Christmas & Electric Trains

Welcome to Christmas and Electric Trains, the eighth of an ongoing series of special-interest publications developed by the editorial and art teams at Classic Toy Trains magazine. Everyone who contributed to the creation of this colorful and magical 100-page look at how toy trains have enhanced and continue to add to the meaning of Christmas is so happy to be presenting a year’s worth of outstanding effort. And, like many of you readers, we’re also wondering why CTT waited to concentrate on this terrific theme. Because for virtually every member of the toy train hobby, the enjoyment associated with those marvelous playthings began at Christmas or Hanukkah. Very likely, the holiday season still means electric trains for you. A vintage Marx or American Flyer set may be running under a…

Christmas means so much to us. Every person celebrating on December 25 has thoughts about which foods must be served, how the tree should be decorated, and when presents ought to be opened. People can disagree in a goodnatured way about whether turkey or ham is more appropriate and if a glass star or a porcelain angel should crown the fir tree (real or artificial? That’s a whole other debate!). However, everybody we at Classic Toy Trains have spoken with insists there has to be a toy train running on a loop of track. GRAND TRADITION Quite a tradition – assembling a loop of track under a Christmas tree so a train can chug-chug-chug around it without interruption. It’s a beloved tradition, one Americans, Canadians, and probably folks overseas have…

Readers of Classic Toy Trains like to reminisce about their first toy train. Over the past few years, we’ve requested their stories, and many hobbyists answered with heart-warming memories and vintage photographs. Starting in these pages and continuing in two more sections, you’ll find some of these unforgettable accounts. As you read them and check out the accompanying pictures, think back to your own life. Remember how you started out with toy trains. Recall the special person who introduced you to a lifelong pursuit with a set from American Flyer, Lionel, or Marx. Letting your memory drift back to that Christmas morning or Hanukkah evening decades ago will help you show your gratitude to the caring parent or doting grandparent, the sympathetic uncle or aunt, or the thoughtful brother or…

Every six months, photos of O gauge trains traversing the snowy hills and quaint villages of a sprawling layout arrive on my desk. What a treat! And they represent the outstanding modeling done by Gordon Hough with help from his mother, Jeannie, who finishes the scenery and paints the backdrops. No matter fast I try to respond, my expression of thanks always gets back to Gordon too late. Sort of like with the folks who lived in the towns the Lone Ranger and Tonto helped: “We didn’t even get a chance to say thank you,” some old-timer would say on the TV western. Gordon doesn’t want to avoid hearing from Classic Toy Trains. But his job as music manager and occasional bandmaster for one of the premier cruise lines demands…

Not too long after Americans in postwar times finished their Thanksgiving meals, they turned their attention to Christmas and the upcoming shopping period. As children mulled over what they hoped would come their way on the morning of December 25, artisans employed at local department stores stood ready to install in windows facing main streets astonishing displays of new goods. Curiously, then, to understand the excitement and wonder youngsters must have felt when standing outside one of those incredible displays we have to focus on a painting. To be specific, a piece executed by a popular commercial artist and used by the editorial staff of The New Yorker magazine as a front cover in 1955. INSPIRED ILLUSTRATOR Arthur Getz, who painted the evocative scene of awed boys and girls congregating…

Advertisements from author’s collection How different the world was 60 or 70 years ago. Passenger trains were a primary means of travel; freight trains were how cargo moved; small parcels went by mail or an express service; and train crews had near-heroic status to many, particularly kids. Toy trains and railroading have had a natural constituency in kid universe for more than a century. Kids liked trains and dreamed of building their own railroad at home. Migration within regions, especially after World War I, had families moving farther apart as they chased jobs, education, or simply moved elsewhere. As humorist Jean Shepherd noted, “Christmas was the center of the entire kid year.” It was for many adults as well. Christmas was the one time when people traveled to the old…