Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2010 eveyone!!! I hope everyone is geared up for a new year! I’m ready for summer, it’s cold in my area.  I hope it snows some more, though. Feel free to send in comments about what you did with trains in 2009, I’ll be happy to post them. And I’m still looking for comments on the ‘Rebuilding Steam’ post. Send in a comment and let me know whats up!

More LEGO Trains/Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone! How’s it going? I hope everybody had a good thanksgiving, and that you’re all geared up for Christmas! Christmas is a great time of year… The Family, the food, the presents, and, of course, the train under the Christmas tree! This year I had put a LEGO train set under my tree, but my cat kept knocking ornaments off the tree, wrecking the track in the process. So I gave up and cleaned up the trains before my cat broke one (and ate a stray LEGO). Speaking of LEGOs… Since I thought there would be trains needed for under the tree, I built about seven different locomotives that are now sitting lonely in a box on my floor. I tried to take some pictures, but they didn’t turn out so great. So I’ll have to try again, I’ll let you know when they’re ready!

Rebuilding Steam

Anyone who likes trains knows that at one point in history, the steam locomotive ruled the country. But in the late 1940s, the diesel locomotive started to dominate the transportation empire, and the steam locomotives were scrapped or left to rust. There were certain types of locomotives like the NYC Hudson that were all torched, not a single NYC Hudson survives today. But anyway, if you look in the February 2009 edition of TRAINS magazine, you will see an artical about a resurrected UK steam locomotive. Its true! A trust foundation in the United Kingdom rebuilt a dead steam locomotive! They started in 1990, and finished in 2008. There is now an A1 4-6-2 steamer running once again. It took 18 years and $6 million dollars, but they rebuilt a lost locomotive! Now on page three of the artical, you will se a bit on if we were to re-build a steam locomotive, which would it be? The Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ came in first, altough I don’t think that’s quite fair. Don’t get me wrong, it would be amazing to see a locomotive that huge to operate! But the A1 pacific was a dead engine, there were none of them left. They didn’t just put an existing locomotive in operating condition, they started completly from scratch. That’s what I think we should do! I was disappointed to see that the Pennsylvania T1 duplex came in second-to-last (sorry to be grouchy, the T1 is one of my favorites), I would love to be able to see one of the 1930s streamliners in action! So I’m going to start my own polls, send in comments and let me know which locomotive you would like to see re-built. I’ll be back with the results!

Some of my LEGO Trains

Hello! I’m back with some more LEGO stuff! I hope you enjoy some of my LEGO creations! I know I have only two now, but I plan to have more pictures online by next week. Here I am combining my obsession of trains, and my love of the WWII era. I built these when I saw Burt Lancaster’s 1964 film ‘The Train’. These are both german railcars, inspired by some of the trains in the movie.

The one on the left is an armored train carriage. Yes, this was in the movie! Not a prop, the real thing! It was being pushed by a matching armored steam locomotive, that was to be hooked onto a train carrying military equipment. The car on the right is a boxcar with a small guard tower on the roof. If you look closely, you can see a machine gun in the tower(accurate to the film).

Again, I know I only have two picture right now. But I should have more pictures by Wednesday, including some of a steam locomotive I’m working on! But for now, enjoy these pieces, and I’ll be back next week!

Lego armored train car

Lego boxcar with guard tower

 

Steam-Era Airplane!

Me in front of the Panchito B-25

Now I know what you’re all thinking, this has nothing to do with trains! But this plane is from the 1940s, the point in history when the steam age was coming to a close. But anyway, this is a WWII B-25 Bomber called the Panchito. Trains are my main preference, but my second obsession is WWII war aircrafts and machinery. My town was celebrating the WWII era last week, and there was all sorts of cool stuff going on. My family is always joking with me, saying that I was born in the wrong century(I like the 30s and 40s, I like steam locomotives, I wear a fedora, etc.). So I’m always happy to see some of this vintage machinery, especially when it’s actually working. I got a few pictures of the plane, and even some video! But I can’t upload the video on the blog! So I’m going to put it on YouTube, I’ll let you know when it’s up. But for now, enjoy these pictures and I’ll keep you posted!

Strasburg Model Trains

GG1 and 4-4-4-4 T1 Models

 

Me running model trains at Strasburg Railroad Museum

Model Display at Strasburg

There were lots of different trains at Strasburg, now I’m going to tell you about the great model trains. There were displays of different kinds scattered around the interior of the museum, the picture to the left shows a still-life display of two steam locomotives at a small station. It was an O-scale display, it had some good models and was weathered and detailed exallently.

The picture on the top-left of the page shows a display of some models of locomotives that unfortunatly are not at the museum. There are several of the GG1 electric locomotives, like the model of one you see in the backround, still in existance. But, unfortunately, the 4-4-4-4 T1 experimental “Duplex” locomotive only exist in models. The duplex was a beautiful experiment that failed. All of the T1s were scrapped by the 1950s. The pictue on the top-right shows me (in a very good mood) running a model train with a remote-control on a layout in a children’s section. There were several such layouts around this section where you could get a good taste of what yard operations on the real railroads is like, it was a great experience for kids and adults. There was also a great LEGO layout where you pressed buttons to operate the trains and other things. But, alas, I didn’t get any good pictures of the layout.

Strasburg Locomotives Part 2

I’ve all ready given you all the dirt on the steam locomotives of Strasburg, but Strasburg also has a decent collection of diesel locomotives. I really like the old steam locomotives, and its not that I don’t like diesel locomotives… but I just think that the modern diesel locos are just plain ugly (although the Amtrak P40 Genisis loco is pretty neat). I”m not fond of modern trains, but I love the vintage diesels. The old “E” and “F” units are drop-dead gorgeous locomotives. I love the streamlined cowl units because they’re sleek, streamlined, and look really good in bright colors (note the Santa Fe 1940′s  diesel units). Here are some of the diesel locomotives I saw at Strasburg:

Reading F-Unit

 

Pennsylvania E7 Diesel

 

 

GP7 Diesel

Strasburg Locomotives Part 1

After three years of bugging my parents, I finally made it to Strasburg! Any train nut has probably been to Strasburg at least once. But its a must for anyone looking for a good time with some good trains.
These are some of the engines I saw there:

4-4-2 Atlantic

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire

4-8-2 Mountain

Personally, I’m a steam engine guy. So I was very happy with the many steam locomotives in the museum’s collection. There will be more posts about Strasburg, don’t worry.

If you want to plan a visit a trip to Strasburg, visit their web site http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/

Have Fun!!!

Welcome to Trainipedia!

Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog. This is sort of a start up post. In later posts there will be more information on trains, model trains, lego trains, and other train stuff. If you have any questions or comments please post them. I look forward to hearing from you.