He bought it when he went to DDR, I think he bribed someone to get a chance to tag along on a company sponsored trip to this "international" destination. :)
Some 20 years ago my dad went all the way, the entire attic in the house was a huge train set, I think he had more than 100 trains, tiny road crossings with blinking lights, automatic rail switch stations, hundreds of tiny and pretty accurate models of people, cars, horses, dogs, etc., you name and it was probably there. Yeah, he bought that first train for me, riiight... ;)
About 5 years ago he donated the entire set to a children section in a Stockholm hospital, I'm not sure what they did with it.
How old were you when you left Poland?
Hadn't filled 8 yet...