Well,...I hate to say, I never bought AF, or any other trains for that
matter,..as a kid!! My parents
did however, although, a small amount. My first train was a used 1953 AF
"Mountaineer" passenger set that my folks bought for ten bucks in 1962, a price my Mom
remembers it to have been.
My Mom remembers taking Saturday or Sunday drives with my Dad,.. WITHOUT
me,...to
buy train goodies from Dudley Ambrose, that lived in a very small town just a few
short miles
south of us, in Santa Margarita, Calif.. He also had a hobby store in the city of San
Luis Obispo, a little further south yet,
over the infamous Cuesta Grade. (full of train tunnels!!) He closed the shop I
believe, at one time, and ran it out of his home, I do remember being in his store I
think once with
my Dad,...not sure when,...maybe I was with Dad when he bought a train goodie,..I just
don't
remember why we were there, and barely remember the store!
New items my folks bought for me were the #977 Action Caboose, #958 Mobilgas
tank car,
two Rex kits, a flatcar and gondola,...and some Plasticville. These goodies along with
the
Mountaineer set, are seen, with me, in the 1962 photo on page 33 in the book, "Toy
Train Memories",...gee, I have mentioned THAT before?? :^)
I do remember having a late 50's AF catalog, and looking through it often,
looking at the other AF
goodies that were offered,...but never buying any, or going back to the hobby store
and looking!! I never bugged
my folks to take me! What was wrong with me?? Closer to the mid-60's, the HO racing
set took over my interests.
I'm not really sure how many times the train was set up,..the only picture I can
find, (I'm still looking!)..is the
Christmas of 1962 photo of me with the train. I just don't have the memories of
playing with the train much,..
or my surprize when I got the train! This all changed of course in 1997 when I got the
ol' 282 loco running again,
and started setting trains up around the Christmas tree, ..and buying more trains!!
And an interesting side note,...(here is where I always make Dave Dewey
wince!)...I bought four packed boxes of
American Flyer . Rolling stock, track, switches, locos, parts,..and parts!! All for
$200.00!! This is where I got my Franklin w/coaches,
which I had been looking for, Sam the Semaphore Man, #346 Switcher, #779 Oil Drum
Loader , were the highlights. I sold
nearly $150.00 worth of parts and HO AF bridges on ebay,...nearly re-claiming my $200!!
Bought the AF from a friend named Pete. We went to High School together, and got
to know better down the line, as he hung around
the first country band I was in. In the early 90's, I went to a local train show to
see about gettin' my 282 running again,...then is when I
found out that Pete,..was the SON of Dudley, the fella that my folks bought my train
goodies from!! Sooo...in about '99 or '00,...Pete saw
one of my cards, pinned up somewhere, and called me, said he had four boxes of AF he
would sell for $200....I of course made my
way to the ATM, and then to Pete's, which was the very house his folks had lived
in,...and in an old boxcar, there where the train goodies!
Quite of few thingsthat I kept, (sold a few), were new/old stock items, still in
the little envelopes, with Pete's Dad's hand written
prices in them! Pretty cool I thought,...I still plan on buggin' Pete to see if I
could get a photo of his Dad, possibly with AF!!
Golly,...sorry for the novel!!
Rick.
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