Wichita Toy Train Club, Lionel Ambassador and home to 75 members is located in Wichita, KS.
The Wichita Toy Train Club and Museum is dedicated to promoting model railroading in the Wichita area and south Kansas. The club currently hosts open houses on the 2nd and 4th weekend of each month and the current building has 4000 square feet of layouts. The “O” gauge layout includes hands on learning for kids.
In addition to the 4000 square feet of layouts the club features an “O” and “S” gauge traveling modular layout that are taken to various events and train shows in the area. They dedicate themselves as an organization that loves the model railroad hobby.
July 16, 2016 - Kansas Railfest, Union Station (on Douglas across from Great Plains Transportation Museum - 700 E Douglas Wichita, KS), Saturday 9 – 4
This was the first annual Kansas Raifest that included tours
of Union Station, a Kid's Depot fun area,Operation Lifesaver, Antique Trucks,
Trolley rides, and the full size trains of the Great Plains Transportation
Museum. This the first time since 1979 that the public could visit the inside
of Union Station of Wichita.
The Wichita Toy Train Club set up an O Gauge modular layout
inside the Station and ran trains on three mainlines from 9 am to 4 pm. Kids of
all ages got to operate a dozen Lionel accessories with the pushbuttons located
around the layout.
Estimated attendance was over 1000 people, so it may make this an annual event for Wichita.
View Video of Kansas Railfest 2016
July 25-30, 2016 - Kansas City, Missouri - 46th Annual LCCA Convention - WTTC is displaying the O Gauge Modular Layout at the convention Thursday – Saturday, July 28 – 30.
If you are going to LCCA, you may want to bring trains to run.
WTTC's First August
Open House Weekend -
Families in attendance ran Lionel and American Flyer trains
on our racetrack layout using conventional ZW transformers. Thomas the Train
was featured on one of the O-gauge tracks.
They also operated accessories on two other O-Gauge layouts
and saw trains run on the new permanent S-gauge layout...the track on the
S-Gauge is operational and the scenery work has just begun.
The next Open House Weekend is August 27th and 28th.
If you are in the Wichita area please come by and run some
trains!
Sept. 9,10,11
Kansas State Fair ...WTTC will bring it's O-Gauge Modular
Layout to the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, KS. We will set up the layout
Thursday evening in the OZ building on the fairgrounds. Trains will be running
all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during fair hours.
Kansas State Fair Recap -
The Wichita Toy Train Club set up their O-Gauge Modular
Layout on Thursday night in the OZ Gallery. The layout was set up in a 3 x 1 configuration and trains were operated all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (Sept. 10,11 12). Hundreds of fair goers got to view trains and operate
accessories each day. 1467 oil drums were loaded and 1243 logs were
sawn over the course of three days by fair goers.
Next event for WTTC will be their Train Show at Cessna
Activity Center Sept. 24th and 25th....this is also a LCCA Special Event.
Sept. 10, 11
Open House at the Wichita Toy Train Museum, 130 S. Laura,
Wichita, KS
Click here for more information & hours
Sept. 24, 25
Model Train Show...The Wichita Toy Train Club is having
their annual train show at the Cessna Activity Center, 2744 George Washington
Blvd, Wichita, KS
Hours: Sat. 9-5 & Sun. 10-3
Admission for both days is $7.00, kids under 12 free, LCCA Members free.
This is a LCCA Special Event, for more information check the
following:
Learn More about Club Show
Learn More about LCCA
Wichita Toy
Train Club Train Show Recap
The 22nd
annual Wichita Train show was held on Sept. 24th & 25th,
run by the Wichita Toy Train Club & Museum.
This was a
special event for the LCCA and twenty LCCA members attended, with one being a
new member signing up at the show. This event was hosted by John and Kathy
Flinn for the LCCA. The total attendance for the two day show was 883 with
approximately 170 vendor tables. The North room of the show featured layouts
from G gauge down to N gauge. Upstairs
in the activity center was the Kids Depot, an area that featured train rides,
coloring, areas, operating O gauge trains, videos, and many other train related
activities for kids to interact with.
Lucky LCCA
door prize winners were Esther Gable #40348, Jim Hickman #17605, Robert Dearden
#26973, Mark Buckley #10601, and Lonnie DeMoret new member. Thanks to all who
attended and hope to see you at our next show Nov. 5th & 6th
in Arkansas City, KS.
John Flinn
Kathy &
John Flinn at LCCA Table
Oct.
8th & 9th open house at Wichita Toy Train Club Museum
Oct.
8th 30th anniversary celebration dinner.
Oct.
15th & 16th Layout at Exploration Place(kids museum) Wichita, KS
Halloween Theme
Oct.
22nd & 23rd open house at Wichita Toy Train Club Museum
Nov. 5 & 6 Train Show Arkansas City, KS. A LCCA Special event in conjunction with WTTC and the O-Gauge Modular Layout
The Wichita Toy Train Club put on the Arkansas City Train Show
November 5th and 6th. This event was also a special event
for the LCCA Club. Public attendance averaged 350 paid guests with kids 12 and
under admitted from. The club showcased its O-Gauge modular layout with an
additional table top S-Gauge layout to run trains. These photos show the
LCCA table and the WTTC O-Gauge layout with push button accessories.
Upcoming events:
Nov. 12th & 13th open house at Wichita Toy Train Club Museum
Nov. 26th & 27th open house at Wichita Toy Train Club Museum
Learn More
What else have the Ambassador’s been up to? Check out their product review on new and old product below:
Review of the Lionel Heritage Set of “O” scale freight cars.
These six cars were
sold individually, but together they make up a nice freight car set to run
behind the UP Heritage diesel engines. The Union Pacific painted six SD-70’s in
heritage schemes to honor railroads they have acquired over the years. Most
modelers could probably not afford to have all six engines that Lionel
produced, so these cars made it possible to have a piece of rolling stock represent
all of the Heritage paint schemes on their layout. The six cars are:
27254 Western Pacific 60’ Box Car (6-27254), 27267 Southern Pacific 60’ Box Car
(6-27267), 27396 Chicago
and Northwestern Mechanical Reefer
(6-27396), 27421 Missouri Pacific Hopper
(6-27421), 27429 Katy PS-2 Hopper
(6-27429), and 27434 Rio
Grande PS -2 Hopper (6-27434).
All of these cars feature die cast sprung trucks, which are
painted silver. They are all full “O” scale cars with the boxcars measuring 15
¼” long. The CNW reefer is 14 ¼” long and the hoppers are 12 ½” long. They match up to the scale size of the SD-70’s.
They are painted with a glossy paint to match each respective SD70ace engine
that the UP (and Lionel) decorated.
These cars also feature add on details such as ladders,
brake wheels, steps, hatches, open grating and opening doors.
There is enough weight to each car so that they run very
smoothly on all brands of “O” gauge track. I mainly run them on “072” and up
curves. They may negotiate smaller curves, but really look best on the wider
radius track. Produced in 08/09 they are occasionally found on hobby shop shelves,
but you are more likely to find them online…eBay etc. Two other scale Heritage
cars were produced, the 52475 WP boxcar and 52455 CNW tank car. These were
produced as club cars for two different clubs in limited numbers. There was
also a set of three traditional sized cars made, not the complete set of six.
Thanks and enjoy your Lionel Trains, John Flinn
View
Lionel Pennsylvania K-4 Video Review
(6-11264 Pennsylvania LEGACY Scale 4-6-2 K-4 #1361)
View Lionel Union Pacific FEF 3 Video Review
(6-11131 Union Pacific LEGACY Scale 4-8-4 FEF Northern (Black) #844)
Review of Lionel PFE Steel Sided Reefer Set (3 Pack)
6-81908 / VL 3 Pack (6-81142)
This 3 pack of PFE
reefer set went along with the popular Vision Line reefer set, and will also be
going along with the new Vision Line reefer set Cataloged in the 2016 Signature
catalog. So right now you can have a 9 car PFE reefer train for your SP or UP
late steam locomotives or early diesels. These cars are built very well with a
number of separately applied metal parts. All of the cars have die-cast trucks
and couplers along with metal ladders, break wheels and on the underside a
bunch of metal break details. Each car has a very nice latch on each side for
the doors and they open to reveal a simulated wood floor. The one sound car in
the Vision Line set is simply put, amazing, the best way to explain the sounds
is if you hear it. That being said it may be one car with sound but it will
quickly fill the room up with sound even a decently large room. These cars run
really smooth and will look good with just about any steam engine. I have only
had a few issues that I am sure are isolated, the first being on one truck on
the Vision Line set the springs were missing from the trucks, was kinda odd but
fixed very quickly by a new truck that I screwed on that Lionel sent to me. The
second, is the normal occasional coupler that decides it will uncouple whenever
it pleases, that’s easily fixed by putting that car at the end of the train.
The final issue happened just recently, the rivet holding the coupler to the
truck ate its self out so the coupler kind of hangs low. But all and all these
are wonderful cars and I hope to see more come in the future, maybe even in
Lion-Scale, we’ll just have to wait and see. Enjoy your trains!
Zachariah Hubl
American Flyer Scale Cylindrical Hoppers Review
Sept. 2016
The Wichita Toy Train Club recently received two American
Flyer Scale Cylindrical Hoppers, The Canadian National 6-48639 Hopper and the
6-48641
UP Heritage MoPac Hopper. The CN Hopper is decorated in the colorful
rainbow stripes on one side and plain gray on the other with the CN Canoodle on
both sides. I believe the CN had an actual car painted in this scheme. The UP
Hopper is painted in the MoPac Heritage scheme that matches the UP Heritage SD-70 MoPac engine (6-48177). I don’t believe there is an actual hopper painted in this
scheme.
This a photo of the two Hoppers on the
under construction WTTC S Gauge layout.
Each hopper features die cast trucks, operating
couplers, opening hatches on the roof, separately hand applied metal details,
and a length of 10 1/4”. The MoPac Hopper has silver painted trucks, the CN
trucks are black. Both of these Hoppers are very colorful and we decided to
have a contest to see which was the more popular paint scheme.
At our Train Show the weekend of Sept.
24 & 25 we had a vote taken at our Kid’s Depot activities area. The results and
comments are reported below by Shari Schockey our Club President.
John Flinn, WTTC Director
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE!
Children between the ages of 3 to 12 voted for their
favorite hopper at the Kids Depot, part of 22nd Model Train Show and
Swap Meet on Saturday, September 24.
This was a major fund raising event for the Wichita Toy Train Club with
proceeds going to the Wichita Toy Train Museum.
The winner.
#1, by five votes was the UP Cylindrical Hopper MOPAC.
The winner was selected by primarily
boys for the following reasons:
The main reason was the color and
eagle. It looks faster. It has an eagle. Because it’s blue. It looks like it should go behind a steam
engine. Like logo and paint sheen. It’s cool, MOPAC blue. Like Missouri Pacific Lines. It has the UP slogan “Proud Heritage,
Powerful Future” on it.
The runner
up, #2, was the CN Cylindrical Hopper.
The runner up was selected by primarily
girls for the following reasons:
The main reason was the colors, more
colorful and rainbow colors. One boy
likes Canadian style trains which this reminded him of.
The impact of design does determine choice.
Submitted
by Shari Shockey, President
Wichita
Toy Train Club and Museum
View Lionel Santa Fe LionChief Plus Hudson Video Review
(6-82965 Santa Fe LionChief™ Plus Hudson Diesel Locomotive)
View Lionel C&NW F-7 AA Set Video Review
(6-38754 Chicago & North Western LEGACY Scale F-7 A-A Diesel Locomotives(PWR #401 & DMY #403))
Kansas City Southern Inspection Truck
By John Flinn
This motorized
unit by Lionel is listed as a 1955 Inspection truck. It resembles a Ford pickup
truck of that time period. Part number 6-58267 was made exclusively for the
LCCA as their 2016 registration gift for their annual convention in Kansas
City, MO. It is decorated in Kansas City Southern “Southern Belle” colors,
which is the current color scheme used on their diesels. This particular truck
runs on O-gauge track in the forward direction only. The driving wheels that ride on the rails are
partially hidden by the body of the truck and the truck’s tires.
The truck is
close to 1/48 scale, much closer to scale than other vehicles offered in the
past. The headlights operate and are a blueish-white led lamps. A warning light
on top of the cab is not illuminated. Add on’s include door handles, rear view
mirror, gas filler cap, rear taillight, front & rear bumpers. The bed has
stake sides with a tarp covering an unknown load. Inside the truck is a driver and steering wheel.
The die cast frame gives this unit quite a bit of heft for good traction. Two
center rail pickups on the bottom are spaced 2 ¾” apart and the truck runs smoothly
thru most switches. Wheelbase of the rail driving wheels is 1 ¾” and the truck
tire wheelbase is 3 ¼”.
The KCS Logo
is reproduced on each truck door and the tailgate. The year of production 2016
is also on each door and the back of the cab, with the lettering LCCA-46 on
both bumpers. Top speed of this unit is not extremely fast, so even at 18 volts
it stays on the curves well. This is an interesting unit that draws attention
whenever is runs on the rails.
View Lionel John Deere LionChief RTR Set Video Review
(6-81480 John Deere RS-3 LionChief Remote Control Freight Set (RS-3 diesel #1837))
Review of Lionel John Deere Flat Car (6-83238)
This flat car is a standard Lionel O-27 flat car with a glossy black finish and a crisp
John Deere logo on the top. Attached to the car are two John Deere spreaders that can be attached to the tractors on a flat car in the LionChief set. The car is tough and should be able to withstand years of use, and will look great with your John Deere set or any other train!
**The information about the clubs is provided by them and may or may not be accurate depending on changes in membership, 501c status, etc.. Lionel is sharing their content and not validating it’s accuracy”.