This video was uploaded a few days ago. A nice and brief review of the history of the Shinkansen with decent 3D rendering. The word "Envy" probably triggered some people but I think It is just a trick of "content marketing".
When Streamliners were dying in the States, passenger service came back to the main stage in the Far East. I am never a big fan of the Shinkansen, but the success of it is really compelling; reminds me of those self-proclaimed "train of the future" and their fate.
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
I don't think he's a fan either....
They also come in handy if you have a spare bed and a hankering to run trains when you're 10,000 miles from home.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
It's sad when two Japanese icons just can't get along...
A little mood music?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDeU42u2s2Y
Reminds me, I was reading the guidelines for the "Great Scale Model Train Show" held in Timonium MD several years ago. There was a reminder to exhibitors that this was a train and railroad related item show. No toys, dolls, or anything else not railroad related was permitted, with one exception.
If you were modeling Japanese railroads, especially with Kato or Shinohara products, it was OK to include Godzilla on the layout!
The scary thing about this thread is that it actually belongs in the Classic Trains forum...
And I'm old enough to remember the debut of the Shinkansen back in '64.
And it is still serving it's economic purpose 54 years later.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
erikem-- No kidding! Stunning isn't it. Hard to believe it's old.
Have the N scale Kato bullet trains made in the 80's, green and blue versions and it still looks very contemporary... and like the real one, it is flawless, has zipped around trouble free for 30 years. Never uncouples, never derails, defines reliability.
Penny Trains - Haha, I can understand the anger of Godzilla(ゴジラ), it probably love trains but it is too big to buy a train ticket. A Love-hate situation! Speaking of Godzilla, it reminds me of the incident of Japan Earthquake & Tsunami of 2011 ,and the "King Kong" movie of 1976. I can't remember how many time I rewatched that movie (Another one is "The Poseidon Adventure" of 1972!) I think many forums member still remember this NYC Subway scene:
Firelock76 -- Maybe they can only get along in the railroad modeling world where Godzilla is "frozen" in the plastic form : ) but if you replace the Godzilla with a fluffy cat, the result will be the same. I still remember in the 1980s when people still bought N scale railroad model of Japan or Europe for their child as a present. Almost every department store in my city still had the toy department with a rather large section selling trains toys and expensive models except brass trains.
In the Japanese department store, they displayed almost all N scale model trainset in the shop, always with a small layout in the toy department to lure the children. but I prefer the Europen and UK stream trains since I was a child. But it is hard to not admit that Kato's products, just like many other Japan brand toys, were very well detailed. Yes, even their toys.
erikem -- Very true! In the blink of an eye, 40 years gone like the wind together with so many people and things; like some of my good friends and global cultures! You are right that the debut of the Shinkansen happened in 1964, just about four years before the merge of PRR and NYCRR.
BaltACD -- Exactly! And the Shinkansen itself actually inspired many people in the railroad industry, including some very important political figures like Deng Xiaoping from Communist China (Yes, when *some people still believe in the Marxism), but I am not going to digress!
Miningman -- The craftsmanship and the quality of products from Japan and Germany really earned their reputation during the past 70 years.
I always wonder, what would happen if someone places a PRR T1 on the Shinkansen for a test run...
The United States should have led the rest of the world in the construction of high speed rail. The gentleman who proposed and commenced to build the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad at the beginning of the 20th Century was on the right track.
While Third World countries and Banana Republics are busy planning for the future of their citizens with modern high speed rail networks, the only thing the U.S.A. can show for itself in Century 21, is the North East Corridor and a run down wooden axle passenger rail carrier better known as Amtrak.
Dinner in the diner: Nothing beats having to get up in the middle of the night to catch a day old stale sandwich on the fly at some run down depot in the Carolinas while riding Amtrak's tarnished stainless steel Silver Star from New York to Florida!
All aboard?
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer The United States should have led the rest of the world in the construction of high-speed rail. The gentleman who proposed and commenced to build the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad at the beginning of the 20th Century was on the right track.
The United States should have led the rest of the world in the construction of high-speed rail. The gentleman who proposed and commenced to build the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad at the beginning of the 20th Century was on the right track.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/CNY_map.png
Source: https://chicagology.com/transportation/airlinerailroad/
The Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad! The straight line on the map made me drooling. A very ambitious plan from the 1900s I am sure, but it is hard to determine if it is commercially practical or not without reading the feasibility assessment of this project. Ten hours from NY to Chi-town, only Ten dollars. This project sound very promising but it also looked like something you can only find in the Utopia.
It was proposed in 1906. Unlike the Weems Electric Railway which was proposed a few years earlier, it used "normal" size trolley and supposed to be a standard gauge railway. If a 252-mile cost $5.5 million in 1893, it is not hard to estimate the cost to build a 740+ mile railway with "grades not exceeding 1%, no grade crossings", a straight route went through all geographical obstacles, privately owned land and properties. But of course, it worth the investment if a generous return is guaranteed (could they?).
The only one larger city "close" to the track was Cleveland, Ohio which had a population of 560,000 in the 1900s. The railroad probably couldn't provide freight service if lightweight rail is used or passenger trains frequency would be needed to decrease for freight trains. Vested interests and rivals on the Northeast passenger trains market probably wouldn't let such system operate without troubles; how to protect a 700 miles long high-speed railroad system under the shadow of the Law of the Jungle would have been a harsh challenge. I think a project in such scale better be planned and coordinated by the government instead of a small private company with limited resource, experience, and knowledge of the railroad industry.
Anyway, I love this idea. If it happened in the 1930s, built by a consortium of PRR, NYC, GE, Baldwin and Westinghouse and pushed by the US government. It would have been the world's best HSR.
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer While Third World countries and Banana Republics are busy planning for the future of their citizens with modern high-speed rail networks, the only thing the U.S.A. can show for itself in Century 21, is the North East Corridor and a rundown wooden axle passenger rail carrier better known as Amtrak.
While Third World countries and Banana Republics are busy planning for the future of their citizens with modern high-speed rail networks, the only thing the U.S.A. can show for itself in Century 21, is the North East Corridor and a rundown wooden axle passenger rail carrier better known as Amtrak.
I can understand that feeling. But keep in mind that when the Japanese were developing the first generation Shinkansen, which was capable of reaching 130mph, the US government and engineers in the States were busy developing something which would have been changed the whole world --- Boeing 2707! A supersonic transport project which can hit Mach 2.7 or 1,800 miles per hour, 14 times faster than the Shinkansen! If (well...) the Sonic boom issue was solved, the travel time from NYC to Chi-town would have been 40mins ( Other examples: NYC to LA: 80mins; Chicago to London: 136mins; NYC to Tokyo / Washington DC to Beijing / Toronto to Hong Kong: less than 4 hours! )
Source: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2014/01/american-supersonic-airliners-race-for.html
But it didn't happen.
When the SST project was being dropped, many GG1 built in the 1940s were still serving the people. Building more HSR routes in the States or not, is entirely the choice of the US people.
Trinity, I hear what you're saying, but Mr. Jones is correct, it all comes down to demand. If enough Americans wanted hi-speed rail, really wanted it, and were organized enough and vocal enough to demand it, we'd have it. But that's just not the case.
It's been said "This is America, we love our cars and hate everything else!" Not 100% true of course, not by a long shot, but not too far off the mark either.
My own theory is when the Boomers get too old to drive, and form a powerful voting block, then you might see some real action on truly reliable and comfortable mass transit, in addition to hi-speed (or high-er speed) trains. But not before.
Mr. Jones, I remember the SST controversy very well, I was in high school at the time, and the opposition was intense and quite honestly bordered on the ridiculous. But in the end it worked out all right. Boeing's 747's and 737's turned out to be bigger money makers than the SST ever would have been.
I had a French aquaintance who flew on the Concorde once, and once only, just to say he did it. He didn't like it at all, said an Air France 747 was a much nicer ride than the Concorde ever could have been.
A NY-Chicago "Air Line" as straight as the map showed needed to be electric, as the entire line thru western NJ, PA, and eastern OH would have to have been in tunnels to keep the grades under 1%.
Firelock76 ...I had a French aquaintance who flew on the Concorde once, and once only, just to say he did it. He didn't like it at all, said an Air France 747 was a much nicer ride than the Concorde ever could have been.
...I had a French aquaintance who flew on the Concorde once, and once only, just to say he did it. He didn't like it at all, said an Air France 747 was a much nicer ride than the Concorde ever could have been.
Very true, Firelock76. I understand that different countries have a different pace of living. If folks in the States enjoy what they are having and don't have the motivation to change their travel habit, they have the freedom to choose to preserve the status quo. From my understanding, it won't be an easy task to build a HSR which will go through different states under the framework of US's political system. But if there is strong demands, enough people willing to speak out, and the HSR itself is in the line of US's national interests, I believe it will happen. : )
The cabin of Concorde was really like a crowded bus, I can understand why your friend didn't enjoy the ride. SST is probably one of the few modern things which I found fascinating. I used to imagine a fantasy ultra high-speed train using the body of Boeing 2707! If the concept of Elon Musk's Hyperloop will become a fact, I wish it will look as awesome as those SST projects. : )
http://klausbuergle.de/roemer_poster1.htm
MidlandMike A NY-Chicago "Air Line" as straight as the map showed needed to be electric, as the entire line thru western NJ, PA, and eastern OH would have to have been in tunnels to keep the grades under 1%.
Thank you very much, MidlandMike. That would increase the construction cost for sure. Building a tunnel is never an easy task, people will never know what kind of surprise they would find deep inside the mountain.
Jones1945
Was wird uns die Zukunft Neues bringen? (Aber morgen wird es vielleicht schon NICHT Wirklichkeit...)
The Boynton Bicycle Railway meets the Weems 150mph telpher in Durrenmatt's tunnel! With 2 decks just like the world-record-holding HSR train!
Germans love their automobiles too but still use the ICE despite the many problems that Deutsche Bahn AG faces. Recent reports indicate DB trains operate some 70% on time. Many are only several minutes off schedule and others...well...
Planet Earth will be forced to Go Green but not like the fanatics demand today which is to revert to the wonderful world of cavemen who hit women over the head with a club and drag them back to their own private hole in the side of a cliff. The Flintstones had the most efficent automobile ever created by man: Footpower!
The Diesel BS today is Fake News too and if y'all think that the Greenpiece morons all walk or ride bicycles take another look.
Had America invested in HSR after WWII people would have used it to make trips between the Big Apple and the Windy City especially when Old Man Winter has closed all the highways as well as shut down airspace. It's called insurance and is there when needed the most.
Sure beats wasting billions of $$$, thus helping increase the national debt to finance senseless wars, not to mention counting the loss of fellow Americans on foreign soil, does it not?
Overmod Was wird uns die Zukunft Neues bringen?
Was wird uns die Zukunft Neues bringen?
Ein Traum vom Fliegen oder einen endlos Abgrund stürzen?
The Boynton Bicycle Railway was another underrated project proposed in the late 1890s, just like the Weems Electric Railway. Reminds me of my fantasy when I was a child, I wanted to convert the roller coaster into public transport which can serve folks who living on the small hill and decrease travel time by 75%. But of course, as a little child, I didn't take noise and ride quality into account! Can be solved though.....
Günter Radtke's works are amazing, I love the styling of his future. Not the future of the past I am living in. Am I the only one here stuck in Durrenmatt's tunnel? Please rewrite the ending for Durrenmatt so that I can escape from this mortal coil!
Overmod Jones1945 Was wird uns die Zukunft Neues bringen? (Aber morgen wird es vielleicht schon NICHT Wirklichkeit...) The Boynton Bicycle Railway meets the Weems 150mph telpher in Durrenmatt's tunnel! With 2 decks just like the world-record-holding HSR train!
It's been done....
http://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/british-railplane.html
Peter
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer Had America invested in HSR after WWII people would have used it to make trips between the Big Apple and the Windy City especially when Old Man Winter has closed all the highways as well as shut down airspace. It's called insurance and is there when needed the most. Sure beats wasting billions of $$$, thus helping increase the national debt to finance senseless wars, not to mention counting the loss of fellow Americans on foreign soil, does it not?
Well said, Trinity. I wish I can make your dream come true 70 years ago, but I can only suggest you keep your dream alive at the moment. You post-war HSR idea makes me want to write a brief proposal...
Ladies and gentleman, its fantasy time! (It is a very rough draft plan, please don't take it seriously, but I can't resist...)
.............
Planned and coordinated by the US government in 1946, constructed by a consortium of PRR, NYC, N&W, CNR, GE, Pullman, Baldwin and Westinghouse, a 900-1000 miles high-speed railway (average speed =98.5mph, allowed top speed = 128mph) connecting three most important cities in the world!
(Plan A) Chicago, Fort Wayne, Lima, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C, Baltimore, Philidelphia, New York City
(Plan B) Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, Hamilton (Canada), Buffalo, New York City
(Plan C) Your plans, your dream, your choices!
Featured Steam Engines:
Ten PRR S2a 6-8-6 8000hp direct-geared steam turbine / turbine-electric "hybrid" engine *#6200-6209 (*S2 retired), design top speed 130mph
Ten PRR S1a 6-8-6 Super Pennsylvania Class 8000hp express steam locomotive #6300-6309, design top speed 130mph
Fifteen NYCentral S-2b 4-8-4 Super Niagara Class 7500hp express steam locomotive #5501-5510, design top speed 125mph
Spare power: 4 second hand EMD E6 ABA set and 5 PRR T1s 24/7 standby along the route.
M636C It's been done... http://www.gearwheelsmag.co.uk/archive/the_bennie_railplane_feature_13.htm Peter
It's been done...
http://www.gearwheelsmag.co.uk/archive/the_bennie_railplane_feature_13.htm
Peter, your link is broken.
(404 - File or directory not found.
The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.)
Many references to the Bennie Railplane, which is a rough contemporary of the Schienenzeppelin, on the Web. Here is a good introduction (1929):
A premise of the 'grade separation' that Bennie stressed was that the elevated track could have nearly 'zero footprint' by being located above existing permanent way, much as the Wuppertal Schwebebahn was built above the river.
I never look at this without being reminded of the "interurban" in the movie version of Fahrenheit 451...
Jones1945(It is a very rough draft plan, please don't take it seriously, but I can't resist...
Even in a fantasy we have to do effective world-building. Alternate history is a craft, not a game.
Let's see now ... your Plan A would almost presume a resumption of 'federal control' in WWII. How that embodied "lessons learned" from the experience in WW1, the Esch Act, and the various consolidation plans of the 1920s (including the Plumb Plan and the CN aggregation) is in itself a topic for a whole thread and an interesting story. My own approach would be that railroads were jointly agreed that very fast passenger service was not a profit center "in competition" going forward, and were perfectly happy to have passenger mandates lifted from them in exchange for operating new government-built (or government-acquired) passenger service at cost or reasonable cost-plus (this was, after all, the age of six-percent return)
There is no question that ABS would be wholly obsolete for such a line, and you would need some analogue of the French TVM system involving intelligent cab signals and proportional speed control -- this having the advantage of being inherently CBTC decades early.
On the other hand, it's lunacy to operate such a high-speed line with two-cylinder simple anything, or for that matter with steam turbines with quartered rods. It would be only a matter of time to the first awful accident, and then the second, and then here come the diesel-electrics. The future for steam would be with direct-drive geared turbines, but with some variant of Cardan-shaft drive and viscous/magnetorheological clutches to individual wheelsets, and perhaps with Bowes drive at each turbine. I would also think about incorporating effective independent-brake slip control by wheelset. There's at least a possibility that a free-piston turbine could have been developed that would have enough gas-turbine exhaust heat to make a bottoming steam cycle practicable (as with the bus in the same 1941 Van Roemer article as the double-deck Boynton train in the other thread).
You must not forget that you can't just ramp up steam locomotive power without consequences -- PRR found this out fairly dramatically with their mechanical turbines, apparently not once but twice (and possibly more, if the 9000hp water-vaporware design had engineering behind it). That is so because of two paired items: effective water rate and the need for careful feedwater treatment in high-pressure boilers. The one severely affects the actual distance a locomotive can cover even if provided with long and heavy A-tank support; the other rules out most forms of track-pan operation, particularly unattended pans. Fixing this, especially for a high-speed mainline that will not age well in areas of pan spray with treated water, is nontrivial.
I would be sorely tempted to adapt the Roosen motor locomotive taken as 'war booty' to true high-speed service, perhaps with a slippable clutch in place of the rudimentary version of quill drive. That would give you a chassis that would easily 'scale' from two up to sixteen powered axles using the same powerplants, a kind of steam approximation to the electrification extension to Pittsburgh on the old PRR main line.
Ofr course, with the war over, it seems fairly obvious to me that a federal-control new-construction version of the New Main Line routed through south Pennsylvania (which is almost where you'd need to put it to get to Washington in the 'middle' of a Chicago-to-New York routing!) would have so many tunnels as to make electrification de rigueur ... even without the French showing how high-speed electrification could be done by the middle Fifties. Then you have all the opportunity in the world to build high-efficiency supercritical steam engines ... on the ground, with adequate room for efficient auxiliaries, not subjected to vibration and dirt and expediency. And not much later, practical atomic power... on the Shippingport model, the CANDU model, or Cisler's fast breeder, depending on your priorities (and whether you can keep shoe salesmen out of running the show).
A key point here is that you are NOT likely to be running long heavy trains on those headways for all those hours. So to me it makes sense to have different sizes of power for different effective 'dayparts' -- or even run some of the high-speed service with motor trains or even cars, or connecting shorter services (some of which would be partly underwritten by state, not federal, government). I also suspect some form of Pullman service (still "private", I presume) would be provided as part of many trains, not 'whole trains every hour'; even prewar, PRR recognized that all-coach trains would be where the postwar excitement would be, and enhancing coach is a less expensive 'draw' than more and better Pullmans especially where the short trip times facilitated by high-speed operations are concerned. Where, for example, is Conrad Hilton's famous outsourcing of train "experience" as a subsidized franchise -- with those distinctive decorative schemes for individual consists done with private money? Where is the system of Delmonico's revival as a kind of Fred Harvey of the East where the fast trains run and where the fast trains stop? Where is Balt's father as the head of the commissary for 'proprietary' dining service?
Alas! I suspect multiple-channel telephone service would not be practical even with post-1949 technology. Even if limited to half-duplex voice (which consumers would probably not bother with at the necessary price). Something you are NOT likely to get is nationalization of functions of the Bell System (or its competitors like ITT) no matter how the fifth Roosevelt administration might have liked the idea...
What's that? Telegraph on a 125mph train? I hate to break it to you, but there's this thing called 'teletype' that would have substituted for skilled operators in that era, and it would likely have substituted for most non-voice communications, and provided cable/Telex.
Likely a better way to do the crews, except for the select 'name trains', would be to establish cadres for individual parts of the route, with 'old hands' who know the potential clientele training new people as necessary, and then coaching the ones who stay on that particular run. This information would be known to clients ordering tickets, who could specify having a particular crew in deciding which train to take...
Yes, you want a route map showing the train's location (probably with lights along a reasonably accurate topographical map). Along with a number of clocks showing arrival times at important stations, a big prominent speedometer, and some way to have actual expected arrival time at any given stop indicated with a couple of button pushes.
I think you're missing one of the most important incentives (and reasons for 'large' locomotives on frequent LD passenger service): the high-speed transportation of automobiles to 'match' the trips taken by customers. Two forms of service: one with carriers in the train, the other in dedicated M&E trains arriving within a reasonable 'window' before and after the passenger arrival time. This goes with a concentration of regional roads and feeder services leading to the high-speed express stops, and a reasonable two-seat service on regional trains in longer corridors (perhaps again with 'check-through' automobile service) which keeps regional interest in larger forms of transit active and well enough patronized to survive and perhaps even thrive (with government assistance of appropriate kinds).
I'm tempted to say that, while there is a place for 'deep discounts' in private amenities, there is an equal or greater one for enhanced experience and service levels, at appropriate price or surcharge, for many of the kinds of special service you mentioned. "Hospitality" experience and quality assurance already knows what many of these can and should be. (And we haven't even gotten into "B&B" services on what are likely to be fairly many private cars... run in some cases entirely for 'subsidizing' profit or timeshare, and in some cases to pay for a high travel lifestyle) Personally I'd run specific trains for the 'money-saving' clientele, and provide active yield pricing right up to train time on those trains to maximize their 'contribution to profitability'. That keeps your various higher tier service levels intact from the temptation to price the amenities down to LCD.
The discussion so far reminds me of Mark Helprin, who hasn't yet quite investigated the wonderful European and Asian societies that coexist with his New York in "Winter's Tale." Where are the through connections to the superexpresses out to Western points ... including the new developed communities in the West that go with the water projects like TVA that the Government is building there? How are the Hollywood arrivals staged and promoted on the LA end of that combined trip? What's the touted equivalent of the Red Carpet in the various Left Coast cities, or destinations outside the continental United States? Let's have some fun and run with this!
Overmod Even in a fantasy we have to do effective world-building. Alternate history is a craft, not a game.
No Please. No need to spend your precious time writing a 1400-word essay to analyze how my fantasy is divorced from reality, how historically inaccurate it is etc. Especially when I told you clearly in the message I sent you that I firmly believe that my "900 miles fantasy HSR between NYC and Chi-town" is mechanically and economically impractical just a few days before I post it on the forum. Any person with a basic knowledge about HSR knows its limits.
If you really think I want to run the PRR, a dead company, like a monarch, I suggest you take a longer vacation or "sit back, relax and have a glass of something fine ..."
I am going to ride a train which is pulled by Bee birds to the moon with one compass and two oranges in my pocket. Yes right now.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the theme.
Jones1945 M636C It's been done... http://www.gearwheelsmag.co.uk/archive/the_bennie_railplane_feature_13.htm Peter Peter, your link is broken. (404 - File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.)
I updated the link to this:
which worked when I tried it.
Thank you for fixing the link, Peter. If I remember correctly, the online version of the "Railway wonder of the world" was one of my favorite railroad sites a few years ago. Glad to know the site is still up. If the magazine put more streamlined trains of America in the page "Speed Trains of North America", I would have started study the RR history of the States in-depth 10 years earlier.
We can see the exquisite craftsmanship of the prototype railplane; the very smooth body of it and colorful glass doors. I regret to know that George Bennie passed away one year after the project is sold for scrap.
M636CI updated the link to this: http://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/british-railplane.html
All kinds of interesting things can be accessed quickly by using the links on that site's pages!
I had not read before about the interesting way the Railplane cars were MUed into trains. I was also delighted to see pictures of the 1926 LMS turbine and some other locomotives from angles I hadn't seen before. Including this for our Canadian steam-locomotive aficionados:
(I do confess that I looked for the description of Schmidt high-pressure experiments with some , and sure enough the British patriots quietly mention Fury as 'withdrawn from testing' without the juicy details...)
Meanwhile for you lovers of fast experimental steam even sexier than the PRR Q1, I suggest (from the glorious Self site, of course)
Overmod Meanwhile for you lovers of fast experimental steam even sexier than the PRR Q1, I suggest (from the glorious Self site, of course)
Yes, the glorious self site and a website which is still working but I forgot its name, had a full list of all streamlined locomotives from all over the world, were railfans online heaven in the mid-2000s. I remember I can find only one single tiny decent pic of LMS Coronation Class from that page, without any detail information about the engine in 2006. Another one was the America steam locomotive .com, but I am not very interested in US's steam engine at the time. During the demise of Geocities webpage hosting service, a lot of html pages disappeared and gone for good. Including my first website.
By the way, I still prefer Q1 to every thing but S1
Hey! I have one of those in my living room!
Penny Trains Jones1945 Hey! I have one of those in my living room!
Wow, a mini roller coaster in the living room? that's interesting. If I living in a huge mansion like Kasteel van Mesen, Lede in Belgium, I would build a real one in the garden and open it to the public.
Jones1945 a mini roller coaster in the living room?
Just one small piece:
Big Thunder Mountain, just to the left of the tree.
Penny Trains Just one small piece: Big Thunder Mountain, just to the left of the tree.
This is an amazing layout Penny Trains! Such a lovely Christmas town in your living room.
For those of you who don't know, the "Penny Trains" Christmas layouts were the subject of a "Classic Toy Trains" magazine feature article in the December 2013 issue. I've kept it, it never made it to the recycle bin or the magazine table at the gym I go to. It was that good!
Plus, everything on the layout with the exception of the obvious things like trains, track, wire, and light bulbs is hand made by herself.
Becky, I know you're not one for blowing your own horn, but for everyone's enjoyment could you link your "Disneyland" photo spread?
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