Weekend Photos - July 2026

[webenda]

Southern Streak pulling three baby ruths.


Southern Streak pulling three scale cars.

[healey36]

Okay, that’s weird to me. Those short boxcars certainly weigh a lot less than the scale-sized versions. Must be the improved free-rolling scale trucks on the later cars?

That little 2-4-0 is pretty sharp, Wayne.

[webenda]

Okay, that’s weird to me. Those short boxcars certainly weigh a lot less than the scale-sized versions. Must be the improved free-rolling scale trucks on the later cars?.

The Baby Ruth cars weigh 9 oz each. The caboose weighs 3 oz. The cars have nice trucks with wheels that spin on the axles. A lot easier to get around 12 3/4-inch-radius curves than with wheels pressed onto the axles, because the wheels can spin at whatever speed is needed to negotiate the inside and outside radii of the curves. When I give one a slight shove, it rolls about 12 inches.

The scale-size cars weigh 10 1/2 oz each. They do not have free-rolling trucks, but they do have Fast Angle wheel technology. When I give one a slight shove, it rolls about 27 inches. That is better than 12 inches. Better enough for the 2-4-0 to get them started and pull them around the curves.

One more thing, the 2-4-0 weights 14 ounces and the one rubber tire fell off a long time ago.

That little 2-4-0 is pretty sharp, Wayne.

I like it. It was the locomotive that inspired me to build a door layout.

It is the Lionel Southern Streak 2-4-0 (6-8314), which came with a 4-Car Freight Set (Southern Streak) and was advertised in the 1983 and 1985 Traditional Series Consumer Catalogs. I found it at Roundhouse Electric Trains. It cost $12.99 plus $0.78 in tax (and $25.00 in gasoline for the round trip).

http://www.roundhousetrainsky.com

[webenda]

Thursday, July 16, 2026, we went to Versailles, KY. Guess what I found at the Versailles, KY train depot?

D-192 by Wayne Benda, on Flickr
Credit: Nostalgia Station Toy Museum
http://www.nostalgiastationmuseum.com

I put this image in a public album. You should be able to right-click on the image and choose "open link in new tab."
Or, left-click on it to go to the video from the model train journal.

[healey36]

Looks a bit like a Lionel store display layout, just with a lot of extra stuff piled on it.

A family friend of mine had a Lionel display layout when he was a kid. His father had been a department manager for the old Hutzler's department store chain in Baltimore. Somehow he'd managed to get a display layout that was no longer being used and had sat in storage for 10-12 years. He carted it home and they set it up in their basement. There were three boys in that family, so the display took quite a beating. I think it was a bit smaller than this layout you've pictured, Wayne, and I seem to remember one or two of the accessories had gone missing. Still, it was pretty neat.

[healey36]

Reading through the site, I see that it is a dealer display layout. Wonder if it's in as-found condition or, I'm guessing, it's had quite a bit of restoration work done to it.

[webenda]

A sign on the display revealed: "This layout is an original Lionel dealer display made in 1956 by the Lionel Corporation & cataloged as # D-192. This layout was used by Purcell's Department Store in downtown Lexington, 1956-1958."

https://kyphotoarchive.com/2015/03/02/p ... tore-1967/

[healey36]

Lionel's construction of the "mountain" and portals is very distinctive. I presume they used the method they described in their instruction sheet (Scenic Display Set. No. 920), utilizing glue-soaked felt draped over a rudimentary framework. Seems primitive, but it works, especially in an era when using one's imagination was so integral to the toy train schtick.

[webenda]

The mountain looks just as you described it.

[healey36]

Thanks for posting the close-up, Wayne. It's a good shot of what the folks at Lionel were able to cobble together with one of those scenic kits.

Here's a terrific online repository of instruction sheets:

https://clintjefferies.com/instructions.shtml#PostI

I have a book of the LIonel prewar and postwar instruction sheets that the Greenberg folks assembled years ago. They are pretty handy.

[webenda]

You are welcome, Healey.

Thank you for the link to the instruction sheets.

I recently found a catalog with an image of the Southern Streak train set. Looking at the image, I realized I had everything except the boxcar to complete a duplicate of the train set.

Suddenly I was struck with the "I Want" disease.

The boxcar arrived Thursday. The shipping box was crushed on one end. No problem, I thought. I often get shipments with beat-up and torn outer boxes with the item inside unscathed.

Not this time.
[Doesnt look right by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

Edit 1 to make my thoughts more understandable.

[webenda]

All the features that keep these 6-7902 cars together were broken or fractured. The fractured items fell off when I touched them.
Fractured end hanger by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

Missing plastic peg by Wayne Benda, on Flickr

[webenda]

Fixed the boxcar with Hot Glue.
Southern Streak by Wayne Benda, on Flickr