The DIS Campers Train Thread: From Model Trains Up To The Real Thing

Nerdy guys like me get excited about train t-shirts.

I got this t-shirt and ball cap from the North Carolina Transportation Museum. The shirt is an outline drawing of the Southern Railroad's 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive and tender that were its prime passenger line motive power from the early 1900's into the 1940's after WW2 (when diesels started taking over). The "PS-4" notation was the 'option package' that the Southern chose to equip these locomotives with.



The shirt is in the colors of the Southern (green and yellow).

Also is a Southern RR ballcap with its catch phrase "The Southern Serves The South" patch on front.

As fyi the Museum is in Spencer, NC just outside Charlotte where the SRR had its huge shops for locomotive refurbs, construction of box cars, reefers, and wood cabooses, and even built small loco's here. It ran from 1880s into the 1960s before closing. The location was chosen because Spencer was approximately half-way between Washington D.C. and Atlanta on the Southern main line.

Also of familial importance is this ACY box car. Never heard of the ACY? It was a short line railroad and the letters stand for Akron, Canton, and Youngstown (cities up in the northeast corner of Ohio). Of the cities in the name, it only made it to Akron and not the other two cities (go figure). It had less than 10 miles of its own track and leased another 170 miles for a few decades before buying the leased track outright.



The family connection to the ACY was that my grandfather (dad's dad) worked on the ACY loading and unloading box cars for a time at the Akron terminal. My dad is fuzzy on when he worked there and for how long (before my dad was born) but Grandpa was a railroad man at one time. Might have been the late 20s or 1930s. So I guess you can say that trains are in my blood. ::yes::

The diet Coke can is in the picture for scale. The box car is 18 inches long. It is one that Aristo-Craft made and I had seen the ACY in my 2007 reference AC catalog but it rarely comes up for sale because it's a small line in a less populated area. So when I saw it on eBay I GRABBED it and it was a reasonable price.

Glad I did.

Ed

PS - the ACY line made it into the 1960s before getting bought and merged into the Norfolk & Western Railroad.
 
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I thought of you when I saw this t- shirt in the Brightline Gift Shop.
(oops must be on my cell phone …be right back )

IMG_6543.png
Love the design with MCO Brightline Track detail to Miami !

And that was a fun trip too !
 
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I thought of you when I saw this t- shirt in the Brightline Gift Shop.
(oops must be on my cell phone …be right back )

View attachment 869997
Love the design with MCO Brightline Track detail to Miami !

And that was a fun trip too !

I like it, @DL1WDW2 .

However, I wish the designers had added some color(s) to the shirt. That would have really made it POP! And I would happily pay more for a colorized version versus a black-and-white version.

ED

PS - I mean, hey - after all, it's Florida. The ocean and skies are blue, the palm tree leaves are green, the parrots in the keys have red and yellow (and more colors), the shrimp and some fish are pink, the sand is almost white (at least on the Gulf side), and the sun is orange. When I think of Florida, it's not in monochrome.

But hey, I don't see an iguana anywhere on the t-shirt. They're pretty common down in the Keys.
 
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My railroad is in hibernation this summer but the Acquisition Department never sleeps.

Spence, Don - I don't know what it is but boxes keep showing up.

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DW might be watching this thread but I can share some groove-approved pics soon.

What are all the other "trainiacs" doing lately?

Ed

PS - Because there's never such a thing as too MANY trains (as Spencer's Lionel basement pics demonstrate).
 
Never enough money and time eaither Ed. But don't worry we will try and get there!
 
No new purchases but I've been searching for Florida East Coast Railroad rolling stock. Except for one Chessie diesel everything I have is steam. I know MTH made a scale ABA F3 set. Would like to find them. I've seen a full 7 car passenger set that matches. There's also this set https://mthtrains.com/railking/spotlight/01_2020/d
I'd get that and switch back and forth if I could find the diesel set.
Aside from that, nothing on the Florida Overseas Railway tabletop. I have some storage, production and engineering issues to work out but I still want to see if I can pull it off. My wife is in charge of purchase and design of the beach scenes. She has a bunch of sites that have O gauge people in bathing suits as well as umbrellas and beach chairs, etc. We'll see.
 
I do have a new train set and it has something I have never seen in my Aristo-craft trains.

Some things look "neat" like the Hershey rolling stock.

Some things look "cool" like the 1950s streamlined aluminum (silver) passenger cars.

Some things look "bad" (as in super-cool) like the steam locomotives from the late 1800s with the coal or diamond stacks.

Some things look "beautiful" like the Pacific 4-6-2 steam locomotive in Southern green pulling the heavyweight Pullman passenger car set.

Some things look "tough" like the strong diesels pulling box cars and reefers that have a connection to me and our family.

But ....

Never, EVER have I looked at a train set that made me think "cute" (as in wrinkle your nose and smile as you slowly say 'K-E-W-T').

Until now.

I came across the Teddy Bear Railroad (Starter Passenger Set) that came with a steam loco, a bobber caboose, and one gondola all with the Teddy Bear theme. This set was made for at least 1 year (2004) until they changed the color scheme to dark brown from khaki as the primary color with red and orange tints (which makes it dark and not as attractive to me). The darker set was made for maybe only 1-2 more years. Anyway, DW gave me the go-ahead and I dove all in.

I also picked up the optional tender to put behind the loco in the TBRR name so here is my first "cute" train set.



Close-ups of the locomotive and the caboose.





In the first photo, you may have noticed in the gondola car that I placed the included "figures" from the set so they could be seen. Here is a close-up of the included teddy bears.



From left to right, an Engineer teddy bear, a Mrs. teddy bear, a Mr. teddy bear, and a Conductor teddy bear.

To me the Teddy Bear Railroad set was like finding a real gold coin on the beach with your metal detector.

Bama Ed
 
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Funny you should say that Ed, we just got back from out annual delaware camping trip. The guy across from us is a metal detector guy. He explained how there were shipwrecks with coins off the rohobath/dewey beach area and he has tried for the last 4 years to find coins. He did this year, 5 or 6 coins from the 1600s? Not gold, but old coins on the beach. So it seems like your train, others can find thiere unicorn too!

( me I find nada, ziltch, zero, nothing, lol. All good , I am still looking)
 
I picked up a black caboose of the type I've been looking for over the last several months.

I have a black, coal fired steam locomotive that is unmarked. Here is a pic of it.



My goal was to find a black wood caboose of the same time period to pair with it. Rolling stock in-between can be a mix but the loco, tender, and caboose (on a freight train) should accent or pair with each other ideally.

Here is the new-to-me caboose.



In about 2 months I will be able to get back up in the attic and resume operations again.

Bama Ed
 
Just tested this today. It's a lionel Jr streamline train from 1935ish? These came out from the ives tooling I belive. It needs a cleaning a truck mounted and then I may strip and repaint it. For now it's back to the shelf as it's camping season. And I need to finish the middle of the layout. 20240805_191234.jpg20240805_191236.jpg20240805_191210.jpg20240805_191154.jpg
 
Had these running today, didn't get action shots as I was to worried about it kicking into gear and shooting across the table. I need to fix a coupler. These are pre war also. In nice condition, eventually they will need a good cleaning and running. In the background is a pre war lionel tr20240820_192621.jpg20240820_192627.jpg20240820_192648.jpg20240820_192708.jpg20240820_192818.jpg20240820_192635.jpgain station.
 












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