My Old Lionel Train Set

A few weeks back I carried Spencer to a train show here in Conway that was put on by the local Lionel Collectors Club of Conway. Needless to say, he was fascinated. We went to the various stations where each collector had their trains setup for kids to watch and even operate.

Most of the gentlemen at the event really took up time with Spencer and we ended up spending most of that morning there just looking at all of the trains. There were some really nice trains on display. I made the comment to Donna that I had an old Lionel Train in my parent’s attic that was at least 40yrs old and as far as I knew it still worked, we both agreed that that might be a neat “pass me down” gift for Spencer over Christmas this year so I had Mom & Dad grab the train and bring it with them the next time they were heading to Conway.

When I got the train opened up to look it over it was like getting a brand-new toy all over again. The truth is that I was so young when I got the train for Christmas from my Uncle that I vaguely remembered playing with it. I can remember my dad and my uncle playing with it a lot, haha.

I made a few phone calls and spent an afternoon with one of the local train collectors, Mike Mottler, who happens to be a super nice guy that I’ve known for a while. He invited us over to his house and gave me the run down on how these trains operated (seeing as how I had no idea –and my instructions have disappeared over the past 40 years somehow).

Well, it didn’t take long to figure out that give the fact that Spencer is still pretty rambunctious, and that 40yr old train that I have is worth a considerable amount of money these days –not to mention pretty hard to get your hands on, Donna and I both decided to hang onto it for another year, possibly next year if he’s ready.

In the meantime, I think we will spend some time accumulating the missing pieces that we need to complete the set, such as 0/027 track and a new power station. I’m really looking forward to working on this project over the next year or so in my spare time and hopefully can pass this down to my son one day and he’ll enjoy it.

It would be so awesome if he fell in love with the hobby, I can see us building miles and miles of track and driving Donna insane.