Steam & Excursion > 2026 Calendar Recommendation

September has not even ended, but I already purchased a 2026 calendar.

Steamscenes "Narrow Gauge Memories" 2026 calendar is filled with excellent photographs of narrow gauge railroads.  While half of the coverage is Colorado narrow gauge, there are also scenes from the East Broad Top, Sumpter Valley, and other nations.

In prior years, I went with Steamscenes' BNSF, Canadian Trains, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific calendars. The photographic quality of Steamscenes calendars is always high..

Compared to prior years, there seem to be far fewer vendors of Steamscenes calendars.  One railroad museum shop was selling the Narrow Gauge calendar, but I balked at the $10.00 shipping charge, but the next day I checked, it was already sold out!  An internet search generated few other sellers.  I wound up buying a calendar from a seller on ebay (my first ebay purchase).  Although the cost was higher than the list price, the shipping charge was much less than what the museum charged, so I ordered a copy.  As of tonight, the ebay seller still has several copies of the Narrow Gauge calendar available.  Here is a link to the ebay page:

2026 Narrow Gauge Memories Calendar on ebay



 

Steamscenes calendars rock.  Perfect size, great quality and always interesting scenes.  Just bought five at Reed's Hobbys in La Mesa, CA.  All going to Chile to find good homes.

Following up - is anybody publishing a 2026 Howard Fogg Trains calendar?  I usually buy mine from Leanin' Tree, but it isn't in the latest catalog.

Bob Thatcher

One major issue for all railroad calendar publishers has been the loss of so many hobby shops during the last decade or so.  Nils Huxtable, publisher of "Steamscenes," works around this issue somewhat by direct marketing to other types of businesses, such as stationery shops, hotel shops, museums, etc.  He hits the road in mid-to-late summer and makes "cold-calls" all around the Western U.S.

Nils is definitely an iconoclast... he refuses to get a cell phone, smart phone or have anything to do with computers or the Internet.  Notwithstanding, he manages to keep abreast of just about everything going-on in the railroad universe through his friends and other resources.   And, he's a supurb "old school" photographer.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/25 08:31 by E25.

Nils has borrowed my cell phone multiple times to call someone, but refuses to have one of his own apparently.

Posted from iPhone

E25 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One major issue for all railroad calendar
> publishers has been the loss of so many hobby
> shops during the last decade or so.  Nils
> Huxtable, publisher of "Steamscenes," works around
> this issue somewhat by direct marketing to other
> types of businesses, such as stationery shops,
> hotel shops, museums, etc.  He hits the road in
> mid-to-late summer and makes "cold-calls" all
> around the Western U.S.
>
Some existing hobby shops and other sellers which previously sold his calendars are not selling them this year.

Why not market through Amazon?

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

The Colorado Narrow Gauge calendar, most recently published by Tide-Mark, has been discontinued. They put out a statement that after 45 years, they have decided to discontinue their calendar program. However, for those that save prior year calendars, these years will have the same day and dates as would a new 2026 calendar:
1925, 1931, 1942, 1953, 1959, 1970, 1981, 1987, 1998, 2009 and 2015