Came across some old pictures from 1950,1954 and 1955

Jim,

Great photos, I like the American Flyer banner on the wall you must have known someone to get that.

So did you have arguments with your friends on which was better Lionel or American Flyer?

franktrain 

Nice photos Do you recall how your family obtained the banner?

I'm not able to see the photo's as it says "Image not found".  Any idea's what needs to be done to correct for that?

FRANKTRAIN,

I can't recall any arguments, but all the other boys in the neighborhood had Lionel trains. I believe the banner was given to my parents when they purchased my Rocket Passenger Set for Christmas in 1955.   

Jim, I took the liberty of giving the color photos a quick run through Photoshop.

Allegheny, I reposted the pictures.

Bob, thank you for running the color pictures through Photoshop.

Looks like Santa was good to "little Jim".......Nice layout!

Very nice, Santa brought a great selection of American Flyer trains for you! I hope you still have them.

Thanks Jim, the photos are visible now.  You must have some nice memories from that time.  You were very lucky to have such a nice layout at that time of your life.   

My trains were only up during the holidays. My father would start to set them up shortly after Thanksgiving and take them down around New Years. The first two pictures were taken in our dining room. The second two pictures were taken in my bedroom. That Christmas all the furniture was removed from my bedroom to make room for a 5'x 9' board. That Christmas I slept in the guest room. The last two pictures were taken in our basement.

Those are some neat pics from your childhood.  Thanks for sharing!

-Greg

Great pictures, Jimmy!

Thank you for sharing them.

Alex (Alexander Müller)

Jim,

   Now I know why you owned a Train Shop, great pictures from your childhood Jim!  For you Ladies & gentlemen who are unaware, Jim's knowledge of O Gauge trains and layouts is pretty vast.  His Trains Shop here in Pa near Indiana Pa was one of the nicest in the the USA, in fact his home was part of his Train business.  Because I was traveling so much doing my job, I only got to visit Jim once a year.  I would usually spend most of that day at his Train Shop.  His wife had one of the nicest NASA Trains ever put together, a simply fantastic NASA consist featuring some incredible rolling stock and Engine.

Jim remember to say Merry Christmas and Happy New year to Peggy for me!

Your Shop was always one of the high lights of my Christmas season, especially with the larger than life O Gauge Train layout!

PCRR/Dave

Jimmy,

You had the look of a "Cracker Jack" Train Salesman even way back there in 1955!  We all miss 'Jim's Train Shop'!

Happy New Year to you and Peggy.

Norm Rish

In the last picture, I love the pair of pliers on the layout. There always seems to be a pair on mine... I guess some things never change. Nice pictures!

Thank you everyone for your kind words regarding my pictures. Hope everyone has a great evening and very healthy and safe New Years.

Priceless!

Peter

Those were the days. Priceless.

thanks for sharing, hope you still have all those!

Aldovar posted:

In the last picture, I love the pair of pliers on the layout. There always seems to be a pair on mine... I guess some things never change. Nice pictures!

Great eye! My father, Uncles, and I have tried to make videos, movies, and pictures of layouts in the past. No matter how much effort went into dusting, cleaning, and organizing, there seemed to always be a stray tool that popped up somewhere in  the back ground. 

Whoa. You were rich! Lucky guy.

I had to go to Sears Roebucks @ Christmas to see trains like that.

Very nice!

Thanks Jim for sharing your Christmas memories with us.

A wonderful archive to share, for sure--you would have been the envy of every kid in town during the holidays! Some nice moments, but--how did you survive from New Year's to the following Thanksgiving? Or was the anticipation of a re-set enough? 

A fantastic step back into time.   The two other kids in my tiny tank town, where I got my Marx set for Christmas, each other's cousin, received AF Atlantic sets.

In answer to some of your questions, in 1969 I started to seriously collect American Flyer Trains. Peggy and I moved into our new home in 1971. Two weeks after we moved in, I started to build my American Flyer layout. Peggy and I open our train shop in March of 1981. Palm Sunday of 1983 was the last time my American Flyer Trains ran. A week later all my American Flyer track had been removed from my layout and I was starting to lay Lionel track. I used the same track design for Lionel as I had for Flyer. I began selling off my American Flyer collection. The only things I kept were my Flyer accessories that didn't require a special Flyer car to operate it. With the help of my friends we would build two more layouts. The last one was built in 1990. On September 1, 2010 Peggy and I announce we would be retiring at the end of the year. As people came into the store, I told them if there is anything you would like to have off our layout, just tell me and make me a offer. Whatever I was offer, I said ok. By the end of December it was all gone.

Jim,

   You and Peggy enjoy your retirement you 2 definitely earned it.  We will always miss your Trains Shop, wish I could have visited the last year you were still operating, unfortunately my work schedule did not allow for it.     

All the best

PCRR/Dave

Good pictures and great memories of a simpler time when model railroading was the epitome of the hobby world. Thanks for sharing with us.  That layout represents more than what most of us had.  You were a lucky boy.  We were a family of modest means way back when.  I just wish that pictures of my 5' x 9' Lionel; layout were taken when I was a young boy as none exist. Still thankful my trains are still with me though. 

Jim,

Thanks for posting these great pics and the stories behind them.

I was fortunate to have visited the store numerous times when I got back into O gauge as an adult in the early 2000's and still have many of the items that I purchased there. It was a great store and You're a class act.

Mike