Buy anything cool lately?

OK now we have to see your train,  A set of Santa Fe F7a and b, freight colors with anoff set caboose, would be adream.

Had this puppy show up from one of our OGR advertisers -

But…..this wasn’t what I ordered😳 Still, a pretty cool looking diesel!

That one I could get into, for yard duty, automatic couplers and an uncoupling stick ,.   I could do that all night

@ArtsModelTrains posted:

I finally got my hands on an engine I have searching years for - MTH 30-1741-1 Commodore Hudson RailKing Cancer Awareness. Has a lot of meaning for me and I'm really happy I was able to get my hands on one.

I made an unboxing video:

https://youtu.be/UoMVSYYJoFk

If you like Cancer Awareness engines, look for the one pictured below, also MTH;

Picked a few items at this past weekend’s Allentown spring thaw train show .  More projects to work on , just when I decided no more projects until I finish the ones already in the queue.

I’ve been across the board- most recently from Nick Smith- trainman 52’6” Gina- NS w/ safety stripes & Conrail MoW. And one of half of the last thing I need to standardize my layout

got this a couple months ago but not sure if I posted it as I was so psyched at the time. That’s the 664 HHP-8 w/ RS 5 & ERR. Absolutely love it.

take  it back a little bit- before Thanksgiving I picked up this Marx Rapid Transit trolley. Doesn’t wind up(although it’s not that bad), and the battery to bulb works.

picked this lot up on the cheap on eBay:

more specifically- these two & the track

original Bing table top railway wind up!

Grabbed this PRR EP-5 from a forum member. Gave her a good once over and away she goes...

@StevefromPA posted:

I’ve been across the board- most recently from Nick Smith- …

take  it back a little bit- before Thanksgiving I picked up this Marx Rapid Transit trolley. Doesn’t wind up(although it’s not that bad), and the battery to bulb works.

Steve,

What amazing graphics on that Marx trolley!  Your other finds are great, too.  Thanks for sharing.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

that critter miggt even be older then me.  Neat that it works

So, I'm apparently still buying stuff

Second in line because I'm being odd tonight, is...

...yet another chrome tanker. This makes my 39th example. I didn't know this one even existed till I ran across it in a Google image search for what I don't recall. Coming from Trainz via Ebay, it's the 30-73295 Mohawk Petroleum triple-dome tank car from 2009. Like others I ordered from this vendor, shipping was fast, but FedEx in Ellenwood, GA snoozed on this for almost a week before forwarding it to their Smartpost hub in Edison, NJ (and ultimately traveled its last mile in a FedEx truck (as opposed to last-mile via USPS which is what 'Smartpost' usually means). A review of the tracking data (yes, I've been saving copies of those) show that the previous three items I bought from Trainz also cooled their heels upon reaching Ellenwood for several days before continuing their journey north.

First in line, here is the only piece of rolling stock I found to my liking at this year's Big E, coming from Grzyboski's here is a RailKing boxcar...resplendent in chrome, it's the 30-74219 MTH 25th anniversary boxcar released in March 2005. I'm pretty sure I have the Premier version (it appears in my York Boxcar train on YouTube)  -- now I'm wondering if I bought this one also and forgot about it...

Now comes the reason I placed the above out of chronological order. This post was to highlight what I won at the MTH Warehouse auction at Cabin Fever on 2/20/23. I had my eye on one lot a couple of weeks prior, then another that appeared when the auction was increased from 400 to 800 lots about a week before closure.

Below, find the first piece I won, a 30-2483-1 MTH 25th Anniversary Dash-8. Announced in 2005, and according to MTH's site, delivered in May 2006. Nice match for the above boxcar. This makes my fifth "company colors" MTH loco. When I realized it was an anniversary piece rather than a Railroader Club unit I took photos of and added the 'matching' boxcar above, not to mention the tanker because, well..."teh shiny"

This loco was among the few complete locomotives in the auction, and according to the condition of the box (you can still see it on Cabin Fever's site in completed auctions, 2/20/23, lot# 42), which looked like it had sat in a forgotten corner of MTH's warehouse for years because it was dirty. I had the presence of mind to ask for a photo of the underside of the loco, which was granted a couple of days later, and to my delight saw that the unit was spotless underneath (also had the two-pin charging connector, meaning 3v PS2). Being that this was lot #42 of an 800-lot auction, there was not much in the way of spirited competition for this one, and my status as top bidder was challenged five or six times with less than ten seconds remaining before the other party bowed out, allowing me to win this for $165 (before premium and shipping). Truly a "not until the fat lady sings" series of moments. Here is a closeup of the 25th anniversary markings on the cab:

As it turned out, while the loco included its original box, the same could not be said for the inner styrofoam, and the unit arrived swaddled in bubble wrap surrounding the factory wrapping inside the retail box (which smelled a bit like someone's basement -- or the bottom dusty shelf of a storage rack in a seldom-visited corner of a concrete-floored warehouse). While CFA staff was nice enough to wipe the dirt off the box before packing it, I'll have to make a new styrofoam tray before this loco can go back in, which the hot-wire scroll table I bought at Big E should come in handy for. Since this loco sat around so long in apparently untouched condition, I'll probably have to charge or replace the PS2 battery inside, so I'll wait till I get the MTH charger and/or a BCR before putting power to this one.

The other lot is far less lofty, a motley assortment of RailKing starter-set and incomplete rolling stock. After some research, I present the contents of lot 704:

First up, yet another chrome tanker (my 40th ), this one is the 30-4226T Shell tanker, part of set number 30-4226-1, the "2-8-0 Steam Freight R-T-R Train Set w/Proto-Sound 3.0 - Pennsylvania", cataloged in 2014, and delivered October the same year. Turns out this is a duplicate of one I already have, which was obtained in a previous Cabin Fever MTH warehouse auction on 10/30/2021, the first I participated in. I missed that detail because I hadn't yet added any of my CFA wins to my inventory, and didn't think to check the auction photos I saved as an adjunct to their eventual "formal" inventory pictures:

_{(the above pic will break if this post is quoted or edited)}

Accompanying this car is my first Pennsy-prototype caboose, part of the same set, a 30-4226C Pennsy N5C caboose.

I figure these set pieces are from sets that were broken up to provide warranty replacements (speculation -- I don't really know). At first this one looked like a Premier piece what with all the separately-applied railings and other parts. It wasn't till I found a photo of a boxed version that I identified it as a RailKing piece. This unusually heavy, chunky waycar cabin car will have to wait for a box alongside all those K-Line tankers I won in a previous CF auction, as like those cars, this one is too tall for a BCW card box.

Here we find  the last ready-to-runner of the batch, this RailKing bulkhead flatcar was part of the 30-7007 6-car assortment of Pennsy freight cars, offered in 2000. This one included a handwritten tag identifying it as a photo sample for said set appearing in the 2000 Vol 1 catalog.

Sitting atop it is an unpainted Premier bay-window caboose shell. Being that I have a "complete" unpainted (but as-yet unaassembled) example, I don't have a role for this shell. Indeed, I'll likely transplant its roofwalk to the "kit caboose" as that one's roofwalk casting was bent to the point of creasing, as you can see in the post I made of it.

Only slightly better, condition-wise is this incomplete and unpainted RailKing (or Rugged Rails) woodside caboose, which for some reason is missing its cupola:

I say "only slightly better" because although you can't see it from the photo, the truck on the non-cupola end is broken (the larger sideframe peg that friction-fits into the bolster sheared off). I'm not sure if it happened in shipping or was about to break as it sat in CF's facility, but I temporarily held it together with Fun-Tak for the above photo (which promptly came apart as soon as I picked the car up following the above shot), but I'll be seeking a replacement. Being that these appear to be early (purple-box) RailKing unsprung caboose trucks, it may be difficult to source a replacement.

(edit: I wound up using JB-Weld -- (actually, Harbor Freight's version of it) -- to repair the truck for the time being)

Then there's the question of the missing cupola. MTH parts doesn't yet list anything for RailKing cabooses in-general, so I'll probably obtain a cheap example of this caboose and use its cupola as a pattern to either scratchbuild one or make a rubber mold to cast a copy. The other detail parts (frosted widow inserts, marker lanterns and smokestack) are packaged inside the shell. Once this one becomes a runner, it'll likely remain unpainted like the bay-window caboose from the 10/2021 auction, trundled about as a novelty piece.

_{(Nav links redacted...Forum rule disallows crosslinking one's posts within a thread)}

---PCJ

_{(edited several times in the middle of the night to correct missing photos and typos after viewing the post on a not-signed in device)}

Bought a pair of MTH Premier flat cars with log loads from Northeast Trains. I've been focusing on road names that would have been seen around New England. I know MEC fits the bill and assuming CN might have been seen on CV lines. These are new old stock that had never been unboxed. Both 14" flat cars with sprung trucks, nice weight, realistic looking logs (as far as plastic goes).

gotta know what are you going to pull them with  Love to see a 060 tank with a bobbler caboose and string of those

Buy?  Not really.  Acquire?  Well...

Gonna take awhile to sort this lot out. 

Mitch

@RailRide posted:

I say "only slightly better" because although you can't see it from the photo, the truck on the non-cupola end is broken. I'm not sure if it happened in shipping or was about to break even as it sat in CF's facility, but I have it temporarily held together with Fun-Tak (which started coming apart as soon as I picked the car up following the above shot) for the purpose of taking this photo, but I'll need a replacement. Being that these appear to be early (purple-box) RailKing unsprung caboose trucks, it may be difficult to source a replacement (the larger sideframe peg that friction-fits into the bolster sheared off) or JB-Weld the original back together.

I have a pair of RK solid trucks from a tank car, if that's any help.  PM me on FA if interested. 

Mitch

Showing off two of my recent purchases. I just love the new addition to my O scale figures.

Bob is standing in front of the Atlas Ukraine Relief Boxcar in one shot and the magnificent Third Rail Santa Fe E Unit in the other.

..."All you need to paint is a few tools, a little instruction, and a vision in your mind...”

"...and right here we can put a happy 3-railer", it's your world..."

Got this 736W, very low run time, essentially pristine.  It was in the wrong box and I pointed it out, but they sold as listed.    When I turned the trucks the pickup wire insulation shattered.   2 new wires, strategic drops of oil and it whistles loud without a lot of volts!

@Railrunnin posted:

Showing off two of my recent purchases. I just love the new addition to my O scale figures.

Bob is standing in front of the Atlas Ukraine Relief Boxcar in one shot and the magnificent Third Rail Santa Fe E Unit in the other.

..."All you need to paint is a few tools, a little instruction, and a vision in your mind...”"...and right here we can put a happy 3-railer", it's your world..."

Hysterical but accurate, exactly what he would do.  I became very fond of watching BR paint on PBS. Too bad he is long gone.

That figure is not something I have ever seen, custom made I presume? Where did you find him? (Face is wrong in micro figure version)

@ScoutingDad posted:

Hysterical but accurate, exactly what he would do.  I became very fond of watching BR paint on PBS. Too bad he is long gone.

That figure is not something I have ever seen, custom made I presume? Where did you find him? (Face is wrong in micro figure version)

Hi, this is available from a gentleman on FB, he goes by "O Scale Guys". He has other figures as well. I Have purchased a couple of items from him and his work is very good.

Paul

@Railrunnin posted:

Hi, this is available from a gentleman on FB, he goes by "O Scale Guys". He has other figures as well. I Have purchased a couple of items from him and his work is very good.

Paul

Bob Ross is commercially available. I found mine in a Christmas shop in Callabash, NC. I have since seen him hanging around another shop, but, can't remember where.

After receiving my last order from Menards that arrived without the freebie REA plug in pickup truck, I put out a request for an even trade with the replacement blue pickup truck I received instead.
Well my request was answered on Facebook by an extremely nice gentleman out of Columbus Ohio. He offered to send me the REA pickup truck for FREE if I paid shipping. I said sure not a problem. Two days later he sends me the tracking number and said he covered the shipping charges for me. I was shocked and beyond grateful! It’s amazing how many nice people I’ve come across in this hobby! Thank you again David for everything! It’s truly greatly appreciated!

David is an ace, whoever he is.

Theres a lot of great purchases being shown here on the forum today. I finally received my Legacy CSX AC6000 road diesel from a fellow at the TCA Meet February 4th in Memphis Tennessee…. It’s a 2009 model and I couldn’t believe the pricing. Happy Railroading Everyone

Another neat toy in Larry's play room!

New.........RK /  B&P / MP15                                                      New to me.......RK / Pennsy E33 Rectifier.

I was checking the inventory for Menards and decided to take advantage of the 11% rebate along with a sale on two of the buildings. I already have a M&M’s warehouse so I grabbed another one that I’ll likely make into a Menards warehouse. As I’m typing this, their inventory still shows 5.

Next up is the Multi-Sign/Purpose building. Very nicely detailed building that keeps a fairly small footprint. Their inventory currently shows only 3 remaining.

The final item I got from this purchase was actually a dealer pack. I liked the 2 pack of PRR ore cars so much I grabbed the 8 pack while it was still available. All have different numbers as advertised. Current inventory shows 3 so don’t wait if you’re interested!

Here’s an overall photo of this purchase.

My first postwar 6464 box car being pulled by my 736 and other freight cars. Just a nice classic postwar look!

I showed this engine before as EL 1150.
It got leased to the PRSL and is just back from the paint shop. Christine did another great job.

@Guttersnipe posted:

If it wasn't for the background I would have thought I was standing near the departure track

thanks!

- Mario

When I went looking for AC glue; I found this on Amazon. There are 50 individual vials. I’ve always had problems with larger bottles. I glued about 40 people and 6 bulkheads with the one vial. There is still more in there.  I didn’t spill a drop and I don’t have to worry about freshness! The box is in my bar fridge.

Yesterday I attended The Great Northeast Train Show in Dunmore PA. It was packed!! I mean the isles were to a crawl! There was a great variety of trains to choose from with very reasonable prices on many tables. I spotted a few items I wanted but hesitating caused me to miss out on them. Last year this was the first train show I ever attended and it really launched me off into my train mayhem LoL.

I found 3 Menards UTLX tankers at an incredible price along with a box truck.

The Wienermobile even showed up for a bit!

There was also a pretty good food menu available.

I encountered this truck tailgate when I was leaving. Pretty cool!! This is the second one I’ve seen at a show now.

Great show as always! Here’s details on the October show.

What a great collection, those tanks getting shuffled in and out of a refinery with a vintage diesel, would be really fantastic, and good lord I haven't see a Wiener Mobile in several decades in Person.  Thank you

@Richizzle07 posted:

I encountered this truck tailgate when I was leaving. Pretty cool!! This is the second one I’ve seen at a show now.

Great show as always! Here’s details on the October show.

Wow, love this mural.  I wonder if this was all air-brushed on or was it a graphic wrap?

The below Flag boxcar was part of a Lionel NS set in the 2022 Catalog, p69.  Since I ordered the other four Flag Boxcars that were sold individually,  I wanted this car to complete the set.  When I placed my order with my local hobby store, I asked if he would consider doing a set breakup,  This week, when I went to pick up my Flag Boxcar order, I was supprised to see this NS car inluded with the other four  My hobby store did a set breakup,  Thank You Chris..

I came across this at a car show about four years ago.

@NJCJOE posted:

I came across this at a car show about four years ago.

Any chance there was an N-gauge layout in the rear?!

Ron

There was a layout in the back. I don't remember what scale it was or why I didn't take a picture of it.

New Menards CN tank cars. Color is all wrong. Way to pink. One would think cars coming out of China they might be a tad more red.                                                      
That being said. They make for a decent unit train for the grandkids.

Weston

I liked this Vessel #1 J.I.S. screwdriver so much, at $6.99 with free shipping (amazon), I purchased a spare.

Received today from forum sponsor: @Beth Marshall-The Public Delivery Track. Missouri Pacific MP15DC.

There aren't many 3rail O, Missouri Pacific, switchers out there.  Thanks to Beth for getting this made and thanks to MTH for getting Jenks blue correct.

There are two road numbers available here.  The pictures below show MTH 30-21002-1.

Thx fr the mention and the pix.    I'll post some pix too when u have a chance.

beth