1940 Home Movie: Lionel Trains for Christmas!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Grandpa's 1940 home movie of my dad's Lionel train set, "The Santa Claus Special," followed by mid-50's clip of a set belonging to Dad's cousin, Matt.
My dad and his parents lived on the ground floor of 119-14 Seventh Avenue in College Point, NY, while Dad's Aunt Eleanor and Uncle "Matt" (Matthias) lived on the second floor. For Christmas 1940, Uncle Matt, who was a carpenter, built a layout for Dad's new electric train set. It sat on two sawhorses in the living room. Note the classic props, including the famous switchman or watchman popping out of his shelter for each passing train. Also note my father's hand on the controls at the bottom of the frame in several scenes - he was 11 going on 12 at the time.
In the mid-1950's clip, Uncle Matt's teenage son Matthias 3rd operates his set in the basement. Note that many of the props are from the set that belonged to Dad. Although the footage in this sequence is not as sharply focused, there is a much better view of the hand controls - quite a contraption, they were.
Where are these trains now? Some of them wound up in the destructive little hands of wicked little me and my younger brother. After many staged train wrecks and head-on collisions, their battered hulks were discarded. What a shame - they'd be a treasure now.
I'm not an expert on Lionel Trains - so I'm asking all you Lionel fans out there to please help me identify these models. Thanks!!
16mm Kodachrome photography by Gustave Martens.
A TH-cam Presentation by Robert W. Martens
/ robertwmartens
Great video. I got my first Lionel the Christmas of 1950. My mother said she regreted it later after I turned into a railfan and toy train collector. I may have been something to do in my teens when I showed more interest on trains than girls!!
First things first great video prewar and post war. As a senior citizen I just can’t shake my enthusiasm for these and still have the trains from my boyhood .The only problem is that I want more.
How awesome to have these great family memories!
He has some very desirable items. My dad got a Union Pacific 2023 Alco passenger set for Christmas in 1951. Grandma always said that would have paid for 3 weeks of groceries for a family of 4 back then. That set fed my dad's imagination when he was a kid and sparked a hobby that has been a family tradition for 3 Generations. My neices are showing interest and that would be the 4th generation that these trains have influenced. I would say that was money well spent.
Nice video. That's just how it was back then. Sometimes I think it would be nice to swap all my new stuff for older trains and just sit back and watch.
Please take me back to those days.
I wish I could, but my grandfather's home movies are the best I offer.
Recently me and my Grandpa of 60 years old dug out his postwar super chief, Hudson, and Switcher (Diesel) he had about 54 feet of track and TONS of accessories! So we built a Carpet layout and me and my twin brother Drove the trains around a HUGE layout, with buildings and everything! :)
Wow! This is great! When I was little, my Uncle Doc set up his trains every Christmas. They were his pride and joy. Oh, this takes me way back. Thank you so much.
My Grandpa had several train sets. Every Christmas Dad would set one up under our Christmas tree. One year I was allowed to have a train set in my bedroom. Will never forget those trains, and that special feeling at Christmas.
Thanks. great video. I loved the "electric trains" from the 40's and 50's. We didn't have the detailed scenery and dioramas,but we had a lot of fun with them. mmmmmmm
Love it!
That Lionel crane car at 0:33 -- I have that. I bought a restored version a couple of months ago and have it on display in my house. That is a very interesting piece. Those old Lionel trains have so much character to them.
I have one too, it has the modern knuckle couplers, but has the same tinplate body. I got it from my grandma’s cousin Bob. Who sold us ALOT of trains for only about $100 dollars.
I bet some of those engines and accessories are still running today! I have some from my family dating back to the 1920s! We just keep buying them! My layout is like a mixture of the oldest stuff that my great grandparents had, to the newest stuff that I have... Similar to what this family did in the '50s...
Thank you. They probably would still be running today - - if my younger brother and I had not wrecked them! My well-meaning father gifted us with those toy trains, thinking that we'd appreciate them as he did, but little Danny and I only wanted to stage train wrecks and eventually their battered remnants went out with the trash. We were just little kids after all, what did we know? If only Dad had waited until we were were older and more responsible. All that remains today from the setup is a hand-crafted wooden waiting platform that appears in a couple shots. It's in my basement right now, and this time I'm taking good care of it.
@@robertwmartens I’m only a teenager, but have always loved trains, my grandpa always would set his up his under their tree (I said “would” because I took all of them!) I have lightly messed up a few, but I definitely didn’t do what you and your brother did, haha! I’m sure that if they were given to my cousins or my younger brother, they would have had a similar fate to the ones in your movie. I hope that I will be able to hand them down to my future kids, or grandkids. (They have fallen off the track hundreds of times though...)
Wow an unexpected threat Happy Hollidays love those vintage trains!
Nice to see a pre-war and post-war layout in the same video.
Nice video! I loved the switcher pulling the passenger cars in the 1950's video, Lol!
Great clip! We had some of those plastic reindeer that were in the opening, back in the day.
The O scale was widely distributed back then!
Thank you for the railroad model video!
I hope Sir have a great Christmas!
From.🇰🇷 South Korean young man who collects N scales.
Thanks for posting - my Dad (the namesake for my account) was given many a model train set for his early birthdays in the late-50s. In 1993, I was fascinated with those toy trains and wanted to see them. I had also been hanging onto my pacifier for too long! As a result, my Dad cut me a deal for me to see his old model trains if I gave the pacifier up. Sure enough, I did, but I couldn't get the trains running.
Thanks for sharing this. It was neat seeing some of the pieces in my collection in this video.
true 16mm Kodachrome rules! Thanks again to you Robert and Gustave (for filming!)
Really enjoyed this. There should be more dvds like this. Thanks for sharing.
am watching this vid in 2018 . musta have been lotsa fun even in the 40s:)
I'm sure it was!
Great time for a train, thanks for sharing with us!
I can smell the electricity in the air. Great video and in color yet.
Great video! I have a 1995 Lionel set, but my favorite are my 1940''s American Flyer 322 and 1950''s American Flyer 302!
Reminds me of the old Lionel O-27 gage train set that me and my Pa used to set up every Christmas for many years, in the big, old, beautiful home I grew up in, on Milwaukee's east side. The trains were all Lionel 1930's vintage, 3 steam locomotives, Pullman cars, log car, (with a really cool '30's electric log roller, a Lionel train station, a water tower, a factory scene, and various flagmen and gates.
We built a permanent display, around 1980 or '81, on a piece of plywood, with strategically placed transformers, that we stored carefully in the basement during the year, and in the week after Thanksgiving every year, Pa and I would carefully bring the old girl out from hibernation, I would reconnect all the electric accessories, and lube, and test the engines, and get the train running. Then, it was Pa's turn, he transformed the austere setup, into a magical Christmas village, with artificial snow, cotton, and talent on loan from god...
The train fit snugly on a window seat we had in the dining room, and we utilized every inch on the setup for different little scenarios... My folks threw an Epic Christmas Party, on the Saturday before Christmas every year, for almost 30 years. As me and my brothers got older, this party grew into a very special gathering... Pa was known as "Father Christmas", for his two week effort every year, to transform our home into a Victorian Christmas, with his lifetime collection of antique Christmas everything. The house was beautiful, warm, and inviting, all thru out Christmas time.
The party was incredible, mom would bake endless cookies, she made little individual ham sandwiches wrapped in foil, with swiss cheese, and brown mustard, a police officer friend of Dad's brought a whole smoked lake trout every year, we had 3 or 4 hundred bucks worth of good alcohol, baileys Irish cream, and a cold 1/2 barrel of Miller beer... This party really was loved by all of our friends and neighbors, the Milwaukee Journal even wrote it up one year, the reporter couldn't get enough of moms lil' warm, foil wrapped, black forest ham and cheese sandwiches... God they were GOOD...
My friend Tim Lambrecht, who came to visit Pa as he lay at St. Mary's hospice, in late 2002, quietly, and with dignity, coming to the end of a life well lived, took my Pa's hand, and said, "Mr. Bourgeois, I just want you to know, in the 20+ years you welcomed me into your beautiful home at Christmas, every year, I grew to love that party, and all those great folks, more and more, as the years went by, and I have to tell you, that even though I haven't found her, if I would have been lucky enough to find the girl I wanted for a wife, and to be the mother of my children, I always thought, that your Christmas party, with the happiness that filled that entire home every December, would have been the perfect place, to ask that girl to marry me. Thank you Mr Bourgeois, for having me as a guest in your home, at that wonderful party, for all those years."
That's close to what he told Pa, and needless to say, there were a lot of tears... But, what an incredible compliment, Tim did Love that Party, always brought a dish, and a bottle or two, to add the already groaning dining room table, covered with an absolute feast. The home was filled with laughter, song, stories, friendship, and warmth. All my parents friends, and as we got older, all of me, and my two brothers friends, filled that old house with memories that have lasted a lifetime...
And now, Christmas is quite different, Pa passed in November, 2002, the house had been sold, people have moved on with their lives, the plant I had been working faithfully for more than 20 years closed, and moved manufacturing to f****** Pakistan, and divorce, bankruptcy, addiction, and depression, became the new normal.
Heated up some kraft macaroni and cheese, and poured a glass of milk, alone, the other day on Christmas.
Its not the presents, and the tree I miss. Its the laughter, and the love, that filled that old house, for so many years. I tried to live a good life, but that plant closing, and the devastating, sudden loss of income, hit like a double barreled 00 buckshot load to the chest, and I'm now trying to pick up the pieces of what has become a life filled with health problems, money problems, addiction, (been to rehab, working hard to be sober) and worse of all, deep depression, as all I can do is remember how bright, and promising, life was at one point, when it seemed the friendships, the girl I loved, the great job I had, and did well, earning promotions and pay increases, with regularity, would all last, forever...
And now, its all gone. I remember dismantling the little layout of the train, from its plywood base of more than 20 years, putting all the cars, locomotives, and accessories, back into their Lionel boxes, and then, reluctantly, taking that old sheet of plywood, out to the trash. And with it, went most of the rest of my life, and I've been trying to claw my way out of that trash can, in a dignified manner, for more than a decade.
But its just gotten harder. As another Christmas, alone, passes, and I see happiness, and fulfillment all around me, in that faces of those who have found love, and meaningful, rewarding careers, and I see it everywhere I go, and sink further into the sadness that comes, from realizing I too, once knew the love of a girl I had hoped to be with forever, and also had a career, at an exciting place to work, that involved travel, and education, and now, its a fucking box of kraft dinner, alone, on a day when the whole world, is in the warm embrace, of the person they wake up next to, every morning, and get to think, "it may get tough sometimes, but at least my babydoll is laying here, right next to me, so at least I won't die alone, like some Loser"
Well, the Loser speaks. And I have made the firm decision, that since I WILL die alone, 2015 is as good a year as any other. Don't know where, when, or how, right now. What I do know, is the pain that SEARED thru me, as I opened that box of kraft Loser dinner, on Christmas day, alone, I vowed I would NEVER live, thru another godamn holiday like that, after the absolute love filled holidays, and life, I was blessed to have. Hey, at least I've known love, and success, for a time, in my life. Its better than some, who actually never make love, or have been loved. I have been blessed to know both, but I don't "get" dating anymore, I'm not any prize that a swell girl is looking for... And, having Made Love, and really, really missing, the softness, and warmth, of a loving girl, sharing my bed, I no longer want to live, in a world, where it feels like I'm the only Loser, who stares at an empty bed every day, and that pain I can live without. So wow. 2015 will be it. Not sure when, how, or where, but there won't be anyone to have a funeral for, so all I have to look forward to is a spot in Potters Field.
This is a Cautionary Tale, Folks.
DON'T BE ME. Or rather, don't be old, 51 year old, dateless, broke me. Be me from 20+ years ago, in love, with a career, friends, happiness and dignity. I can't really tell you where it all went to hell, but I know a big part of it came from the loss of a 20 + year job, when they sent the our work out of Milwaukee, and over to Filthy, teaming, diseased Pakistan, to some lousy 30 cent an hour Cooley worker SOB, who stole my job, because the assholes who run his country allow the losers who are crammed into the filth of their cities, to be prostituted into work that paid me 30 bucks an hour, to some Punjab, for 30 cents an hour, courtesy of the greed that stole my work outta Milwaukee, and shipped it off to the land of Ali fucking babba, and magic carpets, and Punjab motherfuckers who targeted my company, "send your work here, no regulations, no contracts, no unions, no regulations.. People here live in the asshole of the earth, and will do any filthy, tough work you have, for pennies an hour, because they are unwashed and live in cardboard boxes" Bitter? Yeah. But soon, it won't matter I've had enough of being poor, alone, riding the bus, and only knowing memories of times now gone, when I knew love and success. Don't get all do-gooder uptight, and send the retarded cops here. When I decide to do what I've decided to do, I'm NOT goona tell social media. Sometime, in the next 12 months, I'm quietly going to bow out. Well, there will be a gunshot, but other than that, I will simply fade from a live that holds no more Love, women, someone to share my bed, happiness, success, or dignity. There is no dignity in hurting worse each day, each time I see a beautiful girl, holding hands with the man she loves, at the store, bank, on the bus, and I picture them in a little while, getting home, and knowing they get to feel what making love is, and that's why they are both smiling... And I stumble off with my cane, alone, knowing I will never hold a soft, warm girl in these arms, ever again... And you wonder why, I've chosen an early, unscheduled exit, before next Christmas' misery? There's your reason...
Cheers.
Keep calm ... she's out there somewhere Paul Bourgeois...
_One don't have to be lonely at Christmas since there's lots of people in the same situation, that's gathered in communities of various kind. So they can meet and eat nice food and share their stories ... :-)_
_Cheers !!_
***** thanks. Painful time of year to see so many happy, in love people out there, and I used to be one... Sorry to be so dark, but these years have just gotten harder... I've really come to hate Christmas, it brings on the Deepest Pain. I should have just kept my mouth shut.
Lots of people do hate x-mas for various reasons and you should definetely not have kept your mouth shut buddy !!
I mean it must feel a little bit better now when you've shared your feelings (and some frustration I'd guess).
I guess the pain can be really hard Paul Bourgeois but I think there's ways to ease it. Not with bourbon though ... ;-D
I think one way can be to meet up with people in the same situation ... :-)
Well ... X-mas used to stress the shit outta me some years ago but today it feels a little better to celebrate it (traditionally) with my family (ma & pa, my bro' and sis' and their families).
I think it was my work that really stressed me out, but when x-mas came all the "musts" became too much for me so I totally quit celebrating x-mas for a few years ...
Hi Paul. Well we were in the same boat my friend. I spent Xmas dinner alone with a salad this year. You are not a loser and don't ever think that way. Please do not do anything silly. I get so lonely ay times it's unbearable bit I decided to get out and do charity work. I love helping people and it lets me see there are a lot of others in the same position. You are a wondrrful caring person so don't let me hear you talking like that. Get out there and do things. You really will enjoy helping. The girl of your dreams is just around the corner. Take care.xx
That's the spirit Janice Nicol ... =D
Love this video, so many memories!
Very enjoyable!!!! Thank you for sharing that!!!
Very neat!
No, it was silent like all home movies of the era. I recorded the music off of a thrift store record and tacked it on. The song's title, by the way, is "Badinage" which was originally composed as a song by Victor Herbert (1859-1924) of "Babes in Toyland" fame.
Very Nice 👍👍👍
The Good old Days..😆
Great film! I saw a few of my Dad's Lionel pieces in this film. :-)
+Dennis Draper where did they go dennis did he sell them
thank you very very much ive always liked them and wnted 2 find myself one thank u
Thank you. I respect your opinion about the soundtrack; I just wish to explain that I avoided using better-known artists due to my concern over potential copyright issues (I'd had a few problems with that already), so I went for the public domain.
Loved the vid Robert. I liked the music. My musical taste is a bit querky for a guy in his late 40's. I don't care for the stuff that's been out the last 20 some odd years.
But that's for another subject and time.
Have a wonderful CHRISTMAS!!
@LS1Heli What can I say . . . your knowledge is fantastic! Thanks John!
That was really great!
Sweet ! Merry christmas
Wonderful old movies. I wonder why cousin had a 622 switcher loco pulling those big 2500 series cars?? Usually they were headed be an F3 Santa Fe or NY Central. ?? good movies.
0:52 I think that kid has some experience 😳😳😳
I wonder if Matt, since he used the elevated track for the passenger train, ever considered a way to install a couple of passenger station buildings along the elevated track? Maybe construct a couple hills, that are adjacent to the walls of the elevated track & rise up from the lower level. Tunnel portals would be used on the sides of the hills, for the trains on the lower-level tracks to pass through the hills. Each hill would have a plateau on top that is at the same level as the elevated track. A station building would be placed on each plateau.
awesome
I’m always intrigued by the speed that we operated Lionel trains at in those days. Now we try to operate them at more realistic speeds. Wonder if the Lionel’s would have been as enticing if we ran them slower? I ran mine fast😀
awesome video!
GREAT STUFF...FUN
looks like a Lionel 255 E or 260E. I can make this statement, because the lanterns are absents on the top of the boilers, indicating it is older that 1937.
I REALLY LIKE THE MUSIC🎼🎵🎶🎹IT'S CATCHY
I like how the drum is in sync with the oil pump xD
Love that time
Cool Christmas Memories • Saw your link on the OGR Forum.
• Cheers from Michigan
I have all of these same cars and engines and transforms etc and bins of track but nowhere for a table! They're just forced to run on the floor in temporary setups...
I Hope it's my Childhood in my trains
@dtoeppen The film-to-video transfer was done by DuArt Film & Video in New York City.
@beatron69 The song title is "Badinage" composed by Victor Herbert (1859-1924).
The title card is really neat. Who did your film to video transfer?
I still have some of those "bottle brush" trees.
+John Bisci i do to rebuilt my childhood have lionels never had before 9 locos 30 postwar cars went crazy with it even the people are from 1930 pot metal painted by somebody
Wow!
Cool!
i really liked that
thank you for uploading this. great trains ! I would like to know though who is performing "Badinage". It sounds great.
I have that same gateman at the beginning. That is the prewar model. Its much better.
I love it! Tell me, however did you get such a beautiful transfer of home movies from the 1940's?
Sorry for my very belated response! I took the reel to a reliable service in Manhattan called DuArt. They digitized the film using a Telecine, transferred it onto a digibeta tape for archiving, then copied from that onto a mini-DV tape for my own personal use. From there on it was just a matter of hooking my camcorder with the miniDV up to my iMac and importing the clip. Sounds a bit complicated, but it was worth every second and penny! That was how it was done a few years ago. It was a bit complicated, but worth every second and penny!
hey i have a question in both the prewar and postwar segments 2 the left of the operator is a red switch panel of sorts which stand tallwize with electrical switches on it of some kind... what is that called ?? and if you know please give me as many of the numbers of those that lionel made id really really appreciate it
Dolphin Dream 15, I think the " caboose " you are describing is a " center-cab " diesel switch engine. Lionel made one back in the 1950s that is red & lettered for the Lehigh Valley Rail Road.
This family had money. Two trains, and shot on color movie film, I'm assuming 16mm.
Yes, my grandfather used 16mm Kodachrome, but I don't think his family had as much money as you might think. Grandpa and Grandma lived their entire adult lives in one floor of a small two-family building on a crowded residential street in Queens. Grandpa worked first as a car salesman and later worked for the sales department of Hoffman Beverages and then United States Steel, which I guess would put him somewhere between working and middle class. My father's bedroom was hardly larger than a closet. They owned a Buick but rarely traveled outside of the metropolitan NYC area. So they weren't poor, but not rich either.
Middle class then? @@robertwmartens
hahaha nice same here
Could I possibly get permission to get a couple of video clips of the train. I am making a video for someone who got his first set as his father was going to WWII?
What is the song that is playing titled?
Hi Robert. I enjoy the videos that you have uploaded. I have a question. Hope you can help me out.
An uncle of mine was cleaning out his attic. He found some 8mm and super 8mm films in a box.
Would you happen to know of any website were I might find a used projector? I'm a bit suspicious of e-bay.
Thanks...Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you for the compliment. I'm sorry, I don't know of any website that's good for selling film projectors. You might try to find one of those hand-cranked desktop film editing machines instead. Kodak and other companies manufactured them for the home movie market. Many of them have a small projector screen for viewing the film during the edit, use only a small standard light bulb for illumination and are mechanically simpler than a projector. I hope my advice was useful. Yours truly, Rob.
@@robertwmartens Thank you for getting back to me. I'll keep on my quest.
Patrick, you could check out your local public library - they may have a projector that can be checked out. A long-time camera shop may have one for rent.
If you post a picture or video I'm sure someone can recognize it. Or you can try the trains.com message board. Put it under Classic Toy Trains instead of Trains or Model Railroader.
You're welcome.
Mr martens I’ve identified the Lionel trains in this video of uncle matt
@@xavierh944 That's great. You can name a few of them here, if you'd like.
@@robertwmartens it seems that uncle Matt has the no.623 switcher and along with that is the 2500 passenger cars the aluminum passenger car part of the Santa Fe set and along with the stream train is probably a no.2035 steam locomotive and the 3472 milk car and the operating boxcar and on the side of uncle Matt’s train set is the barrel loader and the coal elevator and the milk platform and the cow platform and the ZW transformer that uncle Matt is operating. And the famous accessory is the gateman that pops out of his little house
And also mr Robert martens i have looked everywhere for the song on the mid 1950s video and i can’t find it can you help me find it please
Hey one question do you have any of the accessories from uncle Matt’s trains set?
were the smoke out of the engine use to put stuff in the smoke stack made smoke
Starting in 1945, Lionel steam locomotives that were equipped with a " smoke unit ", used to have a " smoke pellet " dropped into the smokestack. Lionel started making steam locomotives that have " smoke fluid " poured down the smokestack in the late 1950s. Lionel smoking steam locomotives, from the early 1970s to today, all used smoke fluid. American Flyer S gauge smoking steam locomotives & Marx O gauge smoking steam locomotives have always used smoke fluid.
running a little post war
Loved the Video, but the music could have been left in the past and forgotten. ;-)
Benny Goodman or Fred Warring and the Pennsylvanians would have been my choice.
Thanks for uploading it.
@robertwmartens The song is titled "Tuba Flatulence" by Chubby and the Peckers.
What music is that?
It's an early 1960's instrumental version of Victor Herbert's "Badinage". Victor Herbert (1859-1924) is best known today for his operetta "Babes in Toyland".
WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE MUSIC ?
Comment from Robert Martens below: The song title is "Badinage" composed by Victor Herbert (1859-1924) In another post Robert said, that this music comes from a LP Vinyl of copyright free music for shops.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s
glorious standard.”
Romans 3:23 NLT
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 NLT
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 5:8 NLT
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 NLT
“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 NLT“After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.” Acts of the Apostles 1:9 NLT
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
John 14:1-3 NLT
😊
What does this have to do with toy trains?
awesome