Department Store Toy Trains

This did my heart good on Black Friday...to see the return of toy trains to what once was the great John Wanamaker Department Store in downtown Philadelphia. When I was a child, this store had an entire floor devoted to toys, and of course, they had a huge operating layout at the holidays. In recent years, the store was sold and downsized, and for the last several years, under the Lord And Taylor moniker it was basically a woman's apparel and accessories outlet. What was once a great nine or ten full floors of department store now is down to just three selling floors. Recently, Macy's took over the store portion of the great building, and they've broadened the lines as much as space will permit. It's just a pleasure to see trains for sale again in a downtown department store.

Jim

Lionel Excitement

The new Lionel catalog marks the return of standard gauge production to their catalog after an absence of several years . I agree with Marc that the standard gauge summer trolley and trailer looks like a winner and that it's priced right. I've already placed my order. Let's hope that sales are brisk and that this will be just the first of many new standard gauge offerings from Lionel.

I also ordered the 0 gauge Harry Potter set. Although I really like British outline locomotives, I was planning to pass on this set after I saw the prototype at York in April. This is because the display model had a plastic locomotive shell. I asked a Lionel rep about this and he told me that production would be as per the prototype - with a plastic locomotive. However, he must have been misinformed because the catalog clearly states that the locomotive is "die-cast metal." Hooray! This set is also priced right at $300 and it should be a BIG seller for Lionel. I'm happy to be adding a 4-6-0 loco to my stable of British outline locomotives.

Jim