The not so "Guest" book

Gone but not forgotten

A Erie Lackawanna trainmaster sits outside of a Baltimore scrapyard in the early 70s.  The engine will eventually be torn down for scrap, but my father managed to "rescue" the number boards and displayed them with his layout.  He even custom painted an engine and matched the numbers so 1858 could continue to see service well into the next century.

Below is a collage I pulled together to accompany some of my dad's custom painted trains that will be donated to museums.   In the picture at the bottom of the collage, he can be seen building a freight train that consisted entirely of Marx Boston & Maine boxcars.   Marx had rather loose requirements for quality control.  They were more concerned with using what was available and keeping costs low.  As a result there are virtually endless variations of some items, such as the Boston & Maine boxcars.  My dad would joke that no two looked the same and made it a point to pick one up at any train show he attended (well, at least till he had about 30 or so).  He decided to dial back his acquisitions but didn't eliminate them entirely.  I was with him when he picked up one that was either "A really good price" or "Looked nothing like the others."  So he basically kept adding to the collection.  

As for the donations, the Kansas City Southern Passenger set will be donated to the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum in Wheeling West Virginia.  The Wabash E8 will be donated to the TCA museum in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.   Once they are on display, I will try to get some pictures and post them.

Here is his Kansas City Southern Set on display at the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum located in Wheeling WV.

There is a comments section below, but I am not 100% sure how it works.  I think you need to be logged into Google/Gmail and then use that browser to access this page before it will let you post.

EDIT: Looks like the only people who can comment are those who have rights to edit the page.  If you have something you'd like to post, email me and I can post for you.  Silly Googlesites!