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The Slice: After detour, this train is going full-steam

Not all childhood model train sets disappear.
“My brother Wally and I received our first train for Christmas in 1954 in Pomeroy, Wash.,” wrote Bill Stanley. “A Lionel work train with hopper car, pipe car, crane, caboose and Seaboard 6250 NW-2 switcher.
“Most of my childhood toys vanished when I went to college, but the train and track survived.
“When I retired in 2012, my model trains hobby was re-ignited and this train is part of my current layout. It has been a hit with the grandkids for sure.”
Jim Malm’s train got sidetracked but, well, I’ll let him tell it.
“The train in question was given to me on my first birthday almost 67 years ago, and is an American Flyer ‘S’ gauge freight train setup. I was very fond of that simple old loop track and train cars running around the Christmas tree.
“Some time after I left home for college and then a tour in the Air Force my mom decided to clear my old stuff out of the basement. I never got any definitive answer as to where my rock and stamp collections ended up, but did determine that my train set went to the neighbor kid across the street. The family was still there and I made a diplomatic inquiry as to whether or not they still had that train set. They did and very graciously returned it to me.”
Malm did not do much with the train until just a few years ago. But after a bit of restoration, he got it running around the Christmas tree again. “Much to the delight of my cousin’s two young boys.”
Ghost in the machine: “We have three beds which are air based,” wrote Marcy Wise. “You can make either side of the bed softer or firmer with the remote. One of the two downstairs has trouble holding the air on the left, so when we are going to have guests, I try to fill it up.
“Each time, when I went upstairs to our bed, my side of the bed was as hard as a rock. It took me a couple of times to figure out why.”
Today’s Slice question: Agree or disagree: The four types of rock are igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic and Christmas cookies.