Model Railroad Pass Exchange

[Anonymous]

Real railroads had passes for free trips on their passenger trains a long time ago. These were given to company employees and their families and to other railroad officials.

In the past many model railroaders had passes for their model railroads too. There was quite a hobby within a hobby in exchanging passes with modelers all over the world. As a teenage model railroader in the 1960's I exhanged passes with many modelers, with a collection of around a thousand passes. Railroad Model Craftsman, Model Trains magazine (long gone) and the NMRA Bulletin would list your name in their pass exchange columns and the passes would come flooding in.

This part of the hobby seems to be fairly dormant these days, as I imagine more recent hobbyists might not even know about pass collecting. It has taken on a new and more modern form these days - with e-passes. These are passes prepared in a computer and then e-mailed to fellow collectors. I've only a few so far, and now have one too. I just received a request for one of my e-passes from the San Diego Model Railroad Club.

In case you are interested in reading more, I have some info on my website along with some sample images of my passes over the years. See the link below my name.

Most passes were printed by commercial printers, and there were a few who specialized in them and who placed ads in model magazines. I was a little different, having my first two sets of passes printed this way, but then bought a small hand operated printing press on which I made my own for years.

The NMRA holds contests for passes at their annual conventions, and one of mine won first place way back in 1986 and this year I won second place at the event in Seattle. Lots of fun!

Bob Boudreau
Canada
Web page: http://www.geocities.com/fundynorthern/Passes.html

[Big_Boy_4005]

I remember the days when passes were popular, but like you said their use seems to have fallen by the wayside. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that real railroads no longer use them, since they were related to passenger service.

The E passes sound like a great way to bring back this traditional activity. I'll have to get busy and create one for my railroad, even though it is nowhere near finished.

[rogerhensley]

I'm glad that Bob brought this up. I, too, have an e-pass available. Here is a sample. The actual pass is 550x350 and that seems to be about an average size. There are a number of examples on my site as well. http://cid.railfan.net/eci_new.html

[lupo]

I did not know of these passes until I received one ( thanks Bob ! )
maybe bringing this to the attention of us newbies can revive this
I think I gonna make some as soon as I have something to show off, but please do not tell anyone because there could be copyright-violation on them.

[MR DENNIS A SMITH]

These passes were popular in 1960's and 1970's.There was a mom and pop printing company out east at that time that you could order passes from for your railroad along with train rubber stamps at that time ,Dennis Alton Smith

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

Here is the E-pass I made for my layout. Sometimes I leave them at trainshows.