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At the Iron Horse Days Festival in Mineola, Texas October 2001, the sponsors of the show wanted to know the name of their railroad empire. So came the name of "The Grumpy Old Men Railroad". Grumpy they might have been but Grumpy there were not with the youngsters that came to the show.
That fall the GOM RR set up at the Cotton Belt Historical Society's Annual Train Show in Tyler, Texas. A gentleman came to the show and started talking about some trains he had at home. It didn't take much arm-twisting for him to go home and get some of his trains to run on the GOM RR. By the end of the day this young man said, "I guess I can't be a part of this group because I'm not grumpy or old." After some conversation the Loblolly Railroad was selected as the name for the former GOM RR.
East Texas has lots of pine trees. Most of the pine tree here are National Forest land or privately owned land used in the production of timber for pulp and building materials. So, it seemed only natural to select the name Loblolly for this growing 3-rail O-gauge railroad empire. By the time this traveling 3-rail empire went on the road again, the name Loblolly RR was in place.
With each succeeding train show the display grew with more track, wider curves, large surface size, more loops of track and the 3 men grew a few more with each show. The Crew of the Loblolly comes from Nacogdoches, Owentown, Tyler, Longview, Mineola, Diana, Big Sandy, Kilgore, Grand Prairie, Fairfield, Texas. and Bossier City, LA.
Today the Loblolly Railroad display
Measures 8 x 44 feet
Has 7 loops of track
2 loops of O-72 inch track
1 loop of O-54 inch track
2 loops of O-42 inch track
2 loops of O-31 inch track
Handles old and new locomotives regardless of vintage
Handles Lionel Train Master Command Control locomotives
Handles MTH Proto-sounds 1
Handles MTH DCS Proto-2 locomotives
Mountain and tunnel
Restored Haubenstricker Bridges
New Uhler double mainline bridge
Oil Wells and Tank Station
New farm scene
The Crew of the Loblolly try to provide as much action and inter-action with their trains as possible.
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