Trains

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas; Mannheim Steamroller

Some time in the 70’s, my parents had the good sense to give me an electric train for Christmas. Electric trains win the bet as the ultimate gift for the all-American boy. A doll, I imagine, would be the counterpart to the train. The engine on my train came from the Santa Fe line and had three boxcars with a caboose bringing up the rear. Dad and I tacked the track down in the shape of a circle onto a big piece of plywood. It provided days upon days of entertainment. The following Christmas, I received landscaping to put down on the board: grass, trees, bushes, shrubs, gravel roads and railroad signs. And one year Dad and I put together a model depot and a model grain elevator. Here’s the sad part – we never had the opportunity to put the accessories on the big piece of plywood. The tight confines of our house supplied an insufficient amount of space in which to work and in which to keep the finished product out and available to run for any appreciable amount of time. Regardless, the train ranks high on my list of best Christmas presents that I ever received. My list includes the miniature wind-up player-piano that plays “The Entertainer” and the Bing Bang Boing set.

Chip Davis released this Christmas album in 1984. It rocked the music scene immediately and, since that time, American Gramaphone has sold over six million copies of this musically intense album. The clever arranging and creative orchestration frequently bid me to listen to it outside the Christmas season. Some fans of this album would claim that they have heard no better rendering of “Silent Night”, with the sleigh bells fading into the distant chords. When I experienced homesickness while studying at CCM in Cincinnati shortly before Christmas in 1988, the overall magical portrayal of Christmas on this album brought immediate, yet temporary, relief from my affliction.

Just as powerful as the music itself, the picture on the cover sparkles with the image of the Christmas tree of dreams, with its bell-shaped, ornamented tree, its other-worldly below-the-branches lighting and, with a big red Christmas bow on its tall stack, a steam engine train. I don’t see how anyone can stop themselves from purchasing an album that produces and promises a vision like this.

I’m thankful that my parents got me the train. At this point in my life, the fact that Dad and I never got to finish our train project doesn’t matter very much. The memory of opening the present so long ago serves me more now than the actual train ever did.

Credits: To railroad enthusiasts everywhere, who can’t deny themselves the indulgence of the romance and intrigue of trains, lifesize or otherwise.