The North Carolina Transportation Museum hosted the America 250 Locomotives Celebration in Spencer, NC for 3 days: August 28th, 29th, and 30th. On this page is a copy of the Facebook post that I made after attending the show on Day 2. This page will be updated soon with pictures and videos that I took of both real trains and model trains on Days 2 and 3 while at the NCTM. It will also feature photos and links to other sites with content made and provided by other people, including links to direct Facebook posts, which may require you to login to Facebook to view.
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TRAINS!
Lots and lots of TRAINS!
It is 12:48 AM, August 30th, 2026. Yesterday, as many of you probably already know, was Day 2 of the “America 250 Locomotive Celebration” at the North Carolina N.C. Transportation Museum. This is a one-of-a-kind, Quincentennial Train Celebration where a number of patriotic paint themed locomotives from around the United States have gathered in one location at the historic NCTM in Spencer, NC, and put on display on display for the general public to see, experience, and enjoy.
This 3-day event started Friday and will conclude today on August 30th.
You do not have to be a rail fan or train enthusiast to marvel at this collection of real trains, or to enjoy the patriotic display of huge steel titans that roam this country, making it as great as it is.
This collection of trains is MASSIVE and IMPRESSIVE and most likely will never be assembled again like this in your lifetime.
The great news is that Facebook and the Internet will be flooded over the next several days with pictures, videos, and commentary from the thousands of people who attended this event and from distant spectators, journalist, podcasters, etc. So, you would have to live in an unconnected hole in the ground not to hear or see some blurbs, reels, or tidbits about this celebration.
Get your eyes full and your ears filled because just about Everyone will be talking about this event for a while now.
I was present yesterday and I will attend again today. And while it has been a very busy summer for me personally, I didn’t get a chance to update the Metrolina Model Railroaders club’s website, or my own collection of ShowMyHobby.com & related websites with advance news of this show, I am going to do what I can to update those sites with some photos, videos, and commentary of my own and others this morning, later today, and in the coming weeks. Right now, I have about 45 minutes to gather up some more of my personal model trains, try to transfer some of yesterday’s photos and videos to my YouTube channel, and post a blurb or two about this event on the aforementioned websites.
Yesterday, hundreds of people stopped by the Metrolina Model Railroader’s, French, Broad and Catawba layout, and took pictures and videos of my HO scale State Commemorative model train consist featuring the Athearn Genesis Bicentennial Santa Fe SD-45 Diesel Engine Locomotive #5704, triple-headed with the Union Pacific Heritage locomotives: The Missouri Pacific #1982 and The Katy #1988, both SD70Ace Diesel Sound Equipped engines, carrying 2 vintage 1776 Bicentennial locomotives by Santa Fe and Seaboard Coast Line, followed by an assortment of colorful Bachmann, Tyco, and Mantua commemorative 50′ box cars including a lot of different State cars. Additionally, ScaleTrains allowed our club to display and run 2 of their Quincentennial painted model locomotives, both of which have their real prototypes present at the NCTM these 3 days.
Today, I will be operating a sound-equipped Centennial Broadway Limited Imports Diesel Locomotive pulling all 50 MicroTrains N scale United States Commemorative 40′ box cars and running them on the Carolina N scaler’s club layout also on display at the NCTM, in addition to my HO scale trains.
I will attempt to post a live Facebook feed of both trainsets sometime today. These will be long running live shows as it takes the HO scale trainset at least 8 to 10 minutes to travel around the layout. And, since the N scale train set has never been out of its boxes yet, I have no idea how long it will take to make it around the N scaler’s layout, but I imagine it may take at least 5 minutes.
If you are interested, look me up later today, probably around 10:30ish to 11:30ish for the HO scale live presentation, and probably around 2:30ish to 3:30ish for the N scale live presentation.
There are so many other people providing live streams and after photos and videos of the real trains, that I doubt I will attempt to go live while watching some of those today, but you should be able to find them all over the place.
Sometime next week consider searching the internet and Facebook for Henry’s Commemorative Model Trains. If all goes well, you will be able to find some of my belated posts on my websites, the train club’s website, and YouTube, which will include the photos and videos of both models and real trains that I took during the 2 days I was present at the N.C. Transportation Museum’s America 250 Locomotives Celebration, August 29th and 30th, 2026!
Have fun and enjoy!
Facebook link to the above post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19M3NpCwj3/