My First Model Railroading Set

My family had a “Christmas Train”. It was a train set that we kept with our Xmas decorations, and we would run it around the tree every year. I am not sure where it came from, but it was a simple round circle at HO gauge. I fixated on it and insisted on being in charge of it every holiday.

It soon became obvious to my Mother that I could use a train set of my own, and one year, the very set you see above was given to me. I was ecstatic and spent months working on setting it up and trying to pick up accessories to fill out my little town, which grew to considerable size on a large piece of particle board in our basement.

Eventually, as I got older, the little town got less attention, and eventually I disassembled it, returning what I could to its original box. That box stayed with me until just a few years ago, when I was trying to reduce the volume of what I owned, and sold it online.

I try not to regret the things I let go of on purpose, but when I spotted this ad in an old magazine this morning, it triggered a decent amount of emotion. I miss my train set and want it back. Not only that, but I try to tell myself that it is in the hands of someone who can appreciate it more than me, but that doesn’t always help, and I find myself looking on eBay and dreaming of a reunion. Which gets me wondering what it would be like to open up the box again and try to rebuild that little town. Could I do it better? Would it be as satisfying?

I guess there is only one way to really know for sure…