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| Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor TrainsTM and Big Christmas TrainsTM |
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Trains-N-TownsTM, the Official Newsletter of BIGIndoorTrains.com and BIGChristmasTrains.comThis newsletter is for people who like O scale trains and Christmas trains, especially people who combine On30 or O gauge trains with collectible villages. It is produced in conjunction with the Big Indoor TrainsTM and Big Christmas Trains web sites.
New This MonthThe big news this month is a collection of articles about a real railroad that you can model. The Little River Railroad "broke all the rules" but was successful and fun to ride or watch. In addition, we have added to our Glitterhouse collection, and included a very unusual article on using Playmobil accessories to add detaiil to a Large Scale desert railroad.
Note: We have several more articles in the works, so check our site often. New Articles: The Little River Railroad Every once in a while you stumble across a real-world railroad that doesn't fit into any mold, and that has many unique opportunities for modeling. Here's the best little railroad you never heard of. Between 1903 and 1939, the Little River Railroad and Little River Lumber Company ran 150 miles of track through rugged wilderness, bringing great logs out to support our nation's building booms, but also bringing many people into the Smokey Mountains for the first time and leading to the development of the national park that is there today.
On the LRRR and LRLC's trackage you might see Shays pulling Pullmans, a Pacific (passenger locomotive) pulling log cars, and many other examples that went against "conventional wisdom" for railroads in the mountains. The owners' apparent desire to operate like a "big" railroad often collided brutally with business realities, forcing some odd compromises that hardly anyone would believe today if it wasn't for the photographs. Most of the LRRR's infrastructure was destroyed when the land was became part of the national park, but a few pieces have survived. The Little River Railroad and Logging Company museum in Townsend, Tennessee is doing its best to keep the story of this spunky little railroad alive. Our articles, based on visits to the site and input from the museum, focus largely on the unique modeling opportunities that the LRRR's history presents. And there are way too many for one article to cover them. Check them out:
From German author and collector Hans-Werner Lienau comes an article about repainting carefully-chosen toys to add fun details to a Large Scale desert landscape. Who knew vultures and rattlesnakes could be so much fun?
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Why shop in September? Because these are subscription trains - you get one piece about every four weeks, starting with the locomotive. If you start your subscription now, you should have enough of the train to run by early December, and the whole train to give away by Christmas, if you can stand to part with it.
These are heirloom-quality products, with a one-year money-back satisfaction guarantee from Collectibles Today and a lifetime mechanical warranty from Bachmann Trains.
One more note: the sports team trains sell out fast, so it might be a good idea to order your team's train now, even if you're not thinking ahead to Christmas.
Click on the following link to learn more about the Christmas Collectible trains:
Click on the following link to learn more about the officially licensed Sports Team trains:
We are continually getting more interest in this newsletter, in the site, and in the trains we discuss. We welcome your questions as indicators of what we should be working on next (also, we always try to answer reader questions quickly). In addition, if you have any photos, tips, or articles you'd like to share with your fellow hobbyists, please let us know. The hobby grows best when we all learn together.
In the meantime, have a great autumn!
Paul Race
BigIndoorTrains.com
BigChristmasTrains.com
FamilyGardenTrains.com
To view the Trains-N-TownsTM newsletter for July/August, 2008, click on the following link:
http://bigindoortrains.com/trains_n_towns/08_07_newsletter_indoor.htm
To read more, or to look at recommended Garden Railroading and Display Railroad products, you may click on the index pages below.
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Note: Spook HillTM is a trademark of Howard Lamey, North Jacksonville, Florida. Big Indoor TrainsTM, Big Train StoreTM Family Garden TrainsTM, Big Christmas TrainsTM, and Garden Train StoreTM are trademarks of Breakthrough CommunicationsTM (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 by Paul D. Race.
Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically
forbidden.
Big Indoor Trains(tm) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
For more information, contact us.
New Article: Desert Accessories from Playmobil Products
New Article: Building the Little Charmer