What Do Trains Have To Do With Christmas?

• For over a century, to most Americans, "real trains" exemplified the kinds of "comings and goings," "hustle and bustle," and even package shipments, that were a way of life anyway, but became even more "festively frantic" during the holiday season. At any time of year, whether you took the "A-Train," or the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," or whether you drifted home on a "Sentimental Journey," you just assumed that any long trip would involve a train. This was even more true at Christmas time, when New York city office workers went home to New Hampshire, West Texas families waited for their Sears Roebuck order to arrive, and Cincinnati families boarded trains to visit their cousins in Chicago. The greatest examples were in the 1940s, when the railroads helped hundreds of thousands of GI's to "Be Home For Christmas" year after year.

  Let's face it, more people and stuff move at Christmas than any other time of year, and for over a century, more people and stuff moved by trains than any other way. So for many people, Christmas seemed to involve trains somehow.

• In addition, as the importance of toy and model trains in American culture grew, so did the sense that Christmas was an ideal time both to give and to display those trains. This, in fact, will be the main topic of the following musings.

• Finally, trains running around Christmas trees bring back memories of simpler times. Christmas trains are to the soul what "comfort food" is to the appetite - a kind of reassurance that there are still good things in the world, and even good experiences in your own past. More will be said on that subject presently.

The Rise of Toy Trains

Wind-up toy trains weren't far behind. Still, there seemed to be no particular sense that it was more suitable to give a toy train for Christmas, than, say, for a birthday.

In fact, the most impressive line of "push toy" trains was meant to be used during warm weather. Buddy L* trains were very large stamped-metal push-toy trains for which you could buy track. Yes, these often arrived with the rest of the toys at Christmas, but they were meant to be used outside (as long as you brought them in when you were through playing), so there wasn't necessarily a Christmas link.

The First Powered Toy Trains

In 1901, Lionel showed New York City families that it was possible to fit an electric motor into a toy locomotive and power it by low-voltage electric current. The public's first exposure to electric trains was through a store display, but that display caught the imagination of thousands who saw it. A new industry and a new hobby were born.

Really Big Trains Were the Rule at First

These "Standard Gauge" trains ran on track with the rails about 2" apart. Cars seven inches high, five inches wide, and 16" long were common, although some of the cheaper sets used smaller measurements. But not everyone had room for such a large train. Those trains were also expensive. Some of the early sets cost as much as, say, a contemporary automobile. But as manufacturing techniques improved and "economies of scale" grew, the cost of a good set eventually came down to that of, say, a refrigerator or other major appliance. Still, between 1901 and 1950, a name-brand electric train was a major purchase that needed to be budgeted. And since it was, after all, a toy, what was more natural than giving the train as a Christmas present? THE Christmas present, in fact.

Of course, once the mysterious huge box was opened, it was only logical to route the train around the now-naked-looking Christmas tree.** So between Christmas and the day the tree came down, the train would run almost constantly, with almost everyone in the family taking a turn at operating it. Next year, of course, the train would come out before the presents appeared, and run a week or two before Christmas. And any cars or accessories in the new pile of presents were added to the temporary "railroad" as well.

Christmas Railroads and Train Gardens Arrive

All of these Christmas railroads were important precursors of the Holiday Villages that were made popular by Dept. 56 many years later, as well as the display railroads operating in many botanical gardens as I write this article. (To this day, certain Maryland fire departments strive to keep the Train Garden tradition alive.***)

Trains Became Smaller And More Realistic

Of course, the Standard Gauge trains were too big to leave sitting out indefinitely (although a few families were able to dedicate an attic or unused bedroom to a railroad). Smaller track gauges were tried; the most successful for about 50 years was "O" gauge, which has rails that are about 1.25" apart. Over the same period, the trains began to look more and more like the real trains they were imitating. Soon the hobby of "model railroading" was born, as train fans began building permanent railroads that looked and operated as much like the real thing as possible, given the available resources.

After a while, it wasn't enough to have a single huge train running around the Christmas tree once a year. Rather, hobbyists might own several trains and have a permanent railroad set up on a custom-built table somewhere year-round. Eventually Lionel owned the "lion's share" of such railroads, with American Flyer coming in a distant second. But both brands were still large enough to look good around the tree.

Even at half the size of the Standard Gauge trains, O-scale trains were too large to fit into most homes without some compromises. So Lionel and other companies typically made their equipment about 3/4 the size it ought to be. Eventually, American Flyer decided that they might as well reduce the width of the rails to match the scale of the train, and S-scale was born. But a few companies "leapfrogged" S gauge and went right to a size that was about Half the size of O scale - HO, for short.

Christmas Railroads Take a Back Seat to Model Railroads

In the 1960s, both Lionel and American Flyer fell on hard times. Model railroaders were buying HO trains, and few people who weren't model railroaders knew how to keep the trains running properly, so fewer and fewer Christmas trees were adorned with working trains. Many Lionel and AF trains found their way to collectors, who disdained to run "collectibles"; many other big trains gathered dust, or worse yet, rust.

Other forms of so-called "family" entertainment also began taking huge chunks out of people's schedules, the biggest single example being television. Later, video games, youth sports, and home computers drew even more energy and interest away from any kind of toy or model trains. Eventually, model railroading of all kinds was beginning to "level off" as a hobby, and many wondered how to keep the next generation interested in the hobby.

Christmas Trains Re-Emerge

Yet several things were already happening, on two different continents, that would bring Christmas trains back from near-extinction.

• Really Big Trains Reappear - In 1968, a European toy company introduced a line of train that was almost as large as the old Standard Gauge trains and at least as sturdy. LGB trains were made to be used outside but, they were also big and looked dangerously "cute" around the Christmas tree. Other companies followed suit, usually starting out with trains that would also look good around Christmas trees. Bachmann, a model railroad manufacturer, intruded the "Big Hauler" series, which made "Large Scale" trains (sometimes called G gauge) affordable for more families. But these big wonders still took up a lot of space, especially if you tried to add stations and other accessories to them in the old "Train Garden" tradition.

• Ceramic Christmas Villages Arrive - In 1976, an American company called Department 56 began making collectible ceramic houses and accessories the right size to fit a "Christmas Village" on a table or spinet. Department 56 pieces weren't all made to the same scale (models of huge buildings were built to a smaller scale to keep them from overwhelming the rest of the village, for example), but they averaged around O scale, the scale that suited most of the Lionel trains made after WWI. The nostalgic value of some of the products, coupled with the appeal of creating ones own little community was powerful, a host of other manufacturers brought out their own lines, and a new hobby was born.

  For over a decade, most Christmas Villages got along quite well without a train at all, although some were served by old Lionel and American Flyer sets, and others were served by inexpensive, battery-powered sets with a lifespan of one Christmas season or so. But eventually Bachmann made a quality model train that was the proper scale to look good with Department 56 buildings. The train, marketed as the "Village Express Electric Train Set," was so successful that after Bachmann had fulfilled their contract to Department 56, they went on to add many other trains in the same scale.

  To put it in the simplest terms, Bachmann's On30 trains are only slightly smaller than most of Lionel's O-gauge trains, but they run on track made for HO trains, which means they're easier to fit in many places. Later, the Hawthorne Village used the mechanism from these trains to produce their limited-edition collectible trains, and many other people began running Christmas trains. So, half a century after the decline of the "train garden," many families are using On30 trains and collectible village pieces to set up Holiday Villages in their own home.

• Popular Children's Books and Movies Feature Trains - Trains reappeared in books and movies that were intended for children but also enjoyed by adults. When a British children's book series was cleverly animated using sets that looked for all the world like a large model railroad, Thomas the Tank captured the hearts of young and old alike. In more recent years, young Harry Potter rode the "Hogwarts Express" to his beloved school, and the "Polar Express" added a distinctly North American Christmas train to our cultural imagination.

• More new model trains appeared. Bachmann, Lionel, AristoCraft, and LGB all added trains in Christmas colors to their lineup. Bachmann also added a reversing streetcar set that could bring action to the smallest Christmas village, even on a shelf or the back of the spinet. Lionel, under new management, improved its track and brought out several new trains, including a very nice model of the Polar Express and a fanciful, heirloom quality, Large Scale Christmas train that was proportioned like the huge Standard Gauge trains of old, but decorated with high-quality modern paint jobs.

• Large Scale public garden railroads began attracting millions of people a year to places like the New York Botanical Garden, the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburg, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and many more. This gave a boost, not only to the Garden Railroading hobby, but also to model railroading in general, and especially to Christmas trains, since many of the public displays have holiday themes.

In other words, whether it's around the tree, around a miniature town, or around a public display railroad, the Christmas train looks like it's back to stay. Still, there may be one other reason, we are welcoming Christmas trains back into our homes.

Today's Christmas Trains Take You On a Sentimental Journey

Many model railroaders, including garden railroaders, still model the most modern trains they can get their hands on. But the most popular Christmas trains are old-fashioned. I suspect that that nostalgia for "simpler times" is part of the cause. Even the collectible villages that those trains serve are old-fashioned and quaint; in recent years some have reproduced scenes from Norman Rockwell paintings. Others have modeled Dickens' London, Andy Griffith's Mayberry, and It's a Wonderful Life's Bedford Falls.

Were those times really simpler? Not for most people, if you think about it. But they seem simpler than our lives today, because for most of us, someone else had to pay the bills, fix the cars and appliances, and make all of the hard decisions.

And for most of us, the best time of all of those deceptively simple times was Christmas. Is it any wonder we feel our spirits lift when we hang our favorite ornament, sing strange old songs, or rewatch that old Christmas special that seemed too cheezy for words when we were young? And when the scent of vanilla extract from the kitchen mixes with the scent of fir or pine in the living room, all bets are off.

As odd as it seems, those of us who grew up with big trains around the tree are affected just as much by the scent of a Lionel or American Flyer transformer that has been left on a little too long, the repetitive thunks and clicks of an endlessly circling train, and the erratic beam that our train's headlight casts around the room when all the room lights are off and only the train and the tree are powered. You can have your "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." Give me the cheery thunder and repetitive motion of a big Christmas train with a circle of track sitting right on a hardwood floor.

How do you connect with the best days of the best years of your childhood? For my part, I reconnect with some of my best and earliest memories of my mother by making cut-out sugar cookies with my own children. I reconnect with some of my best and earliest memories of my father by running trains. Dad's still around, though not in the best of health, but we lost our mother on September 15 of this year. Because we had to cancel a trip, I've saved up more vacation this year than I meant to, but I hope to spend at least part of our family time at home this Christmas making cookies and running trains. And I wouldn't be surprised if, thirty years from now, my children do the same thing.

Finally . . . .

Most of all, enjoy the time you have with your family in the coming weeks. If big Christmas trains are part of the memories you are forming for the next generation, then our hearts are with you in that as well.

Have the most blessed holiday season possible,

Paul Race

Big Indoor Trains

FamilyGardenTrains.com

BigChristmasTrains.com

*Buddy L went out of business many decades ago. About 2004, another company entirely manufactured some electric trains under the Buddy L brand name. Those cast-metal and plastic trains bore no resemblance to the stamped tinplate Buddy L products, and the company disappeared almost as soon as the trains got into the warehouses. If the "real" Buddy L trains ever resurface in their stamped-tinplate glory, I'll be the first to support them.
**Tony Cotton, a friend from Australia, has reminded me that, in many homes, the tree skirt was the only place there was room to run a train without danger of someone tripping over the track.
***My Marylander friend Mauro Pasquini tells me that the firehouse train gardens in the Baltimore area were so pervasive during his childhood that he didn't realize it was a regional phenomenon. But of course they weren't possible further north where fire engines left outside were likely to get snowed under or iced up before Christmas. On a side note to this footnote, I'll add that I stumbled across the Baltimore/DC tradition of train gardens entirely by accident, when a DC-area reader mentioned his family's train garden as if I should know what he was talking about. I'd love to have more information, and if possible, old photographs to share. If I get enough information and graphics, I will devote an article just to them. Please contact me if you have anything to share.

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