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One of my favorite threads because whenever we come here, someone has picked up something cool.  Thanks to Nassau Hobby and their great Labor Day sale, I’m here with my special run VO1000, which is a very good knockoff of the Baldwin DS4-4-660 used by the LIRR.  Can’t wait to get her on the layout -



IMG_2022IMG_2023

Wow! She's a beauty!

Guess I know what you're posting on SWSat tomorrow.....😉😉

@StevefromPA posted:

@Strap Hanger Such an awesome loco! I’m a big fan of the Baldwin VO-1000- have wanted one for awhile, but haven’t been able to find one 1.) with TMCC and 2.) in a road name I’d want. That said, I love the LIRR and love that livery, that is very crisp. are You going to be hauling freight, passengers, performing switching duties?

Awesome pick-up!

Steve

Thanks Steve. She’s a beauty and runs fabulous with great sounds.  On the LIRR, they were used for all of the above. That’s what she’ll be doing on my pike.  

@RSJB18.,  Just finished an amazing run session with it and she’ll most definitely be making an appearance.  I don’t know how you do it, living so close to Nassau hobby and trainland. I’d be broke if they were in driving distance to my house.

Last edited by Strap Hanger

Thanks Steve. She’s a beauty and runs fabulous with great sounds.  On the LIRR, they were used for all of the above. That’s what she’ll be doing on my pike.  

@RSJB18.,  Just finished an amazing run session with it and she’ll most definitely be making an appearance.  I don’t know how you do it, living so close to Nassau hobby and trainland. I’d be broke if they were in driving distance to my house.

Well there's a certain 0-6-0 in my cart at TW.......🤣🤣

So I'm doing my best....

The Warehouse Haul 5 of 5: The Caboose Hop...

The last batch of cars in my MTH Warehouse auction haul from 8/14/23 brings up the rear with what else--cabooses. Here are a gaggle of unpainted (engineering samples?) cabooses contained in a single lot.

Descriptive text references the photos above:

undec premeir ext-vis caboose

We start off with an extended-vision caboose, not unlike the Great Northern model in my previous post. After looking at a few more extended-vision cabooses, I now wonder if MTH modified the tooling for this one at some point after this sample was produced, as the GN caboose I posted earlier has larger windows with more detailed frames plus a third window on the side of the carbody, as do the other ext-vis cabooses I noticed in a Google image search.

(Edit 09/30/2023: The above is a RailKing caboose -- the Premier version has the three large windows)

undec premier PRR-N6 caboose

Next up is a PRR N6 caboose. The end-platform detailing is rather delicate on this one, as evidenced by the broken pieces hanging off the platform at left (auction photos indicate they were like this while at CF's facility). Maybe there'll be replacements on the MTH parts site one day. Maybe I'll wind up fabricating something out of wire, since the railings are thin enough as it is.

undec premier steel caboose

I believe this one here is a RailKing steel caboose. Like the Pennsy N5 caboose in the 2/2023 auction, this one is chunky enough to pass as a Premier model, but it's most likely not one. Incidentally, this model and its painted counterpart below are the only ones in this assortment that will fit in a BCW card box -- the others are too tall owing to their smokestacks, so I'll have to fabricate suitable boxes for them.

undec railking woodside caboose

Here is the RailKing woodside caboose. This marks the third version of this caboose, the Rugged Rails and Premier versions seen in the Boston & Albany posts two-pages back. Until I saw this model in-person, I didn't know the RailKing version had separately applied grab irons at the corners and cupola, so this must have been an upgrade to what was originally a Rugged Rails version. I'll need to scrounge up a pair of mounting screws to hold one end of the chassis on.

NYC premier steel caboose photo sample

Last of this batch is this NYC steel caboose photo sample. The tag says 2001 vol 3, but I can't find this car anywhere in MTH's 2001 catalogs, so this is one last mystery product number to figure out. Unlike the unpainted version above, this one has molded-in grab irons, leading me to believe it is an earlier RK version, since there's no indication that the Rugged Rails lineup had anything but the woodside caboose. If you know where this caboose is listed (and thus it's product number) please chime in with a reply...just delete the photos other than this one...it'll look better

undec caboose consist

undec caboose consist 2

We conclude this adventure with all five lined up and coupled together. With this acquisition, I've made the decision that the unassembled Premier bay-window caboose I got in the 10/30/2021 warehouse auction will remain unpainted after I assemble it. Instead it will accompany this group (probably minus the painted NYC car, which can take on regular caboose tasks) as a traveling "primer paint" block to be stuck into the middle or on the end of a random mixed freight, as a rolling curiosity of 'unusual' equipment. Will I seek out other unpainted MTH cabooses? I dunno.

If anyone is planning on disposing of their boxes for the above pictured caboose models, I'd be willing to take them (email's in profile). Otherwise I'll eventually figure out how to make something to put them in for safekeeping.

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

---PCJ

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  • undec premeir ext-vis caboose
  • undec premier PRR-N6 caboose
  • undec premier steel caboose
  • undec railking woodside caboose
  • NYC premier steel caboose photo sample
  • undec caboose consist
  • undec caboose consist 2
Last edited by RailRide

I purchased a NIB Lionel 6-16399 Western Pacific I-Beam Flatcar on eBay for a very nice price.  I saw some of those on a train a day after I bought it and noticed that all the lumber loads were covered.  I did a search here in the OGR and found this thread from 2016 that discussed how to add covers.  I started doing that yesterday, and covered the load on one side.  I'll do the other side today.

71599196480__14EF8E4B-053A-4972-AACC-761CC592966271599192441__EA0E3903-C2F9-4BE9-BB31-CEFFD09C9A8B

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Images (2)
  • 71599192441__EA0E3903-C2F9-4BE9-BB31-CEFFD09C9A8B
  • 71599196480__14EF8E4B-053A-4972-AACC-761CC5929662
Last edited by texgeekboy
@texgeekboy posted:

I purchased a NIB Lionel 6-16399 Western Pacific I-Beam Flatcar on eBay for a very nice price.  I saw some of those on a train a day after I bought it and noticed that all the lumber loads were covered.  I did a search here in the OGR and found this thread from 2016 that discussed how to add covers.  I started doing that yesterday, and covered the load on one side.  I'll do the other side today.

71599196480__14EF8E4B-053A-4972-AACC-761CC592966271599192441__EA0E3903-C2F9-4BE9-BB31-CEFFD09C9A8B

Nice, I wish I had the moral turpitude to buy on ebay.  Mt last Purchase was a Baritone Sax and without my skills honed by being a model railroader AND the advice of one in this column who told be to buy a better soldering Iron.  That sax would have been a $2000.00 boat anchor

@Guttersnipe,

In the last 2 years I've bought close to 20 pieces of rolling stock and 2-3 engines off eBay.  I buy only NIB or NOS.  They were all as described, with the possibility of 1 dummy engine being on the rails for a bit (since some dirt from the wheels got transferred to the styrofoam holder).  Since it didn't have an engine I just cleaned it up, otherwise I would have returned it since it was not as described.  Actually, I've never had to return stuff to eBay, but some things I've bought I had to contact the seller to work out partial refunds, and that's always been fine.

Of course I buy the new stuff from our forum sponsors since those aren't for sale very often.  I also buy a lot from Stout Auctions who always come through with accurate descriptions and good shipping.  Finally I've bought 3-4 items from the For Sale forum here on OGR, and those are always great.

I no longer really care about shipping costs since there is only one hobby store within 30 miles and it doesn't have much I'm interested in.  I consider it a cost of doing business, I don't mentally add that to the cost of the article (like sales tax), but of course my better half only looks at the bottom line.

BTW, I played alto sax and was in several 'Chicago' and 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears' type music groups.  Now that was fun!

Last edited by texgeekboy
@RailRide posted:


NYC premier steel caboose photo sample

Last of this batch is this NYC steel caboose photo sample. The tag says 2001 vol 3, but I can't find this car anywhere in MTH's 2001 catalogs, so this is one last mystery product number to figure out. Unlike the unpainted version above, this one has molded-in grab irons, leading me to believe it is an earlier RK version, since there's no indication that the Rugged Rails lineup had anything but the woodside caboose. If you know where this caboose is listed (and thus it's product number) please chime in with a reply...just delete the photos other than this one...it'll look better

We conclude this adventure with all five lined up and coupled together. With this acquisition, I've made the decision that the unassembled Premier bay-window caboose I got in the 10/30/2021 warehouse auction will remain unpainted after I assemble it. Instead it will accompany this group (probably minus the painted NYC car, which can take on regular caboose tasks) as a traveling "primer paint" block to be stuck into the middle or on the end of a random mixed freight, as a rolling curiosity of 'unusual' equipment. Will I seek out other unpainted MTH cabooses? I dunno.

If anyone is planning on disposing of any boxes for the woodside, extended-vision, or N6 cabooses, I'd be willing to take them. Otherwise I'll eventually figure out how to make something to put them in for safekeeping.

---PCJ

Rugged Rails 33-7807 (7808?) diff RN note - clear windows opaqued with frosted scotch tape by me.

IMG_6020

Attachments

Images (1)
  • IMG_6020
Last edited by Mark V. Spadaro

Rugged Rails 33-7807 (7808?) diff RN note - clear windows opaqued with frosted scotch tape by me.

IMG_6020

Yep, I think that's as close as it's going to get. I suspect that the paint and road numbering changed between sample and production. Next York I'll ask Rich Foster if that ever happened

Also, nice score on that six-car set. I've had a few wins that occurred with no competition.

---PCJ

Currently, I think I have 40 chrome-plated tank cars.

That's clearly not enough despite earlier statements to the contrary as I found three more I didn't have.

As usual, descriptive text lies below their respective photos:

30-73293

We start with this 30-73293 Tidewater tanker. I ran across this by a YouTube recommendation to the channel "Trains in the Valley" a dealer in PA who had acquired a sizable collection of MTH pieces and made a series of videos showcasing portions of the acquisition, test-running the locomotives and checking the lighting of cabooses, as well as a close out-of-box examination of regular rolling stock. One of these pieces was the above tank car. Or rather another example of it.

I thought I had a chrome Tidewater tanker, though. Rummaging through my older posts in this thread I found that I did indeed have a chrome Tidewater tanker -- the single-dome version that was a starter-set exclusive via a Cabin Fever MTH warehouse auction. I emailed TitV to see if they still had it, since the video was posted in March of this year, and I only saw it in August. They checked their stock, spread over two locations, but alas, that specific car had already been sold. Pity I didn't spot it earlier, as the only other example that turned up in a Google search was on Ebay, and it was priced like it was known that no one else had it (actually almost everything listed by said seller was priced like that). So I sat on it, ultimately biting the bullet owing to the two others below...

30-73294

Shamrock tanker, 30-73294. A few days after running across the Tidewater car it occurred to me to look it up on MTH's site, then pull up the catalog listing in order to look up adjacent product numbers, which revealed this car. I placed it on my watchlist, and a couple of days later got a discount offer from the seller, which I jumped on. There must've been a four-leaf clover hiding behind that logo because of the next car:

30-73309

30-73309 Alaska tanker. In my search of adjacent product numbers, I ran across some more chrome tankers that I thought seemed familiar, but didn't show up in my incomplete inventory. A trip to the basement proved that I had the RK Borden's car, as well as the UP and RF&P triple-dome cars. While wondering how I missed some of these cars It occurred to me that during the time I was buying them as they were released, I was only buying petroleum-company roadnames, then expanded to railroad ones. It wasn't till the bug bit that I started filling in the gaps that approach had left.

Searching more adjacent product numbers turned up the Alaska car, which I found on the site of a sizable dealer who is often the go-to for oddball items. After placing this on my watchlist from their Ebay presence, I thought to look up other examples of this car number and saw one other seller offering the same car at a similar price. Similar, that is till I put it on my watchlist and subsequently received a discount offer from that seller. Well, lightning doesn't often strike twice in the same place ('cause the place usually doesn't exist the second time around ), so I snapped this one up too.

It was at this point that I also bit the bullet on the Tidewater car. Expensive for what it is, yes, but it led me to discounted finds on two other cars I wasn't aware of. Converging on my location from Long Island, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, all via USPS the first two arrived the same day, the third came a day later. I took advantage of an hours-long lull between slow-moving thunderstorms today to shoot these photos outdoors, and while there are still some dark reflections in the chrome, they are much less evident than on the ones shot indoors.

---PCJ

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

(yes, I still know about the Coors light, Budweiser and Harley Davidson ones. Still not feeling those for some reason)

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 30-73293
  • 30-73294
  • 30-73309
Last edited by RailRide
@RailRide posted:

Currently, I think I have 40 chrome-plated tank cars.

That's clearly not enough despite earlier statements to the contrary as I found three more I didn't have.

As usual, descriptive text lies below their respective photos:

30-73293

We start with this 30-73293 Tidewater tanker. I ran across this by a YouTube recommendation to the channel "Trains in the Valley" a dealer in PA who had acquired a sizable collection of MTH pieces and made a series of videos showcasing portions of the acquisition, test-running the locomotives and checking the lighting of cabooses, as well as a close out-of-box examination of regular rolling stock. One of these pieces was the above tank car. Or rather another example of it.

I thought I had a chrome Tidewater tanker, though. Rummaging through my older posts in this thread I found that I did indeed have a chrome Tidewater tanker -- the single-dome version that was a starter-set exclusive via a Cabin Fever MTH warehouse auction. I emailed TitV to see if they still had it, since the video was posted in March of this year, and I only saw it in August. They checked their stock, spread over two locations, but alas, that specific car had already been sold. Pity I didn't spot it earlier, as the only other example that turned up in a Google search was on Ebay, and it was priced accordingly (actually almost everything listed by said seller was priced like that). So I sat on it, ultimately biting the bullet owing to the two others below...

30-73294

Shamrock tanker, 30-73294. A few days after running across the Tidewater car was to look it up on MTH's site, then pull up the catalog listing in order to look up adjacent product numbers, which revealed this car. I placed it on my watchlist, and a couple of days later got a discount offer from the seller, which I jumped on. There must've been a four-leaf clover hiding behind that logo because of the next car:

30-73309

30-73309 Alaska tanker. In my search of adjacent product numbers, I ran across some more chrome tankers that I thought seemed familiar, but didn't show up in my incomplete inventory. A trip to the basement proved that I had the RK Borden's car, as well as the UP and RF&P triple-dome cars. While wondering how I missed some of these cars It occurred to me that during the time I was buying them as they were released, I was only buying petroleum-company roadnames, then expanded to railroad ones. It wasn't till the bug bit that I started filling in the gaps that approach had left.

Searching more adjacent product numbers turned up the Alaska car, which I found on the site of a sizable dealer who is often the go-to for oddball items. After placing this on my watchlist from their Ebay presence, I thought to look up other examples of this car number and saw one other seller offering the same car at a similar price. Similar, that is till I put it on my watchlist and subsequently received a discount offer from that seller. Well, lightning doesn't often strike twice in the same place ('cause the place usually doesn't exist the second time around ), so I snapped this one up too.

It was at this point that I also bit the bullet on the Tidewater car. Expensive for what it is, yes, but it led me to discounted finds on two other cars I wasn't aware of. Converging on my location from Long Island, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, all via USPS the first two arrived the same day, the third came a day later. I took advantage of an hours-long lull between slow-moving thunderstorms today to shoot these photos outdoors, and while there are still some dark reflections in the chrome, they are much less evident than on the ones shot indoors.

---PCJ

(yes, I still know about the Coors light, Budweiser and Harley Davidson ones. Still not feeling those for some reason)

@RailRide posted:

Currently, I think I have 40 chrome-plated tank cars.

That's clearly not enough despite earlier statements to the contrary as I found three more I didn't have.

As usual, descriptive text lies below their respective photos:

30-73293

We start with this 30-73293 Tidewater tanker. I ran across this by a YouTube recommendation to the channel "Trains in the Valley" a dealer in PA who had acquired a sizable collection of MTH pieces and made a series of videos showcasing portions of the acquisition, test-running the locomotives and checking the lighting of cabooses, as well as a close out-of-box examination of regular rolling stock. One of these pieces was the above tank car. Or rather another example of it.

I thought I had a chrome Tidewater tanker, though. Rummaging through my older posts in this thread I found that I did indeed have a chrome Tidewater tanker -- the single-dome version that was a starter-set exclusive via a Cabin Fever MTH warehouse auction. I emailed TitV to see if they still had it, since the video was posted in March of this year, and I only saw it in August. They checked their stock, spread over two locations, but alas, that specific car had already been sold. Pity I didn't spot it earlier, as the only other example that turned up in a Google search was on Ebay, and it was priced accordingly (actually almost everything listed by said seller was priced like that). So I sat on it, ultimately biting the bullet owing to the two others below...

30-73294

Shamrock tanker, 30-73294. A few days after running across the Tidewater car was to look it up on MTH's site, then pull up the catalog listing in order to look up adjacent product numbers, which revealed this car. I placed it on my watchlist, and a couple of days later got a discount offer from the seller, which I jumped on. There must've been a four-leaf clover hiding behind that logo because of the next car:

30-73309

30-73309 Alaska tanker. In my search of adjacent product numbers, I ran across some more chrome tankers that I thought seemed familiar, but didn't show up in my incomplete inventory. A trip to the basement proved that I had the RK Borden's car, as well as the UP and RF&P triple-dome cars. While wondering how I missed some of these cars It occurred to me that during the time I was buying them as they were released, I was only buying petroleum-company roadnames, then expanded to railroad ones. It wasn't till the bug bit that I started filling in the gaps that approach had left.

Searching more adjacent product numbers turned up the Alaska car, which I found on the site of a sizable dealer who is often the go-to for oddball items. After placing this on my watchlist from their Ebay presence, I thought to look up other examples of this car number and saw one other seller offering the same car at a similar price. Similar, that is till I put it on my watchlist and subsequently received a discount offer from that seller. Well, lightning doesn't often strike twice in the same place ('cause the place usually doesn't exist the second time around ), so I snapped this one up too.

It was at this point that I also bit the bullet on the Tidewater car. Expensive for what it is, yes, but it led me to discounted finds on two other cars I wasn't aware of. Converging on my location from Long Island, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, all via USPS the first two arrived the same day, the third came a day later. I took advantage of an hours-long lull between slow-moving thunderstorms today to shoot these photos outdoors, and while there are still some dark reflections in the chrome, they are much less evident than on the ones shot indoors.

---PCJ

(yes, I still know about the Coors light, Budweiser and Harley Davidson ones. Still not feeling those for some reason)

OK look the gift horse in the mouth, I wanna see the train

Rugged Rails 33-7807 (7808?) diff RN note - clear windows opaqued with frosted scotch tape by me.

IMG_6020

Nice Mark I never though about the scotch tape on the windows.

Even though it keeps the windows from being crystal clear and emphasizing what's in the interior, it doesn't totally block out the view of maybe a figure sitting close to the window.

I think it gives the caboose a better look overall .  I'm assuming you used the non -glossy tape 🤔

Good morning Dallas. Thank you for your kind words. A Rugged Rails caboose is kinda “bare bones”. No interior details, except a very bright light, making it plain for all viewers that there is no interior detail. The frosted tape diffuses the light intensity, and, obscures the interior from view. And adding a second or third layer of tape produces a greater dimming/obscuring effect.

Last edited by Mark V. Spadaro

Good morning Dallas. Thank you for your kind words. A Rugged Rails caboose is kinda “bare bones”. No interior details, except a very bright light, making it plain for all viewers that there is no interior detail. The frosted tape diffuses the light intensity, and, obscures the interior from view. And adding a second or third layer of tape produces a greater dimming/obscuring effect.

Maybe using the extra layers of tape part of the way down might also give the effect of window shades without being too obvious like using masking tape.

( maybe using the green painters tape for window shades might be interesting )

@Guttersnipe posted:

OK look the gift horse in the mouth, I wanna see the train

So do I. But it's three or four 'theme trains' in the queue for operation, video and then adding to inventory records once taken down. Also competing for time with other household stuff and the day job.

Protip: you can edit out redundant photos when quoting a post. I'm still mystified at how you managed to double quote mine

---PCJ

AS to the double quote, I'm am completely computer illiterate, and have no idea how that happened, (had to look up illiterate in the handy sixty-year-old Webster's New World dictionary, cause my spell check didn't have anything that looked like it.   And yeah know about Trains on standby.  New Cat in the house and one of the "household stuff" is build a accordion door between the front living room and the other living room. Thanks for the tip, I try to figure it out.  gs

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