Long ago and far away....Nah, that's another story....Ahem...On Christmas Day in 1951, I got my first electric train. Santa had dutifully come in the night and there under the tree was a large box. And in the box was a pair of Lionel No. 2023 Union Pacific diesels, followed by a No. 6456 Lehigh hopper car, a No. 6465 Sunoco double dome tanker car, a yellow No. 6656 stock car and bringing up the rear was the No. 6357 illuminated caboose. Also in the box was a circle of track and a Lionel No. 1033 transformer. Once assembled on the floor, the magic began.
Imagine. You could control the speed (and with MagneTraction on the lead engine, this could be pretty fast), run backwards, blow the horn, and generally begin to think about becoming a real engineer. In the beginning, the train only appeared at Christmas when the circle of track was assembled under the tree. In later years, the gateman, some uncoupling track section, a cattle unloader, and other accessories arrived. On that same first-train Christmas, my brother received a steam train with its own consist, which he too still has to this day. So, while in high school, we constructed a layout in the basement. By that time, we had acquired a Lionel KW dual control transformer, so we could run both trains at the same time. Grown and out of the house, the trains were packed up for fifty years, until rediscovered when clearing out the family home. Having made the decision not to leave them in a box for the fifty years, my current layout came into being. A layout, as most you know, that has gotten completely out of hand. That original box is long gone, but I still have that first train. Do you still have your first train? I'm sure you remember it. How about sending our editor a not, and perhaps a picture, beginning with the sentence, "My first train was a..." and maybe in the future we can use it as a blog post here or in our clubs newsletter. Stay on the rails... Lowell Baughan
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
PCRCThe Page County Railroad Club has a wealth of railroad information shared between it's members. In this blog we will do our best to share that knowledge. Archives
September 2020
Categories |