I want to Thank all of you for sharing stories/pictures of your Fathers trains!!

My father is long gone now but he and I laid  track on a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood a couple of days before Christmas.  This was in the basement. A simple oval with a passing siding and two switches. I was told Santa may bring a train.  In the morning, the layout was next to the tree and Santa had left my beloved 2046, and several cars.  A dump car was one of them.  Still have that pair.  The 2046 runs like a champ.  My best Christmas memory.

My dad didn't have childhood trains either.  In fact, he and the other oldest brothers were sent to live with relatives on their farms because there wasn't enough money to feed all his siblings at home.  Sad, but I do enjoy wondering what might have been owing to the fact that he was born in 1902.  Imagine the trains that were around in those days that he would have loved to have passed down!