Favorite Christmas Memories with your trains.

Looking back, I remember at sometime gaining an understanding that somehow Santa operated in line within the family budget. Santa usually would leave a single piece or perhaps as many as 3 or 4 depending on the year. That Christmas, I was overwhelmed with a Gilbert Santa Fe ABA passenger set with Alco PA's, big transformer, and a log loader and maybe a pair of switches!  This was really a big surprise.  It turned out that Dad had come across a fella who had begun selling 'previously enjoyed' trains from his home. What a Christmas!

Did not have trains as a kid; single mom could not afford them.  Memories I have are not with my trains, but in later years with my brother’s pre-war Marx.  We would run them when my wife and I stayed with his family during Christmas. Some good slides somewhere in several boxes of old slides I have.  

My favorite and earliest Christmas train memory is my grandfather setting up my dad's old Marx set at Christmas.  It was on a 4x8 board in the basement - a figure 8 with a connected loop around the outside (four turnouts connected the 8 to the loop and I'd have fun rerouting the train every which way) and lots of plasticville buildings.  Somewhere there is a picture of me (3-4 years old) sitting on his lap controlling the transformer.  In later years, the set ran around their Christmas tree as the space in the basement had to be used as a guest bedroom during the holidays.  I still have the Marx set (given to me at a later date) and most of the plasticville buildings (they show a lot of "played with" wear and tear).   I have part of the Marx set in our ceramic village display - parked at the station since the engine needs a good overall to get back to running order.

Guess I got the "train bug" at an early age and still have it today.  Just counted and we have four Christmas trains running this year (counting the trolley in the ceramic village).  One Disney Christmas train on the biggest track around the "big" tree in the family room - elongated figure 8 folded over on itself, and two Lionel sets on loops under smaller trees in the entry hall and living room, plus the trolley loop in the ceramic village (a long with the stationary Marx set).

My memory is there just like it happened yesterday.  It was 1956 and my final year believing in Santa.  I really wanted that Texas Special freight set from Lionel.  I excitedly went to bed.  As I was drifting off,I heard a diesel train whistle.  My Dad must have flipped it over as he was setting up that set around the tree.  As was the case with those engines,there was a horn blast and I heard it.  It was hard to go to sleep after that.

Anyway,I did fall asleep,eventually.   The next morning,there it was!  Costing around $35 or so,I was a pretty lucky kid!  That was a lot of money in those days.

Norm

I had a big L-shaped HO layout in the basement that I'd spend weeks preparing for the big Christmas debut. The whole family would come down to the basement before dinner to see the trains. My Aunt was an amateur photographer and would take pictures and movies.....yea 8mm.......no sound either....
As we all know, model trains are possessed by the devil, something would always derail, or a switch would mysteriously throw itself. Fond memories for sure.
My dad was my inspiration, he had Lionel Tinplate that we would set up occasionally. Thinking back now, he had quite the collection, two sets of trains, a 246E with green coaches and a freight set, plus operating accessories and a ZW. Enough track to build two big loops with a few 022 switches. My favorite was the working semaphore signal that was wired to pause a train.
I always got trains as gifts each year, including one year when I got a AHM/ Rivarossi Virginia and Truckee 4-4-0 general set that took up annual duty under the Tree.

Wish I had the pix and movies but.......

Fond memories for sure.

Bob

My favorite Christmas memory with trains goes back to Christmas of 1974.  I was 6 years old and my grandfather gave me my first train set.  It was a prewar O gauge Lionel set that he had bought in the late 1930's to run around his Christmas tree.  My parents had bought a house earlier in the year, and my grandfather also gave us his collection of Plasticville buildings and accessories.  My father set up a sheet of plywood covered in green felt, set up the track and showed me how to operate and care for the train as well a lesson on safety involving electricity.  After the tree was set up and decorated, I was allowed to set up the Plasticville village and play with the train.  It was this Christmas that started me on the journey that has brought me to this point.  It was also a special Christmas in that it was the last one I had with my mother who passed away in September of the following year.

In the following years, my father bought several more new Lionel sets, and our Christmas tree layouts would later expand to 4 loops controlled by a ZW, but my first set still holds the top spot in my cherished memories.   Here is a shot of that set, which now sits on display on my bedroom dresser:

Andy

I have many fond memories of trains and Christmas, but a very special memory dates back to 1981 when I was living in Hawaii. I was very active in N scale at the time, but my girlfriend, who knew I liked trains, bought me Ron Hollander's just released "All Aboard" book as a Christmas gift (about Joshua Cowen and his Lionel Train Company), and that sparked a major change in direction that obviously has remained with me to this day. I read the entire book on Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day, and on the day after Christmas went over to Honolulu Trains & Hobbies and stocked up a complete Lionel set, an extra locomotive and some additional rolling stock, a load of track and switches, several accessories, and a like-new postwar transformer (I recall that it may have been a KW). Anyhow, most who know me or who are familiar with my role at OGR know the rest of the story, which continues to unfold.

The photo below shows my first small Lionel layout built after that 1981 Christmas. It was constructed in my 32nd floor apartment in downtown Honolulu. The Lionel layout I had as a boy was much larger and took up a good amount of space.

My favorite memories are just spending time with my dad while putting the trains up.  I'll never for get them.

On Christmas eve Mom and Dad would bring the platform with the track, RW transformer and a few accessories fixed to the painted green plywood up from the basement and put the tree in the stand. After I went to bed they would set up all of the plasticville houses, cars, people and decorate the tree. I remeber waking up on Christmas morning and the first thing I did was plug everything in, the tree and layout were gorgeous along with the beautiful 681 turbine which I still have. New Years day it all came down, all of that work for just one week but I remember it well.

Charles - just a WEEK???    That must have been excruciating for a young boy!  Any idea why they didn't later let you start around Thanksgiving at least?

My best was when I got my first Lionel train for Christmas, 1954. I still have it and run it this time of year. It was what inspired me to start my large layout in 2003. A lot of time was spent with that first train in the 50's.

It was 2009, my wife wanted to get me something special after my return from Overseas work that summer. I had a train as a kid but it wasn’t something I remember much of because it just ran in circle and didn’t do anything but run. I lost interest really fast. Well to my surprise my wife bought me a MTH 260e Christmas freight train. The kids and I had one heck of a Christmas Day putting it together and running. Ever since than we have been putting it up for Christmas and storing it away until the next year. Now. This keeps us together specially now that everyone is all grown up. I couldn’t find add ons so I had to turn to the used prewar market and have been having a lot of fun restomoding.

In my search for knowledge on rebuilding theses old beauties I found this forum and what a excellent find that was. Every time I was stumped I just reached out to the forum and boom an explanation or lead would land in my lap.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and hope everyone has an awesome New Year

@c.sam posted:

Charles - just a WEEK???    That must have been excruciating for a young boy!  Any idea why they didn't later let you start around Thanksgiving at least?

I had a few other trains given to me that I used to set up in the basement on my Dad's army blankets to get me through the year. That Turbine was a big deal though.

Christmas 1958…….set 2507, the New Haven AB Freight set……on the living room floor, at age 5 years old….

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and safe travels to all……

Peter

I'm not sure it's my favorite but trains appeared on a 4 x 8 board Xmas eve and promptly were put away 2 weeks later not to be seen for another 50 weeks.  A better memory was walking broadway in Bayonne to check out the several train displays that stayed up longer, a trip to Dobbs hobby shop or the 2 guys in jersey city to check out their seasonal display.  Plus both of my uncles had much more extensive displays so those visits were a must.