12.01.11 – I’ve always loved trains ever since I was a young boy and my brother and I would setup model trains in the basement. Back then, when the issue of money was, you just didn’t have any, I would pour over model train catalogs dreaming about the different types of trains, buildings and tracks I would someday buy and build.
Even now as an adult, I still get a big kick out of anything to do with trains. I remember living in Santa Barbara where you could stand so close to the tracks you could almost touch the freight trains and Coast Starlight passenger train as they whisked by on their way to Los Angeles. Europe still relies heavily on trains to move cargo and passengers which makes it a great place to admire the stations and the different types of locomotives.
I spent some time walking around the Helsinki central train station and reverting to my childhood. I hope I never lose the feeling.
Related Articles
- iTrainCollect.com: A Train Collector’s Community and Blog (prweb.com)
- If This Model Train Was Much Bigger, They’d Just Call It A Train (crunchgear.com)
- Children’s Books: Whistles in the Distance (nytimes.com)
- David Letterman, or Someone He Knows, Likes Trains (observer.com)



Ok, Kim, I swear I had nothing to do with the missing Thumbalina. Chatty Cathy maybe, but not Thumby!!!
Chatty Cathy, Barbie, Ken, Midge, Tressy…. and that GI Joe that Barbie used to date? where is he? You have a very bad track record.
What I remember most about that train was the locomotive with the whistle and the smoke. I often wonder what happened to it (that and my Thumbalina). I don’t think they make them like that any more, the trains that it, heavy metal at its best.
I loved that little boy… except when he was coughing incessantly or threatening to shoot me with his bebe gun! So glad he’s still around : )
And welcome back iPhone!
Coughing?!? BB gun I remember, but coughing? That’s funny.
The train with it’s smoke! Oh boy! I forgot about that myself. that one was big and metal. You would have to pour some liquid in the smoke stack to make the smoke. it was cool!
I bet we could all write some serious posts about the basement. All the toys, you girls listening to music, Ted and I would build models and dad’s beer can collection!
hahaha, the beer can collection!! I hated the basement actually. avoided it as much as possible.
the coughing – you had a cold and you, jackie, maybe cici and I were watching tv in the family room. you kept coughing, and coughing, and coughing. I was probably telling you to quit it. I finally got irritated enough to storm out and go to CFM to get you cough drops. I always had such a nurturing personality, ha!
Yeah, I think I remember you throwing the box of cough drops at me!
yep, that sounds right. actually it sounds pretty rotten, but right!
i believe i made one or two contributions to that beer can collection during my travels.
did you Dave? funny.
Dave, you’ve always been a great contributor to some of these crazy Beidler ventures.
Could have used you both during dad’s dandelion wine phase. He was recuperating from back surgery in a hospital bed in the dining room. He sent Mom, me and Jackie, maybe Cici, out to pick dandelions for his recipe. And he needed A LOT of dandelions. I remember spending a long hot day at Weiss Field.
Come to think of it, how would he make dandelion wine if he was flat on his back? Not sure, but that’s how I remember it.
I guess you forgot I was there too! I bet you dad wanted to sell the stuff but he was worried about facing child labor law violations.
C’mon dad! I know you’re reading this. You better figure out how to comment!
Oh, boy, do I remember picking those dandelions!! Like it was yesterday. Continuing on the subject of child labor laws, I think we should have contacted the authorities when Dad made us work on the compost pile! LOL
Ugh, the compost pile!
Dad, you better jump in here and defend yourself
Do you remember the old car we used? Maybe mom’s or for you girls, but I had to use it to pickup compost from the dump in it’s trunk. Once I came back to the front where it was parked for another load of compost and it had slipped into reverse and was backing out the driveway! I hope the neighbors didn’t see that one!
if memory serves, there was a brew called “grain belt” from minnesota, and another one called “great lakes” which is from cleveland that i added to the can collection. i had the seasonal Christmas Ale from Great Lakes when i was visiting my mom over thanksgiving weekend at Bubba Baker’s in Avon by the tracks next door to Dalgleish’s. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t beer flavored beer, either. The Christmas Ale was ok, but what i remember about Grain Belt beer was that it made Weaver throw up.
Tom, you just added another pic to my list of creations. Keep them coming! I remember your train in the basement. I remember the smell of the smoke when you and Ted ran it. I also remember carving I love Donny Osmond in the wood table it laid on. Don’t ever grow up, Tom. I know I haven’t and it’s my most valued trait. And, thanks Dave, for the Dylan lyric that will be on my finished piece!
Jackie, you did always have a way of leaving your mark on everything : )
Thanks Jackie from one kid to another
Do you still love Donny Osmond?
No!!! He dissed me when I met him in person back in 1991. It was very tramatic and I’ll never forgive him !
jackie, how about the guy you used to kiss on the tv screen, who was that again? bet you still love him, wasn’t he on some cop show?
Gene Barry!! And, when I was planning my movie room at my other house, I got a TV Guide from 1963 with him and his Western show, but the show I used to kiss him on was Burke’s Law!! And, the beer can collection! LOL. Some jerk crunched some during my Senior NYE party that was so successful!!!
Dylan had it right: “I was so much older then, i’m younger than that now”. one of the things i love the most about 3 Pix is your take on things. keep letting the boy in you go out to play.