Lionel Milk Car

Dad's Lionel Trains

 

  I can't remember the last year Dad's trains were set up. I think it was in Lincroft, NJ which would have been 1973, or so--perhaps 43 years ago. We didn't know that would be the last time they would be set up. I remember the first time I saw them, as a young child in Jackson, MI. They were set up in the basement, on a piece of plywood set on top of wooden barrels, in which the train gear was stored. This might have been 1963, when I was 4.

It was an amazing setup! There was a trestle, and tunnel, fruit trees, and a station with people waiting, and there was the smell of electricity when it was turned on, and the hum of the controller as you pushed it forward to speed the trains up, or pulled back to slow them down. I was 4 years old then, and the train set was amazing with the lights on the trains, the sleek looking diesel, and the locomotive. The milk car was one of my favorites because as it went around, the milkman would move in and out. and little cans fo milk could be released.

The boxes of trains were located in the garage, at my mom's home and will now go to my sister's storage unit. No telling if they will still run, although I suspect they will. I asked Mom if she had any idea how Dad saved the money as a kid to buy his trains, but she didn't know. She guessed he may have gotten one car a year. This is just one of the questions, I wish I'd thought to ask Dad before he died.