What is your favorite toy train story?

"The Little Engine That Could".

This one:

Pete

While I had the normal books as a kid like Tootle and the engine that could ect.  I think that each of us have our own special story, that Christmas or Birthday morning that we got our own toy train or was exposed to them for the first time.  Mine was Christmas of 77 or 78, cant remember which to be certain.  I got 3 HO scale Tyco sets that year, the Silver Streak from my parents, Midnight Special from my mom's mother and the big deluxe Royal Blue set from Sears from my father's parents.  As we all know, thanks to Tyco's horrible motors, I had all 3 engines dead by mid day that Christmas.  Grandpa took me down to the detached garage to help him carry something up to the house.  What that was come to find out, was the 4x7 piece of plywood with a loop of Lionel 0-27 track on it.  Once back up to the house, we laid it down in the corner of the living room(it wasn't 8 foot long as that wouldn't have fit).  Grandma brought down the box from the closet that had my father's 1949 era Lionel power war train set.  From then till now, that set has and still brings smiles to my face.  I spent the rest of that day, and the day after till we headed back home playing with dad's train.  The Christmas before I turned 12 years of age, I got that train set, along with a huge loop of new track, for Christmas that year.  Grandpa said I was responsible enough to take the train home.  The loop of original track remained there so I could bring just the train to play when we visited them.  Mike and Michele T

My favorite toy train story.... Hmm. Probably when my sister and one of her friends used to hang out still, and she would bring her younger brother over. He liked things that moved, so we spent many hours running my trains on his layout. I watched the joy in his face as we ran such trains as a 1666 and some newer passenger cars, a set of my great uncle's (1567w), and some late Marx trains. I saw  a spark in his face with the Marx trains that I hadn't with the Lionel's. So I dug around for the box to the Marx set (4205), and packed the train up in it for next time he came over. When he did, we ran some more trains (I think it was a 1001 freight set that day), and when it came time to leave, I presented him with the set and a X246 tank car I also had on hand. He was ecstatic, and that honestly is my favorite toy train story.

One year I opened the kids' Advent calendars and put rocks under the Christmas doors. The next year I got a big bag of coal for Christmas! I am still using it for loads.

My son picked this up from the Book Fair last year... read it to him over and over!

Back in the 1960's almost everyone on my father's street in New Brunswick, NJ had a Lionel train set. At the time, my grandparents had six mouths to feed and weren't able to afford a train set. My great uncle at the time was what some would call a con man. While at Point Pleasant boardwalk he'd start at one side of the carousel and collect tickets from kids while the half witted teenager would collect tickets on the other side. When he got to the kids my great uncle already got, the kids would be saying "That other man took my ticket!", to which the reply was "What other man?!" Other dealings happened such as taking advantage of the Sears policy on broken tools. He'd head down to Englishtown, NJ to buy all broken bent up tools for a song and then traded them in at Sears for brand new tools.  At some point in the 1960's my uncle went on down to the Myers toy store in New Brunswick. He purchased a Lionel 210 Texas Special freight set complete with a Bosco box car, missle car, boat car, ranch patrol truck car, tank car, and 6017 caboose. The face on my father and uncles at the time was one that they'd never forget. To have a genuine Lionel train set was something for them back then! That old set always got set up at Christmas and was taken down on New Years. The set was well taken care of despite never getting any regular maintenance. The set eventually got lost and family members argued over who lost it and who got to keep it if it was found. My great uncle died in 1997 in a tragic car accident and his train seemingly died with him.

     The year was 2014. I had heard about stories of this train and my great uncles legacy on our family for years. I had already gotten some lionel starter sets as well as some MPC rolling stock. On Easter Sunday my father announced that the Texas Special had been found in my uncles basement. Ironically it was that uncle who had started the arguments in the first place. My eyes grew like saucers as I tramped down the basement steps. There on the floor was a faded box with blue lettering reading, "LIONEL TRAINS". My heart was skipping beats as I opened the flaps which were near perfect. I opened each box which were torn in areas but had kept the trains in near mint condition. Both engines were cool from being kept in that basement. I pulled out the track and set the train up on the tracks. It roared to life and hummed around the layout a few times. I was shocked at how well it ran. It was almost like I was my father back in the 60's. Of course that day my family allowed me to keep the train and I left my uncles home with my first postwar set as well as an MPC Chessie System set. Since then I have done the proper maintenance on my set and run it to this day. I try not to be emotionally attached to material items but this is the one thing that is the exception. Some people say that my great uncle was a "crook" or a "bad person" for some of the things he did. (Lets face it you could get away with a lot of things back then). I just ignore them, and focus on what's positive. The train now carries on his memory as well as his favorite saying, "What you don't make, take"

"Choo Choo" by Virginia Lee Burton was a good one. I hadn't seen that book for maybe 50 years and still remembered it when I recently saw it again.

Same author did some other great children's book with fabulous illustrations including "The Little House" and "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel". Trains were sometimes in the illustrations even when they were not a central part of the story, for example "Katy and the Big Snow", about a tireless bulldozer.

I can't say that any one book was the one favorite, but Virginia Lee Burton would rate as my favorite author of children's books.

Probably around 1954 I was expecting the Lionel set I had wanted for Christmas. I don't recall which set it was but I am sure it was among the least expensive sets. I opened my present with the usual excitement but then a sinking feeling hit me. I had received a gun rack.  No one in my family even owned a gun.                                                                                                                                                                It turned out that the store had another "Johnson" customer (surprised?) and my train got mixed up with his gun rack. I don't know for sure but I bet he might have been happier with my train than his intended gun rack.                                                                                       The next day we returned to the store and picked up my real gift and all was well again. 

TJ

Does anybody recall toodle the little steam locomotive.Who loved to jump off the tracks and play around.By the end of the story he was a big five mile a minute passenger train.

seaboardm2 posted:

Does anybody recall toodle the little steam locomotive.Who loved to jump off the tracks and play around.By the end of the story he was a big five mile a minute passenger train.

Oh yeah, we remember Tootle. It was a valuable lesson about not goofing off from your responsibilities, if you want to amount to anything.

seaboardm2 posted:

Does anybody recall toodle the little steam locomotive.Who loved to jump off the tracks and play around.By the end of the story he was a big five mile a minute passenger train.

Ahh, Tootle! one of my favorites when I was young....

And according to wikipedia, "As of 2001, it was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children's book in English."