Hi, Such memories. My father and I collected my train setup in 1948 to 1953. We had four sheets of 1/2" plywood that went together. My Lionel train set had 10 cars and 7 different working layouts one was a barrel loader, a cattle loader, coal tipple etc. We had a town layout and farm houses scattered. A wonderful working mill with a waterfall and a lovely pond made from a piece of mirror. We had four skaters on the pond that moved around. We started assembling it in mid Oct and usually finished by Thanksgiving. My birthday present, Christmas presents were all parts of the train set up. Finally it was complete in 1954. I left it at my grandfather's house while I was in school. When I married and had my son I went to Gramps to collect the set. Seems that while I was away one of my cousins husband asked my grandfather for the set. Gramps gave it to him. A year later when I went to collect it I was told that it was given to SO and SO. I called him and asked when I could pick it up. I was told it was too complicated to set up so he SOLD it. I was so startled and angry I could hardly speak. He sold the entire set up for 30 dollars. I have not spoken to the So&so to this day. The coal tipple was over a hundred dollars back in 1952. Thanks for letting me ventilate. greg
Very sorry, Greg. That is really terrible. You must have had such fun with your father, and your relationship must have been wonderful. The memory of doing things together with him is so valuable.
We always had trains taking up almost the entire living room when I was a kid. My dad collected model trains. Mom sold off the whole mess, or close to it, after he died. By that time the bottom had fallen out. I actually miss them, something I thought I'd never thought I would say.
