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So by the time this all became available to me, it was rusted and
mildewed beyond repair. I brought some of the accessories, the trains, and
the transformer home to St. Pete. I found a store right here called H&R on
US19. They carried Marklin. Alice, the owner, did a barter arrangement with
me where I got a new transformer, a small bit of track, enought to circle the
Christmas tree, and revitalization of the trains I kept. She got all the acces-
sories, and one of the train sets in exchange.
2005
I got an electric train when I was around 5 years old. We lived in
Germany, so I got Marklin trains. The high quality of German craftsmanship
is recognized worldwide. We were military, so we moved frequently. A lot of
our stuff remained packed in boxes for years. I finally took these home with
me when I was 50. My dad had built, by hand, one of those displays like
what you might see at a mall. His folded in half and made a large vertical
wooden box on casters, but when it was unfolded, it was the unfinished
replica of a German village. It had a mill with a waterwheel, a RR crossing,
with the lights and barrier arms that went up and down. There was
a tunnel up in the mountains, and switches to reroute the trains. There were
trees made of twigs and sawdust. There were all sorts of little people and
vehicles and their houses, which I guess he bought and assembled. There
were three train sets with different styles of locomotives. I keep forgetting
the name for the scale, I think it is HO, which is smaller than the big American
Lionel trains, but not the smallest one. These trains are beautiful.
I would pop in there
from time to time, but at
some point they closed
the store. I was surprised recently to see them on
49th Street on the way
home from Bible study.
I went in and confirmed
that Alice is still around.
I do need to get one of
the lights going, but I
can't afford it right now.
So, I break out the train
set every Christmas along
with the little tree, and so
far it still runs. 2005 was the year H&R had a train show and photo contest. I entered three pictures and there
wasn't a lot of competition, if any, so I was pretty sure I'd won. I did not. I guess there
is a lesson there, but I'm still mystified. The photos show
my three locomotives. The modern one is the one
I traded.
