Original HO Train Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The year 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the original HO train bought for Waldowood’s immediate predecessor, Plasticville FM.

This original train set was a Tyco Merchandise Express, one of several HO train boxed sets new for 1960. To this set, two special Lionel HO-scale cars were added: a flatbed helicopter car and the Pennsy Operating Dump Car (just behind the Swift box car in the picture above). By Waldowood tradition, the train also includes a Life-Like Allied Chemical tanker car from 1989 in order to keep that car separate from the American Cyanamid tanker car discussed on the Waldowood 2007 page.

Originally, the Merchandise Express featured a blue and yellow Santa Fe F9-A engine. This engine was retired in 1989 (and parked, in Waldowood 2010, behind the M&M Dome). The train is currently hauled by a Santa Fe GP38 “High-Nose,” shown rounding “School Curve” in Waldowood 2010.