Part three, page one of Gary Coleman's latest will deals with the distribution of his model railroad collection. Evidently he modeled or collected all scales. No wonder he had money troubles. Poor guy never stood a chance.
Yeah, I heard that he used to actually ride around on his HO layout. Disclaimer: That aint right.. Lord forgive me for that, and bless the pigmies down in new ginnie..
I'd read where he spent a lot of money on stuff then spent more to have someone come in and straighted it out. It would have been cheaper to hire one of the layout builders that appear in MR. Then he worked in the Denver hobby shop for a time.
All right. Let's let the dearly departed rest in peace, folks. He was a model railroader and he was one of us. High greens all the way, Mr. Coleman.
I hear ya.. But, as much as I kinda felt sorry for the guy, I never really liked him much. I felt sorry because he did have kinda rough time, (not because of his size and medical issues), but because he had a huge chip on his shoulder, and was a jerk to allot of people because of it. Sad to hear anyone, like em or not, pass sooner than they are supposed to. But, anyway.. Off color joke at his expense, and I do hope the guy does rest in peace, but, a joke is a joke ... That said, i do remember seeing photos of him in an engineers hat, and if I remember, there is one floating around somewhere of him sitting on a live steamer. Did he have large scale live steam stuff too?
He was an honorary member of the N-Trak club here in Colorado Springs. We still have a lot of his modules and other equipment that he donated when he moved to Utah. I never met him (I just go here four months ago), but all the guys say he was down to earth, a great person and had a deep passion for the hobby. The MR work from him that I've seen is really good! Chris
I wonder if any of the modeling shops listed in his will might consider the idea of auctioning off these models and, assuming they bring in at least fair market value, donate the proceeds to , say, the Kidney Foundation. That would be a nice legacy for Gary.
I used to run into to him at Allied Model Trains in LA when I lived down there. He was a good guy and not lost in stardom. We had lunch a couple of times and talked trains pretty much the whole time.
Latest I read was that the woman that was his ex wife says she is entitled to his estate, so perhaps she is going to get a train load of trains, although I feel she deserves nothing. I bet she made his life a living you know what. It also is being reported that the so called "ex" is going to spread his ashes on the train tracks. I wonder if BNSF or UP would get her for trespassing on Railroad property ? fatalxsunrider43
I never knew he was into trains. Thats too bad, because now I like him. I was searching Google to see if there were any photos of his trains, but there must be probably thousands of stories of his ashes being thrown on the tracks and I can’t find not one photo so I give up.
Well I sat through most of ET *gag* to see the layout that was under construction at his house... Not only was it at the very end of the show, the split second shot of it was barely beyond benchwork... Damn... I got to meet him on a number of occasions at Discount Train Warehouse in Brea, CA when he was working there.
Here is the news stoy in Colorado Springs with pictures and a video: http://www.newsfirst5.com/news/gary-colemans-model-trains-stored-in-colorado/
Thanks, my wife wouldn’t give it up and she’s better at finding stuff than me. Here is a video that she found. They make you watch a commercial first so hang in there.
Everyone has problems in life, most just dont have the media writing about everything we do for all to see. In the video, Gary seems like a class act.
I met him several times at Mike Smith's place on the PCH. He was a really nice guy and pretty knowledgeable in trains. What was the name of Mike Smith's place? He closed and moved to Florida around 2003 or so. Near PCH and Torrance Blvd.
Wow that is a layout. Heard that when he was at Caboose you could hear what chu talkin bout a lot. But that was probably because people were asking him to do that or something... Can't imagine how neat it would be to run on that. Is there a MR type trackplan of it? WOW!
All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium! My favorite Southern CA LHS of all time!!! The only time I ever walked out of there empty was when I had a lapse in the hobby in the late '90s and tried to force myself to get back into the layout by visiting there. Otherwise I never had a problem finding what I was looking for, and if they didn't have it, they had something else I just happen to want! And 20% off MSRP on every item!!!
I own a caboose that was from Gary Coleman's collection. He was the cover story of MRC many years ago. I have the issue if anyone is interested. Rich
