Lionel Trains

At Christmas time, our family would assemble our Lionel train set. In the 1950s Lionel trains were the apex toys. Having a train set was the best toy you could have and not just for kids, but adults loved them as well. People would sit wrapt by these trains, watching them go round and round, watching the smoke puff out of the smokestack and listening to the train whistle and hearing the clatter of the of the wheels. These trains were enchanting and mesmerizing. My family had a large set of Lionel trains maybe 12 cars. We had a crane with a magnet on it that you could use to load the cars and there were street lights that turned on. We didn’t have a lot of the little village things that some people had but it was marvelous nonetheless. After my parents died my brother took our set with him, but then he put together a small set for me, and as it was Christmas time, we set ours up and it’s just as mesmerizing now as it was then.