Odd uses for your trains?

[Boyd]

One thing I have wanted to do when I get my own place is to use the train to bring the food out to the table. It might be a challenge to balance a Hot 'Dish on a flat car, but smaller plates and portions might work. One clipping I have in my cartoon collection is of an old guy that ran a Lionel train off of his balcony to hit someone in the head and knock him out. I'll have to dig out that cartoon.

[Big_Boy_4005]

You know Boyd, food delivery by toy train is not a new concept. Back in the 50's there was a short film about a guy named Joe McDoaks who did just that, much to his wife's dismay.

I have also heard of restaurants which featured food service by toy train.

Then of course there is one of my favorite movies, which was recently mentioned in CTT. "Nothing But Trouble" starring Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, John Candy, and Demi Moore, features that great scene at this huge oval dining room table. The whole sequence only lasts about a minute and a half on screen, with the eccentric Dan Ackroyd at the throttle of the "condiment express", and culminates with a Lionel rocket launcher shooting a baby pickel at Taylor Negron.

I have this on DVD, and it is fun to go through it frame by frame.[swg]

[Buckeye Riveter]

Ths Snack Train

[Anonymous]

I think I've got the most unique use for a Lionel train, yet! In the book "All Aboard: The Story of Joshua Lionel Cowen and His Lionel Train Company" (an absolute must-have if you're interested in the history of Lionel), it talks about a medical research laboratory in Clevland that used a GG1 to transport radioactive radon 21 feet between a storage room and laboratory. The radon capsules at first were hauled on depressed-centre flat cars and were picked up by scientists with tongs. Later, though, they switched to automatic dump cars and dumped the capsules down a chute by remote control.

[mersenne6]

Sask, Model Railroader for June 1949 did an article on that train. The place was the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. If you are ever in town drop by their International Hotel (on the main campus grounds), go up to the second floor and take the skyway over to the main hospital. Just before you get to the elevators you will see a wall section devoted to CCF's past achievements. One of the pictures in the section on radiation therapy is that same picture of the GG1 pulling the radon train through a tunnel.

As for snack trains - they go back to the 1800's. There were people in Europe who set up trains designed to deliver the various courses of the main meal to all of the guests. The tracks were laid right on top of the tablecloth and were switched down at the far end in order to get them back to the kitchen for refills and for course changes.

[FJ and G]

I often have dreamed of numerous and sundry uses for toy trains as revenue haulers. Most of my ideas regard produce, such as a micro-brewery (that really works) on the layout and that fills tank or hopper cars. That you can insert straws in to drink.

Others include bread-making factory, cereal company, and a Victoria Secret plant.

[FJ and G]

In all seriousness, I think a toy train would be a great science tool in the high school and possibly in college, testing your bridge-making, surveying (for slopes, cuts, fills) and electrical skills. Heck, take it to art class and make an artistic module. Or bring it to music class and toot out some tunes.

[wiz1500]

when we were in Indianapolis last year for the U.S. nationals (i'm a dragracer) we ate at a pizza joint that delivered are drinks to the table with a G gauge train it was way cool... The pizza welllllllllll................ I wanted to go back just for a pop but the wife said no..

[3railguy]

N scale trains make great cat toys.

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

In all seriousness, I think a toy train would be a great science tool in the high school and possibly in college, testing your bridge-making, surveying (for slopes, cuts, fills) and electrical skills. Heck, take it to art class and make an artistic module. Or bring it to music class and toot out some tunes.

Well, if you are going to get into physics Dave, why not study Newton's laws? Trains are great examples of the laws of motion. Steam engines make great thermodynamics lessons too.[:D]

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information, mersenne6!

Here's another one I forgot about. I know I said before that that was the most unique use for a Lionel train, but now that I've though of this, I'm not so sure. Anyway, this is certainly the craziest thing anyone could think up! On one episode of The Red Green Show, Red showed how to add operating windsheild wipers to all the windows of your car, so that you can see everywhere when it's raining and not just out of the front. He stuck windsheild wipers onto all the windows with half of each sticking up above the roof. They also could each pivot. Then, on the roof of the car, there was a piece of plywood with an oval of O gauge track on it. A Lionel 2026-type steamer (I think) with a long brush stuck onto the front of it using the handyman's secret weapon, duct tape, ran on it. As it ran around, the brush would hit each of the wipers and make it move. There was a transformer on the dashboard to control it.

Also, on another episode of The Red Green Show, Red found an interesting use for one of those New Bright G scale engines that run on the floor and turn around when they hit something. He duct taped the end of a vacuum hose onto the front of it, hung the vacuum from the ceiling and then turned the train on. It ran around the room and did the vacuuming.

[Anonymous]

I took a flat bed and bought an oval plastic container with holes in it of course and put my son's Guinea Pig in it and transported the thing around the layout by a steam locomotive. The animal just sat there and took cruising, but kept sniffing the smoke from the loco. His snake didn't cooperate, and neither did his ferret. The ferret like the firestation until we locked him in it by closing the fire doors for the engine.

Yes I am nuts!

[mersenne6]

In the book The Evolution of Useful Things on pp. 143 is a picture of a Victorian era dining room in England with a railroad, complete with switches, set up on the dining room table (with switching to the pantry) for delivering food. The picture caption reads,"A Victorian dinner-table railway answered the objection of a farmer from the south of England to to the constant interruption of servants bringing in a meal's many courses." While there is a vast expanse of table and railway there are only three guests - either the farmer was very choosy about guests or the mayhem involved in the switching caused the other guests to eat somewhere else!

[Anonymous]

Besides the usual use of a childhood train to terrorize the cat, by chasing it around the Christmas tree with the train, years ago, there was a recent train use that fits this topic.

Come on, you all have done this right?)

While not as creative as the other ideas mentioned, and at the risk of sounding too "mushy" on a dominately male forum, I once used a train set-up in a unique way:

One year the Christmas layout stayed out till after Valentines Day, so instead of merely handing my Wife her present, I sent her on a scavenger hunt.

I left various notes around the house, that gave poetic clues as to where to find the next clue.

When the 3rd clue was found, it directed her to the train, in which the 4th poetic clue lay inside a gondola car.

I think she enjoyed the treasure hunt more than the actual treasure at the end of the scavenger hunt. LOL

Needless to say, I got allot of "brownie-points" for romantic creativity, and all the little poem-clues I left around the house.

[tschmidt]

Creative or sick, I'm not sure. When the cat gets up on the shelf that runs around the room I can't help but start the train up and slowly drive toward the cat. Now mind you, our cat is not the smartest thing in the world. A few times I've been able to drive right through his legs and he doesn't know what to do. Set off the diesel horn and all 4 legs leave the shelf at the same time. Trains are fun!

[Anonymous]

Well, Theres CB Huntington, a restuarant in Bayville NJ, that does that. Its preety cool.

[Anonymous]

I mean... wheel chocks?

LOL

[zwbob]

Back in the early 60's there was a Revco Drug store at around E131st and Miles that used a GP7/9 with a gondola to deliver your prescription to the cashier at the front of the store.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tschmidt

Creative or sick, I'm not sure. When the cat gets up on the shelf that runs around the room I can't help but start the train up and slowly drive toward the cat. Now mind you, our cat is not the smartest thing in the world. A few times I've been able to drive right through his legs and he doesn't know what to do. Set off the diesel horn and all 4 legs leave the shelf at the same time. Trains are fun!

That's hillarious

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Davidvd59

I took a flat bed and bought an oval plastic container with holes in it of course and put my son's Guinea Pig in it and transported the thing around the layout by a steam locomotive. The animal just sat there and took cruising, but kept sniffing the smoke from the loco. His snake didn't cooperate, and neither did his ferret. The ferret like the firestation until we locked him in it by closing the fire doors for the engine.

Yes I am nuts!

My guinea pigs are very curious, so sometimes I let them watch. It's funny, last saturday I got one of them dizzy because she was trying to concentrate on 1 snowflake.

[Anonymous]

I remember now, I use my Lionel Airwhistle tender off the track by blowing into the opening in the bottom sometime

[Chris F]

WabashCannonball, it's nice to see there's more than one "romantic" out there!

My future wife had suggested buying a train to go around my Christmas tree. I used the train that year to deliver an engagement ring. It will be 12 years next April, and we still both love toy trains, not to mention each other.[:D]

[FJ and G]

Another odd use for trains is in store windows----not hobby stores but other stores to attract attention.

In Vienna VA, right next to the old Washington & Dominion RR there's a clock shop with a train that runs 24/7 inside the front window. When my daughter was smaller I used to drop her off at Taekwondo (she's a black belt) and watch the train.

OK, I admit, it is a G-scale train, but still, the idea of the train will definitely attract attention, if not from parents then certainly from kids who will pull the parents to the store.

IMO this would be esp effective device to use for kids toys or clothing stores. Would definitely increase business.

[rliesik]

My Uncle in the Chicago suburbs constructed a food delivery train for a restaurant near the Des Plaines trainstation. It was in existence from the early '50s, but I do not know if it still exists (I doubt it!). My Dad helped him design some of the attachments for the cars to deliver food.

I am about to resurrect my 1949-50 Lionel freight train. There is a lot of dry-rot in some of the wiring, so there will be plenty of work ahead.

[FJ and G]

rliesik,

Welcome to the forum. Hope you come and visit. We'll leave the light on fer ya.

When I was stationed in Japan in the 70s, 80s, used to frequent a sushi restaurant (I know what you're thinking--yuck!@) that had a conveyor go around, not a train but a train-like transport--that carried dishes of eel, squid, octapus, raw fish of all types and other delectibles. You would pull off a plate, zip it into your stomach, and place the empty dish on the conveyor.

[Anonymous]

The act of chasing pets with trains is not considered "sick", unless of coarse you tie them down to the tracks, or the pets are fish...LOL

Can anyone say: "Blub-blub"?

[Chris F]

rliesik,

Was it called the Choo Choo Restaurant? My dad took me there a couple of times in the 50's. I haven't been there since the late 80's, but the trains were still running then. Here's the contact info I found from a 2002 listing -

600 Mannheim Rd
Des Plaines, IL 60016
[phone]

Good luck with the train restoration![:)]

[lionelsoni]

Dave, did you know that Joshua Cowen originally intended to sell Lionel trains for window displays?