My parents never understood my fascination with trains.  I would make them wait at railroad crossings if I knew a train was coming, and cry if they didn't wait.  I didn't understand why they didn't share the same enthusiasm about  wanting to watch trains.  I could look at signals and know if a train was coming.  They couldn't figure that one out. The longer the train the happier I was.  Now that I drive, I understand why they didn't want to wait.

When I was young, my dad use to have his American Flyer train under the tree. Ever since my parents bought me my first train set, my dad never displayed it anymore.   He bought the train back in 1948 and he use to see how fast it could go and make it jump the track. Today we cringe at that type of abuse.  The train was always promised to my older brother.  I started my own collection of American Flyer trains in Mid 90's. I'm up to five sets.  I get them out at Christmas time and place around the tree.  I'm still looking for set's from the late 1940's.

I got my first electric train when I was 7 years old.  My parents bought for me a Mantua HO Scale Santa Fe Locomotive pictured above. I was always partial to locomotives and didn't like diesels.  While my parents were preparing for Christmas that year, my dad had placed the HO track around the tree instead of the American Flyer track that had been there the previous years.

After 30 years, the train still runs and is my favorite. I'm slowing restoring the original train set  to the way it was when I received it.  Some of the cars are missing wheels and connectors. My younger brother and sister have since informed me of their sabotage of the Holly Sugar covered Hpper Car. I have the main body of the Swift Refrigerator Car and Flat Car caring pipe.

For my twelfth birthday my parents bought me an N scale train. This time it was a diesel.   I liked the smaller version. I could play with it anytime, and just not at Christmas.    I actually had the train on the top shelf of my clothes closet.   I had to stand a stool to play with the train.  When my brother got married and moved out, I turned his room into my train room.  My dad helped me get a piece of plywood and we placed it over his bed.  I worked on the train layout, it had a downtown area, and also mountains with streams.  Today that layout is storedin a Xerox box in my basement.  I'm waiting to set up the train again. I rekindles my interest H.O. scale and spending most of my energy working on that layout and constructing buildings.