In 1959 I asked Santa for a toy train and I got one. We had just moved from our house outside D.C. and were spending Christmas in Harrisburg with my grandparents before driving across country on our way to Hawaii. There under the tree Christmas day was my train. An HO with two Plasticville buildings. I LOVED it! Over the years I'd put the train up each Christmas under the tree. As years went by the layout became more and more elaborate with more and more buildings and lots of snow. It was my idealized white Christmas.
I still have the train in all of its original boxes along with the little green bottle of whatever it is to put in the engine to make it puff smoke as it goes around the track. I haven't put it up in a very long time and I miss it. I think of the little box of people I used to place in the same position each year. The rest of the year they were stuck in a little plastic box, but for a few weeks they were out and about in my wonderland beneath the tree. It took me days to put the whole thing up, but only a few hours to break it down.
The ad below sort of ticks me off. Trains were always marketed as a toy for boys. The only time they marketed them for girls they made them...and I get ill thinking about it...Pepto-Bismol pink. What were they thinking? I imagine if you can get a mint pink train (hmmmm...note to self, possible odd candy to manufacture) in the original box it costs quite a pretty penny. Sorry, don't want one. I love my original with the black metal engine. Yeah, I miss it, but...
A few years ago my best friend, knowing my love for toy trains, gave me a DVD for Christmas entitled "Toy Trains & Christmas: Parts 1, 2, 3". I savored every moment of it. If you like toy trains or know someone who does I'd bet they'd love this video. I watched it over a series of nights with the glow of my Christmas tree in the room. Made me long for my train even more, but it's a good substitute. I've put a link to the video in the left column at the top of the Amazon listings.
Click on image to see it larger. (SOURCE: National Geographic December 1954)
Yup, a boy toy. Little girls weren't supposed to have any interest. I guess I just didn't fit the restrictive mold. But I will say that the train brought my father and me closer each Christmas. For years it was a tradition that we'd head out some evening to the hobby store to buy a new building to add to the village. Some of the buildings were Plasticville that I'd put together each year. Other, more elaborate buildings, were kits that my dad would meticulously put together. Good times. Good times.
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