A Customer's Story
Model Train Repair Site For Lionel, Atlas, MTH, American Flyer, Ives, Bub, Marx, Bing Trains And More!
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A Customer's Story Model Train Repair Site For Lionel, Atlas, MTH, American Flyer, Ives, Bub, Marx, Bing Trains And More!
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Quite often I hear from my customers and they share the memories and stories behind their trains before and after they are sent for repair. All are very touching and I really enjoy hearing them..... I also am asked why I repair trains and over the past 20 + years, the response is the same.... I do the work because it is preserving memories and reviving a loved train to pass on to the next generation. I have decided to start sharing some of these stories with the customer's permission ......
As a satisfied customer, I wanted to share a story with you.
In 1982, when I was 10 years old, my parents gave me the LEGO train set 7730 and extra track for Christmas. I knew it was an expensive gift. We were stationed in Germany at the time. My father was in the Air Force and my mother held an administrative position supporting the Army. Their income was not huge and with 3 kids to take care of, I always knew money was not something we had excess of. I knew it even then. As a military brat, I learned to entertain myself whenever we moved to a new place and I did not have any friends nearby. Shortly after our move to Germany, my parents bought a couple of generic LEGO building sets to play with. I discovered the joy of building and recreating. LEGO became one of the only toys I never seemed to get tired of. I could build, create and play for hours. To this day, as I am now 43 years old, I can still be entertained for hours trying to build and create with LEGO. That Christmas morning, when I opened the box, I knew I had something special. To see it run around the track for the very first time was really exciting.
Having been bought in Germany from a German retailer, the transformer for this train was designed for the 240v European outlets. Most of our stuff was set for the U.S. 120v standard and we had many transformers around the apartment to handle it. When we moved back to the U.S. from Germany, we brought just one of those transformers back with us. My dad reversed it so I could still run my European train set here in the U.S. The train set continued to be the focal point of my LEGO universe, even though it did run around the many iterations of a space station I kept building. With all the memories of playing with it, this train has strong sentimental value to me. This set is now a collector’s item – especially since the case around the motor is red. Apparently, a later version was released with a black casing and the red casings are even more rare.
As you can see from the email chain below, it’s been just over 6 years since you fixed my LEGO train set 7730 motor for me. This was not your normal repair. As I understood it, it was the first time you ever looked at a LEGO train motor, yet you did not hesitate to offer a chance to fix it. You were open an honest about what it might take and what it might cost. For me, in this case, it was worth every penny. I wanted to let you know that it still runs as good as the day I opened it in 1982. I do not have a permanent place to keep it setup, but I set it up every Christmas now around the tree. My kids get excited every time I pull it out to assemble it and get it going again.
All this is just to say a very special thank you for giving life back to this train set. While in the grand scheme of things, I know it is material and ultimately trivial, I can’t help but smile every time it runs. Thank you again for the gift of joy your repair has made for me. |
Products mentioned are registered
trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. The
Motor Doctor specializes in complete Lionel train repair and the train repair of
all pre- and post-war trains including the train repair of American Flyer,
Atlas, Ives,
Bub,
Marx, Bing, MTH and many more.
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