Little Locomotives
By: Kelley Freund | Categories: Alumni Achievements
For Christmas in 1954, Santa brought to a young John Carter Jr., IE 69, a set of five Lionel train cars, a gift that launched a lifelong hobby of collecting model trains. Today, Carter, who is a former president and chief operating officer of the Georgia Tech Foundation and is former executive director of the Alumni Association, owns 220 model trains (including his original five) and 10 engines, all laid out in an extra room upstairs in his home. Carter has found most of his collection through internet sites like Craigslist, but when he and his trains were featured in a Georgia Tech publication many years ago, other alumni began sending him cars. He even has a Georgia Tech boxcar, given by his friend Bill Bulpitt, ME 70, MS ME 72, who is another self-professed train and car “gearhead.” Carter also attends annual train shows, where he buys what he needs to repair any trains that break. (And he says if he can’t fix something, he sends it to Bulpitt.)
“People enjoy seeing the collection because it’s not something they normally see,” Carter says. “My wife likes it because it keeps the grandkids entertained. I like it because I can teach my grandchildren how the trains work. And, as a Georgia Tech engineer, it’s a fun thing to twiddle with them and fix them up.”
