Buy anything cool lately?

Brooklyn Corey, I love your cat.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Bob - whatever one of the “few” sets is easiest for you to take some pix of. Thanks.

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Good eye, Guttersnipe. This diesel has special meaning to me too, as explained recently in another thread. Now I can't even remember which thread. Anyway, my young son and I used to watch these come in from Oceanside when we lived in Escondido (California) and do some switching there in the 1980s.

The main differences besides the different color hand rails and stanchions, are that the large Santa Fe letters are broader on the Lionel and the multi-chime horns are on the correct right-hand side of the roof above the cab on the Lionel. On the MTH one, they're mounted in the center of the roof above the cab. MTH's Santa Fe yellow is also slightly brighter than Lionel's yellow. I did install the "Barstow" (where they were serviced, about 150 miles north of Escondido) decal on the front, as I had on the Lionel.

Again, I got as close of a match as I could with what was available on eBay, as I was just looking for an unpowered dummy. So, by disconnecting the motors and Proto 1 wiring, it does the job.   I miss the real-life Santa Fe freight diesels. 😔

The area's you mentioned are somewhat familiar to me, and brought a tear to my eye.  I had a ranch in Daggett, and could watch them heading east into the Desert. However at that time I was missing the bloody nose SP's units.  I think this is one of the very reasons we love our trains

@bobfett posted:

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

Thanks very nice looking set! Am I correct that Frank’s were repaints of Williams, and not original product?

@VinceL posted:

Brooklyn Corey, I love your cat.

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

It's not all painted black yet, but I finally jerry-rigged some rear platform details for my roadrailers. The coolest thing I bought this year is this ETD from MacRail. The red part is reflector paint and the white parts are UV-charged paint squares. They glow red in the dark. No wiring!

@Pingman posted:

Bought this LIONEL 15"Texas Special Stationsounds car for a TS set I plan to paint.

The item arrived and on opening the shipping box it was obvious that the OB and paperwork had gotten very wet at some point before shipping. The car itself was cosmetically spectacular; and, looked brand new; the protective plastic film covering the plaques hadn't been removed and no wear evident on rollers or wheels.

The car would not respond to TMCC commands or to whistle commands in conventional mode. Bummer. It was returned for a full refund, so I'm still looking.

8/4/2023 EDIT:  Full refund received today. Could have used Trainz $25 MERRY25 coupon and bought one there but missed out. Saved search on eBay and WTB on the forum; patience.

@Pingman posted:

The item arrived and on opening it was obvious that the box and paperwork had gotten very wet at some point. The car itself was cosmetically spectacular; and, looked brand new; the protective plastic film covering the plaques hadn't been removed and no wear evident on rollers or wheels.

The car would not respond to TMCC commands or to whistle commands in conventional mode. Bummer. It was returned for a full refund, so I'm still looking.

Sorry to hear about the problem, the car looked great.(coming for from a SF fan) and a consist would be Spectacular,  hope you have better luck soon

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

WE've noticed

That's a shame Carl. Glad you were able to get a full refund.

@Pingman, Carl, all I can say is that’s a beautiful Texas Special sounds car, it’s sad reading your story, hopefully you’ll find another one. When they were first introduced by Lionel as Post War collection, the whole set, 7 passenger cars, ABBA, I had them all. If they had the more modern Legacy electronics, and the cars had been the 18 inch aluminum series, I would have kept them. Now, I ran into a like new RJ Corman SD40t-2 and a matching caboose from a friend, Lionel Legacy version 2018… Also, I found some Lionel main-line Dwarf signals, so, I’ve got work to do. Happy Railroading Everyone..

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

Gotta start adding captions to your videos for him. He's very interested in the trains. Nice collection of new stuff too.

Bob

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Thanks very nice looking set! Am I correct that Frank’s were repaints of Williams, and not original product?

Yes, but it depends which sets you are thinking of. The 15" cars are repaints; the 18" cars are original.

My long awaited PRSL Engine has arrived!

Here it on the point of the PRSL passenger cars that started me down the PRSL rabbit hole. 🤣

@bobfett posted:

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

Bob, I really like these Jersey Central cars and the other Reading cars that I think you posted earlier. Both sets are beautiful and they look good with the silhouettes. Until now I didn't think I liked heavyweight cars or silhouettes very much but these have changed my mind.

John

I received from Trainz a Williams 20910 Santa Fe FA-1 A-A set. I have other Williams engines that I love but this is the the nicest. It has a number of separately applied grab irons and etched grills. The previous owner (maybe one of you) took good care of it. Not a scratch, it looks like it's hardly been run, and it was really inexpensive. No box but that's ok. I'm running it with the cars from the LionChief Super Chief set. They're too short, but they and this A-A set take up half of the tiny oval, so it's good.

Nice looking engine John. I love it.

@John's Trains posted:

I received from Trainz a Williams 20910 Santa Fe FA-1 A-A set. I have other Williams engines that I love but this is the the nicest. It has a number of separately applied grab irons and etched grills. The previous owner (maybe one of you) took good care of it. Not a scratch, it looks like it's hardly been run, and it was really inexpensive. No box but that's ok. I'm running it with the cars from the LionChief Super Chief set. They're too short, but they and this A-A set take up half of the tiny oval, so it's good.

Nice engines, John. I had an ABA set of these and ran them for years pulling a Williams 5-car Santa Fe aluminum set. So, it was an all-Williams train and performed flawlessly. I even installed a painted engineer and fireman figures in the powered A cab.

Then I went to all command control and traded up. And even though the Santa Fe never had any ALCO Fs (only Ps), at times, I wish I’d kept this train for old time’s sake. You’ll love them. 😉

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Nice engines, John. I had an ABA set of these and ran them for years pulling a Williams 5-car Santa Fe aluminum set. So, it was an all-Williams train and performed flawlessly. I even installed a painted engineer and fireman figures in the powered A cab.

Then I went to all command control and traded up. And even though the Santa Fe never had any ALCO Fs (only Ps), at times, I wish I’d kept this train for old time’s sake. You’ll love them. 😉

Nice train Vern. I kinda thought the Santa Fe never had these, but then I didn't check it out because they're so beautiful. It's funny because I thought, already having the LionChief FT warbonnet, I wouldn't get any more, until I saw these. My wife likes the red and silver of the Lionel, so I used that to try to "make the sale."  :-)

John

@John's Trains posted:

Nice train Vern. I kinda thought the Santa Fe never had these, but then I didn't check it out because they're so beautiful. It's funny because I thought, already having the LionChief FT warbonnet, I wouldn't get any more, until I saw these. My wife likes the red and silver of the Lionel, so I used that to try to "make the sale."  :-)

John

Makes sense to me, John. Glad it worked and you did good.

Former Member posted:

Yup, got some more of these Hi-Levels. They are the coolest passenger cars.

Those superliners are just plain cool!  Absolutely LOVE your passenger depot.  Huge fan of passenger consists; is that the Spirit of the Century I see way in the back?  One of my favorites!!

AS Guy Fietti would say that isn't  good it's Great

Finally got a Weaver streamlined K4.

A set of Weaver NYC Alco FAs, a Williams Train Master, and some freight cars at a 40% "store closing" discount.

A MTH Premier B&A caboose, a custom run by Jr Junction in Syracuse, arrived today, what a beauty, love the color, interior details, marker lights etc.

I finally have a caboose to go with my B&A 4-6-6T…

Thanks to Phil at Jr Junction

@Craignor posted:

A MTH Premier B&A caboose, a custom run by Jr Junction in Syracuse, arrived today, what a beauty, love the color, interior details, marker lights etc.

I finally have a caboose to go with my B&A 4-6-6T…

Thanks to Phil at Jr Junction

Wow, love them both.

Took a vacation with the grandkids to Cape May, NJ. On an off day headed over to Holly Beach Train Depot in Wildwood. Unfortunately, there were no custom runs available, but I did find a couple of things:

A K-Line Big Boy #4009, I believe it's from 2002. Great price and look at that smoke!

Also found this Atlas 33,000G scale tanker.

@TimMacPA posted:

Also found this Atlas 33,000G scale tanker.

Nice! I work for suburban propane!

@RSJB18 posted:

Gotta start adding captions to your videos for him. He's very interested in the trains. Nice collection of new stuff too.

Bob

Thanks! Great idea, I’ll do that.

Ever since I saw this Weaver Pacific, I made it my no.1 priority to get. I watched ebay religiously every day and also other used train dealers. This is a Weaver I-4 Pacific and I am ecstatic to have been able to find one.

@Bill Park posted:

Ever since I saw this Weaver Pacific, I made it my no.1 priority to get. I watched ebay religiously every day and also other used train dealers. This is a Weaver I-4 Pacific and I am ecstatic to have been able to find one.

That is a beautiful locomotive. Congratulations on finding it!

John

@John's Trains posted:

That is a beautiful locomotive. Congratulations on finding it!

John

Very nice, Reminds me of Southern's PS 4, If anyone has a chance they can see a real PS 4 at the Smithsonian National History Museum.  her majesty is something to should not be missed if at all possible

@Craignor posted:

A MTH Premier B&A caboose, a custom run by Jr Junction in Syracuse, arrived today, what a beauty, love the color, interior details, marker lights etc.
I finally have a caboose to go with my B&A 4-6-6T…

Thanks to Phil at Jr Junction

I like the sound of that engine chuffing by! And a nice caboose to go with it.

Picked up three Lionel SF passenger cars (observation, baggage and coach) to go with the Menards' Bluebonnet beta engine and caboose I bought a few weeks ago. I painted on the blue and yellow "Bluebonnet" stripes and added figures to the interiors.

I might pick up another coach car to make a longer consist and hope Menards releases a dummy Bluebonnet engine to go with the powered version. Mine had a few minor issues, but has run well up to this point and, at the initial price point, is well worth it.

P.S. - I noticed the caboose was very wobbly in the video and have since added some weights to the interior and it now runs much, much smoother.

@Richie C. posted:

Picked up three Lionel SF passenger cars (observation, baggage and coach) to go with the Menards' Bluebonnet beta engine and caboose I bought a few weeks ago. I painted on the blue and yellow "Bluebonnet" stripes and added figures to the interiors.

I like what you did with the stripes. Who makes those passenger figures?  I'm thinking about putting figures in my LionChief Super Chief cars and the ones you found look perfect. What did you use to glue them in?

On an unrelated note, I also like that crane in the background.

John

@Richie C. posted:

I painted on the blue and yellow "Bluebonnet" stripes and added figures to the interiors.

Those blue and yellow stripes look really great Rich.

What was your paint and what was the method you used to apply it. ?        Nicely done sir.

Thanks, guys - I completely masked off the entirety of each of the cars with painter's tape (blue and green) leaving only the striping area and shot three coats with Krylon satin ink blue which was the closest color to the Menards engine blue that I could get with a rattle can. I covered that with gloss Clear so the next masking tape job wouldn't stick to or pull off the blue paint. I then applied tape from the bottom over the blue stripe for about four "ribs" high and from the top about two "ribs" down over the blue, leaving a thin width to apply the yellow paint over the blue and then shot it with Krylon yellow for about 4 coats. Removed the new top and bottom tape, leaving the original stripe width and shot that with Matte Clear to replicate the flat color of the Menards blue and yellow on the engine.

I've contemplated getting an airbrush system for many years. I'm sure it would give me finer control and not so much excess overspray, but just never pulled the trigger (sorry !). Spraying indoors, I use a 3M respirator as well.

Most of the people are the 0-scale EveModel people from China. I got a box of 100 painted, sitting figures for about $19.00 on the Big A. There are 4 each of 25 different figures and most of the duplicates are painted in different colors. I think I counted 20 actual duplicates, so you're getting at least 80 individual figures. There's two problems, though - one, they don't have eyes. I used a black ultra-fine Sharpie and solved that problem. Most are also too big to fit into the Lionel seats, so they had to be trimmed - shoes, feet and hips mostly and nothing that would be visible by looking through the windows.

However, for the upper observation car level, I knew that wouldn't work, so I bought a set of MTH passenger people which are much more detailed and smaller; fitting into the seats perfectly. However, at almost $2.00 per figure it would cost way too much to populate the rest of the cars, so that's where the EveModel people come in.

I used a fast set CA glue and toothpick to mount the figures - I don't see any reason why I'd be moving them in the future and want them to stay in place permanently, especially the figures in the upper level of the observation car.

John - the crane is the Lionel Legacy crane. It uses a separate track extension made by Gargraves that connects to my Fastrack siding. It's a terrific accessory and the kids love seeing it in action - see pics and video and apologize for the vertical aspect.

@Richie C. posted:

Thanks for the painting procedure on the passenger cars.   

Making thin lines on the ribbed models is a tricky job.   I would have a hard time trying to get as good a job using the two color method you used.   The rattle cans seemed to have worked well for you.   Nicely done Rich.

A nice Williams BL-2 and a Peterson Supply (Atlas) caboose in the Chesapeake Ohio Livery showed up at my door step. 🤔.  The Williams was from a forum member. I serviced , changed the speaker, tinted the cab windows, and added a cab bulb. Running nice and smooth!