Why I Oughta...

Earlier this week, I posted some photos of the new Elf the Movie Lionel O-Gauge Boxcar that we pre-ordered for this past Christmas, but just arrived in February.  Welp, here's the other one:  A National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation "Merry Clarkmas" boxcar. Both of these Lionel cars are made in the USA and have that special American flag box.  I was going to give this to one of my nephews who really loves this movie last year, but I swapped in something else because this didn't arrive.  I'll pack this one up too, and take it off to our storage unit for a few months.  There's light at the end of the tunnel, though.  Just four more months until we'll be in our place.  At least that's what I'm hoping for right now. The boxcar features the Griswold's house and station wagon with the huge tree strapped to the top, Cousin Eddie's RV, the tree out in the wild and a bit more. Including Clark, the squirrel and the flying Santa and Re

Recently a box arrived from TrainWorld that included a few little surprises.  Why were they surprises?  Because I had pre-ordered a few things from the 2016 Lionel Catalog that had late fall delivery before Christmas last year.  Unfortunately, Lionel didn't make their deadlines, so these despite these boxcars having Christmas themes (I'll post the other one on a different day), came in February. (in other news, the 2017 catalog is up at Trainworld and they're accepting pre-orders .  There are a bunch of stuff that I'm keen to buy...but I wonder if I should wait for the new house??) This first one is from Elf the Movie.  It features Buddy the Elf and a few phrases like "Son of a nutcracker".  I don't love boxcars, but I do love a good Christmas train and love Elf, so this one was hard to pass up. Here's the side panel of the box showing the boxcar description.  These will go over to my Dad's house until we get moved into our place.  Once t

Last week, I showed off the newest addition to the Mantleburg Line in the Target Launching Balloon car , but it wasn't the only new car we bought at the Christmas Train Show out in Wheaton a few weeks ago.  We also added this car above - that has some action just like the balloon car.  It is called the #3510 Satellite Launching Car and is part of the "Pre-War Celebration Series" of reproductions from some early 1940's cars. That silver/metal-looking satellite launches up in the air when you position the car on on operating segment of track.   You can see it here (I've tee'd up this video to start at the right time) in action . It does a very quick trip to the ceiling then down.  Adds some fun operating concepts to the train that takes it from running around in a oval to something that is a bit more interesting for the kids and makes them last a lot longer down in Papa's basement with their Christmas Trains.

Over the weekend, we took my Dad and the Gooz to the annual Christmas Train Show out at the DuPage County Fairgrounds to pick up a few things for everyone's Christmas Train layouts.  With so many boxcars already around, I'm only really interested in getting 'action cars' or 'operating cars' and that's why this "Lionel 6-19824 US Army Operating Target Launcher" car came home with us. See that blue thing on the top of the car?  That is a fan/heater that blows air up through the top of the car and makes a balloon kind of 'hover' above the car.   Here's a quick video that shows the car in action .  It's called a 'target' car because there's a companion 'shooting' car that you can use to aim at the balloon.   Here's a short video that shows that action going on .  Alas, this time, we only got the balloon car, but there's always next year when we can pick up the shooting car, right?

Three kids and now three Disney-themed Lionel O-Gauge train cars for the year.  First was the 75th Anniversary Dumbo boxcar for the King of the Ball Tossers then there was 50th Anniversary Winnie the Pooh Boxcar for the Bird and now above you see a Winter Wishes Pluto 'walking brakeman' boxcar with Santa Minnie and Mickey on the side.  ( Here's a quick video that shows what a typical walking brakeman car does .) This car is in the beautiful non-orange Disney Railroad Lionel packaging, just like the other two.   We set up the kid's Christmas train last weekend at Papa's house and based on the cars that they picked to run on the Mantleburg line, these all will be in heavy rotation next year.

Last Friday, I posted some images from the Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge from the trainroom that featured Walt's Carolwood Pacific line .  In looking through some photos from that same visit, I found this one above that shows Walt himself riding the very Carolwood Pacific line.  Sure, the train line and track layout is neat, but look at that berm?!?  And all the variation in his elevations.   According to Forbes , it was four acres (and they apparently built a new massive house in 2001), so he had plenty of space to spread out.  A guy can wish, right?

If you find yourself down in Orlando at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, take a moment to head over to the Villas - which have been recently renamed the Boulder Creek Villas - and go to the "train room".  There, you'll see a bunch of stuff from the Carolwood Pacific train line.  That's the line that ran in Walt Disney's backyard.   They have two of the cars there that you can check out: I took some other photos of the train room (it is a neat space with a roaring fireplace and lots of comfy chairs) that I'll post at some point.  But these two cars, and the box they're in - which has a tramp art style to it - are the stars of the show.  Take the ten minutes after your meal in the Lodge to wander over to the Villas to check them out.  Neat stuff.

After reading about how the folks at Metra - in between all of their non-stop fare increases and delays - were refurbishing some of their cars with updates like new seats and cupholders back in January , I had been wondering when I'd come across one of them. Welp, the wait is over.  Last week, on one of my morning commutes on the Union Pacific West line, I boarded and climbed upstairs like I always do.  Only to realize that I was in a refurbished car. Preetay, preetay, preetay nice.  Or at least it is more like what you expect a train car in 2016 to actually look like. Check out the sleek blue seats: There's more, including cupholders!  But, in the seats I was sitting, there weren't any cupholders.   From ABC7's story in January : Most of Metra's passenger cars are feeling the wear and tear of age. A select group of them are being refurbished with a new look and a most-definite new feel. New seats are being installed on 30 Metra passenger cars, giv

In the Venn Diagram that includes Lionel O-Gauge train stuff and Disney stuff, the overlap has been small but consistent over the years.  You can go to any train show (and...yes those things exist!) and find some vintage Mickey the Mouse cabooses and box cars from over the years. And if we were to map people who would have an interest in that intersection, I'd gladly raise my hand.  As we've talked about before, I grew up with a Christmas Train.  My Dad would break out his vintage post-war Lionel train some time after Thanksgiving and we'd set it up.  Sometimes, around the tree, but at some point, my Mom relegated it to the basement.  That tradition - of breaking out the Lionel train set - has been one that I've tried to bring to my own kids.  And, my Dad fed the beast by giving the oldest girl - The Babe - her own set when she was 1. So, beside last year - when we were transient during the holidays - we've set up our Holiday Train.  And we're not aimin

Found this on the walls of a Cracker Barrel somewhere around Indianapolis.  Trains and railroads have always fascinated me and when you throw in a little bit of vintage-ness in the poster, you have a perfect combination for capturing my attention.

Menards has been doing a really great job of churning out some interesting O Gauge rolling stock over the past few years.  This car above is from the Canadian National and if you look closely has a little mark to the right of the door that says 'Built by Menards 2015'.  My oldest sister has been working in the railroad industry for a long while.  First for the Chicago and Northwestern.  Then the Union Pacific.  And now the Canadian National.   She keeps a few O Gauge cars in her office.  Have to think that this one would fit in well. And that might be the best use of these Menards cars, in my opinion.  Looks.  The couplers kinda suck.  They roll really nice and once you have them set up and connected, there's very few problems.  But, they're NOT high-quality couplers and NOT Lionel couplers.  They sell these cars pretty cheap.  Like $20 for each one and less if you buy 6 of them or something like that.  Can you imagine having a layout that would allow for your train

I've long wondered why we see so many non Chicago-area transit cars on our rails around the western suburbs, but on a drive to Iowa recently, I think I've finally figured it out.   There's a HUGE Nippon Sharyo factory in Rochelle, Illinois .  I snapped this photo of one of the massive buildings as I drove by, but there were *at least* two of them with track laid right next to the building.  They call it 'rolling stock', which I think means everything but locomotives. The Metra cars are marked with Nippon Sharyo and I'm guessing so are these MTA North line cars that I spotted on the Union Pacific West line back in 2012 .

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good gateway, right? The Babe is jus

A few weekends back, I packed up The Bird and The Gooz and my dad in the van and we went out to the Wheaton Fairgrounds for the Great Midwest Train Show .  This is the second time we've gone to the show (last year, I went with my dad) and it was a lot of fun.   I picked up a few things for me, my kids and my nephew, but by far, the best purchase was this really cute vintage metal tunnel.  It was being sold by a guy who had HO scale stuff and had this over on the edge of his table.  He was asking $10 for it and I got it for $5.  Pretty great deal, if you ask me!  I think he was happy to get rid of it.  I was happy to get it! It has some really great scenes on both sides of it.  And it is like a foot-long. Our layout has never been 'realistic', so I think adding something like this adds a bit of whimsy and - frankly - vintage charm that I really like. I think, tragically, we're not going to be putting up the kids' train this year because we're in Equa

I picked up this "Where The Wild Things Are" boxcar last week as a Christmas gift for one of my nephews.  I have a little tradition where I gift each of the boys a train car and begin to build their collection of cars starting at a very young age.  Based on my experience, there's just a handful of years to capture a boy's attention in electric trains - and even if you are successful, and you get the kids to like trains - their attention will eventually wane as they hit the teen years.  That was the story with me.  My dad tried SO HARD to get me to be into his vintage trains. I was...then I went away from them.  Now I'm back. So...one of the traditions here is to try to find a train car that 'means's something to each of the boys.  This one, is aimed at a special guy and will hopefully appeal to him (and his parents!) and build on his collection of cars.  At some point, he's going to need a locomotive, too! But, this car is an 'aquarium car

The fine folks up in Wisconsin at Menards are out with another new set of O Gauge train cars that caught my eye this week.  They're calling them 'Flatcars with Panel Trucks' and the trucks are vintage-looking wagons.  They're pretty cute. They're promo'ing three of them:  Union Pacific, Soo Line and Santa Fe.  No Chicago and North Western, though. The Lionel set that my dad had from his childhood is a Santa Fe post-war set and I have to think that these Santa Fe cars would look preeettay preeettay preeettay great with his other Santa Fe stuff.

I tried to whip out my phone as fast as I could to try to snap a photo of these beautiful yellow and red Union Pacific passenger cars.  Those are them in the middle of the photo just behind the locomotive.  If you want to see them closer, click on the photo and I *think* a larger version will show up so you can zoom in a bit. These were in Berkeley and were sitting there north of the commuter tracks.  I haven't seen them before nor since, so it was a nice little treat to see! Based on snooping around the UP site, it appears that these might be part of the historical equipment program and based out of Lake Bluff.  There's a set of sleeper cars based there . From their site : No other railroad in this country has retained its historical equipment and honored its past like the Union Pacific. The preservation of its fleet speaks to the high value UP places on its heritage and its role in America's history. The fleet itself dates back to 1912, but most of the passe

Looks like a little typo slipped past the editor of the Menards O Gauge Train 'stuff' advertisement that they're running in Classic Toy Trains.  And...yes...let's get this out of the way:  I am a subscriber to said magazine.  Painful and nerdy; yes it is. But, if you look on the Menards' site, you see that they call out/spell O Gauge the right way with the 'u' in there.  Was it a space issue?  Could they not fit in the 'u' in the green box?  Or just sloppy editing?  I'm guessing the later. As an aside...I used to keep a blog that highlighted things like this (typos) in the political world.  Boy...those were the days.

Menards is really stepping up their game when it comes to O Gauge rail cars and buildings this year.  In addition to producing a bunch of 'weathered' boxcars, they've come out with a few pretty interesting additions to their rolling stock collection. The first of which is this Military Long Flatcar with a "Deuce and a Half" .  From the Menards' product listing comes this detail: Honor our armed services from the past and present with this brand new O gauge military flatcar featuring a longer, simulated wood platform that measures 10.5" long. It is decorated in military green and easily couples with most O scale train cars. The Deuce and a Half transport truck and fuel transporter are intricately detailed and constructed of resin. This is a limited edition military train car that is recommended for O-36 and larger curves. They've priced it at $39.99 which is a fair price for a car with this amount of detail.   I've bought a few cars from Men

I ran into this set of vintage wooden toy train cars on an antique trip that are in the same style as todays "Thomas the Train" ones that run on that simple wood rail system and are connected with magnets.  If you have kids under seven, you know the stuff . This old set didn't use magnets, but rather hooks/loops but was seemingly the same size and would run on today's wood track.  Based on the price....this isn't meant for play as a toy.  But...for some toy collector who remembers these from his childhood. The reason why they jumped out to me is the C&NW mark on the car.  My oldest sister worked for them before the line got gobbled up by the Union Pacific and was the final train line that carried the Chicago name to be in existence.  If you look closely around Chicago and the suburbs, you'll see "Chicago and North Western" marks/symbols at train stations, on bridges and elsewhere. Oh...and based on the price (I think they wanted like $35 f