Hello to everyone here-just getting my first post in after joining the forum this week. Here's my story...lol. I got my first train set when I was about 6 years old. Great Christmas gift and I remember setting it up every year under the tree at Christmas for many years. Now fast forward 50 plus years to this past Christmas--My wife suggests that I should try to set up my old train set for my 2 year old grandson (who is obsessed with trains). I head to the basement and dig out the container with some of my train gear which my dad sent over to me during a clean up at his house. My grandson flips when he sees the old Lionel trains come out of the box. Of course, after setting up a small oval and hooking up my old transformer and turning on the power---you guessed it--NOTHING happened. No surprise, the track was a bit corroded and I wasn't even sure that the transformer was any good. 
Here is the pic of my 1st engine.
So on with the story--(hope nobody is bored yet) - now I know my grandson is bumming that the train doesn't work, but still enjoying pulling the cars around the track manually, so Papa and Mama decide that, yep, a train set is now in his Christmas future. So we go and buy him a Pennsylvania starter train from Lionel for Christmas. And of course, Mama suggests that maybe Papa should just buy some new Fastrack and a new transformer so that we can set a track under our tree for the baby also (twist my arm will you). So, I buy a 7 x 7 corner set up for the tree and toss in a new transformer.
Meanwhile, being the tinkerer that I am, I go about searching for ways to clean up my old 3 rail O27 track and discover this neat product (Evapo-Rust) which let me drop my track into the solution for about an hour or so and rinse it off under water, then into the oven to dry off the water (bake at 250 for about 10 minutes or so) and, voila the track is absolutely rust and corrosion free with little effort on my part. Set the oval up again and hooked up the new transformer and my little 247 zipped right around the old O27 track like it was new. So then I oiled and greased up the little Scout for some use for the grandson on Christmas day.
Of course the story doesn't end here---(wife and daughter have bet on how far I go with my "new" obsession) since I can't leave well enough alone and somebody invented eBay, I was on a hunt for train stuff. For some reason this one auction just happened to catch my eye and next thing you know, I bought a Santa Fe 2353 AB diesel set (that will be a new post since I have lots of questions on the engine pair for you guys) for $160.00. And not leaving well enough alone, I went and bought an aluminum 6 car Santa Fe passenger set to go with the engines.
Well, leading up to Christmas every time we asked my little grandson what he wanted for Christmas, his response was very consistent- "monster trucks, cars and a choo choo train just like Papa's". Wish you guys could have seen his face Christmas morning when he ran down the hall and his little Pennsylvania steamer was chugging around the tree. The whistle button may need replaced soon on the transformer, but he loves it.
So to wrap this first post up here, I am very glad that the joy I had when I got my first train has been re-ignited in my grandson and I know the joy my parents must have felt when they saw my excitement with my first train, cause I gotta be honest with you-I got a bit choked up when I saw him tear across that living room and dive on the floor on his belly and watch that train go around his little oval. Now every day, when he hits the door here, he runs right to the living room and says "Papa, lets play with your trains" and there we sit playing like 2 little kids together.
Thanks for listening..
