The Model Train

Once upon a time, before the Internet and video games there were model trains.  They were a rite of passage, something most kids, boys especially, got between the ages of 6 and 10.  For most kids it was cool for a while and then it collected dust.  That was sort of how it worked in our house too.  My sister got a train set sometime during the latter part of the 1960's and I can remember her playing with it now and again when we lived in Seattle.  Once we moved to Mountlake Terrace it seemed to disappear, that is until I was old enough to get a train set for Christmas some time around 1980, I guess.  Then we both enjoyed trains, I had a layout in the family room and my sister decided to go all out and build a large layout in the garage, complete with rivers and mountains.  I can remember one summer when we were tasked with ripping up newspaper for paper mache.  Time marched on and my layout was put into boxes and stored and her layout molded and was stored in our garage and later her own.  The trains and all that went with them were passed first to her kids and now I have it once again.
This last weekend I finally decided to get out the train stuff to see what if anything still worked, to my surprise most everything still works.  And the best part was to watch my son enjoy the trains the way his aunt and his dad also enjoyed them.
Sadly, there are no known pictures of my train layout, nor do I have any pictures of my sister's garage layout.  What I do have is a picture of my sister table topping and a picture of my boy doing the same.