What Vintage Trains Are You Running This Christmas?

On the top deck - probably all postwar Lionel

On the bottom deck - Standard Gauge Lionel

All conventional control

For Christmas I normally run 2 sets of Pre-War Lionel Standard gauge.

This year either 2 sets of 1930's Lionel O gauge tinplate or 2 sets of Post-War American Flyer S gauge

This year I obtained a 1950 773 Hudson from a friend that passed away this year. I got a few smoke pellets. So in honor of my deceased friend, and my own childhood memories, will give this engine a good workout this Christmas. A prior owner added some 700E parts to make the 773 look closer to a 700E.

Lionel 671, 2035, 1615, 2245 Texas Special F3.

I've restored the 671 & 2035, but I need to get rubber stamps or decals for the numbers.  Does anybody know of a good source?

For the very first time since 1974 I will not be running any of my vintage post-war Lionel's under our tree this year.  Instead I have opted to run the Lionel LionChief Polar Express with the snow covered passenger cars.

Matt, I bought a stamp set from JLM Trains about ten years ago. It worked perfectly. I checked the internet and they are still in business. Hope this helps.  John

Does the Lionel Scale Hudson reissue from 1990 count as vintage? Already 30 years old LOL!

Other than that...681 w/2671 and 623.

My pre-war 1688e is always on my layout, so that one will be running. I was just thinking last night that I haven’t run my 2243 in quite a while, so that will likely get some time on the Christmas tree layout.

Running the 1984 LGB Marshall Fields Train Set. I think this was the only year. Regardless, this is where I met my wife so we break it out every few years. Hard to believe this set is already 36 years old.... seems just like yesterday we were scrapping together enough money to buy this set when we should have been spending our limited funds on something else.

Charlie

Does a hybrid with classic parts fit this thread?....this is my take on the Pol-Ex .....what began as a nearly dead Railking Berk was rebuilt into the ultimate Christmas runner,.....sustaining 15-16 hours a day 7 days a week with out a break....the build consists of a Railking chassis, Railking boiler shell, but that’s where the stock components end, ....she sports ball bearing inserts all 8 wheels with stainless steel thrust washers, a 8000 series ball bearing equipped Pittman, and the gear lash was purposely set up to achieve the finest back drive, and postwar 736 drivers .....she’s built to do one job....make laps around the tree until I say it’s ok to stop ......we’re on hour 309 since she’s been built this past summer,....yes, it’s way overkill, but I was tired of the heaping mound of dead starter set locomotives that weren’t up to the grueling task I need the equipment to do....no fancy electronics in here, a simple 59 cent rectifier does the conversion for us, ......only has to come in every 100 hours for a quick lube & cleaning....I plan on testing the limits of my mechanical abilities .....

Pat

Picked up another Akane B&O Mike; this is what I'll be running...

...well, you say "any others"...

Mark in Oregon

@yankspride4 posted:

Does the Lionel Scale Hudson reissue from 1990 count as vintage? Already 30 years old LOL!

Other than that...681 w/2671 and 623.

Yes, it counts in my book!

I will probably go with my PWC 736 and Conventional Classics 646. That's about as vintage as I go except for a couple of childhood MPC era steamers.

Here's my Postwar line-up for Christmas: Lionel 2046, 611, 621, 623 , 2351 and 2328.

HOPEFULLY: C&O 230 (my first engine) and 225, 2025, 624, 53, 210 AA, 233, and 240, all on rotation.

only photo I could grab.... Fathers and my Uncle. been under wood block arches and through the wood block barriers-in-a-single-bound. Named er timex..."takes a licking, keeps on ticking". now under my grandsons tree.

Also running this. Interesting story here. I first got this loco on Christmas 1992 (I was ten at the time). I had it for five years and then one day it was inadvertently thrown in the trash! It was wrapped in bubble wrap and in a shopping bag after a trip to the train club we were with at the time (COL). Unfortunately, I left the bag by the door and out it went.

Recently I was browsing the auction site and found a NIB example and pulled the trigger.

Not sure what happened to the Prairie/Adriatic tooling. It’s been a long time since Lionel put one out (PWC Girls Train???). I’ve always enjoyed the postwar, MPC, and LTI versions.

I have always liked the Prairie version as well and would love to see Lionel do a remake of it, maybe with separately applied handrails this time. I have often thought of getting one of the girl's sets for this reason also.

1953 American Flyer "The Crusader" 5301T   $17.50

A natural for the holiday season is the red and white PW Texas Special. Here it is with the three "red letter" passenger cars. Essentially the 1520W set.