The 1958 Train Set

Boyle Park Media opens with a feature, followed by glimpses into faith, family, and thought.

Feature

It was Christmas 1958. I was 9 years old. The Sears Christmas Catalogue had arrived months earlier, and there they were, towards the back of the book: The Lionel O Gauge Train Sets. I loved the old-fashioned black steam locomotives, but the new-fangled diesels were kinda neat too.

My mom and dad earned their modest living from our small farm in Southern Saskatchewan. The words “don’t get your hopes up” were never heard from Mom & Dad, but I think we were attuned to understand the same reality when appropriate.

Something was different on Christmas Eve 1958. I went to bed and dreamed of a toy train about three times the size of anything I had seen in the catalogue. A big black steam-era locomotive going round and round the Christmas tree.

“Christmas Morning get-up time” is a part of every Santa Claus-believing family. Mom & Dad loved Christmas morning and always sent us to bed with the delightful expectation the we had to stay in bed only until at least 6! O’clock (and in 1958 I think we were allowed up as early as 5!).

I came downstairs. There it was. Under the tree all set up and ready. A locomotive, a flat car and a caboose on an oval of track. The disappointment at the ”modern” diesel locomotive was very short lived! As Christmas Day progressed, I opened gifts from my grandparents and aunts & uncles, and I kept getting more train cars and layout gear. How did they know what Santa was going to give me?! Over the past few weeks my parent’s gift had been conspicuous by its absence from under the tree. Now it materialized, unwrapped, from behind the couch-–two 30-inch segments of track.

That’s my memory from 1958 … but wait … there’s more …

That train set has been with me on my full journey of life. When I was ten this train was on a platform that rolled out from under my bed. Now it sits on a windowsill above my bed!

When we moved across the yard and into my grandparent’s house when I was 14 … the train was set up in the basement.

When I met Bev she only wanted to see how fast it would go … and it always derailed on the curve …

When we had our own kids we got them their own train set. I set it up under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve until midnight. (Dang, I just realized that is what my Dad must have done in 1958!) The Train set always moved with us on several cross-country moves. Once every several years, I would dig it out and set it up, usually during Christmas holidays.

In 2008, the 50^th anniversary of the train, I set it up and played trains with grandsons!

I was constrained by the oval setup design until 2013 when I set up a single track around the outside walls of the living room with a reversing loop on each end.

1977

2008

2013

I’m really proud of this arrangement which went around three walls of our living room and had an auto-reverse at each end. The reversing was enabled by a loop of track which had one switch. The switch auto-switched to accept the correct direction of the train. This video shows the train making two transits of the route so that you can see it go opposite directions on the end loops. Note also the 1920 Toronto Street Car sitting on a siding.

Take a ride!

2025

In the 1960s, the train was on a piece of plywood under my bed. Now it sits on the windowsill above our bed!

Click Here to see some of my research on the Lionel Trains Historic Websites

202 Union Pacific – Lionel Trains Libraryhttps://postwarlionel.com/202-union-pacific/

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