Buy anything cool lately?

@pennsyfan posted:

Is there a fluke here? Note the picture of the vista dome.

I like the color images in the windows. Much better than the black silhouettes.

Bob

The voices are at it again. This time for the well detailed J-1e MTH scale Hudson w\ proto1. Got a great deal from the fine folks at Trainz. Serviced her all up, which to me was one of the easiest scale steamers I've worked on. Although that pitman motor is a monster. Put a bcr in the real coal loaded tender , and away she went! Had some rolling stock, but couldn't pass up the pennsy 3 dome tank car and NYC caboose for her. I think I have a problem and obsession with Hudsons... Thanks to the bad influences on here. 😉

My purchases have been winding down. While I’ve received a lot of ‘advice’ from the boss on new stuff, I will admit that storage has become an issue. I’ll only be buying stuff that I truly want AND the price is too good to pass up.

That being said here’s my latest acquisitions.  The first is a NIB Lionel 84857 TTX Husky Stack which I bought from an OGR sponsor. I was watching the price for this guy at multiple stores and it eventually went on a very good sale. During the online purchase a 10% discount came up if you signed up for a newsletter, so that sealed the deal.  I really like the detail on this one  

The second is a NIB Lionel 26947 Gulf Oil Die-Cast Tank Car I got from the bay. I was browsing stuff there and this caught my eye, especially since I grew up in Pittsburgh.  The price was already less than half of Greenberg’s mint price so I added it to my watchlist. The seller came back with a 16% discount offer, so it was a no-brainer.  It is well built, but the graphics aren’t very crisp.

Received some parts for my next engine project. I'm converting a MTH S2 diesel from a dummy to a powered unit with ERR boards. I ordered the electro-coupers from Lionel along with a rectangular 8 ohm speaker that fits in the fuel tank perfectly.

The screw holes even line up! Sometimes I amaze even myself......

Bob

@Donnie Kennedy posted:

The voices are at it again. This time for the well detailed J-1e MTH scale Hudson w\ proto1. Got a great deal from the fine folks at Trainz. Serviced her all up, which to me was one of the easiest scale steamers I've worked on. Although that pitman motor is a monster. Put a bcr in the real coal loaded tender , and away she went! Had some rolling stock, but couldn't pass up the pennsy 3 dome tank car and NYC caboose for her. I think I have a problem and obsession with Hudsons... Thanks to the bad influences on here. 😉

Those are really beautiful models Donnie, glad you were able to find one. I had my hobby shop when these and the Lionel 700e came out. Both were around $1000 and very similar in level of detail. Personally, I liked the appearance of the MTH better and sold my Lionel. The Lionel with it's Pulmor motor couldn't pull more than 4 or 5 of the then new K-Line 18 heavyweights. It wouldn't even spin the drivers (may have just been my example) but the MTH would pull everything I could put behind it! The smoke output was fantastic as well.

Picked up these custom lumber, concrete and fruit pallets for around the layout ....

Richie C. Wow! Those custom pallets are really nice!  Incredible detail and realism.

Very nice, where did you get them?

@Richie C.,

I just made covers for the wood loads on an I-beam I just bought, but I’ve noticed some loads, like yours, that have ‘ties’ that simulate metal bands that go around them. What are the ties on your wood loads?

@texgeekboy posted:

@Richie C.,

I just made covers for the wood loads on an I-beam I just bought, but I’ve noticed some loads, like yours, that have ‘ties’ that simulate metal bands that go around them. What are the ties on your wood loads?

Pictures??

@pennsyfan,

I recently revived a thread from 2016 with a question on how to do it.  My last post with a picture is here.

@Richie C. posted:

Picked up these custom lumber, concrete and fruit pallets for around the layout ....

Who made these custom loads and what were the costs??? Vey nice.....thanks for sharing.

Hi guys - the custom pallet loads were obtained on the E-Crater website, which I believe is like a mini E-bay. Once on the site, just do a search for "o pallets" or something similar and you should get the seller (TrainDetails) who makes these (in various scales, I believe). You can also visit his on-line store.

They have pre-printed ones and custom ones you can order. My recollection is that the pre-printed ones run from about $5 to $20 and the custom ones were around $30 (for a dozen custom lumber pallets).

The black "bands or ties" appear to be very, very thin black tape. Out of the dozen custom lumber pallets, on about three the tape was slightly misaligned, but it didn't bother me because I just turned them around to face the other way.

They also make plain pallets.

Hope this helps.

I’ve had these Marx lighted 6” cars for a few years. I finally found a clean Commodore Vanderbilt, at a good price to pull them. I’ll be adding a lighted observation tomorrow.

In a "literally how did I find this?" sort of situation I managed to get my hands on my first Brass engine in the form of a Right of Way Industries PRR T1. She has a few flaws, had to replace a screw on the trailing truck and reattach the pilot, but other than that it runs great! I'm eagerly looking forward to taking this to many a train show in the future.

@RSJB18 posted:

Received some parts for my next engine project. I'm converting a MTH S2 diesel from a dummy to a powered unit with ERR boards. I ordered the electro-coupers from Lionel along with a rectangular 8 ohm speaker that fits in the fuel tank perfectly.

The screw holes even line up! Sometimes I amaze even myself......

Bob

Truer Words are seldom spoken

@Patrick B posted:

In a "literally how did I find this?" sort of situation I managed to get my hands on my first Brass engine in the form of a Right of Way Industries PRR T1. She has a few flaws, had to replace a screw on the trailing truck and reattach the pilot, but other than that it runs great! I'm eagerly looking forward to taking this to many a train show in the future.

Being  a left coaster, not on my Radae, but great catch for you eastern cats

I picked up this new haven rail bonder from tw. It has some nice detailing, tmcc, and costs about the same as a lionel caboose these days.

@biscuitag97 posted:

I picked up this new haven rail bonder from tw. It has some nice detailing, tmcc, and costs about the same as a lionel caboose these days.

I have a Sperry Speeder. Same chassis with TMCC. Fun little critters to run around the layout. I'm debating adding sound to mine.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

I have a Sperry Speeder. Same chassis with TMCC. Fun little critters to run around the layout. I'm debating adding sound to mine.

Bob

If you add sound let us know,  For some reason, Model sound always sounds so tiny, to me, no matter what the scale

my lionel Santa Fe dash 8 set is on its way from train world via UPS

However i can't play with it until christmas

so no videos / pix until december unless i can convince my godfather to let me "test" it before christmas

Paige, just tell Grandma that you have to test it so as to make sure it doesn't make her grandkids un-happy in case it doesn't work.  we all know that it will, but she might not.

Quick video of an LC+ Docksider from ebay and some MTH premier rolling stock from York.

Fall York 2023 "haul"

Another York show under the belt and what do I have to show for it? Stuff in the photos below, and rambling commentary on my acquisitions. despite my not claiming any sort of competence at writing.

Keeping with previous entries here, captions reference the photo immediately above them.

Thursday:

We start off the show with the discovery that MNP inc. has their booth back in Orange Hall. Last year (after numerous instances of waffling 'cause these things aren't cheap) I placed an order for one of their mechanized track-cleaning boxcars on their website. The order "took" but I was never charged for it. Some months later I got an email promising a return to business following a move to another city in VA. Well, upon finding their booth I struck up a conversation, mentioning the unfilled order and email. I was offered the opportunity to buy one of the cars they had on-hand which would save me shipping costs, which I happily accepted along with an extra pack of cleaning pads.

Here you see the circuit board controlling the motorized cleaning pads, neatly installed inside a RailKing 30-74983 traditional-sized boxcar. You won't mistake this for any regular RK boxcar even without the rotary pads if you pick it up - this sucker is heavy

Last York I mentioned finding a K-Line k6341-1053 Santa Fe aluminum tanker, part of a four-car set that I acquired the first two cars of, (red and white-band cars) in a Cabin Fever auction, within a pair of lots that totaled a dozen of these aluminum beauties, a haul I termed Tankerpalooza. Upon finding about the quartet while researching the product numbers, I set out to find the missing cars. The yellow car I found at April '23 York in Blue hall after a number of false starts (among them a dealer in White hall who had the four car set in original shrinkwrap, but was unwilling to split the set. Fair enough.

Fast forward another six months and I am again in Blue hall, actively seeking out any black-and-yellow boxes containing modern tankers, when I spot one. Examining the box end I saw it was the k6341-1051. Well, I already have the white-band car so I moved on. Another box at the other end of the display, one of two standing on its end caught my eye. Also a Santa Fe tanker, I peered at the box label and saw the "1054". Consulting the thread linked above to be sure, I motioned the dealer over to ask if he could open the box to verify this was the green-banded car. He obliged, and upon slicing open the tape sealing the box (this will become relevant later on), pulled back the styrofoam cradle, revealing the green band. "Sold!" said I without a moment's hesitation. Coincidentally, this was the same dealer I got the yellow-band car at in April

Upon unboxing the car in my hote...er, motel"6" room (won't be doing that again), I noticed something odd. What was a paper sticker (visible in the first photo) doing on a car that was still sealed? Looking at the stripe end, I noticed some writing on the carbody. Mystified, I took a closer look. Written in what looks to be a Sharpie were the words "K6341-1054", "OK (indistinct  squiggle)" and "21/6-01"

This looks like it was a production sample...from K-Line. How it got into a sealed retail box is anyone's guess. Maybe @brianel_k-lineguy can chime in on this one. According to legacykline.com, this set was announced in the 2001 1st Edition catalog, so the date may well check out (the date notation makes sense if you consider the format DD/MM/YY, which is often the norm outside the US)

Friday:

Starting the day out right by meeting up with CarGuyZM10 to pick up a pair of MTH unpainted tank cars he in turn got from a Cabin Fever MTH warehouse auction and had put up for sale on the Forum. I've been picking up paint and engineering samples here and there as novelty items, intending to display and occasionally stick them in a train just for giggles. This pair would be no exception, once I addressed the notoriously fragile handrails on the 33k gallon tanker below. Above is a RailKing modern tanker. Initially I thought it was Premier, but pulling out one of my actual ones (the GATX 6666 from last year's fall York) showed its true nature. No big deal, as the RK modern tankers are close enough to the Premier ones that you can easily find the same size differences in the prototypes.

The 33k tanker. I have the "missing" platform support in a baggie that came with the car. The broken walkway railings will require some thought as to repair. I had looked at these cars on the warehouse auctions numerous times and almost pulled the trigger on some, but the mangled railings were always a deterrent. Well, having to only deal with one car whose railings are half-intact made this easier. I'm considering drilling (carefully) holes in the walkway bases and inserting bits of wire to provide something stable to superglue the stanchions to.

I expected the bit of masking tape declaring "Premier 33k Tanker". What I didn't expect were the markings above, identifying this carbody as coming from the "third tool shot" in mid-1999. Anyone recall when the Premier 33,000 gallon tankers first appeared in the catalog?

Remember what I said above about 'novelty items' that I wanted to randomly stick into a train for giggles? How's this for a laugh, a double-take, or maybe a cry of "Hey, that's Illegal!"

I spotted this Lima O scale "bogie container wagon" in Blue hall. The tableholder said it came from an estate sale, and was the only one he had, also that you never know what kind of oddballs will show up in such sales. $20 and it was mine . BTW, I won some more of this stuff (passenger cars and a gondola) on Cabin Fever last week. Just waiting for shipping. Not really trying to "get into" European stuff, just oddballs "headed for an exhibit". Or a museum.

Or just shock value

This is very European. In fact, SNCF (the French national railroad) is molded into the side of the carbody. BTW, this car is freakishly lightweight. Like "027 flatcar with plastic wheels" kind of weight.

A close-up of one of the "bogies" (what we refer to as a "truck"). They roll very well, much like Weaver's Delrin plastic trucks. I don't have any plans to switch out the wheels (yes, I know what they say about plastic wheelsets).

Man, that coupler is even funkier than AHM/Rivarossi's, and unlike those, no knuckle-coupler retrofit is availabe for these (why would Lima do this anyway, these cars are for buffer-and-chain territory). I do wonder if they'll mate with the old 1970's Atlas coupler--stranger things have happened. Going to need an adapter to link these to a 3-rail coupler. If only I had the room for a 3D printer (I don't) I'd be well on the way to designing something to link these to our Yankee hitches. Usually, acquiring this stuff stateside is an exercise in $hipping-$hock as the costs on a per-car basis are often higher than the purchase price of the cars themselves since they're usually located "across the pond". While writing this I found some more of "this stuff" crop up at a certain Forum advertiser Trainz. More on this if I pull the trigger (I did).

Edit: Update...these couplers are the same ones fitted to the AHM/Rivarossi's US freight cars, so the AHM conversion couplers should fit these.

Saturday:

This was the (next to) last piece. Y'all know where this one came from. In case you don't, it's a TrainWorld exclusive. Initially I passed on it owing to its price, and I was still on the lookout for items that might tickle my fancy more. Like the MTH UP auxiliary tender with flag logo that I saw at Vince's Trains. I have the plain version for my restoration-edition Big Boy, and since I had pre-ordered MTH's 2023 Premier Challenger (a sample of which I saw at their booth), I thought maybe I should get one for it too...

You know the drill..."First Rule of York". I was playing that over and over in my head while looking at it. This was close to closing time for the meet, and dealers were starting to pack up. The price tag didn't scare me either. But I thought "it sat here all three days, where is it gonna go?". I walked around the corner, I think I may have made a loop around to the next aisle, then came back. And it was gone. Less than two minutes after I walked away. Dang.

And so, we come back to Trainworld's booth. They were packing up too. This car had been moved to another table at the back of their area, sitting amongst some Williams stuff marked down to $25. I knew that wasn't fooling anybody, and so readied a C-note as I asked for the car. They knocked $10 off the sticker price without my saying anything about it

Last buy of the show, as I headed toward the front of Orange Hall, I spotted this K-Lionel caboose. Knowing I had considered and forgotten about a similar boxcar last year, I decided to get this one for my "O Gauge Industry" photo freight. The $25 price didn't hurt either. I had some tools from B&B Hobby, and made one more stop at the Hot Wire Foam Factory for a foam-cutter and mounting attachment for the tool so I could clamp it to a table for some styrofoam work.

Ahh...another post that took 2 hours to write.

(Edit: and another half hour to replace the images that broke upon first posting)

Next up, Allentown

---PCJ

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

@RailRide - only the K-line caboose pic is showing…

@Apples55 posted:

@RailRide - only the K-line caboose pic is showing…

Yup. I noticed that as soon as I posted. Had a feeling something was going to break after I added two more sets of photos, and noticed that all the pics in the in the attachment box had vanished save for that caboose. Should be fixed now.

---PCJ

My York Haul;

8 brand new aluminum TCA passenger cars from 1998-2001 (by mistake I also bought a duplicate 9th one that I will be putting up for sale here),

A green Lionel Lines Chatham # 2402 passenger car to add to my existing "set" of 5.

3 Madison passenger cars from 1948, #' 2625, 2627 and 2628.

Another Lionel chemical tank car - this one is chrome with a Gulf/Gulftane logo.

A Milwaukee Road modern era passenger car that I will turn into a diner oner the winter.

A lighted work caboose, also to be a winter paint project.

Misc items like people in both O and Standard gauges.

Nice haul John, I had a productive, but expensive, day myself.

Jay

Nice, very nice, love the garden the Wizard cast is in. but did have a hard time twisting my ole neck to look at the passenger cars

@pennsyfan posted:

I’ve had these Marx lighted 6” cars for a few years. I finally found a clean Commodore Vanderbilt, at a good price to pull them. I’ll be adding a lighted observation tomorrow.

Well it a little longer than tomorrow; but here is the observation. I may have to rewire it or change the red bulb. The interior light hardly glows.

Thst the name of the game, It wouldn't be interesting if you didn't have to keep them running

Sorry if this ends up being long. I didn't expect this to happen but it's an addiction - right?

Always had an interest in the Freedom Train. Didn't know there were three of them!

First started collecting the issues by Lionel.

Started with this purchase: 6- 83111 - American Freedom Train 21" Passenger Car 4-Pack which included Exhibit Cars 101, 102, 103; Power Car 111 with generator sounds:

Next purchase: 6-83116 - American Freedom Train 21" Passenger Car 2-Pack which included Exhibit cars 104 & 105:

Next purchase: 6-83119 - American Freedom Train 21" StationSounds Exhibit Car which included Sleeper Car 201:

Next purchase: 6-83589 - American Freedom Train 2-Pack #1 which included Exhibit Cars 106 & 107:

Next purchase: 6-83592 - Exhibit Cars 108 & 109:

Next purchase: 6-84226 - American Freedom Train Add-On 2-Pack #4 which included Exhibit Cars 100 & 110:

Next purchase: 2027340 - American Freedom Train 18” Passenger Car 2-Pack 1 which included 202 - Diner and 203 - Lounge Car:

Next purchase: 2027350 - American Freedom Train 18” Passenger Car 2-Pack 2 which included 204 - Parlor Car; 205 - Observation Car:

That's all the Lionel for now. Here's hoping they will produce the remaining cars, but not holding my breath.

Would love to find the "Display Cars" - the ones with the large windows.

Of course, need an engine to pull all of this so I bought this - MTH 30-1776-1 - American Freedom Train 4-8-4 GS-4 Northern Steam Engine:

All the above items - plus the still yet-to-be-built items toured the country 1975 thru 1976.

Didn't realize there was a train that preceded the American Freedom Train that also toured the country to check on potential sites.

This was called the "Preamble Express":

2022080 - which included 2022081 - LEGACY E8 #951; 2022082 - Preamble Express Combine #1; 2022083 - Preamble Express Coach #2; 2022084 - Preamble Express Coach #3; 2022085 - Preamble Express Observation #4:

The cars in the Preamble Express became part of the 1975-1976 Freedom Train.

Then I found out there was a "Freedom Train" that toured the county 1947 to 1949.

So decided to pursue purchasing that.

Lionel issued a 4-car plus locomotive set (6-21791 - Freedom Train (TMCC Alco PA Diesel #1776) which included 6-14531 – Freedom Train ALCo PA-1 Powered A Unit; 6-39070 – Freedom Train Baggage Car # 1896; 6-39071 – Freedom Train Sleeper "Glen Fee"; 6-39072 – Freedom Train Sleeper "Penn Square"; 6-39073 – Freedom Train Observation Car "Central Plains"):

Found out the actual Freedom Train consisted of seven cars plus loco so had to find the other three cars to complete the Freedom Train:

6-39085 - Freedom Train Heavyweight Passenger Car 3-Pack  which included 6-39086 – Freedom Train Exhibit Car # 3465; 6-39087 – Freedom Train Exhibit Car # 3489; 6-39088 – Freedom Train Exhibit Car # 3510):

Back in 76 I got to see 4449 when she came to the San Gabriel Valley, my Glasses were broken, and I was carrying my baby daughter, but what I could see made me so proud. A decade or so later I got the HO model, the mechanism was really bad, so I Put the Bowser Replacement in, I tried it out and it still runs.  then 10 years ago, my present wife's grandson sent us plane tickets to come see him., stationed in DC in the Navy, we got to Baltimore and I got to see the  B&O 484 that pulled the train on the east coast.  And a side trip to see Southern's 1401 at the Smithsonian. After i got back andloaded all my pictures into my computer and deleted the card, The computer crashed and took all the pictures with it.  The memories are still with me, so all is not lost, but thank you ever so much for sharing

The MTH/Lionel (?) 49ers versions of the Lehigh Valley John Wilkes engine have always left me flat.  The Weaver on the other hand was much more acceptable/realistic.  However I had never purchased a Weaver brass engine.

As I turned the corner in York near Trainworld's enclave, I saw a number of  nice items the Weaver 3 rail John Wilkes engine and two Gold Edition passenger cars among them.

Sold.

I went to York looking for two things, a Lionel Polar Express, and trouble.  No tunnel, but a bit of trouble.

@Former Member posted:

The MTH/Lionel (?) 49ers versions of the Lehigh Valley John Wilkes engine have always left me flat.  The Weaver on the other hand was much more acceptable/realistic.  However I had never purchased a Weaver brass engine.

As I turned the corner in York near Trainworld's enclave, I saw a number of  nice items the Weaver 3 rail John Wilkes engine and two Gold Edition passenger cars among them.

Sold.

I went to York looking for two things, a Lionel Polar Express, and trouble.  No tunnel, but a bit of trouble.

I have a Weaver Dreyfus and Weaver John Wilkes. GRJ converted the John Wilkes to PS3 for me. It’s one of my best running engines and runs well on 054/072 curve.

The only drawback is getting traction tires. In fact I’m having that issue now with the Dreyfus. The drivers are 41mm diameter….big drivers. The traction tire is .5mm thick. So I need a traction tire that has a 41mm OD or a bit less and 1mm less ID which is 2.7mm wide.

I’ve found nothing that comes close. MTH did have traction tires that big but they’re quite a bit thicker and “not in stock”.

I didn’t buy a ton at York, but I finally got my bridge. I think I can squeeze it into the upper level of my layout, until I rebuild my whole layout around it. Just love the look of these bridges. I cleared a hole in my toy display while I get a spot ready for it.

Also picked up some diecast cars, and these two Marx pieces. I already have a tower on my layout, but I couldn’t get past how clean this one is.

Budweiser was the beer of choice during my youth and has always been a public relations juggernaut so I have collected quite a few Bud and Anheuser Busch cars.  Here's my latest addition.

I recently picked up the new Fezziwigs Christmas cars by Lionel from Trainland. Got them unpacked and on the rails for inspection last night. Very nice set with great colors and graphics.
Two thoughts- the caboose makers should light up, they don't, gonna see what I can do about that.
And the Reindeer car could have easily been fit with a Gi-raffe car mechanism with Rudolph popping up out of the top.

Strasburg # 1 is providing power until a suitable steamer can be procured....

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Strasburg # 1 is providing power until a suitable steamer can be procured....

Bob

There is an A5 Christmas engine on the horizon; but it’s been delayed.

@pennsyfan posted:

There is an A5 Christmas engine on the horizon; but it’s been delayed.

I'm watching a few candidates on the second hand market. Don't need to spend major $$$ on a engine for seasonal use. I already have a PE set that stays in the box all year as is.

Thanks