2006
But before I discuss the first car in the series, I want to talk about the most recent offering, the 40th Anniversary Cars, note plural,
meaning that there was more than one different car issued for the 40th Anniversary in 2006. There was an O gauge car and also a
Standard Gauge car, the first time we made a car in any gauge other than O gauge. They were both made in relatively low quantities
and are hard-to-find.
The O gauge car is a model of a 50-foot double-door plug-door box car and was made for us by MTH Electric Trains.
This is the first car made for us by MTH. The reason we went with MTH was that Lionel had a minimum order quantity
of 300 cars but MTH only required 128 which is how many MTH produced for us. This car is quite similar to the MTH Railking
box car made in the green and white Southern Railway paint scheme and first cataloged in 2005. The cataloged Southern Railway
box car was MTH stock #30-74205. Here is a link to the MTH web site for the car:
Go To MTH Online Catalog
Using the MTH Southern Railway box car as a guide, fellow member Richard Tashjian and I made appropriate changes to the lettering
to commemorate our 40th anniversary as well as adding the TCA logo and changing the SR logo to the SD logo. I'm so glad that the
Southern Railway copied our logo (or was it the other way around?) as that makes it so much easier to change it for our Southern
Division cars! Our redesigned car is MTH stock #30-74403. But you won't find a photo of it on the MTH website so below is a
photo of our very attractive car sitting on top of its original box. Note the similarities to and differences from the cataloged
Southern Railway car.
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40th Anniversary O-Gauge MTH Car
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An interesting sidelight of this story is that the first production run of these cars was shipped to me and upon opening the first
shipping carton I could see through the window box that the TCA logo on the car was not correct. Upon checking a few more they were
all that way so they had to be sent back and redecorated! I was devastated thinking that there was no way we could get the cars redone
in time to hand out at our last 2006 meet in November, the meet at which we were celebrating the anniversary. But upon contacting MTH,
much to their credit, they immediately sent me pre-paid return shipping labels and within just a few short weeks I received the shipment
with all the cars correctly decorated in plenty of time and at no extra cost to the Division. Man was I relieved! I assume the bodies
of the incorrectly decorated cars were destroyed by MTH.
Now the reason I highlighted this car in this issue is that thanks to the generosity of member Frank Barczak who donated his car back
to the Division, we have one of these cars to offer to members who may have missed out on it when it was first issued in 2006. We will
announce a plan for auctioning this car off at later date so again please stay tuned to future articles in this series. Remember that
only 128 of these cars were made.
And finally no discussion of the 2006 Southern Division cars would be complete without mentioning the rarest Southern Division Souvenir
car of them all. If you thought that 128 cars is a low-production quantity, how about only FOUR cars? That's how many of the Standard
Gauge SD 40th Anniversary car were made by MTH. It is a 500-series refrigerator car and each car is individually numbered.
Car #SD 2006-1 was given to the TCA's Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA. The other 3 were auctioned off to lucky SD bidders.
Member Ed Bryant owns car #2006-2 and provided his car to photograph. Here's a photo of his car inside its original packaging.
With a total production run of only 4 cars, as far as I know, there is not even an MTH stock number for this car. Needless to say,
this is the one SD car that I do not have.
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40th Anniversary Standard-Gauge MTH Car Shipping Box
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40th Anniversary Standard-Gauge MTH Car
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 2
The Layout Winter 2015 Volume 49 Number 1
By Bill Trappen
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This is the second in a series of articles discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train. This series started two issues
of The Layout ago and was planned to continue in each issue of The Layout. However, yours truly was late getting to the platform at the
editor's station so the last issue left the station without the article. I will try to be more punctual in the future. Anyway, this
article will discuss a very historically significant item in the Southern Division Souvenir Train consist: the Very First Car!
The idea of a Southern Division Souvenir train was first discussed by members in the early 1970's as a means of raising funds for the Division.
But having been selected in 1973 to host the 1975 TCA Convention, the Division had bigger freight to haul, so to speak. But once the plans
for the Convention were finalized, the late Ben Dick, then SD treasurer, began negotiating with Kris Model Trains (KMT) of Endicott, NY in 1974
for a special SD Souvenir box car. The car would be sold only to SD members and would bear a distinctive design appropriate for our Division.
The price was expected to be about $12.00 per car!
1975
Why not negotiate with Lionel instead? Even though the SD boundaries as set by the TCA back in those days included the entire states of Florida,
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and the eastern part of Tennessee, in 1974, the SD only had about 225 members. I don't know if the situation
was the same in 1974 as it was in later years, but based on personal knowledge of corresponding negotiations in later years, Lionel's minimum
order quantities for special runs greatly exceeded the number of cars that SD members were expected to purchase. But KMT only required an order
for 40 cars. As a result, KMT was selected to produce the very first SD souvenir car. Our late member Marty Brooks, who had a day job as an
attorney, was named Project Manager for the SD.
Kris Model Trains was owned by TCA member Andy Kriswalus and had been producing O gauge box cars, stock cars, refrigerator cars and gondolas since
1968. Andy had bought the original American Model Toys (AMT) tooling for the box cars, stock cars and reefers from the Kusan Corporation when Kusan
decided to exit the toy train manufacturing business in 1967. By the way, before selling their train business, Kusan had made trains under the name
"Kusan Model Trains", also with the initials KMT, a source of confusion among O gauge collectors even to this day. AMT first made box cars from
that tooling in 1952 which at that time they advertised as full O scale models of a 40-foot prototype box car. These cars are slightly longer and
higher than a Lionel post-war 6464-series box car, which is the box car "standard" for post-war Lionel collectors. And the first SD souvenir box
car was made from that AMT tooling.
Even though about 40% of the SD members at that time did not live in Florida, the SD was headquartered in Florida and preferred a car with a Florida
road name. The Florida East Coast Railroad was the obvious choice, if not the ONLY choice! The Division selected as a prototype an FEC blue box
car with the FEC's slogan "Speedway to America's Playground" on the side of the car in yellow lettering. But due to internal SD logistics issues,
the order forms didn't go out to SD members until June 1975 (as you recall the SD was busy hosting the TCA National Convention). Each member was
allowed to order up to 3 cars and a total of 235 cars were ordered by SD members in 1975. The Division decided to order 60 additional cars to be
distributed to new members or used as door prizes at future meets. So it turned out to be quite a sizable order after all.
In the fall of 1975 KMT moved their production facilities to a new location which further delayed production and delivery of the cars until 1976.
But the cars are considered the "official" 1975 SD Souvenir Car and carry the road number "SD 1975".
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1975 Southern Division Car made by Kris Model Trains
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Attached is a photo of the car with its original box. Note the Lionel MPC-type trucks and couplers, sliding plug doors and other detail including
the Southern Division Logo on the Door. Another photo shows the end label on the box which simply says "SD '75". The label on the other end of
the box is blank.
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1975 Southern Division Car made by Kris Model Trains - Box End
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This car is often confused with the 1975 O Gauge TCA Convention Car because the SD hosted the 1975 Convention. For reference, also shown is a
photo of the very colorful 1975 "Southern Belle" TCA Convention Car which is an MPC 9700-series box car specially produced for the TCA by Lionel.
There was also a Standard Gauge 1975 TCA Convention Car which was a 500-series box car made by McCoy Manufacturing of Kent, Washington.
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1975 Southern Belle - O Gauge TCA Convention Car
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 3
The Layout Spring 2015 Volume 49 Number 2
By Bill Trappen
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This is the third in a series of articles discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train.
This article will discuss a very important and very popular item in the Southern Division Souvenir Train
consist and so far it was the only item in the consist offered without wheels!
1976
In 1976 the Division was considering offering an engine to members to pull the consist of Division souvenir cars
starting with the already produced 1975 Florida East Coast Railway box car (discussed in Part 2 of this series)
and the cars planned to be produced in subsequent years. Of course many members did not have layouts or if they
did they may not likely actually plan to run the souvenir cars on their layouts but even sitting on a shelf a
complete train with an engine at the front end would look much better than just a string of cars with no engine!
What engine would be appropriate to head up the first SD Souvenir train? For obvious reasons the very colorful
Red & Yellow Florida East Coast Railway F-3 diesel was extremely popular among rail fans in Florida and elsewhere.
This is the engine that pulled the famous FEC named passenger trains from 1939 to 1962. There are many color
images of it in railroad publications.
Under General Mills ownership since 1970, Lionel had just started re-making F-3 diesels in 1973 but as of 1976
none had been made in FEC in 3-rail O gauge by Lionel or by anyone else. Marty Brooks was the chairman of this
project and Ben Dick was our president at that time. Both are now deceased but lived in South Florida near the
FEC mainline, as did many SD members all along the east coast of Florida. I'm sure the SD members in the chapters
in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee had other ideas such as a locomotive from the appropriately
named SOUTHERN Railway. However Lionel MPC had already issued an F-3 painted for the Southern Railway in 1975
so the fact that many members already had this locomotive may have also influenced the decision, so the FEC F-3
was selected to head the SD Souvenir Train.
But producing a complete F-3 locomotive would be quite a risky project for the Division. The cost of a complete
F-3 AA diesel locomotive, especially a limited production unit, would likely be much higher than many members
would be willing to spend. Plus Lionel's minimum order quantity would be too high for the Division to take the
risk of receiving enough orders to at least break even on the project. And finally, those early MPC F-3's,
although very similar in appearance to their post-war 2200 & 2300-series counterparts, had only one motor and
traction tires instead of magne-traction, so they were relatively underpowered according to many owners of those diesels.
So what did the Division decide to do? A creative compromise was reached which turned out to be a great idea - just offer CABS!
By offering cabs only, members would have to supply their own frames and chasses. Members could choose their own
chassis to use, either post-war, or MPC. Members who really wanted to run their SD train with the anticipated long
consist of annual SD Souvenir cars could use frames with double-motored post-war running gear while members who
didn't plan to run them could use either post-war or MPC frames, and if they wanted to, could even use two dummy frames!
Once again Andy Kriswalus of Kris Model Trains in Endicott, NY was selected to produce the cabs.
Andy obtained blank cabs from Lionel and sub-contracted the decoration of the cabs to a well-known TCA member
in New Jersey who specialized in painting trains. This arrangement was very favorable as the Division was able
to offer a set of AA FEC F-3 cabs to members for a very low cost.
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KMT F-3 Cab in FEC
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KMT F-3 Cab Nose Detail
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Orders for the cabs were taken in the spring of 1976. A total of 177 sets of AA cabs were ordered (354 cabs) and
the Division bought an extra 12 cabs in case of damage, etc. The Division also decided to offer F-3 B-unit cabs
as an extra cost option but only to those members who had ordered the AA cabs. Unfortunately the records do not
show how many B-unit cabs were made. I would "guesstimate" that about half the members who bought a set of AA cabs
also bought B-unit cabs. Due to the usual delays the cabs were not delivered until the spring of 1977.
Following are several photos of my cabs mounted on MPC frames plus one photo each of an A-unit cab and a B-unit cab
removed from their frames. In addition, thanks to member Bud Hayden, also included is a photo of the original packaging
in which members received them as most members picked them up at an SD meet. They were in plastic bags surrounded
by plain paper then protected with a layer of bubble wrap.
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Close Coupling Two Units
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Peeking out of the Original Packaging
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KMT F-3 A-unit Cab Underside
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KMT F-3 B-unit Cab Underside
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The cabs are indeed colorful and very attractive. Like all early MPC cabs, the A-units have molded on ladders, roof louvers,
no portholes and no vents on the left and right "corners" of the nose. Note the TCA and Southern Division logos on the A-unit
cabs and the date "1976" next to the name "Henry M. Flagler" on the side of the A-unit cabs near the front. Henry was the
founder of the FEC and one of the FEC's regularly-scheduled Jacksonville to Miami passenger trains was named after him.
Note also the colorful FEC Railway logo on the nose of the cabs. As shown in the "loose cab" photos, the A-unit cabs came
complete with a mounting bracket attached to the inside of the rear panel and two ornamental silver plastic horns on the roof.
On the front in the center is a single vertical Phillips head screw which runs up from the frame into a threaded hole in the
nose end of the cab. The B-unit mounts to its frame with one horizontal Phillips head screw running through the door panel at each end.
By the way there were also several sets of matching aluminum passenger cars which Marty Brooks arranged to have made
but these were not affiliated with the Division or the TCA and as such do not have the SD and TCA logos.
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 4
The Layout Summer 2015 Volume 49 Number 3
By Bill Trappen
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This is the fourth in a series of articles discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train. This article will discuss
the 3 different SD Souvenir cars that were produced in the late 1970's. And one of these cars is the only SD Souvenir Car without an SD logo!
1977 - Nope
As discussed in parts 2 and 3 of this series, Kris Model Trains produced the first two items in the SD Souvenir Train consist in 1975
and 1976, respectively, so for 1977 the SD decided to continue using KMT. The SD offered members a yellow Atlantic Coast Line O gauge
box car with a gray roof to be made by KMT. The SD received 303 orders for the cars which were priced at $10.00 each. Do you have
this car? If so, it is counterfeit because it was never made! For undocumented reasons, KMT was not able to produce the cars for us.
Unfortunately by the time this was known it was already 1978. Therefore no SD Souvenir car was actually produced in 1977. However,
the Division did come up with an impressive replacement for the never produced KMT ACL box car.
Remember that back in those days only Lionel and KMT were making traditional-sized 3-rail O gauge trains. Lionel's minimum order
quantities were always much higher than the SD could purchase based on projected sales plus no source of blank box car bodies was known.
Marty Brooks, Chairman of the SD Souvenir Car Committee from 1975 through 1979, had investigated other sources and found a supplier that
could add souvenir markings to existing Lionel cars. It is believed that this new supplier would be able to give us quicker service,
a quality job, and better control over the quantity produced. So it was up to Lionel to produce an appropriate car to which we could add our markings.
1977 - Yes
Among the items in the 1978 Lionel catalog was #6-9287, a red Southern Railway Illuminated caboose using the well-known Pennsylvania
N5C "Cabin Car" mold first used by Lionel on the #6417 caboose in 1953. I doubt if the Southern Railway, or any other railroad not
affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad or one of its successors, ever had such a caboose. But a Southern Railway caboose was
certainly a very appropriate car for our use. Not only did the 1:1 scale Southern Railway operate in mostly all of the then 5-state
geographic area assigned to the SD by the TCA, but the SD logo was adapted from the real-life counterpart used by the Southern Railway.
As I like to tease former Southern Railway employee and still SD member Herman Pierson, his company copied the Southern Division logo!
And with the word "SOUTHERN" in large white letters across both sides, this car presented the SOUTHERN Division with the perfect
opportunity to easily convert this car into a caboose for the SD Souvenir Train.
In addition, back then we needed a caboose more than we needed another box car. Whether sitting on a shelf or running on a layout
the custom made FEC cabs and FEC box car already produced just didn't look good without a properly decorated caboose.
The SD determined that their supplier could easily overlay the SD logo centered above the word "SOUTHERN" and the text "SD 1977" below
that word in the same color without touching any of the existing graphics. Even though it was then 1978 the SD didn't want to have
a one-year gap in the souvenir train consist which is why this car carries the 1977 number. The SD then went out and purchased enough
cars to fill all of the orders that had been placed for the ACL box cars and because it was already 1978, the SD also purchased 81 more
cars to offer to new members. The SD also gave members who had ordered the box cars the option to return them for a refund if they
didn't want the replacement caboose.
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Photo 4-1 1977 Southern Division Semi-Custom Caboose
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All 384 cars were overstamped with our graphics as described above and as shown illuminated in Photo 4-1. The car came out very nicely.
Photo 4-2 shows a close-up of the SD graphics. Fortunately the white SD logo and the "SD 1977" are somewhat subdued compared to the bright
large white letters used for the word Southern. Like all Lionel N5C-style cabooses of that era, the car has detachable end platforms
with a brakewheel on only one, one coupler (but it operates) and one center rail pickup which is attached to the non-coupler rear truck.
The trucks are the Symington-Wayne style trucks first used by Lionel a few years earlier. The car came with two red plastic lanterns loose
in a small bag inside its original Lionel box. These lanterns were then inserted into a hole in each side just aft of the last porthole
window near the roof line. This was a design change from the post-war model. Another design change is that the single light bulb
is accessible from the underside without removing the cab.
Photo 4-2 Logo Details
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This caboose started the SD Souvenir car practice of using a geographically appropriate cataloged Lionel car then overlaying the SD graphics
on the exiling car which has proven to be much less expensive and risky for the Division. Of course it requires much cooperation from the manufacturer!
1978
Fortunately for our 1978 car, Lionel cooperated again! The 1978 catalog contained item #6-9403, an all black Seaboard Coast
Line 9700-series single-door box car with yellow lettering. The Seaboard Coast Line was the result of the merger of the Atlantic
Coast Line and Seaboard Airline Railroads in 1967. It served parts of Georgia and most of Florida and was headquartered in Jacksonville.
Today they are part of the CSX formed after their merger with the Chessie System in 1980. Although the sides of this Lionel car were
already very busy with graphics, there was just enough room to the right of the door to add the SD logo and the "SD 1978" graphic.
Orders were taken at a price of only $11.00 per car for pickup at a meet. The same procedure was followed as used above and once
again a handsome looking souvenir car was created at little cost to the SD. Photo 4-3 is an overall side-view of the car and photo 4-4 is a
close-up of the SD graphics. The trucks are again the Symington-Wayne trucks used by Lionel with operating couplers. There is one plastic brakewheel.
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Photo 4-3 1978 Southern Division Semi-Custom Boxcar
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Photo 4-4 Closeup Of The Added Graphics
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1979
The 1979 SD Souvenir Car has created much confusion in the collecting community. As mentioned above, back in those days the SD
boundaries included the entire states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. The SD membership was spread out
over those five states but the nucleus was still in peninsular Florida. The other areas within the SD were served by Chapters of
the SD. The Chapters had their own slate of officers and scheduled their own local meets, etc. The quarterly SD meets were
rotated around the areas within peninsular Florida. But starting in 1977 an exception to that schedule was made by having a
Chapter host a Division meet once every two years, and always for the summer meet. In 1979 the Terminus Chapter of the SD,
which served members in Alabama and Georgia, was celebrating their 10th anniversary so the Terminus Chapter hosted the summer
Division meet in August of that year. This would attract more members to the celebration. In addition, the Chapter had
decided to produce a souvenir car for their 10th anniversary as a fund-raiser. Given those plans and the plans to have the
summer Division meet in Atlanta, the SD decided to let the Terminus Chapter car be the only SD souvenir car for 1979 so that
it wouldn't have to compete with an SD car and all SD members could order the Terminus car to raise even more funds for the Chapter.
Once again Lionel came through although the Terminus Chapter had to go back one catalog year to find an appropriate car to use.
The 1978 catalog included item #6-9405, another 9700-series box car, this one in silver and very attractively lettered for the
Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad. Made famous by country singer Alan Jackson many years later in 1992, the Chattahoochee River
forms the southernmost 100 or so miles of the boundary between Alabama and Georgia so this was a very appropriate car for the
Terminus Chapter to use. The fact that the CIRR was a small railroad only 15 miles long and at that time owned by the Georgia-Pacific
Paper Company to haul their feedstock and finished products, probably limited the market for this car when it was produced.
Obviously there must have been enough of these cars still available from dealers in 1979 for the Terminus Chapter to procure
and over-stamp. The Chapter added a TCA logo and the words "Terminus Chapter 10th Anniversary" next to the logo. Photo 4-5 is an
overall side view of the car which is structurally identical to the SCL box car above. Note that there are no markings for the
SD so this is the only car in the SD Souvenir Train without an SD logo.
Photo 4-6 shows a close-up of the added Terminus Chapter
graphics and TCA logo.
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Photo 4-5 1979 Southern Division Semi-Custom Boxcar
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Photo 4-6 Close Up or the Terminus Chapter Logo and Number
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Now why is there so much confusion about this car among collectors? It is the only 1979 SD souvenir car produced, is listed as
such in the Greenberg Pocket Price guides, often considered the bible by collectors, but the confusion arises because it has NO SD markings!
Furthermore, another national train collecting organization, the Toy Train Operating Society, apparently also used this car per several old
listings on eBay and other auction sites. Unfortunately the ads on those sites were not very specific and used generic descriptions such as
"a 1978 TTOS product". But the 1978 TTOS Convention was held in Hollywood, California and the official Convention car is a Lionel Hi-cube box
car specially decorated (most likely by the late Ward Kimball) for the TTOS with non-railroad graphics appropriate for the movie industry.
I was a member of the TTOS back then and they never had a convention anywhere in the Southeast so I can't understand why the TTOS would use
a box car from Alabama and Georgia. TTOS obviously had to use what was available and perhaps those box cars were readily available on
dealer's shelves due to the lack of initial market demand mentioned above.
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 5
The Layout Fall 2015 Volume 49 Number 4
By Bill Trappen
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This is the fifth in a series of articles discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train. This article will discuss
the first four SD Souvenir cars that were produced in the 1980's. But before you read this article, make sure you see the announcement
elsewhere in this issue about the 50th or Golden Anniversary Souvenir Car which is now available for ordering. The announcement
includes an order form to buy the car. The number of cars available is limited so you need to respond quickly.
1980
As discussed in part 4 of this series, in 1977 we began the practice of creating SD Souvenir cars by over-stamping regular cataloged
Lionel cars. This proved to be much less expensive and risky for the Division as it avoids the need to purchase enough cars to meet
Lionel's minimum order quantity which I believe back then was 300 units. Now it is 500 units. Of course it requires cooperation
from Lionel to catalog and produce a geographically appropriate car each year to which we could add our SD markings. This procedure
was again followed to produce the SD Souvenir cars for 1978 and 1979.
In 1980, Lionel really tried to help us as they cataloged several items that would have been excellent SD Souvenir trains. Spread
across pages 6 and 7 of the 1980 Lionel catalog was the Collectors Series 6-car Seaboard SD-9 diesel freight set. But being a
Collectors Series set, it was made in very limited quantities plus the cars were not available separately which ruled out its
usage for our purposes. Then on page 21 was a Florida East Coast GP-9 powered and dummy diesel engine set in the red and yellow
FEC paint scheme along with a matching bay-window caboose on page 23. But our SD Souvenir train already had an engine and a caboose.
However among the famous name box cars on page 24 was a Bay Line box car. The Bay Line was a short line railroad which ran between
Panama City, Florida and Dothan, Alabama so it would have been an appropriate car to use for an SD Souvenir car as the SD boundaries
in 1980 still included the Florida panhandle and Alabama. By the way, the Bay Line railroad is now owned by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc.
which owns many short-line railroads in the US.
The Lionel Bay Line box car was very attractive in green and yellow and would have made a great addition to the SD souvenir train.
But Don Baecher, one of the members of the SD Souvenir trains committee, owned a train store in Orlando and he reported that not
many dealers had ordered that car and as a result we would have trouble buying enough cars to sell to our members. What a disappointment!
In discussing this dilemma with my good friend and member Garland Stafford, he looked through the Lionel catalog and suggested that
by redecorating the trailers we could use the Trailer Train piggyback flat car shown on page 22. What a great idea! But before
proceeding we had to determine if enough cars would be available. As president of the SD that year, I called several train dealers
around the country to see if they had cars to sell us. That response was favorable enough to proceed further so I asked Garland,
then a graphic artist working at the headquarters of a large insurance company in Jacksonville, to design the redecorated trailers.
Among many other things Garland had designed the train track layout logo for the letterhead of this newsletter. Used for the first
time on the April 1980 issue of THE LAYOUT, it is still being used today. Garland was again equal to the task for our 1980 souvenir
car and came up with the idea of creating a decorated paper overlay which would conceal the original graphics on the trailers. He
designed a very good-looking overlay with a circus theme as many members had indicated a desire for a circus car because many circuses
spend the winter in Florida and we often see circus trains heading north in the warmer months. Garland also coordinated the production
of the overlays at a printing company in Jacksonville. The complete car with the redecorated vans is shown in Figure 5-1.
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Figure 5-1 1980 SD Lionel Trailer Train Flat Car with Semi-Custom Circus Trailers
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Sales of this colorful redecorated car amounted to just about 100 units but we still had a hard time filling the orders.
Apparently the original Lionel car was quite popular, especially among C&NW fans in the Midwest, so many of the dealers I had
spoken to earlier had sold out. So back to the phone as there was no email in those days! I had to call over 15 different train
shops to get enough cars to fill the orders. Cars were bought from shops as far away as Denver, Colorado and China (China, Texas that is).
In fact, our purchase of so many of these cars help to make that original Lionel car hard to find and drove up its price accordingly
in the secondary market. Members who ordered the SD version were quite happy with it especially because it only cost them $13.00.
1981
In 1981 Lionel came through for us and cataloged a Florida East Coast box car. Although we already had an FEC box car in our souvenir
train, this car was completely different. Instead of the blue KMT car we used in 1975 this car was brown (or is it "box car red"?)
with a silver roof, doors and ends plus it had the circular FEC logo on the side like the logo on the front of the FEC A-unit cabs
at the head of the SD train. Coincidently Lionel recataloged that same Bay Line box car as in 1980. Al Norris was in charge of the
Souvenir car committee in 1981 but the committee felt that the FEC box car would be more popular with members and those that wanted
a Bay Line box car would likely already have bought one in 1980.
Al contracted with a printing company in the Atlanta area to screen print our logo and our initials and the year onto the side of the car.
The result is shown in Figure 5-2. Note how the "S.D. 1981" on the right side of the SD logo lines up perfectly with the factory-stamped
"F.E.C. 9443" on the left side of the logo. A total of 132 cars were purchased to redecorate and 119 were initially ordered by
SD members at a price of $13.00 each.
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Figure 5-2 1981 Lionel Box Car with Semi-Custom Logo
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1983
Then came 1982. Lionel let us down as there were no geographically-appropriate separate sale cars in either the
Traditional Series catalog or the Collectors Series catalog. So the string of seven consecutive years of SD Souvenir cars ended in 1982.
Our fortunes were much better in 1983 as Lionel cataloged a Louisville & Nashville 4-bay covered hopper car.
Remember that at that time Tennessee was still within the SD boundaries plus the L&N became a subsidiary of the
Jacksonville based Seaboard System in 1983. While a hopper car was a welcome change to an SD train dominated by box cars,
redecorating a hopper car with its ribbed sides proved to be a challenge. The committee explored alternatives and came up
with a clear decal which was printed with our SD Logo and appropriate graphics and attached to the center panel on each side
of the car. Figure 3 shows the completed car. A total of 120 cars were purchased and 110 were ordered by SD members at a
price of $17.00 each. Unfortunately there were several complaints from members regarding decals which were poorly applied to some cars.
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Figure 5-2 1981 Lionel Box Car with Semi-Custom Logo
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1984
The last car to be discussed in this article is the 1984 SD souvenir car. Lionel produced a somewhat plain brown, or you may call it Box Car Red,
Atlantic Coast Line box car in 1984. This was the first opportunity we had to use a car decorated for the ACL, a railroad which as its name implies
served the coastal areas of the southeast but historically had a significant presence in Florida. Numerous named passenger trains were operated by
the ACL for Florida-bound tourists, with the ACL contributing significantly to Florida's economic development in the first half of the 20th century.
While there was plenty of room for silk screening our SD graphics on the sides of the Lionel ACL box car and despite complaints about the decals on
the 1983 SD car, the Committee chose to use a clear decal again. As shown in Figure 5-4, this decal had our graphics printed in the same text style
as the stamped graphics on the car. The decal was then affixed to the left side of the door. A total of 75 cars were purchased and 73 were
ordered by SD members at a price of $17.00 each.
Figure 5-4 1984 Lionel Box Car with Semi-Custom Logo
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 6
The Layout Spring 2016 Volume 50 Number 2
By Bill Trappen
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This is the sixth in a series of articles discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train. This article will discuss
the Southern Division Souvenir Trains produced in 1985, 1986 and 1988.
I appreciate the positive feedback I've received on this series from many members. My apologies for not having this article
prepared in time for the last newsletter. But my priorities had to be changed to finding another supplier to redecorate the
50th Anniversary trolley due to the death of Seymour Knight of Pleasant Valley Processing, our initial supplier. But I'm happy
to report that with the help of my colleagues on the committee, Richard Tashjian and Mike Mills, we were able to find another
supplier. So before you read this article, make sure you see the announcement elsewhere in this issue about the 50th or Golden
Anniversary Souvenir Trolley Car which is now available for ordering. The announcement includes an order form to buy the car.
If you receive the newsletter by email the order form will be a separate file. If you receive the hard-copy version of the
newsletter in the mail, the order form will be a separate insert. The number of cars available for purchasing is only 49 so
make sure you respond before the deadline.
1985
As mentioned earlier in this series we had begun the practice of creating SD Souvenir cars by over-stamping a geographically
correct regular cataloged Lionel car. In 1985 Lionel cataloged as #6-9482 a Norfolk Southern box car. I'm sure every US rail
fan is familiar with today's Norfolk Southern Railway, one of the large class I railroads in the United States. Although the
Norfolk Southern Corporation was formed in 1984 by the merger of the Norfolk & Western Railroad with our Division's real-life
namesake, the Southern Railway, those two railroads continued to operate under their "old" names until 1990 when the railroad
now known as Norfolk Southern Railway was created. Prior to the merger, the Southern Railway served all or parts of every
state within the original Southern Division TCA boundaries. So it looks like this Norfolk Southern box car was a very
appropriate car to use as a SD souvenir car, or was it?
If you were able to follow that confusing name game mentioned above, you are probably wondering how could Lionel produce
a box car in 1985 lettered for the Norfolk Southern when today's Norfolk Southern Railway didn't exist until 1990?
The answer is that this Lionel car was a model of a box car from an earlier, much smaller railroad named Norfolk Southern!
This earlier Norfolk Southern Railway was a railroad that ran from Norfolk, Virginia southwest and west to Charlotte, North Carolina.
It was created in 1881 under the name Elizabeth City & Norfolk Railroad and was renamed the Norfolk and Southern Railroad in 1883.
Here we go again with name changes so to make a long story short, its history was full of acquisitions and bankruptcies causing it
to go into receivership several times and it often changed names in the process. Then in 1942 the company was reorganized for the
last time as the Norfolk Southern Railway, which it remained until it was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1974. Therefore the
Lionel model of this car reflects the original Norfolk Southern Railway's paint scheme and logo rather than one of the more familiar
paint schemes which have been used by today's NS since the merger in 1990.
Like several of the earlier SD souvenir cars, this car was delayed and it didn't actually get delivered to SD Members until
the spring of 1986. But this time the delay was due to the uncertain status of Lionel which at that time was having severe
financial problems and its future was in doubt. So finally late in the year the cars were made available by Lionel and an
agreement was made with the large Lionel dealer Charles Ro in Massachusetts to provide cars for us. An order form was sent
to SD members with an order deadline of November 9, 1985. Members were allowed to order up to two cars each and 120 cars were
ordered by members at a cost including shipping of $17.50 each. What a deal as I believe that price was lower than the MSRP
of the car from Lionel at that time!
The cars were sent to a company in Atlanta to add our special graphics. As shown in Figure 1 the SD logo and "SD 1985" were very
professionally added using silk screening in dark red to match the color of the large "N" in the "NS" logo.
Now, for the irony: I had to look at a system map of the original Norfolk Southern Railway on the internet to see where that
railroad operated and it shows that it never ran any further south than South Carolina or any further west than Charlotte, North Carolina.
Therefore this car was NOT geographically correct for the Southern Division of the TCA!
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1985 Lionel Box Car with Semi-Custom Logo
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1986
With the 1985 SD car not being delivered until 1986, we are already well into the year of the 20th anniversary of the Southern Division.
The souvenir trains committee decided to commemorate the occasion with a Southern Division Bunk Car which was offered to members
relatively late in the year. In this case the committee chose to redecorate an existing Lionel #6-5727 US Marines bunk car which
had been produced in 1985. The car was redecorated by Newbraugh Brothers Toys (NBT) and Pleasant Valley Processing (PVP) who had
been decorating many cars for the TCA and other train collecting organizations. And yes, PVP is the same company with whom we had
contracted to decorate our 50th Anniversary trolleys last year before their owner Seymour Knight passed away in October. The 1986
car was offered at $17.50 each and only 120 cars were available for us to purchase and redecorate. But the committee worked fast
and all the cars were sold, redecorated, completed and delivered at the November 1986 meet in Orlando.
The original green & white Marine Corps camouflaged bunk car was stripped and repainted yellow with a silver roof. Figure 6-2 is a photo
of the completed car. There is a decal with the NBT and PVP markings on the underside.
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Figure 6-2 1986 Lionel Bunk Car Redecorated for SD/TCA
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1987
Along came 1987. A Souvenir Car was planned for this year but the plans didn't get far enough to even identify a car because
1987 was a very eventful year for the Southern Division, to put it mildly! During the year SD members living in Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and the panhandle of Florida petitioned the TCA to restructure the Southern Division and add
another Division or Divisions, as it turned out. The SD officers had their hands full all year long due to this restructuring
activity so no souvenir car was offered. The restructuring petition was ultimately approved by the TCA and two new Divisions
were created for the members in the above mentioned areas but more importantly peninsular Florida (the area within the Eastern Time Zone)
retained the name Southern Division. These changes became effective January 1, 1988.
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1988
On to 1988 and despite a much smaller membership base, the Division again offered a souvenir car. This time it was decided
to go with a searchlight car. The car was a regular cataloged 6-16606 green Southern Railway flat car with a lighted
searchlight to which a decal containing "1988" and the Southern Division logo was added. In this case, only a limited
number of cars were available to purchase from dealers to which to add the decals so members were only allowed to order one car.
All cars were sold and were to be delivered for members to pick up at the Mission Inn Meet in Howey-in-the-Hills on August 5, 1988.
However some members who had ordered cars did not attend the meet. Their cars were being stored at the home of Bob Ford,
SD president at the time, for pickup at a future meet. However on August 16th Bob's home caught fire. Fortunately Bob and his
family were not injured but most of the home was destroyed including the SD Souvenir cars he was holding for those members who
did not pick them up at the Mission Inn meet. Those members were issued refunds. Figure 6-3 a photo of the 1988 car.
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Figure 6-3 1988 Lionel Searchlight Car Redecorated for SD/TCA
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - Part 7
The Layout Summer 2016 Volume 50 Number 3
By Bill Trappen
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This is the seventh and final article in a series discussing the history of the Southern Division Souvenir train.
This article will discuss the SD Souvenir Trains produced in the 1990's, including the 30th anniversary car along
with photos and to complete the series, a group photo of the entire SD Souvenir train.
The last car discussed in part 6 of this article came out in 1988 and as mentioned members were allowed to purchase
just one car because only a limited number of cars were available for the Division to purchase and redecorate.
From the start of the program in 1975 through 1988, a Southern Division Souvenir train item was produced every year
with the exception of only two years, 1982 and 1987. So there was never more than a one-year gap. But as we ended
the 1980's decade the SD Souvenir Program went on a hiatus as no souvenir car was produced for three consecutive
years starting in 1989. The reason for this lapse isn't explained anywhere in the SD newsletters issued during
those years. As mentioned very early in this series we had begun the practice of creating SD Souvenir cars by
over-stamping a geographically correct regular cataloged Lionel car. Despite Lionel cataloging a very appropriate
car in 1989, no 1989 SD Souvenir car was produced. So at least in 1989, we can't blame it on Lionel! Perhaps the
lack of any Souvenir cars during those years was out of the concern that the Division was still too small to
justify offering a car in unlimited quantities due to the 1987 spinoff of SD members in the Florida Panhandle
and the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee to two new TCA divisions which reduced the SD
membership by a significant number of members.
1992
Great news for members came at the Orlando Meet in November 1991 when it was announced that the Souvenir car program was
returning as there would be a 1992 SD Souvenir Car. And the 1992 souvenir car was more than just a car plus its custom
graphics were very significant to the history of the Division! More on the graphics later.
As shown in the attached photos the 1992 Souvenir "car" was our first Souvenir car made by K-Line, and it was a 2-piece unit
consisting of a flat car and a piggy-back trailer load for the car. As it turns out K-Line saved the day for us as a
last-minute substitute for the initially-chosen supplier who did not follow through on the agreement.
The car is painted Southern Railway green and as shown in the photo appears that it could have been a regular K-Line
cataloged flat car for the Southern Railway. But I could not find it listed under "SOUTHERN" in my copy of the K-Line
Collector's Guide, Pocket Edition, 1985-2000. But it was listed under "TRAIN COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION" although the guide
book incorrectly lists the year as "94". So this car was specially made for the TCA Southern Division. The car has
a black plastic stand to hold the trailer's kingpin and a wheel "chock" to hold the wheels of the trailer in place.
The car has plastic Symington-Wayne trucks with operating knuckle couplers like Lionel used which are on all of the
earlier SD Souvenir cars. With plastic trucks the relatively heavy trailer load would make this car top-heavy so
K-Line added a weight under the car to provide stability.
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1992 K-Line Flat Car with Trailer Redecorated for SD/TCA
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The trailer is white, die-cast, is as long as the flat car, has two axles with four wheels each, a kingpin and a plastic
tilting landing gear for when the trailer is detached from the tractor. The two back doors open and it has four simulated
tail lights plus simulated running lights on its roof, one on each corner.
Now regarding those unique graphics, according to the introductory article in the Spring 1992 issue of The Layout, the graphics
tell the story of how the Division had grown, became smaller due to the previously mentioned spinoff and then regrew.
Centered on the side of the body is the logo of the Southern Division in yellow with green lettering reminiscent of the sunshine
and abundance of green in the Florida landscape. The two diagonal green bands each represent a different period of growth
of the Division. The band on the left starts at the bottom of the body and rises to a point below the top of the logo showing
how the Division had grown since its inception in 1966 to the spinoff in 1987. The band on the right starts at a point below
the band on the left but above the bottom of the logo, representing the loss of members to the new divisions, and then rises
to the top of the body of the trailer signifying how the Division had regrown from 1987 to 1992. In just a few short years
the Division had grown so much that the then total SD membership had become larger than what it had been before the spinoff
and loss of many members. As an example, 25 new members were introduced at the business meeting at the fourth quarter 1991
meet in Orlando.
The trailer also has a black TCA logo on the front of the trailer which came as a peel-off decal to be added by the owner.
There is nothing on the trailer indicating who made it as the only other text on the trailer is "K-LINE ®" molded into
the bottom of the trailer near the front. Also each of the eight tires has "K-LINE ®" molded on the sidewall in two places.
And the original K-Line "Heavy Hauler" box pictured does not have any markings on it identifying the contents.
The cars were priced at $28.00 for pick up at a Meet and $32.00 if mailed. Now an 18-wheel rig would not be complete without
a tractor so for an additional $5.00 K-Line also offered a separate sale tractor to pull the trailer to its final destination
along the model highways of our layouts. The tractor is also pictured in one of the photos.
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K-Line Heavy Hauler Cab - Available as a seperate sale item
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Whereas the flat car and the trailer were definitely custom made by K-Line for the Southern Division, the tractor cab is
completely void of any graphics. It's all white and is a model of a tractor with a sleeper cab designed for long-distance
hauling. I'm not sure what brand of truck it is a model of, if any. It has the usual 2-wheel front axle plus two rear axles
with four wheels each which makes the tractor/trailer combination a complete 18-wheeler. And like the trailer, each of the
tires has "K-LINE ®" in two places. The front license plate has the number "2001" which has nothing to do with the year
2001 but is explained by the last line in the following stamping spread over 3 lines on the underside of the
tractor: "TRAILER TRUCK", "SCALE: 1/49" and "ITEM NO. 2001". Stamped on the underframe of the rear axle assembly is the
name "SZETOY", an Asian-based toy maker, along with its fancy-shaped "S" logo. Near the center of the underframe is an
oval-shaped gold sticker with the words "Made in China". So the tractor was made by SZETOY and perhaps they made the trailer also.
I don't have the details on how many separate sale tractors were sold but a total of 203 flat cars with trailers were ordered
and sold. That's quite an impressive sales volume especially for a non-Lionel souvenir car. Despite their late start K-Line
came through for us by delivering the cars the day BEFORE they were to be distributed at the November 1992 Meet in Orlando!
Needless to say the chairman of the 1992 Souvenir Car Committee was very relieved to see the UPS truck show up at his doorstep
that day before the Meet. The chairman was the late and beloved Scotty Askenas who many members will remember as the
long-time former editor of this Newsletter.
1993
On to 1993 and the initial plan was to use a single-dome tank car as the 1993 SD souvenir car, which would have been the first tank car in the SD train.
However, those plans were changed and a gondola car was produced instead, which was the first gondola in the SD train.
Because of our success with K-Line in 1992 (not to mention their lower prices and minimum order quantities compared to Lionel), K-Line was chosen
to provide the 1993 SD Souvenir car and like the 1992 car, it carried a special load very representative of the Southern Division. As shown in
the attached photos once again the car is in Southern Railway green like the 1992 flat car but this time the lettering says "SOUTHERN DIVISION"
with the two words cleverly spread across the four centermost vertical panels with two letters of each word in each panel. The lettering is a
bright yellow which looks great with the green car color. Instead of plastic trucks like all previous SD souvenir cars, this car has fully
sprung die-cast metal trucks and die-cast couplers so this car is no light weight! The car also has the SD and TCA logos on the sides as
well as the year "1993". The load, or shall I say loads, is a set of four white shipping crates specially made for us. Each crate is 1 7/8" high
by 1 7/8" wide and has a depth of 1 1/4". The top is removable and has a simulated hatch as shown in the close-up photo. Each crate has two green
oval decals on it and what is printed on those decals is what makes them special and very symbolic of our Division. The four crates are each
imprinted in white lettering with a different one of four of the many benefits of being a Southern Division member which are as follows: "Display",
"Fellowship", "Open House" & "Trading". There are two of the same stickers on each crate, one on the front and one on the back. The car's
original box is pictured which has a label on one end flap identifying the car as "K-652302 TCA SOUTHERN Gondola 1993"
(they forgot to add the word "DIVISION"). There is no label on the other end of the box.
The cars were offered to members for $28 plus $5 for shipping. Members could order as many cars as they wanted. Production and sales data for
the 1992 car were not printed in the any of the newsletters from that period of time. Despite their handsome looks and unique loads it is obvious
that these cars were not as well received as the 1992 car because the Division continued to offer them for sale even as late as the second
quarterly newsletter of 1994. I also remember the Division offering them as door prizes to lucky attendees at meets for quite some time.
The fact that we had excess 1993 cars is probably why there was not a 1994 car or a 1995 car and led to the decision to issue a Souvenir car
only in each significant Division Anniversary Year.
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K-Line Gondola - Custom Lettering and Load
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Hatch on The Top Of A Crate
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1996
Speaking of significant anniversaries, in 1996 the Southern Division celebrated the 30th anniversary of its founding. And Lionel
could not have done us a bigger favor when their "1995 Stocking Stuffer/1996 Spring Release" catalog showed item #6-19942, a very
attractive "I Love Florida" O gauge 9700-series box car! What an appropriate car to which we could add our 30th Anniversary graphics,
especially since our division boundaries were now completely within the state of Florida. In addition to the car with special
SD 30th Anniversary Graphics we also produced a set of 2 special SD billboard signs. Every member who ordered the car also received
the billboard signs inserted into the original box with the car. With some trimming the signs are designed to fit into Lionel's
#310 style billboard frame or its modern-era descendants, which the member had to supply.
The Lionel "factory" version of the car was already very nicely decorated for Florida so we didn't have to add very much
. Dennis Gergel, Jr., son of former member Denny Gergel and a free-lance artist, designed the artwork for the labels to be attached
to the car and also the billboard signs. As you can see from the photo the car has two different SD labels on each side. The label
on the lower left is a unique 30th SD Anniversary label in blue with a white background. The other label is the circular SD logo in
orange with black text which was placed over the existing circular orange sunburst on the right side of the factory car.
These labels are adhesive stickers.
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Lionel Box Car - Semi-Custom Art
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Scans of the billboard signs are also shown in the attached photos. The first sign is Denny, Jr.'s rendering of some of the original
graphics from the car including the "I Love Florida" slogan plus the orange SD logo. The second sign shows a photo of our car with
the schedule of 1996 SD Train Meets above it. The billboard signs also have appropriate wording for the 30th Anniversary in the lower border.
Denny contacted Lionel dealers to purchase cars and he and Denny, Jr. bought and printed the labels and inserted them on the cars
prior to delivering to the SD. As can be seen in the photo the box end flap also has a custom-printed label. Not shown is the
other end of the box which has the original Lionel factory label.
The cars with the 2 billboards were priced at $35 for delivery at a meet plus $5 for shipping if the member wanted them shipped
to his home. Members were allowed to order two cars. Despite a very attractive and appropriate Lionel car for this occasion,
the response was disappointing as only 105 cars and billboard sets were ordered by members.
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The Billboards
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Another of The Billboards
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The 40th Anniversary SD souvenir cars were already discussed in part 1 of this series. Because the 50th anniversary souvenir
car will be a trolley which is a stand-alone, or run-alone, car and not part of a freight train, the SD Souvenir train has
been completed. Therefore, we are now ready for a "family portrait" of all of the cars. In this case the family photo will
be missing one car, the 40th Anniversary Standard Gauge car produced in 2006, which I don't have as only 4 were produced.
There is a photo of that car in Part 1 of this series. But even getting all fifteen of the O gauge cars and the 3-unit FEC
cabs into one photo proved to be difficult. As you can see in the final photo I had to clear off a wide area on the bottom
four shelves in my train room and arrange the souvenir cars in rows on those four shelves. The 1976 engine is first on the
top shelf followed by the 1975 box car. Then on the second shelf starting at the RIGHT is the 1978 box car followed from
right to left by the next four cars in chronological order: 1979, 1980, 1981 & 1983. Then on the third shelf starting on
the LEFT are the 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1992 cars. On the last shelf, starting from the RIGHT are the 1993, 1996 and
2006 cars with the 1977 caboose marking the end of the train. Plus, the 1996 billboard signs are shown at each end of
the last shelf installed in Lionel post-war #310 frames.
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Family Portrait
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That's the end of the original series of 7 historical articles. I hope you enjoyed them. The following article was included during the original series of 7.
It describes the 50th Anniversary souvenirs that were being promoted and sold while the historical articles were published.
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SOUTHERN DIVISION SOUVENIR TRAIN HISTORY - 50th Anniversary
The Layout Winter 2015 Volume 50 Number 1
By Bill Trappen
2016
In 2016 the Southern Division of the Train Collectors Association is commemorating its Golden, or 50th, Anniversary and we are
celebrating with special souvenir items and anniversary events. The major souvenir is the Southern Division 50th Anniversary
Trolley all of which have now been Produced and Delivered plus we are taking sealed bids for the auction of the special Gold Trolley!
And you are invited to come and celebrate the 50th Anniversary with us on November 4th & 5th in the Orlando area! More information
on the parties follows on the next page. Well, not on this web page.
Southern Division TCA 50th Anniversary Souvenir Trolley Update
The 50th Anniversary Souvenir Trolleys were distributed at the Venice Meet on September 10th to members who ordered
trolleys to be picked up at the Meet and shipped on Tuesday, September 13th to members who ordered trolleys to be
delivered to their homes. If you ordered a trolley, you should have received it.
The 50th Anniversary Trolley is the very first Motorized Southern Division Souvenir train item. The trolleys were
decorated by Harry Hieke, a TCA member in New Jersey who has been designing and redecorating model trains since 1985
and was highly recommended by several satisfied customers. One those satisfied customers is Lionel as evidenced by
a photo of Harry on page 8 of the 2016 Lionel Volume 2 Catalog!
50th Anniversary Trolley
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Recall when first announced last year that each trolley would be individually numbered. The unique trolley car number
is on each side and the front and back of each car so each of the 50 trolley cars is indeed unique with a different car
number! There are 48 "regular-production" cars which are identical except for the number and are decorated in the
traditional SD colors of green and white. All of the graphics and lettering are metallic gold. Included on each side
of the car is the SD logo with special 50th or Golden Anniversary text plus block arrows signifying the time span of
the Division from 1966 to 2016.
Also when the trolley project was introduced last year, we announced that one of the trolleys would be extra special
in commemorating the Division's 50th, or GOLDEN anniversary. Accordingly, that is trolley car #50 and it is painted GOLD!
How appropriate is that? In addition, there is a Pre-Production Sample Trolley that was the first of the 50 trolleys
to be decorated in the Southern Division 50th Anniversary Graphics. It was used to obtain quotes from potential
decorators and also used to try out various decorating schemes. While at first glance it appears to be identical
to the regular production trolleys, it shows residue from removed test graphics and its Lionel box shows considerable
wear and tear from the car having been removed and reinserted back into the box many times. For those reasons the
Committee decided that it would not be suitable to sell this car as a regular-production trolley.
Photos of a regular production trolley, the Special Gold Trolley and the Pre-Production Sample Trolley will be in Fall
issue of the Layout due out by early October. The front and back of the trolley have the phrase "Serving the South
. . . for Fifty Years" spread across both sides of the headlight above the belt line. We thank "Jake" Jacob, our original webmaster
for coining that phrase which is certainly very appropriate in this 50th year of the SD!
SD TCA 50th Anniversary Special GOLD Souvenir Trolley to be Auctioned
The entire body of the Special Gold Trolley is painted glossy gold including the area around the windows,
the bumpers and the roof. The lettering and the rest of its graphics are green. This trolley car is otherwise
identical and has all of the same features as the regular production green trolleys described above. It comes
in a Lionel box with end labels designed specifically for this car and a Lionel shipping carton with special labels.
Even though each of the 50 Anniversary Trolleys is unique by being individually numbered, there is only one number
50 trolley and there is only one Gold Trolley commemorating our 50th, or GOLDEN Anniversary! We had also announced
that no one member could order this very special car but instead we would make it available to any member in a sealed
bid auction. Complete details of that auction will be published in the Fall issue of The Layout.
50th Anniversary Gold Trolley - Number 50
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SD TCA 50th Anniversary Pre-Production Sample Trolley to be Raffled
The second of the two non-regular production 50th anniversary trolleys is the 50th Anniversary Pre-Production Sample
Trolley Car numbered #01. As mentioned above the committee decided that this car could not be sold as a regular-production car.
Instead this car will be one of three SD Souvenir Cars being raffled off at the 50th Anniversary Party at Bruce Pemberton's
on November 5th in the "30-40-50" raffles. These raffles will include a souvenir car from each of the 30th, 40th and 50th
Anniversary years, hence the name "30-40-50" raffles. And complete details on these raffles will also be announced in the Fall newsletter.
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Webmaster Keith Totten
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