Remembering Tom Synder

Tom was an an important influence to this hobby, his legacy lives on at the NJ Hi-Railers in the form of his home layout, trains and memorabilia.

Two of the best ambassadors this hobby has ever seen.  Both are much missed!

Although I haven't seen his layout in person yet -- gotta get up to Patterson, NJ to the NJ Hi-Railers place!!!, I've seen it in the TM video's.  And it's been an inspiration of sorts to the type of Standard Gauge layout I'm designing now (although I also plan for an O-Gauge loop or two).

David

Open Houses Dec 22nd, Jan 19th and Feb23rd....

Come on down, up, or over, just get there!

Thanks for posting the video. We could use more like these enormous talents in our hobby.

Tom was, like many of us,......different! But I did enjoy watching his show...and was happy to find out he loved trains! The big NJ club has his layout IIRC.....maybe someone will post it.

I wish there was a way that TM Productions could release a DVD of Tom's

Ward Kimball program.  That was a Classic train show.

As, my U.S.N., O.I. Division Officer, Lt. used to say; "OUTSTANDING!!!!!"

Ralph 

Found this...

That's priceless. Thanks for posting.

TM and his shows obviously showed how Tom Snyder was a great person who really did care about his friends, from Pam Burke to his layout designer John Kitterman. He is also to be credited for helping to expose the hobby to many from his Late Late Show to TM's Lionel Century video.

Not to mention a fellow enthusiast of the classic tinplate trains.~

Gentlemen,

   I was talking to my wife just recently about Ward, and the invention of Giminie Cricket, she never knew he was behind Disney's incredible Cricket, or that he liked trains so much.  My wife won a big Disney award one year with her kids musical stage performance, for 2 weeks they performed at Disney World/Land, the kids got the run of the parks between performances, she met Ward at dinner one evening, said he was one great guy, a real gentlemen and a credit to the Disney Corporation. 

Both these men were big losses to our train hobby, few people like them any place on earth. 

PCRR/Dave

Hi guys,

I'll have to look but I have pictures of my dad and I flying out to Port Richmond California to dismantle Tom's layout and load it into a shipping container to head to NJ. It ended up going across the country by rail until it got to Port Newark where the container was transferred to a truck for its final trip to my fathers building in Paterson. I just spoke to Tom's wife Pam the other week and she was talking about making the trip to come see the layout in the next few months.

Mat

I have modeled much my own layout with Tom's approach to the hobby and style of his amazing layout.  The layout couldn't be in a better home!

Thanks for posting the video's they were great to see.

Maybe if we could get warren to pay more attention to his trains and make some videos of his layout.

Here are some pics when we dedicated the Tom Snyder layout

This is Me Marty and Tom's Companion Pam Burke

This is Dr. Frank Field and Spencer Christian speaking about Tom and what a great guy he was

I even got a hug

This is Kaity Tong who co-anchored the evening news with tom talking to Bernie and Mat

A toast to Tom

It's not just the Open Houses that we have. Don't forget the post Jim D has in the heading:

The Members of the NJHirailers would like to invite the OGR Fourm members to TRAINSTOCK VI

           Date          January 18 ,2014

          Time            10 AM until ?????

          Place          NJHirailers World Headquarters

          185 6 th Ave

          Paterson NJ 07524

Come for Good Friends , Good Food and Trains.

There will be a $5 fee at the door to help offset it cost of the food. So come and enjoy. Please email me or post here if you are coming so Vinny can make sure we have plenty of food. Thanks, Hope to see you there

Jim D.

Gerry

I remember not long after he passed away that when looking for a new home for Tom's layout both the CSRM up in Sacramento as well as the SDMRM here in San Diego were proposed; either way would have kept the layout here in CA where Tom lived & worked.  Unfortunately for us Californians it wasn't to be, I believe that CSRM's reason for turning down the offer was lack of space in the model train display area, and down here as I recall was due to the museum directors feeling that his layout was not consistent with the museum's mission statement which was to have display layouts that depict model railroading in the southern part of the state.  I can't help but wonder if both regret their decisions now. 

Now those Joisey bums took one of our most prominent California celebrity layouts away from us!  

Seriously, it's great that Tom's layout was able to find a good home regardless of what state it's in, and not just a memory as some other famous layouts of their time like Frank Ellison's Delta Lines or John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid, both of which are nothing more than a memory and a few building pieces left.

John

The Snyder layout was in Richmond Ca. at a museum layout for a few years after Tom passed away.  They didn't really take care of it very well and it was neglected    The museum told them to get rid of it because they needed the space for another exhibit.  Thats when Pam contacted her friend Tom McComas to see if he knew anybody that would keep his layout intact.  Tom called Marty and the transfer happened about a two weeks later

Glad to see that the layout is still going strong after 100 years!

And I 2nd the post regarding TrainStock.  Hope everyone can come on down and see the layout in person. 

Ben,

I now recall that it was temporarily housed there in Richmond, thanks for the refresher.  But the CSRM & the SDMRM were also contacted about being prospective hosts for the layout.

John Kitterman designed and built the Standard Gauge layout for Tom. According to Ben at the NJ Hirailers, the layout was built like a battle ship-tough and rigid! I spoke with John who is a friend of mine, when it was going to the Hi-Railers as he lost track of where it ended up. He was glad to know that it would be taken care of.

Gentlemen'

   I am greatful that his layout found a good home where it will be taken care of,

so many have faded away.  Wish we could have had it here in Pittsburgh, Pa area.

PCRR/Dave

One thing that Pam told me is that Mr Snyder was emphatic that his collection stay intact if something happened to him.  He was personal friends with Ward Kimball and was upset when his collection went out to bid