Old Man Take a Look at My Life, I'm a lot Like You

Neil Young fans will recognize the line from his song "Old Man" which is from his 1972 solo album Harvest. Lionel fans will also recognize Neil as one of the former owners of Lionel Trains. Young has been an avid train enthusiast and collector since he was a child and has said the vast model train layouts at his California ranch helped him connect with his son Ben, who has cerebral palsy.

This video was filmed at Young's California ranch in the mid 1990's around his train layout with his family, Pegi, Ben, and Amber. The segment was broadcast on the Nickelodeon Network and was hosted by Linda Ellerbee.

In 1995 Neil was part of an investment group that bought Lionel Trains and he is credited as the inventor of the LionTech TrainMaster Command Control (TMCC) system used in Lionel Trains from 1994-2006. LionTech, roughly headquartered on Young's northern California ranch, consisted of a loose confederation of technology developers whom Young had assembled to help develop individual components of the TrainMaster Command Control system.

In 2017, Neil auctioned off his model train collection passing on his hobby to another generation of collectors.

Grandpas Railroad Crummy

Growing up outside of Seattle, WA I fondly remember visiting my Grandfathers home workshop. It was a magic place of wonder. This was not a large space, just a tool shed at the back of his carport in Sultan, WA. But the tools hanging on every square inch of the walls and the ceiling made it seem like a museum of mystery where anything was possible and anything could be fixed. Sitting just outside his workshop sat Grampa's Crummy. 

This 1969 Suburban is similar to my grandfather's Crummy, his definitely had more rust...

Grandpas "Crummy" was a late 60's GMC Suburban in a weather-worn Orange color and had an elegant rusty patina. General Motors made these 3-door workhorses from 1967 to 1972 and they were often used by railroads as crew cars. The idea behind the 3-doors was that the passengers in the backseat could only exit on the safe (non-traffic) side of the vehicle. 

I remember seeing Grandpa one random Sunday morning wearing his denim overalls with his church clothes on underneath. He emerged from beneath the hood of the Crummy with a smile on his face and a wrench in his hand. Who knows? He might have been fixing something or simply giving it an oil change, but the Crummy was ready to go!

How Grandpa's Suburban got Nicknamed the Crummy

We always called Grandpa's Suburban the "Crummy" and I thought it was a unique nickname to his special vehicle but a few years ago I was visiting a car show and spotted a 3-door late 1960's Suburban. I told the owner about my Grandfathers Crummy and he told me that was a common name for these vehicles. He told me the railroads would use these for their road crews and since being on the road crew was the crummiest job on the railroad, that's how the nickname came to be.

Another theory is that on train lines, the caboose was often called a "crummy" because of the sparse accommodations for the crew. Grandpas Crummy might have gotten its nickname for the same reason. His Suburban was no luxury SUV like our modern Suburbans. It was nothing more than a work pickup truck with a roof over the bed and an extra row of seats. Monday through Saturday it could fit all of his tools, and on Sunday it would fit all of his grandkids, whichever was needed.

Whether it was the spartan similarity to a caboose or the job description of the road-crew occupants, General Motors' sales of vehicles to the railroads is well documented and the "Crummy" is another example of one of the vehicles that kept the railroads running.

Santa Fe Freight BA (Dummy) Locomotives

I picked up a dummy locomotive and B-Unit for my Santa Fe freight train consist. The red GM logo on the locomotive indicates this 1/2 of a Lionel 6-38312 Santa Fe F3 AA Conventional Classics set. These reissues were released in 2009 and were based on the Lionel Post War 2343's from the 1950's. 

This set is notorious for the fact that the original red paint was considered too flat and there were replacement shells sent to the owners with a glossier red finish. These body shells have the silver metal mesh (screen) top vents just like the post-war 2343 diesels and will actually fit the chassis from the 1950's. My 6-38317 is in the original dull finish.

• The powered locomotive would be the Lionel 6-38316 2343P
• This dummy locomotive would be the Lionel 6-38317 2343T (pictured below)

Note the single headlight consistent with Santa Fe freight trains of the mid-1950's.

  

Dummy units are empty inside except for the lamp that lights the headlight and cab. Typically they are rear-facing in the consist.  

The B-Unit is a Lionel 6-18129 2343C Santa Fe F3 Non-Pwd B-Unit Diesel Locomotive w/ Railsounds from 1996. This is a Made in the USA piece and adds robust sound to the consist.

The Lionel 6-18129 2343C has a volume knob on the top and requires a 9-Volt battery to run the rail sounds after the track power is cut. 

For now, I have added both of these to my Santa Fe El Capitan passenger consist. But the 6-38317 2343T (dummy) will be added to the "Nova" freight train consist when I find a matching 6-38316 2343P to pull it.

The El Capitain with an ABA Locomotive, Passenger, Vista, Diner, Passenger, and an Observation car.

El Capitan Diner Car added to the Consist

The Hotrod Diner El Capitan consist has just added a second of the three extra cars Lionel produced for the El Capitan. This car is the Lionel 6-25411 Santa Fe El Capitan Diner car (5109). 

Lionel 6-25411 Santa Fe El Capitan Diner car (5109) was produced from 2004-2007

This car represents the modest El Capitan dining experience with a small dining area at one end, a  lunch counter in the center, and a pantry and kitchen at the other end.

The Santa Fe El Capitan Diner Car from a 1940s era Santa Fe brochure. 

Serving economical and selective Fred Harvey table d’hote meals, a la carte meals and special meals for children. In this unique restaurant-on-wheels, there is a lunch counter seating 14 persons; and a formal section, with 6 tables of four places each.

Postcard of the El Capitan Diner car dining room with white linen service.

El Capitan Pulman Standard 1950's era diner car from Amtrack after they updated their 20-year-old Santa Fe Diner cars with a modern "Brady Bunch" color scheme. The dining room was behind the glass panels at the back of the photo. 

Nova Train?

I've come to the conclusion that the Hotrod Diner train route needs a freight train to go with the El Capitan passenger train. I'm thinking of recreating a Santa Fe version of this Rio Grande "Nova train" from 1973. Yep, that's a trainload of 1973 Novas!

I found this Lionel 6-9281 triple deck car hauler in Santa Fe livery that is similar to the cars pictured. It looks like this will hold 3 rows of 4 cars each. I'd like to string at least 3 of these in a row. So I'm going to need a bunch of cars!

Lionel 6-9281 triple deck car hauler box has smaller cars pictured like a typical 1:64 Matchbox.

The challenge is most of the O-scale train world generally uses 1:43 scale cars to go with O-scale trains. But the O-27 gauge trains that Lionel produces are not actually "scale" to anything.

Pictured above is a similar Lionel car in Penn Central livery with 1:64 Matchboxes. 

I'm thinking a "train load" of 1:64 Maisto Pro Rodz 1970 Novas. This Nova is the close to the 73's and the design fits my Hotrod Diner theme as I already have several 1:24 Maisto Pro Rodz on my Hotrod Diner marque.

1:64 Maisto Pro Rodz 1970 Novas come in green, blue and yellow,

Update

The Nova Train has begun. This is a Lionel 6-9281 in Sante Fe livery with three Pro-Rodz 66 GTOs and a 62 Belair mocked-up for size. In-person I feel these are just too small so I'm going to check and see if I can fit 1:55 or even 1:50 scale cars on the carrier. 

The Lionel 6-9281 triple deck car hauler with four Maisto Pro Rodz  1:64 scale cars. 

Added a Vista Dome car to the El Capitan Consist

I added a Lionel 6-35129 El Capitan Vista Dome #3153 to my El Capitan Consist. This car is based on the early 50's "glass penthouse" vista dome cars used by a variety of passenger train lines. It's a fantasy car as Santa Fe never actually used the small dome cars on the El Capitan. Santa Fe called their six (6) small dome cars the "Pleasure Dome" and they were exclusive equipment to the Super Chief.

In 1954 the El Capitan consist was equipped with full-length dome cars and two years later they got the high-level cars that really put the El Capitan on the map. But this fantasy Lionel car is decorated in their El Capitan single stripe and was added to the catalog in 2008.

The Vista-Dome car was conceived by Cyrus Osborn, a General Motors vice president, in 1944 as he rode in the diesel locomotive of a freight train in the Glenwood Canyon. Overtaken with the views that were not obscured by the walls of a passenger car, he contemplated a method to provide passengers with the same breathtaking views he was experiencing and started sketching away to provide train passengers a means of viewing the scenery. 

Introduced in 1951, Santa Fe called their dome cars "Pleasure Dome". (Burlington Railroad was the first adopter of Mr. Osborn's invention, coined and used the name, "Vista Dome".) The Santa Fe cars were built by Pullman and their domes had flat panes of glass.

"Top of the Super, next to the stars"—this unusual dome lounge with its deep cushioned swivel chairs and glare-proof windows gives you a wonderful unobstructed view of the scenic Santa Fe route.

The Santa Fe Pleasure Dome cars may have been the most luxurious style dome cars ever built. A large lounge with seats for about 20 graced the long end of the car, while a smaller lounge with seats for ten was located under the dome along with a small bar to serve drinks. The short end of the car was the famous Turquoise Room, a private dining room for up to 12 people. The car was always located next to the train’s diner so waiters could easily serve people in the Turquoise room.

This El Capitan poster shows the combination Super Chief El Capitan that Santa Fe started running in 1958 with a Pleasure Dome car in the consist.

Although the El Capitan never ran a small dome car, for my train line, a Vista Dome is the perfect addition! In addition to the Vista Dome Lionel also made a tri-colored single-stripe add-on Baggage Car and add-on Diner car for their Lionel El Capitan consist.

Better trains follow General Motors locomotives

Sante Fe opted to power their El Capitan with the same streamlined locomotive as their Super Chief. The FT Deisel Locomotive was manufactured by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. The original FT was a 1,350 hp B-B diesel-electric locomotive produced between November 1939 and November 1945. The "F" stood for "freight" and the "T" for 2700 horsepower with a 2 unit set. A total of 555 cab-equipped A units were built, and 541 cabless booster B units, for a total of 1,096 locomotive units were constructed. All of these were sold to railroads in the United States. It was the first model in General Motors EMD's very successful F-unit series of cab unit diesels and this was the locomotive that convinced many US railroads that the diesel-electric freight locomotive was the future. Many rail historians consider the FT one of the most important locomotive models of all time. 

The first units produced for a customer were built in December 1940 and January 1941 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. FTs were generally marketed as semi-permanently coupled A-B sets (a lead unit and a cabless booster connected by a solid drawbar) making a single locomotive of 2,700 hp. Many railroads used pairs of these sets back to back to make up a four-unit A-B-B-A locomotive rated at 5,400 hp.

Note the Single Headlight indicating this restored locomotive was originally manufactured to pull freight cars. (Dual headlight locomotives were used for passenger trains.)

General Motors Electro-Motive Division FT demonstration ABA

The Santa Fe passenger trains with their distinctive Warbonnet paint scheme were so popular General Motors used one to promote their FT Deisel Locomotives to the public.