William P. Porter's Home Page

Contact	Tinplate Repaints	Techniques	Royal Palm & Loxahatchee Central A Portable Layout in S-Scale	New Dual-gauge ZOT in 1:64 size
Modern Steam	American Flyer Diecast	Links		2002 S-Scale Layout
Train Transport	Prototype Rail Weight	LGT Tour Bus	Tinplate Empire Builder	Old N-Scale Layout
Site Map	Shelving	MOW Kitbash	Marx 999 in Gator Colors	Other Layouts

This photo was taken during a visit in 2006 to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The Pioneer Zephyr number 9900 has recently been refurbished and installed in its own display hall. That's Bill trespassing on the exhibit. Click on the photo to see a PDF file from The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

UPDATE:The 2012 Relay For Life in The Acreage Community Park is over. At the event, the little train completed 868 miles. It would have been more, but, the event organizers decided to end the Relay early. By 7:00 AM on Saturday, the food people had all left and local showers had been forecast for the morning hours. It made sense to get the participants into shelters. I set the track up at home on Sunday and completed the 1000 miles. All of the original passenger tokens made the complete trip. In addition, there were three local passengers who joined the train after the run had started. They also completed the run of 1000 scale miles. The locos were a bit stressed and were relieved by a couple of additional Marx locos during the evening and early morning hours. It took all four engines, but, the little old toy trains got the job done. Some short videos of the event were posted to YouTube as the run progressed. They can be viewed at the following links:
Relay for Life Start Relay After Midnight Relay Lap Counter Working Relay Relief Loco 333
The code below will take your phone to a Relay For Life Event page. Use the ScanLife app for iPhones. Of course, you can just click on it or the Hawk logo to visit that page. The event is to raise money for cancer research. It was held starting at 6:00 PM on May 11th 2012 and ended at Noon on the 12th. My part of the event was to run a toy train for 1000 scale miles. It is a set of Marx 1:64 scale, 8-wheel, O-Gauge a cars that are currently being repaired and customized. The locos in the power team will consist of old, repaired Marx, one-way, single reduction steamers. They will receive service during the run while the train continues. It may be necessary to supplement that power. Time will tell. Anyone who donates a penny a mile (that comes to $10) will have a passenger on board. These passengers are not to scale and will be personalized. Be sure to tell me what name you would like. There will be Facebook and YouTube updates as the 1000 mile run proceeds. Hop on and enjoy the ride! Follow the link on your computer or your phone for more information or to make your donation. If you would prefer a really anonymous donation and not to deal with the organization directly, contact me at wpporter@duckburg.us and I will provide my snail mail address. You can send a donation to me directly and I promise to include it and not to share your name or contact information with anyone.