Lionel's No. 310 Billboard Set - Classic toy trains magazine

Hi everyone this week on Professor Carp's Toy Train Emporium We're going to take a look at the very first Lionel item I ever bought in my life. Hi everyone. It's Roger Carp senior editor at Classic Toy Trains magazine taking you on a trip back in time. 1958. It was a great time to be a little boy in Los Angeles. The Dodgers had come from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and I had my first heroes, besides my dad, Duke Snyder and Don Drysdale. It was also an exciting time for me because back in 1956 I received my first Lionel Train Set. I played with it all the time and spent a lot of hours going through the catalog. I wanted more and I was able, in 1958 I was only seven years old, but I was saving up my nickels and dimes I was doing whatever extra chores I could do around the house because I wanted to add to my layout. But I had to start small. And I started with something that many have you might have started with. The first thing that I bought with entirely my own money was a number 310 billboard set. Here it is from 1958. Beautiful box, isn't it? And I bought it. And what I got, as you look in front, I got five billboards including five plastic frames. I love the Billboard sets. In fact if you remember from my book "101 Classic Toy Trains" I rank this is number one hundred. And I think it's important item. I think that so many of us were able to afford this and considered it our first accessory. But I have to admit once I got home and I look to what I had I was a bit confused. Let me show you why. There were five billboards. Well, this one advertised Chevrolet. I knew about Chevys but my mom drove an Oldsmobile my dad drove a Buick, so, close, but not quite home for me. Then I looked at this one. Airex. It involved fishing and I knew my last name was Carp and that was a fish. So I felt a little bit threatened! Purolator? What in the world was that? Was that medicine? I didn't want to take more medicine. I had no idea what a Purolator was. It took me a long time before I figured out it was something else for a car. So again it probably would've looked good on a Chevy but it didn't mean a lot to me. Then we get to the one thing I knew about. Wrigley's Gum. Yeah I liked to chew gum -- we weren't allowed to in school of course -- but I did like to chew it. So that was one I could identify with. The fifth one: the U.S. Navy. Well, that was years ahead, it just reminded me of how much fun it was to watch "Popeye the Sailor Man" every night on channel 5. But the billboards were still cool to put on my layout. They mean even more to me now because through my years I've research I've come to learn about how Lionel got involved in the billboard business how, in 1949, Joe Hanson, the advertising manager, worked with Standard Billboard Company to add this to Lionel's line and later his successor at Lionel, Jacques Zucare, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing and talking with many times, told me how some of the sponsors came aboard and he was able to get them to do billboards. So I look at my billboards now they bring back great memories of a seven-year-old and the history that as an adult I'd come to learn and love about Lionel. Thanks very much. My recommendation? Go out and get some billboards! We'll see you next time. Roger Carp is a nationally known expert in the field of toy train history. Read his articles in every issue of Classic Toy Trains magazine. Subscribe today! Thanks for watching.