OT Any Lionel Train buffs out there? OT

[Dodgeb4ya]

My neighbor and I have a joint venture with our train setup. It's a MTC G-16 locomotive, V4 air cooled Wisconsin powered. It's a copy of General Motors EMD F2 that was a freight-hauling diesel locomotive built in 1946. It rolls on close to 2000 feet of rail. The "Miniature Train Company" built these for mainly amusement parks from the 40's through the mid 50's.

At times I kinda wish it was a Lionel or even a HO! Tons of maintenence.

Bob

[Chester Brzostowski]

My neighbor and I have a joint venture with our train setup. It's a MTC G-16 locomotive, V4 air cooled Wisconsin powered. It's a copy of General Motors EMD F2 that was a freight-hauling diesel locomotive built in 1946. It rolls on close to 2000 feet of rail. The "Miniature Train Company" built these for mainly amusement parks from the 40's through the mid 50's.

At times I kinda wish it was a Lionel or even a HO! Tons of maintenence.

Bob

Bob,

My wife looked at this post and said definitely: “YOU CAN”T HAVD ONE”.

You win… Hands down…

Chet…

[Bingster]

What a cool train! It is amazingly detailed for an amusement park train. Is it an original from the fifties?

I had Flyer when I was a kid and was into HO for years. I collected hardware off real passenger cars when the cars were scrapped in the seventies. I worked for Amtrak for a few years and private cars.

I wrote a book published in 1996 about the black Pullman porters and train personell who worked on the passenger trains in the good ole days. Amazing stories!

So I know my way around trains pretty well, and am very impressed with that train you have. Has it been restored?

[Don Coatney]

I wrote a book published in 1996 about the black Pullman porters and train personell who worked on the passenger trains in the good ole days. Amazing stories!

Name of the book?

Is this it? This is the only one I found published in 1996.

Edited December 3, 2011 by Don Coatney

[Dodgeb4ya]

What a cool train! It is amazingly detailed for an amusement park train. Is it an original from the fifties?

I had Flyer when I was a kid and was into HO for years. I collected hardware off real passenger cars when the cars were scrapped in the seventies. I worked for Amtrak for a few years and private cars.

I wrote a book published in 1996 about the black Pullman porters and train personell who worked on the passenger trains in the good ole days. Amazing stories!

So I know my way around trains pretty well, and am very impressed with that train you have. Has it been restored?

Yes, It has been restored. This train engine is the original all metal MTC G-16A -unit. This train engine is a 1948-51, as close as we could ID it. Most of these old and tired amusement park trains had a pretty tough life. The serial numbers and model tags got damaged or removed during service. This one still operates with the original fluid coupling unit same as in our FD MoPars!

The secont remote operated B-Unit engine is under going restoration- maybe next year!. It will look original but will be a small block chevy coupled to a hydrostatic drive unit. The engines are very heavy and need to be to have traction to operate. No replacement aluminum engines used in these trains that need to climb a slight bit of a grade-especially when the rails are wet!

[Bingster]

Yeah, that's my book. Those guys tell a lot of stories about predudice, wrecks, movie stars, etc. A real glimpse behind the scenes on a passenger train of the thirties through early sixties.

[greg g]

Did anybody ever ride this one built by Chrysler at the Detroit Zoo. I believe the originals (3) were flat 6 powered. Walter P Chrysler had several rail road jobs before he got into the auto idustry. So you post may not necessarily be OT.

Edited December 4, 2011 by greg g

[Bingster]

That's a very cool locomotive! Walter P. used to work in roudhouses on steam locomotives and was known as one of the best mechanics on the railroads he worked for. He really understood machines and how they work. He bought an automobile in his early days and completely took it apart to see how it was built. The rest is history.

[Niel Hoback]

"He bought an automobile in his early days and completely took it apart to see how it was built."

How many of us here have done the same thing? I did it because I couldn't afford to have someone work on it for me, so I had to learn myself. Unfortunately, I turned out much the opposite of Walter P.

[bamfordsgarage]

Interesting thread — over on the Model T forums there is similarly lots of cross interest with trains large and small.

I got a used Lionel O-27 train set for Christmas about age six and fooled around a bit with HO in my early teens. All that stuff is long gone now, but trains were always a sub-interest following (by a long ways) old cars.

We renovated our main floor 15 years ago to redo the kitchen and add a bathroom, and my long-suffering bride was agreeable to having an O-27 railway in the new throne room. She is just so good to/for me!

The layout has Marx equipment and track with a couple Lionel accessories and loops around the 40" x 80" room just below the ceiling. The tunnel at the north end of the loop goes through a dropped ceiling that accommodates low-hanging plumbing etc from the upstairs bath.

Photos: Train steaming through the village past a vintage Model T and some local wildlife; Tunnel end, removable panel provides plumbing access and railway storage; Engineer's seat — can you spot the controls?; Flip down lid doubles as handy coffee holder and brings this OT thread right back to old Mopars; I drive these much bigger toy trains Mondays from May to September.

[Chester Brzostowski]

"He bought an automobile in his early days and completely took it apart to see how it was built."

How many of us here have done the same thing? I did it because I couldn't afford to have someone work on it for me, so I had to learn myself. Unfortunately, I turned out much the opposite of Walter P.

Hay different time different era. Like you in 1967, I couldn’t afford to own a car and have someone else fix it, so I bought some books and figured it out. If it was already broke how much harm can you really do? Most of the time things worked out better then expected. Basically after that I made a career out of fixing stuff. As far as taking a car apart and putting it back together we have one up over Walter P. because we have to clean rust and get old stuff functional again, which in my opinion is a lot harder.

Chet…

[1940plymouth]

Chris,

I recognize that coffee cup:)

[Rodney Bullock]

Bingster, That book is a fine work. There was a real old lady on one of my routes in DC that told me of her father. He was in at the beginning of the Porter movement. That was a long hard road for A Philp Randolph. My Grand fathers father worked on the railroad and was a Pullman Porter. My Granddad had his retirement watch. I saw it only once. My uncles would work on the railroad in the summer to earn money for the upcoming school year. For a long time there waas a red cap on a dresser at one of my relatives home I can't remember now. I want to thank you for producing that work. That hits close to home.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Rodney Bullock

[Bingster]

Thanks Rodney. Have you read it , then?

It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The interviews were so fun to do. Those old guys were so proud of their jobs. I got Amtrak to sponsor a cross country whistle stop tour from Oakland to the old Pullman Hotel in Chicago in 1997. We rode in old railroad cars on the rear of schedules trains, and two of the porters were on board with me. We made stopovers in cities, did speeches and stuff. It was a blast. The porters made the front page of the Chicago Times in color! And many other papers en route. NPR did a radio show from the train. Quite an experience.

[greg g]

I believe I heard the interview on PBS. Perhaps it might have been another outlet or a follow up to the show. But the gentleman was explaining that his association with bankers, businessmen, and industrialists as they provided service on the trains also gave them what today would be considerered insider trading information. Overhearig conversations and teaching himself to read the financial newspapars left behind by the well to do travelers. This fellow since he basically got room and some board on the trains, turned his meager salary and tips into a very diverse and succesfull investment portfolio, and was able to live quite comfortably after leaving the Pullman cars. It may have been an interview with A. Phillip Randolph who was a porter and the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleepong Car Porters.

The pride and dignity of the fellow belayed his years in what was but a thinly veiled form of indentrued servitude, albeit one of the best jobs availabel for African Americans at the time.

[Don Coatney]

This morning I did order the book. I look forward ot reading it.

[Bingster]

I appreciate all of your interest in the book. I own the copyright again and I'd like to find a new publisher for it. As Rodney indicated, this is a very common geneology in African American families. Writing this book gave me a new perspective on the whole "Golden Age" of passenger trains in the U.S. I worked for Amtrak as a car attendant (i.e. porter) in the early eighties. I love the trains and their glamour back then, but I also learned that the Pullman Company took great advantage of the black men and women who worked for them. Randolph changed all of that after a twelve year battle for union rights. The railroad companies - such as Union Pacific - were separate from Pullman and hired their own dining car staff as well as chair cars and parlor cars, etc. They did seem to treat their help somewhat better than Pullman.

Some people got a little upset at me for portraying the Pullman Company in a light that was not all glamour and praise. George Pullman did a remarkable thing in setting up his company but it was basically the plantation system put on rail cars.

I'm white, and I actually did experience some reverse prejudice from black people who didn't like a white guy writing black history. I guess they didn't trust my slant on the history. But in the book, it's mainly the guys who tell their own story.

[Chester Brzostowski]

Outstanding

Chet...

[Jim Yergin]

Continuing a tradition begun 50+ years ago when Santa brought me a Lionel train set, my daughter and I set up the track around the Christmas tree last night. The locomotive is the same one Santa brought me but the train of woodies is of more recent date.

Jim Yergin

[Chester Brzostowski]

Ah Chet, You bring back bad memories of my childhood:( My Dad had those blasted trains and every year he would set them up under the tree. It had all these little indians and army men. It had trees and props, it even had a tunnel. The engine had smoke that came out the chimney. Oh look at the engine go round, watch it stop at the railroad crossing! "HEY Don't touch it" It was the only time I ever got yelled at, "HEY get off the track":mad: I mean darn how do you play with something that just goes round and round. My Dad loved those trains, I was so glad to see them taken up So I could play with my cars and roll them across the floor....Stupid trains They are all gone now and good:cool: Stupid

Can you see me in my pajamas with feet made on to them. Running from my dad with cow mover in my hand, Thank god for my dear mom;)

Hay Jim.

Nice Going. If you read Rodney’s post above I have a follow-up.

Since then, his post stuck in my mind. When my 2.5 year old grandson saw the trains he went nuts so I bite my tongue when he wanted to touch them. Of course I did have to provide some guidance because of a derailed train that had metal wheels glowing blue and smoking because the transformer was left just barely on. In a soft but firm voice I said. “ DON”T TOUCH THAT !!! ” It’s no wonder the other train was running sluggish.

Rodney I get the point about the around and around with the grandson saying run this one Pop-pop, now this one, now this one, again, again , and one more time. Let’s play trains Pop-pop. You know crawling around on the floor isn’t as much fun as it use-to-be. That boy really had a ball especially seeing Puffer Pete round the turn with smoke spewing from the smoke stack. Not sure if it was suppose to be smoking but it was neat anyway.

Chet…

PS… Rodney.., post pictures of you in the pajamas with feet. On second thought., Maybe not…

[TJM70's_48]

Chester - as recently as a couple of years ago, it was possible to ride in the cab of the train for an extra fee. I have always wanted to do it with my dad but have heard the engineers aren't real keen on passengers and really don't do any chatting or explaining...

[Rodney Bullock]

Hay Jim.

Nice Going. If you read Rodney’s post above I have a follow-up.

Since then, his post stuck in my mind. When my 2.5 year old grandson saw the trains he went nuts so I bite my tongue when he wanted to touch them. Of course I did have to provide some guidance because of a derailed train that had metal wheels glowing blue and smoking because the transformer was left just barely on. In a soft but firm voice I said. “ DON”T TOUCH THAT !!! ” It’s no wonder the other train was running sluggish.

Rodney I get the point about the around and around with the grandson saying run this one Pop-pop, now this one, now this one, again, again , and one more time. Let’s play trains Pop-pop. You know crawling around on the floor isn’t as much fun as it use-to-be. That boy really had a ball especially seeing Puffer Pete round the turn with smoke spewing from the smoke stack. Not sure if it was suppose to be smoking but it was neat anyway.

Chet…

PS… Rodney.., post pictures of you in the pajamas with feet. On second thought., Maybe not…

Hey Chet, I'm looking though my stuff right now...

[Dennis_MN]

I thought some may like the little story about my train travels when I was a kid.

Hope this link works

https://sites.google.com/site/dennisjsullivan/train-story

Dennis

[Chester Brzostowski]

I thought some may like the little story about my train travels when I was a kid.

Hope this link works

https://sites.google.com/site/dennisjsullivan/train-story

Dennis

Dennis,

Great story, Thanks !!! PS... You have great looking truck.

Chet...