Small Train Pulling Big Train

About

Small Train Pulling Big Train, also known as Small Train Carrying Big Train, is an exploitable image macro series depicting a toy model train pulling a life-sized version of itself on a railroad track. It’s typically used as an object labeling meme showing how one person or thing is pulling all the weight and “carrying” it.

Origin

On May 24th, 2015, RailPictures.net^[1] posted the earliest available version of the photograph (shown below). The post received more than 19,000 views in less than six years. According to the site, the photograph was taken on May 24th, 2014. The description of the photo reads:

On May 24, 2014, Norfolk and Western class J #611 was moved from its Virginia Museum of Transportation display location to the Norfolk Southern locomotive service facility at Shaffers Crossing in Roanoke, Virginia. Prior to its move to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, a few minutes were taken to recreate an old N&W ad for the "J". When this photo was taken, only the Lionel class J model was operational, but a year later, the restoration is complete and 611 is once again ready to steam along the rails on its own without any kind of towing assistance. Admiring the scene of a 1/48 scale model "towing" the real J is Scott Lindsay (left), President of Steam Operations Corporation and Chief Mechanical Officer for 611's rebuild, and Robert Saxtan, Norfolk Southern's Senior General Foreman of Steam. Photo by Casey Thomason. For more information about Norfolk Southern, visit www.nscorp.com

The first time it appears in a meme comes from a post on May 25th, 2020, by Redditor^[2] zltlalwll, who uploaded the earliest-known example to the /r/PrequelMemes subreddit. The meme (shown below) received over 4,500 upvotes and 69 comments in four months.

Spread

On May 27th, 2020, Redditor^[3] Wows_Nightly_News posted the original image as a template to the /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial sub, receiving over 169 upvotes. Later that day, Redditor^[4] TheBazeur posted a variant to the /r/memes sub (seen below), receiving over 27,700 upvotes, 290 comments and three Reddit awards in four months. The following day, Imgur^[5] user notthatsmartboy reposted this meme under the title “Minimum Wage,” and received over 174,000 views, 5,100 upvotes and 1,200 comments in four months.

On September 16th, Imgur^[6] user ospreymec posted a version with a caption above the photo (shown below, left), receiving over 62,200 views and 950 upvotes. On May 29th, Imgur^[8] user SlightlyDiferent posted another example under the title "I'm 'trying' ok," receiving over 2,300 views and 54 upvotes in four months (shown below, right).

On June 9th, 2020, Instagram^[7] user troll_commerce posted another variant to their feed with labels applied to both the men and trains (seen below), accumulating over 900 likes in roughly three months.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References