Buy anything cool lately?

Old Lionel posted:

Very sorry to hear that ogaugeguy .  I just got my "Boston Elevated" version clear above the dimples and the Railway part had one dimple between the R and a ,  and a and y ,  but all letters are clear. and my  "Merry Christmas Railway " version was above the dimples.  So MTH did get the lettering better on some of the Brills. Maybe see if any other Trenton at your dealer turned out same . If some better maybe you can exchange. 

I would do what you suggest, Old Lionel,  but can't since I preordered it from a major online dealer to guarantee I'd be able to get this trolley. Unfortunately that dealer is too far away to make the trip in a single day and transportation, overnight lodging, and other related travel expenses would far outway the cost of the trolley. I now view this experience as a pitfall of buying from an online dealer and I can't imagine any large volume dealer having an employee check each of these trolleys to see whether mine is an anomaly or if that's the way MTH imprinted them. If I ever see the trolley at a local dealer or show at least then I'll know if mine is an anomaly or par for the course, but it turns out to  be an anomaly, what could I possibly do then as it would likely be past the dealer's exchange period and even if it wasn't, would he even consider taking back the trolley for what he might consider a nitpicking miniscule issue? Anyway, even though my Trenton Bristol & Philadelphia trolley falls short of the expectations I had based on the photo in MTH's catalog, having it flawed is still better than not having this trolley at all.  

I found these player piano rolls at a local antique store.  "Johnny Zero" caught my eye first.  Then I noticed "In the Baggage Coach Ahead."  Pretty cool how the lyrics are printed on the paper.  I unrolled it and the paper looks like new.  A youtube link is included at bottom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_3I8cZ_P4

Chop-nose WM GP7 that I found on eBay. Someone else did the work.  Hey MTH some of these (GP7/GP9) would be cool!

The GP7 looks great with your others, Ralph!

i picked this up the other day from that one place......lionel employee handbook from 1953. not sure why i felt the need to have  it, i guess so i could pretend for a moment that my job was to build trains for a living. anyway its an interesting read and a little insight to lionel in its heyday.

BenH posted:

i picked this up the other day from that one place......lionel employee handbook from 1953. not sure why i felt the need to have  it, i guess so i could pretend for a moment that my job was to build trains for a living. anyway its an interesting read and a little insight to lionel in its heyday.

That's one of those rare things that give a glimpse of what was real and what we imagine. Well worth picking up I'd say.

In addition to the piano rolls from a previous post, I also found this PRR Safety Rules employee manual from 1946

Got this in the mail the other day 

Had always hoped to find a kit, preferably in metal, of Stephensons Rocket.  I've had the book The World Of Model Trains by Guy Williams since I was a kid and always marveled at the pics therein of a Rocket made from silver and box wood.

Here's my alternative, for now.  Judging from its Japanese transistor radio electronics I'd guess it was manufactured in the '60's .  Everything except the black firebox is of plated metal, although I doubt any is solid brass.

The search for the postwar 6017-200 USN caboose is finally over, the Land-Sea & Air set is not perfect, but now complete.....

sure did

finally landed a 20-3214-1 premier Dreyfuss Hudson with a PT tender......been on the hunt for one of these for a while!....just came today...popped in a fresh battery, a little PM work, and she was off!!! gonna be a good day tater!...………...Pat

Beautiful engine  !!!! Enjoy !!!!!

Old Lionel posted:

Beautiful engine  !!!! Enjoy !!!!!

thanks man!....Im having a blast with it!

Laidoffsick, Gasp (!) Good for you! Be safe and have fun!

FrankM

Laidoffsick, Wow, not exactly sure what brand your new sport car is, but, it sure is a beautiful automobile. My friend has a 2016 Plum Crazy Charger, and we do triple digits going to a York.  It’s a fun machine....Enjoy...

Well I needed another die-cast vehicle like I needed another ailment.  But could Not resist. 

But then there is this which I did need thanks to Ford's 4.0 OHC engine!

LOS nice set of wheels you'll be tooling around in.

Leapinlarry, LOS new car is a Dodge Challenger with the 392 ci Hemi, even more vroom vroom than your buddie's 5.7(350 ci) 370 hp Charger.  Although I'm more partial to Plum Crazy than Black.

Don't know if this is cool but it's cool Lionel allows 50% off parts during their warehouse sale.  Picked up a bunch of parts.

As for the Coca Cola delivery die cast truck , great to see you got it.  Somethings you cannot pass up no matter how many die cast you have.  Enjoy it !!!!!!

Just came a little while ago from LOTS.   IMHO, they make the best club cars available.   That Yuengling car is also from LOTS.

No flash on this one.

Beer consist, overhead layout.

Jerry

Getting my Sam Adams car next week. Yours looks great... cannot wait to get mine !!!  Also have the LOTS Boston caboose with the man repairing the track and sparking (welding) periodically.  A favorite of visitors. 

I picked up this K-Line wood chip gondola off of the bay last week.  I’ve always liked the CP Rail Pac-Man style logo.

Larry

Mail lady delivered this sweet Lionel 400 Budd. Took it apart, cleaned, greased and oiled it. Hopefully I'll find two 2559's reasonably priced at Allentown meet next Sunday to complete both postwar Budd sets. 

For those of you who live in NE OH, the Mt. Hope Train Show last weekend was the bestest ever. At least I thought so after paying $2 for a fully functional #91 Lionel Circuit Breaker! Paid $10 for this MTH searchlight car - Yep, the searchlight came with it - not a huge bargain, but I just fell in love with it - got a weakness for lights!,

and gave $20 for the 3656 Stockyard, plus cattle car, plus 8 cattle in their own little box. 'Nuff to make my day!

Just received my MTH 44 Tonner in Sacramento Northern  Black & Orange.  She's a beauty (even after a 3 year wait)  Runs like a Swiss watch in DCS.  She spent her first day shuffling beer cars at the Coors plant

Been a great couple of days for new additions... I think I need to add a storeroom!!!

A couple of items from the LCCA...

A pair from LOTS:

One from the gang at the NJ HiRailers:

And a trio from the folks at Amazon:

Got these in the mail today from Trainworld. 

Got this yesterday always wanted this paint scheme one of my favorite of the Pennsy line of boxcars 

My friendly mail carrier interrupted me from cleaning up leaves to give me this. 

An Atlas mailing box?  No, I knew what it was from a Forum member.  I have wanted one since they came out.  Finally, the timing was right. 

Well, I guess I had better go out and at least retrieve my tools I left outside before dark. 

Mark Boyce posted:

My friendly mail carrier interrupted me from cleaning up leaves to give me this. 

 

An Atlas mailing box?  No, I knew what it was from a Forum member.  I have wanted one since they came out.  Finally, the timing was right. 

Well, I guess I had better go out and at least retrieve my tools I left outside before dark. 

Mark,  I really like mine.  It's designed w/o a smoke unit, so it doesn't set off my smoke alarm. Only issue is it doesn't creep well through switches. I can go 8-10 smph without stalling.  Good luck.

For one of my grandsons.

Thank you Matt!  I don’t use smoke either.  Right now I don’t have any switches installed, since I stopped construction when my wife offered the bigger room.  I’ll have to remember to see how it does.

Mark Boyce posted:

My friendly mail carrier interrupted me from cleaning up leaves to give me this. 

An Atlas mailing box?  No, I knew what it was from a Forum member.  I have wanted one since they came out.  Finally, the timing was right. 

Well, I guess I had better go out and at least retrieve my tools I left outside before dark. 

Now that's a very good reason to stop cleaning up leaves.  :-)

Trussman posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

My friendly mail carrier interrupted me from cleaning up leaves to give me this. 

An Atlas mailing box?  No, I knew what it was from a Forum member.  I have wanted one since they came out.  Finally, the timing was right. 

Well, I guess I had better go out and at least retrieve my tools I left outside before dark. 

Now that's a very good reason to stop cleaning up leaves.  :-)

I wonder why I didn’t get as much done outside as I thought I would have.  ????

Mr. Brown stopped this afternoon and delivered this Williams NYC class "A" 2-6-6-4 . Been looking for a Wm's Big Boy at a reasonable price for several months, then I noticed this NYC  was up for auction.

At last Sunday's (Nov. 4) train show, I picked up an American Flyer 312.  For those unfamiliar with Flyer, this is a postwar model of the PRR K5.

On the outside, it looked pretty good, and in fact, cosmetically, it is.  The boiler casting and tender shell were dirty but undamaged and intact.  But when I got it home, I discovered that some hamfisted Bubba, whose name is now mercifully lost to history, had removed the reverse unit from the tender and hard-wired the locomotive to run in forward-only.

If that weren't enough, he had also removed the cast tender trucks and put on a pair of stamped tinplate trucks.  Their pickup wires looked like they'd been soldered with a hot rock. It was a mess.

Fortunately -- though am a longtime Lionel man -- I do own a Flyer 302 and 322 that I bought back in the Seventies, then restored and upgraded.  Apparently that was why I had a box full of Flyer parts that I seem to have acquired long ago, and left lying dormant in my attic.  After some searching, I found it and dug it out.  Surprise!  There were two Flyer reverse units inside, along with other assorted Gilbert odds and ends.

Of course, that left me with the unfamiliar task of wiring up a Flyer reverse unit from scratch. But the Internet came to the rescue, and I was able to locate a wiring diagram on-line.  First, I located a couple of screws to hold the reverser in place on the tender floor.  Then, I replaced the junky stamped tender trucks with proper cast Flyer trucks.  And finally, using my diagram as a guide, I carefully soldered the appropriate wires to their places and thence to the contact-plug plate that joins them to the locomotive.

With great trepidation, I connected the little Lionel transformer that I use for testing purposes to the tender trucks and powered it up.  To my great amazement, the reverse unit began clicking and cycling away every time I touched a wire to the trucks.  It works!  And on the first try!

Of course there's a lot more to do yet before the 312 takes to the rails again with its 302 and 322 brothers.  When it's done, I'll post a picture.

Trussman, It looks like your search was rewarded with a winner!

Balshis, Congratulations on the rewiring job!!

Bought a bunch of parts during LIONEL's 50% off sale (BIG THANKS to LIONEL) to make my personalized Texas Special passenger train; and, from a forum member, some very hard to find (been looking on and off for several years) Microscale decals for two projects.

Almost forgot, I also bought $25.00 in tools to do a $10 repair job--it's called "hobby math."

Pingman posted:

Bought a bunch of parts during LIONEL's 50% off sale (BIG THANKS to LIONEL) to make my personalized Texas Special passenger train; and, from a forum member, some very hard to find (been looking on and off for several years) Microscale decals for two projects.

Almost forgot, I also bought $25.00 in tools to do a $10 repair job--it's called "hobby math."

Dude, I've been wondering how to justify my tool purchases! Thanks for the heads up!!!