What would we be posting in the 50’s?

I'd be complaining about my horsies always falling down in the corral or refusing to go up in the ramp. (Come to think about it, I still do!)  But when you put the horses on the Electric Football field, they ran great!  As a youngster, I would think of Lionel as some godly organization, like the Wizard of Oz, that could do no wrong. So if something didn't work right, it had to be all my fault.

I'd be complaining that Dick next door, Denny across the street and Wayne down the street all had neat Lionel trains and I had Marx trains.

No CA ZEPHYR cars for the WP F3's.

....and:

No TX SPECIAL, or any other passenger cars in the same colors as F3's, except CP and ATSF.

I would suspect any video would show trains running much faster. If you look at videos just 30 years ago ( for instance, in TMs Toy Train Revue), the trains are always speeding along. Nowadays, most of the videos show slow speed (and more prototypical running) thanks to speed control.

Peter

I'm not sure there would be as much complaining as you see today.   The world had recently come out of a major depression and a war that claimed around 75 million lives.  The average per capital wealth had increased and was still rising.  There was a lot to be thankful for and most Americans were grateful.  And there were still many pressing problems to deal with.  Polio was still a major childhood fear as well as an atomic war with Russia. For most kids, getting a toy included at Christmas along with your yearly "new" clothes was a thrill.

It's hard to speculate what the impact would be of selectively moving various technologies around in history such as cell phones, gunpowder, the combustion engine, airplanes, the internet, etc.

I think if you transported the current American population back to the 50's, we would crater, even if we had the  internet.

How about this headline (probably never was) from 1956:

”Southern Pacific retires and scraps its roster of AC-9’s”

Or, if you’re a NYC fan, everything that has ever amazed you as a child, gets the torch.

I think these are among the topics we would be discussing in the 1950”s.  Maybe some forum members would’ve started a “save a Hudson” or Niagara campaign.

Next up, 1960”s, “What’s a Penn Central?”

-Brian

I'd be posting a photo of a borrowed O gauge outfit, with a whistle, that my dad borrowed from a friend so that I had something to run under the tree, on a white sheet to imitate snow, at Christmas since my Marx set went belly-up (anyone remember the cardboard girder bridges).  The next year a new Lionel HO set and a hand-me down 4 X 8 platform sent me on a decade and a half  long journey in HO.  I still have the Marx transformer and most of the HO set.  O gauge Lionel came back when my children came along.  Yes, I blame them.....my wife doesn't buy it.     

Wow, my brand new 773 Hudson runs as well as the one that Joe DiMaggio ran on television!

#397 coal loader throwing coal all over the place!

The dial up was horrible in the 50s.  I remember my dad telling me it took 3 days to download 1 photo fun picture and that was just the avatar of the guy starting it.

Well, by late 50s my mom was selling everything for food.  I guess I would have been complaining about the low resale value.

1954:  Anybody else notice Lionel has gone cheap on ALCo and Switcher frames?  What's next?  Plastic trucks?!?

Jon

That Goldblatt's and Sears only sold trains during the Christmas season.

Rusty

Zinc rot on Dads Standard Gauge wheels...

How can I control my ejecting milk car, the milk cans are being thrown all over the place?

My dad made a mountain out of mountain paper over chicken wire.  I was able to crawl inside of it.  Had a problem getting out.

Using American Bricks I built a wall over the tracks and smashed it to pieces running my NYC A-B-A units through it.

Saved my allowance and picked up a 50 pound bag of plaster for $2.00. at the Springfield lumber yard.

No Southern Railway passenger cars or Southern Railway caboose to go with the Southern 2356 ABA.

Complain? About what? Trains that work right out of the box (even after sitting in those boxes since last Christmas), "Casey Jones" starring Alan Hale Jr., and the Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney show BOTH sponsored by Lionel with all those commercials, Christmas display layouts at almost every Fire Station in Baltimore, not to mention Monkey Wards, Sears and hardware stores. Top it off with those beautiful catalogs! After Christmas sales and Layaway plans and Christmas Club accounts. Complain?

The only complaint I have was that it took me a lifetime to get all the things I wanted back then.

"My little sister got this weird train set with a pink engine. My dad says it'll end up in the junk pile."

I'm sure someone would complain that they couldn't draw pictures at York.

@Conductor Earl posted:

I'd be posting a photo of a borrowed O gauge outfit, with a whistle, that my dad borrowed from a friend so that I had something to run under the tree, on a white sheet to imitate snow, at Christmas since my Marx set went belly-up (anyone remember the cardboard girder bridges).  The next year a new Lionel HO set and a hand-me down 4 X 8 platform sent me on a decade and a half  long journey in HO.  I still have the Marx transformer and most of the HO set.  O gauge Lionel came back when my children came along.  Yes, I blame them.....my wife doesn't buy it.     

I have one of the cardboard girder bridges along with a cardboard station. They came with the three Marx 999 sets I inherited from my great uncle when I was 12.

James

Then there would be the American Flyer vs. Lionel fans bickering at each other and putting down each others' favorites.  The older fans would form rival street gangs and would "rumble" in dance-offs that would eventually be featured in a popular Buddy Holly music video short film.

Andy

How many smoke pellets should I drop in my stack?

If we are talking kids (who unlike today, were the majority of users of the trains) I think the biggest complaints would be they would like to be able to afford more track and switches, have more engines and the neat operating accessories, rather than waiting to get them as presents at birthday and Christmas, and of course have room and resources to build a big layout (in a sense, this is kids realizing the trains are expensive).

Adults in the 1950's:

-Kids are ungrateful, you work hard to give them things, and they want more

-Kids aren't like we were, all they want to do is sit and watch TV or play. Why, I walked two miles uphill, both ways, in knee high snow to go to school and I worked three jobs, too (obviously, the parents of the 1950's grew up during the depression, so some of this was not hyperbole).

-Kids are listening to that horrible Rock N Roll music, not wholesome music like Guy Lombardo and Glenn Miller and the Staple Sisters.

-TV is going to rot their brains out,we are raising a generation of idiots

-What does Lionel think we are made of, money? Just look at the prices on this stuff, it is a toy, darn it.

-There would be those, of course, who grumbled about the trains that were made crappy, pieces missing, etc (yes, folks, Lionel in the 1950's had defective units, one of these days would be interesting to see reports from Lionel in the 1950's about warrantee issues.) Years ago I met some old timers who owned places that sold Lionel trains in the 50's and 60's, and they said that trains would often have issues out of the box, transformers that didn't work right. Given what I know of quality overall in that time period, fail rates might have been as high as 1 in 10 units.

-Kids are disrespectful, they would rather play with their idiot friends, they talk back to their elders and they just aren't as perfect as we were (ever read what their elders said about kids in the 'greatest generation?'....eye opening *lol*).

What adults were NOT likely thinking/saying in 1950's

-Wouldn't it be wonderful if ever house had a computer in it? (if they knew about computers, they were big hulking giants that TV and newspapers would herald in their projections of who won an election, or were the 'electronic brains' of science fiction. In science fiction of the time gee whiz computers were these things a mile long in a cavern someplace, not a small handheld computer like our smart phones).

-You know, those Lionel F3's are real crap, the rivet detail is off and is like 2" in scale, the red on the Santa Fe units is nowhere near Warbonnet Red, those couplers are the size of a rain barrel and the trains start moving at 10mph. (at that point in time, I don't think rivet counters even existed in HO gauge)

-You know, those cigarettes are a horrible thing.......

-Boy, these are great times, the kids are great, my job is great, everyone is just so nice and friendly, everyone is respectful of everyone else, the sky is always blue, it is just such a great time to be alive, everything is so perfect,politicians are just so smart, schools do a great job teaching our kids. (If you think people didn't complain about their jobs, their bosses, the politicians, the weather, bad customer service at the car dealership, etc, you also will believe WWII movies where the soldiers are all heroic, they never grumbled, called the brass various names, etc)

The little man on my #50 gang car won't rotate

Marx #1829 shell is plastic!  I want a diecast Marx freight 2-8-0 or Mikado, with other than east coast roads 3/16 NE cabooses!  I want head-end cars with my Marx streamline pass. cars.  I want more roadname variety on Marx 3/16 hoppers.  I want more year around availability and publicity of what is available of Marx, such as the O34 (and wider!) track.  I want.....

Complaints on the Lionel Electronic Set 4110WS and questions on how to tune the receivers.

https://ogrforum.com/...lectronic-set-4110ws

It was disappointing to see the fine Alco diesels missing from this year's catalog,  hoping they will return next year with some improved features - thinking twin motors like the F3s - so they can pull longer passenger consists and/or matching B Units , would make for impressive A-B-A combinations!

Oh the high school days........boy I wonder if she'd go out?  Trains? Sorry my mind wanders.

@Valpac posted:

Or, if you’re a NYC fan, everything that has ever amazed you as a child, gets the torch.

-Brian

Yup - if one event, or series of events, could be described as the "absolutely worst RR thing ever", that would be it.

My dad got mad at me because I asked for another engine. He wanted to know why I needed two engines.

Christmas 1954; I'm 3 years; that thing (a ZW) is mine!

Oh yeah, got my hands on both throttles, got 2 trains running at the same time, blow the whistle, what a feeling of power and control. (Just what a 3 year old craves the most).

What do you mean I have to wait 21 years for Amtrak to be formed????

I guess I would be posting all the fun we had putting all the straight track together from one end of the basement to the other end, placing a Plasticville or cardboard House at the end of the line, running my 259E at full speed and crashing into the buildings. I guess we were rotten Kids but the engine was old and beat-up already and it seemed like fun at the time.....I still have the 259E and I restored (notice all the dents were removed) it from top to bottom and it still runs great. The gray 259E is the crasher the Orange 259E' and my Christmas train I restored too.

Some great memory strolls of the '50s above.  I think I enjoyed each and every post.  Something new!

To Mom & Dad just about every year in the '50s:

"Remember that May Co./Sears/Fedco (SoCal) has that big train sale AFTER Christmas!  Can we just go and look???  Please????  We just only need to look."  To be honest to my memory, my folks were pretty good about train purchases between December 26 and December 31.  Got some of my best Post-War pieces (and still have) during those dates.

Toy Train Wars (First Edition):

From around August (after baseball) through January as we all returned to our train hobby, the talk was always about Lionel v. American Flyer.  How many times did I hear ... "I don't like Lionel because there are THREE rails.  NOT realistic!  NOT scale!  Three-rail track just sucks! (Or the mid-'50s equivalent)   I don't like Lionel because of the crazy colors some of the accessories and box cars are painted.  Orange boxes?  Ha-Ha!  Lionel is just TOO expensive...my folks won't buy.  A-F is cheaper.  You know, that A.C. Gilbert guy is a genius - and is the savior of the train hobby.  If it weren't for Gilbert, Lionel would have made nothing good in the past xx years."

I finally was able to buy that Lionel FM diesel that I've been saving up from the money earned from my paper route.  I was disappointed when opened up the battery door to put the dry cell in and then turned the engine upside down.  It didn't quite sound like a real diesel horn.

Why can't I see pictures from the Lionel catalog on my teletype machine?

Rusty

Where is the supply of O72 switches for O gauge track and why can't we have some O54 curve track and switches for Super O track? We need more Madison Cars in different road names and colors

I can't believe it, I bought this 6464 box car and the lettering is stamped upside down! I am so mad. Does anyone want this? Pay for the shipping ( I am estimating .25 ) and it is yours.

And why we are on the subject, I have this 6464-300 Rutland car with a solid green shield. None of my friends have this- they all have an outlined shield and nobody will trade with me. Say it's a freak. If anyone will trade, pm me and I'll even throw $3 in.

Honestly, I have no luck at all with these d*** Lionel Trains.

Oh, before I forget, my Dad gave me his old Lionels. Some big piece of junk he calls a "state" set. He never ran them, just left them in the box. I don't blame him, they are puke brown. I will trade for a pair of Santa Fe diesels. If you have the shiny passengers cars, I'll throw in this huge roundhouse, bridge and power station. They look stupid on my ping pong table layout.