MovieChat Forums > Holiday Affair (1949) Discussion > train set

train set

posted 13 years ago by jmars35264
8 replies | jump to latest

Would I like to have that train set today. A real collectors item. Sorry to see it so abused when the kid attempted to take it back. looked like a Lionel.

[–] Ironman54 13 years ago

'O scale' Lionel at that - not the 'kiddie' 027 versions. NICE stuff all around.
I knew I was going to like this flick when it started off with trains. Then Janets wardrobe, Christmas, nostalgia etc., etc - good times ! Gotta get this on DVD now.

[–] Jay09101951 12 years ago

You don't see the name Lionel anywhere in the film and the cars were not in the famous orange lionel boxes used in the post-war sets ( I know it's a B/W film but any collector would know them ). My guess is the RKO and cheapskate Howard Hughes did not want to pay Lionel for permission to use thier name so hence the cheap box and cheap wrapping for a classic set.

[–] trainman1969-1 12 years ago

It's definitely a Lionel 2333 diesel engine set paired with three Madison cars. The two-unit 2333 was introduced in 1948, in the more commonly seen Santa Fe red and silver "warbonnet" scheme. These were the first mass-produced toy diesel locomotives ever made.

Now here's where the movie digresses from reality. The 2333 was actually marketed with a set of aluminum streamline passenger cars, not the earlier Madison style, which were actually introduced before the war, but still made into the 1950's.

The cars used in this train, as well as the engine set, are lettered with the name of the train. In the real world, the engines would have said "Santa Fe", and the cars would have said "Lionel Lines".

[–] Ironman54 9 years ago

If you look at the box that the kid returns the trains in (assuming the original box) you can see that the make/model etc is simply crossed out with pencil/pen. It appears to be 'scribble' but look closely - a crude method of covering up the make of the trains etc.
The budget must not have allowed for more creative ideas :-)

[–] JP2005 8 years ago

I just backed it up to that scene, boy your not kidding! Looks like several kids had a go with markers crossing the off all legible info.

-In my mind, Christopher Reeve will always be Superman.-

[–] Jes' Sayin' (5943) 2 years ago

If he had been smart he would have charged them for the product placement, just like he charged Corn Flakes (probably).

[–] scott-1441 11 years ago

A couple of days ago I watched TCM's documentary on holiday movies. It's a bit hazy, but I recollect the boy from this movie being interviewed, and he said he received this train set the following Christmas from the producers (or Mitchum himself?), and that he still has it today. Now THAT'S a collectors item.

[–] Jay09101951 7 years ago

By the way, the desiel engine had a horn activated by the button on the transformer but when Timmy is playing with it , it makes a whistle sound that the a steam tender makes. More hocus-pocus from the RKO sound dept.