Roar of the Rails Online

Early television at its simplest, this seasonal quarter-hour program told adventure stories of railroading, alternating between live human actors and toy electric trains. Perhaps the first infomercial-as-entertainment, the show appeared in the eight weeks leading to Chrstmas 1948 and Christmas 1949, showing American Flyer electric trains in action. Other A.C. Gilbert toys were advertised: Erector set, Chemistry set, and Microscope. But the emphasis was on American Flyer trains chugging around in circles, taking on water, racing across collapsing bridges, and invariably saving the day. The format was simple: grandfather, a retired engineer, told stories to his grandson, but father (who might buy his son a train for Christmas) was there, too. Fairly clever integration of actors' scenes with electric trains, all performed live in a CBS studio.