Toy trains came into vogue in the 1930s but never went out of style

As Ron McWherter sees it, it's just not a Christmas tree if it doesn't have at least a few toy trains running around the base.

About this time every year, since 1993, McWerter, 72, has taken over much of his daughter Sherri Cote's Libertyville family room with a holiday-themed train layout that draws dozens, if not hundreds of train fans just to "take a peek."

"Back before Christmas 1993, after I had my first son, my dad called and asked if he could put one of his old engines under my tree," Sherri Cote said. "I told him sure, but it was his deal because I had a baby and Christmas to deal with.

"Now, five children later, I have five engines running on eight tracks under my tree for about a month each year."

"Actually, the setup is 16-by-8-by-4, and we've got nine trains on it now," McWherter said. "It's to the point where my daughter and son-in-law have had various Christmas parties and I've had grown men sit on the floor with little kids sitting in their laps watching the trains. I end up with more men on the floor because they've never seen anything like this."

Sam Sciortino of Wood Dale likely would be one of those men, too, if he didn't already spend too much time on his own floor perfecting his HO-gauge train layouts that draw their own crowds.

He says his 72-year-old knees often hurt for days after the $5,000 display comes down.

"I'm still just an old kid, so I spend days setting it up and hours laying on the floor just watching it and figuring out how to make it better next year," Sciortino said.

"Last year I decided I'd start to scale down the display a little but, now that I have, I think next year I'll go all out again."

For many train fanatics, including McWherter and Sciortino, the fascination began with fathers and grandfathers who worked on the railroad and brought their work home in the form of toy trains and other memorabilia.

"My dad was a conductor on the Chicago & North Western railway, so he would always get me a new piece of track or a car for my train for Christmas," Sciortino said. "And I'd never see it because he and my uncles would all be laying under the tree playing with it."

As common as those stories are, legend has it that many men, especially in the 1930s and '40s, got their first train sets because their fathers got sidetracked on trips to the hardware store.

Tony Walis, owner of America's Best Train, Toy and Hobby Shop in Itasca, said many of his customers are the same age as McWerter and Sciortino, especially around the holidays when the toy-train business booms.

"Earlier in the century, like in the 1930s, retailers, especially hardware stores, would run Lionel trains under the Christmas trees and other sale products in their storefronts," Walis said. "But the trains were obviously more fun than whatever the other items were, so people began demanding the trains. It didn't hurt that trains were also a very powerful American symbol and a primary form of transportation back then."

Like nearly every other popular item, Walis said, the toy train is again becoming fashionable as younger generations begin finding their fathers' old engines in family basements.

"Refurbishing or cleaning old things and reusing them is the thing to do these days, and trains are no different," Walis said. "The younger people are discovering the old stuff and gradually replacing it, or discovering the newer models that have realistic, digitally recorded sounds and things like that."

Bloomingdale resident Ken Lindhorn, 31, is in that younger generation of children whose fathers had train layouts but didn't put them under the tree. It's a tradition he and his wife are starting this year, for their 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, with an inexpensive wooden train set.

"My family never really did the train under the tree, but it is a tradition my wife and I thought was cute so we're going to start small and build our way up," he said.

"When the children get old enough to appreciate it a little more, we'll wind up with a nice setup that they can have for years. And I imagine we'll have fun picking up new pieces for it along the way."

A typical starter set with the basic track and engine can cost about $300, but can greatly increase as the size or gauge of the train increases.

"It's not a cheap hobby or display by any means," Walis said. "But if you do it right, you and your family will cherish the memories forever."