On Wednesday, June 13th, 25 children aged 7 to 11 visited CentraMod to learn about modeling and running trains. They visited on the second day of a three day Train Camp experience that was offered through the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum.

As the children arrived at the CentraMod club house, there were divided into small groups named after historical named passenger trains. These group names were the The Scout, The Texas Chief, The Super Chief, The Texas Special, The Daylight, The Southern Belle, and The Texas Eagle. They were also given a timetable to control their movements between various activites during their stay at CentraMod.

Each of the logos below was the drumhead for the corresponding named train. The sign was a sign posted on the rear of passenger trains. It consisted of a fully-enclosed box with lights inside that would illuminate a tinted panel showing the logo of the railroad or specific train. Since the box and the sign were usually circular in shape, they resembled small drums. This is how they came to be known as drumheads.

THE SCOUT

The Scout was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was initially assigned train Nos. 1 (westbound) & 10 (eastbound), and its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The Scout made its last run on June 7, 1948.

THE TEXAS CHIEF

The original Texas Chief was inaugurated as a coach and Pullman train in 1939 and ran until the end of Santa Fe passenger operations on May 1, 1971. The Texas Chief’s route ran from Chicago, Illinois, to Galveston, Texas with a section cutting off near Denton, Texas, and heading to Dallas, Texas.

THE SUPER CHIEF

The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Inaugurated in 1935, it was a first class sleeping car only train. It was often referred to as “The Train of the Stars” because of the many celebrities who traveled on the streamliner between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. The train continued in service until the end of Santa Fe passenger operations on May 1, 1971.

Kato USA has produced cars and diesel locomotives which can be used to model the Super Chief in N Scale.

THE TEXAS SPECIAL

The Missouri – Kansas -Texas “Katy” Texas Special made its first run in 1915. In 1947, it was upgraded to a diesel-electric powered streamliner train. It was jointly operated with the Frisco until 1964 and served St. Louis, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio.

THE DAYLIGHT

The Daylight was a passenger train originally run by the Southern Pacific between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. Many have said it was the most beautiful passenger train in the world with a stunning red, orange, and black color scheme. The Coast Daylight had its inaugural run on March 1, 1937. The train continued to run until 1971 when Amtrak took over passenger service.

THE SOUTHERN BELLE

The Southern Belle was a named passenger train service offered by Kansas City Southern Railway from the 1940s through the 1960s. It ran between Kansas City, Missouri and New Orleans, Louisiana. The last run of the Southern Belle was on November 2, 1969.

THE TEXAS EAGLE

The Missouri Pacific Railroad and Texas and Pacific Railway train of the same name was inaugurated August 15, 1948. It is now operated by Amtrak and serves the central and western United States.

The Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum will host author Dr. J. Parker Lamb for a book signing event at the museum Saturday, August 11th, from 2:00PM to 4:00PM. Dr. Lamb will be signing his latest book, Evolution of the American Diesel Locomotive (Railroads Past and Present).

The museum is also hosting a “luncheon with the author” from 12:00 noon. Reservations are required and are $10.00 per person. Call 254-773-4759 to make your luncheon reservations.

CentraMod will be open from 1:00PM to 4:00PM in conjunction with this luncheon and book signing event.

About the Author

J. PARKER LAMB, Ph.D., P.E., is Professor Emeritus at The University of Texas at Austin’s Mechanical Engineering Department. He has served on the College of Engineering faculty since 1963 in many different capacities.

He has been photographing trains since the fall of 1949. His life and career have taken him throughout the Deep South and on to Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and finally Texas.

Read Classic Trains Magazine’s bio on J. Parker Lamb.

You can see some of J. Parker Lamb’s photography in the Winter 2000 issue of Classic Trains magazine.

Lamb’s goal is to “display railroad machinery within scenic compositions that cause people to respond with a comment such as, ‘Now, that photograph makes the train look beautiful!'”

Bibliography

CentraMod was surprised and honored to be visited by fellow model railroader Duane Gaddis of Booneville, Indiana on Wednesday, June 6th.

A retired telephone repairman, he had ridden his Harley Davidson, “Old Red” down from Indiana to attend this year’s NMRA Lone Star Region Annual Convention as he has done in years past. This year, he was lucky enough to find the club open for a work session and was able to take a tour.

Duane’s HO layout, The Northern Illinois-Southern Indiana Railroad, was featured over an 8-page spread in the April 1995 issue of Model Railroader magazine.

While Duane mentioned that he has cut back on some of his rolling stock, he does still conduct operating sessions with his friends. Even though his layout is 26 x 46 feet, he said it could get a bit crowded during sessions.

One of the most interesting aspects of his layout is that he designed it to allow for different railroads and eras. The overall generic  midwestern feel looks right for whatever equipment he is running at the time. Most of the structures and track configuration are based on prototypes and were compressed to fit his available space.

Duane has modeled the following railroads:

• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
• Chicago & North Western
• Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
• Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific
• Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
• Illinois Central
• New York Central

He can set up to run in the 1950s, mid 1960s, or late 1970s/early 1980s.

When Duane saw CentraMod’s library, he commented on how valuable his own personal library of books and magazines helped him to build prototypically correct models. He said he has since donated more than 2,000 railroad and model railroading magazines to libraries in his area.

We are glad that Duane stopped by to say hello and check out the club and railfan the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline from the depot’s freight dock. As he said in his own words, “If you happen to be railfanning on some lonely stretch of the Santa Fe and spot a big red Harley and an oversized biker with a camera hung from his neck, please stop by and say hello.”

Be sure to check out the April 1995 issue of Model Railroader in the club library to see some great pictures of a beautiful layout.