If you are of a certain age, nothing says Christmas like Santa and a Lionel train under the tree. In this episode of Talking Pctures we visit Angela Trotta Thomas, an artist who has created evocative art for the Lionel Train Company for over thirty years.

https://youtu.be/YV-pRyd3kWw

Edd Fuller, Editor
The Trackside Photographer
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/

I have my Dad's, and my late Uncle's trains under our tree every year.

Nothing compliments the winter holidays more than Cowen's iconic models at break-neck speeds under the tree. For many kids, it was the 681 Turbine. For lucky ones, the Super Chief F3. For others, maybe a Scout or a mid-line Hudson. You just never got tired of the third rail (unless you modeled HO, N or American Flyer S), its almost mystical look complimenting the toy like designs of Postwar, MPC and traditional modern trains

Lionel for me started in 2006 when Santa (also known as my uncle) left the Polar Express under my tree and slowly grows to this day. I collect mostly HO now but no matter what, the Lionel ALWAYS goes under the tree. This year, I have a Western Pacific GP9 from 1992 leading up a small freight of mostly 1990s era rolling stock with some oddballs.

If you ask me, Lionel will always remain synonymous with Christmas. The thrill of wondering what that big box is, whats inside, and the amount of joy it will bring you for untold years to come. With proper care and maintenance, even the oldest prewar items will still bring Christmas Joy for the next hundred years.

My first Lionel train came for a 1948 Christmas and consisted of a 2-4-2 numbered 1654, a "box-like" tender, a Sunoco tank car, a black PRR gondola and a red offset cupola caboose. And my folks also hit up for the "automatic" milk car! Each year, a new Lionel car went on my Christmas list! My "empire" grew!

Earlier this year, I strolled into my local hobby shop dropping off some Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum flyers and in the used HO equipment box on the counter, was a PRR tuscan red gondola car. Nothing like the first "shorty" car in my first Lionel set, but the road number was exactly the same; 347000. I couldn't quite believe it! My memory went back to that first set. Well, it took me about two minutes to look the car over and make the decision; I purchased the HO gon. Later, I looked up info on the internet, and there was a photo of that exact car; Lionel had used the correct road number, even if the dimensions were off "just a bit"! The little black Lionel PRR gondola is long gone, but the HO car reminds me of it. Hmmm, wonder if any of those prototype Pennsylvania Railroad gons in that series, exist in preservation?

Les

Yikes! My 2-4-2 was 1655, O27.

Another memory is the smell of ozone and lube oil.

Phil Mulligan

Not to be TOO argumentive, but Christmas to me is an AMERICAN FLYER train under the Christmas tree! AF runs on REAL 2-Rail track and is more to scale!! (OK this harks back to childhood days and the age-old argument, "My trains are better'n yours!"


So true, so true!!

Doesn't matter if the trains are Lionel, Flyer, or Marx ( I have all of them) but they do have to be Steamers....no Dismals under the tree!

WELP time to find another form of power that isnt a a Western Pacific GP9 XD

My first was an AF in 1956. Still have it. I’m not a big collector but I have LL representatives by decade from the 30s through 60s. Each Christmas has trains from a specific decade. Only one dismal though, 2023 anniversary. The wife had a girl’s set as a child but her father gave it away. So I got her a reproduction in 2010. It’s the only train on the planet she likes, toy or otherwise.

One of our neighbors in the next block down had a Standard Gauge layout which they set up on an enclosed porch and left the lights on. At times they would have the trans running.
Everybody found a reason to walk by several times a season.

Phil Mulligan