Do you remember the first Lionel display you ever viewed. This is the one that hooked me 60 years ago. A girls train was running on it making that watchman in the switch tower hypnotize me.
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I don't remember, but then again, I'm 75. I keep my wife's name on a cheat-sheet in my wallet.
I don't remember it, but the first Lionel display I saw was the one under my parents' Christmas tree the year I was born. I was born about 2 weeks before Christmas, and when Mom & Dad brought me home from the hospital, they put me down on the floor next to the train running around the tree, and the rest is history.
John
The first commercial display I ever saw was probably the train department Christmas display at Marshall Field's in Chicago. It was a tradition to go downtown to view all the store windows and decorations, and to have lunch under the Big Tree in the Walnut Room. We did this all during the 1950's.
My first was the Rescue Fire Company train garden. I think this is year 84 for them. It's got too many Lemax and Dept. 56 buildings now, but when I was a kid in the late 90s, it still had a ton of Lionel postwar on it. I remember the year John Glenn went back to space they had a Lionel 175 done up with "Godspeed John Glenn" behind it like the Hollywood sign.
They also once had a model of the fire hall on the display. It got stolen a decade ago. I want to buy them a replacement from River Leaf or somebody, but I don't particularly trust the current committee head for the train garden in the fire department.
My mom and dad took me to the Emporium in San Francisco to the Lionel Christmas display in 1948 and un known to me they bought the GG1 with Madison cars for Christmas,boy was I amazed, over the next several years I ran the wheels off of it.
Mikey
Since I had trains before I was born, the first display I probably saw was the Christmas layout in our basement that my Dad and Grandfather built. After that I saw my cousin's layout in his basement.
The first commercial layout I ever remember seeing in the 1960's was the layout in Philadelphia's Wanamaker's Department Store downtown. It's the layout that now resides at Nicholas Smith's store.
I have vague memories of a Lionel display layout in Macy’s White Plains in the Christmas season of 1958......and Santa brought me the New Haven F3 freight set, a ZW, and some extra track and a pair of remote controlled Super O switches.
Peter
Probably when my Uncle Tommy set all of his Lionel up in his basement. That is my earliest recollection of three rail trains. Can't recall when that was though.
My cousin Mike had a Lionel layout in his basement with all the iconic Lionel equipment. He had Santa Fe F3's pulling freight, the milk car, horse car, searchlight car, the culvert twins, the 671 steam pulling the green 2400 passenger cars and much more. I wanted that set so bad and they sold to the neighbor for $35.
Probably the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. I don't recall any local hobby shops as a kid, probably since my parents couldn't afford the toys they didn't take us.
The layout at the Museum still runs today.
My first memory of seeing an operating display was at the Sears Roebuck in Middletown, NJ. This is probably in the mid-1960's. There was a blue diesel running ... I have no idea what it was.
I do recall that the men running it were completely engaged and clearly having fun. More than just fun, there seemed to be a lot of energetic hopping around to point at and touch things.
I already had a train set by this point so I'm not sure why my mom didn't take me over to see it close up. Perhaps she was in a hurry to get home or run the next errand.
Fun thread.
Steven J. Serenska
Besides displays around the family Christmas tree, the first display I remember is the annual display at the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh. I was fortunate to share that with my own children both at the original location and then at the Carnegie Science Center. Highly recommend it if you are visiting the area.
The very first toy train displays I can recall viewing were in Wannamaker's department store downtown in Manhattan, while riding in a very cool monorail that circled the ceiling of the toy department. Was 1949 or '50. When I got to see them up close I can only recall that some were two rail and some were three, so must've been Flyer and Lionel. Far too long ago and too much sensory overload to recall which specific displays.
I spent some time at the Gilbert Hall of Science and the Lionel Showroom. When it came time to ask Santa for an electric train set I specified, and received, American Flyer. Two rails and better proportioned trains won me over.
Pete
My earliest memory is of the Lionel display at Robertson's department store in South Bend, Indiana. It was set up during the Christmas season at one end of the floor that the toy department was on. I particularly remember a train pulled by Texas Special Alco AA's. It's funny in retrospect because at that point in my life I knew of no prototype cab diesels other than EMD's, so upon seeing those Alcos I thought "That's not what they look like!" My memory of this stuck so firmly that when I began acquiring my modest postwar collection, the 211 Alcos were among the first pieces I bought.
Asside from my own "around the Christmas Tree" Lionel set of 1944, the first display layouts I remember seen were the Lionel Show Room and Gilbert/American Flyer show Room, in New York City (near 42nd Street?). My parents took me over there prior to Christmas and after WWII, for many, many years. When old enough, me and my buddies used to take the train into Hoboken, ride the ferry across the Hudson River, then walk up to the Times Square are, visiting the Model Railroad Equipment Corp. store on the way.
I do not remember the year, but at Scranton dry goods store, Scranton pa. For a Santa visit. Could be in the early 40'S. I did ask and did receive a Marx set for under the tree.,and now at the age of 80, I just put together a copy of my original Marx set for display.
I grew up in Bayonne NJ. I remember Dobbs hobby shop had a layout in the window, during christmas several of the stores along the Broadway (the main shopping area) had trains in the window, the 2-guys dept store in Jersey City had a layout and of course My Uncle Al had the christmas layout that filled the living room (at least it seemed that way to a small boy). Living less than 1/2 block from the Jersey Central 4 track main line the "display" was ongoing all year round until 1967.
My first Toy train display was the Swissair Display at Rockerfeller center during Christmas Season back in the early 1970's. I used to be glued to the window watching the Marklin HO trains go from the Village up and into the mountains. I have to find pics of that.
The next displays were of late 1970's Christmas Season and taing trip up to Bear Mountain where they had a winter wonderland and displays of the Swissair layout as well as a tinplate standard gauge layout.
And the first FAO Schwartz store on the corner of 59st and 5th Ave where 1/2 the second floor was dedicated to lgb and marklin trains and their display layouts.
Not sure about THE first, but there were three significant ones....
1. Dad's 366W set running around the balsam Christmas tree, the gateman buzzing dutifully each circuit.
2. A couple of the corner window displays at the downtown (Washington, D.C.) department stores....a scene replicated in "A Christmas Story" to perfection.
3. My first visit...of many subsequent...to Roadside America. I think that was as close to a mind-blowing experience for a young kid being sucked into the trains hobby vortex for life. An epiphany of the hobby....if ever there was one.
I also remember train displays (Lionel, Gilbert) being in the Toy Department(s) at many of the larger department stores during the holidays, but they weren't as memorable.
Joe Hohmann....right there with you, pal!!! 
KD
Unlike most in here, I didn’t grow up with trains, I got into them in my mid-30s. The first layouts I remember seeing were at a Greenberg show in the 90’s. I also remember seeing a trailer with a traveling layout in it, I believe they called it “Big Moe”, or something like that. First time I saw it, it was outfitted with all Lionel equipment. A year or two later, I saw it again and it had been redone with MTH. I even have an MTH model of it somewhere at home.
I can't recall the first Lionel display I ever saw. I think I saw a few large HO layouts beforehand (all of them well away from where I lived, where we had no decent hobby shops in all the time I lived in the area).
Nothing stands out in my memory for seeing any Lionel displays in my youth...
I remember the Swissair display in NYC very well, two large mountains connected by a long bridge and a village in the valley below. Across the street at the KLM Dutch Airlines offices they brought in sections of the Madurodam display from the Hague. Large scale old Dutch buildings, absolutely magnificent. Luckily I had the opportunity to see the real exhibit in the Netherlands in 2016. Both exhibits have influenced my activities in the hobby ever since.
I remember going to Cobo Hall in Detroit for a class field trip for a Christmas festival. I was in 2nd grade... 1971.
There was a large Lionel Layout with multiple trains set up on a running display... of course it seemed to be as long as a football field but in reality it was probably 20 by 10 ft... I remember it had 4 main lines in a loop with multiple trains running... but the most remarkable thing it had, was a large haunted house made from scratch with spooky sounds and lighted ghost traveling in circles inside the house.... I was so mesmerized with the layouts animation and speeding trains that I almost missed the bus ride home.
Traindiesel posted:The first commercial layout I ever remember seeing in the 1960's was the layout in Philadelphia's Wanamaker's Department Store downtown. It's the layout that now resides at Nicholas Smith's store.
Brian, I have the same recollection! It was a large scale layout. It would have been late 1960s and/or early 1970s for me. The layout was removed from the Broomall store a few years ago.
Wanamakers was a great department store. I didn't get to ride in it but I was told they had a working monorail at some point. I found this picture on-line. Am assuming it was in the Philly location. The Christmas light show was a tradition for my family.
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The museum of Science and Industry in Chicago would have to be it. Impressive O gauge layout for a lad with a train set. And they have the steamer that broke a record there, number 99 or 999, and the wheels alone were twice as big as me at the time. And the Zephyr deal in the lower level. With the talking mannequins in the observation car. The layout was O gauge back in the day. They rebuilt it and now it's HO. Was better back in the day, but sometimes it seems a lot of things were.
Big John, it struck early and struck hard. This is a partial memory as I was very young certainly not more than 4 years of age. At the time my parents lived in Cleveland, Ohio and it was winter probably leading up to Christmas. While out in tow with my mother we happened upon a store with a train running in the window display. I didn't want to leave, not ever, but adults, they always have someplace else to go. Once home that evening I escaped to find my way back to the train in the window store. I think I found it as I have a 2 memories of this one in chilly daylight with my mother holding me up to the window then another in the cold, snowy, night standing on my tip toes with my fingers on the window ledge watching the train in the window. Then a policeman finding me and taking me home. That was about 75 years ago and I still like toy trains in Christmas windows, seems harder to find these days. Now my wife has me in tow through the mall, used to be the mall had some decent book stores and a hobby shop where I could hang out to gloss over magizines about model trains or actually look at a small children's display and boxes of kits. All of that is gone replaced by a food court and a cell phone store. A trip to mall now with my wife I grab a stack of OGR, and CTT with a LED book light and my I-Pad then either stay in the car reading or go to Starbucks for coffee and free WiFi.
Bogie
I can’t remember for certain, but it may have been the large LGB G gauge layout at the toy department of the John Wanamakers department store in Philadelphia. My Dad bought my LGB set there in 1980 and I remember visiting there, but can’t rmenebr the layout, just the real indoor monorail. Another candidate might have been the TCA headquarters museum as I also went there when I was very young. As mentioned by others above, The Wanamaker layout went to Nicholas Smith Trians when the toy department closed.
Back wall all year round layout N Shepherd Sears in Houston.
At age 11, 62 years ago, I was at Gaylin Borders Appliance store, electrical appliances and Toy trains, mainly American Flyer trains, where he took me to his (man cave) his basement, in his home, adjacent to his store, where once I went down the stairs, Wow, what a magnificent display. I was so impressed with his scenery, trains with choo choo sounds and chuffing and puffing and oh what an impression it made in my mind....1955 through 1963.. I wanted to recreate this layout one day....Of course college, marriage, kids, and this was on the back burner.....Getting back into the hobby in the early 1990’s when Command Control began.....Now I have my dream layout, Legacy Controlled. “Leapin Larry’s Looney Lines RR. Great thread.
Paul Kallus posted:Wanamakers was a great department store. I didn't get to ride in it but I was told they had a working monorail at some point. I found this picture on-line. Am assuming it was in the Philly location. The Christmas light show was a tradition for my family.
Paul, it may have been there until at least the mid 1980's. I remember taking my kids to ride it. It was one of those moments I got to share with them since I rode it with my next door neighbor as a kid. 
It wasn't in person but I remember my first exposure to a Lionel layout was on TV.
Captain Kangaroo had a layout on at least one of his shows and the postwar SF warbonnet AA units caught my eye.
They're still like my first love.
TJ
Can’t remember if it was Woolco ( Woolworth’s ‘fancy’ Department store) East Brunswick or Sears in New Brunswick, late 60’s. All I remember was Santa, getting my picture taken and crying because I couldn’t stay to watch the trains.
Probably at one of the Sol's hardware stores in Braddock or Wilkinsburg (near Pittsburgh, PA) with my grandfather. He was the train buyer, as I later came to find out.
Then later, at Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh like Ted R mentioned. I remember long lines of people outside the building waiting to see the layout during the holiday season.
Thanks S.P. for this slightly different twist on holiday displays from the past.
Dave
I feel like I'm plagiarizing from several of you, but them's the facts:
I was born in December, so the home layout was already up.
My dad had been putting up Christmas layouts for my cousin for years previously.
My first train display outside of home was the one at Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh. Simply astounding! Somewhere I still have a drawing of the track plan of it that I drew as an older child.
Paul Kallus posted:I found this picture on-line. Am assuming it was in the Philly location. The Christmas light show was a tradition for my family.
This is Midtown Plaza in Rochester, NY. The "Clock of Nations" on the right is a dead giveaway.
The first commercial display I remember was at the Hecht Co. Dept Store in Baltimore circa 1955. All I remember was a bump and go trolly going back and forth. Around that same time, I saw a Lionel layout around Christmas time at a nearby restaurant.
The two I remember would be the Nauset Model Railroad Club's display. My grandparents took me to see it years ago. Also the display at Snow's Home & Garden in Orleans, MA. Saw their Christmas display last weekend always love going there.
First display I saw was at a&s department store in Brooklyn. I was immediately hooked
