The Temple Historic Preservation Committee hosted a reception honoring the Moody Depot as the latest recipient of a Temple Historic Marker. The reception was held on Saturday, August 6th, at 11:30A.M. in the Moody Depot on 403 W Ave B.
The Moody Depot was built in 1881 effectively putting Moody on the map; it was later enlarged in 1901 to accommodate more freight and passengers. The big brown and yellow depot was later moved in 1975 off the railroad property to the City of Temple and is now used as the headquarters for the Central Texas Area Model Railroaders Organization.
Waco Doll and Train Show to be held at the HOT Fairgrounds
This year’s Waco Doll and Train Show will have the largest ever train show display. There will be more than 3,400 square feet of scale modular layouts in G, O, HO, N, and Z.
Come see CentraMod’s new 8’x48′ HO Scale modular layout.
CentraMod’s proven 12’x38′ O Scale modular layout will also be on display.
Also on display will be a new 24’x48′ G Scale modular layout.
Participating from out of town will be the AustNtrak Model Railroad Club from Austin, Texas and Northwest Crossing from Houston, Texas. They will combine their modules to create a 20’x50′ N Scale layout based on the N-Trak standard.
Z-Bend/3545 will visit from Houston & San Antonio to setup a 20’x20′ Z Scale layout based on the Z-Bend standard. They will also be setting up an 2’x10′ N Scale layout based on the T-Trak standard.
The train show will be open on Saturday, January 5th from 10 AM – 4 PM and again on Sunday, January 6th from 11 AM – 4 PM at the Heart of Texas Fairgrounds located at 4601 Bosque Blvd, Waco, Texas. Adult admission is $5 and children under 12 are $2.
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.
At the end or their day at CentraMod, the children received a date nail as part of their care package.
Railroad tie date nails have a date stamped in their head. For example, a nail with a “41” is from 1941. They are usually 2 1/2″ long, with 1/4″ shanks. Date nails were driven into railroad ties, bridge timbers, utility poles, mine props, and other wooden structures for record keeping purposes.
Date nails were manufactured by steel companies on high speed machines, even in the early years.
If a railroad wanted to use date nails, they would order the kind of nails they wanted (for instance, a 2 1/2″ x 3/16″ steel nail, round with raised numerals “34”). The nails were driven into ties either at the treating plant to indicate the year of treatment, or at the track to indicate the year the tie was laid.
When a rotted or mechanically damaged tie was removed, the date on the nail was noted. Ties were never removed because of age, so date nails did not tell the railroad when to replace ties. Some railroads found that dated ties lasted longer than usual because the men took special care of them.
In the first decade of the 20th century, railroads which used date nails drove them into every treated tie. Some railroad found this type of record keeping method to be a failure. Beginning in 1909, some railroads focus on keeping records of special test sections. This method proved to be more accurate and far more economical for these railroads instead of tracking several million ties. However, by the early 1920’s most railroads had returned to the practice of placing nails in every treated tie.
Railroads needed a way to monitor their investment in treating, and date nails became the most common method of this record keeping.
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.
Camp Timetable
Over the course of their time with CentraMod, they:
Operated trains on the N, HO, and O scale layouts
Watched a video on model railroading
Learned how to model rocks with plaster castings and made a model tree
Learned how to apply roadbed and lay model track
Learned how to apply model grass and ground cover
Combined all of these new skills into a finished 4.5” x 6” N scale model/module
Great module built!
As CentraMod’s 2007 Train Camp wrapped up, the children left with their completed modules and a care package prepared by club members:
A model railroad magazine
A flyer for CentraMod’s 25th Annual Model Train Show this September
An application for CentraMod membership
A N Scale car donated by club member Ron Miller
An authentic railroad tie date nail donated by club member Michael Ross
The module they built today with the skills learned above
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.
Camp Timetable
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.
