Buy anything cool lately?

@StevefromPA posted:

Got a TON, IMO, of cool stuff from the 2-3 weeks prior to York until now!!

but for this post, I’ll just give pics of my pre-York “big buys” and what came in the mail today

Pre- York Diesels:

FINALLY- first o scale Legacy Conrail Diesel! SD40 Savings Bonds Scheme. CR is my fav RR

another FINALLY- Norfolk & Southern Legacy SD60m.

This & the CR SD40 are such “key” additions for me because of their RR’s large geographical & the eras each encompasses. The CR covers the 80s and early 90s, east coast & Midwest. NS can cover to present day and can be seen almost anywhere

Another  “key” addition- Legacy Santa Fe SD40 in blue/yellow freight scheme. Got it for almost  half off since it was a store display model & has a partially broken window. But it functions great!

Why is this a key addition? First, I have plenty of western RS- especially Santa Fe. Before this loco, I had an ATSF GP35 Kodachrome and ATSF GP35 with BNSF stamp, and while I love those locos- neither is your “normal” regularly seen Santa Fe freight puller with six axles

Wanred to include this as well even though it’s not a loco- Atlas A&B TTX/SP Gunderson twin stacks. I’ve always loved the look of these intermodal well cars and while only 2 isn’t prototypical, I’m very happy to have these to run with intermodal & auto train rolling stock

As for today’s Friday deliveries:

2 Lionel CSX boxcars.

love the bottom one( it’s Lionscale) Wish I would’ve looked more into the“ big blue” prior to buying, issues with prototypicality. Regardless, the Lionscale boxcar is a nice addition to my modern and I love that it has safety stripes

And two hoppers from Atlas- LV PS4227 low side and UP 40’  air slide.

Bought the LV to add variety to late 60s and 1970s Eastern consists, should look nice w/ Penn Central & other fallen flags led by a CR loco. The UP essentially for the same reasons except west coast and 60s/70s.

more to come!(hopefully soon!)

steve

Let me appraise this reply posting of your's Steve................WOW.

Got 6 Woodland Scenics engineer figures off eBay. Tried to stage some of them having an "engineer's conference" on my layout between two locomotives after getting the idea from WesternPacific Scott. Only he's much better at it than I am.

Great buys everyone and @StevefromPA, wow, you have some really neat new trains, and @Yellowstone Special those are nice engineer figures. I just opened my new MKT Bunk car with sounds and it’s really cool. Happy Railroading Everyone

Just picked this up from trainz. Ever since I got my weaver baggage car I wanted to grab one of these to go with it.

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Got 6 Woodland Scenics engineer figures off eBay. Tried to stage some of them having an "engineer's conference" on my layout between two locomotives after getting the idea from WesternPacific Scott. Only he's much better at it than I am.

Thanks Vern for the comment! You'll have a blast with the WS engineer figures. I have a trick when placing the figures for photos, I use tacky wax  to hold them in place. It's easy to clean off too. :-)

Hey, good to know, Scott and thank you for the tip. 👍

When I saw the nearly complete set of Golden Gate Depot B&O Columbian cars show up for sale on Trainz, I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get them to pair with my F3s and future 3rd Rail EMC EAs.  Unfortunately, somebody snagged the starlight dome before I could!  Buddy, if you're reading this, I'll be happy to make a sweet deal with you!!

https://ogrforum.com/...7#161912596526702127
Way cool Don, great find!

Bought some auto racks

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Bought some auto racks

Very nice! Taller than I thought they were.

Pennsyfan- thanks for your comment on my Deere display.

Don

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Very nice! Taller than I thought they were.

Thanks! Yes, they’re very big.

A new glass case (ikea special)! Added the LED light strip for effect!

@Catonsville Central Railway, Wow, that’s a beautiful set of B&O passenger cars made by Golden Gate Depot, and I would like to know their length, if aluminum/brass and what curve radius they require, they are top of the line. I just purchased a like new Lionel 18 inch aluminum set of B&O cars and will be looking for the 2 car add on pack, but will be running the Heavyweight StationSounds diner with my set. I post pictures tomorrow, they are still in their original boxes. I will pull  them with Lionel’s TMCC version of the B&O F 3’s. Powered A, powered B, dummy A. @@Biscuitag97, that’s a nice IKEA train cabinet, and some really nice trains inside. Did the cabinet come with the glass shelves? What size is the cabinet. Great buys everyone…

@leapinlarry posted:

@Catonsville Central Railway, Wow, that’s a beautiful set of B&O passenger cars made by Golden Gate Depot, and I would like to know their length, if aluminum/brass and what curve radius they require, they are top of the line.

Thanks!  Yes, they're really a sight to behold.  The cars are each a full 21" in length.  They negotiate O-72 without much problem, but I wouldn't want to go lower than that.  Construction is aluminum with plastic end caps and brass detail pieces.

Beautiful F3s!  Those are actually the same F3 units from Lionel that I will be using with these cars until I can get the 3rd Rail EMC EA set later this summer or fall.

Woody, thank you for the quick response. I would love to run 21 inch scale cars on my layout, and my minimum radius is 072, going to 0120, they just dwarf my layout. The 18 inch aluminum cars just fit my layout well. I think that GGD will be offering 18 inch scale cars sometime in the future. I place pictures of my cars tomorrow. I sure am impressed with your B&O set. They are awesome. Happy Railroading Everyone

@Dallas Joseph thanks! Certified appraiser doing work for the forum? Ha. Again,  thank you very much for your comments. And, like I said- more to come!

@leapinlarry thank you for your comments! Just curious, do you use the sounds and feel it makes a better experience? I have an old PRR VISIONLINE stock car that does sounds via the remote & max/min switch. That said, I don’t run any stock cars and the coupler is SUPER long. Just wonder what it’d be like to 1.) have a sound car that fits with the rest of the train and 2.) use the sound car to see if it adds to the experience/compliments other things going on with the train or layout

@Don McErlean Great story and definitely cool! That boxcar is almost like an unknown progenitor of trains & John Deere! ( Considering Lionel’s line of John Deere product) But that’s not what matters- what matter is you got a cool, unique item- the whole package. Not just the boxcar, which has really cool graphics, but the nicely  finished wood, the plaque,  and mounting track is cool in an of itself! I lIke when such large companies like John Deere decide to make/use a train for gifts to employees for special events. It’s a different kind of special run. The early/mid-90s must’ve been big for trains as gifts to employees. Modern Marx made a boxcar for GE  RailCar Services in 1993(?). There as one by K-Line that I wish I would’ve purchased  when I got back into the hobby a couple of years ago. In the mid-90s(I think 95), PP&L signed a deal with K-line to have K-line produce sets for PPL employees. Pictures below((sorry for the quality)

The set included an mp15 switcher, crane car, work caboose, gondola with containers(which I actually have), flat with transformers load, and bulkhead flat with wire reels. Neat looking set especially if you’re a PA person. Anyway, the set proved to be quite popular and K-line recognized that fact so they began to produce & sell the sets at retail. However,once PPL heard of this situation they weren’t happy.  K-line’s action overstepped the terms of Its agreement with PP&L as the later never gave K-line a  a license to reproduce its name for profit, it was only  to produce a select number for PPL. Thus, they weren’t out very for general resale for very long. Just thought I’d share another K-line. Company exclusive type item story

Ok, here are the pictures of my Lionel 18” B&O aluminum passenger cars, set of 4, and my 18” Lionel B&O Heavyweight StationSounds diner which will be in the consist. As far as I’ve seen real passenger trains, there are mixed cars from different years, and I feel good about this set up. They are not GGD, however there fine for my size layout. 17 by 36. Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry posted:

Ok, here are the pictures of my Lionel 18” B&O aluminum passenger cars, set of 4, and my 18” Lionel B&O Heavyweight StationSounds diner which will be in the consist. As far as I’ve seen real passenger trains, there are mixed cars from different years, and I feel good about this set up. They are not GGD, however there fine for my size layout. 17 by 36. Happy Railroading Everyone

Larry, those are some really nice passenger cars, what a great looking looking train. If you can find time, do a video at/or around track level with the B&O train crawling by, so we can get a good look at it in motion. :-) Plus, it would be nice to hear the dining car sounds. No pressure! ;-)

Really nice looking, Larry!  They stopped passenger service on the B&O where I grew up when I was pretty little.

i got this Atlas Unicorn from Mr. Larry Linebeck. Thank you sir!

Geno

Larry beautiful cars will make a great train.

Don

WOW! Looks like everyone's wallets are a bit lighter around here.

Not to worry....I'm holding up my end of the deal. I just ordered a couple of the new RMT ore cars in LIRR from Trainworld. Should arrive later this summer. I seem to be heading down the proverbial slippery slope with ore cars. I have 1 LIRR already, just bought 2 of the Menards PRR cars, and now these RMT's. I plan to do custom sand loads in all of them since the only real mining that ever took place on Lawn-guy-land was sand mining......

Bob

https://ogrforum.com/...9#161912596569833189

What he said!

Bob,

Remnants of sand mining on Cape May.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...41bfc47f9f9e6e0630dd

@pennsyfan posted:

Bob,

Remnants of sand mining on Cape May.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...41bfc47f9f9e6e0630dd

yea- I saw that story the other day on Accu-Weather's site. Pretty cool. We had a huge mine on the north shore that's is now a golf course. The mine produced tons of sand that was used to build much of Manhattan's iconic skyline including the Empire State Building.

Long Island is one giant sandbar courtesy of the glaciers from the last ice age, also how Long Island Sound was formed.

"The mine produced tons of sand that was used to build much of Manhattan's iconic skyline including the Empire State Building.", courtesy of Colonial Sand & Stone.  There's still a little piece of equipment up there in Port Washington that was made into a monument or memorial.

@coach joe posted:

"The mine produced tons of sand that was used to build much of Manhattan's iconic skyline including the Empire State Building.", courtesy of Colonial Sand & Stone.  There's still a little piece of equipment up there in Port Washington that was made into a monument or memorial.

Right along the 2nd hole of the executive course......👍👍🏌️‍♂️🏌️‍♂️😂😂

The remnants of the tunnel and conveyor to the harbor were preserved.

Larry, those are some great looking cars!

Bob, my wallet is empty, but sad to say no new train stuff! LOL

Picked up this Railking reefer today from Mainline Hobby in Blue Ridge Summit PA. I happened past the shop when dropping my son in law  and his brother off on the Appalachian Trail, and after hiking a short distance along with them. Not a paint scheme I would have considered had I not seen it in person. I assume this is a fantasy scheme based on a fruit label. If there is any authenticity to this paint scheme, or if reefers were ever painted this elaborately; I would appreciate your thoughts. I think it an attractive car either way. Thanks, Jeff

That's a great looking car.  Now I'm not a scale modeler that requires prototypical equipment so I would run a fantasy scheme that looked that good without hesitation.

I just received the Morton Salt and the Army medical and freight caboose from MTH  via Stockyard E.xpress . Did not open yet.

Coach Joe, I am from Long Island and I never knew the story of LI Sand being so crucial for construction in the city.  I have the LIRR on my little layout, and now grasp the importance of the sand hoppers, and the memorial is beyond beautiful, it is striking.  Obliviously rather recently created, and be that as it may, to see the Twin Towers preserved is memorable by itself.  Thanks for sharing.

Ordered this from Pats Trains   It’s in the works.

@StevefromPA :  Thanks for your comment on my John Deere display.  I also liked the posting of the PP&L K-line sets, never had seen those before, neat stuff.  @RSJB18 and @coach joe :  I lived in the Long Island area for many years (in my youth) and never knew the story of the "Long Island sand" - a fascinating piece of history and the monument is really neat.  Thanks for posting.  @jeffrey O'Brien :  Neat refer, I expect that the livery comes from a fruit label, the Florida fruit companies were famous for their elaborate labels.  But prototype or not, its a neat looking car.  

Great finds everyone.  Thanks for a great thread!

Best Wishes

Don

Nothing better then coming home after a long day working to a box of trains. After last weeks box of all PRR I changed it up for this order.

Huge shout out to @EricTrainMan for pointing out the awesome atlas reefer.
I do feel bad with what I will be doing with the baggage car.

Hi Nate.

@DMASSO posted:

Hi Nate.

Hey Don,

Been awhile since I’ve last seen you, hope all is well.

Aok Nate.

For use by young (and old) visitors to our club's permanent layout and traveling layout:

Operates with included handheld and bluetooth app; and the universal remote.

@Chuck242 posted:

Coach Joe, I am from Long Island and I never knew the story of LI Sand being so crucial for construction in the city.  I have the LIRR on my little layout, and now grasp the importance of the sand hoppers, and the memorial is beyond beautiful, it is striking.  Obliviously rather recently created, and be that as it may, to see the Twin Towers preserved is memorable by itself.  Thanks for sharing.

Chuck that was Bob that was good enough to find a post a picture of the monument.  I've never actually seen the monument but I've seen that conveyor tunnel plenty working in the vicinity of the golf course before it even was a golf course.  I read about the monument after it was dedicated.

Picked up a nice little 1956-vintage set on eBay with a 1615 switcher.   Needed a little cleanup and it came out great.  

My friend Sam recently wrote an article about JEP Trains for the METCA WayBill. After reading it and looking at his pictures/videos I thought that a JEP set would be a nice addition to my new Tinplate Room. This just arrived today.
My first foreign train and first clockwork.

@pennsyfan: Bob what a neat set.  The European / UK clockwork toy sets are really neat to see and collect.

Best Wishes

Don

@pennsyfan posted:

My friend Sam recently wrote an article about JEP Trains for the METCA WayBill. After reading it and looking at his pictures/videos I thought that a JEP set would be a nice addition to my new Tinplate Room. This just arrived today.
My first foreign train and first clockwork.

Looks great Bob!

I'm telling you, once you buy these European pieces, there's no going back.

For all those that want to see the video I made that Bob is referencing, take a look at the link below.

https://youtu.be/Dp3mKWaX9vY

Picked up the UP Big Blow turbine recently.  I love some of the experimental stuff that UP was doing.

Bought a Lionel Phantom preproduction model - may have been a test of the red “eyes” as that part is brushed on paint.

John, Is the UP Turbine MTH or Lionel? What product number is it?

@amtrack5899 posted:

John, Is the UP Turbine MTH or Lionel? What product number is it?

It's the MTH model, 20-2124-1 from 1996.

Nathan's Woodsided Reefers

Dealing with a ton of yard work, then I found this little package from Nassau hobbies at my door and all was well! Strangely, my back doesn’t hurt anymore, LOL!  -

The other fish belly with a different road number arrived about six months ago.  They are going to nicely pair with that Trainworld work train engine pre order.  

Great stuff everyone - Brooklyn I do LOVE those "Nathan" hot dogs!!

Best Wishes

Don

Corey, of course you had to have those in your collection.

I got the Three Rivers Passenger set a while back.  I didn’t have an opportunity to run them until today.  I have installed John’s flicker-free lighting today.  Here they are at crawl speed with my GG1 LC+ 2.0 today.

Lookin' good, just need some passengers so you can bring in a little revenue!

Picked these two beauties recently. The car at a local train show and the FMTrainsmaster form my good friend at the RailYard in Roanoke

.

At the Kutztown meet yesterday I picked up this PostWar 6464-250 Western Pacific box car with the purple/blue feather and thes North American wildlife animals for the layout. The show was packed, nice and cool in the morning, temps jumped starting around 11:00

we didn’t bring anything from York this year, but stumbled across this RK Challenger and Aux tender after we got home.

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Nathan's Woodsided Reefers

Sweet, Corey. I also picked up.a set from Train World. Ken and MTH did a great job on the cars. And you really have to have both!!! Really miss Nathan’s hot dogs - and don’t forget the amazing fries!!! Loved it when they opened a place at Shea Stadium (sorry… refuse to call it Citi Field). Good. But not as good as Surf Avenue

I agree Paul, I took the pair as well; I also have the Lionel version that they made for NLOE.

Yes, you can’t beat the dogs and fries from the original Nathan’s, Surf Ave, Brooklyn.

@Strap Hanger posted:

Dealing with a ton of yard work, then I found this little package from Nassau hobbies at my door and all was well! Strangely, my back doesn’t hurt anymore, LOL!  -

The other fish belly with a different road number arrived about six months ago.  They are going to nicely pair with that Trainworld work train engine pre order.  

I love Nassau Hobby 🙂

The Lionel New Hope & Ivy set

Latest acquisitions😁

Pecos River Kansas City Southern double door automobile boxcar

Lionel three car set of USRA Steam Era Western Maryland 2 Bay Coal hoppers

MTH premier six car set of Steam Era Western Maryland 2 bay offset hoppers

Both the USRA and Offset Hoppers came in literally within minutes of each other haha

Yes Mark Boyce I was competing with you for that six car set from Tristan Mundis on the MTH Buy Sell and Trade Page😂

Just arrived from Hiawatha Hobbies in Pewaukee WI for member and visitor use on our club's permanent and traveling layouts.  Great price and low UPS charge of $8.95 delivered in VA.

McDonald's Train

My three Atlas 50' Gunderson Hi Cube Boxcars arrived today from MrMuffin's Trains.

Beautiful cars. GATX - LRS, TTX - Forward Thinking and TTX - On Track for A Cure

All well Nate.

Besides my caboose purchases above, I bought a MTH Madison Ave trolley.

Well, after a long wait, a couple of 86 foot box cars arrived today. I like them. Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry posted:

Well, after a long wait, a couple of 86 foot box cars arrived today. I like them. Happy Railroading Everyone

Hi Larry, those box cars are lonnnnggggg!!! I'm not sure I've seen O scale boxcars that long before, and they look like they're about as long as a 4-8-4 Northern with tender! They are super impressive and look great on your layout.

Thank you Scott, I have several of these long, 86’ box cars, which are the same length as Lionel’s scale auto carrier cars, and because my layouts a walk around, you never see the entire train so I can run long freights and passenger trains.

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

McDonald's Train

Fun set, but I have to say, hard to beat that classic New York Yankee hat!

From another forum member at a genuinely affordable price - 1st version of Lionel CN cylindrical hopper. Very thankful. Adds a little color to the layout and with a rebuild coming up with wider curves (O-63 and O-72) adding in some longer rolling stock is now an option. Everything up until now has been 2 bay coal hoppers, PS-2 covered hoppers and 40' boxcars.

I saw this book on our 2018 Europe trip, but the store I saw in the window of was closed, finally found an affordable copy this week on Amazon.

The hobby supplies, I bought while hitting all the hobby shops in Portland today.

I bought an MTH Premier BL-2 in EMD demonstrator colors on the Bay recently.

@Mister_Lee posted:

I bought an MTH Premier BL-2 in EMD demonstrator colors on the Bay recently.

Ahh.....another BL-2 fan! Great looking loco IMHO! I have the Railking version.

@leapinlarry- those 86 footers are huge. They look great on your layout.
@Mooner- that CN car should have Crayola on the side.
@p51- glad you found that book. I assume you read French?

Bob

@Mister_Lee posted:

I bought an MTH Premier BL-2 in EMD demonstrator colors on the Bay recently.

welcome to the "club."

I am thankful to fellow forum member Mark Boyce for pointing this out to me when MTH only had 10 left in stock with a special price of $399.  The local dealer get one in for me plus his extra 10% off.  Thank you Mark!

Ron

@RSJB18

@p51- glad you found that book. I assume you read French?

Nope, but I can make out some stuff from the captions from all the great photos...

Well folks here is my story today, a new acquisition about which I am really excited.   I did post a few pictures of this loco on "Front End Friday" but I thought I would post some additional pictures here.  I must admit, I am really enthusiastic about this locomotive.  Its my first Amtrak loco and my first large Williams by Bachmann locomotive.  I had bought 2 Williams GE 44 tonner's before and they were great operators so I thought I would try this larger engine.  Man! I am excited.  This gal runs like a charm, smooooooth and powerful , takes 0-31 curves with no problem had great sounds and a cool horn.  The level of detail is really wonderful.  

Its the Amtrack, F59PH Pacific Surfliner.  Here is the side view of the entire locomotive.

The next two pictures gives you a glimpse of the level of "add on" detail Williams provided to this locomotive.  Windshield wipers, crew, lights, crew ladders , rear view mirrors, etc.

Here she is with her current train.  The loco so over-shadows the PW Lionel passenger cars that its clear to me, I will need some additional and more appropriate Amtrak cars.

Folks, I am used to the pre (sometimes tinplate) and post war level of detail.  The detail on the roof of this locomotive is amazing to me.  You can see fan blades under the fan screen, vents are actually open and the horn array is highly detailed.  This is really cool to me.

Here is a little video of her in action.

Just picked up a Lionel Halloween engine http://www.lionel.com/products...acific-1031-6-85175/ from the Lionel Store under "Special Deals". It was listed as a "refurbished" but as far as I could tell was basically brand new without even marks on the rollers. I'm not even sure the tender was ever unpacked before today.  https://youtu.be/9HwvvM1CfN4

@Don McErlean NICE BUY!!! I’m a Big Amtrak fan so it’s always nice to see people posting Amtrak pics- even better when it’s their first Amtrak loco. Congrats!

Such a nice loco. Have an MTH PS2 Amtrak F59PHI that’s been in pieces ever since something got fried in the board- I do miss it. Regardless- looks like yours runs really well and that horn is certainly better than I woulda thought! Love seeing a ‘silver streak’ passenger consists highballing down the mainline like that- looks even better when it’s head by something with such a sleek nose(no offense to my beloved F40PH).

For the sake of the Williams in WBB, I wish we’d see posts like yours more often- but also understand why we don’t, unfortunately. I started off in conventional( my second loco for Christmas of 1998 or 1999 was a Williams Amtrak GP9) and after resuming the hobby in 2018 it was still my go to loco. Definitely see improvements made with that loco vs the 2 or 3 Williams locos I have, which is nice to see because I had always assumed WBB was just Bachmann selling Williams locos without any type of upgrades. Come to think of it, One of my LHS had a WBB ES44 or Dash 9 heritage LV and that sucker ran very smooth(assume increased gear ratio) it really caught my eye.

Not sure what type of Amtrak passenger cars your seeking, but I have some I’m willing to sell. You mentioned o-31 curves, I have quite a few 15” , 16” & 18” cars I’m willing to sell(prices range from $40-$120). Have some 12.5” and/or 13.5” as well.  Mainly MTH & Lionel, I think one or 2 Williams.

Again- Nice Buy! You’ve earned USA Rail Pass with this purchase!

Still never got to showing my pre-York and York purchases. And since York was almost a darn month ago it’s time to get these posted:

Despite being at Lionel for repairs, I’ll still lead off with one that I held out on last time: 

Lionel Legacy CSX(ex-Conrail) SD70MAC!! Received this late March/Early April from Mr. Muffins!(thanks Steve & Jeff!)  Was so excited to get this...only to have issues with start-up & the rear coupler out of the box-  it’ll be back eventually! Sh’s definitely a looker!

Next up- Atlas Trainman KCS coach in Southern Belle livory & Lionel KCS boxcar. Both of these purchases were spurred on by my KCS SD70ACe

A Pair of Atlas 62’ bulkhead flats (TTX & Union Pacific) both with safety stripes

Atlas  “On Track for a Cure “  Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Railbox boxcar

Got an old Lionel freight station kit(work in progress), a Siku dump truck and some Model Tech Studios “Pre Aced” accessories to fill out this corner

Lionel Conrail PS-4 52’ flat transporting a Corgi Classics Churchill Tank

Some Santa Fe- Atlas Berwick 60’ hi cube & modernized 50’ PS-1(really love the master line modernized PS-1s!)

Some MTH Premier modern freight, now up to FRA regs. NS 50’ waffle boxcar already had safety stripes, I applied them to the 50’ hi cube on the right

Some more modern, all FRA up to date! Atlas CSX gondola & a previously shown but now w/ safety stripes CSX 50’ boxcar

Bought these  Atlas 17,600 gallon corn syrup tankers- Both are exquisite. SYRX rep mark on the rIgor and on the left, being much less discreet about its contents, a Corn Products with reporting mark UTLX

MTH Premier Penn Central X71 boxcar. Thought it was fitting to put this next to the yellow door Conrail, as that’s what the PC X71s became!

That’s pretty much it for pre-York Cool stuff!

I won two eBay auctions from the same seller.  With tax and combined shipping these guys cost my $16.50 each.

Congratulations on your win! I love the covered hoppers the most. Great find :-)

Thanks Winston.  Weaver made some great hoppers, the PS-2 two bay, these PS-2 Center Discharge hoppers and all the other 2 and 3 bay styles they put out.  I've got 3 other Alaska Basic Industries 3 bay hoppers that came with coal loads.  I'll have to find one of those loads for this guy.

I want to learn to make my own coal loads. I’m sure it on the forum somewhere. I’m not very artistic though 😬

Making coal loads is not rocket science.  I did some just cutting a piece of 2" construction foam to shape to fit in the hopper and rounding the top like a mount of coal.  I painted the foam piece black so any voids or the edges wouldn't show.  I then slathered White Glue generously on the top and rolled it around in the coal.  After it dried initially, I filled in any bare or thin spots with more glue and coal and cleaned any excess off the sides.  Once it dried again, presto I had a coal load.

@StevefromPA:  Thanks for your comments on my new Amtrack engine.  As you might tell, I am pretty enthusiastic about it at the moment, its really smooth and powerful (at least when pulling my little trains).  About the cars, I measured what I had and it appears about the longest anything is at the moment is about 12 1/4". I suspect 13 or maybe (?) 15" might work but longer seems unlikely. I would not use many perhaps 2 or 3 not sure as my layout is small.  Anyway thank you for your comments.

Don

I was just hoping to match the loads in the other 3 hoppers.  I thought if I made my own it may be too different.  I've seen a Weaver 3-bay coal load on eBay but for $24.95 + tax + shipping it wont be going in my $16.00 hopper. So I may just wind up making my own if one doesn't present itself in the not too distant future.

@coach joe posted:

I was just hoping to match the loads in the other 3 hoppers.  I thought if I made my own it may be too different.  I've seen a Weaver 3-bay coal load on eBay but for $24.95 + tax + shipping it wont be going in my $16.00 hopper. So I may just wind up making my own if one doesn't present itself in the not too distant future.

Coach Joe, I made coal loads the same way as Gun Runner John suggested and they come out great. I was surprised how easy it is, besides being cheap. I used some gloss black for the coal.
John

These 3 Industrial Rail cars arrived on my doorstep today. I only bought my first O gauge car a year ago but have come to love Industrial Rail because they look great, are highly affordable, and the couplers always, always work, unlike those on more expensive cars I have. As if by magic, a separate package appeared at my door with a Lionel 1033 transformer, beautifully restored. I don't know how UPS knew that I needed this, but it's a happy coincidence, because only an hour earlier I had ordered my first old-school conventional cheap locomotive and think this transformer is what I might need to power it. Now I just have to learn how to connect the TVS Diodes. Then find out what "TVS" means and what a "Diode" is.

Picked up today my Lionel 2233121 NS SD-45 from The Train-Station in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Love the high short hood and bell.

Nice that it had a May release date and actually came in this month.

@Don McErlean, that’s a beautiful Amtrak diesel, Williams will run and run and run, your going to love it. I’m not sure I’ve shown pictures of a new B&O Heavyweight StationSounds diner that I purchased several months ago from a fellow on the OGR Forum. It’s a nice acquisition. Happy Railroading Everyone

Picked up a Woodland Scenics Windmill last week from a LHS. Only have a few more buildings left on my list from Woodland Scenics and Menards. It’s funny how the list keeps growing though! Hahaha!

@coach joe posted:

I won two eBay auctions from the same seller.  With tax and combined shipping these guys cost my $16.50 each.

Awesome win @coach joe ! I love those all those hoppers, especially the covered ones! great price for sure!

Just purchased the Lionel Amtrak 50th Anniversary Box Car and the K-Line 10th Anniversary Diet Coke Trailer on flatcar yesterday at Nicholas Smith Trains.

@John's Trains posted:

Now I just have to learn how to connect the TVS Diodes. Then find out what "TVS" means and what a "Diode" is.

This thread should tell you what you need to know.  Scroll down to post by @rtr12.

electrical-reference 

@Don McErlean posted:

Well folks here is my story today, a new acquisition about which I am really excited.   I did post a few pictures of this loco on "Front End Friday" but I thought I would post some additional pictures here.  I must admit, I am really enthusiastic about this locomotive.  Its my first Amtrak loco and my first large Williams by Bachmann locomotive.  I had bought 2 Williams GE 44 tonner's before and they were great operators so I thought I would try this larger engine.  Man! I am excited.  This gal runs like a charm, smooooooth and powerful , takes 0-31 curves with no problem had great sounds and a cool horn.  The level of detail is really wonderful.  

Its the Amtrack, F59PH Pacific Surfliner.  Here is the side view of the entire locomotive.

The next two pictures gives you a glimpse of the level of "add on" detail Williams provided to this locomotive.  Windshield wipers, crew, lights, crew ladders , rear view mirrors, etc.

Here she is with her current train.  The loco so over-shadows the PW Lionel passenger cars that its clear to me, I will need some additional and more appropriate Amtrak cars.

Folks, I am used to the pre (sometimes tinplate) and post war level of detail.  The detail on the roof of this locomotive is amazing to me.  You can see fan blades under the fan screen, vents are actually open and the horn array is highly detailed.  This is really cool to me.

Here is a little video of her in action.

That is one great looking engine, Don! Now if you can find some Amtrak Surfliner cars to go with it, you'll have an awesome looking train.

I've ridden the Surfliner several times from San Diego up to Los Angeles and back. It is one beautiful ride! I took this photo back in September of 2018, just before boarding. The EMD F59PH locomotives were replaced with the Siemens Chargers a short time later.

WBB did an awesome job on this one. Nice going.

leapinlarry and Yellowstone Special - thank you for your comments on my new Amtrack engine.  Larry I hope your are right about Williams running and running, my experience with my 44 tonner's does support this for sure.  Yellowstone thanks for your comment and the 1:1 picture of the actual locomotive, amazing Williams really did seem to get the livery and detail correct. Now...for those Amtack cars...

Best wishes all, Happy Memorial Day

Don

I just picked up a set of METCA exclusive hoppers today.

Realized that I am on a K-Line kick, especially twins.   Now have two Mikado (B&O, SOU), two Allegheny (C&O, Virginian), and a pair of A units (B&O).  All TMCC and all now have cruise m or K-Line cruise. The AA units will need an upgrade eventually from its misbehaving K-Line cruise.

I found this in a used book store today, I doubt it'd ever been read.

New Lionel SW1200 (Mr. Muffin's Custom Run) Rock Island switcher. Very nice!

VERY cool!  I love that Rock Island switcher.

Awaiting pre-order for the MTH Maine Central drop bottom gondola, but in the meantime added the B&M version over the weekend. Impromptu buy from New Hampshire dealer on Friday night and had it Monday morning - great service. I really like the heft of the MTH Premier rolling stock. Always feels solid. MEC should be a beauty, too.

I picked up a B&A caboose to go with the B&A Berkshire I showed in April. I found it on an internet search on Brady’s Trains out of PA.

Well, just taking a break from staining the deck. Came down to the cool basement to run trains for some therapy. Here's another shot of my Woodland Scenics engineer figures. The previous photo of them didn't turn out so well. 😉

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Well, just taking a break from staining the deck. Came down to the cool basement to run trains for some therapy. Here's another shot of my Woodland Scenics engineer figures. The previous photo of them didn't turn out so well. 😉

Vern, swabbing the deck doesn't sound like much fun! ;-) Nice to take a break with some train action. That Geep 7 looks awesome with the engineers on it! Nicely done photo, too! Looks like the guy in the peach shirt is trying to take a nap. LoL Happy Thursday!

Thanks, Scott. Fortunately, it isn’t a huge deck, but I still do it in increments. 😉 I think the guy in the peach shirt IS sleeping! 😂.

Thank you for giving me the idea to get these guys.

While not as exciting as some earlier post, added another SP piggyback to the fleet

This Williams 9632 Pennsylvania Sharknose arrived on my doorstep today, along with an MTH N-8 Pennsylvania caboose to run with it. Until now I had only 3 LionChief/LionChief Plus locomotives, so I hesitated about diving into something transformer-controlled. But the AA pair of sharknose units that I really want cost over 10 times what this single unit cost. I read here that Williams engines can be jack rabbits, and I like to be able to run slow.  I was also concerned because the website didn't say whether this even has a horn, and I could tell it only has a dummy coupler on the rear because it was originally part of an ABA set. I hooked it up to my new refurbished Lionel 1033 transformer, putting it on the B-U posts as I read here. It runs great, and can even start slower than my LionChief Santa Fe FT, and it doesn't die out when going over the switches slowly like the other engines. This frees me up to an entire range of more economical engines that look great. Question: I am ok with the 3 position forward-neutral-reverse, but turning the lever to Whistle just makes the engine go faster. Does this engine not have a horn? I didn't even try switching to the A-U posts to see if a higher voltage does anything because I like the slow starts and the high range is plenty fast enough. It didn't come with a manual and I can't find any database for Williams engines. A Worthpoint webpage says it has dual motors with flywheels and a 6 amp electronic reverse unit, but no mention of sound. Don't need a horn, but is that normal to go faster on the whistle lever if there's no horn?

Got this Lionel 6-24574 Union Pacific E7 AA set for a great deal. It was mint and un-run till I pulled it out of the box. TMCC, Odyssey, and Railsounds 5.0 with 8 RPM levels. Pretty nice locomotive set.

@Lou1985 posted:

Got this Lionel 6-24574 Union Pacific E7 AA set for a great deal. It was mint and un-run till I pulled it out of the box. TMCC, Odyssey, and Railsounds 5.0 with 8 RPM levels. Pretty nice locomotive set.

Lou, beautiful model from 2006! Lionel made great quality highly detailed models for a reasonable price during this time period. Congratulations, nice find! Simulated Mars light too.

@Lou1985 Beauty of UP set! Totally agree with Scott’s comment above, I really like Lionel’s  late TMCC and early Legacy from  03/04 to around 2010. The way the lighted number board and MARS light(or gyralight?) surround the slightly brighter headlight is very well done.  Awesome buy!

@NS1975 very cool Rock Island SW1200! Looks like it’s a really well done model! How does it run? Has me really excited for my PB&NE SW1200, which will be my first diesel yard switcher, to arrive!

@John's Trains posted:

This Williams 9632 Pennsylvania Sharknose arrived on my doorstep today, along with an MTH N-8 Pennsylvania caboose to run with it. Until now I had only 3 LionChief/LionChief Plus locomotives, so I hesitated about diving into something transformer-controlled. But the AA pair of sharknose units that I really want cost over 10 times what this single unit cost. I read here that Williams engines can be jack rabbits, and I like to be able to run slow.  I was also concerned because the website didn't say whether this even has a horn, and I could tell it only has a dummy coupler on the rear because it was originally part of an ABA set. I hooked it up to my new refurbished Lionel 1033 transformer, putting it on the B-U posts as I read here. It runs great, and can even start slower than my LionChief Santa Fe FT, and it doesn't die out when going over the switches slowly like the other engines. This frees me up to an entire range of more economical engines that look great. Question: I am ok with the 3 position forward-neutral-reverse, but turning the lever to Whistle just makes the engine go faster. Does this engine not have a horn? I didn't even try switching to the A-U posts to see if a higher voltage does anything because I like the slow starts and the high range is plenty fast enough. It didn't come with a manual and I can't find any database for Williams engines. A Worthpoint webpage says it has dual motors with flywheels and a 6 amp electronic reverse unit, but no mention of sound. Don't need a horn, but is that normal to go faster on the whistle lever if there's no horn?

John, I believe Williams put the horn in the dummy A unit of an A-A set.  If I remember correctly the older transformers sent an increased voltage necessary to operate the horn or whistle circuit when the whistle button was pushed.  Without that circuit the engine would speed up due to the increased voltage.

Here’s some rolling stock I’ve acquired over the passed 2 weeks and some York stuff:

Arrived in the mail yesterday- first pink grain hopper! Love the Lionscale line, a nice PS2-CD 4740 Klemme CO-OP

Pairing nicely w/ the above, this vera nicely weathered Soo PS4750 from a Mr. muffins auction came last week

Next-My first Atlas O “Premier” train arrived on Tuesday- TTX 50’ Hi Cube!

both of these might as well be from York-
MTH Railgon 52’6” coil gondola(MTHRRC) I bought there. However, I forgot where the white MTH Conrail coil car was as 6pm rolled around. Luckily, I posted a WTB and a forum member came to the rescue !

Last but certainly not least- Atlas O Conrail 60’ boxcar and die cast Weaver trucks from Mr. Muffins!

special Thanks   to @Jeff78rr and @brianel_k-lineguy  who helped verify this was a prototypical model(former Erie-Lackawanna) on the Real trains forum!

@John's Trains posted:

This Williams 9632 Pennsylvania Sharknose arrived on my doorstep today, along with an MTH N-8 Pennsylvania caboose to run with it. Until now I had only 3 LionChief/LionChief Plus locomotives, so I hesitated about diving into something transformer-controlled. But the AA pair of sharknose units that I really want cost over 10 times what this single unit cost. I read here that Williams engines can be jack rabbits, and I like to be able to run slow.  I was also concerned because the website didn't say whether this even has a horn, and I could tell it only has a dummy coupler on the rear because it was originally part of an ABA set. I hooked it up to my new refurbished Lionel 1033 transformer, putting it on the B-U posts as I read here. It runs great, and can even start slower than my LionChief Santa Fe FT, and it doesn't die out when going over the switches slowly like the other engines. This frees me up to an entire range of more economical engines that look great. Question: I am ok with the 3 position forward-neutral-reverse, but turning the lever to Whistle just makes the engine go faster. Does this engine not have a horn? I didn't even try switching to the A-U posts to see if a higher voltage does anything because I like the slow starts and the high range is plenty fast enough. It didn't come with a manual and I can't find any database for Williams engines. A Worthpoint webpage says it has dual motors with flywheels and a 6 amp electronic reverse unit, but no mention of sound. Don't need a horn, but is that normal to go faster on the whistle lever if there's no horn?

Nice loco. I have a Williams NYC shark AA set. IIRC the horn is in the dummy unit as Joe mentioned. I can check mine if you like.

For the speed issue, you can wire the motors in series to slow it down. I've done all of my Williams engines and it makes a big difference.

Bob

@John's Trains awesome to hear that your Pennsy works well at low speeds and that your enjoying it!

regarding the horn- when you activate the horn on your transformer whether by turning the handle or pressing a button, a small amount of DC + is superimposed onto the track and it’s that positive DC voltage that activates the horn(if a loco has a bell and you have a bell button negative DC voltage activates that). It’s like that for postwar locos and modern conventional electronic horns, such as Williams true blast. See the thread below for sone good info

https://ogrforum.com/...-operate-on-dc-power

Regarding the increase in speed, iirc, when I would apply the DC to my postwar 2056(horn in the tender) it would speed up. Again, iirc, my Powered units w/ horn:  RMT buddies, K-line by Lionel box Cab, Williams Amtrak GP7 w/ true blast, etc... also speed up somewhat when the DC voltage is applied to sound the horn.

I finally got one of these...

Yes; too much. but it seemed all my holy grails popped up at once!

thanks!

- Mario

@StevefromPA posted:

@John's Trains awesome to hear that your Pennsy works well at low speeds and that your enjoying it!

regarding the horn- when you activate the horn on your transformer whether by turning the handle or pressing a button, a small amount of DC + is superimposed onto the track and it’s that positive DC voltage that activates the horn(if a loco has a bell and you have a bell button negative DC voltage activates that). It’s like that for postwar locos and modern conventional electronic horns, such as Williams true blast. See the thread below for sone good info

https://ogrforum.com/...-operate-on-dc-power

Regarding the increase in speed, iirc, when I would apply the DC to my postwar 2056(horn in the tender) it would speed up. Again, iirc, my Powered units w/ horn:  RMT buddies, K-line by Lionel box Cab, Williams Amtrak GP7 w/ true blast, etc... also speed up somewhat when the DC voltage is applied to sound the horn.

THANK YOU Steve, Bob, and Joe for the excellent information! Now I know I'm not doing anything wrong.

John

@John's Trains posted:

THANK YOU Steve, Bob, and Joe for the excellent information! Now I know I'm not doing anything wrong.

John

Happy to help.  Here's my dummy horn. You are not missing anything. 😂

Yes the True Blast horn wasn't much of a blast.

Wow, that horn sounds more like an emergency broadcast warning - Weather, Amber alert etc. 

I purchased the Disney boxcar via Ebay.

And after a bit of kit bashing, I am now a proud owner of this.

@John's Trains No problem!

@RSJB18 Henry C was spot on-I can’t recall if my GP9 sounded like a Severe Weathering Warning!! Ha

I think I may have a "buying trains" problem. Have a few of items being shipped in - a couple of old Walther's O scale Milwaukee Road passenger type car kits. Ended up buying two plus a woodsided caboose kit I will convert to Illinois Central (orange) - all to combine shipping of course.  Now I need to replace my not so good paint sprayer with something better.  Then won an auction today for an old Weaver brass M1a Mountain loco - set a max price and it held - wow.

Then on a lark walked in to a local shop converting over to R/C and archery. 5 years ago they had a demo layout for O, HO and N - almost nothing now.  Well, pulled these 2 off the shelves and asked what they wanted for them. $40 and I was out of there with a new haul.  The building needs TLC but I knew it was probably missing pieces and maybe dropped. Once home nothing I cannot fix and no serious damage. The internal WS lighting is in bad shape, but the exterior looks good. MTH premier box car - well cannot have too much ICG anything.

Of course have been watching a few cars on Trainz and trying hard not to pull the trigger on those at least till I get back from the train show up in Wheaton this weekend.

So maybe nothing cool - but they are new treasures for me. 

“Now I need to replace my not so good paint sprayer with something better. “

I hope that includes a spray booth with a brushless exhaust motor! Unless you spray outdoors.

Great buys everyone! This past week I recently picked up a Woodland Scenics Water Tower from a LHS. I’ve wanted this water tower since seeing it on the shelf back in January. Amazing details and the graffiti sure does make it authentic.

At this rate I’m going to have a layout of water towers. Hahaha! Possibly just one more track side water tank for the steam locomotives and roughly 6-7 more buildings from Woodland Scenics. (Anyone with a good source on WS items at a reasonable price?)

So last week, I got from @boomer0622 a Navy Alco 224 with matching B-unit. I had the caboose for a couple years now but never found an engine. Our module group is setting up this weekend for a local railroads in the parks event in NE Ohio metroparks. I waited for an entire week just so I take these couple photos while we are setting up. Now I need to find the Navy cars to go with them.

@das boot posted:

And after a bit of kit bashing, I am now a proud owner of this.

👍🏻👏

@CAPPilot posted:

👍🏻👏

@das boot posted:

I purchased the Disney boxcar via Ebay.

And after a bit of kit bashing, I am now a proud owner of this.

I love it. From Mad Magazine..lol

@das boot posted:

I purchased the Disney boxcar via Ebay.

And after a bit of kit bashing, I am now a proud owner of this.

I concur. Great bash of that car. Spy vs Spy was my favorite feature in Mad Magazine.

Bob

@StevefromPA posted:

@NS1975 very cool Rock Island SW1200! Looks like it’s a really well done model! How does it run? Has me really excited for my PB&NE SW1200, which will be my first diesel yard switcher, to arrive!

It is a very smooth runner and creeps along at very slow pace if you want. Lionel improved their crew talk a while ago, so it is not that new of a feature but the dialogue is better than my other two switchers because it is a little more authentic sounding.

bought one of these for a friend many years ago…last night, I was lucky to finally have my own!

@Leroof posted:

bought one of these for a friend many years ago…last night, I was lucky to finally have my own!

Gonna need a lot of tea for all that sugar.....🤪🤪🤪🤪