Buy anything cool lately?

That's cool anything interesting?

Not really, it was more of a pamphlet at that time. It has some decent plans and some info generally but clearly Al Kalmback was getting his feet wet that first year. Funny how there's an article on OO scale, before HO was really a thing at all.

I won a 5 car set of Weaver 20" Aluminum cars in Amtrak today on Ebay in which I have two other identical sets.  I belong to the FCTT High Railers from Rochester NY and I will be adding the dome and two coaches to my other 5 car set with the other dome and two coaches which will make my consist eleven cars long for the next show in three weeks.  At $215 plus $6.25 shipping that averages out to $46.25 a car which fits my budget.  Now to decide what engines to pull them at the show (E-8's, FP45's, F40PH's, or Genesis)?

I found it interesting that the very first page carries the words "advance the hobby"

And I thought my "1957" MRRCraftsman/Toy Trains, with the shared cover was cool

Bought brand new MTH non powered (with lights only) C&NW GP38-2 from store display for 90 dollars!

Wife surprised me with some new polish and buffer pads.  I love the results:

It's an 88 Trans Am GTA.

edit:tried reply by quoting below, but needed admin approval.  Not sure why but hope I answered the question.  The car shown below is a TA, it's a 95-97, newer than mine.

does the whissle go whoooo whooo in the red engine!

just joking

It'll hardly get out of its own way but it looks good 

I've had 'race cars' in the past and I'll never own another-got tired of working on 'em.

The GTA in the picture is a nice 'driver' and everything works!  I love it!

I happened to be in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania yesterday and stopped in Hobby Express.  I had been looking for a steam era Pennsylvania caboose to go with my LC+ Pennsylvania Mikado.  If found this MTH Premier N6b wooden caboose.  Bingo!!  It even has lit marker lights!

While I was there an employee, Doug Reynolds, asked what I had under my arm.  The caboose.  Excellent choice, he said.  He then struck up a conversation.  Very friendly fellow.  I'm glad I met him.

I'll have to get up there sometime. great looking Cabin Car.

That's a beautiful caboose, Mark. I really like running scale cars with my LC+ Hudson. 

Nice! What car is that, it looks like a corvette! 

Dan

I think it is a Pontiac Trans AM, but an earlier year than the one in the picture.

Got this K-Line NYC Bay window caboose.  It was in a lot with some other cars that were fine.....but really bought it for this caboose. It will run behind my set of NYC Cigar band Sharks.....is that correct or way off????

This caboose is REALLY nice. All the separate details, nice paint and even a crew member in the bay.

K-Line was on top of their game for sure. This roof walk is fantastic.  Has anyone issued this caboose since??? Does Lionel have this tooling?? Happy to get this and at a bargain price. 

Also came today.......another Atlas 'Auto Parts' Hy-cube box car. Another great winner!!

These are not cheap.....but worth it for the limited number I will need.....can't have too many on a train!! 

I did not know of this detail. There was a sticker INSISE the box about 'overspray from the factory' A train of these will look cool running on a 'Modern' day! 

That fills out my modern fleet......maybe a few tank cars.......but I'll start looking for those soon. Running out of freight cars I 'Need'.......that's a good thing! Thanks for looking

that is a great looking caboose Dave.

Got two of them yesterday from UPS. Atlas O.

Lionel NYC heavy " mike".

Thats really cool, I just ordered one lol.

Lionel has it's own tooling, different from the K-Line. Here's the Lionel version, which is extremely nice, and dead-on with the prototype.

Lionel also did the NYC "Road to the Future" scale bay window, somewhat different than the one pictured above.

I am in the process of wiring track. I have come across a handy little power clamp called the split jaw power clamp. It is in my case a brass clip with a crimp connect attached that attaches to a track with allen screws in any location. This eliminates the need for soldering wire or depending on the rail joiners for power. The standard clamp fits Ross and Gargraves but for Atlas O one needs to ask to have the standard clamp shortened by 1/16 inch. You would also need to cut off the plastic from the rail so the clamp will fit.

Found some Dept. 56 wreaths and garland for the Christmas 2015 layout, and my UPS driver left an antique package car for me.

Finally found one of the scale sized B6's, Lionel's 1989 reissue of the prewar 701.

This Lionel 2344C initially looked bad enough to repaint but it turned out to be saveable.  Too bad it matches nothing I own....yet.

These mark a sort of milestone.  My first set of PW F3's.  Original but driver grade, I won't have any reservations about running these 2353's. 

Bruce

Yup, a Lionel NYC S-1 electric.  Wanted one for a long time.  Runs great (I run conventional-only), and looks great.

My latest... PostWar 4-6-4.

I happened upon this one at an antique store in Quakertown, PA.  Lionel 2065.  Sort of has a Canadian National/Grand Trunk look to it.

Pick up a couple of PS2 diesel kits.

Thanks Matt

Milwrd

I have two 2065s-nice engines. Got the second one "because it was there".  Got my 2625 Irvington passenger car yesterday from a forum member. Have wanted one but this one  was affordable.  So far, I have enjoyed dealing with forum members.

nice find, that's one I've been after recently.

Picked up a 624 C&O Switcher. Always one of my PW favorites. In really nice condition. Smells great when it runs!

I a Lionel NYC S-2 #125 w/ TMCC a few weeks ago. Works great and sounds great. I'm running it with my LEGACY remote. Heres the link to the running video (I'm not sure how to put the actual video in the post): https://youtu.be/Zr_K5c8XwlQ

 hello chessie1971..........

Good video

Tiffany

Rick, really like the ballast job and of course, the Mikado.

Two Atlas BNSF Heritage Trinity 5161 hoppers.

This is not my video. I posted this for harry trains. 

Last night I ordered a couple of goodies off of Ebay.  An MTH PRR handcar and an MTH

SD-70 ACe (CSX).  I saw one of these SD-70 ACe's at the TNW Show at Tacoma's Freighthouse Square.  A guy had one in WP colors and I fell in love with it.  Suzie loves Trolleys, Motor Cars, Hand Cars and other "cute" little gadgets.  But she also hinted that she wanted a CSX locomotive she happened to see in the 2015 MTH catalog.

So I thought, "Ah-Ha" ..  So I ordered the SD-70 ACe unit..

Cheers.

KRK

I got this bad boy last night

Got a Milwaukee 18V impact driver yesterday (goes w/the cordless drill set I have).  Will help me finish building the shelving.  Which will help us organize & re-do the basement.  Which will give me the space to build my layout benchwork.  For which, I'll also probably use said impact driver.  Might be forced to re-plank the deck first, though....

Too much!  I found amazing prices on that auction site and this forum for the following items:

K-Line F40PHs in Amtrak, Custom painted VIA Renaissance III, and CalTrain (to be painted in VIA).

MTH F40PH in Amtrak and a nice dummy in Tri-Rail that will get a repaint into Amtrak.

MTH FP45 in Amtrak (not an SDP40F, but it is still cool and I took the front handrail off to make it look a little closer to the prototype)

Yet another MTH FP45 in Santa Fe to bring my fleet to 4 to pull my GGD El Capitan when it arrives along with a damaged shell Wisconsin Central one to make one of my Sante Fe units powered.

An MTH P40 in Phase III Heritage Paint.

Now I finally have the motive power to pull my various sets of GGD / K-Line passenger cars.  I'd like another FP45 in Amtrak, but I'll wait until the pricing is good.

I also have coming a 2 rail 3rd Rail PRR F7 AB set to for my home layout and to complement my small fleet of FP7As.  Finally, I have a 12 car set of GGD El Capitan cars coming.  11 in Santa Fe and an add on baggage in Amtrak.  Can't wait.

I've spent most of my budget for the year, but the bargains were there!

Received our first K-Line F7 Diesels this week and just tried them out on the bench tonight. Issued in 2005, these were some of the last diesels issued before K-Line's demise and are quite attractive with very nice detail and the parts needed to change the pilot to several different configurations. Gotta pull that huge coupler soon!

I had picked up the matching B unit (with smoke) several weeks ago for a possible repaint but found it quite attractive so I set out looking for the AA pair. I'm impressed...

Thank you for getting that up there. I hate just posting links to things.

Your welcome!

Bought a cool Norfolk Southern wrist watch with a nice expansion band from 2005 today. Has a gold stallion on the face plus gold numbers and hands. Marked "Pittsburgh Division".

Bought 11 brand new, in the original boxes, Hess trucks from the 80's and early 90's at an auction yesterday.

Nice purchase, Sam.

Yesterday I took a trip to the Firelands show in Mansfield OH. Never was here. It is not a big show but Brummy's happened to be there and I bought a bag of cinders to make some roads in different parts of the layout.........Paul

Got the flat car a few months ago, just added the load of steel H beams.

Also a test to see if I could download pictures to my new computer and if I could find them and added them into the forum.

I scored this, which seems to be in really good shape (and not the 1971 Kalmbach re-print), for well under half of what the re-prints usually go for.

If you're not familiar with these, they were printed every year or two and showed all the new developments in locomotive types and design. They usually had over 1000 pages and were filled with drawings, photos and technical info.

I couldn’t believe I got this for so little. The listing showed plenty of interior page photos and it all looked pretty good. Can’t wait for this to arrive, I’ve been wanting a 1941 or 44 one for years.

I also scored this print off eBay, which got here over the weekend.

I'm not sure of the print itself, as this artist only offered a print of this painting in a large-format (and expensive) glicee one, I was surprised to see a nice 8X10 one of this painting of the RR that I model.

It’s slightly inaccurate as it depicts a wartime commuter train entering the Doe River Gorge, but Hampton (the only community in the direction you can see the houses in the background) is show way off from where it would have been and you’d never seen it from the gorge as there's a ridge with a tunell between this location and Hampton. And # 11 is green when it would have been black in that timeframe. But still, I like the painting, so I was happy to get this.

I got this frame for it at a local crafts place on sale. It'll hang in the hall right at the door for the toy room:

Hello p51..........

Would Santa Fe's 5000, 5001 class 2-10-4's be listed in that ?

Tiffany

No idea, as I previously posted that  i just won the auction and am waiting for it to arrive.

But if it was a production locomotive in that year, I'd think it would likely be in there. These books were quite inclusive.

The Santa Fe 5001 - 5010 class 2-10-4 is shown in the 1941 Cyclopedia.

Picked up another General this week off eBay to add to my collection.  Runs pretty good but no sound allowed.  Good smoker though.

Hello Hot Water.............

I am SORRY for what I said you about month ago (about 10 dollars). I have decided NOT to trade or sell my Sunset 3rd S.F.5011 as that would be a very big mistake on my part. We would never able to afford something like that again if I let it go. I believe it is happening to other forum members too(income getting smaller).

Tiffany

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Hello Hot Water........

............................... ?

Tiffany

And right you are about that car being a "bad boy." That beautiful car goes waaaaaay beyond being a mere toy (train.) It is a model nearing artistic status, right, folks?

Beautiful, can imagine having a full set of accompanying cars to run behind a sleek and fast 4-8-4 Balwin loco.

I picked up a purchase from a local Forum member today.  It was handy he lives only 15 minutes from where I work.

I got a great price on an MTH Premier PS2 B&O Atlantic.  Boy is it a great looking locomotive.  It has better detail than any of my other locomotives.  It sounds, smokes, and runs great even conventionally while my TIU is at MTH for warranty repair.  I would have taken a short video, but I encountered a track problem, so here are some photos.

Hello, you need some scenery large type buildings either by korber or just MTH can you post more pictures of your layout, I would like to see some more, thanks 

30th Street,

Yes you are right, I do need more buildings.  Actually, I'm not doing too bad considering I got the first one about a year ago.  This layout is just set up temporary, and I have been moving things around.  Here are a couple.  I have some more, but can't get to them from the iPad.  I want to move the Main Street to better fit them in since I just got the Menards Hobby Shop a couple of weeks ago.  I hope to take some more this weekend.

Just returned from my local hobby shop, with a nice new Atlas CZ dome observation car. I tend to model the CB&Q in the steam era, but this new dome car so so spectacular, and I have ridden in the real "Silver Solarium", I just had to have one. Since Atlas chose not to offer the "Silver Solarium" in the CB&Q lettering, I simply purchased the Western Pacific version, and will have my custom painter buddy re-letter the RR initials and name on the car.

Wow sure did with the best my 3rd Rail CBQ FT

Scored two Atlas GN Standard Cupola Cabs X66 and X72

Pecos River AAR 50ft CBQ box car and a GN 50ft AAR DD

 Although bought a bit back in time Intermoutain NP 40Ft AAR box car kit that was finally built.

Two Lionel PS4 TOFC PRR and UP

The best for last My 3rd Rail CB&Q FT ABA

You are aware that the CB&Q didn't purchase, nor run, FT A-B-A units? The CB&Q FT models had the A & B units connected together by draw bars, thus they only operated them as A+B - B+A until the purchased F2A units. Then the FT four unit sets were "broken up" into FTA+FTB-F2A consists. Those Sunset/3rd Rail models are really nice though.

Hot water I know that. Until I can install kadees on the FTB unit ( They came with drawbars on the A units). My only option is to run ABA or AA. I plan on running AB due to the length of my sidings on my current Layout. New one in the planning stages will allow ABA in the sidings in the yard.. Also, CBQ had used F2s with the FTA/Bs but I have found some pics with an F3 similar what GN had done. I plan on posting pics and questions in my other thread. The big thing is Kadee mounts( Spacers) 

Doug

my York finds  the blue passengers cars have been a quest for years,,was at the very 1st booth I stopped at !!! love the #6 also

Okay, I got this custom pained Marx ILC caboose. (Marx never made one for the ILC).

Also got an RMT GG-1 in black with the "US Savings Bonds" Conrail logo. I purposely picked this GG-1 paint scheme because I feel I can run it with Luxury Lines, PRR, or NYC passenger cars or any of my Marx freight cars w/o it looking out of place to me...  

Bought 3 pieces of Lionel tubular 054 curved track just to see if it would work in a couple of places on my layout. Getting in to the wider radiuses.  Chatted with the lass at the LHS and looked at the cases of awesome looking new engines. Nice but not in my price range !!

Received this yesterday from a forum member and am very pleased. Have only recently 'discovered' the K-Line aluminum passenger cars (have an 18" PRR Obsv, a 15" FOM Combine, and now this handsome RPO).

Am saving for a set of the 18" Union Pacific 'City of Los Angeles'

Forgive the assumption, but that's really saying something impressing you into the wrong era. Nostalgia or not

Well, yesterday, the Fedex guy brought Suzie the CSX engine she wanted / SD-70ACe .

Beautiful !!

KRK

Well not really, as there are photos of CZ streamlined cars included in with heavyweight cars, when they were being "transported/broken in" to staging points such as Denver or Chicago. Thus, on occasion, I'll be able to add the CZ domed observation onto the rear end of my CB&Q heavyweight Exposition Flyer" train, to depict it being transported to Chicago. 

Aluminum...

The CSX engine is nice !!

got these from a forum member this week.

Well it's over a month ago but I bought a 1988 Chessie trains set still in shrink wrapped box. thought I had pics will have to do that tomorrow. ahh found it on even thou hard to see the shrink wrap is on the bottom box as was when left the factory. the lid fitted over it all. 

Picked up these 2 Lionel uncatalogged Dow Chemical cars at York.

    Bill T

A wise man once said, " More Power!"

These effectively solve any concerns I might have had about powering the future layout.  Both arrived in working condition and looking like the one on the right. 

Bruce

rtraincollector, ive wanted that set and the CP rail SD40 set since I was 10 an id drool over them at the hobby shop. They still have em  soooo cool. Love it

New from Menard's.

These fantastic books arrived today, along with some ERR stuff.  

Picked up this Ives Std Gauge 3241, freight cars and bridge from a forum member.

Steve

My grandfather always keeps a look out for train stuff for me at Estate sales he goes to in the area.  This time he must have committed highway robbery.  He got me 5 K-Line scale heavyweights and said he only paid about $12 each (these are the nice ones with the interiors).  I have three of the six cars from the Rio Grande set (baggage, diner, observation), and the diner and observation from the Southern Crescent set.  My plan is to run a long mixed excursion train with those as well as my MTH Congressional cars, as is often seen on fan trips today.

That's allot of bad kids!

There's probably that many the world over, Adriatic!   

yesterday got a  premier CSX Dash 9 diesel powered and dummy for a good price on e-bay

Picked up this airbrush for those bulk spraying projects, like painting track, dull-coating, or spraying underframes of several cars in 1 session. 2 different size bottles, and 3 different needle/tip combos. Shoulda bought this a long time ago!

Picked this up from Ebay. 1959 Lionel 1615 B&M set. A little grimy but in good condition.

The New Haven 6464 should be a B&M 6464 I wonder if it came this way? The Maintenance car has broken railing normal. The airplane is in great shape and looks to be original. 

A bonus with the set was a Marx crossing gateman and two street lights.

franktrain

it's been awhile since I posted on here haven't been buying much other than scenery and wood. but I did pick up a mystery box from menards a few weeks ago and yesterday I ordered the Evo hybrid from trainworld. some more scenery stuff from scenic express 124 trees to be exact and a 6 pack of ground cover again. then a month or so ago I ordered a new bridge I don't know what it is I always have bridges on my layouts I have 7 right now and added an 8th but the 8th is 5 ft long 1 ft high made out of aluminum it should be arriving in the next few days along with the Evo and scenery stuff.

here's where the bridge is going . where the caulk gun is is one end and where the trees are is the other end. the upper loop should be interesting. thoughts are with the window blinds open it should make for a neat view with the shadow of the bridge across the layout.

The bridge is incredible!

thank you can't wait for it to show up . when it does I will post pics. I'm thinking some led lights added to it might look cool to. 2 red ones on top points and maybe lights fixtures down the middle shining down on the track. not sure yet.

The bridge looks super.  It reminds me of the Sewickly Bridge (highway) that crosses the Ohio River just downstream of Pittsburgh.  When it was refurbished, it lost the open lattice look, but still retains the original form.  I crossed it weekly when I went back to college night school 10 to 15 years ago.  It also reminds me of the P&LE bridge a little farther downstream between Beaver and Monaca.

Model is a generic design loosely based on the famous P&LE bridge located at Beaver Pa.

from the instructions

I need to post something new as well.  I called to preorder an MTH Imperial N&W J 611.  However, Pat from Pat's Trains told me he  had2 left from the 2014 catalog.  I bought one.  It is really nice, however my NYC Madison heavyweights just don't look right with it.  ;-). I don't know when I will be able to remedy that problem.  ;-)

Yes, that's it!  I like it.

instructions state 2 of these bridges would closely replicate the prototype. but I don't have 10 ft of space for that much bridge

now i'm thinking can I redesign to get 10 ft for a bridge HMMM that would be cool .

Well to me one alone just doesn't look right.  However, I am biased, I don't have to redesign a layout, and I don't have to come up with the money to pay for it!  ;-)

it is possible to do 2 of them but I think if I did it would over power the rest of the layout being such a big feature.  where it would fit I would have a curve into the bridge the a curve after the bridge the whole wall would be the bridge. that doesn't include the small truss bridge that is on one end either.

  I just bought a Williams by Bachmann B & O F7 A-A set from from Trainworld.  The price was right; it was worth the wait.  Yesterday, I purchased a Model Power by MRC #6061 Park Scenes set from my LHS. 

I just bought an MTH Premier Western Maryland 70 ft. passenger coach and baggage car.

Now i can run an authentic Western Maryland passenger train .... being that most of their Passenger trains were only two cars long ... consisting of a coach and a combine or baggage car.  All i need now is a scale Western Maryland K2 Pacific steam loco. or an Alco Hammer Head diesel to be 100% prototypically authentic.  Until that day comes, these cars will have to ride behind my Western Maryland scale Lionel H7 Consolation and MTH Premier Western Maryland BL2 ... although these two locos never really pulled passenger trains on the prototypical Western Maryland.

Also purchased a Maryland and Pennsylvania MTH Premier caboose. This looks great with my MTH SW 1 Ma and Pa switcher!  My hat is off to MTH for producing many different short line road name models.... which it seems no other manufacturer offers. 

Agreed!  It would over power all but the larger layouts.  One is cool!

That's a beautiful loco, Mark. Do you have any problems running Railking locos on FasTrack? There are a couple of Imperial locos I'd like to get.

never had an issue with my RailKing stuff on Fastrack. 2 rail king f3's and a broadway express set . all on fastrack with no issues. soon to be a Railking evolution hybrid too

Thank you Joe!  I have not had trouble with the track.  I did have trouble with a FasTrack switch, but the problem was with the switch, not the RailKing.  The pilot wheels would split the points and start to go in the diverging route, and the drivers went the straight route.  Needless to say, it didn't get very far before the pickup roller shorted.  This problem happened with my RailKing, LionChief Plus, and MPC steamers.  I had to fiddle with the points to get them to seat against the rail harder.  Now I haven't had any trouble, but I only have 2 switches at this time.

looks pretty close to it, I just saw it the other day.

great find! I've seen several Marx crossing shanty, but no boxes.

Thanks Jhainer, thanks Mark. I have my eye on a couple of locos That I hope to pick up next week. If I am able to get them they will appear here.

Decided to add to some variety to my trans with these 50' boxcars as these are not "the usual" railroads I always buy.

I love all the graphics & detail on this GTW - someday I'll try and read it all!

Does a new refrigerator count?  My new Frigidaire all about cool.  It cost a bit more than a Premier loco, and isn't as nearly as fun to play with.  

On the other hand, the refrigerator does a much better job of keeping beer cold than any toy train, so it was a necessary expense, my list of locomotives-yet-to-be-bought locomotives notwithstanding.   

This 24" long twin motored monster just arrived. Should provide enough power to pull my McCoy Circus cars.

Here is the bridge it came in today

The bridge looks great!

Hi mark check your email!

Alan

Last week I ran across a steel caboose in DM&IR paint while visiting a shop over in Arkansas. This put me on a quest. Over the weekend I located a NIB set of ore cars in the harder-to-find oxide red paint (from an outfitter shop in Ely, MN of all places!) to put in front. Now I just need to wait on the new MTH SD40 tunnel motor to put on point and I will have successfully added another 'home state' road to my layout. Maybe I will top it off with a Yellowstone. That would be cool.

A couple of years ago I picked up a Hallmark/Ajin ATSF Drover Car (which I need to get off my caboose and paint). A couple of weeks ago I picked up the companion Mixed Train Caboose. As the need to drover cars declined due to refrigerated trucks and changes in the meatpacking industry, Santa Fe converted the sleeping portions of the drover cars to a baggage area while retaining the passenger capacity for mixed passenger/freight trains.

I need to do a bit of touch up on it, but I got a rare item at a good price so I'm seriously stoked.

Here's the drover car for comparison

My local store got a large lot of Weaver stock - they primarily do post war and tinplate and are out of space - they sold me a 57" Santa Fe Mechanical Reefer - with sound - never opened - for $15.  

Congrats on a major steal. I bid on (and lost big time) one (SP) on eBay a couple of months ago and it went well north of $100 and it wasn't in all that great shape.

Woa, Steve, nice E2!  Kinda dwarfs everything else, huh? Will pull every circus car McCoy made!

david

Beautiful Bridge.

It has track and a transformer but not quite a train. It is a  19060 American Flyer Stock Car Road Race set manufactured in 1960. It appears to be complete except for a missing manual. Does anyone know where I can get a manual or copy?

Thanks

Yesterday and today is the Gadsden Museum Toy Train Meet and Show here in Tucson AZ.

I was an early bird yesterday and filled 2 bags. I got all but one item on my list.

Notable deals were: 

3472 milk car in very nice condition $10.00,  6560 crane car ,works perfect, $15.00 and 3 Plasticvlle buildings for $1.00 each.  $60.00 Total.

The summer show is small cause anybody with any sense has left the area.

Azgary

Have you considered the MTH 'Coors Beer Train'? Might fit better in your train room than that bulky old Frigidaire...

All these deals are making me ill with jealousy

Yes, but at least in winter you don't have to drive through deep snow and "go trudging across the tundra".

 I still have a blanket on the bed .

This week was my biggest in awhile. A WBB 44 tonner.

At another shop I got a ETS tinplate vented boxcar. I'm always looking for these eccentric items.

The latest boxcar from Menards

    Bill T

This showed up today from trainworld