My Favorite Trains- Part 2 of a series of 10,000

I started collecting trains in the mid 80's, before that activity was as 'common' or accepted as it is now.  We often look back and wish that we had done things differently in days past, or taken better advantage of those earlier times, but the reality of the situation, for me anyway, was that trying to put together a collection wasn't as easy then as it is now.  I had the good fortune of acquiring a very nice collection of Hornby 0 gauge trains from a neighbour who had been a Hornby 'Boy' in the 30's, and this formed the nucleus of what has become a reasonable collection of Hornby trains from both pre and post WW2.  Before the advent of the internet, and collecting clubs, and swapmeets though, it was fairly slow going adding to the collection.

As the idea of building a Toy Train Museum that would be open to the public gathered momentum, I started thinking about what trains to feature.  What would people most like to see?  What trains would be the most practical to display, given that they might need to run for hours on end, without creating a maintenance nightmare.  What trains do I like best?  I soon realised that it just wasn't fair to expect trains that are in many cases more than 70 years old to be the mainstay of a public display.  They're fantastic for operation at home- superbly reliable really- and great for any of the weekend gatherings of collectors that regularly occur, but all day, every day would be asking a bit much, I think.

Somewhat ironically there are some modern versions of the old Hornby and Bassett-Lowke trains available now by companies such as Ace Trains, Bassett-Lowke (Hornby) and Darstaed which would be perfect for everyday running while still maintaining a vintage atmosphere, but by the time these were available I had already switched tracks towards another great train manufacturer, Lionel, in the U.S.  I definitely hope to show some of these wonderful British trains in the museum, but at a later date.

We are very fortunate in Australia that we have the option of picking the best of what is made overseas, as well as having a good choice of uniquely Australian items.  This applies in many areas, and particularly so for trains.  There are some wonderful Aussie products, and we have the choice of British, European or American items as well.  In days past though, there was a strong emphasis on 'Buy British' in every area of manufacturing, hence the most common trains available back then were Hornby and Tri-ang, both big British brands.  We also made Tri-ang under licence in Australia, now highly sought after.  But other items have always been available, too.  Lionel was never well known in Australia, but it most certainly was available, with dealers in most capital cities, at least.

Lionel is still very much in existance, and has been producing trains for nearly 110 years.  As you can imagine there has been an immense number made over the years and they are now highly collectable.  Because there are so many types, collectors divide them up into several categories- Prewar, Postwar and Modern era, amongst others.  Each era has it's own character and charm.  The Prewar trains tend to be mostly 'tinplate', ie made of metal and enameled in bright colours.  The Postwar, while still in many cases being called 'tinplate', are in fact made of die-cast metal and plastic.

Of course, as someone who has 'Never met a Train I didn't like', I really like them all!!  But you can't have them all, can you.  Well, at least not right away!  So I have decided to focus on the Prewar era Lionel trains for Phase 1 of my Toy Train Museum.  There will be several different layouts, each showing a different aspect of the Prewar trains.  One thing I particularly love about this era is all the wonderful accessories that were (and are) available.  There will be lots of flashing lights, ringing bells and big colourful, noisy trains!! 

Wait a minute, didn't I just say that I didn't think it was feasable to run old Prewar trains day in, day out? Yes, that's true.  What I discovered though, was that just about every old toy train that has ever existed in the U.S. has been reproduced by companies such as MTH Trains, and Lionel themselves.  These are very authentic copies of the old ones, but brand spanking new!!    They run, and sound and smell just like the old ones. So, it's these trains that I've chosen to run on my layouts at Whistlestop.  I think they will provide a spectacular display, and I absolutely can't wait to get started!!