Re: [Rollei] Lionel Trains

[Richard Knoppow <dickburk >]

At 10:11 AM 01/20/2002 -0000, you wrote:
>I've not heard of this make before, is it to the US what Hornby is to the
>UK? I know that they can be very expensive, there's a single loco on ebay,
>damaged, going for £375 at the moment.
>
  I've heard of Hornby but don't know a lot about them. Lionel was a very
popular brand of toy trains in the US. The other big brand was American
Flyer. AF trains ran on two rail tracks instesd of the three rail track
used by Lionel but the rolling stock was not as authentically modeled.
Nonetheless, AF stuff is also considered collecible now. 
  I had Lionel trains just about the time when they changed from metal to
plastic. I had quite a bit of equipment, much of it the old metal kind but
also some of the newer (at the time) plastic cars, which I never liked much. 
  Modern HO gauge and other small guage can be _very_ authentic. I have a
friend who is a HO gauge collector who finishes his own stuff. He is a
genius at painging. He can make the rolling stock look properly dusty, etc.
They look quite real. 
  Walt Disney was a notorious model railroader, although mostly he had
other people doing the work. He had working miniature steam locomotives
runing on track around his estate. Large enough to ride in. 
  Locally, the is a group called the L.A. Live Steamers who have a club
house and some property in Griffith Park, a very large parkland section of
the Hollywood Hills. They operate working model steam locomotives which one
can ride on on most Sunday afternoons. 
  There a couple of places not too far away who have actual working steam
locomotives. The Orange Empire Rail Museum, in Peris Calfornia, about fifty
miles from here, has at least one working steamer, which they take out
maybe twice a year. Its an industrial locomotive, probably capable of
pulling a battleship, so it doesn't make much noise when pulling a few cars
filled with rail fans; hardly chugs at all. They also have some
diesel-electric loco's and several working electric locomotives, street
cars, and interurban cars. They have a mock intersection and interurban
stop copied exactly from one formerly in Beverly Hills and a couple of
Pacific Electric Red Car interurban cars to run on its rails. These cars
run nearly every weekend. 
  Those interested in the old Pacific Electric system can find boucoup
pictures of it on the Los Angeles City Public Library web site at
http://www.lapl.org  From the home page click on data bases and from there
on photographs. Try street car or pacific electric as key words. 
  Of course, all of us who have any interst in model railroads really want
the real things. If I can ever manage to retire I will arrange somehow to
get to run an actual steam locomotive. I already have the hat, bandanna,
and gauntlets. Proper steam railroad garb looks like mattress ticking.
'Board... Whoooooooop.
- ----
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk  

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