My Triple Level Layout - Anthracite Hi-Railers Visit - 1/5/24

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

I simply just don’t know what happened. I blacked out and when I finally snapped out of it, I was leaving a train show with 3 bags of goodie’s. LoL! So much for behaving prior to York!

In all seriousness, The Great Northeast Train Show hosted by Bernie’s Model Railroad was held on Sunday in Dunmore Pennsylvania. This is one of the closest shows to my house and always a great selection. This year seemed to be the biggest with the increased number of sellers. There was some great deals and items definitely were flying off the tables. Here’s a few photos from the show.

Here’s my purchases. Some were on my list while others really caught my eye. The dvds were free just because I picked the one up and glanced at it. Gotta start with the trainmaster command somewhere! Thank you sir for passing along the knowledge for free!!

Okay so now I should be good until York. (Notice the word “should” slipped in there again!) LoL

It’s a good thing York is this week or all your money would be gone before the meet!  😄

You had better be glad EMS folks are close by at York for when you black out again!!  😆😆

@Mark Boyce posted:

It’s a good thing York is this week or all your money would be gone before the meet!  😄

You had better be glad EMS folks are close by at York for when you black out again!!  😆😆

Mark I know right! I better save some gas money and money for food. I’m already meeting several forum members for some awesome items! Just like last time they’ll be getting a shoutout so stay tuned. As for the blacking out, I usually remember York but hey you never know, an outrageous purchase may occur during another blackout LoL. I’m staying at Heritage Hills Resort Thursday night so that’ll eliminate all that extra 4 hours of driving and allow me more time at the show Friday morning.

Rich, yes meals, lodging, fuel, and for me turnpike toll kills the train budget!  😄  I have to take the turnpike from Bedford to I-81.  Heritage Hills looks like reasonable rates. 👍🏻

I went crazy my first of two trips to York and bought MTH Premier F7 set and FA set.  One was ABA and the other was ABBA.  I must have blacked out on that one!  😄  My wife was fine with the purchases.  However, then some emergency came up, and I sold both of them.  ☹️

@Mark Boyce so what you’re saying is the Heritage Hills rates are acceptable and you need to replace that F7 set and FA set? Sounds like a York trip is needed!! LoL! I’ll forever bug you to go hahaha

Rich, you aren't the only one to bug me to go back to York.  I'm running out of fingers as I name them off and count.    I never thought of myself as a popular guy! 

Yes, after my second back surgery in July, I have recovered very fast compared to the fusion two years ago.  Still, the drive alone is a problem.  I have to make too many stops between here in Butler and York.    Doc cleared me to work up to any activity an almost 67-year old can handle, which is still a lot.  I'm building up my walking, stationary bike riding, and back exercises, but not to the place I can handle a trip to York next week.  One forum member in New Jersey messaged me, if I can get my but there, he will haul me around the fairgrounds!    Even with that offer, I'll have to wait until next spring.

@Mark Boyce I’m hoping you have a smooth and speedy recovery. You are very helpful on the forum so no wonder we all want to meet you in person! I need to shake the hand of the guy that blue Ford pickup went to also LoL.

All lists are finalized, bag is packed and finishing up my final preparations this evening.

York bound in the morning!!!

Thank you, Rich!  Have a great time!

FALL YORK 2023 PURCHASES!

My fourth time attending the EDTCA York show was a success! Many items on my lists were crossed off and like always items I didn’t even know I needed we’re purchased. My mom came along for the adventure again and we decided to stay at a hotel because we were also going to visit my aunt down by York. I highly recommend staying at the Heritage Hills resort. It’s a very nice golf resort with great prices and in a better part of the York area. Only about 17 minutes from the fairgrounds which beats driving two hours home and two hours back again the following morning.

First I’d like to give a shout out to the OGR members I made purchases from on Thursday and Friday. Thank you goes out to Charlie @cpowell, Nathan @Nathan B, Ben @bluelinec4, Carl @CMW623, Bob @RRDOC, and Walter @Walter Matuch. It was great meeting everyone!! All your items came to a good home and entered a growing collection. Thank you again!

My Day 1 started Thursday morning with what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive. Well, traffic was horrible and it took over 2 1/2 hours. Got there late, but made some exchanges and then went to buy tickets. Great service as always! After getting our tickets, the shopping began. I purchased several rolling stock, a few small structures, street vehicles, accessories, an engine, and even more rolling stock. Like always I tried to bundle buy so I can negotiate a better price. (Always see some cool things in the parking lot)

First up are some Menards cars I grabbed at a great bundle deal. The seller even had Menards bags for me to put them in. LoL! It’s the little things that make a purchase perfect.

Next up, I purchased a custom building from the nice gentleman in Silver Hall along the wall. I buy at least one building from him every York. Very nice little details! He does really nice work! Here’s the little garage I bought.

I saw an amazing deal on a bundle of 5 packs of Life-Like Accessories. I negotiated every purchase except this one. Price was incredible!

Here’s all the street vehicles I purchased at different locations throughout Thursday.

I’ve been getting a Strasburg item every once in a while and picked this small Strasburg crossing shanty up from a forum member.

There was also a large Menards bundle that came from that same forum member.

All these remaining items came from a mixture of the show and from forum members. It’s the beginning of my Norfolk Southern First Responders collection. I also added it to my Nesquik collection.

accidentally double bought PRR Rotary

Here’s my overall photo of my Thursday purchases. The edited MTH car is a political car, so I’m refraining from posting it. (There’s two cars that I accidentally put in the Friday photo: the Menards flat with the Cat loader and the CSX coal hopper)

Day 2 (Friday) was packed!! This was probably the busiest day at York I’ve seen yet. The lines for food were even really long. It’s great seeing this type of turnout because it shows the hobby is alive. My purchases consistent of more rolling stock, shelves, and pins for my badge holder, along with a magnet for the fridge.

Started off with picking up 15 used Glenn Snyder shelves from a forum member. These shelves are gorgeous!! (No individual photo)

Following that I picked up a bundle of 10 MTH PRR Streamlined passenger cars from another forum member. These are really very nice, a couple of doubles but hardly noticeable in a long train.

Next up are two custom painted Hess Ore cars by RGS. I grew up collecting the Hess trucks so I figured I’d grab some rolling stock. These were also purchased from a forum member.

I finished my Simpson’s cars collection! Grabbed the last two cars I needed.

My Nesquik collection grew some more also.

I also picked up a Norfolk Southern First Responders Bay Window Caboose. My First Responders train is growing!!

There’s a few pins and a magnet I bought but no individual photos of these items. There’s also two more MTH political box cars I bought that I’ll refrain from posting and I’ll edit them out.

Here’s my overall photo of my Day 2 purchases (the CSX and flatcar with the loader were purchased Thursday, just made the wrong photo)

My overall York experience was great as always! Staying at a hotel didn’t make it so rushed so everything was nice and relaxing. Only downside was the car fills up really fast. LoL! I’m already looking forward to the spring show. Let the countdown begin!

Thank You to everyone that makes this amazing show possible!

It sounds like you had a great time all around!!!

@Mark Boyce posted:

It sounds like you had a great time all around!!!

Absolutely!! You know it was a good show when you can’t see out the rear wind and shelving is slid right up to the shifter. Hahaha

@Richizzle07 posted:

Absolutely!! You know it was a good show when you can’t see out the rear wind and shelving is slid right up to the shifter. Hahaha

So you had to leave Mum in York?

I would rather the shelves ( I have the Glenn Snyder shelves) would not have the center rail. It fights with the collector on engines and cars that have collectors. If you don't lower the collector square on the center rail, the collector sticking down prevents moving the engine sideways to set the wheels on the outside rails.

Rich;

That is some haul. I do note that you have entered on to the slipperiest section of the proverbial slope - passenger cars. Just one question… when are we all going to be invited to the house warming for the new mansion you will need to house your ever expanding collection??? Over the last week or so, I have been trying to get all my train storage organized. Other than some that are on display or on the layout (or ones I haven’t uncovered just yet!!!), these boxes contain the bulk of my passenger fleet - beware of 21” cars!!!

Great haul!

Peter

@Mark Boyce it was close! Another passenger set and it would have been me strapped to the roof LoL.

@Apples55 thank you! Yes the passenger sets are really catching my eye lately. Ever since I got the TCA 40th anniversary set and that really nice PRR Madison set in the spring, I believe I’m well into that slope LoL. As for the mansion, I sure do wish! Might need a small warehouse for the layout and storage. My current in house storage is definitely going to have to be reorganized and expanded. The Glenn Snyder shelves will help with some of the unboxed items. I’m trying my hardest to avoid the attic since it gets really hot up there. Your passenger collection is pretty big. I guess you’re very familiar with that proverbial slope LoL!

@Putnam Division thank you! I may have went overboard but some of the bundle deals I negotiated were just too hard to pass up. A few I wasn’t even expecting them to accept my offer. It was an exhilarating rush! A good time was had by all.

Rich, wow that is some haul! Very nice. Start building the second layout room and storage area now. Glad you had fun at York. I hope to attend my first in October 2024.

Andy

Impressive haul Rich.

Thanks Andy @Steamfan77 and @jpc! Andy you’ll love it! First time is a bit overwhelming.

Happy Halloween everyone!! This isn’t train related but definitely creative and it helps fund my train addiction so I’m sharing it LoL. I won first place today at my towns Trunk or Treat. I had fun doing this and the reactions from both kids and parents were great!!

And here’s my house with 2,100 LEDs and one inflatable. What can I say, I stay busy.

Happy Halloween everyone!! 👻🎃💀

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Last week I received a small order from Menards. Had to grab the M&Ms gondola for my candy train along with the army flatcar with truck before they sold out.

I also met the local gentleman that’s selling some of his postwar sets. I picked up the 1479WS set with the transformer, full set, set box, and all the boxes except for the gondola box. Unfortunately it looks like this engine was redone and they did a pretty bad job on the 2056 numbers. The 5 looks like a 3. I’m still satisfied with the purchase.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Yesterday I met up with the local gentleman with the postwar sets for some more trains. I’m holding off on anymore sets from him until next year. He had 4 pieces of rolling stock in PRR so I picked them up on a bundle deal. The Weaver coal cars have custom made coal loads.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

First I’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!! 🦃🍽 🍁

While at the York show last month, I saw a custom Lionel Hess boxcar and a custom Lionel Hess tankcar at the METCA booth. Since I picked up the 2 custom RGS Hess Ore cars at York from an OGR forum member, I decided to build onto the Hess collection.  Funds were gone at York so I reached out to Stu @NOT LionelLLC over at METCA about two weeks ago and he set me up with both. Thanks again for making this possible Stu!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

“The Hess Train’s back and it’s better than ever!” LoL

Shortly after making my last Hess purchase from METCA, I saw 2 more Hess tankers at their booth in an Allentown First Frost video. I once again reached out to Stu @NOT LionelLLC over at METCA and he got me set up with two MTH Hess tankers. Thanks Stu for making this all possible yet again!

I also picked up this Menards Jack’s Delivery box truck at Grzyboski’s over the weekend after attending a local train show at the Taylor Fire Department and then a visit at the Anthracite Hi-Railers layout. It was a train filled weekend!! I’ve personally never seen Grzyboski’s so busy before! Steady flow of people at the Anthracite Hi-Railers layout too. It’s train season!!

Hi Rich.  Glad you like the Hess trains.  Enjoy.

Stu

Very nice, Rich!  I’m glad Grzyboski’s is busy!  I always liked doing business with them when they came to the Monroeville Greenberg show.  I don’t blame them for not coming this far west anymore.  It’s a long haul from Moosic.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Very nice, Rich!  I’m glad Grzyboski’s is busy!  I always liked doing business with them when they came to the Monroeville Greenberg show.  I don’t blame them for not coming this far west anymore.  It’s a long haul from Moosic.

Thanks Mark! Grzyboski’s always has a good selection, especially at York. All the more reason for you to fully recover so you can get to York! LoL

Rich, thank you!  Yes, they and so many others are reason to go to York, but also  to meet up with so many Forum members like yourself!  We will see what another year brings!

UPDATE #25

I’ve been busy in the train room the past week. My main objective was to straighten everything up for the holidays and get the trains running on two levels.

I started with replacing my old Lionel track on the second level with the Menards track I recently purchased. Once I had the track placed, I drilled holes for the zip ties to secure down the track.

Looks like Johnny Appleseed payed a visit! LoL. I placed a few trees on the bottom and second level, again this is temporary.

I was able to do a few more building placements. I added the hobo camp, the American Materials plant, and Dave’s garage which will be on a lift out section in case I need to reach further back on the layout. My vision is finally coming together!!

I also put the third level together, somewhat LoL. Again, this is all temporary for the holidays. I placed several buildings on the top level to get a better general picture of my end goal. It’s all coming along great and just how I envisioned it.

Here’s an overall photo of the layout at its current stage.

Rich, thank you for the update.  Yes your vision is coming together.  The layout looks nice for Christmas!

UPDATE #26

I moved a few buildings around on the top level, making room for a future building purchase (stay tuned). I also added small sections that will be added to the front of the layout. The left side will be an extension to the downtown, and the smaller right section will hold a station I need to purchase still, and the Country Store from Woodland Scenics that I already own. (These section pieces are currently only temporary and exact measurements aren’t final yet.)

I also took two videos. The first video is a quick walk around of the layout. The second video shows the trains running and the multiple directions/routes the bottom level can go.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Rich, thank you for the update.  Yes your vision is coming together.  The layout looks nice for Christmas!

Thanks Mark!! I have more snow covered trees but I didn’t want to dive too deep into the temporary stuff.

It’s nice to see trains running as well!!

Coming together nicely Rich, especially in the videos. Looking forward to seeing the permanent placement of the buildings.

Gene

@Mark Boyce posted:

It’s nice to see trains running as well!!

It definitely is Mark! The sound is soothing while I’m tinkering with other things.

@Genemed posted:

Coming together nicely Rich, especially in the videos. Looking forward to seeing the permanent placement of the buildings.

Gene

Thanks Gene! I’m looking forward to that too. Getting the clamshells off the buildings would be nice but they still have a few moves ahead of them. Better safe than sorry.

@Richizzle07 posted:

It definitely is Mark! The sound is soothing while I’m tinkering with other things.

Thanks Gene! I’m looking forward to that too. Getting the clamshells off the buildings would be nice but they still have a few moves ahead of them. Better safe than sorry.

Isn't it though?! 

Looks good.

@Frank posted:

Looks good.

Thanks Frank!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Over the weekend I came across an extremely good deal on marketplace for storage totes. I was already planning on buying these totes for storing the trains so the deal was a nice find. I purchased 10 totes total.

@Richizzle07 posted:

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Over the weekend I came across an extremely good deal on marketplace for storage totes. I was already planning on buying these totes for storing the trains so the deal was a nice find. I purchased 10 totes total.

Rich;

Be VERY careful of the train corollary to Parkinson’s Law - trains will expand to fill the space available for storage