LION ROARS - Lionel Collectors Club of America

3My biggest Lionel standard gauge train as printed on the twinbed sheets: a red 217 caboose, green 216 hopper and 400 Elocomotive with no tender, upper shelf; a yellow 214 box car,middle shelf. The other pictures on the sheets are Lionel O-gauge rolling stock.roof. When “Lit” and I visited the Carail Museum inDetroit, I noticed some of their 2l6 hoppers had beenrepainted red like 516s when they were in the formerLionel Museum at Sarasota.The coal tender on the sheets is an O-gauge New YorkCentral with a scoop to pick up water as the prototypesdid when they raced along the “Water Level Route.” Theother O-gauge prints are a blue Chesapeake and Ohiodiesel engine, a silver Western Pacific boxcar, a yellowand-greenLionel livestock car, and a red three-dometanker. See photo 3.Elizabeth gave me a comforter with what seemed tobe the same trains on it for my 75th birthday. However,the images were really O-gauge pieces. They seem largerbecause they are nearly the same scale as standard gauge,like the two-inch-wide, three-rail track printed on the quilt.The 4-6-4 steam engine, No. 2046, has a Sunoco tank carin place of its tender. The yellow Lionel stock car andthe green Lehigh Valley hopper look like the 214 and216 cars on the sheets. The quilt has no tenders, nor anycaboose, but I shall enjoy it on my own bed.This Christmas visit with Lit and Jack was special,and their gifts were very appropriate and welcome. I wasreminded that I had none of these big locomotives andcars when Liz was a child playing with my first Lioneltrains. Ten years ago, she gave me two Avon ceramicpieces — a 400 E with no tender painted for the BlueComet set, and the green 381 E electric. By sharing thishobby as well as our academic professions, my daughterand I have grown closer together through the years.Photos by Grandpa Nelson G. Williamswith help by Choo Choo Charley BurtThe annual but temporary holiday layout at Mottler Station was filledexclusively with Rock Island trains. The year 2000 version of the layoutcontained four large modules — two 4x8 and two 4x6 foot platforms — joinedby bridges with elevated trestles to ascend and descend to the different levels.With three KWs and three smaller transformers for control of lighting andaccessories and a spur line, Mike ran seven trains simultaneously.The “rug layout” under the platforms offered042 and 072 concentric ovals for running ablue-and-white Rock GP-20 diesel-led consist ofcustom-painted MOW work cars and an E8ABA Rock Island Golden Rocket passenger setwith eight scale-length cars. After use duringthe Christmas season for the trains, the roomreverted to a two-stall garage with appreciationfor the “restoration to normalcy” from Mrs.Mottler.Photographs by Michael Dupslaff11The Lion Roars April, 2001