My favorite locomotive
What I played with and what I dreamed of
THE FOLKS AT CLASSIC TOY TRAINS — in both the print magazine and online at Trains.com — have been sharing their favorite toy train locomotives. Several neat stories have appeared focusing on the American Flyer and Lionel engines that mean the most to them.
After looking them over and thinking about what I had read, I figured it was time for me to share my thoughts about the locomotive I loved and the one I dreamed of. First, though, let me share some background information for anyone who has not been reading CTT in recent years.
I’ve been buying and selling trains since the 1970s. More than half a century ago, I began advertising in local newspapers and was able to pick up a lot of trains through my ads. I eventually had more trains than I needed, so I started to sell the extra trains and accessories at shows before opening the Underground Railroad Shoppe in my hometown of New Castle, Pa., in 1985. I was quickly inundated by O and S gauge locomotives.
Since opening my business, I have had the finest locomotives produced by every major manufacturer over the past four decades. I could operate them on a big layout in the store. You can find the story in my first book: I Never Met a Train I Didn’t Like.
To pick a locomotive as my favorite is difficult because I like them all!
However, I dreamed as a kid back in the 1950s of owning models of the F3 diesels that pulled the train my family took each summer when visiting my sister living in Chicago. They were painted Tuscan Red and lettered for the Pennsylvania RR.
Unfortunately, Lionel didn’t decorate its O gauge F3s for the Pennsy. For that reason, I dreamed of owning the Santa Fe F3s done in the warbonnet scheme. If I had to pick my true favorite, it would be my first engine: an American Flyer No. 290 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive. My father bought the 290 and three green New Haven passenger coaches as a set when I was barely 5 years old for Christmas of 1949.
I loved that S gauge set and ran it every year under our tree. The die-cast metal 290 and its metal tender made a terrific combination. The engine puffed great plumes of smoke and featured the wonderful “choo-choo” sound as it scurried along the track.
The set looked especially beautiful with its smoke and beaming headlight when the lights in the room were turned down. Nothing could beat putting my head down on the carpet watching that locomotive run through the little town and tunnels I built. I was the only kid in our neighborhood with an American Flyer train. Everyone else had low-end Lionel sets.
The best parts of the 290 were the sounds, smoke, and whitewall tires. When my father realized the locomotive didn’t have a whistle in the tender, he got me an American Flyer whistle billboard, that worked just fine.
The American Flyer 290 steam engine brings back so many fantastic memories of days gone by that my other locomotives cannot.
This basic yet hard-working postwar model is my G.O.A.T., no matter how many fancy engines I get.
Keep searchin’.
IF I HAD TO PICK MY TRUE FAVORITE, IT WOULD BE MY FIRST ENGINE: AN AMERICAN FLYER NO. 290 4-6-2 PACIFIC STEAM LOCOMOTIVE.