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

[bama_ed]

A friend just told me about a place in Eureka Springs Arkansas that you can sleep in a red caboose !
They promised to send me a picture so I am waiting to get more details !
How awesome would that be ? Haha

It's pretty cool.

Our family slept in a caboose at the Red Caboose Motel in Strasburg, PA, which is in Amish country about a mile from the Strasburg Railroad (and Pennsylvania Railroad Museum). It was about 25 years ago when we stayed there and today they have 38 cabooses.

https://redcaboosemotel.com/



Here is the google satellite view with the restaurant/office at the bottom near the train tracks and all the cabooses arranged behind.



Arkansas is closer though. Would be neat to hear something about another opportunity.

Bama Ed

PS - I stopped at Strasburg again in the fall of 2021 (I think it was) when I went up to go to an Army football game with DS2. I took a pic of the RCM for old time's sake as we rode past. Will see if I can dig up those pics.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Thanks would love that !

I just noticed this popped up on the Dis with WDWinfo
A Visit to Fort Wilderness with Fine Artist Bret Iwan

 

[bama_ed]

PS - I stopped at Strasburg again in the fall of 2021 (I think it was) when I went up to go to an Army football game with DS2. I took a pic of the RCM for old time's sake as we rode past. Will see if I can dig up those pics.

Got some pics. As I said earlier, I was travelling solo up to DS2 in NEPA to go to an Army-UConn football game the next day at West Point together. We had ridden the steam at Strasburg when the kids were young (20+ years earlier) and stayed at the Red Caboose Motel. Thankfully, not much has changed.

The Strasburg Railroad runs steam all year so I stopped by to ride one of their daily excursions.



And during the ride got a good photo of the Red Caboose Motel as we went by.



Strasburg is also the American home of Thomas the Tank Engine (full size, real steam) of child (and young at heart) DVD/PBS fame 20+ years ago. He gets rented out to other tourist railroads like my "home" Tennessee Valley Railroad on weekends as a fundraiser but his full time home is in Strasburg. When not working for other railroads, they offer Thomas rides here to besides the dailies.



Also at Strasburg that Friday in September 2021 was the visiting Norfolk & Western 611 famous for its curved front nose. It was doing excursions that weekend I believe.



History says there were only 14 of these locos ever made with the 611 being the only survivor.

Anyway, Strasburg is worth a visit for the train rides, the Red Caboose Motel, and the Pennsy RR Museum across the street from the Strasburg RR Depot.

Bama Ed

PS - also made it to the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown that weekend. Good thing I crammed in all that activity since DS2 moved to Texas last year.

PPS - also squeezed in a tour at the old Yuengling Beer factory.

 

[tetera]

.

 

[bama_ed]

My coal fired Colorado & Southern (C&S) Consolidation locomotive (2-8-0) was captured on the Ed-Cam on an express run past the Titletown Station with 2 coal hoppers, a boxcar, and a gondola car. The loco had recently been shopped with her wheels getting a cleaning and a lubrication of the moving side rods.

It was good to get it out on a revenue run. These are good freight cars with ball-bearing metal wheels so they roll very smoothly and easily.



Her sister loco is next to come out of the shop with the same tune-up soon.

ED

 

[bama_ed]

Here is ol' Wood Burning #71 in the paint colors of the Denver & Rio Grande/Western line with a reefer run.

Wood burners, with their big bell smoke stack (to catch wood cinders) didn't run much into the 1900s because of the need to supply wood (hello Prairie states) but it's another 2-8-0 Consolidation like the one above but this one has a nice big "cow catcher" to push roving mammals off the tracks.



For the record, behind the loco and tender is a Hershey's Chocolate, Stroh's Brewery, and Hood's Milk reefer (refrigerated box cars) and a D&RG/W caboose with the interior lights glowing/on.

I'm working against time because I only have about 4-6 weeks of season left before the attic gets too hot as we enter the summer months (the trains and equipment are built to take the heat but I'm not).

Clickity clack. Got a Southern Railroad stock car in transit. Needed me a cow car.

Moo!

Bama Ed

 

[Stratman50th]

Thanks for the post Ed!

 

[Sjm9911]

They do have Air Conditioning now Ed, great invention!
It isnt like this anymore!

You could get a small window unit 8k btus cheap and run it an hour before going up?

 

[bama_ed]

In an uninsulated attic in the Deep South?

I love you, brother, but you clearly don't realize what you are suggesting.

However, if you offer to back up your statement by paying for it all (units and power bill), then I'm good.

If you are good, I'll let you run the bats out of the bat-house on the outside of my attic vent.

Ed

PS - and AL BUNDY is my hero! Becuz the actor who played the role is named

"Ed" Thanks for letting me point that out.

PPS - see Ed O'Neill's YouTube videos about getting the role and trying out for the NFL. Good stuff.

 

[Sjm9911]

I did buy this last week, i didnt need another project but its there for when I have nothing to do. Lionel Jr.

 

[bama_ed]

I did buy this last week, i didnt need another project but its there for when I have nothing to do.

I have a handful of those kinds of projects on a back shelf too, Spencer. Thankfully this summer I should have time to knock some of them out.

ED

 

[Sjm9911]

My life is one of these projects!

 

[bama_ed]

Nerds like me, when on vacation, will search out used book stores hoping to find a few good, cheap train books. My criteria by definition is along the lines of:

- mostly/exclusively American trains and not a lot from other countries if any
- mostly steam locomotive related but not necessarily exclusively
- preference is for Southern Railroad, L&N Railroad, or their predecessors/successors
- lots of pictures are fine but I would like to read a written story as well - I don't just want a coffee table photo book

I did find The History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and it fit my criteria. We are currently down in Gulf State Park on the Alabama Redneck Riviera.

Gonna read this after I finish my current reading material.

Ed

 

[Sjm9911]

Thats a big book , it must be a detailed history.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Ohmygoodness….a train thread.
As a railroad wife (freight rail), I’m looking forward to exploring this discussion.
Daily life in our household involves trains.

 

[Stratman50th]

Ohmygoodness….a train thread.
As a railroad wife (freight rail), I’m looking forward to exploring this discussion.
Daily life in our household involves trains.

Welcome!!
Please enjoy and participate!

 

[bama_ed]

Say hello to new freight haulers (needed more freight vehicles and not passenger cars [unless they complete a set]).

Got a steel reefer with the Stewart's Root-Beer logo of Mansfield, OH.



And yes the doors/latch open on both sides.

And also the previously mentioned Southern Railway stock car which had a pleasant surprise.



During the initial unboxing and inspection, I spotted a local reference in the lettering just to the left of the white latch. Here is a close-up.



That's the second Titletown reference on my Aristo-craft Southern Railway rolling stock (the other being on the red/wooden bobber caboose).

May have to look for a Southern steel caboose and steel boxcar to see if they contain a reference too (or see if the sales listing has close-up photos).

Temps are going higher now near the end of April. Time is running out on my train season.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

I have mentioned in the past that I will buy (sometimes) a piece of rolling stock (or more) of a tourist train that I have ridden.

I rejoiced when I found a LGB wooden box car from the year 2016 in a store online (went out of production in 2020) for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad that runs the state line between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado. Back in 2021 we rode half of it from the Chama end and I took a photo of this sign there. I did not know until I saw it that anyone/LGB had done anything in C&T.



That sign logo is similar to the one on the right side of the box car that I got. In 2023 I got to ride the half from the Antonito end.



The middle logo is the "Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec" (volunteer organization) and to the left side is a route map between the two endpoints as it criss-crosses the state lines a couple times.

I was very pleased to find it because it represents fond memories of those trips with DW.

Normally I don't go for LGB stuff which is 1:22.5 in scale but this will match pretty closely the Aristo-craft Classic line (AC bought the Delton molds which were 1:24 when Delton went out of business) that I have a fair bit of. So not much difference.

Regular AC stuff is 1:29. It all runs together but seeing a box car bigger than the locomotive can look strange so I try to run together things of the same scale but 22.5 & 24 together won't be too noticeable. 22.5 and 29 stuff together IS noticeable.

ED

 

[Stratman50th]

Very cool Ed. That's pretty awesome when you can find stuff like that isn't necessarily mainstream.

 

[wabbott]

This should be of interest to you folks.

https://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Land-Invention-Amusement-Changed/dp/1501190806

Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World – By Richard Snow

Much of it was related to Walt's fascination with trains. In 1947, he bought himself a Lionel electric train set and put it up next to his office. After fiddling with it for a while, he asked Roger Broggie, "This is an electric train, now what's for real?" His backyard miniature train at his Beverly Hills home was next. From there, Disneyland blossomed.