My Personal Connections with Various Toy Train Manufacturers and Principles

@CSXJOE.   Well one degree of separation but my wife's family was from the Hillside /Irvington border so I know the area well. My father in-law grew up there in the 1920's and 1930's and said he used to dumpster dive at Lionel's Sager Ave plant and could scrounge enough parts together to build  one of the Mickey Mouse hand cars. He later became Fire Chief of Hillside and would do yearly inspections on the building after Lionel had left and other tenants were in there.  He helped fight the famous fire at Mo Levy's ( "Paper Sole Levys") shoe store on 1st ave in Elizabeth.  I also had a great grandmother and uncle who lived in Irvington right by Olympic Park and we would stop at the Dairy Queen on the corner there . I can still envision the old iron gates and huge concrete columns by the side entrance, and you could see the silhouette of the wooden roller coaster which remained standing for years after it closed.

There was a fantastic old train store on North Broad Street in Elizabeth next to our family dentist. I would hang out in that store looking in the glass cases while waiting for my mother. The old gent who ran the place initially tried to shoo me out of the store but I knew enough about the Standard Gage 390E and passenger cars in our attic that once I started talking about them he was somewhat surprised and let me stay. Boy if I could go back in time I would head for that store because he was dealing in antique trains back in the early 60's.

Later (early '80s) I was working as a machinist and went to a tool and machine auction at what I believe was Remco Toys factory but this was in Harrison, NJ. There were wooden crates full of aluminum molds and doll heads and stuff but don't remember there being any train related items.

Great to hear you reminisce about those times. They really were the "good old days".

Although Lionel's last factory on the Hillside/Irvington border closed just a few years after I was born, I was able to go inside the building in the late 1990s and get a few photos.  Got to see the Lionel Circle L logo which was still in the terrazzo floor. I'll try to dig out some photos later today.  Also a few years ago there was a discussion about this where Jim Barrett of OGR recalled a visit he had to the building, it was pretty interesting. Fairly certain I saved a copy of the post.

This photo was taken from the outside of the building thru a glass door.  Note the Lionel circle L logo in the floor.

@G-Man24 posted:

There was a fantastic old train store on North Broad Street in Elizabeth next to our family dentist. I

Gerry ... do you remember the name of that train store?

When I was a boy in the 60's, my father would take me to Ross Sport Shop for bait and stuff, I think on Elizabeth Avenue.  But, not to a train store. Was the store all Lionel/larger gauges?

Jim

A brief conversation with Neil Young at York. Met Dick Maddox at both the Model RR Shop in Dunellen and a shop in Milburn. The latter organized by Bob Lavezzi.

Remco toys was started by Ike Heller who used surplus military parts to start his radios and phone toys. He then went on to develop several very large warehouse parks in Edison and Monroe (I believe). Had occasion to attend a number of public functions with him in attendance over the years.

EDIT: It was Jim Weaver not Maddox at Model RR Shop

Neil Young at York, Mike Wolf at Charlie Nassau, Marty Fitz at Trainstock, Jim Barrett and Rich Melvin somewhere, and one trip on the subway to meet my father at work, for a stop at Madison Hardware. My father told me I could have just one thing, but it could be anything I wanted. Little did I know he’d arranged with Lou that everything I asked for would be the display model only, which couldn’t be sold. Think I got a chintzy boxcar out of the deal, but I got to see Madison Hardware.

@CNJ Jim posted:

Gerry ... do you remember the name of that train store?

When I was a boy in the 60's, my father would take me to Ross Sport Shop for bait and stuff, I think on Elizabeth Avenue.  But, not to a train store. Was the store all Lionel/larger gauges?

Jim

Hi Jim sorry to say I do not remember the name. It was a small little shop and not like a regular hobby shop. It was all trains behind  glass cases and they were displayed more like jewelry than toys. This would have been around 1965 and I was just a kid. I want to say it was mostly O gage or HO as I  remember asking him if he had any of the big Standard Gage trains .Seems to me there might have been some brass trains too. It left quite an impression on me as it was unlike any store I had been in before.  I just remember how quiet the store was nobody in there except the old man and everything displayed like it was worth a fortune. I still think about that place almost 60 years later.

I remember Ross sport shop well. Ross catered to the outdoorsman, fishing and hunting. That place was  great. There was another big sporting goods store called Solomons  on Elizabeth ave. They had had all the equipment for the stick and ball sports...sneakers, etc. Across the street from Solomons was Kolkers Toy Store. I bought my Cox nitro cars there. They had a huge neon sign that said KOLKERS that was just the neatest.

.

Does Weaver Models count? My mother-in-law is from there, and my wife's aunt worked at Weaver for a bunch of years. I went in there with her sometimes. Very cool. Nice people.

@G-Man24 posted:

... I could go on and on about Elizabeth I was born and raised there. ...

I grew up next door in Linden.  Often had big, Sunday after-church meals at family's homes in Elizabeth's Peterstown Italian neighborhood.

I've had the wonderful experience of meeting many folks involved in the train industry. Not all of them are model railroaders. Many have other interests. Hopefully you will find some of this interesting.

As a kid I used to write Lionel with questions, mostly about the Bantam book and the showroom layouts. They never failed to reply. I still have letters from Lenny Dean (which I copied for him in later years). I would send my brain storms to them and their Chief Engineer, Charlie Montagna, would often reply and critique my ideas. After I became an engineer I looked him up and we have corresponded over the years. He is 91 and from time to time, Joe Mania will pay him a visit so Charlie and I can visit over FaceTime.

Much of my childhood correspondence became the basis for Roger Carp's book The World's Greatest Toy Train Maker.

When I worked at Hobby House during college one of the manufacturer's reps was Hassen Belasco and Associates. Stan Kleinmann of Mars Models and Joe Hassen were friends. When Joe became VP of Bachmann, Stan had me design a whistle and horn circuit the them. The beginning of my train electronics experience.

Later on Bill Benson was looking for a train guy that was skilled in electronics. Charlie Wood, among others, put him on to me. Thus began a world of designing transformers, signals, sound systems and field trips to record real trains. That's how I met Rich Melvin. We went to Orrville to record 765. And field trips to Korea and Hong Kong. Even getting to be part of the crew that moved the restored Reading 2100 from Pittsburgh to Brewster. We had meetings with Dick Kughn and his team to offer design services by Right of Way. Here's where I met Mike Braga and Lenny Dean. Mike and I shared our interest in tropical water lily ponds. I sent him some plants I had propagated.

Next was Mike Reagan. Todd Wagner introduced Mike to me when Mike was looking for a train guy with electronic experience. Thus was born the UCUB and Train America Studios. We were asked to provide OEM services to Atlas, Sunset, Weaver and Williams. Jim Weaver at Atlas was a walking encyclopedia of railroads. He was also an old movie buff. One visit we had to discuss new products and he made a comment to which I replied, you sound like an alter boy. To which he replied with a segment of the Catholic Mass in Latin! I miss him.

And when Mike moved to Lionel Ohio and had open houses I had the pleasure of Meeting Alan Arnold and Allan Miller.

Mike and I had numerous visits to Atlas and Weaver and with Neil Young.  Mike still stops by when he is in town and we still talk frequently.

When I worked at Valtronic designing medical implants I was called to a meeting about solder and the engineering salesman from Indium was CentralFan1976, Mario Scalzo. I was invited because Mario had said something about model trains. He is the guy that creates 3D printer parts on the 3 Rail Scale forum. Now a long time friend.

York provided many introductions like Steve Brenheisen at RCS and Mike Wolf and his team. That's a whole series of adventures alone. Marty Fitzhenry was a RoW customer and it was always fun to learn from Pete Bianco (Trainworld) while having a smoke break outside the Yellow Hall. Having drinks with Charlie Ro after Friday York as he held court and enlightened and entertained us all.

Dick Kughn stopped by a local TCA meet and we were able to catch up on many subjects just before he passed.

There's a ton more back stories but this is about the people. I thank them all for sharing their wisdom.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening.

Lou N

Lou,

After reading your experience with this hobby anything I would post would seriously pale in comparison.   You have a wealth of knowledge and loads of interesting stories.  I would seriously recommend you start recording them for a future book on the subject.

This has been a very interesting thread, which I have just reviewed. Thank you, CSXJOE, Lou and the others for sharing these wonderful stories.

With MTH very possibly closing shop soon, and recognizing the high quality and relative affordability of MTH O Gauge locomotives for about 3 decades, I am now particularly interested in knowing more about Mike Wolf.

I could be wrong about much of what I'm about to say.

My guess is that Mike Wolf's story is a classic American success story. All I know is bits and pieces of his story: he started with Standard Gauge tin plate, got into O Gauge and made very high quality locomotives for about two-thirds the price of a comparable Lionel, must have taken enormous financial risks to build such a big business that clearly panned out beautifully for him, won a huge lawsuit with Lionel, and I just love the latest MTH PS 3 locomotives that I have purchased during the past couple of months. But, what I am most impressed about him is what I learned about him this evening.

That Mike Wolf has been, and still is, a tremendous model train enthusiast!  So, he has much in common with many of us.

I would sure like to meet him one day.

Arnold

I feel the same way about Neil Young.

Such a great songwriter, musician, singer, train collector and operator. And, perhaps my number one favorite model train magazine article was the one showing Neil Young's enormous and fabulous layout with mountains made of red wood trees, and showing him operating his trains with his son.

Maybe, some day, we can meet Neil Young, Mike Wolf and other model railroad movers and shakers at York.

Now, wouldn't that be nice.

Arnold

Thanks, Grampstrains, for that info. There is a good summary of Mike Wolf's career On-Line in Wikepedia, that I just reviewed.