Model Railroading > 70s Flashback - Midgetoy Trains!

Does anyone remember Midgetoy trains?

Back the late 1970s my mother would occasionally buy me a Midgetoy train set (they came on blister packs) at the local Holladay, Utah, Safeway if I'd really behaved myself. I really loved these little metal trains - they were among my favorite (and certainly among the cheapest) toys I owned. The steam sets, especially, got some heavy use on our bright orange carpet (There are still some red carpet fibers in the wheels!).

In '78 we rode the local tourist railroad for the first time - the Heber Creeper - and in the early 1980s, when I was old enough to use spray paint, I repainted several the cars from the "King of the Rails!" set yellow to match Heber's cars. I'll just say that the paint job was not the best.

A few years ago I stripped down all of the trains and repainted them into their original colors. They now look as good as the day I opened them!

1. Midgetoy "William Crook"

2. Midgetoy "The Train That Won The West" set. Hard to find with the smokestack/headlight intact, because the rivet used to attach it to the smoke box tends to break.

3. Midgetoy "Coast To Coast Freight Train Set."

---

---

---

4. Midgetoy Hudson. In my 6-year-old mind, this was the spitting image of Sierra 2-8-2 36, my favorite locomotive used on the Heber Creeper tourist railroad.

5. The "King of the Rails!" Passenger Train set. This was probably my favorite Midgetoy set. You should have seen it before I repainted it!

6. Dual-Diesel Express Train. I didn't play with this much because I didn't like diesels as much as steam locomotives.

---

---

---

Oh man! I had them all as a kid! Probably find them all buried in the back yard of my childhood house!

Great memories! I played for hours with these much to mother's dismay. All the running wore out the knees in brand new jeans time and time again.

I still have mine and now my nephew enjoys them as much as I did.

Thanks for posting!

Mikel

I remember having these too.

Great memories as well. I had the metal A/A passenger set that my parents bought me for being good at the Mt. Washington Cog Railway Gift Shop years ago on a family vacation.

Had all those trains pictured, and still have most of them. Now my 6 year old twin boys play with them! They still bring much joy to little boys, just as they were intended. Thanks for sharing!

Chris Donhost
Vacaville, CA

I don't remember these as a kid. Give me an idea as to size. What "gauge" would they be close to? Did they have wheels on axles
hidden behind the cast on trucks?

Frank30

Nice to see and read what others had as toys and also enjoyed as children. I run onto things my mother kept from my childhood many years ago carefully wrapped and still in very good shape. Mementos of my childhood she treasured, nice to find shows how much our mothers cared.

Frank30, they're right around TT scale size (not big enough to be HO, not small enough to be N)

Hello

I had them also, very cool.

Posted from Android

I still have mine someplace. Now I have to go find them

Just like Chris, my boys still play with mine on a weekly basis.