The Lion Roars - Lionel Collectors Club of America

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Visitors to BelAir Mall, in Mobile, Alabama, watch the trains run on SWARM’s modular layout. The mall show ran the entireweekend of June 19-20 and provided opportunities to connect the trains with children of all ages in the community.(Left): SWARM members Howard Hickey, JimWagner and Herman Ozga work on the club’smodular layout. The layout features a doubletrackedmain line with wide radius curves, twopassing sidings and a makeup yard. With somerecently completed yard modules, the layout is nowabout 14x36 feet, but this can be changed byomitting modules to fit the available space.(Below): Members of the Dogwood Trail Maids, public relationsambassadors for the Eastern Shore (of Mobile Bay) Chamber ofCommerce, welcome visitors to the mall show. The show was the firstexposure to the toy train hobby for many area citizens.(Below): O-scale Dogwood Trail Maids stand neara sign pointing to the train show at the depot. WhileFairhope does not have a depot, nor even a railroad,it is a nice touch to name the depot on the modularlayout for the area where the layout is beingdisplayed.Photographs by George Nelson32The Lion Roars August, 1999
Catzillaby Wolfgang F. Kuhn RM 11908The Great Train Attack of the FelinesAuthor’s Note: It has come to my attention that thisand other publications of the toy train hobby look at theactivity in a biased way; that is, exclusively from a humanpoint of view. Editors have completely ignored the wayanimals perceive this pastime.In spite of being the finest publication in this field,even The Lion Roars is guilty of espousing an attitude ofspeciocentrism based upon human chauvinism!To redress this editorial slight to our furry friends,I submitted this manuscript to promote inter-speciesunderstanding andto describe the hobbyfrom a feline point ofview. I also includedphotographs of Lacey, anon-primate, showingher active enjoyment ofthe hobby as only a catcan. However, at thisstage of my non-humaninvestigation about affinityfor trains in otherspecies, I have no datato support the notionthat the hobby is “forthe birds.”It is perhaps notwidely known that the association of cats and trains goesback to antiquity. For instance, the ancient Egyptiansgranted god-like status to cats and tried to preserve themfor eternity, not unlike what we would do today with a700E. Of course, in ancient Egypt, they didn’t have realtrains, and maybe that’s why their civilization eventuallyfizzled and went belly-up. Incidentally, so did the originalLionel Corporation. Maybe there’s a lesson in that.Maybe cats alone, and trains alone, just don’t cut it.By personal preference, I am a “dog person.” Nevertheless,I ended up with some felines in my life. Thereasons for this are manifold and convoluted, like anythingpertaining to cats, and need not be discussed atlength here. Suffice it to say that I did not have time fora dog. Although kittens tend to be cute and irresistible atfirst, experience teaches us that eventually they grow intocats. By that time, it’s usually too late. The damage isdone, and the bonding has occurred. That was how catsinitially infiltrated my house.Later, I remarried. My wife came with two cats ofher own in tow and they were part of the deal. So now Ialso have two cats-in-law. Just like my wife, they arevery nice, polite, and completely disinterested in trains.And just like my wife, they occasionally give me thispitying look that seems to say, “Poor dear, we know youcan’t help it. Although you’re a pretty nice guy, you havea couple of screws loose.”My own cats, just like my son, show a keen interestin trains but not always to my liking. For one thing, theyseem convinced that my layout was built just for them.They simply love it, and they are on it all the time. Catsdon’t like to get yelled at, so they quickly learned a fewessential rules of theroad. With only a veryoccasional exception,the cats leave the trainson the layout alone.They also don’t messwith the scenery muchanymore, even thoughthe buildings are easy totopple and the trees easyto uproot. OK, so everyonce in a great while, atree comes down or a cargets tossed over theedge. But that isn’t thebig problem. Nor is itthe glued-down kitty litterused as track ballast, in spite of many dire predictionsfrom train friends that I would find unusual “rock formations”next to the tracks. Cats apparently have no use forlitter they can’t move around.However, they love the little traffic and RR yard signs.Lionel must have used a particularly tasty type of plasticfor them. The signs are constantly nibbled and pulledup. I have not yet found a way to permanently fastenthem down. Similarly, my K-Line fencing is especiallyvulnerable to cat attacks. I might as well not fence anythingin. The moment I put it back up, it induces anever-stronger feline resolve to take it back down at thevery first chance.When I first finished the layout, I laboriously strungnylon “telephone wires” between the telephone poles.This was not an easy job, and it required a lot of33The Lion Roars August, 1999
Page 1 and 2: The Lion RoarsVolume 29, No. 1 Augu
Page 3 and 4: The Lion Roars ContentsLCCA Members
Page 5 and 6: The Right Trackby Ed Richter RM 130
Page 7 and 8: diesel. Now, it really doesn’t ge
Page 9 and 10: Nylon monofilaments hold the items
Page 11 and 12: ailroads. In 1969, the windows were
Page 13 and 14: The Amtrak EraToday the only inter-
Page 15 and 16: A Layout in Arizonaby John Ford RM
Page 17 and 18: The TinplateCannonballby Ken Morgan
Page 19 and 20: The Mane Lineby Dennis Leon Clad RM
Page 21 and 22: from Bill’s Hardware Store at1-80
Page 23 and 24: The 1950s toy-type carrying casefor
Page 25 and 26: exactly copy another product right
Page 27 and 28: pretty slick and includes some inte
Page 29 and 30: In 1921, Ives started to sell “wi
Page 31 and 32: Photo by B. Schwab used by permissi
Page 33: The show was open for two days and
Page 37 and 38: Chief Dispatcherby Bob Amling RM 91
Page 39 and 40: Mainline toChesterfieldby Gary More

The Lion Roars - Lionel Collectors Club of America

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