Special Outdoor Events

alph, Jack, and John Hawkins III visited the Louisiana, Texas & Pacific on March 3, 2014. We had a great time! The weather was perfect and the trains ran well. Aside from a couple of derailments (aren’t there always derailments?), the riding trains ran well and we had a great day. We probably operated trains for two hours or so. I think this should be called the John Hawkins Rail Celebration Day from now on. My daughter Price and my son James helped me out by testing the trains and the railroad before our guests arrived.

Since he was 12 years old, Ralph has liked running what we termed Mega-Trains. In the days of the shows we attended with our portable O scale railroad, we would try to run one train a day with every car that was available. Sometimes, with 55 cars or so, the engine was following the caboose quite closely! The train Ralph was engineering in this photo (above) was the longest train ever to grace the rails of the 1/8-scale LT&P, at about 36 feet.

Finally, we accomplished another first for the LT&P riding railroad: we double-headed an excursion train. This then became the longest train ever run on the LT&P, breaking the five-minute old record Ralph had previously set, at about 45 feet.

We also ran the O scale and N scale railroads, swapped some cars, had a good chat, and generally enjoyed a perfect day. James enjoys running his UP Big Boy, which even in N scale is a monster. Another show piece was the ten-car San Joaquin Daylight in O scale, with its Daylight-schemed MT-4 loco. Six of the ten cars in this prototypical train came from Ralph and Jack’s dad, John. John, as the story goes, had picked up the damaged, dented, bent, disassembled car sides at a show. Over the years, they made their way to my house, where I straightened, stripped, re-soldered, floored, roofed and painted them.

One day, I hope to have ALL our railroad friends on hand for a special day of train riding, operating, discussion, and basic love of life!

group of railfans from the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum visited the LT&P in the spring of 2016. A full dozen folks rode trains, asked questions, checked out the engineering and drove trains for a couple of hours. It was very nice to see the railroad hold up well and with very few problems. It was also nice to see a long train running, the first time for the new loop. It was fun. The family was on hand to take part. I hope to host more events like this in the future. The group has started building a 7.5" gauge riding railroad at their museum with about 600 feet of track. The train is a ride, an attraction for visitors. Most of their road bed is done and they plan to take a trip to Michigan to pick up their train and their switches next week. I visited their facility recently and they had no grading done at that point; they now expect to have everything in place and running for an upcoming train day!

Train Day was wonderful this year (2016). Thirty people came to ride trains and we all had a great time. The weather was sunny with 75 degree temps and the LT&P's two locos ran well the whole time (about five hours). The LT&P's new signal system (kudos to Chris Schiek) also worked well and controlled the long stretch of single track line (300 feet) between the railroad's two loops. Credit goes to several key contributors to the event, including Oscar Blank, a local model train fan and now expert loco driver. Price Payne took most of the photos (below) during the day and my most amazing wife Alicia is the best hostess I have ever known. Erich and Matt, two real railroad engineers, said we should do more Train Days! The steamer model, SP 260, pulled an SP hopper and a T&NO 60' combine, while SR 2243, an NW-2, pulled an engineer's car, T-style riding car, SP gondola car with two seats, and an SR caboose. The kids who rode trains ranged in age from 3 years to 86.

Train Day 2017 was quite fun. Many thanks to Oscar and Erich and Price for running trains and to all for attending. For those of you who were not there, we missed you and thought about you, hoping you might be able to come in the future. Forty-seven people were on hand for 75-degree temps and clear skies.

ouisiana, Texas & Pacific rolling stock and personnel have made several visits to the scale-riding Forest & Western Railroad in central Virginia. Here are some snapshots of Paynes during a Memorial Day 2018 visit to the outdoor railroad.