This week I finished illuminating my Mantua streamlined passenger cars. It’s been a six-month journey through e-Bay to find mates for my half-century old cars, and now they are all fully lit and operational. I pulled them behind an equally ancient Milwaukee F7, suitably equipped with a LED headlight, Kadee’s and a decoder.
Tonight I turned out all the lights and brought the whole train up to speed. The scenery isn’t complete, but there are plenty of buildings and towers spread around the layout. What I saw immediately triggered an old memory. As the train traversed the layout, it’s headlight put shadows on the wall, first small and fixed, and then growing larger and eventually curving off into darkness as the engine entered the curve and passed by.
I’ve seen this before. The first time was in the 1950’s, with my old Lionels. Then it showed up again in the 60’s with my first HO layout. Tonight, for the first time this century, that old memory was dragged out of my neurons and back into the headlights of an old F7.
Sounds Like fun!
Can’t wait to do something similar soon with an old Mantua Pacific and its consist, soon as I get its rehab finished.
One of my earliest memories of model railroading was going to see a layout owned by a friend of my father. This would have been mid 1950s and I was probably just 4 or 5 years old. I have no idea what scale or brand of equipment he was running but I vividly remember the train passing into a mountain and the tunnel was open at the end of the layout so you could see the train as it passed by. There was a passenger train with lighted cars and silohuetted passengers and I thought that was way cool even then. It must have made a real impression on me to remember it so vividly today.
Mister Beasley you just reminded me of a train ride to CA in1949 w/my grandma. I was 5.
Thanks for the memory. That reminds me of a ride I took on a passenger train in virginia in '64. It was special then and is still special today. I’ll never forget that ride.
Wonderful, can’t wait till I get my layout done and watch the reflections of the headlights through the trees and rock cuts.
Another great reason why this hobby is so speacial. Thanks for the post.
Ah-h-h-h-h…layout lighting or not… Makes for fun running at all times of the day. Thanks for the memory.
Mister Beasley,
Just reading your post made me take a trip down memory lane. Thanks.
Dave
P.S. Sometimes the greatest feelings come from the simplest things.
I remember my late grandfather’s Lionel layout in his basement. The thing I remember most are those silhouetted passenger cars, too. That and the smell of that old double control transformer with the old cloth wiring run to the various buildings and controls.