Hallmark movie

The movie was on the Lifetime channel, not Hallmark.   It was very surprising that they could not bother to find an O gauge Lionel train for the movie. After all, they had Lionel boxes....why not find a Lionel train to go with the boxes?  I was quite surprised when the Lionel box was opened and a small not-O-Scale engine slipped out.  It appears that the people who created the movie (prop department?)  maybe didn't know the difference or didn't care, and expected no one else to notice the difference either.  If you haven't seen this movie yet, don't bother watching it to see the trains....the plot was thin too, and overall I was disappointed.  If you're watching the Hallmark channel a better option is The Christmas Train from the David Baldacci book.  This movie has some RR fidelity issues too, but it's obvious they tried harder to get it right.

Dale

Lionel does manufacture and sell S Gauge trains using the American Flyer name. I don't know how far back they were involved with S gauge, and I know American Flyer was manufactured by AC Gilbert at one time.

I can see where Hallmark and Lifetime can get confused, they share many of the same actors in their made for TV movies. Cindy Busby, the actress in this movie gets around, not just in Hallmark and Lifetime movies. The train that is running in the hobby store is a late model Lionel Bluetooth set, but the one in the Lionel boxes I'm pretty sure are HO! So, the writers, director, and/or, prop dummies blew it! I really don't recommend the movie it's a typical Hallmark/Lifetime low budget movie with a weak plot. I suppose if you're in the mood for a mindless entertainment, go for it.

Wanna see a silly movie with Lionel trains that's more entertaining than, "Toying with the Holidays", watch Cary Grant in, "People Will Talk", 1951.

Happy Holidays!

Blame Ebay. 

John

@rail posted:

Lionel does manufacture and sell S Gauge trains using the American Flyer name. I don't know how far back they were involved with S gauge, and I know American Flyer was manufactured by AC Gilbert at one time.

Lionel/Fundimensions first produced American Flyer using Gilbert tooling in 1979.

Rusty

Its a movie! get over it

Holiday Affair is on TCM today at 10.

Jon

All movies should hire a model railroad consultant for toy train fidelity

I would take this job.

There were many new Lionel sets in back round scenes, I saw the Lion Chief remotes in them. I agree, they even mentioned Lionel numerous times as well. They may have felt that Lionel trains were to "big" for the scenes, complete speculation on my part.  I actually thought the trains in the movie were HO. It entertained me for a bit

@KOOLjock1 posted:

Holiday Affair is on TCM today at 10.

Jon

Also available on HBOMax and some other streaming services. Holiday Affair was one of the better movies ever to feature a Lionel train:

a. Fabulous opening scene showing the train and layout. Closing scene not too bad either.

b. Train plays a central role in the story, not just thrown in as a cameo appearance. (Leave It to Beaver's Lionel episode was pretty good too in that regard)

c. The child actor Gordon Gebert gets the train after filming completed (although he breaks one of the passenger cars pretty badly on the [fake] department store elevator)

d. Several years ago there was correspondence between him and an OGR member about the train. (Go to SEARCH). Gebert became an architect.

e. Coincidentally, Gebert appears 3 years later in another train film--Narrow Margin--although this one is about a murder on a real train.

Given who the audience for Hallmark and Lifetime predominantly is, I doubt they will get many train enthusiasts complaining, put it that way, these are tear jerkers after all.  The trains are nothing more than a prop for the movie, remembering Christmas with grandpa, etc, etc. On the other hand I don't doubt some foamer saw this, got enraged and shot off a 20 page email about how evil it was to have HO in a Lionel box *lol*.

Real trainmen don't watch the Hallmark or Lifetime channels.

Maybe in the day of 'Holiday Affair' it was different, but in the modern movie/TV world, you may see an actor at the controls of the Lionel train, but, by union rules, the special effects guy is really running them.  All the train scenes in the Addams family were controlled offstage, not by Gomez.

Hallmarks “Next Stop Christmas “ was shot on the Valley Railroad.

Jon