Model Trains Not a Thing of the Past

Day 28

Last night I drove to Roscommon Twp to get some groceries at the local Glenns store. I could have gone to Walmart but it's a little crazy on the weekends, plus I enjoy the drive to Glenns. While I was standing in the parking lot a train came thundering through town, the whistle blasting out it's warning could be heard for miles. Trains come through so seldom that Fred's Restaurant and Bowling Alley, which is next to the railroad tracks, buys all customers a round on the house. This brought to mind a memory from my childhood.

When I was about seven years old, my brother had a Lionel train set. The set had two different engines; a modern Santa Fe and a black steam locomotive, several freight cars and a caboose. The black locomotive would puff smoke if you dropped a special tablet into the smoke stack. There was many feet of metal track and a long curved tunnel shaped like a mountain which had to be placed perfectly or the train would hit the side and try to move the mountain.

My brother Tom and I weren't allowed to play with it because it was our oldest brother Bill's train set and it used a large electric transformer that was considered possibly dangerous. Mostly though it was because it belonged to my brother and he didn't want us to play with it. He was older and bigger than us, so he got his way.

When our parents and brother were not home we would sometimes pull out the three boxes of track and trains and the heavy controller. We would set up the track in different configurations from ovals to figure eights and the tunnel under the mountain was a must. We would spend hours running the trains and when we were really daring we would put a pellet in the smoke stack of the steam engine and wait for it to warm up and start puffing smoke rings as it went around and around. Daring because there was a limited supply of pellets. Often a model car would  stall on the tracks and POW, train wreck. The plastic car would fair much worse than the heavy metal train.

When we heard a car pull into the driveway we would scramble to pull the track apart, put the locomotives and freight cars back in the box and lug the transformer/controller (I swear it weighed a hundred pounds) back upstairs to the attic. Then innocently stroll back down the stairs. Eventually the train set stayed in the basement where would set it up but when we didn't have to sneak, it lost it's appeal. I guess half of the fun was carrying it down from the attic to the basement and back without getting caught.

Back then there were enthusiasts who would set a piece of plywood with permanent trees, bushes buildings and complete little towns with road crossings and even people. Some with enough track to run several trains at the same time. Truly amazing. There are still people who do this today.

I went online just to see what a model train set costs now and found that model trains have changed over the years. There are a plethora of different models, many run on batteries and are remote controlled. Currently the most popular would be a replica of the Polar Express, and even this has many variations and price ranges. Also there are many train shows and clubs still here in Michigan. I may have to take a ride to see one and feel young again for a day.

Until tomorrow,

Ken