Tag: model trains

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NCTM America 250 Locomotives Celebration 2026

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.

Please note that this page and the links to other places most likely contain content that may be owned or copyrighted by others, and no permission was requested to use their content, display it, or link to it. I make no claims on other’s rights to such content nor do I claim any of it as my own. All of my creative content remains copyrighted by me, ShowMyHobby.com, and the SMH owning entity. Others may view my content, link to it, and display it AS IS elsewhere. However, if you wish to modify any of my content or make derivative works from it, please request permission to do prior to performing such alteration by contacting me first and getting my approval. Thank you.

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/

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Amtrak Train Models HO & N scale

My Amtrak Train Models HO & N scale can be seen on this page eventually. However, I just saw the following video for the first time on Bachmann’s YouTube page on December 27th, 2024. So, I wanted to share it with my visitors. The video shows the First Look at Bachmann’s HO Amtrak Acela II locomotives. The passenger cars have been out for a while now, and I have been interested in seeing what the new Bachmann Acela II locomotives and sets will look like.

Bachmann HO Amtrak® Acela® II Production Model - First Look

Wow! Doesn’t that look great? It’s going to be even cooler seeing it run around a track when that time comes.

Some of you may know that I like to combine 2 of my hobbies: trains and travel. For New Years a couple of years ago (2021), I considered taking a train from the Charlotte, NC area to around Baltimore where it looked as if I could pick-up a ride on the new Acela II train cars. But every time I tried to book the tickets, I had trouble telling for certain if the train I was going to be riding on would be an Acela II train set, plus I also had trouble settling on WHERE in New York I was going to go to watch the Ball drop on New Year’s Eve. In the end, I didn’t book anything nor did I go. A regular Acela train may have been running at that time, but I think they were running further North near Massachusetts. I couldn’t confirm that they were running from Baltimore. Thus far, I have not been aboard an Acela train (to my knowledge).

I have 2 Bachmann Acela Train Sets in my Amtrak Train Models HO collection, plus 2 additional cars acquired in 2024, that I haven’t even removed from their shipping box or tested yet. Hopefully, I will get a chance in 2025 to run all of the Acela trains that I have. I ran the 2 sets combined this past summer at the North Carolina Transportation Museum on the Metrolina Model Railroaders club’s French, Broad & Catawba layout. A couple of those videos will be posted here eventually, along with other videos of HO & N scale Amtrak train running on my own layouts.

I also have a good many N scale Amtrak passenger cars and locomotives. Some of the cars are lighted. I hope you enjoy them when you see them.

My first personal video that I am posting you have already seen on my ShowMyHobby YouTube channel or on another post related to my CB&Q trains. Both are in the following video.

Amtrak GE P42 pulls 12 Superliner passenger cars while CBQ pulls 5 on HJR Lonsway Pike April 15 2018
N scale Amtrak GE P42 #46 pulls 12 Superliner passenger cars while a CBQ passenger train runs a 6-piece consist on April 5, 2018

In the next video, only the HO scale Walthers DC only locomotive belongs to me. I was testing some roadrailers that were on consignment. Those have been purchased by a fellow club member who has a very impressive roadrailer collection.

HO Bowser NS Amtrak 53ft Platewall Roadrailer 4-pcs set pulled by Amtrak
My Walthers HO scale F40PH #404 Diesel pulling 4 Amtrak 53′ Platewall roadrailers in 2018.

If you would like a full listing of the Amtrak rolling stock that I have, let me know in a comment on this page. Please only let me know if you want to see the list of Amtrak Rolling stock when you comment. None of the comments you post will be shown to the public and I will only live the ability for you to comment up as long as people do not abuse it by sending me spam, offers about things I am never going to be interested, or other junk. If I start receiving too much crap unrelated to the list of my Amtrak Rolling Stock List, I will remove the ability to comment on this page as I have done on practically everywhere else.

Right now, Bachmann hasn’t announced when they plan to release the new HO scale Amtrak Acela II locomotives. I cannot be sure that I will get one as I imagine they will be expensive. [While watching the video for the 3rd time, I decided to put in it full screen mode. That time, I saw that Bachmann provided a model number of 01206. So, I visited the page, and they have already priced their Bachmann Amtrak Acela II Train Set at $799.00. The page says Coming Soon. I visited Trainworld and they have it on pre-order with an estimated availability date of 01-15-2025 (But don’t bank on that as Trainworld hasn’t shipped a pre-order that I have made with them on time yet. It could be months after that date before these sets actually start shipping.)] If you would like to help me get one, please donate using my donation page. Pay close attention to the donation levels so that I can publicly acknowledge and thank you your gift if you want me to. Many thanks in advance for your support.

A friend and member of a train club in Massachusetts sent me a snapshot of an article he saw in what I believe may be Model Railroad News regarding the reason Bachmann has delayed the release of the Acela II train sets and locomotives. He snapped the picture and sent it to me on December 12, 2024. You will probably have to guess at some of the words because of the reflective flash spot. You see what I received. So, right now it is still anyone’s guess as to when the new Acela II train sets from Bachmann will be available.

snapshot of an MRN article about Bachmann's Acela II locomotives.
MRN talk with Bachmann about Acela II revisions causing release delays.

Created: December 27, 2024. Published: December 29, 2024.

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Spencer NCTM Train Show May 20-21, 2023

It is time for the Historic Spencer Shops annual TRAIN SHOW at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. This is a 2-day Train Show that is good for the entire family. It is ESPECIALLY GOOD for Model Railroaders and Train Collectors of all scale trains and of all ages. Why? Because, ShowMyHobby.com and a lot of other vendors will be there offering excellent buys on electric model trains and accessories. So, if you have a model railroad, collect trains, or just want to get started creating your own model train empire, Saturday and/or Sunday, you may want to be at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. Admission is very reasonable. The selection of trains that you can see, buy, and even ride on is going to be great. And this gives you an opportunity to bring the entire family with you.

Is there a particular locomotive you wish you had, or a model train building, more track, a new-to-you transformer, or a fleet of passenger cars? Well, make sure you stop by my tables at this Train Show. I accept both CASH and PLASTIC (credit and debit cards). All items are taxed at the NC Sales Tax rate. And, if you wish to provide your email address so that I can update you directly on shows that I participate in hereafter, you can register to win a free 2-piece static display train set by participating in the SMH Prize Sweepstakes (Follow this link for the prize available for this show).

This year, I have a lot of great items on consignment for sale. For instance, if you have always wanted to get started with S scale trains, I have enough tracks to make a dual-mainline layout, plus several collections of trains that make great complete sets. I also have a few stand-alone cars and engines left. You can either purchase some of these items right now online on my ShowMyHobby.com website and have them shipped to you, or you can try to take your chances and pick them up at the train show before someone else gets them. Additionally, I have lots of HO scale tracks, building, freight cars, and passenger cars. I have a good selection of kits, models built from kits, and ready-to-run items. And, I have some vintage European HO scale trains and accessories too. I also have some Norfolk Southern N scale trains and Lighted Amtrak Passenger cars, other rolling stock, and tracks. I have some NEW / Old Stock trains that were collected some time ago that have either be kept in good condition or haven’t been used at all. Most items have been opened to inspect them, sometime test them and take pictures of them. This has been done to ensure that I can tell you their true and current condition plus its necessary in order to sell some of them online. There are hundreds of items available covering the following train scales: HO, S, O, and N. I will only have 3 tables in Spencer so not everything will be there. And there are a lot more items available than what you see listed on the website or even in the this list here: https://showmyhobby.com/wp-content/uploads/All-Consigned-Item-List.pdf. One way to search through the items that are on the website a little faster is to use the Shop via List option. There may be many items that do not yet have pictures associated with them, but you still buy the items that interest you the most. If you come to the show and do not see what you are looking for on the tables, feel free to ask because I may have it with me in a box elsewhere.

It is unknown exactly where I will be located except to say that I should be in the Back shop near the Metrolina Model Railroader’s very large HO scale layout of the French, Broad & Catawba Railroad which is positioned almost in the middle of the Back shop. As a member of the MMRR train club that will be operating that layout this weekend, I will be wearing one of our club’s T-Shirts. Make sure to stop by the club’s layout and check it out. It is a fascinating layout to enjoy and watch whatever trains are running on it. Ask a club member about special items to find and they will be happy to show some pretty cool things and/or share some fun facts with you. If you like, follow this link over to the club’s website and print our Find-it List and see how many items you can find on the layout (it can take some time and be a real fun thing to do to spot as many of the items as you can).

Thank you for your interest in ShowMyHobby.com. I look forward to seeing you at the Spencer Historic Shops Train Show.