A idea to enhance your model railroad experience.


grande man

Bonafied Grande Nut
I was flipping thru the Feb 06 issue of Model Railroader when I saw an article by Michael Gross called "More than Bells and Whistles". It's about adding period music to enhance the time theme of your RR. That brought to mind something I'd thought about before. On my birthday, my Mom sent me a small book called "1965 Remember When... A Nostalgic Look Back in Time". From a model railroaders perspective, these are great little books for setting the mood on a time themed layout. For example, did you know that in 1965 (our RR era), Joe Nameth inked his first pro contract for $427K for three years? That the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show? That Chervrolet was pimping the Corvair? That Batman, Hogan's Heros and The Andy Griffith Show were tops on TV? That the St Louis Arch was completed? That the average American income was $6469.00? That the average price of a new car was $2614.00 (kinda puts those auto racks in perspective:D )? There's much more info such as top song and movies, sports trivia, period advertising, etc.

This little book is packed full of cool info on our RR's era. They are available cheap for most years. I've seen them for sale at Cracker Barrel Restuarants.

I love historical info like this. Does anyone else see how this can make model railroading more fun?

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I read old National Geographics and other magazines from the period that published in color. Lots of cool ads and stuff.
 
No, my era :) :)

The new MR does look a little meatier this issue. I am shocked with Trains, Gunn getting fired, I haven't been keeping up to the 1:1 train world.
 
IIRC, about 20yrs ago Time-Life books offered a series of books called the American Experience, or something like that. Each book covered a particular decade in US history. But what was even better was the pictures. Many of the books from 1860-1940 had a lot of RR pictures, many of which were never published in other books/mags. Also, like your little books from CB, they also have a lot of info and pix in them about everyday life in those decades. The nice thing is many of the pictures in towns are great shots of period buildings, advertising, cars, peoples dress etc. Even the everyday pictures from a small town General Store is chock full of modeling ideas.

Now I don't know if these books are still availible from Time-Life, but I know they are in some libraries.
 
That's a great idea about the Time Life books, CJ.

When ya'll come to the next ARG meet, expect video of the Grande during the 60's, the 1965 book shown above and maybe even some Model Railroader mags from that time. BTW, can you and Rex wear bell bottoms and beads? :D
 
Errr, Eric, I don't know about Rex, but I don't think I could fit into anything I wore in those days. (Never mind about the hair!)
 
grande man said:
That's a great idea about the Time Life books, CJ.

When ya'll come to the next ARG meet, expect video of the Grande during the 60's, the 1965 book shown above and maybe even some Model Railroader mags from that time. BTW, can you and Rex wear bell bottoms and beads? :D

Wasn't that the free love era? I would think they should be running around necked
:eek:
 
dthurman said:
Wasn't that the free love era? I would think they should be running around necked
:eek:


Oh my! I'm forever scarred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek::D




You're a cruel, cruel man David. :D
 
grande man said:
That's a great idea about the Time Life books, CJ.

When ya'll come to the next ARG meet, expect video of the Grande during the 60's, the 1965 book shown above and maybe even some Model Railroader mags from that time. BTW, can you and Rex wear bell bottoms and beads? :D
Eric, I'm afraid the only bell bottom I have now is not clothing:eek: :D I think that I still have the peace symbol necklace. Funny thing, I got that necklace from a F105 pilot at Takhli Air Base in Thailand during Nam and when I was with the Government. We weren't your normal hippie types.:cool:

David: Necked? CJ? Good grief...cough...choke...puke:eek:
 
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RexHea said:
Eric, I'm afraid the only bell bottom I have now is not clothing:eek: :D I think that I still have the peace symbol necklace. Funny thing, I got that necklace from a F105 pilot at Takhli Air Base in Thailand during Nam and when I was with the Government. We weren't your normal hippie types.:cool:

Remind me to tell you about the F105 (Thud) pilot I went to school with. He had some stories to tell.
 
grande man said:
That's a great idea about the Time Life books, CJ.

When ya'll come to the next ARG meet, expect video of the Grande during the 60's, the 1965 book shown above and maybe even some Model Railroader mags from that time. BTW, can you and Rex wear bell bottoms and beads? :D

Yes! I wanna see photos of Rex with an Afro and a leisure suit!
Jarrell
 
Jarrell:Man, I was a cool cat in my liesure suits and silky shirts. The one thing about liesure suits is they were temperature cool to wear soon after you got them... If anyone nearby was smoking (whatevers) they were soon to be full of holes:eek:. The afro didn't match my complexion, but I did have full blown hair that was over my ears, porkchops, and a moustache.:cool: (Remember seeing Chuck Norris in his old movies::rolleyes: )
 
Every year at Christmas, friends give me a subscription to "Reminisce Magazine." It has great photos, stories, ads, etc going back to the forties. As suggested by Grande Man, a wealth of information.
Tom
 
wear bell bottoms and beads?
Well bell bottoms iff'n yuh had to dress up but no beads if you travelled with the crowd I did!
I would think they should be running around necked
Didn't see that, must have been too cold up here :D
 
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GM,

The OL just got me 1953 and 1954 today for my birthday. Seems she found them as well and thought I'd get a kick out of them. I must admit they are a fun little addition.

If any of you are intrested where to get them they come from http://www.memoryroad.com/


Peace.

Coyote
 
Wasn't that the free love era? I would think they should be running around necked
Sheesh! and I missed that too, I was in France. It might have been over there also but rum was $2.00m whiskey was $2.50 all 40 oz. size and beer was 10 cents a pt. :D

Cheers
Willis
 



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