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Welcome to BB&T's large scale, live steam, railroading website! This website will eventually describe how live steamers can
build 1.5" scale railroad models using readily available materials and tools. For now, you can see the various types of cars
that have already been built. Feel free to browse around, and enjoy your visit!
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My Story: Like many railroad enthusiats, my railroading hobby interests started as a youngster with a Lionel
trainset. Later on, the Lionel was replaced with HO gauge equipment. This allowed the model railroad empire to grow and
evolve. In 1987, along with several HO friends, we were introduced to 1.5" scale/7.5" gauge, railroading at the Illinois
Live Steamers located Southwest of Chicago. "Sit down and pull the throttle... that's the only way to get the feel of large
scale model railroading!" As a result of that experience, the HO equipment was boxed up and the modular railroad dismantled.
A set of trucks and couplers were purchased from one of the club "elders" that made aluminum castings in his back yard...and
so began a new hobby venture!
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"BB&T - what does it stand for?" A reasonable question. Well, family names emblazoned on the side of any model freight car
just don't appeal as "railroad" like. After several hours of sifting through the post office zip code book, three town names
were selected that coincided with the first letter of our last names. Together, the names had that certain "ring" and tongue-twister
quality. The Bickleton, Bellingham and Tuscarora Railroad was born! Imagine THAT name on the side of a little industrial
switcher...it would wrap around the cab two or three times. In fact, BB&T are really; Carl Baskin, Jack Bath and Rick Tracy
(although the dispute regarding who was the first "B" was never resolved). Over the years, BB&T has taken on names like "Big
Boys & Toys" and other more colorful references that are not fit to print.
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The BB&T fleet of equipment contains more than a dozen pieces of rolling stock (click Car Yard Index below to see samples).
More cars are presently in-the-works. Our motto: "The name goes on before the quality goes in." Well, it sounds good, but
we have made an attempt to build scale cars (without counting rivets) that approximate the appearance of a real railroad cars.
Although most of the car bodys are built with wood (steel used for center sills), BB&T is in the process of building several
metal body cars (alum and steel). Most of the cars were built as riding cars, until it was decided that a "train" without
passengers was more appealing. Visitors should watch this site as photos are added that describe how BB&T Car Shops takes
freight car building projects from inception, to reality.
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ccvstmr@earthlink.net
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