[AT] Old trains

[charliehill]

I never got really interested in model trains but I can see the attraction. 
The problem is where to put them so you can enjoy them without taking up 
half the house or shop.  One thing I've seen is to put shelves around the 
top of a room (all 4 walls) and run the track up above the doors and windows 
where it can stay without being in the way and can be run at any time.  That 
doesn't give much room for rail yard layouts and the like but it's a way to 
enjoy the trains.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ernie" <cchopper at centurytel.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Old trains


> Dean, you just gave me the idea to maybe get my old train set out.  I just
> moved into this house last Jan, actually still moving in...  Mine is the 
> O27
> scale I had when I was a kid 50+ years ago.
>
> Thanks for the idea!
>
> Ernie Thackeray
> "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to
> take away everything you have."   Thomas Jefferson
>
> 'In God We Trust'
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dean Vinson
> Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 11:53 PM
> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
> Subject: [AT] Old trains
>
> Lately my interest in model trains has picked back up, after 30-some years
> on the back burner.  I was browsing eBay a few months ago and happened 
> upon
> a nice HO scale model EMD F3 locomotive, cast metal, mid-1940s vintage,
> honest and original looking but non-running and missing wheels and axles 
> on
> the front truck.  Wasn't going for much, so I bought it.  A few days later 
> I
> bought another old F3 with a running motor and good chassis for parts, to
> make the first one complete.  It's flat beautiful.
>
> But that wasn't actually my first model train purchase this year.  For a 
> few
> years now I'd been aware that one of the model train companies (Walthers)
> had been making a really nice Great Northern Empire Builder set.  The
> Walthers set went out of production early this year sometime, but I made
> sure to buy one before they all disappeared from retailers.  Still in the
> boxes, it's in my closet waiting for a time when I have space and time to
> set up some tracks.
>
> That was enough for a while, but then I noticed a similar set in Milwaukee
> Road livery.  The Milwaukee Road, like the Empire Builder and local
> commuters and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern freights, looms large in my 
> memory
> of my maternal grandfather, with whom trainwatching was one of my 
> growing-up
> activities during visits to his Chicago-area suburban home.  The Milwaukee
> Road set is in a box in my closet also.
>
> That was enough for a while too, until I saw that F3 on eBay, and since 
> then
> I've acquired quite a few other model locomotives, freight cars, and
> passenger cars.  Something about them feels right to me, in the same way
> that an M Farmall or a Cockshutt 30 or an Oliver 77 or a John Deere A 
> feels
> right.  The mesh of function and optimism and honest production, the
> elegantly simple and classic designs, the industrial streamlined designs 
> of
> Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss, the defining symbols of their industry
> during the 40s and 50s.  My Farmall M makes me think of my dad, and his 
> dad,
> in the same way these toy F3s and E8s and such make me think of my mom's
> dad.  Feels like a nice way to settle in for the winter.
>
> Dean Vinson
> Dayton, Ohio
> www.vinsonfarm.net
>
>
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