IRON PONIES

foreign [Music] the families at the fireside and for the children the hour is one minute before bedtime of all nights of all bad times this is the most difficult or tomorrow is Christmas and sleep is not for youngsters who wait for surprises who conjure up fantasies of a giant tree glittering with lights and tinsel planted in an acre of bright new toys I don't know and so later when the children are in bed sleeping fitfully to be sure the scene is set the big surprise unfolded this year Johnny will get his electric train his Iron Pony and Mom and Dad can't help but think of other Christmases other surprises other childhoods it seems only yesterday to Dad that he was pounding downstairs on a cold Christmas morning to find a toy train of his own [Applause] everyone [Music] and now the staccato clicks on the whales and the gentle fur of the locomotive remind him of those early crude but wonderful models and the days when he was the engineer Casey Jones Jr himself the old Train's dad remembers have come a long way the stem winders the battery-powered models and the first plugins with Transformers that got so hot you could scramble an egg on them are gone the toy trains of today are a reflection of American railroad progress real trains have a romance all their own with names that are legendary and what youngster hasn't dreamed of eyeballing down the right-of-way at 90 miles an hour whistle going full blast [Music] these must remain dreams and thus the model craves millions of Americans not all of them children are toy train fans film and Stage star William gargan and globe of Whalen New York City's official host are among the celebrities who have never lost their interest in halftime rolling stuff here they see a remarkable Innovation and electronic control set which permits coupling and uncoupling of cars switching an operation of all gadgets while the trains are in motion gadgets include a lumber loader a milk car complete with milkman and a water tower servicing a locomotive that lets off smoke Ingenuity is the byword of the model train business for example Executives and Engineers of Lionel trains keep in close contact with the railroads and are quick to adapt new developments to the model field here they study a new car which loads and unloads cattle into a Corral railroads and courage toy companies to adopt their designs readily furnished Blueprints and photos children called high railers or templators like models which only approximate the real thing hobbyists called Full scalers insist upon models which carry every detail of a full-size plane [Music] all Miniatures however are either exact or near copies of real trains futuristic designs don't seem to sell foreign [Music] locomotives in cars for full-size trains is a tremendous productive Enterprise involving a large highly skilled Workforce massive Machinery huge parts and great plants [Music] toy train building is a different story the plant is large so is production but everything else is in miniature this Factory turns out 52 000 pieces of track a day eighteen thousand cars roll off its assembly lines every 24 hours and every hour 125 diesel locomotives come off the line under their own power every conceivable Gadget and accessory is produced in great quantity and in small size [Music] remember finished trains are subjected to wear tests run continuously until they break down to check durability [Music] this railroad carries no passengers operates but keeps a lot of grown men busy they're another brand of hobbyists perhaps the most rapid of all the train Builders of the model Club most of them were bitten by the railroad bug at an early age and never got over it The Men Who in daily life may be doctors lawyers businessmen Engineers or laborers play in a kid's idea of Fairyland everything trains track Bridges tunnels landscape scenery and buildings is handmade there are Engineers Brown housemen haters dispatchers and conductors schedules are scrupulously maintained and efficient operation keeps the line a model in every sense of the world [Applause] thank you and so on Christmas morning when Johnny and his sister come bouncing into the living room to Behold The Eighth Wonder of the world it'd be nice if they knew the story behind electric trains but of course it's Christmas and Johnny's too excited to be bothered with stories today it's an old old story Johnny and that goes for the part where pop starts telling you how to run her don't let him you'll never get him away from her if you do [Music] well you've got your train young fellow you can drive her anywhere you want California South Setauket or Timbuktu so take it away Johnny your Casey Jones third boss of the iron ponies [Applause] [Music]