Buy anything cool lately?

@mike g. posted:

Steve, that is a great way to use a engine house! I took one of mine and turned it into a bar! LOL

That works!

There is an old round house by me that was converted into a restaurant/bar. You can still see where each engine facility was. I believe it was a CB&Q location.

@mike g. posted:

Oh by the way Coach I agree 1983 is a great year! Thats the year I graduated from High School!

I hope you all have a great week!

KIDS 

Got my first autoracks from MTH. They look pretty decent on O54 curves. They are apparently a couple inches short of scale, but I think that helps them look good on my small layout.

@Dennis Holler posted:

1937 236W passenger set

@Dennis Holler, Congratulations on that beautiful train! Your station scene in the background reminds me of an article by Ron Hollander in the January 2021 issue of Train Collectors Quarterly. He described his recreation of an illustration from Lionel's old catalogs. The illustration depicted nine 156 station platforms leading to a 115 station in red and cream, with the tracks running under the station. Hollander built his scene with 11 platforms and a larger 116 station over the tracks. Your scene looks very much like the catalog image and Ron Hollander's recreation of it.

John

@Stinky1 posted:

Got my first autoracks from MTH. They look pretty decent on O54 curves. They are apparently a couple inches short of scale, but I think that helps them look good on my small layout.

Souple of Inches, so what, If they were a scale weight, your table would break. It' s the conseption that counts

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

@c.sam posted:

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

Those are beautiful locomotives! Same for the bridge and layout. I like the work gang, too.

John

Thanks John for the kind comments.  There's an interesting story about the convict gang below. Comes from a good book by Steven Little, once Mayor of Marion, NC.  I saw him do a live reading enactment some years ago at 'Train Day's' in Old Fort NC. He dressed in 1800s period prison garb and told this story. Fascinating and highly recommended.  It tells how the RR was built after the Civil War to connect the lowlands of central NC with the high country of Asheville and west. Elevation change was over 900' in under 7 miles.

@c.sam posted:

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

That’s an impressive looking layout and the engines look perfect!

Jay

I got this MTH Southern SD35 w/PS2 off eBay a few days ago for a very good price. I have been looking for this model for a couple of years and finally got it.  In mid-March I also Purchased a Norfolk Southern and UP SD50 with PS2 and a Southern Pacific SD35 w/PS3 which I was also looking for since 2020. Sometimes it's best to wait because you can always find what you are looking for.

My unpowered SD35 with a rc car

Ron

@Chris3671 posted:

I got this MTH Southern SD35 w/PS2 off eBay a few days ago for a very good price. I have been looking for this model for a couple of years and finally got it. ......... Sometimes it's best to wait because you can always find what you are looking for.

Nice engine. Yes, waiting does sometimes pay off!

John

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

From 2003 to 2012, I regularly commuted on Metro North from Goldens Bridge in Westchester County to Grand Central and still occasionally ride the train into the city. When Atlas announced these cars (must be almost 2 years ago), I just never pulled the trigger mostly because I didn’t have an engine to pull them. Then, last year, Scott Mann announced that 3rd Rail would be making the P32 Genesis engine in the Metro North New Haven livery… Although I placed an order for the engine, I still never got around to ordering the cars. Then the cars anppeared and, almost immediately were hard to find Luckily, forum sponsor Nicholas Smith had a few left and I was able to get a cab car and 3 coaches. The cars are really nice - pretty heavy, detailed interiors (but no commuters!!!), and nice crisp graphics. I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!! Now I just hope that Jonathan @GG1 4877 is correct that the P32’s should be done in 2025. For now, I’ll have to borrow some motive power from MN’s MTA cousin, the LIRR.

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

WHO IS THIS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH PAUL!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

From 2003 to 2012, I regularly commuted on Metro North from Goldens Bridge in Westchester County to Grand Central and still occasionally ride the train into the city. When Atlas announced these cars (must be almost 2 years ago), I just never pulled the trigger mostly because I didn’t have an engine to pull them. Then, last year, Scott Mann announced that 3rd Rail would be making the P32 Genesis engine in the Metro North New Haven livery… Although I placed an order for the engine, I still never got around to ordering the cars. Then the cars anppeared and, almost immediately were hard to find Luckily, forum sponsor Nicholas Smith had a few left and I was able to get a cab car and 3 coaches. The cars are really nice - pretty heavy, detailed interiors (but no commuters!!!), and nice crisp graphics. I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!! Now I just hope that Jonathan @GG1 4877 is correct that the P32’s should be done in 2025. For now, I’ll have to borrow some motive power from MN’s MTA cousin, the LIRR.

I did my last review of the design drawings a week ago on the P32s.  I'm waiting on corrections which I expect sometime in the next week, so this project is going forward!  Not to get too far into the weeds, but I get questions from design like, "Do we have to do the nose hatch instead of the number board on the P42s?".  Of course, the answer is "YES!"    Once the P32 is finally correct it will go into tooling and then it's time to start doing the painting diagrams.

I am hoping the first run of Genesis locomotives make a good impression as now with the NYC, PC, Conrail, and MTA beach ball heritage schemes, there are some new paint schemes for a second run.  I like the PC one the best.  PC & Conrail MTA is a candidate for sure on the 2nd run FL9s whenever they come around again.

In all seriousness, the MTA Comets look great.  There was a FL9 in MTA paint for sale somewhere I recall recently.  It may have been this forum.  I was interested as I don't have that one, but my wallet and by extension my wife, would not have likely approved.  My train buying has been a bit intense this year.

Enjoy!

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

"... I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!!

Paul,

  I thought you would want to model all aspects of these cars? Maybe you can have some Arttista figures at the platform holding their noses?

Tom

Seriously, those cars are great looking.

FYI...Years ago, if it helps you, there was an F10 in Metro-North paint too, not sure who put it out, but it looked pretty good.

Tom

Am building a 'Mail train' plus some passenger revenue cars for my PRR K4 recently acquired. I caught this handsome Weaver RPO car (lower Right) from some years ago and the MTH Express Reefer on Trainz and realized that Lionel now has the tooling for these and that it matched a SR car I bought last year from a Forum member. Very nice units.  Now I need a 72' PRR Combine to start transitioning to passenger equipment for it...

@RSJB18 posted:

WHO IS THIS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH PAUL!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I am sorry, but the rest home says Mr. Appel cannot be disturbed (more disturbed???) for several weeks - or until the arrival of a pre-order. Please leave a message 😁😁😁

@GG1 4877 posted:

I did my last review of the design drawings a week ago on the P32s.  I'm waiting on corrections which I expect sometime in the next week, so this project is going forward!  Not to get too far into the weeds, but I get questions from design like, "Do we have to do the nose hatch instead of the number board on the P42s?".  Of course, the answer is "YES!"    Once the P32 is finally correct it will go into tooling and then it's time to start doing the painting diagrams.

I am hoping the first run of Genesis locomotives make a good impression as now with the NYC, PC, Conrail, and MTA beach ball heritage schemes, there are some new paint schemes for a second run.  I like the PC one the best.  PC & Conrail MTA is a candidate for sure on the 2nd run FL9s whenever they come around again.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the update , Jonathan. That is good news… but you couldn’t just leave it there. You just had to open the door to a possible 2nd run with all the anniversary schemes. While I like the very colorful PC version, as an NYC fan who really likes the lightning stripe scheme, I’d be in for one. And, as if that weren’t enough, you had to bring up a 2nd run of the FL9’s… still sorry I missed the first run and would definitely be in for one. Have I ever told you you’re a bad influence

@PRR8976 posted:

Paul,

  I thought you would want to model all aspects of these cars? Maybe you can have some Arttista figures at the platform holding their noses?

Tom

Oh, Tom… as the respected author of a wonderful book  on Metro North, you, of all people, must be aware of the malevolent malodorous MN bathroom cars - why would you wish that on anyone, even an Arttista commuter???

Uncle, uncle!

Tom

Similar to the MTH Premier Central Vermont high cube boxcars purchased last month, I had been on the lookout for a long time for the MTH Premier Rutland coke hoppers. They came out in 2 sets of 4 in 2002 and this was the 1st time I had seen any for sale. The set I purchased has 3 of the 4 hoppers from set 20-90072. Sharp looking and will go well with my other Vermont themed rolling stock. Unlike the Central Vermont boxcars where I paid a premium, these were surprisingly reasonable and well below the current pricing for MTH Premier coke cars. Nice offset to get me back within range of my new acquisitions budget!

@Mooner posted:

Similar to the MTH Premier Central Vermont high cube boxcars purchased last month, I had been on the lookout for a long time for the MTH Premier Rutland coke hoppers. They came out in 2 sets of 4 in 2002 and this was the 1st time I had seen any for sale. The set I purchased has 3 of the 4 hoppers from set 20-90072. Sharp looking and will go well with my other Vermont themed rolling stock. Unlike the Central Vermont boxcars where I paid a premium, these were surprisingly reasonable and well below the current pricing for MTH Premier coke cars. Nice offset to get me back within range of my new acquisitions budget!

Very nice, I also bid on these but didn't really need them. They were just too good looking not to throw a bid at.

I was looking for a flat car at this spring’s York to mount this fire truck on. I found this car with a damaged box and a deep discounted price. The truck was a pre-Covid bandit meet find.

@ncdave posted:

I was looking for a flat car at this spring’s York to mount this fire truck on. I found this car with a damaged box and a deep discounted price. The truck was a pre-Covid bandit meet find.

That looks very nice along with the other 2 Mack’s in the background.

Gene

@ncdave posted:

I was looking for a flat car at this spring’s York to mount this fire truck on. I found this car with a damaged box and a deep discounted price. The truck was a pre-Covid bandit meet find.

Bought the same firetruck to put in Front of my scratch built Nevada City fire house No 2.  Looks  good on a flat car though

This one's not my fault......I swear......

I have to thank @leapinlarry for being a bad influence. Actually this was hard to say no to when coupled with the circumstances, I'm more than happy to help him out.

Lionel Legacy 4-4-2 E6s Atlantic - LIRR

Bob

Boy that Larry!  Such a lovable bad influence.  I guess that was from his friend's collection.  Good job Bob, real nice engine too.

@RSJB18 posted:

This one's not my fault......I swear......

I have to thank @leapinlarry for being a bad influence. Actually this was hard to say no to when coupled with the circumstances, I'm more than happy to help him out.

Lionel Legacy 4-4-2 E6s Atlantic - LIRR

Bob

Nice Bob, and it’s a Legacy! Larry just wanted you to be happy.

Gene

Thanks Joe and Gene.

Yes, this was in his friends collection. I looked at them when they came out but the price was way too steep for even me to rationalize. Hard to believe! 🤪🤪🤪

Been wanting a LIRR steamer for a while. From my research, these pulled freight and  Varnish so now what to do.....

Bob

Thank you @RSJB18 Bob, so very much for giving this Lionel Legacy LIRR, even with whistle Steam, a great new home, and looking at the pictures it arrived at your station in great shape. I will have to confess, Bob has a great collection of smaller diesel switchers and that has rubbed off on me, now I have 5 small Lionel legacy switchers, and the SW1200 Sante Fe is from my friend Charles collection. Therefore I had to offer this particular smaller steamer to Bob, being that he collects LIRR. Here are some of my recent purchases. Happy Railroading Everyone

@RSJB18 posted:

This one's not my fault......I swear......

I have to thank @leapinlarry for being a bad influence. Actually this was hard to say no to when coupled with the circumstances, I'm more than happy to help him out.

Lionel Legacy 4-4-2 E6s Atlantic - LIRR

Bob

May you have better luck with that “not my fault” line than I do, Bob.

Beautiful engine (will that run on your O-31 curves???). And Larry ISN’T a bad influence… he is a prince among 3 railers

@Apples55 posted:

May you have better luck with that “not my fault” line than I do, Bob.

Beautiful engine (will that run on your O-31 curves???). And Larry ISN’T a bad influence… he is a prince among 3 railers

Larry is a bad influence in a good way.

The engine is rated for 031 so it should be ok. The pilots and cab roofs are always the troublemakers..😎😎

@RSJB18 posted:

This one's not my fault......I swear......

I have to thank @leapinlarry for being a bad influence. Actually this was hard to say no to when coupled with the circumstances, I'm more than happy to help him out.

Lionel Legacy 4-4-2 E6s Atlantic - LIRR

Bob

Somewhere on that engine, your name was engraved when it was manufactured Bob.

@leapinlarry posted:

Thank you @RSJB18 Bob, so very much for giving this Lionel Legacy LIRR, even with whistle Steam, a great new home, and looking at the pictures it arrived at your station in great shape. I will have to confess, Bob has a great collection of smaller diesel switchers and that has rubbed off on me, now I have 5 small Lionel legacy switchers, and the SW1200 Sante Fe is from my friend Charles collection. Therefore I had to offer this particular smaller steamer to Bob, being that he collects LIRR. Here are some of my recent purchases. Happy Railroading Everyone

If you have to go Diesel It has to be Geep 30's for freight.  But you need a PA/PB set for passenger

Larry, the Santa Fe blue and yellow war bonnet is always striking.

I don't know why but I always liked this scheme for the BNSF. Maybe because the cream isn't a traditional railroad color and the red pinstripes set it off wonderfully.

@RSJB18 posted:

Larry is a bad influence in a good way.

The engine is rated for 031 so it should be ok. The pilots and cab roofs are always the troublemakers..😎😎

Don't I know it.  I trying to situate the inner loop on my 4x8,  I wanted to offset it just a bit so I could squeeze a K-Line station platform in between tracks on one side.  To check clearance I used a K-Line Gunderson Husky-Stack on the outer loop and a RK Y6b on the inner.  Even though I doubt I would ever run the Y6b on the inner loop I figured it would have the grates front overhang.  I was thrilled when that overhang cleared the well car but that lasted only briefly as like you said the cab did make contact with the upper container on the stack. 

Amazing how much stuff was squirreled away in MTH's warehouse . Yet another auction from their archives surfaced May 8 and I was there with a keen interest in prototypes and samples: As with my previous entries in this series, descriptions lie below their respective photos:

First up is this engineering sample of the Rugged Rails gondola. Two or three of these appeared in the auction. I figured I'd have the fewest competing bids if I picked the third one. The second one sold for a few dollars less than this one . Anyway, the handwritten tag indicates this is the first engineering sample, which was rejected. For what, I don't know but this happened Sept 1, 2000.

Next up is this engineering sample of the Rugged Rails hopper, noteworthy for being essentially a three-bay version of Lionel's famous "quad hopper". MTH's example is a "traditional-sized" version of a Pennsylvania RR class H30 hopper. Weaver Models did a scale version in their Ultra Line. For some reason, my camera (Canon Powershot SX100IS) wouldn't focus on the handwritten tag, attached to the car or not (unlike the other examples), but it read:

"RR Covered Hopper/ 1st Engineering sample/ Rec 9/18/00 / Approved w/corrections / See fax 9/18/00 T"

Interestingly enough, Lionel's 'quad' hopper has a little-known prototype. I've seen a photo on this very forum, but I can't find it right now (google image searches turn up the Lionel model or the five-bay H32 prototype).

Rugged Rails livestock car. Pretty sure this one is also an engineering sample, but the lot it was included in (along with a premier stock car, a coalporter hopper and woodside caboose) did not include any tags to that effect, This one sure seems to be an early version since one of the sliding doors keeps falling off its track (as shown in the auction photo ), so maybe the tolerances are a tad off. I'll have to get out the digital calipers next time I have this one out.

Rugged Rails boxcar "first" engineering sample, which was approved mid-Sept 2000 according to the tag. This car, along with the other RR cars above, had a number of examples appearing in the auction as single-car lots (a single RR stock car escalated past what I was willing to pay, so I 'settled' on the example pictured above included in a lot with three larger cars). This one looks smaller than a 6464-style boxcar, but it matches the other Rugged Rails cars sizewise (other than the woodside caboose). Measurements will be forthcoming when I re-do my post illustrating the varying size of traditional 6464-style boxcars (Lionel, RailKing, Industrial Rail, K-Line, etc).

RailKing woodside caboose, possibly an engineering sample. I'm leaning toward "test shot equipped with trucks to make it more sale-able"   . Why? The trucks have no pickup rollers, there's no interior wiring (although the bulb mounts and bulbs are present inside), and the handrails/grab irons are missing, as is the smokestack. Will it join my gaggle of unpainted cabooses? Yes. Will said gaggle of cabeese become part of a larger train of unpainted samples from these warehouse auctions? Sure looks that way . By the way, there's a larger "MT539" sticker on the roof, concealed behind the roofwalk.

Premier 40' livestock car. No tags on this one, but it kinda looks like an engineering sample owing to the modernized trucks with T-bar couplers (though now that I think about it, this car should have solid-bearing trucks). It was part of a lot that included the woodside caboose, coalporter and Rugged Rails stock car.

There were 14 cars in this shipment. I'll save the remaining eight for the next post (all Premier)

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

@John's Trains posted:

@Dennis Holler, Congratulations on that beautiful train! Your station scene in the background reminds me of an article by Ron Hollander in the January 2021 issue of Train Collectors Quarterly. He described his recreation of an illustration from Lionel's old catalogs. The illustration depicted nine 156 station platforms leading to a 115 station in red and cream, with the tracks running under the station. Hollander built his scene with 11 platforms and a larger 116 station over the tracks. Your scene looks very much like the catalog image and Ron Hollander's recreation of it.

John

Thanks John, Yes, I got the idea from I think the 1940 catalog and it showed what you described.  I basically just filled up the space I had with the two running loops around the edge. On retrospect, I placed the tracks a little too close together for parking 263E locos due to their wide cylinders.  But I'll live with it.