If we could go back to the 50s

Santa Fe F3's for certain, I'd like to pick up set #2190W to include the passenger cars as well. ( I'd also buy stock in the fledgling Sony Corporation ).

I had/have a NYC freight set and a 2025 passenger set & ZW. Christmas presents.

So what first comes to mind would be a 671/681 freight set.

PW N&W "J".  Always dreamed of finding one in my Grandpa's attic.  Would still like to have one to this day.  I own a Lionel modern era one, but the PW version is so cool!

2 sets of Santa Fe F3s-One to run the wheels off of, another to keep NIB.

These are the only items I'd want from that era. 

Well, if we could go back to the 1950's.... for me, it's not material. It's the thankful and appreciate attitudes that were more common.

For many of us that were kids back then, our dads had been overseas in the second world war. They had seen of lot of things that would take many decades to even begin to talk about. The guys who made it back were thankful to be alive and back home. Even the President of the United States could thank God by name.

For us kids who were blessed enough to have a Lionel train set, that was good enough. Sure, we looked at the catalogs like "wish lists" and dreamed about the trains we'd also like to have. But there wasn't the sense of "entitlement" that is so pervasive today.

Now today, many overlook what they've been blessed with and grumble about what they don't have, as if Lionel (and the others) owe them a personal debt. For 90+ years, Lionel meant toy trains. Today, we are lucky to have the variety that IS available, and yet for many, it's not enough. Ah, a lack of thankfulness and appreciation.

As of today, it's still a free county and anyone who thinks Lionel (and the others) isn't serving THEIR needs, is free to start their own company and show Lionel how much smarter they are. Other's in the past may have thought that. Funny but among all those other companies, Lionel is the only one still around (yeah, the tooling is still around, but the companies themselves are long gone).

Actually, we don't have to go back to the 1950's... we could just start being thankful and appreciative again for the blessings we have.

I'd not have to buy anything.......the lack of folks taking photos of their lunch or silently 'surfing' the entire meal......even walking from lunch and never looking away from their phone. Old man rant over......

I'd drop by a hobby shop after lunch.....

I would write to Girard, if I had to, and request every Marx 3/16th car in a box I could

get, also pressing for any old Pennsylvania stock cars they had lying around the plant.

I would pay more attention to Marx sets at the dime stores (which mostly only carried

the six inch) and at the city's sporting goods store and Sears, as well as write Girard,

to try to get an example of every one of the 3/16 work train sets they made.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a car until I had forsaken Marx for HO, so I could not

have conned my mother into driving to neighboring cities to hit all the Sears and dime

stores.  Bur there were hardware and Western Auto stores that I could have raided,

and one aunt drove around the state in her job and another taught school in the capital so would have had access to other stores.   Biggest problem...no cash flow!  How much

imaginary money am I allowed?

Hmmmm, 50 dollars to spend in the fifties.  Knowing now, at about 5 bucks a share, IBM looks like a good bet.  And, I would have finished my Eagle Scout pursuit, instead of bowing to peer pressure to grow up and leave scouting behind.

If we could go back to the 50s

If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bus.

My head is exploding on overload..given too many choices. Same holds true today.

Sam,

    The only reason I would want to return to the 50's is to run trains with my Grandfather and Father once again, we finally get remote control trains that work well and you want to go back to the 50's, to pick out a train that has no remote control.

I wanted a remote Control engine when I was a kid very badly, my Grandfather told me it would happen before I passed away, some technology in the modern era was not available in the 50's-60's, so unless the remote comes with it, I am not going back to pick a conventional engine.  I already had the best Conventional, my Tin Plate Lionel 263E work train.

PCRR/Dave

If I could go back then, I'd take lots of color photos and digital video of steam trains.

Then, I'd go to all the surplus places I could find and buy all the US WW2 stuff that now goes for crazy prices, for pennies on the dollar back then, and bring it forward to make a killing in profits.

The Norfolk and Western 746 Class J Northern manufactured by Lionel in 1957/58 was the one engine I dreamed about more than any other but it was far out of reach for my Mom and it remained a dream until last January when I literally stole one off of the Bay for an unbelievably low price.  That engine is now running under my recently erected Christmas layout.  I made a fairly long post about my acquisition of this engine last January.  Childhood dreams do come true if we are patient.  Since I have the 746 now if I could go back to 1950 I would like nothing better to get my hands on a 1950 773 Hudson with the 2426W Tender.  Hopefully that dream will also come true someday.

electroliner:  That American Flyer 1950 Catalog cover is my favorite of all time.  I would have been the last little kid on the stairs.  In my opinion I don't think that any other catalog cover captures the excitement that toy trains had on little kids and their imaginations during that era.  Pure nostalgia.   

You are right, rrman:  It would be the ATSF Warbonnets for me. 

Wow, great question! I'll start with with what immediately came to my mind. I would probably go to a Sears and buy that uncatalogued C&O GP7 set (the one Lionel reissued a couple of years ago), or one of those uncatalogued GG-1 sets with like 9 cars (I think they were sold by Joe the Motorists Friend shops or by a place called All State). Another idea I had was to maybe try to obtain some dealer display layouts.

Bill

This question has popped up before.  The problem I run into is what to take back in time that could be converted to the currency of the era.  Diamonds?  What else?  You couldn't use today's money - they would think it was counterfeit.  Also, where do you stash the goods you buy.  You need some place safe that will still be there in 70 years that you can get your stuff from.

Mickey Mantle Rookie cards...

rat

then I would buy the trains after I sold the cards

rat

Remember if we go back to the 50s there would be no OGR or other O Gauge magazine in your mail box each month.  But lots of train dealers....

If Sheldon and the guys ever put together that Time Machine it would be

the Lionel Congressional Set.  The 2340 or 2360 would be fine, one stripe

or five does not matter to me.  As long as I had the Box's and those great

looking Passenger Cars, I am one happy person.

About those Mickey Mantle Rookie Cards, I had two of them back in the

50's plus his Triple Crown Card from 1956.  Much to painful to explain

what happen to them.  I have always wondered if I had them today what

I would give them up for?  A Lionel Legacy Big Boy.  Well maybe??

Many thanks,

Billy C 

maybe All the big boys

rat

I remember your post, so happy for you!

They were good for me then.  I really prefer those memories, and the modern trains I can buy now.  

The 50s was my time-high school, college, the Army(carrying a Browning 30 cal MG) and constantly broke.  Would everything go back like dental care or medical ??  But if we could selectively do it I would go with the Fs,  GG1s, 671s plus some others. Could I have a 57  Chevy 2 door again ??

Sure, with a 283, 4 barrel, and three-on-the-tree.  (and fuzzy dice and baby moons)

Hands down, it would be the Santa Fe F3s.  Maybe even a bit heretic and go with the A-F Alco PA's also Santa Fe.

GG1's?  Meh.

I carried a 30 cal Browning 10 years later during my 6 year hitch with the OARNG.  I was the only guy in the company who could take it apart, and put it back together again, and actually have it fire.  I rode with the CO during our active duty times because of the firepower the Browning offered.

Fill up my gas tank for about $4.00.

I don't think there are any trains from the 1950s that I want. I'm not a collector. Maybe a 1950 773 Hudson. What I would most want is to go back and relive the time when my dad and I built a small Lionel layout in the basement. That would make me a whole lot happier than owning any particular train. If I could take money back I'd like to build a layout that filled the whole basement, not just an 8x8 layout. But I'd be grateful to just run that 8x8 layout with him again.

Everything is relative. At Xmas when I got my 47 Lionel Scout I was so thrilled. That is all I wanted-and got.  Five of us and our dog were living in a 3rd floor , 4 room apt in Pgh because of the housing shortage.My layout was made out of 1" boards that was on rollers and kept under my parents bed. I had to roll it out to run my train so I am happy with a 12'x12' in my dining room. I like all the trains and all the layouts.

Christmas, 1950. I can still hear my grandfather and uncle laugh when the cattle started to wiggle out of the car. What would I bring back?  A 746 engine and tender.

I've already got the trains and accessories I wanted from that era, but it would be nice to see my grandfather and my great-grandmother again. As far as material pleasures go: there's some restaurants I remember fondly, Cinerama movies (I've got most on Blu-Ray, but not the same as seeing them in the theatre), and a couple of long-gone amusement parks, all of which that I'd like to take the family to. OMG !! I could go to the opera and see Merrill, Tucker, Pierce, Price, Moffo, Callas...

Yep, there's other things besides trains (heresy, I know).

Santa Fe all the way……..

From 1950 I would buy the American Flyer Circus Train set with the circus tent and other items. I would still have enough money left over to buy the 2 in 1 whistling billboard.

I think I had that whistling billboard.  Did it have a picture of a Santa Fe F-3 on it?  I'm pretty sure the base (and back) was green.

I WAS back in the '50s, at ages 8-17. I could not afford the aluminum Lionel streamlined passenger cars at $10. each. Today, I like the newer MTH cars with detailed interiors.

What would really be interesting is to go back to the 50s and sit in a meeting of the big shots at Lionel and Am. Flyer and listen to them discuss the market, their product lines and new items they want to bring out.  Maybe we would be surprised-even shocked.