Man, I wish they'd re-market these large train sets; I can remember the rush as one would crank up the dial on the transformer and smell the electricity as the locomotive or diesel came to power; I'd buy one in a heartbeat to share with grandchildren or just myself!
Agree, while they do not make trains the way they used to, the road names and sound systems are intriguing. I personally love the trains made in the 50's and 60's. Lots of great stuff to get and run around the Christmas tree!. Thanks. Brian
In my town, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, there was a department store that featured Lionel trains at Christmas. Every year in thev50's I would wait impatiently for the trains to come out in the Toy Department. I am sure I saw the D132, this one, and all of the 5 X 9 layouts. While mom shopped I would spend hours watching these layouts operate! Great memories!
My dad brought home the 1963 demonstrator set from Payless Drug Store,( where he was a Pharmacist ). As a 7 year old, I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood! Sadly, long gone, but I still have my original FA diesel and cars, plus about 18 more locos and lots more cars. Have not quit ‘playing with trains’!
That is awesome, that is what makes running and collecting Lionel trains so fun. I have had a ton of fun filming and sharing original Lionel equipment for this channel. Glad you like it. More coming over the next few months. Enjoy and keep running those trains. Brian
Yeah, the older accessories do have a different feel and sound to them. Most of the movement is with a vibrator motor and not a can style motor. Finicky, but cool. Thanks. Brian
Wow i was born the year this layout was produceed. Its wonderful to see how well its been taken care of. I still have the Lionel set my dad gave me at Christmas when i was 6yrs old.
I was six years old in 1956 and I did have a Lionel train set which to the best of my recalling began in Christmas of that year. But if I would have awoken to something like this on Christmas day I probably would have totally freaked out! Thank You for showing this, very nice!!!
My pleasure, really have enjoyed filming and sharing these wonderful trains. The original layouts and trains from the 50's are something special. A train running around the tree at Christmas is always a treat. More coming over next few months. Thanks. Brian
Fantastic video! Love the old Dealer Displays. I built a faithful replica of the D-105, a 5x9 two track layout. Great fun running postwar trains with lots of operating accessories.
You are so right, I love operating Lionel trains from the 50's and 60's. They just have a feel you can't get from HO or new manufacturers. The displays are special and would have loved to see them in action back in the day as well. Thanks. Brian
Thanks for the memiories .I received Jersey Central set for Christmas in 1957 myself. Dad created a layout similar to Lionels D-106 to run it on along with 2026 set. We had it for two years when Dad changed us to HO in 1959 (Santa Fe space set with dog bone layout). I still play with trains and have re-collected all three sets, but only the HO set has four of the original cars and the rocket launcher..
Thanks for the note. Yes, the vintage equipment running does bring some of the nostalgia back. It's been so fun filming these videos and the dealer layouts are my favorite. More coming in next few months. Thanks. Brian
I had so much fun building my 4 x 8 Lionel O27 layout in the 50’s. I still have a water tower in its original box. I wish I had held on to the trains & track. Very nice video. Thank you.
My pleasure, such a great layout. More coming soon with great running vintage trains. Glad you like what I am doing. Check out the other episodes. Neat stuff. Thanks. Brian.
I remember every car, loc, accessory I had and I am 81 years old now. Will todays children remember the toys they get now. I do not forget my plastic building blocks, Lincoln Logs, erector set to.
Great memories for sure. Love the original layouts with period correct trains running on them. Have a D265 from 1959 coming soon, keep an eye out for that one!. Thanks. Brian.
Always liked how the the tree trains could intersect on this layout. Two run in opposite directions toward each another and one passes over top of the those two. Also a good example for the use of a 111 Trestle Set without needing a 110. I like how the front loop is asymmetrical to accommodate the control panel Adds some verity to the train design. A good showcasing of accessories. But always found it funny to have the water tower on the motorized stub track.
Yeah, great display with awesome visuals and train action. I think the layout is well designed, but you are right, sometimes they were just putting an accessory wherever they could fit it!. Thanks and check out the other two display layouts I have up. Brian
The dealer display is very cool. I never heard of them till now. They may have been the inspiration for the 70's life-like styrofoam layout which i remember from my childhood.
May have been. Lionel produced sales aids for its dealers as far back as the 20's and 30's. In the postwar years, they devised great layouts that highlighted the trains and accessories to help dealers sell more trains. Fun to see vintage equipment running on original layouts. Thanks. Brian.
It was fun to walk into Sears in December and see the train displays running. HO scale by that time I believe. Just as much a bummer to this child in the 1960s when I saw a train display NOT running, then eventually no displays at all. 😞
When I was ten, a friend of my Dad's gave him a Lionel train set that his son no longer wanted. It had a locomotive with the smoke pellets a controller with a whistle function, a freight car with doors that opened a flat car and a gandy dancer and enough track for a 4'x6' oval
That is awesome, the stories of where everyones first experience with Lionel trains are so cool. Love the old equipment and goal of this channel is to share that feel of the 50's or 60's. Such fun and I have enjoyed this project. Thanks Brian
My dad worked for waste management and about 11 years ago when I was also ten, he found and old postwar set just about exactly as you described. The little glass vile of pellets hadn’t even been opened as far as I could tell. It ran great but the track was old and rusted
HI John, Appreciate the comment, but all of the trains shown are not mine. I am very fortunate to be friends with some incredible collectors who have opened their collections to me to video and share with everyone. I love exploring their collections looking for the cool stuff! I do have a collection and layout as well. Thanks. Brian
WOW -- it's fascinating to see, first-hand, what Lionel wanted the public to see -- LOTS of continuous action, plus the opportunity to demo all those exciting accessories. I really enjoyed experiencing what you've created here: a genuine time portal to 1956 -- bravo -- thanks for making this!
Thanks for the comment. This is a great dealer layout with lots of action. What boy back in 1956 would not want to get every Lionel train they could get their hands on to run trains like that!.. B
Dealer displays are neat, besides being part of Lionel history they can be great inspiration for layouts as they pack a lot of action in a small space.
You are so right, Many of personal layout back in the 50's and 60's would have been inspired by what they saw at the department store or trains shop. Love the vintage equipment running on original layouts. Fun to film and share as well. Thanks. B
Like the vintage look myself, though in my layout's case it was an incidental thing from using O27 track to get the most out of the small space I had to work with.
That’s a bunch of separate oval tracks!! The crossing tracks were the entertainment… we could adjust speeds to get amazing wreck’s about every half hour or so!… I loved my Lionel locomotives…. I however was pretty brutal with them!!! I just got a kick seeing high speed head on collisions… they never died…. Always ran…..rip: Lionel !!!… I am sure they are junk made today.
Yeah, I am sure a number of classic engines and trains were beat up by those collisions. But they were pretty rugged and quite a bit have survived today. Love seeing them run again. Thanks. Brian
Would have loved to see those layouts from stores like Macy's. Lionel would work with some of the largest stores and train dealers to create custom layouts that would help sell tons of trains. 20x20 would have been fantastic! Thanks for the comment and check out some of the other episodes and shorts for more Postwar Lionel trains. Brian.
There was a dealer layout looked fairly good for it'd age, 750 bucks, I could have modified my layout, like take up all the track and just took the lionel display mount it on the four by eight platform, I wish I seen it before I laid the track, my display was built by my nephew, so I plan to keep it. But these lionel displays are very interesting. You can never be bored on yours iam enjoying watching yours.
Very Nice layout thanks for sharing. The only thing I can see would be the passenger cars should be the Red stripe cars that were only sold in 1956, they it would be perfect!
Good point, once I had looked at the video myself, I also wish I had changed around the trains and even had them run in opposite direction as well. Having too much fun filming. Thanks for the input and follow. More coming! B
I can understand that. I am in process of building a new layout and am chomping at the bit to make some new videos. I have always been a fan of the trains going in opposite directions then one doesn't hide the other when they are side by side. One fellow got upset when I suggested that. LOL Keep up the good work.
I don’t know if this was the lay out that was in the Sears store when I was a kid. Way too many years ago. I just remember it was big, at least for a little kid. In the toy department of Sears they had a display that I could stand all day and watch. I never thought about it as a child. But retrospective I wondered if an employee or employees set up the display before Christmas and took it down after. Maybe this is how they always had a great display. In 1956 I would have been 11. About the right time. Never had a Lionel. It was the premier. It was out of Santa’s price range. I got a Marx (a big toy manufacturer in Chicago that made every kind of toy imaginable and were low priced by the standards then). Not nearly as detailed or precision but was fun just the same.
Love the memories. It is possible a layout like this one would have been in a sears department store. Depending on the year, different versions of these layouts would have been available . Also larger stores would have a custom layout done for them! Marx trains are fun and some are very collectable. The quality of the postwar Lionel trains is unmatched though! Thanks for the note. Glad you enjoyed it. Brian.
Very true. My comment really was aimed at ppl saying how expensive trains are ( it was a bit sardonic). This was designed to be bought by a dealer,300 bucks was a lot of money back then to most people. But I agree if you sold something like this today that it would be a decent price. Too I suspect some don't realize the trains didn't come with it:)
I'm running on a 6'X6' without a mountain. But I do plan to add a dual elevated loop over Christmas break. Looks like you're running a C of NJ NW-2, Burlington GP-7 and maybe a 637 variant? Very cool, thanks for the vid!
NICE! I`d make a similiar layout double the size if I had the room in my basement so I could run longer trains,especially passenger consists with my Lionel Pennsy GG 1 locomotive..
Very enjoyable. I own a number of Lionel accessories, post war, but don't have the room on the layout for all of them. The post war accessories can be finicky, but with minor adjustments work well. I built a separate table for the Marx trains since the Marx don't operate well over the Lionel switches, hence the reason for a smaller Lionel table.😎🚂🚃🚃🚃✝
Love running the old Lionel equipment and accessories. They are a little finicky, but have a unique feel to them as well. Enjoy and keep playing with trains. Brian
Don't get me wrong, my two favorite Lionel store display layouts are this one and the D132. However this one has an operating water tower on the track that coukd only handle the #60 Trolley, # 50 gang car and # 52 fire car; none of which required water. I would have moved the water tower to close in to one of the stations. Just my thought.
Yeah, I do think they were just trying to put as much on the layout as possible and didn't really think it through. But otherwise such a cool layout for sure!!! Thanks, Brian
Love the dealer display, but you asked for feedback. So I would've had the guys who were talking incessantly be quiet while the trains were running. Very annoying to hear that yammering in the background. But the visual quality was excellent.
Totally agree, I'm still learning and working on making these videos better. I am working on lining up more original and really cool dealer display over the next few months. Appreciate the comment. B
I can smell the mineral oil smoke puffs chuffing out of my screaming steam engine now! Great memories this! I think the diesels were lighter because my steam engine always stayed on the tracks regardless of which direction they crashed into each other on the exact same tracks…. Fuck that was probably a really old antique… way before diesels existed. My bad..
Yes, you are right. There are more people who just love seeing vintage Lionel trains running than hard core collectors who search out every variation. Some do both. Love this video it shows a correct and tough to find dealer layout and running trains. All part of the fun. Thanks. Brian.
Why do many people always run Lionel trains at such a fast speed? I only seem to see the unrealistic speeds in O scale, but not in HO, N, and etc. It's like a very common thing to race O scale. I'm just wondering why?
Good point, I noticed that from when we filmed this one. These engines do run really well slowly and are good pullers. They do run well fast as well!. It is fun highballing it sometimes!! Thanks. Brian.
HI Dennis, The grass on the layout is original to the layout and in pretty good shape. I do feel like the original grass has faded over the years and surely looked fresher when new back in 1956. You can still find the original grass in different color grades and should be used to bring old layouts back to their past glories. I would have loved to see this layout NEW!. Thanks. Brian.
Brian - can you please tell us what bluetooth camera you connected to the train for viewing on a phone? The quality on the 1959 train layout video was superb. Thanks
HI, thanks for the comment. Really trying to show these spectacular layouts in the best way possible. First the "on train" view was using a GoPRO camera. Great shots from that one. I think the newer GoPros give you ability to live stream it to you phone via Bluetooth!. Thanks. Brian.
HI, well it's and 8 foot by 8 foot display, the transformer and switches are on the corner, some displays add an extra section making the display a tad bigger. I am not sure how high the mountain is at this time, but I don't think it is any higher than 18 inches. This is a great display with lots of action. Thank you. B
Hi Brian, I would really appreciate you measuring that ground buss strip. Hopefully you have a vernier caliper so you can measure the thickness of the strip. I see in the picture you shot Lionel looped one end and it would be easy to get a caliper inside that loop. So it's really 1/2" wide? Looks smaller to me but I have no reference in the picture to compare it to.
Still would be a good deal today. So much action. Also, it included a number accessories, so the actual cost of the display was quite reasonable. Also sold lots of trains by displaying them in action. Thanks. B
I’ve seen pay stubs from that era. The ghosts of Christmas must have visited a lot of bosses back then. No way a $300 Lionel set was coming home for Christmas.
Yeah, Lionel and American flyer trains were expensive. But in today's dollars probably similar to buying that New gaming system or computer everyone wants. Great stuff!.
I like your videos. But you asked for advice. The only thing I can say is: Explain how you or your fellow collector came across the item. Maybe a little about the owner. But this is nitpicking I really enjoy your channel.
Hi, appreciate the comment. It would be great to have a little history. Sometimes it isn't really known or just bought at a train show. I will see what I can find out about this layout and add it to the comment. Thanks. Brian
Yep, I totally forgot. Having so much fun running the layout that forgot to get the Trolley running on the video. I do think I had some of it running, but it hit the editing floor!. Sorry about that. Thanks for the Comment, really working to make better videos for you guys to enjoy!. Brian.
HI, Yeah, these dealer layouts and trains were expensive. The dealer would look at it as an investment to help make more profit selling trains, and they could also sell the layout and parts at the end of the season, making it more reasonable. Love those original layouts, lots of action! Thanks.
