The "In With The New .... Out With The Coal" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Playing with my trains in the cellar with my dad.  He and I always set up our Lionel train yard in the cellar after I got my first Lionel train set when I was 10 years old.  I think he enjoyed it as much as I did during the years that we screwed the two 4' x 8' panels of plywood together, put them on wooden sawhorses and placed all the Plasticville buildings around the streets which were painted on the plywood. It wasn't always that way, because for years we had a coal stove in the basement with a coal bin that took up most of the usable space.  I can remember the coal truck pulling up in front of the house on North Queen Street, running a metal chute from the truck to the basement and listening to the coal travel down the chute into our small cellar window.  In the cellar was a small wooden-enclosed area where the coal was contained.  I can remember how dirty the cellar floor would be after the coal was delivered.  Not a great place to set up a train yard.  One of my jobs was to shovel the ashes from the coal stove into a metal bucket which, after full, was taken to the curb for the trash man to take.  We used the coal stove to keep our small three-bedroom home warm in the winter.  Dad bought the coal from Bushong Coal Company which had an office on Grant Street in downtown Lancaster, PA where my Nannan Woods (my grandmother) worked in the office.  Her maiden name was Bushong and she was part of the family that ran the coal business.  Then one summer, after we had experienced a severe cold winter, dad decided it was best if we put in an oil burner and get rid of the mess associated with coal.  He told me it would cost us more, but maybe I would be able to set up trains if I wanted to.  

Easy to see what I would ask for that Christmas.  I can remember heading up East King Street to Farmers Supply Company after choir practice most every Saturday morning in the fall to see the trains they had for sale which were on display on the second floor of the building.  Usually had an hour or so to admire the beautiful engines which were running on their train display before I had to head to Meiskey's Jewelry store where my dad worked until noon.  Wasn't long before the clerks knew me by name and were asking me which one I was hoping for at Christmas.  Wasn't disappointed that Christmas when I opened my gifts and there was that Lionel train set with engine, tender, caboose and two coal cars.  Within a week dad and I had the new table ready with the roads painted and the track in place.  We got to run the train that winter, but it wasn't until the next few years that we built the mountains and tunnel on one end of the table and the village on the other end.  All I have left from that era are the wonderful memories of dad and me playing with the trains night after night!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.