the engine coil and brushes and it has been working much better since then. I don't know about your Flyer, but it wasn't that hard and only took me a half an hour to be very thorough. Plus I got to annoy my wife by taking yet another something apart.
I used to have an ho setup where I had 6-7 tracks and 25 structures.. had 10 or 11 locomotives lolZ.
disclaimer: I’m from Altoona
disclaimer: I’m from Altoona
My little buddy and I use the ping pong table as a train table during the holidays. He has a Lionel polar express and a Union Pacific… both O-Gauge. We add one item per year and also use Lego houses as the village in the center. A lot of fun!
Here’s my (somewhat) long train story.
When we were young our parents got us each (older sister
, older brother 
and myself) an HO train 
set. In addition, we had one Lionel that i can’t remember whose it was.
Each Christmas
my Dad would set up a painted 4x8 sheet of plywood in the basement. This was an old Central PA half-double so it was a basement, not a rec-room (but he did cement the floor 
) - but I digress. He also used Lincoln logs as the fencing around the layout - was pretty cool 
.
So each year we were able to set up the Lionel on the outside of the layout and an HO layout within that.
Ultimately, over the years I ended up with ALL of the trains except the Lionel.
About 10 years ago was setting up as much as I could from the old layouts (plus a lot of other collectibles I had) in our attic.
Then we had a fire
in the attic and lost almost all of the trains and a lot of my other collectibles as well.
Side note again - I had a picture of one of my Jeff Gordon diecasts almost burnt to nothing for the insurance company and I told them when I submitted it that “Jeff Gordon was in a crash!”. Sorry I just try to use humor when going thru challenging situations- but I digress again.
So anyway, fast forward to the last couple years where I started going thru the hundred or so boxes that have been packed away since that fire and see what we had left. I started getting the train itch again and just got an N-scale up and going again and I’m going to try and get an HO layout up again.
But I got a real nostalgic and sad feeling about missing all the pieces from my childhood.
So what did I do? Well, I went on an eBay binge of course. So far, I’ve been able to buy some exact pieces I had before like the motel (with the pool
), the bank 
with the covered drive-thru and the split level house as well as some train cars. I’ve also been able to find some that are “close” to what I had.
I’m just doing this all in the name of nostalgia - for me. And although sad at times, it’s also therapeutic!
But I’m sure the sellers on eBay are happy because I don’t like losing !!
So there’s my story - sorry for being so long winded but thanks for listening if you made it this far.
PS
I also have an old O scale (not Lionel) that my father had found in the basement of a home he bought to remodel. I can’t find any year or other markings but it has the engine, two cars and a caboose.
This was always packed away so I still have it. It was found in a basement of an almost 80 year old lady about 40 years ago. I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth anything and if anyone has some expertise around these types of things can you point
me in the right direction - Thank You!
When we were young our parents got us each (older sister
, older brother and myself) an HO train set. In addition, we had one Lionel that i can’t remember whose it was. Each Christmas
my Dad would set up a painted 4x8 sheet of plywood in the basement. This was an old Central PA half-double so it was a basement, not a rec-room (but he did cement the floor ) - but I digress. He also used Lincoln logs as the fencing around the layout - was pretty cool . So each year we were able to set up the Lionel on the outside of the layout and an HO layout within that.
Ultimately, over the years I ended up with ALL of the trains except the Lionel.
About 10 years ago was setting up as much as I could from the old layouts (plus a lot of other collectibles I had) in our attic.
Then we had a fire
in the attic and lost almost all of the trains and a lot of my other collectibles as well. Side note again - I had a picture of one of my Jeff Gordon diecasts almost burnt to nothing for the insurance company and I told them when I submitted it that “Jeff Gordon was in a crash!”. Sorry I just try to use humor when going thru challenging situations- but I digress again.
So anyway, fast forward to the last couple years where I started going thru the hundred or so boxes that have been packed away since that fire and see what we had left. I started getting the train itch again and just got an N-scale up and going again and I’m going to try and get an HO layout up again.
But I got a real nostalgic and sad feeling about missing all the pieces from my childhood
. So what did I do? Well, I went on an eBay binge of course. So far, I’ve been able to buy some exact pieces I had before like the motel (with the pool
), the bank with the covered drive-thru and the split level house as well as some train cars. I’ve also been able to find some that are “close” to what I had. I’m just doing this all in the name of nostalgia - for me. And although sad at times, it’s also therapeutic!
But I’m sure the sellers on eBay are happy because I don’t like losing !!
So there’s my story - sorry for being so long winded but thanks for listening if you made it this far.
PS
I also have an old O scale
(not Lionel) that my father had found in the basement of a home he bought to remodel. I can’t find any year or other markings but it has the engine, two cars and a caboose.This was always packed away so I still have it. It was found in a basement of an almost 80 year old lady about 40 years ago. I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth anything and if anyone has some expertise around these types of things can you point
me in the right direction - Thank You!Now even train people are pushing this stuff on our kids. Unreal.
Totally TIC, BTW.
From 2007
I wanted to put a home video of it here, but couldn't. This never ran very well, but that didn't stop my 3 year old son.
I wanted to put a home video of it here, but couldn't. This never ran very well, but that didn't stop my 3 year old son.
That looks like Gargraves track...more expensive but worth every penny! Terrific "Putz" as we say in Bethlehem ( Penna Dutch) ..totally wonderful layout!
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Just when I thought this thread couldn’t get any better.
Totally awesome! I love the track you are using...I can't remember the exact name but believe it was a premium track from Lionel. The village looks like Dept 56...Beautiful! You should be very proud !
Thank You so much for this thread...the memories you have brought to me are...well...emotional. My first memories of Christmas was the layout my Dad would assemble....probably 1962...it was small and HO gauge. I had a brother arrive in 1974...which is when we switched to Lionel as our Granddad bought "Bobbie" the Lionel Disney set...so much easier to handle and so many cool things to buy! We joined "TCA" in '75 (Train Collectors Association) and traveled to many train meets, swap meets, from Pittston to York and all over. My Dad was a rolling stock guy and i was addicted to the operating accessories. My 4 year old Granddaughter loves operating the LGB train i set up now...maybe she will continue our family tradition of a Christmas Putz. It was a sad day when Roadside America closed....if you have been there to Shartlesville you know what i mean....if not...Roadside America was a 8,000 sq ft display of village, roads and trains.Sadly it closed up 2020....another Covid casualty.
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Thank you, that’s the Lionel O Gauge FasTrack. The back half of the track is white so it blends in, someday I’ll replace it all to white. The village is a similar set to Dept 56, it’s all St Nicholas Square that’s sold at Kohls, I’ve added annually for about 20 years to get it to this.
I also do a much smaller and simpler Halloween village and HO train (the train died this year, so I’m going to get a different O Gauge Lionel for the Halloween village next year. We start this one at the beginning of Sept and keep it up through Halloween then transition to the Christmas village through mid January.
Very cool.....very unique...never saw a Halloween putz before ....i love it!
No but I have a 70 year old Lionel with tracks and transformer. I can’t get it to work but keeping it for sentimental reason. The Engine and cars are up on a shelf in our sons room. I could go to a store in Denver to get it running but don’t want to bother.
As a kid we used to set up Lionel trains each year. We got to the point where Dad built us 4 tables, each 4 X 6 feet. The legs came off so we could store in the attic. In November we would get the tables out and set up in the basement. Dad had bought us a new Lionel train set that was the basic train for the set up. Then we got a used locomotive and got several used cars that became our second train. Someone donated another locomotive, and this was our third train. We had Plasticville buildings and set up a small town. Each year the set up got more and more complex. We did this until my brother and I went off to PSU.
Mon got tired of the dust collectors in the attic and sold off the whole set when left home.
A few years ago, my wife made the mistake of telling me a local department store had a Lionel Train set on sale. She thought it would look nice under the tree. And I did set it up under the tree one year. But then I got the old bug again and started buying locomotives and cars. Soon it took up the whole living room. We moved 2 years ago and the new house had a large basement. I have built my first train table 8 X 12 feet and have started to build a river and a mountain. My plans are to build at least one more table for a year-round display.
Another note. When I attended my High School 50-year reunion, I ran into my best friend from high school. We had lost track of each other but hit it off right away. His wife mentioned how trains had taken over their basement. Now we share train building tips and go to train stores looking for the next big idea.
Mon got tired of the dust collectors in the attic and sold off the whole set when left home.
A few years ago, my wife made the mistake of telling me a local department store had a Lionel Train set on sale. She thought it would look nice under the tree. And I did set it up under the tree one year. But then I got the old bug again and started buying locomotives and cars. Soon it took up the whole living room. We moved 2 years ago and the new house had a large basement. I have built my first train table 8 X 12 feet and have started to build a river and a mountain. My plans are to build at least one more table for a year-round display.
Another note. When I attended my High School 50-year reunion, I ran into my best friend from high school. We had lost track of each other but hit it off right away. His wife mentioned how trains had taken over their basement. Now we share train building tips and go to train stores looking for the next big idea.
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