Christmas 1953, on Time, Six Decades Later

By Robert Morris, Cape May.
It’s Christmas 1953, I’m 10-years-old and again on Christmas morning the train platform is completed, the tree is lit and the trains are running when my brother and I come down the stairs to gaze at our Christmas wonderland.
All this was done by my father overnight. Suddenly I notice that my sister’s 1936 Lionel Vanderbilt is missing and has been replaced by a new American Flyer 4-6-2 Pacific train set I asked my parents to give me as my special gift.
My 1946 Lionel Pennsylvania S2 Steam Turban 6-8-6 fully electronic 20-wheeler was on the inside track. All the houses and street lights are lit, the electric street poles are wired with string, and the talking train station was playing its tiny record.
Smoke and sound were working so realistically from the American Flyer riding on two rails like a real train. Tiny skaters were moving on the electric vibrating pond, the RR-crossing gate went up and down every time the Lionel went past and the American Flyer’s smoke and chugging sound worked well enough for both trains. A tiny sedan is circling the street following a little rubber rail. It all looks so alive and thrilling, all this is on a 4-by-8-feet platform made by my Dad.
Christmas 2013, 60 years have gone by, the trains have been in boxes for decades. Will they still run? Will they still smoke? Will the 4-6-2 Pacific still go chug-chug? Will the lights work? The American Flyer got a tune-up, the Lionel needed a new head light bulb to make smoke and that was all. So I start to build another 4-by-8-feet platform. My wife’s Christmas village and A Christmas Carol collectible village fit perfectly on the platform along with our revolving tree, both sets of trains and a large old-time HO trolley.
Suddenly two trains are running, the tree is lit and turning, the houses are lit, the trolley runs back and forth on its tiny track, the thrill is back, the memories are alive again.