This discussion on where we bought our AF trains is a trip down memory lane. I
received my first set (a 302?) on my 1st birthday in 1953 from our upstairs neighbors
(surrogate god parents) while living in Rhode Island. By the time I was old enough to
appreciate them we had moved to a ranch style house in Wallingford, Conn. just outside
of New Haven.
I do remember setting them up many times in our basement until one day when I put up
a 7 ft long layout on a 6 ft long table. After a rather nasty derailment, the engine
ceased to function
My Dad was manager of a shipping company that specialized in piggy back rail. His
office was down the street from A.C. Gilbert. Every year at Christmas, his co workers
from around the country would ask him to go by the Gilbert store at the factory to buy
some trains at a discount. He would do so and send them out. However, it would take
him 6 months to get paid back. After the 2nd year he quit doing this.
He never bought many trains there but I do remember getting the biggest erector
set for Christmas one year.
When we moved to Northern Calif. in 1960 my trains didn't make the trip. Twenty
years later when I was dating my wife to be, we went over to her sisters house at
Christmas, where her brother in law had set up a real nice layout around their tree.
It brought back many memories as well as a bit of envy.
A few years after we got married, my wife bought me a little HO set. It got me
started. A year or so later I bought a 303 from my brother in law with some track and
rolling stock. Since that time I have acquired 15 other engines as well as a bunch of
accessories.
Our family teases us about our competing layouts, mine is larger, his looks
better. I tell them that both of us have fine layouts. Saying this my most stressful
day of the Holiday is the one in which my brother in law comes over for the first time
to see the layout, if the trains aren't running well I hear about it all year.
Thanks for the opportunity to share this.
Steve Roche P.E.
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