Buy anything cool lately?

Guys the NASA cars are really neat.  I worked for NASA just before retiring but all I have so far is the white tank car.  I can see I am way behind!   Today, I have some new die cast autos that I encountered in my favorite supply places...Walgreens Drug Store and this time Ace Hardware.  They fit my era, late 50's and early 60's so I had to purchase them.

A 1957 Corvette with the (optional at that time) removable hard top - basic cars were all roadsters.  Walgreens @ $5.99

A 1957 Chevy Bel-Arie 2 door hard top  Wargreens @ $5.99

A VW multi window bus from Ace Hardware 1/40 scale at $9.99

The Chevy's didn't have a scale on the car but by comparison I would estimate about 1/43 or so.  Yes I Know, the Vette and Chevy are the same color...they didn't have any other colors so that was it.  So It was a great day at the auto supplier.

Best Wishes

Don

Don,

Great cars.  If the Bel Air is a Kinsmart, the one I got at MY favorite auto dealer (CVS) has a paper sticker that says 1:34-40. So even the mfgr couldn’t make up their mind 🙂.  Good call on that one with your 1:40.

TRRR

@TomlinsonRunRR-hey thanks for your comment on the scale. I didn’t think it was too far off but it’s good to confirm.

Best wishes

Don

I recently stumbled across this Lionel No. 18753 North Pole Express RS-3, and received it a couple days ago. Paid more than I would have liked (how often does that happen?!), but these are extremely hard to find. To me, at least, these engines are the most attractively decorated holiday diesel engines that have been made to date by any manufacturer. Equipped with dual vertical can motors, like the LionChief Plus engines.

@Don McErlean posted:

Today, I have some new die cast autos that I encountered in my favorite supply places...Walgreens Drug Store and this time Ace Hardware.

A VW multi window bus from Ace Hardware 1/40 scale at $9.99

Don

Don, I don't see that VW bus listed anywhere at the Ace Hardware site. Where did you find it?

I picked mine up and it's fantastic. Great colors, see through roof walk just amazing detail. This is as nice as the Atlas O or Lionels newer 50 footers of which I have several but much cheaper. They still have some left 2 road #s.

@breezinup. The cars were just in a floor rack to the side of the main aisle Maybe that offering was just unique to my local store?  

Don

Despite what some may have said my will power has been strong. I stuck to my all mightily list!  

2 B&O ore cars

3 b&o fish belly hoppers

1 WM fish belly hopper

1 Santa Fe post war refer repo

3 4.5 fastrack

going to get the bickles pup trailer tomorrow and on the hunt for a non bay window b&o caboose… and and b&o t1 (vandy tender only as that’s what is on the list!)  

@Don McErlean posted:

@breezinup. The cars were just in a floor rack to the side of the main aisle Maybe that offering was just unique to my local store?  

Don

Thanks, Don. I'll check it out. If my Ace doesn't have it, I see they're available from other vendors, too.

@breezinup posted:

Glad you found the engine. Those GP7s are pretty cool though, with their dual headlight clusters (one cluster with two headlights and the other cluster with a MARS light and a red emergency flashing light) and yellow roof strobe. It's a real light show. If a light board goes out, though, show's over; they've been unavailable for quite a while now, as you say. Not to mention the old Legacy boards now being gone.

Thanks breez. The early Legacy GP7 is still going strong for now. I got the later Legacy (2012) GP9 as a back-up, in case the 7 peters out and becomes a shelf queen. 😉

@Dave Ripp. posted:

I picked mine up and it's fantastic. Great colors, see through roof walk just amazing detail. This is as nice as the Atlas O or Lionels newer 50 footers of which I have several but much cheaper. They still have some left 2 road #s.

Dave,

Who manufactured this car? Thanks in advance.

Mike

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Thanks breez. The early Legacy GP7 is still going strong for now. I got the later Legacy (2012) GP9 as a back-up, in case the 7 peters out and becomes a shelf queen. 😉

That's a good idea. I liked that GP7 enough that I picked up a second one when I came across it a number of years ago, also as a backup. (I heard years ago, in a conversation with Mike Reagan, no less, about the light boards no longer being available.) If one of the 7s goes out, I may turn it into a dummy unit, depending on what goes wrong.

got the Lionel Set #2123060 Hallow's Eve Express LionChief set in the other day - she's spooktacular! :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...el=EdwardBettinaBerg

I did okay at York over the last two days. Picked up a ps 2.0 railing mikado and a couple of diecast chessie ore cars, all at decent prices. In a more boring note picked up a couple of BCRs from the nice folks who own it.

Of course there were the ones I had to let go,an old time MTH New York Central 4-4-0; and a Blue Comet set that really caught my eye. ( Maybe next time).

Williams 44 Tonner ATSF purchased from forum - love this little engine!

Horn is great and diesel sounds are good, canʻt figure out the bell yet - rings randomly.

I just bought a book on cabooses, a recent "Trains"/ Kalmbach book ,Carl Byron with Don Heimberger that, "Guide to North America Cabooses", unlike  some that just have a few recent caboose photos in color, has many period photos of a great variety, including many of the oddballs.  Text has many explanations, and anecdotes.  And told me that cabooses were used extensively later than l thought, and a few still are.  Definitely adds to my knowledge of cabooses of many roads., and this is not my first caboose book! Also means l should have hunted cabooses to photo back when l hunted stations.

@Kelunaboy posted:

Williams 44 Tonner ATSF purchased from forum - love this little engine!

Horn is great and diesel sounds are good, canʻt figure out the bell yet - rings randomly.

Nice zebra stripe paint job. These William's locos are very nice.

@Ulus Ekerman posted:

Nice, very nice.  Where did you find the custom loads?  Did you paint them or were they already painted in Army green?

I bought all the different diecast vehicles online and loaded them on MTH flat cars Nothing was painted on the last video I uploaded

I bought these passenger cars last month, thought i would share the video.

Bought the yard light at York and picked up the gantry crane from Trainz at York which I pre-purchased and they brought with them.

@Ulus Ekerman posted:

I bought these passenger cars last month, thought i would share the video.

Love this Milwaukee Road passenger setup. Thank you for posting this video.  I have both engines except I run them with Lionel's 18" aluminum cars.  After watching your video, I'm now encouraged to get my setup running at the club. 

I run them at my local club too, nice to hear you will too👍

I had a great York,

Here is part of my haul:

American Flyer #22093 350 Watt "pancake" transformer, totally refurbished. It is the only one I saw in 2 days of bandit meets and 2 days at the Fairgrounds:

3 Post War 2400 series green/grey passenger cars. SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT A 4th ADD ON CAR WAS MADE AT THAT TIME - IS THIS TRUE? I Still have to clean these guys up but they are perfect.

I thought I had all of the Lionel Giraffe cars (both Post War and modern era) but I didn't have this "hard to find" green #3376. The blue is common. Anyone else have one? Just curious.

I bought these three because they were so nice that I thought they'd be upgrades for the ones I already had. Still need to be cleaned up a bit. Turns out that they are in the same condition as the ones I had. Oh Well, I'll keep the boxes and list these here for sale in the next couple of days:

While at the York TCA meet this past Thursday and Friday I picked up the MTH Railking Long Island Railroad 4 bay cylindrical hopper car from Just Trains.Other than that,I did not pick up much else but still had a good time.

Bought all new 031 profile Menards track. The 2 outers are 054 and third one in is 031 curve. The inner is 027 I already had. First impressions are good on this track. It's nice and holds together well. Magnatraction engines hold well too. It's nice to have brand new track.

@Donnie Kennedy posted:

Bought all new 031 profile Menards track. The 2 outers are 054 and third one in is 031 curve. The inner is 027 I already had. First impressions are good on this track. It's nice and holds together well. Magnatraction engines hold well too. It's nice to have brand new track.

Looks great Donnie - Fun stuff

Lately, well TH/FR/SA...

Yes, I got my Blue Comet. I didn't find the Lionel Legacy one but this one made me happy. I had fun. I only got through 2 buildings. The Rio Grande was an impulse, I saw it, someone else was looking, and I pulled the trigger. I had to keep telling myself to stop looking at engines.

Bought all of this stuff at the York meet. Had to fix one or two small broken or loose parts but that's not a big deal.

@TimMacPA posted:

Lately, well TH/FR/SA...

I had to keep telling myself to stop looking at engines.

Tim;

Yeah… from personal experience, good luck with that

That’s quite the haul!!!

P.S. your Rio Grand set looks fantastic. I recently picked up a similar (very heavy) Union Pacific set.

@WildTrainLines posted:

Bought all of this stuff at the York meet. Had to fix one or two small broken or loose parts but that's not a big deal.

Nice find on that Lionel no. 14540 Rio Grande sounds F3 B unit. Not that many of them around, and most always on the pricey side.

At York last week I bought a really nice 140 banjo signal boxed with instructions for only 20.00 dollars !

and also two New York Central locomotives one is a Lionel and the other is MTH from two different eras.

Guys you really hauled it in at York.  Wish I could have been there but its over 1000 miles away so that means airplanes, hotel rooms and rental cars which does not leave much money for trains !    @Lionelski - I checked my reference material and it does not seem that any 4th car was made in the green/yellow scheme, at least not by the original Lionel folks in 1948-49.  I suppose there could be a reproduction or a re-issue by one of the later Lionel licensee's but I am not aware of it. OBTW you and @WildTrainLines_ - have "record" hauls based on publication in the forum.  Beautiful trains all, best of luck with them.

@Donnie Kennedy - I also used Menards tubular track on my whole layout.  It was that or using old stuff or Lionel fastrack and I agree I found it a great product.  I only have 0-31 and 0-27 but its held up well over the 2 years since I installed it.

Good luck with your new trains everyone

Don

@WildTrainLines posted:

Bought all of this stuff at the York meet. Had to fix one or two small broken or loose parts but that's not a big deal.

WOW.........,.Ill have to get a rich uncle somewhere.

Nice haul.

OK ... I cannot even come close to some of the new purchases that some of you have made at York.  So how about a little purchase I just made, because I thought it was "cool" even though it only cost $23 plus S&H.  This is a Schilling plastic train, offered in the toy train market in 1948 and at least till 1949 (I have advertisements from '48 & '49).  Its interesting and it stems from an era in which parents, esp Mom's, did not take all that comfortably with a toy that PLUGGED IN THE WALL!!  So Schilling offered this neat little 0 gauge train, which used 3 rail track with center line pick up just like your Lionel.  However it got its power from a power supply that consisted of 4 "D" batteries connected to the track with a connector and the voltage varied with a handle to control speed and like most HO equipment polarity determined direction.  I don't think many different trains were ever made, the advertisements I have all picture the same train.  Red locomotive, Blue tender, and Yellow passenger cars.  The train can "couple" automatically but you have to use the lever's in the roof to uncouple.  The loco can move forward or reverse.  The loco is about 5 1/2 " long and the tender and passenger cars about 5".

IAW the advertisements I have from the Midwest Toy Mart, 549 Lake St , Chicago Ill in 1948 th is train including 8 curved, 4 straight tracks, and the "remote control" for speed and direction sold for $12.95 (Not so cheap, inflated to 2022 it comes to $151.64).  From the same store, in 1949 it cost 5 cents more at $13.00.  The track looks just like Lionel 3 rail track and the gauge of that track fits perfectly.

Well that's my "York" like buy this week.  Best Wishes

Don

I managed to squeeze in 2 hours at York on Thursday on our way to a weekend wedding in NJ and picked up an Atlas Montana Rail Link extended vision caboose. It was fun to find something of interest that I don't see for sale very often.  I don't think there is a lot of Montana Rail Link scale rolling stock around, but with the caboose and a covered hopper on pre-order I'm up to 5 items to pull behind a MTH Premier GP9. Just enough to remind us of our many trips to Montana.

(10/26 Note: some of the pics are acting up and refusing to display. I'll be re-inserting them tonight)

(10:27 Note: Re-uploaded/inserted the troublesome pics)

Weelll...

Thursday morning, and the "First Rule of York" was in full effect. Stopping over at Uncle Jack's Trains, I spotted these MTH Santa Fe coaches and made my first purchase:

All three are production samples, as shown by the underside photos below. Sleeper and diner "Blue Heron" are from the 20-66087 add-on set catalogued in 2006 V1. The "Colorado River" observation is from the 20-65079 smooth-side set catalogued in 2005 V2. Somehow I didn't notice till resizing the original 5300-pixel (Galaxy Note 4) photos that the observation was smooth-sided

Above: production sample markings.

Below: a pair of Menards tankers. These UTLX modern cars sold out before I could place my "bunch of stuff" order on Menards' site, but a regular dealer who carries lots of their product had some left that I promised to buy the following morning as I spotted them as the halls were closing Thursday. "Dealer packs" don't come with the cardboard boxes, just the clamshell packaging in the shipping carton, but said dealer had extras stacked on the side and was able to provide a couple in order to keep the clamshells from getting mangled on the trip home.

Above: Also a Kusan "Kusan Railroad" boxcar. I have the yellow one, and spotted this red version in Blue Hall later that day. The seller said he had just put that one out in a tray with 3 other Kusan cars, which I might've bought had I been sure I didn't have them already. Funny thing is, the yellow one I own I had noticed (and passed over) in a tray at Neely's display in Purple Hall for several Yorks before I knew enough about Kusan to pick it up (following my acquisition of some K-series boxcars in an estate sale)

Below: Same day, same tour of Blue Hall...One can never have enough sinister-looking black tank cars. This one's car number being "6666" was icing on the cake. The seller had a good chuckle when I pointed this out to him --he had never noticed it It's the 20-96717 from 2015 V2.

Below: Saturday early afternoon and the dealers in Orange Hall are starting to pack up. I visited JustTrains's booth for a good look-around, and I spot another chrome tanker I didn't know about. Of course it came home with me, the 30-73544 Chateau Martin from 2019 V1.

With the two chrome boxcars this takes my "Chrome Train" to 39 cars. I'll quit at 40 (promise!). I know about the Coors Light and Harley Davidson ones, but am considering Lionel's Shell chrome tanker from 2001. I saw one in White hall, but the chrome had what looked like water spots all over it, and it didn't appear to have a box (though I hadn't asked). The three examples I saw on Ebay have either scratched chrome, a mangled box, and a poor photo of the car bagged-in-box that doesn't show the condition of the body.

(Edit 11/4/22): I now have the Shell car, in perfect condition thanks to a fellow Forumite

One item I probably should have picked up was a Lionel "K-Lionel" boxcar I saw in Orange hall during the end-of-Saturday tour. It would have made a nice transition piece in my "O-Gauge industry" photo freight.

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---PCJ