Mighty Casey Backyard Layout

I'll be right over!

I have some of that I would like to sell.....not a good time in the Blizzard of 2016.

Awesome video -- what a dedicated grandfather!

Those are so cool!  I almost purchased one for our daughter when she was just a toddler... but didn't follow through with it.  Fun video!

Thanks for posting. Great fun.

Now that was fun.

Man, that brought back some memories of  Christmas 1971. I saw those in the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and ordered one set plus some extra track and cars for my kids.

All I can say is, they had a ball. My wife sold it all, in one of her "Great Yard" sales, you guys know the kind, where you recover 7 cents on the dollar, and that don't figure in the local news paper advertisements!....................Brandy!

Todays Kids leave the womb looking for an X Box!

Thanks for posting!

Dan,

Great video.  I remember your post a couple years ago of the Mighty here on the forum.  I don't remember mine very well, but it was my first train that my Dad bought me.  I wished my parents filmed it for me back then, but I am glad they took a couple of photos.  Thanks for sharing!

What a delightful video . Thank you so much for posting it . I second what Rob said , "What a dedicated grandfather ".

Wonderful video.  We, too, have two locomotives and a couple of freight and passenger cars but the grandchildren have outgrown them.  I was intrigued

when the freight came into the picture because the first time around you could partially see a caboose.  Remco supposedly made a caboose but it is very rare if it exists at  all.  My guess is that the video yellow caboose was home made.

lewrail 

I think if I looked up the definition of Grandfather in the dictionary that guys face would be in it. My Grandfather made all kinds of custom stuff for me and my brothers as well.

Great video!

kjstrains posted:

Dan,

Great video.  I remember your post a couple years ago of the Mighty here on the forum.  I don't remember mine very well, but it was my first train that my Dad bought me.  I wished my parents filmed it for me back then, but I am glad they took a couple of photos.  Thanks for sharing!

Can you post your old Mighty Casey photos?As you can see by this thread,I am fascinated with anything Mighty Casey related,old and new.

lewrail posted:

Wonderful video.  We, too, have two locomotives and a couple of freight and passenger cars but the grandchildren have outgrown them.  I was intrigued

when the freight came into the picture because the first time around you could partially see a caboose.  Remco supposedly made a caboose but it is very rare if it exists at  all.  My guess is that the video yellow caboose was home made.

 

lewrail 

It exists.Fifty of the cabooses were made.A Mighty Casey collector friend said he missed out on a New York Craigslist ad that had the caboose for sale by hours many years ago.There must be some survivors.The Holy Grail in train collecting for me.

Dan,
Here are the photos. I posted these a couple years ago on another thread. I was 2 years old when I got the Mighty Casey for my birthday. In these photos, are my dad and my 2 older brothers. My brother told me that I had the boxcar and gondola along with the engine. My brother said that my Dad wanted to purchase the passenger cars, but they were already gone. I don’t remember riding it, but I remember it being set-up in our basement around our stairwell on plastic track. I was told the fate of it happened when it no longer worked.

I still have mine.  Its in the garage with all the track.  I used to ride it around when I was little.  Isn't a day goes by that I want to ride it again.

Buddy

I've been amassing a small collection for my 20 month old son. We took the locomotive and custom painted and decaled it for the Monon. The locomotive looks good in black and gold. Also made some lighting upgrades and snagged a custom built caboose from George Arbeeny who is the Mighty Casey guru. These are great toys and it's fun to watch my son enjoy his. 

Besides the movie of his Mighty Casey backyard layout,John Howell also sent me an ultra-rare copy of a Mighty Casey brochure he had.The brochure is grainy,but it shows the caboose,freight station,side dump car and right and left switches Remco had planned for the Mighty Casey before they cancelled the entire line.I have never seen a photo of the side dump car and finished switches before.I am very thankful to John for sharing this rare information with me.

John Howell's backyard layout added many new custom items that he made.The layout was built in 1980.The photos above show how the layout in 1983.Take a close look at all the outstanding buildings John made.There is also a great looking tank car in some of the photos.I am very impressed with all the skill and ambition John had building his backyard train layout.John told me that all the items shown still survive in good condition.His grandson,RJ,that he built the layout for,has everything in storage. 

Dan...this is a fantastic thread.  We have a local model railroad club and once a year in our library, they put on a display during Christmas time.  This year in one of the displays was a Mighty Casey which had the caboose you pictured above.  I had no idea that the caboose was so rare....

Alan

I have 2 of these engines that were broken. I made them into A-A unit for the Milwaukee road. I made couplings using plywood. I made a bay-window caboose using plastic from political signs(pick them up after the elections). I also made passenger car tops to fit over box car from political signs. Rear end passenger car is a Barbie train car modified to set on a gondola. I run the train in the yard and call it a yard ornament.  I am thinking about making a station to go with the train. I made 4' straights using clapboard.  I have several broken curve and think I can use them and clapboard to make automatic switches so I and make a dog bone layout. I also have a black engine with track and box(box in bad shape). Have original battery but missing the charger.  I have copied the paper work. If anyone would like PDF files contact me. There is a forum on yahoo groups but not active for awhile now. 

Don77 posted:

I have 2 of these engines that were broken. I made them into A-A unit for the Milwaukee road. I made couplings using plywood. I made a bay-window caboose using plastic from political signs(pick them up after the elections). I also made passenger car tops to fit over box car from political signs. Rear end passenger car is a Barbie train car modified to set on a gondola. I run the train in the yard and call it a yard ornament.  I am thinking about making a station to go with the train. I made 4' straights using clapboard.  I have several broken curve and think I can use them and clapboard to make automatic switches so I and make a dog bone layout. I also have a black engine with track and box(box in bad shape). Have original battery but missing the charger.  I have copied the paper work. If anyone would like PDF files contact me. There is a forum on yahoo groups but not active for awhile now. 

I would definitely like pdf copies of your Mighty Casey paperwork.Your profile does not appear to have a way to contact you direct.Please add an email address to your profile.I would also like to see the custom work you did to your Mighty Casey trains.Please post some pictures of them.

I added my email to my profile. Here are pictures of my train.

Wow, I'd never even heard of this until seeing this thread just now.

When did they make these? I was born in 1969, so I guess they were long gone from toy stores about the time I could have played with one as a toddler?

Oh, what I would've given later in life to have had something like this as a kid. But even if they'd still been in stores, I doubt my parents could have afforded much more than a single car, if that.

Here are the PDF files.

p51 posted:

Wow, I'd never even heard of this until seeing this thread just now.

When did they make these? I was born in 1969, so I guess they were long gone from toy stores about the time I could have played with one as a toddler?

Oh, what I would've given later in life to have had something like this as a kid. But even if they'd still been in stores, I doubt my parents could have afforded much more than a single car, if that.

They were made in the seventies I believe.

p51 posted:

Wow, I'd never even heard of this until seeing this thread just now.

When did they make these? I was born in 1969, so I guess they were long gone from toy stores about the time I could have played with one as a toddler?

Oh, what I would've given later in life to have had something like this as a kid. But even if they'd still been in stores, I doubt my parents could have afforded much more than a single car, if that.

I think when I saw these for sale was Xmas 1969 at 3D store. If I remember right they were about $30 for set of engine and track. Almost bought one for my 3 year old boy who liked to watch trains. $30 then was a lot of money to spend on a toy.

Don77 posted:

I added my email to my profile. Here are pictures of my train.

Thanks for posting the photos of your Milwaukee Road engines and Mighty Casey instructions and brochure.The Mighty Casey engine looks awesome in Milwaukee Road colors!

I made a station to go with my casey. I think I will make a signal tower next.

Don77 posted:

I think when I saw these for sale was Xmas 1969 at 3D store. If I remember right they were about $30 for set of engine and track. Almost bought one for my 3 year old boy who liked to watch trains. $30 then was a lot of money to spend on a toy.

Too true. I showed my parents some photos of these. They replied that they don't remember seeing them for sale anywhere.

Yeah, $30 was a lot for a kid back then, even when you adjust it for inflation. No way could my parents have afforded any of this stuff, maybe one car for Christmas but that'd been it for the year. I'd have outgrown this long before I could have had anything to run at that rate.

Switch tower I made using plastic signs. I will have to wait until after next election to collect more signs before I can make another building.

I found some more coroplast signs I had stored away. Used them to start a shanty town. Made shot-gun houses, small house, and a tar paper shack. I found I can make a small house using only one sign.

I just ran across this by accident. I was watching old Lionel commercials on YouTube, and in the list was the comercial for the Mighty Casey, then found the video of the building of this backyard set up which led to this thread. Sometimes social media is really awesome.

Very Nice, thanks for posting.

Question: Did  grandson RJ  ever get into trains? Could not find his name on all the other post.

I have some Mighty Casey trains and enjoy them very much.

Surprised some company doesn't reproduce them or make something similar?

Thanks,

Phil

RonH posted:

Very Nice, thanks for posting.

Question: Did  grandson RJ  ever get into trains? Could not find his name on all the other post.

John Howell didn't mention if his grandson became a fan of trains,but he did tell me that RJ has all the items in the video in storage. I wanted to buy the excellent custom made caboose,but I was told that none of the items are for sale.

PHILA posted:

I have some Mighty Casey trains and enjoy them very much.

Surprised some company doesn't reproduce them or make something similar?

Thanks,

Phil

 

There are some similar ride on trains being made now. The Peg Perego train set,#1 on the list in the video, is very similar to the Mighty Casey train set.

Awesome!  Thanks so much for this thread and video!  -Ken

PRICELESS.  You made my day.  I love the snow scene.

Thank you for posting.

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