Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
As I had mentioned previously, Ralph Lebowitz, my Dad’s boss, was an amazingly generous man. He was aware that I loved American Flyer trains and came to see the layout at our home. One Christmas Eve, our family went to the annual company Christmas Party at Ralph’s home to celebrate with many of the company’s employees. As the evening rolled on, it came time to open presents. The staff got little envelopes, which I now know were filled with bonus checks.
When it was my turn, Ralph pointed under the Christmas tree at a large package. What could it be? I opened it up instantly and was amazed. It was an American Flyer Talking Mystic Train Station!
The price in 1956 was $19.00. $19.00 in 1956 has the same buying power as approximately $226.31 today (2025). As I said, Ralph was a generous and loving man!
It had an internal record player!!
The #799 model, built from 1954 to 1956, featured an “Automatic Talking” function with a record player and control unit to simulate train sounds and a station master’s voice.
The train station was built only between 1956 and 1956, but you can still find them for sale on eBay today.
We left the party early (so Dad could keep celebrating), but when Mom and I got home, we went to the backyard train room. Remember, it was December 24th, and it was cold. I installed the new train station onto the layout, wired it up, and played with the train, starting and stopping at the station until late midnight.
Do you know the drill? Today is midweek, which means it’s time for calisthenics at the local training facility! Today, we again wore matching Christmas shirts and performed well. I managed to do five more counts on every machine than requested. We actually finished about five minutes early, so we headed to Ralph’s to get some goodies, including eggnog and orange juice.
It felt funny putting the car into the garage since it had been outside for two weeks. Yesterday’s garage cleanup effort was worth it.
At 12:15 pm, we headed to Mary’s doctor’s appointment near Costa Mesa, and while she was with the doctor, I finally got halfway through my book. Dirk and the gang are driving the Chinese Communists crazy with their disguised special operations ship.
When we got home, the cleaning folks had just departed, and I suggested we go to Aces for a light dinner instead of messing up the house. Ace’s was CLOSED! Oh my!
We then went to OC Mining Company and sat at the bar with a drink and a light dinner, artichokes, and a baked potato, which we shared.
When we got home, we opted to watch some TV using our Paramount+ Premium channel, meaning NOT COMMERCIALS! Yeah. We hit the sack around 11:00 pm.
