Amazing how NYC, Christmas and Model Trains all go together

Sounds great Rusty!
I bet you all stopped to get some great Chicago style pizza too!

Perhaps even MORE amazing in my youth in Brooklyn and Woodhaven, Queens in the late forties and early fifties, including visits to:

Madison Hardware

The Lionel Showroom

Polk's

Gilbert Hall of Science

Savoy Merchandise (AF dealer close to the Hall of Science)

Model Railroad Equipment Corporation (West 45th St.)

The same can be said for almost anywhere, even smaller cities. There is nothing unique in all
this, except the parts that are actually unique. (Change the street names, the department store names - except for Sears -
and it's the same experience).

OK, we had no "EL", and Mobile's streetcars had been replaced by buses even before I was born (but the tracks were still
visible many places)...and no snow.

But I got a train set, too - and, believe it or not, a year-round layout, with scratch built buildings (my father's work)
and, ah, "scenery".

Oh - as I've traveled a little bit, I must say that (per an above comment) that New York pizza is FAR superior
to Chicago pizza. But, I've got no dog in this fight; I'd rather have gumbo.

quote:

Originally posted by Tinplate Art:
Perhaps even MORE amazing in my youth in Brooklyn and Woodhaven, Queens in the late forties and early fifties, including visits to:

Wow, I bet those times were great!
Was Lennys Pizza in Brooklyn during the 40's and 50's?

quote:

And couldnt help but think about how much NYC, Christmas and Model trains all go together.

It wasn't just New York, my friend. The small Pennsylvania town where I grew up had its department-store toyland where Lionel was the featured attraction. Us kids would spend hours in there, drooling!

My own father moonlighted at a hardware store toyland, selling American Flyer trains, too.

Then there was the uptown gas station that had a Lionel dealership in back. Those shelves seemed to reach from the floor up into the stratosphere.

And, for anyone who got tired of all those miniature trains, there was always the real thing. The PRR 4-track mainline ran right along the river by the edge of town, with trains every ten minutes or so, often filling all four tracks at once.

The shining Christmas decorations downtown at night, the community Christmas tree in front of the departments store, the sparkling window decorations in the five-and-tens...

Memories of Christmas and trains aren't necessarily limited to one specific location.

quote:

Originally posted by chipset:
Sounds great Rusty!
I bet you all stopped to get some great Chicago style pizza too!

If we ate on the the shopping trips downtown, it was usually at a hamburger joint called Wimpy's. I think it was on Madison Street somewhere. Sometimes we'd make a trip to exotic Berwyn to Frelach's Big Boy restaurant.

Pizza, Chicago style or otherwise was unknown to us poor Slovak's back in the 1950's. However, I have long since corrected that situation!

Rusty

Chipset:

Don't remember Lenny's, but we had a great pizza place in Woodhaven that also had a bar and grill. They used REAL slices of mozzarella, plenty of oregeno, and a great homemade sauce. And of course a hand-tossed crust! I do not think I have tasted a pizza that good since!

Manor Hobbies on Jamaica Ave. near the Woodhaven Blvd. el station was a Lionel dealer. The owner would let us kids look at his advance catalogs, and we thought that was pretty cool!

I grew up in Arlington, MA. A mere six miles west of Boston. We lived near the Center of Town and I remember that O’Donnell’s Insurance had a small layout in the window and next door at New England Photo they had a few select pre-war pieces in a snow scene. My usual 10 minute walk to and from school turned into 20 to 30 minutes! Several other stores such as Emerson Shoes and the old Mystic Valley Gas Company had compact layouts. The toy store Play Time only had HO, but still it was neat.

The Boston & Maine Bedford branch ran by my house and I was treated to one freight a day and the RDC ‘Buddliner’ during morning and afternoon rush hour. We had the MTA, now the MBTA and would take the bus to Harvard Square then ride the subway to Washington Street. When you got off you could go right into the hustle and bustle that was Jordan Marsh. The Toyland and Santa were on the 5th floor and to this day I can still picture the layouts and all the toys. This would have been in the early and mid 1960’s. Then after Jordan’s it was off to Filene’s, Gilchrist and if you were really being good then maybe a trip to the top of Washington Street and the F.W. Woolworth and there great toy section. If my grandmother was with us then it was up Tremont Street to Dini’s Seafood Grill for lunch! (Dini’s was a mere 2 blocks from Eric Fuchs and never made it till about 1973)

Homeward bound we would stop at Bailey’s Ice Cream for a treat and get my Dad some of their fudge. If I was REALLY lucky on the way home, we would take the “trackless trolley” from Harvard Square to Sears just outside Porter Square and I got to see another Toyland! Bus again to Arlington and if the time was right in North Cambridge get caught at the crossing of the B&M Fitchburg Divisions grade crossing at Mass. Ave.

The house always got decorated the first weekend after Thanksgiving and then the Putz houses went around the tree along with the train set. As this was happening, Frankie and Dino were belting out carols on the Hi-Fi and the odor of sugar cookies came wafting out of the kitchen.

The folks have long since gone to their eternal reward, but I think they are smiling down on me and at the lessons they taught me as I pass on to my kid. I never realized the sacrifices they made at Christmas and all year round to make a little boy very happy. As a dad, I now know why we do it when I see the smiles on my son’s face!

Thanks for letting me share this story. Some of these posts are great and bring up a lot of wonderful memories.

Wanamaker's department store. Waaay downtown in Manhattan. Had to have been '49 or '50, early December. Dad took me. I was a very small child but I still can remember the enormous room, done up to the max for Christmas, with the monorail running around the top of it and jam-packed with shoppers. We waited in a long line and eventually rode the monorail. It was completely mind-boggling to be looking down on the display layouts at the far wall. American Flyer and Lionel were well represented, two or three layouts each. There may have been some European trains also, or some kind of trains that were not Lionel or Flyer. I'll never forget it, "but if memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck."

Pete

I visited my friend in NYC in July, 1962 for a week. I was 12. He lived right in the city. I bought a 140 banjo signal at Macy's. The department was filled with boxes and boxes of Lionel. I was amazed you could buy trains at a time other than Christmas. I went to Madison Hardware. I later placed a large mail order for 0-27 track and a pair of switches from Madison. I also saw the Yankees in a double header with Baltimore. Towards the middle of the second game, we moved down behind the plate (our seats were higher up, for $2.25), where I saw Mickey Mantle strike out. At the time I lived in Wilkes-Barre, PA. New York was sure different. Mark

You know its sad...I have not matched such experiences in recent times, other than going to Fortunoff's in the Woodbridge NJ mall back in Dec 2006, and being in awe at their selection of everything and how they displayed the Christmas area. They had the Dept 51 Christmas in the City for NYC, i.e. Brooklyn Bridge etc...
I should have bought the complete set.

Here is a video of the Aventura Mall layout in Miami.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...usM8TZwqlUtfd1AAoNwX

 

 

I agree there is no other city to be in at Christmas! New York has always looked great. I do miss going to Madison Hardware, though. But, there still is the train show at the NY Botanical Garden and Santa Land at Macy's is still great. The Lionel layout in Grand Central still brings throngs of people as well.But I sure miss the Citibank layout and the Swiss Air Layout.

You are right on the money. Lionel's history is steeped in the NYC area, and let's not forget the famous Madison Hardware. It is no wonder that NYC has such a tie-in to model trains.

 

This tradition is also routed in many communities across our country, and probably a little more north of us, but NYC is the Granddaddy where this all started.

 

Great thread, chipset.

 

Kids today really miss out by not having those "Santa's Wonderlands" to visit in major department stores during the holidays. The most fun I usually had was shopping after Christmas when everything was marked down and I had  some "Christmas money" from my aunts to spend on stuff. I got some great chemistry sets that way, for instance.And, of course, the Lionel and American Flyer trains displays were terrific during the holiday period!

From it's very beginning Lionel started their toy train business from the stores of New York City. OLd Josh did such a great job of marketing his product from that town in the early to mid twentieth century that it has become a part of New Yorks very id. I don't really know if most New Yorkers even understand why they are drawn to the displays at Christmas time, but they are and I think it is mostly due to the guidance of old JLC.

I know I have a special attachment to Lionel Trains and New York City at Christmas time, dating back to my family's trips to the Lionel Showroom during the holidays. My only recollection is of the Super O showroom layout, but generations of kids before me visited the showroom during the Christmas Season. And, although the rest of the day in NYC was wonderful and full of Christmas spirit…those hours spent at the Lionel showroom is what will make this childhood connection unique to New York.