Dreaming of Trains
16/11/12 05:27
Sometime in the fall each year the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogues came out. When we were kids, there was a fair amount of time invested in perusing the catalogues and wondering at the things that were on sale. It was our form on Internet shopping in the days before the Internet. There were two sections in each catalogue that always caught my attention. After a few days the catalogues would open to the correct pages. One of the sections was filled with bicycles. They had some amazing bicycles that simply weren’t stocked at the retail stores in town. We had two hardware stores and for a while we had a Sears catalogue store. Gambles and Coast to Coast had a few bicycles in stock, but they were the basic models. The catalogue had 10-speed European style racing bicycles, bikes with banana seats and high-rise handlebars. There was even a 5 speed bicycle with a t-handle shifter mounted on the bar.
In terms of sheer time spent, however, the section of the catalogue that warranted the largest slice of my attention was the section on model trains. There were two schools of thought on trains at that time. Lionel was probably the biggest vendor of model train sets. Their O gauge trains were amazing in their detail. They had locomotives with the paint jobs of the main lines that ran through our state: Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road. They had the most amazing log car with a device that unloaded the logs as the car passed by a special section of track. They had remote switches and trestle supports that looked like they were made out of stone. You could get smoke fluid for the stacks of the locomotives and water towers and model depots to put alongside the track. There was just one drawback to the Lionel trains. Their system was based on three rails with the hot rail being the center rail. This made the trains very dependable. They worked well. But we didn’t have any rail lines in our area that had three rails. So I thought that the Lionel tracks looked fake.
There was another reason in addition to that for my loyalty to the American Flyer Model Railroad. American Flyer trains were a product of the A.C. Gilbert Company. A.C. Gilbert was the developer of what was (and remains) my all-time favorite building set: The Erector Set. Erector sets came with real steel beams, bolts and nuts, wrenches and screwdrivers. You could get motors and wheels and gears that really meshed and worked. In my mind, Erector sets and American Flyer trains made the perfect combination. We had a 4 x 8 train board in our room that was constantly filled with track, trains, and erector set constructions.
When our son chose Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, for his undergraduate studies, I was delighted. One of the school’s famous alumnus was none other than Alfred Carlton Gilbert, the inventor of the Erector Set and the owner of the company that produced American Flyer Trains.
When our son was born it was all I could do to suppress the urge to buy a model railroad set for him way before he was old enough to enjoy it on his own. As the years went by, we did get into model railroading a bit. I built him a train board and we invested in a modest amount of HO gage track and running gear. Truth be told, I think I was into the train sets more than he. I suspect that he would name Lego building blocks as one of his favorite childhood toys.
Given my history, it would be fair to say that one of the high points of my day yesterday was receiving a photo taken by our daughter-in-law of our grandson playing with a small Brio Wooden train set. My first impulse upon seeing the picture was to try to find enough days off and enough cash to jump on an airplane and go spend some time with my grandson. My second impulse was to head to head to the Internet and start ordering additional Brio train sets to expand the basic circle of our grandson’s play.
Of course neither impulse is the right thing to do at the moment. We have Skype for nurturing our relationship with our grandson over the distance and we need to plan and coordinate our visits so that we nurture healthy relationships with all of our family. And our grandson doesn’t lack for toys. He doesn’t need to be overwhelmed with a grandfather’s obsession in order to enjoy a simple train set that is appropriate for his age and stage of development. Following my initial impulses isn’t the best way to wise decisions.
OK, if you can keep a secret, I did order an engineer’s cap, bandanna and train whistle to include in the Christmas package for our grandson this year. He loves hats. And he loves trains. I couldn’t resist.
The arrival of the picture of our grandson gave me the gift of 15 minutes of looking at train sets on the Internet last night. It reminded me of the days when I was a kid and the catalogues arrived from the various stores in time for Christmas shopping. Nostalgia is one of the indulgences I allow myself as I justify my re-definition of “middle aged” from 50’s to 60’s.
These days, I dread the arrival of catalogues in the mail. We get so many that they pile up before we can haul them to the recycling bin. Instead of one grand annual catalogue that lasts for a year, some vendors issue multiple catalogues each month. There are sales catalogues, and holiday catalogues and special event catalogues. One order placed on the Internet gives the catalogue shippers both your billing address and your shipping address. I once ordered a part for a boat I was building and I now receive high-end yachting and yacht racing catalogues at work and at home. I think the part I ordered was the only thing in those catalogues that I could afford. And when I am looking for those kinds of things, I don’t page through catalogues any more. I turn to the Internet.
But if I had a copy of the 1959 Montgomery Ward Catalogue in my hands these days, I bet I could waste a perfectly good hour looking at American Flyer trains.
