The High Price of Memories

...but I would pay a surprising amount to get an original bedroom lamp that once sat atop the dresser in my room as a toddler.  It was red plastic and had a rotating drum on which was a gaily painted train.  The drum rotated from the heat of the lamp inside...much like the principal used in Lionel's early rotating beacon.  There was a stationary inner drum that had beautiful scenes painted on it that the train sped by.

Mom would turn on that lamp, turn out the room light, say 'Goodnight!', pull the door mostly closed.  Then I would stare at that lamp.  Slowly it would begin to spin, then faster and faster.  It was magic.  I was happily mesmerized to sleep.

KD, I had one of those lamps as well.

KD,Kevin

    I had one also, I would watch it, for what seemed like hours. I know where there is one that needs a light socket, cord and a little TLC. Its been sitting in the same place for twelve years. I made offers to buy that would qualify me as having a elevator not being able to go the top floor.

Bill 

Kevin, Bill...

Nope, that's not the lamp I had.  As I said, it was red plastic, the on-off switch was activated by pulling on a red ball at the end of a bead chain at the base of the lamp.  The construction was more like a carousel in which the scenery was painted/printed on a translucent inner drum, the train was painted/printed onto a clear plastic film drum that rotated outside of the inner drum.  The red plastic top of the lamp was supported by, I believe, four brass rods at the periphery of the lamp. 

I know I 'abused' the lamp from time to time by giving it some manual encouragement to spin faster.  That would sometimes knock the rotating drum off of its center spike...my bad!  But, it was an easy fix to reset the drum in place.

I'm really surprised that the lamp is gone, frankly.  When my sisters and I cleaned the attic, etc., of the family home after both parents passed away in early 1984, we found all sorts of childhood memories/treasures.  I can only surmise that the lamp was either 'loaned' (like the sled mentioned by Rat, above!) to someone else, or it simply was destroyed by some abusive urchin (That would be me, of course!), a memory so horrific as to be irretrievable from the cranial mass.

Ah, well, so it goes.  And the search continues....

Have a great day.

KD

KD....it will be a grand day indeed when you stumble across the treasure you seek at some random place and time. It will happen and you will sleep well that night. 

Memories are free, I like that Texas Pete

But also memories can be better than reality and in a sense more fun because its amazing how over time the memories get better and better. My first motor car was a 1955 Desoto and often today my ex girlfriend and I chat about the teenage years, juke boxes, Rock and Roll etc and often the old car comes up and how as a gang we all loved to ride around in it and the fun and memories it brings back, however there is no way that I would ever want to own it now, I am scared that that would burst some great bubbles that I still have.

My Grandmother was a Russian exile from the revolution and after 50 years my mother offered to get visas for her to go back to Russia and visit her sister, she refused to go what she said was I am scared for my memories I want to remember it as it was through the happy eyes of my childhood, so my mother managed to get a permit for her sister to visit her.

I can understand the nostalgia collectors amongst you and respect that but I guess for me like my Grandmother I am scared because I sense that the memories might be better for me than the object( and cheaper)

This is a great forum, Bless you all

The older I get the better I was.

Pete

Holy Cow!!  I know exactly the lamp you are talking about. My Grandmother had one that sat atop her TV. She would put "Sing Along with Mitch" on her HiFi - and turn that lamp on...and I was completely out of her hair for hours on end.

Thank YOU for a grand memory!

Yup! I agree, peel back the layers of time and what most of us remember is the good feeling and the glow of our first train sets. I ask you in our adulthood is it such a crime to want to wrap ourselves in our memories however fleeting they were?

The answer is a resounding no! So don't feel guilty out there people! You have lived your lives well, filled it with memories some unpleasant, some pleasant,  you deserve to spoil yourselves is all I'm saying.

Mike

"Bad" memories form the basis of Freudian psychology and its derivatives. Malignant enough and left unexamined they can  become lethal, let alone "expensive". "Good memories" OTOH become integrated and form the positive basis of who we are (character). The trick is to negotiate & work through the former until what is left of value becomes the latter.

TrainPop got it right. Unless I am professionally contracted out (hired as a therapist or diagnostician), your memories and what you do with them are none of my business, unless of course they become a matter of the criminal justice system.

Memories will last only as long as your memory still works.  Better enjoy the here and now, document and take pictures.

Funny thing about memory, as one ages, one can often remember childhood things and then forget where you bought that train last month (or even that you bought it).

Charlie

The value of things not necessary for living is very subjective.  Should someone pay $2500.00 for an empty Lionel box?  Yes you should if it means that much to you....no you shouldn't if you don't care about it.  Speaking as an unfortunate man who was born without a golf gene (having tried it but it just never took with me)I think it is 'way out of line to pay over $1000.00 for a set of new golf clubs......especially when I've seen whole barrels of used golf clubs on sale in pawn shops and used sporting equipment stores for one dollar each.  If we step back further for a little more perspective just consider what a non trainfan must think of any amount of money at all spent on model trains even when we try to tell them what a great deal we got on them.  How much would you pay for a nice new mint in box Beanie Baby or Cabbage Patch kid?  Odd-d

There, you said it all, at least, for me, Eliot.

"How I wish I could have one more day with my father..."

Frank and Frank, i.e.  Moon and son

Not sure if this applies, but:

I'm one of those who managed to hang on to his first O-Gauge set, the 6-1661 'Rock island Line', of 1976 vintage.

Over the years, I ran that 8601 loco, an 0-4-0 with no real prototype, so much that I actually wore out a set of brushes and a pinion gear (both replaced) and swapped out the original sliding contacts with roller ones.

The part that wasn't so easily replaced was the driver gears--they're so worn out that the teeth have grooves in them and idler gear between them started slipping the last time I ran the set maybe a year or so ago (I posted a photo of it on a 'your first train' thread). Ironic that the plastic gears are still in good condition, but the metal ones wore out.

During the course of looking for replacement wheels, since I couldn't bear the idea of permanently retiring my first engine (despite all the other motive power I now possess) I managed to acquire a number of almost-complete-but not-quite-the same versions of that loco, among them being a near-mint example of the chintziest steamer MPC ever made--the infamous 'Working on the Railroad' set loco with plastic drivers , a Black Cave Flyer set missing a boiler front and one side of its siderod guide, a shell from an 8803... and a duplicate of my original 8601.

I was on the horns of a dilemma. I wanted to just swap out the drivers (I found a pair of postwar drivers and a motor unit with drivers) and simply paint them red to match the originals--then I started running across and acquiring similar locomotives that could be more suitable parts donors:

-- I could have just swapped in the postwar motor and gained an E-unit (the loco had an open-frame AC motor, but manual reverse), but that left me feeling that this wouldn't be the engine I grew up with.

--I could have used the duplicate 8601 unit and simply swap out the broken parts--the shell was certainly in better condition than the original (I had broken the screw shaftin the body shell, but eventually built up a styrene box wedged and glued into the space so it could be screwed to the motor frame), but again, this wouldn't be the engine I grew up with.

--I could have used the drivers off the duplicate 8601, but they looked like aluminum wheels with a red plastic insert for the spokes. My original was more like postwar drivers with red-painted centers (with a chip on one proving that they were painted). Puzzling that the two seemed to have different drivers, but I don't know how long that set was in production. They just didn't look right.

--The Black Cave Flyer loco was to be the original parts donor, but I passed on that since the loco came with its tender and the rest of the cars from the set (you can see them being "transported" in my Williams NW2 video  ). I then I decided to restore that set since I remember wanting that set way back then (1982?) too--it was the only other example of "my" loco I ever saw in the Lionel catalog.

So I'm back to my original plan of having a service center replace the original drivers with the postwar ones I bought, then I'll polish the rims and paint the centers to match the original. It's definitely not cost-effective, indeed the labor is pretty much guaranteed to cost much more than the engine is worth, but it'll still "be" the engine I grew up with.

Both of my memories are of my maternal grandfather.  He loved real trains.  He never had a model railroad, but 3-4 times a week he would go down to the SP Bayshore Yard and watch the train operations.  When I was old enough, he took me.  According to my dad,shortly after I was born, in 1954, Grandpa handed him with a brand new Lionel freight set, track and a transformer.  He told told my dad to set it up and run it with me when I would be old enough to appreciate it.

But the memory I still have and keep is his old pocket watch.  When I was 12 years old, Grandpa gave me a gold Waltham pocket watch.  His father (my great granddad) received it when he retired as a printer in 1907!  I didn't think much of it at the time.   Twelve-year-olds are not generally impressed with those kind of "heirlooms."  However, when I was a senior in high school, I saw the watch and decided to wear it to my senior prom!  We had to take it to a watchmaker to get it repaired.  It wasn't cheap, but my mom wanted me to have it as a working keepsake. I specifically got a tux with a vest instead of a cumerbund.  I hooked that chain in a button hole and put the watch in the vest pocket.  My friends...and my date thought it was very cool!  I still have that watch...and it still runs.  Thank you Grandpa.  I miss you.  Matt

Great thoughts.   I would add two more.  

What somebody pays for a "collectable" is relative.   What might be 1% of my income may be $500, but 1% of Jay Lenos income may be 3 million.    He may give a higher percentage to charity than I do, so if he spends more for a collectable, it is relative to the rest of his income and really means nothing compared to my budget numbers.  I do understand being at a  point in life when you have worked hard, raised kids and taken care of business and now have the money to buy something you always wanted or dreamed of having.  

I have lots of old stuff that brings back memories and sometimes I pay more than I should.  I would throw it all away for one day with Mom and Dad!

There are at least three of those lamps on da bay right now. All under $50. Go for it boys!

Posts like this bring tears to my eyes...I can vividly remember down to the last detail, the lionel trains layout my father built and ran for me in the mid to late 1960's. And I will never ever forget the day my 1965 vintage Sante Fe Alco passenger set arrived via UPS and even the day at Sears where I saw it for the first time in all its glory.

I still have that set in its original box, and am lucky I dont have to re-buy it from ebay.

Today I received a GG-1 I have been searching for.

This thread reminds me how my father used to take me down to Penn Station.

He was a railroad man and he put me into the cab of the GG-1's from the platform.

I will never forget that.

Never.

Memories are just that.  It's very nice to try to recapture those times with physical goods, but memories are in your mind.  I have both good and bad memories, all cataloged somewhere in my gray matter.  I cherish the good ones, when I drag them out again for and inner and outer smiles.  

What I am trying to do now, in my twilight years, is to create good memories for the little ones in my life.  I am not a fisherman, huntsman or race car enthusiast, but I do like trains, and I am planning to have my grand children help me in creating my layout.  

No, I don't expect the layout to be one of those fabulous ones we all see, but it will have the input and skills of my grandchildren.  Then, someday, they will think back about Grandpa Bob's trains, and how they helped build and run them.

This, will be my final, and perhaps, my finest memory, and it can not be purchased or re-purchased, at any cost.

As I said earlier, this isn't 'my' lamp.

But, this other one, currently on auction, is CLOSE....(but no cigar.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Totville-Train-1948-Econolite-Lamp-/111063884563?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19dbec6313

My lamp, as I said earlier, was red plastic base, red plastic top, four brass posts between and supporting.  The on/off bead chain (at the base) had a red plastic ball on it.  The rotating drum was very similar to this one, though....a happy train speeding through the (stationary internal drum) scenery, lit with a small bulb inside.

(sigh)

But, thanks for looking for me!!!

I keep looking.

Someday....

To recreate the real freight trains that were running through the area between 1976-1983 is rather expensive and many of the P-S 60' Auto Parts Boxcar and Auto Carrier railroad names & graphic schemes have not been made by LIONEL.

I would have to use DT&I GP35s instead of DT&I GP38-2s.

Andrew

Don't feel bad.  You were bidding against a shill and made the seller very happy.

What, me worry/