Buy anything cool lately?

@pennsyfan posted:

The car was manufactured by Lionel in NC USA. It was designed and it is sold exclusively by METCA.

My bad! I stand corrected

Not long ago, a museum in NC completed restoration of one of the very few East Tennessee and Western North Carolina railroad boxcars: http://www.tarheelpress.com/etbox/

Today, one of guys who assisted just sent me a piece of siding from the boxcar. I can't get over that I now have a piece of a real ET&WNC freight car!

@p51, Lee, that’s a good find, real wood from a real freight car, ET&WNC, congratulations on getting this unique piece of wood. It will be interesting to see how you display this piece of history. Today I received a couple of REA cars from LegacyStation, Happy Railroading Everyone

No chrome tankers this time, but a pair of Menards doublestacks from their September re-stock (part of their order was held up due to port congestion):

I'm holding off on containers...I'll probably look for some MSC and a couple of others at a later date. I already have Atlas O 3-unit and MTH 5-unit sets that I haven't sought containers for.

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

---PCJ

@leapinlarry posted:

@p51, Lee, that’s a good find, real wood from a real freight car, ET&WNC, congratulations on getting this unique piece of wood. It will be interesting to see how you display this piece of history. Today I received a couple of REA cars from LegacyStation, Happy Railroading Everyone

Boy, those express reefers look terrific, Larry. 😉

@naresar posted:

Stopped by a train show today with the expectation of not finding anything special.  But did find a new addition to my PUP collection.  A little disappointing that I found some small pieces broken that needed glued back in place but the car was only $28 so I'm still of the opinion that I got a good deal.

At the price those usually go for if you could glue the pieces back together you did get a deal.

@Apples55 posted:

Have to agree, Woody. I purchased 2 of the 86’ car carriers and 1 of the 86’ box cars when they they first came out (I was supposed to get 2 of the box cars, but when I saw the size, I passed on the second!!!). Really don’t run them

Here is a comparison of one of the 86’ footers to a Lionel 60’ footer - really cool, but impractical!!! (That’s a Lionel 21’ Alaska passenger car in the background)

It's those darn voices again!

@Ulus Ekerman posted:

More military flat cars coming our way soon.  How long is that train now?

@Mister_Lee posted:

I picked up a K Line K 742-8032 Wilson Car Lines wood-sided reefer at the North Texas Council of Train Clubs' Fall 2022 train show.  This may not sound like much to some people, but if you're trying to represent freight trains from the late steam to early transition era (circa 1936 to 1951), this is a darn good choice.  Historically accurate or not, it sure looks good!

That whole series was very cool.  Does it have the swinging hams?

Frank Razz, you're killing it at the auctions.

Don Mc, where's the pictures of your haul

@leapinlarry posted:

@p51, Lee, that’s a good find, real wood from a real freight car, ET&WNC, congratulations on getting this unique piece of wood. It will be interesting to see how you display this piece of history. Today I received a couple of REA cars from LegacyStation, Happy Railroading Everyone

Larry that Santa Fe express reefer sure is shiny.  Is that the one that needed the knuckle repair?  How'd that work out?

@coach joe- OK I went to the same train show as Mister Lee and came away with a fairly good haul.  I have posted some of these, like the cabooses on Tail End Tuesday, but here is a showing of my latest acquisitions.

A PRR extended vision caboose, Lionel Std O, with lights and smoke, from 1988

A SRR wood sided , Lionel  Std O, caboose with lights also from 1988

A fun car for my layout ...an Elephant Circus Car (with Elephant) from Lionel 1990

Finally for my pre war collection.  A Karl Bub , Gatekeepers House, made from 1928-1934

Well that's my haul last weekend, thanks for asking coach joe!

Best Wishes

Don

Eventually I plan on having a space center scene on my layout.  Planning on a Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) out of foam core, launch pads, rockets, and a shuttle from LEGO, a LEM from Hallmark.  I was looking for part of a larger rocket to be in the VAB in some stage of assembly and won a bid on EBay for an incomplete set.  The picture showed 1/2 a rocket so it would do just fine.  When it came the rocket was missing just 3 pieces, all on the back side.  I haven't assembled any of the rest of the playset so I don't know what else may be missing beyond the figures.  I was never wild about the capsule on this set so it may wind up under construction in the VAB as originally planned. 

@pennsyfan - the layout you pictured is really neat, what a great opportunity to run a "Veterans Train" and your audience is just right.  Kids and parents for this new generation who are not as familiar with Vet's as perhaps they were 10-20 years ago.

@coachjoe - Well I really like your project, but it will be tough to make the VAB scale height, unless you want to cut a hole in your rooms ceiling.  The VAB is 526 ft high , which would be about 11 Ft high in O scale.   I worked for NASA in support of the manned space program and have been privileged to go into the VAB and that sucker is enormous!! Next, your right, those windows in the capsule are not likely to make it.   To reach orbit, a spacecraft leaving the Earth has to achieve about 7 miles / second or about 25,000 mph to enter orbit so those big front windows would be a tough design to come up with as you pass through the atmosphere.  I do like the rocket that you have however, it has the solid rocket boosters (SRB's in NASA parlance) on the sides as do most of our space launch systems.

Good luck with your rocket launch facility, it sounds like a fun project.

Best Wishes

Don

Thanks Don.  There's nothing scale about my trains.  027 track, 42" diameter outer loop, 27"inner, I hope so my VAB doesn't need to be that massive.  I have two of these LEGO rockets, again equipped with SRBs,

one of these, not from LEGO, although I'll be using a LEGO construction elevator as a launch pad,

One of these

a shuttle and a couple of crawlers to move rockets around.  I'll get some pictures of those and add them later.

@Coach Joe, now that’s a great idea having a space rocket scene on your layout, and yes, the Sante Fe REA car was exchanged and the new one works, as does the new B&O REA car.

I've wanted this set for a while, and finally grabbed one for a decent price on the bay.  Very little run time and no scratches/blemishes anywhere.

Don

I almost put a bid on that! Glad you got it!

@Darrell posted:

I almost put a bid on that! Glad you got it!

It was a rare opportunity.  They don't come up very often, and when they do the price is usually too high.  Either that or seller charging ridiculous shipping fee.

I was really excited to find two new Geeps to represent the lines that will feed the freight yard.
I love the short lines.
I bought an East Penn Railroad engine (will serve practically all the freight customers) and a New York Container Terminal model for the intermodal yard. Eventually, I'll buy a "lease" unit for them to share.
The East Penn loco really is pretty! It's shame she'll be pulling chemicals and trash containers.

@coachjoe- Glad you decided not to make the VAB scale height, that would have been a project.  Nice rockets by the way.  The first two look more like our current band of launch vehicles including both Artemis and Space X.  The #3 reminds me more of the Saturn V of the original Apollo fame, even the black blocks in the paint scheme.  OBTW if you like "big" and "powerful" each Saturn V was powered by 5 F-1 rocket engines, each one of which produced 1.52  MILLION lbs of thrust !  Still all of these seem more realistic than the one you showed with the fancy capsule on top.

By the way, in case you want to go "multi modal" most of the rocket segments for the large launch vehicles like Artemis or the Shuttle program arrived at the launch site by BARGE!  Yup! by water.  They were too large to be easily shipped by rail so they went as far as was economical and then were loaded on a custom made barge and floated to Cape Kennedy.

This is a great idea Joe, best of luck with it.  Keep posting pictures.

Don

I picked up a bunch at an auction, around 60 pieces. I keep telling myself to stop buying engines, but I always find a few that won't leave me alone. I do have a budget, so I don't want to blow it all on 1 or 2 pieces, are you listening BIG BOY! Apparently not:

It's an older MTH, but a real good price, well within my budget. I'm not going to have anything left to buy at York if I keep this up...

Got a few auto racks and my friend weathered/hand graffiti'd these as well. The car in the last photo is based on a prototype graffiti job that covered that whole side 

Picked up a small piece with some sentimental significance. My father worked for Sperry Gyroscope (Sperry- Rand) as an electrical engineer, for 45 years. Sperry Rail Service was founded prior to Sperry Gyro, and built by Elmer Sperry. After SRS was formed he invented the gyroscope guidance system, and Sperry Gyroscope several years later.

This Sperry Speeder is a Lionel model with TMCC.

Bob

@RSJB18

OMG. That's a gotta have unit for you! Nice story about you Dad. Glad you were able to obtain it.

I did not know Lionel put TMCC in those units. My GrandKids love the speedy little units. I'll have to look for them.

@Wood posted:

@RSJB18

OMG. That's a gotta have unit for you! Nice story about you Dad. Glad you were able to obtain it.

I did not know Lionel put TMCC in those units. My GrandKids love the speedy little units. I'll have to look for them.

Yea- pretty cool. Can't wait to get it on the rails.

growing up on Long Island in the 60's-70's everyone's dad worked either on Wall Street or at one of the big three defense contractors, Grumman, Sperry, or Fairchild Republic. Lot's of great history in the region.

Thanks

A few things actually

The new cannon car which I will now refer to as "The Biggest Iron" at every opportunity I have.
To quote the announcer from Battlefield 1: "We are being reinforced with an armored train!"

Next up I found this old N scale "briefcase trainset" that folds up for storage, the hobby store got it with track and a train but I ended up only buying the unfortunately now non-functional locomotive and the case, for now, wasn't too much for the engine and set so I'm not stressed about it. I'm tempted to go back and grab the track that they got it with, even if it's old it can still be cleaned up.

It's not in the greatest condition, but hey, it's technically a pre-detailed layout and looks pretty cool. I also have a singular N scale (Kato Super Chief) train set, so hey, might as well give it a home to run on.

@Ulus Ekerman posted:

Where are you finding the choppers?  I'm looking for a few 1/43rd Hueys to go along with my 1960s-1980s military train.  I already have M113 APC and M60 tanks, just need a few Hueys to complete the train

Here's another auction win.  I have the original Lionel-issued 1957 Picatinny Arsenal switcher but it's getting a little tired and it runs a little erratic.  I saw this celebration copy, mint, never out of the box going for peanuts.  I was the only bidder so weclome home, you'll find work here at the Razz house.

I've been on the lookout for a 2012 Lionel Legacy GP9 to have as a back-up for my 2007 Legacy GP7, since the 7 is early Legacy and no electronic boards are available for it anymore. Anyway, the 9 arrived today and I put it through its paces. It's definitely an improvement over the 7, with removable trucks sides to change out traction tires and the trucks also swivel for quick access to the motors.

The only minus is that the diesel horn is different from the 7s, which was the way I remember hearing it as a kid growing up in the fifties. When the UP replaced its GP7 with GP9s, the horns sounded the same. But not on mine. Anyway, I am glad to have found one very reasonably priced, as these GP9s only come along for sale about once a year or so.

@Yellowstone Special posted:

I've been on the lookout for a 2012 Lionel Legacy GP9 to have as a back-up for my 2007 Legacy GP7, since the 7 is early Legacy and no electronic boards are available for it anymore. Anyway, the 9 arrived today and I put it through its paces. It's definitely an improvement over the 7, with removable trucks sides to change out traction tires and the trucks also swivel for quick access to the motors.

The only minus is that the diesel horn is different from the 7s, which was the way I remember hearing it as a kid growing up in the fifties. When the UP replaced its GP7 with GP9s, the horns sounded the same. But not on mine. Anyway, I am glad to have found one very reasonably priced, as these GP9s only come along for sale about once a year or so.

That's a perfect find for you GP 7. Nice engine Vern. Nice video. Good luck with her.

Thank you, Wood. I still favor the GP7, but this one will make a nice back-up should the GP7 get tired. 😉

@RSJB18 posted:

Picked up a small piece with some sentimental significance. My father worked for Sperry Gyroscope (Sperry- Rand) as an electrical engineer, for 45 years. Sperry Rail Service was founded prior to Sperry Gyro, and built by Elmer Sperry. After SRS was formed he invented the gyroscope guidance system, and Sperry Gyroscope several years later.

This Sperry Speeder is a Lionel model with TMCC.

Bob

What a great connection Bob! Making memories that’s what it’s all about.

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Thank you, Wood. I still favor the GP7, but this one will make a nice back-up should the GP7 get tired. 😉

Unfortunately that's what happens to modern era engines.. They get tired and have no replacement parts. My childhood Praire engine still runs clickety clack..

Bought 2 NIB Atlas cars from a fellow forumite.  Atlas does such a nice job on their cars, really nice up close.  While I’m an eastern RR guy , the ghosts of CNW, NP, MILW, etc here in South Dakota call to me when I see their former ROW’s.

@pennsyfan posted:

What a great connection Bob! Making memories that’s what it’s all about.

Thanks. He's the reason I love this hobby.

Bob

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Thank you, Wood. I still favor the GP7, but this one will make a nice back-up should the GP7 get tired. 😉

Vern- FWIW, you could always retro fit ERR boards in the 7 if the need should arise. It's too nice a model to sit on the shelf.

Planned obsolescence sucks........

Bob

These beauties showed up few weeks ago, along with bankruptcy blue caboose, from Berwyn's and I finally found time to pull them out of the box. Now if we only had the basement remodeled so the boys and I could get a layout started.

@RSJB18 posted:

Vern- FWIW, you could always retro fit ERR boards in the 7 if the need should arise. It's too nice a model to sit on the shelf.

Planned obsolescence sucks........

Bob

Thanks, Bob. I agree and will probably do just that if the GP7 fails. And you're right, planned obsolescence does suck. 😳

Took a chance on a mpc gp9  NYC 8477. It's built like a postwar with magentraction and Pullmor type 1 motor. Got it for a reasonable price. Runs really well and quiet. For an MPC era engine I'm pretty impressed.