Interest In Trains

My interest in trains goes back many years. Not only in toy trains but in the real things also. My father was an engineer on the Norfolk & Western Railway. The Norfolk & Western was the last railroad to give up the steam engine and convert to an all diesel operation. My father made the switch from steam to diesel but he hated the diesels. Soon after the diesels were introduced, he had to retire due to government regulations that no one could drive a train pass the age of 70.

When I was a teenager, my father would get me passes on the railroad to take trips. I went to Virginia Beach and the Norfolk area quite a few times on those passes. When I started working for the airlines, I was home one time and I told dad that if he wanted to go on a trip that I could get him a pass on the airline and pay him back for all those trips he gave me on the trains. My dad told me that if the good Lord let him live long enough to get on one of those things he was going to have an awful old man on his hands. He never did get on an airplane, even with one of his sons that was a pilot.

We never had toy trains when I was young. I guess my father thought that working on the real thing was enough for him. One of my brother-in-laws did have Lionel trains. He put track around the attic of his home and ran his trains there. My brother and I could watch but not touch. This was when I was between seven and ten years old and my brother is two years older than I am. I sure did like to see those steam engines flying down the track with the drawbars just a pumping away and the smoke flying. I guess in a way, I am like my father. I like steam engines and don't care too much about diesels.

Not too many years ago the Norfolk Southern would have excursion trains pulled by either the 611, 1218, or both steam engines. My sisters and I made as many of these trips as we could. In the last couple of years of these excursion trips, the trains would operate out of Roanoke, Virginia to Bluefield, West Virginia on Columbus Day weekend. This was always a nice time of year in Virginia as the trees were in full fall color and very colorful. Norfolk Southern has stopped these excursion trains now. The 611 in sitting in the museum in Roanoke and can be viewed and climbed on by all. It was nice to sit in the seat that my father called his office. Rumor has it that the 1218 is in one of the buildings in the yards at Roanoke with a broken part that can't be replaced. I do hope that one day it will also be placed in the museum.

About twenty years ago, I purchased my first toy train. Believe it or not, it was a diesel. It was a Norfolk & Western coal train built by K-Line. I built a small layout to run it on. As my collection grew and the trains got bigger, I did away with the 4 X 8 layout and took over a 9 X 12 bedroom and built my next layout. I had one oblong circle with 0-72 curves to run the big engines on. The inside track was 0-31 curves and I could do some switching to four factories that I had built. There was also a community of about six houses and two mountains. This layout lasted until last year when I tore it down and was going to build one in my garage but so far, that has not happened.

About ten years ago my collection became so large that I had problems finding a place to store more trains. So, I sold about ten sets of Lionel trains. They were all diesels and came in big boxes that took up a lot of room. It took about five train shows to get rid of all of them. But the train shows were fun. I met a lot of nice people that I had only seen while buying trains and found out that selling them was not all that easy.

If you have read this before, you know that I have been going to train shows to thin out my collection. Well, I will no longer have tables at the train show. I still have some items that I would like to sell. Please visit my train sale pages to see if there is anything remaining that you would like to have. The sidebar has the index to view what trains are for sale. I am offering a sale price of 25% off the Like New price in the Greenberg pocket guides for Lionel and MTH trains. All items are subject to sale without notice. The list will be updated ASAP after each sale. Some items may be on eBay during this time.

• I will break up sets.
• I will accept money order or cashier's check with next day shipping.
• I will accept personal checks with 7 banking days wait before shipping.
• I will not accept collect telephone calls.
• Buyer will pay for shipping & insurance - domestic USA only.
• No International shipping.
• All items in original box, unless noted.
• All purchases in US$.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Jay Pete

The Norfolk & Western 611

The 611 with tender and water bottle

Passenger Car

Observation Car

Around the Bend

The 1218

The 1218 tender

Gosh Mom, this thing is big.

Leaving Roanoke, Virginia

Passenger Cars

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6-15-2001