The dark side of toy trains

[David Barker]

Becky you are fabulous!

[Penny Trains]

Hey if anybody wants to Gomez on their Santa Fe F3's I'd love to see it!  

Dad was the collector and firearms expert, I don't know much about them other than we have a BB gun version of the M-1 too.

I wonder if I'm the only toy train collector who has a life-size Darth Vader action figure???  

Becky

[jscola30]

really great stuff Becky as usual! Although, I too thought the title meant something else...actual issues within the hobby which actually I've been thinking a lot about recently. But great stuff, hope to see more of you in CTT.

[Firelock76]

Becky, you had me in hysterics!  When I saw the title "Dark side of Toy Trains"  I was expecting Gomez Addams with his explosives and detonator box! 

I think the only thing scarier than Lord Vader with his  Maerklin's would have been Hermann Goering with HIS Maerklins!

By the way, that's a fine assortment of shootin' irons in the background, looks like an '03 Springfield on the top with and M-1 carbine on the bottom.  Two of my favorites.

PS: The only thing missing is a "Firelock"

PPS: Like that side-hammer shotgun too.  Is Elmer Fudd in the neighborhood?

[Penny Trains]

Darth Vader likes Marklin HO!  

I thought I'd start a thread for silly, bizzarre, satirical, sublime and even maybe a bit macbre toy train related comedy.  Things like Darth there having his own rr (probably so he can run over miniature rebels), or this:

1:48 scale rocket on a flatcar!  Think it will fit through Lionel tunnels???    I may need 2 flatcars for the 1:48 scale Saturn V!  

I thought we could also post photos of some of the more "unusual" items we may have.  Here's one of mine:

A Three Mile Island commemorative car (35 years this Friday) is in my opinion one of those "dark horses" in my collection as-is.  However I decided to make it even more unusual by adding props:

Those drums are a paper model available at paper-replika.com.  The kit builds one four inch high drum but it's easy enough to miniaturize them.  The "spillage" is a water based glow in the dark paint containing the rare earth element Europium I purchased through United Nuclear Laboratories (they make old style chemistry sets).  I juiced up the paint with a blacklight for a couple of minutes and turned it off a few seconds before my camera snapped this photo.  The paint dries clear and since it's water soluble and non toxic it shouldn't hurt the value of the car.

But that's beside the point!    This shouldn't be a thread where we worry about such serious stuff!  Here's one of 3 standard gauge cars I've had a bit of fun with:

Take a styrofoam block, cut it to length, spray paint it brown (yes spray, so the paint eats a bit of the foam), add glow paint and you've got yourself a uranium train!    This is the 112 version but I also made them for the two 512 gons I own.

By the way, I keep a big chunk of lead ore in the 4 inch toxic waste drum model and dare people to look inside!  It's fun to watch them freak out when they see an actual rock!    

So, do you have a milkman you're fed up with?  Maybe you could get creative and find some funny way to let him know how frustrated you are with his inconsistent delivery schedule!?!  Or maybe you're tired of cows with a bad sense of balance?    Anyhoo, keep it Looney Tunes and Peter Sellers funny or satirical, not Michael Moore preachy and political.

Becky