CIRCUS TIME, TRAIN TIME K-Line Customized Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Flatcar with 2 Customized Wagons - Set 1

I got this interesting set off of fleaBay which included a K-Line flat car onto which wooden boards were glued and carrying a load of two wagons, each painted in a custom paint scheme. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

K-Line Customized Animal Wagon

K-Line Customized 'Lion and Gladiator' Wagon 

CIRCUS TIME, TRAIN TIME: April 1st 2022 Circus Parade in Deer Crest on the Edge of Town Layout - Another Look

 Got a few more photos to share of this year's circus set-up on my Edge of Town layout. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Below is a good shot showing the placement of the repo Coca-Cola cut-out circus in the upper left corner. This illustrates that you don't need a lot of toy train real estate to at least suggest a circus!

Calliope music. I bought a cheap blue-tooth speaker from Wal-Mart. The advantage to the speaker was that it had accommodations for a USB hook-up and I was able to plug in a flash drive with calliope music on it. The speaker itself was placed underneath the layout and the sound appeared to be all around me

Just Grazin' in The Grass

TRAIN TIME: Custom Lionel Jacket (2000)

There's a bit of a story to this one. Back in 2000 I was stationed at Osan AB, ROK. Right outside the gates of Osan, in the town of Songtan, is a myriad of small stores. What's so cool about them is that more than a few will custom make clothes for you and I ended up having a 3-piece suit and a pair of dress shoes made for me (at different stores). So there I am, it's Lionel's 100th birthday and I had a brain storm to have a jacket custom made. I walked into one of the stores that specialized in jackets, gave them a picture of the Lionel logo and about a week later paid about $100 (I don't remember the exact price any more) and walked out with probably the coolest Lionel collectible in my collection! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Unfortunately I haven't yet gotten around to scanning all of my photos from that year, but these will help show kind of what it's like right outside the main gate of Osan AB

The writing on the left chest area reads: Ed "ICE" Berg

TRAIN TIME: Lionel 100th Anniversary Pin

You can't let a big event pass without a celebratory pin right? Well, that's my theory anyway. OR, I'm just a junk collector hahahaha Anywho, here's a nice Lionel 100th Anniversary Pin (3"diameter). As a recap, Lionel celebrated its 100th birthday in the year 2000. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

CIRCUS TIME, TRAIN TIME: April 1st 2022 Circus Parade in Deer Crest on the Edge of Town Layout

Hey guys and gals, let's have some fun with all these circus toys! :-) 

Back in April I was getting just as antsy wanting to post circus toys on Y'allTube as I was to start posting them here on the blog, so for a few weeks I just went at it full speed ahead and did what I could with the limited amount of space available. If you've been following the blog for any amount of time, you'll knoew that my Edge of Town micro-layout has been host to a number of events or has seen a number of themes play out on it. After so many years having this layout, it was finally time to see what I could do to bring the circus to the little town of Deer Crest. Pulling ou wagons, figures, and anything else that would fit into the small space I came up with this scenario:

Just out of camera sight to the south are farmer's fields. These were used as a staging area for the circus wagons, while others were still on flat cars on the siding. The other performers were staged there as well. The parade then marched in a general northwest direction through the edge of Deer Crest. Once crossing the railroad tracks it would head a few hundred feet up the road, and turn right onto Main Street where most of the citizenry would enjoy the parade. After passing through Deer Crest (it's not a very large town), the parade would end up at the circus tent erected just north of town on an empty lot. Enjoy! Opa Fritz