What Trains Cheer You Up?

Arnold, you missed your calling when you decided to practice law. You should have become either a psychologist or motivational speaker! 😉

What trains cheer me up?  I change out all the trains on my layout every Saturday.  Whatever I choose to run the coming week cheers me up at least until the following Thursday when I start thinking about what I’ll run next.

Curt

My next one.

Scott Smith

Arnold, I can't say that any one train does it for me, however, when I see this baby run I do get a big grin on my face .... the Lionel 2065 almost 65 years young and still taking me to a happy place!   ( I realize too that, like me, the 2065 was your first engine as well Arnold. )

@juniata guy posted:

Arnold, you missed your calling when you decided to practice law. You should have become either a psychologist or motivational speaker! 😉

What trains cheer me up?  I change out all the trains on my layout every Saturday.  Whatever I choose to run the coming week cheers me up at least until the following Thursday when I start thinking about what I’ll run next.

Curt

Curt, you're probably right about my vocation. LOL.

I wholeheartedly agree that changing things around, whether it be the structures or scenery on the layout like I often do, or the trains like you do, can brighten one's mood.

I like the way you are organized about the changing of the trains on your layout every Saturday.  I may also start doing that, instead of being haphazard about it, which is what I've been doing.

Something else that cheers me up is coffee or hot chocolate scented smoke fluid, running my best smokers and filling the basement with that sweet smelling smoke.

One of my best smokers is this MTH Proto 3 Long Island B6 steam switcher:

Now, if only there was a way for me to transmit that sweet smoke to you through the Forum so you can also smell it.

LOL, Arnold

PS: Oops, wrong locomotive. That smoker in the video was not a B6, it was a MTH Proto 2 Pennsy turbine. I find that most all MTH steamers are great smokers.

Just running a train cheers me up.  It doesn't have to be any one in particular.   In this older video of my Windows 7 phone (???????), an Amtrak consist full of mixed phases of cars and manufacturers  was an enjoyable moment.  The FL9 (based out of Boston), pulling Horizon cars (based out of the mid-west and west) and a Phase I painted diner and three sleepers (out of era for the locomotive) is just fun.  Amtrak always puts a smile on my face as it has continued to show the naysayers that even 50 years into Amtrak, it is still around and running trains every day in real life.  What can't be more cheerful than that?

  Basically any train or any combination of trains I've set up to photograph.  The entire process from selecting the trains to photograph to setting up whatever kind of scene I want is very relaxing and the final image always cheers me up.

Arnold, Another nice topic. I knew it was from you once I read the title.

I have a slight hankering for my Pennsy prewar switchers...

Tom

Plus one on giraffe cars. Also Beeps, Feeps, and Peeps.

Pete

Virginian Blue and Yellow Trainmaster and 2020/671/681 turbines. Extra special.

Another one here that loves my 8976 B6 switcher.

Trains, whether real or model have made such a difference in my life. Kept be sane, happy and out of trouble. My natural antidepressants.

Any train from the PRR.

PRR M-1b

PRR USRA 0-6-0

PRR K-4s on a rare freight assignment

PRR GG-1 pulling a passenger train of PRR heavyweight coaches

Here's the MTH Proto 3 B6 filling the basement with sweet smelling smoke:

Literally ANY train (meaning just for present purposes an engine) that either (1) runs as it should straight out of the box OR (2) has no out of the box issue that I can't fix myself - I guess I am easily pleased/cheered. Two nominees are the VL Niagara (no issues whatsoever) and the VL GS-5 (main smoke wiring installed backwards at the factory despite being clearly color coded):

Any trains with gi-raffes are good trains. 

The train that cheers me up is whatever project I've successfully completed most recently... 

Mitch

Any train cheers me up as long as they DONT say Santa Fe or Union Pacific

@bluelinec4 posted:

Any train cheers me up as long as they DONT say Santa Fe or Union Pacific

X 2 where the UP is concerned Ben! 👍

Curt

Please allow me to adapt the title to this thread:  Trains cheer me up.

Tinplate trains on tinplate track, especially knowing that some child cherished that train as much as I do almost a century ago.  

Right now, it's my latest acquisition. A Santa Fe 2343 AA Set in excellent condition. As a PW guy, this is my first one ever and owning this classic just makes me smile.

Btw, it came without the port hole lenses. Did a replacement with some repros and think it looks fine.

This little guy does

When I smell the ozone emanating from one of my postwar Lionel engines, particularly coming from one of my first sets, that brings me right back to my childhood,

when I run a subway in station stop mode and get to hear the sounds of the subway so wonderfully replicated, particularly for those stations I regularly traversed,

when I run a modern steamer and fill the room with smoke while watching the  perfectly timed chuff rates and observing the fantastic add on details,

when I run any of my modern command control diesels and do perfectly controlled switching in my yard and work areas of my layout, particularly those that reflect the real ones  I remember seeing in my youth,

when I run my little oddities or my repainted models, like the my Kline Plymouth switcher or rmt bang switcher,

when I run my brightly colored and exquisitely detailed tinplate reproductions engines and cars, admiring the exquisite workmanship and art of each piece,

Heck, everything I have brings a smile to my face and cheers me up.

All of them.

All Most of them in this household.

Caveats/Exceptions:

1) Discovered to be infected with Zinc Pest.

2) Discovered to have scrambled/fried electronics board(s)...after resting peacefully in its box...or on the track...following its last successful...cheering...run many moons ago.

Cheers!

KD

Arnold,

Being a divorce attorney, you certainly understand the need for people to find sources of happiness in their lives (...like through their hobbies!)

I appreciate your question. There are some trains that make me a bit more happy than others. When I was paring down my collection to sell on ebay and determine which items to sell or not sell, my method was asking myself "does this engine/car still make me feel good?"  I know that sounds a bit silly, but that is my standard for "holding" or "selling".

To answer your question, my favorites are those trains I've actually ridden--the Lionel S3 Northern pulling Hiawatha cars ("Friends of 261" group) and Lionel Western Maryland #6 3-truck Shay (Cass Scenic Railroad, West Virginia)

anything military themed or patriotic

standard gauge tinplate

tier 4s

berkshires

gg1s

the acela

the lionel 8228 SP Dash 9 from 1997

Lionmaster Big Boy!

Arnold - your posts are simply the best! Thanks for a thread that cheers me up!

I'll go with John on postwar F3's - or just about anything postwar. How could you look at these classics and not smile?

All of them can put a smile on my face.

THANKS again, Arnold for another cheerful thread! :-)

My current cheerful train is my Lionel 2" gauge NYC battery powered (6 C cells) freight set. Engine is a New York Central FA unit decorated in a passable lightning stripe livery pulling an almost Pacemaker (red and gray) boxcar, a green chemical tank car and a delightfully detailed center cupola red caboose. The engine has two white LED headlights and one rear light. The digital diesel engine sounds (engine idling, horn, bell and crew talk) are well done and can be triggered from the battery powered (3 AAA cells) wireless remote. The "clickety clack" of this train running over jointed plastic rail sections is very nice. Though this is the most inexpensive Lionel set I have ever owned, it has given me more pleasure than my many more costly scale models.

I always get a chuckle out of this particular pairing of locomotive and cars:

Whatever floats your....er, whatever your rails support! :-)

Over the last few years I've really taken a liking to the modern trains with command control, but the trains that cheer me up the most are my prewar tinplate trains. They're survivors of a bygone era, and running them takes me back in time and gives me a feeling of "everything will be ok," regardless of what's going on in the world.

Another Arnold the youngest professor Topic..,,,,,,

..........I smile with my B&O PS3 0-6-0   Great little operator. I think boy this is the one that makes me smile the best.........

............and then I put one of the others on the track.......and another ..........cant stop the smiles .         

I guess sometimes I forget how much each of these make me smile until I run them again.  🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓 etc . , etc.......

Thanks for this Topic Arnold.

Any PRR passenger train, because that's what I rode as a boy.

In particular, this PW Lionel 682, which I have pulling cars from the Broadway Limited Lionchief set.  When I run this engine, which was mine as a kid, I 'm back in my basement in Jersey. Upstairs, my mother and father are alive, my friends are about to come over and we'll ride our bikes to the lake for a pickup game of baseball.

That cheers me up.

As several folks have already stated Arnold you surly did miss your calling, maybe you should consider a career change as Curt said to a psychologist or motivational speaker! 😉.

As far as my happy train I would have to say pretty much what ever is on the layout mains at the current operating session as I am getting to the point if I cannot switch them out with out handling them then I am happy with what is on the mainline at the moment. That being said every train makes me happy sometimes just sitting in my man cave and looking at them makes me very happy. It also brings back memories of my father and how much he loved the trains.

Any train that the wife and I can play with together. A few weeks ago we brought out the Linel Lionchief Big Boy on the 0 gauge layout. Last week we set up some wooden Brio trains on the living room floor and played with that. Maybe this weekend we'll have some fun with a couple of bump and go trolleys.

Frank: Just perhaps "PLAY" is the operative word here: Those that play with their trains seem to be generally and sincerely cheerful as children are with their playthings. Just food for thought! :-)

@GG1 4877 posted:

I always get a chuckle out of this particular pairing of locomotive and cars:

         After about 3 views of that I begin my Gomez Adams transformation!!! Now where did I put that dynamite?????

What trains do I like? Why the ones that are paid off, of course!

Simon