Great Northern railway

Train show in Springfield, Ohio.

Needed a break out of the house and took the back roads to a one day train show.

Surprisingly, I didn't find anything that I 'needed'!

There were two buildings connected by a hall.

Don't see too many of these: the old electronic set.  Price said $775.

Something new that hasn't been there before;  A lot of O gauge tunnels, home made.

A big 6' long ore boat.  Probably should have bought it for the ore dock.

Want $250 OBO.

Now that's a ranch house that probably has a huge basement!

Summer flying season is about here so I'll be switching over to my other hobby.

See you in the Fall.

This will also get some use:

NMRA Div 7 meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio.

After the meeting, two railroaders always have their layouts open for us to visit.

Local O gauge club:

HO layout:

One of the Div 7 members had his 62' Cadillac out.

Delivery of a 1935 GN heavy weight 1st class coach.

New box for the PRR S-2 6-8-6.

The original box didn't come with the engine so I got a blue one from re-boxx that is very close to the original blue box from Alco models.

Comes with two plastic sheets.

A 'basic' engine/tender shape is easily removed.

And then the small 1/4" square foam pieces can be removed to fit the engine.

Each 1/4" piece has small 'nibs' holding them to each other. I used some sewing scissors to 'initially' cut the top 'nibs' and then able to remove the foam to shape the engine.

Found a label on the web and printed it, covered with gloss lacquer and used some spray contact cement to adhere it to the box.

This size box is $36 plus $10 for shipping (very reasonable).

New arrivals>

Trainworld had these nice vehicles on sale.  I model 1938 and these are early forties but they bring back memories of when I was a kid and the milk man delivered the milk in these kind of vehicles.  Plus, on sale and got 10 for 57 bucks plus shipping; can't beat that!

samparfitt posted:

NMRA Div 7 meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio.

After the meeting, two railroaders always have their layouts open for us to visit.

Local O gauge club:

Ahhh, a 2 rail T1!

New arrival (another iconic engine).

NYC Niagara 4-8-4 imported by Nickel plate in 1977.

Has basic back head detail.

Test run video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...ture=em-upload_owner

Makes our HO stuff look pretty cheap!

I've read on other threads where people say the post war Lionel is dead as everyone wants the latest bells and whistles.

For about an hour I watched stouts auction of their post war auction for today and it appeared most stuff sold for more than what stouts gave the 'price range' for what the item would sell for.  Most of the bidding appeared to be via online.

Of course a lot of this stuff was with boxes and rated C7-9, many never even run:

rutland car:

https://connect.invaluable.com...300-Boxc_6AD43FF8FE/  


SF unopened:
https://connect.invaluable.com...F3-Freig_8264E1FB8F/         

I'm impressed with Stouts: they give a very detailed description of the item and lots of pictures.  That has to take a lot of time getting all that info and taking all that stuff out of the boxes for pictures.    I've seen other auction houses where they, obviously, know nothing about trains.

Forgive me for I have sinned: twice!

Not only did I buy my first diesel, it's plastic!  The brass version is 3 grand so that was a good persuader!  

I saw a MR video review of the UP 8500 HP turbine so I decided to get one.

Definitely comes well packed:

Comes with a nice booklet with exploded views, maintenance, etc. : even instructions on how to open the plastic holders, which I needed to read!

There is a plastic sleeve, plus the clam shell inner plastic case holds each piece so there is absolutely no movement in transit.

There is a lot of detail on this 3 unit set.  Two units are powered (dummy tender) so plenty of pulling power.  Lots of doors open, plenty of connecting hoses/cables, see through walk boards, etc.

The turbine noise is loud, as was the prototype.

WOW some people would say you have gone off the deep end! I think its GREAT, more power to you and the engine setup looks wonderful. I think you are really going to enjoy it!

Like I've said in the past: the choice is yours.

I don't have cable, cell phone is minimal, don't eat out, don't like vacations, have driven 1 million miles and have only had 3 new cars (bulk of them were used), usually brought my meals to work (we'd sit on the 'square' and check out the babes while we ate) never paid for parking, no flat screen TV's, ad nauseam.

Nothing wrong with buying this stuff but, you have to make choices. 

Investing $100 per month over 30 years at a modest 5% gain gives one $84,000, $200 gives $168,000  (think about that when people pay their monthly charges on all the services). 

From the first day of work, I saved and raises went into the savings . What I had left is what I lived on: it forced me to make decisions: like painting brass engines so I could afford to buy myself some brass.  Fix my own vehicles, as well as home repair.  Putting into saving what was left after all the things I 'needed' would not have worked for me.

The house is paid off and that's a lot of extra money that can be spent on stuff.

Instead of watching TV, I'm either working on my trains, or now with summer, I'm in my shop building my airplanes.

The choice is yours!

Great point of view! I had the same plan, then illness changed that. Our house and cars all paid for, and ready to have fun. But I guess it will just take a little longer.

Back to 'normal'

new delivery.

UP FEF-2 4-8-4 factory painted 2-tone gray with yellow stripes by Key.   Made in 1991.

All the 'bells and whistles': coast drive, front smoke box door opens, head light, detailed cab, cab doors, besides the usual sprung drivers, sprung trailing truck and  tender trucks, functional water hatches on the tender, deck plate, functional cab vent, hatches on top of boiler in front of cab, sand dome hatches, boiler cover 'stays' and see through walk boards.

New arrival.

N&W auxiliary water water car by BLI.

A nicely detailed, painted and lighted water car.

Picture also shows a NWSL water car from the 70's.

Interesting in that the price I paid of each one are within 8 bucks of each other.

New arrival.

GN R-1 2-8-8-2 by Oriental Limited.

Factory painted black in 1985 but I'll be putting the glacier park scheme  to it.

Has working headlight, functional cab vent hatches, deck plate and nice cab detail.

I bought it since it was only 42% of present day prices and even cheaper that what it cost in 1985.

Compared to the Tenshodo R-2 (which are usually larger than scale), the R-1's engine and tender are shorter than the R-2's engine and tender.

Two new arrivals.

Milwaukee S-2 4-8-4 by Overland.

Produced in 1979.  I don't have many Overland models but this one is very nicely detailed: detailed cab, boiler jacket stays and a can motor.   GN interfaced with Milwaukee plus it's a northern!

SF 4-8-4 by United.

Made in the 60's but still has nice detail.  No cab detail but I'll add that.  Someone added a can motor as they came with open frame motors.   This goes with the other two SF engines on the roster.

Both engines have light use on them but in excellent shape. 

The SF pilot is bent back some: easy fix.

New arrival:

Vulcan 50 ton duplex for the logging railroad.

Made in the 60's but has been sitting in the box for the last 55 years and no couplers installed and no wear on the wheels.

This completes what's needed for the logging railroad.

Two 3 truck shays.

One 2 truck shay.

One Heisler.

One Weyerhauser 2-6-6-2

One climax.

One vulcan.

New arrival:

GN S-2 4-8-4 imported by westside in 1978 and made by Samhongsa.

Another engine that has been sitting in a box since new as no couplers and even the packing foam around the engine and tender were still intact.  I always like models made by Samshongsa as they are always well detailed and run nice, plus it didn't cost that much more than when it was sold in 1978!

Lots of detail on this engine.  Operating roof vent hatches and sprung pony/trailing trucks.  Interesting in that there are marker lights just behind the oil bunker.  Even has lanyard  ropes to bell and whistle plus boiler cover stays.

Comparison of three S-2's: left to right, Westside, Tenshodo's and BLI brass hybrid.

Nice, thanks for sharing.

Gene Anstine

New Delivery.

Got some 'warm' strip LED lights from micromark.  Two rolls totaling 10 meters should be enough for passenger cars.

New delivery.

Eight GN heavy weight passenger cars by Oriental limited.  Made back in 1980's. Two are duplicates.  All are brand new and never seen 'rails'.

Bought them from Italy on ebay.  First time for overseas buying; a little wary and asked for shipping prices, first, to make sure not outrageous.  Only about 55 bucks.

Also, thought there would be some tax coming into the country but nil.

Didn't know OL used a red box for any of their stuff.

The heater car is really nicely detailed as well as the RPO car.

The observation car is a real 'heavy weight': they must of used solid castings on the bottom.

One car is partially painted and some added detail added on the bottom of the car.

New delivery.

Texas and Pacific 2-10-4 texan.

Since I'm a sucker for multi-colored engines (see 1st picture) I bought this engine (also because it big).

All I can say is wow!  This engine has incredible detail.  Made back in 1978 but since it was made by Samhongsa, I'm guessing that's why it's so well detailed.  Tons of piping, working cab vent hatches, nice cockpit detail, lanyards to bell and whistle and lots of shut off valves.  Also, has a can motor. 

Decals for this engine are virtually non existent but, fortunately, the name is only spelled out in yellow roman lettering so I just bought some microsoft lettering/number set for it.

The engine was very reasonably priced and compared to the very expensive glacier park engine, I think the sunset has more detail!  

The engine had a coupler on the tender but I doubt if it has run more than a couple times with a train.  The pilot coupler is loose but an easy fix.

New arrival:

A complete set of 8, unopened, heavy weight interiors from IHC.

New delivery.

RDC-3 by hallmark.

GN had only one of these and it was this type with the combo baggage/passenger.

It's definitely out of my 'time period', but I like it.

Made in 1985 by Samhongsa so I knew it would be nice.  Both trucks powered, 'stainless steel' finish and the engine 'dome' on top has a 'see through' mesh.

Price was very nice as it sold for less than it did in 1985.

Another product that appears to have been in it's box since new.

Layout lighting.

Bought these on amazon.  3 sets of 15' with power converter to replace/enhance present fluorescent bulbs.

Very nice RDC.

Gene Anstine

New delivery.

Burlington O-5 4-8-4 by Overland.  Imported in 1982. 

Another engine with no couplers and probably only been test run.

Hill of Great Northern was on Burlington's board and had stock in the company plus GN interfaced with Burlington.

I already had the O-5B but when I saw the amount of detail on this engine, I put a bid on it on ebay.

The box just says made in Korea but, with the fine detail, I'm guessing Samshongsa.

The trailing trucks are sprung.  I like all the piping and valves on top of the boiler just in front of the cab: that will look great painting the valve handles red.  Lanyards to bell and whistle, boiler stays, etc.

The cab detail is basic: surprised since the rest of the engine is finely detailed.

Some extra leading wheels (solid for more modern look) and a extra set of valve gear. 

One part was laying inside the plastic wrap that goes under the engineers cab that will have to be re-soldered.

A little comparison with the O-5B engine.

New delivery.

Santa Fe 4-8-4 #3765 imported by Key in 1978 (made by Samhongsa).

I bought this engine for one reason: the extremely tall smoke stack!  Something different.

Very nicely detailed, including in cab detail and lanyards to bell and whistle and a 'can' motor.

Another 'never run' engine that's been sitting in its box, although the pilot tubing will need some straightening. 

Except for the 'turn of the century' 2-10-10-2, a definite family resemblance among the Santa Fe engines: 2-10-4 and two 4-8-4's.

Stuff to do:

Got my first operating session the 2nd Saturday of November so I've got 'stuff' to do.

Besides cleaning, putting in three new Miller signs.

Train show tomorrow so that shoots that day.  Will get into PM'ing the layout next Monday.

New arrival:

Got three Campbell kits.  Got all three from same seller so saved on shipping and they were only about a 1/3 of 'regular' price.

Installed three new miller signs at Glasgow, Montana along the GN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NnxyMMj4Ro      

NMRA Div 7 train show in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Got pictures before it got too crowded.  I believe something like 260 tables plus portable train layouts.  I was there for a good 4 hours and picked up some things that I 'needed' plus it's always fun seeing all your comrades.  

Layouts ranged from N, S, live steam, G, HO to Lionel.

I needed another transformer for some of my Lionel and found a very nice, restored ZW for only 80 bucks and bought some 72" curve track for only a buck each.  Found some interior kits for some HO passenger cars that I still need to paint plus an unexpected nice HO building that was well done for only $35.  Found some nice books in the 5-12 dollar range. 

For now, this is "where it's going" but will need to be moved as more roundhouse tracks are going to be added.

Went back to the train show on Sunday and picked up a few more items.

Picked up 1939/40 Lionel catalogues, a C&O book and a nice westside GN 4-6-2 H-7.

The H-7 is by Samhongsa with in cab detail, can motor and even has lanyards to the bell and whistle.  Compared to my PFM H-5, the H-7 is more modern with more detail and a vandy tender.  Another engine sitting in the box since 1977.

Layout improvements.

Got the 'top side' creeper out to fix some building flats made from paper that needed gluing to the hardboard.  They've probably been warped for the last 20 years but when another railroader came over and videoed my layout from the engineer's perspective, that kind of stuff 'sticks out', along with a lot of other discrepancies.   

Today, I picked up some 1/8" thick hardboard and cut it into 13" wide strips, painted it sky blue and put them around the interchange/storage  tracks.  I also have a couple Walther's instant horizons that have been 'sitting' around for decades that I glued to the back drops to 'brighten up' the area a little bit (just the laundry room but it's now a little more pleasing to the eyes).

The radius is 4' and, with 3 tracks, they can hold 3 trains a good 24' long.

Last year, I installed 4 lights to brighten up the area and also make it easier to see the trains.

New arrival.

Tenshodo GN C-1 0-8-0 with working equalizer drivers (Also called TPE or three point equalized).  Engine was made in 1985.

The retail price in 1985 was $695 and brasstrains says today's price is $1200. 
Both prices are absurd but for $305 or about what the price of an older C-1 goes for, I'll take it. 

The engine was being sold in Hong Kong and as you can see in the first pictures, the cab was bent up.   Initially, I was thinking it was dropped but there is no damage to the top edge of the cab nor any paint missing and the rest of the engine is spotless.   Maybe it got a really long drop while in the box!

I was figuring I would have to strip it and re-solder but I just put my thumb in the boiler shell and pulled down on the back of the cab and she straightened out. I also had to use a pop cycle  stick at the point of the bend to help get the running board straight.   There was some paint chips along the back around a few places on the bottom of the cab and on the screw holes and hand bars but some scalecoat engine loco black (matches the dull finish) fixed that.

It has a working headlight and cab detail but, other than that, the engine matches my older C-1.

I took the driver retaining plate off to see how the mechanism worked and there are some brass 'shims' that rotate on a rod between the drivers and one driver will move the shim and cause the other driver to move in the opposite direction.

The engine is very quiet and, virtually, can't be heard when running on it's back.

The tires are blackened and, at most, the engine has only been test run.

There was no foam in the box so new foam was cut.

before:

After:

Engine preps for micro LED's.

I like lighted marker/head lights on the engine and tender plus lighting the cab.

Using a #45 drill bit works to drill out the marker (classification) lights and head light. 

On the GN H-7 pacific, I used a hand drill on the marker lights but a small hobby drill press for the headlight.  A pop cycle stick was put between the headlight and smoke box cover to keep the fragile headlight mount from bending.

On the GN S-2 northern, I started using a hand drill on the marker lights but the brass seemed to have a harder tensile than on the H-7 so, they were removed and drilled out.  Interesting that the tender had some marker lights just behind the coal (oil) bunker.  The mounts were way too fragile so the markers were removed and drilled out on the drill press.  A hole was drilled on each side of the tender, just behind the marker lights, to route the led wires.

An extra hole was drilled in the smoke box cover to route the led wires.

I've started putting the drill press on the floor over a large blue rug as, when it's on the work bench, sometimes those small items 'fly loose' and they are hard to find on the floor and sometimes go on the shelves under the bench.  The large blue carpet makes location a lot easier.

On the tender, I had to use resistance soldering to remove/add the marker lights due to the large surface area. 

Lucked out on the tender back up light as the #45 drill bit fit just inside the casing.  I backed off several times as to not overheat it and cause the solder to melt.

The injector valve (I think that's what it is!) came off under the cab and had to be re-soldered.  

Kind of mass production line: doing all the marker/head lights on several engines at once.

GN H-7  smoke box front.

                                      very nice layout and amazing work !!

 I think this is my new favorite steam engine, gonna have to get me one of these.....

Mine too.

From what I've read, it had the largest tractive effort for any articulated.

The model also does well!

HO version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elC1LoBU2lk         

O gauge version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZP2RUmMtVs