Buy anything cool lately?

Lionel Southern sound box car. I'm pretty impressed with it.

I bought this fire tower kit. It's actually S scale but whatever. It looks very realistic. It's based off a circa 1930s 80 foot Aermotor. Looks just like ones in my area. The ladders/stairs could be more accurate but it's still nice. I bought it from Twin Whistle.

Picked up an REA van to sit behind Union Station, a 48 Ford pickup to get some beer from the brewery, and a 50 Chevrolet semi to deliver to the feed supply warehouse. 

I recently received my BTO Lionel Legacy Union Pacific #1111 "Powered By Our People" SD70AH. The paint scheme is very impressive and includes lots of details. It has prototypical lighting behind the number boards, so as to prevent matching the intensity of the headlights. Looks great paired up with Union Pacific 1943.

I purchased a Lionel SF F3 set ABBA from a member here, motored A&B unites and dummy A&B units and a bunch of spline and  container cars. I only have the SF set pictured here ABA. Well for starters as you can see I never would have fit the ABBA on my countertop! LOL And second, I actually forgot I purchased the extra B unit, Oops! I always wanted the SF F3 set to compliment my Postwar NYC F3 set which has a postwar modified dual motor B unit. So while not postwar, not even close, at last I have both sets.

Bought a CAB-1L to augment my CAB-2

The other day, I saw this listed on the White Pass website. They were on sale, so I figured they wouldn't have them for very much longer. This is the unit that ran E T & W N C locomotive numbers 10 and 14 during World War II. I'm not too keen on the digital camouflage on the back, but it's a nice hat which should wear pretty well in warm weather.

Given my interest in military railroads, it was a must have...

Being the lover of Hudson's that I am it was inevitable that eventually I would buy Lionel's version (777) at some point.  Well one came up on Ebay for $250 plus shipping that I could not pass up.  It arrived today and looks like it has never been run!  After pre maintenance checks and lubrication I put it on the track for break in running. 

Here is a picture of my oldest grandson running it.  The whistle is indeed as great as i have been told!

Rolland

You truly got a great engine for $250.00 I think it’s the best pullmor motored hudson ever made. 

Just got the 4-car MTH Madison passenger car set! I had the starter set with 3 of these cars and the 2-8-0 (PS-2), but had to sell it about 10 years ago...

I figured these would be a good fit for the atlas O industrial rail 4-4-2 I have. Well, these cars are a bit bigger (and heavier) than I remember... they’re a bit too much for the Atlantic to handle... guess I’ll have to start thinking about a K4 or GG1...

Bought a Atlas Jersey Central coach & a combine car for my future CNJ short train to be pulled by one of the CNJ Alcos I have.  Cars are really well done with nice detail.  Thks Mr Muffin !

Just got this billboard from Menards. Will look great on my layout once I complete getting everything in place.

Got this 2-pack of Lionel Frisco 86' Hi-cube Boxcars from Nassau Hobby's, so far they perform great. Yes I know Frisco doesn't exist anymore, but I think these still look great behind any modern loco in my collection. The scheme really stands out from all the rest of the rolling stock that I have, and well, the fact that they are so much bigger than almost every scale piece of rolling stock that has ever been made.

I am most likely not gonna get anymore of these cars, since they already take up a ton of space in my storage room. I was considering getting 2 Lionel scale Autoracks, but after seeing how much space these take up. I don't think I will be buying those any time soon. Don't get me wrong, I still really like these cars, I just can't buy anymore as of right now.

My New MTH Extended Vision Caboose.  

Paultrainguy, The Western Maryland extended vision caboose looks great!!   I have the same caboose on order from Sidetrack Hobbies!  

Be still my heart...these are absolutely gorgeous!

Tom

Those are some nice looking PA's!  The D&H is one of my favorite paint schemes.

I do quite a bit of modeling on the coffee table in the LR, so at the same time my wife watches TV, and I listen... The problem is the table is low and after bending over for a period of time it kills my back.  My wife found this rising desk at "Gromet".  It is 24" X 27", rises 3, 6, 10, and 14 inches.  It is the perfect heights for scratch building.  Plenty of room for tools and equipment.  a 18" X 22" cutting mat fits perfect with room to spare.  Great for taking photos of your models as well, very easy to get the perfect eye level shots that look realistic like the magazine ads... $85.00 and free shipping..

The 3 inch position'.

The 10 inch position, and there is one more at 14 inches...  Very solid and weighs 27 pounds.  The mechanism button on the right side/top, works very well.  This is a great product, and makes my building of structures and projects much more comfortable for me to accomplish'....   

Yes! This amazing R12 LEXINGTON 5 train! Keeping my 7 Train World's Fair set company. I love how the LEX set is announcement rich, and the diversion to the 2 express stops is really cool.  (Zach, you sound great!) Now for some decals and passengers!

I finally added a shay to my O gauge collection in the form of the Lionel Legacy variation of the Western Maryland #6. Not too bad of a model considering the tooling is older than I am...

Standard Gauge 4 4 2  Great Northern Steam Engine.

I got this in the mail today, I wasn't expecting to buy another engine this month. But after seeing this come up on Nicholas Smith Trains, I had to get it before it vanished. I am really surprised that they somehow got one after being out of production for like 3 years. I guess they randomly found it in their warehouse. In any case, I am glad I picked this thing up. It's really nice and operates really close to the real NPCUs. Also, it works perfectly!

This engine will be accompanied by 5 Atlas O Amtrak Phase III Horizon cars, along with my Atlas O Amtrak Dash 8 (in the Pepsi Can scheme). Once I get the cars interior lights upgraded to LEDs and get my Dash 8 back to full working order. Dash 8 will have to wait a while, since I will need to order parts from Lionel to fix it.

If that's the Lionel one, I'd take the shell off and make sure the front light group wires aren't routed over the flywheel!

A pair of AEC boxcars from RMT Trains

Here's my Western Maryland extended vision caboose.  It is very well done!  Thank you MTH and Sidetrack Hobbies!

Hi All,  I picked up these MTH Canadian Pacific E-8s and passenger cars yesterday. I love them. Same color scheme as they were when I was a boy. Here is a video of them running:

https://youtu.be/ECkd1p_Ok0E

My air compressor finally gave up the ghost and found this one via Walmart.com for $82.99 plus tax w/ free shipping:

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

If that's the Lionel one, I'd take the shell off and make sure the front light group wires aren't routed over the flywheel!

That was a problem with the powered versions. This doesn't have motors so that should not be a problem.

Oops, didn't notice it was the Cabbage unit.

You're right, the only issue I had with that one was the number board intensity and the coupler rot from the acid lubricant they used.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Oops, didn't notice it was the Cabbage unit.

You're right, the only issue I had with that one was the number board intensity and the coupler rot from the acid lubricant they used.

I did have to take the shell off in order to pop the control switch cover, the number boards being rather dim doesn't really bother me. And the coupler problem is non-existent. Although the rear air hoses broke off in transit (one was already stashed away with the Kadee coupler hardware). Not really bothered by that, I won't even know they are missing during normal operation. At least it works perfectly and is almost flawless.

The reason the number boards bothered me was those were really dim, and the powered unit number boards were like headlights!  It turned out there was a 22:1 difference in the current to the number boards in the two units.  I picked an intensity I like for the powered unit and then made the Cabbage unit match.  It was just a one resistor change.

Legacy Amtrak F40PH Number Board Brightness Fix & Cabbage Unit As Well

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The reason the number boards bothered me was those were really dim, and the powered unit number boards were like headlights!  It turned out there was a 22:1 difference in the current to the number boards in the two units.  I picked an intensity I like for the powered unit and then made the Cabbage unit match.  It was just a one resistor change.

Legacy Amtrak F40PH Number Board Brightness Fix & Cabbage Unit As Well

Yes I have seen your post related to that when I was doing a ton of research on the Cabbage units. Mainly seeing how common the electronics failed. I know of 2 Youtubers who had that failure. One had the electronics fail because they were moving around wires while they had it powered on. The other one was a complete failure out of the blue (I believe). I don't have access to a soldering iron at home, so the fix will have to be done at my work once businesses open up again.

I watched two of the powered F40PH units go up in smoke.  After seeing the first one weeks before, we were at a club function and a club member was running his when I saw the lights flickering.  I warned him that he should stop and we could fix it, but he kept running.  About two more loops and it stopped with smoke pouring out where smoke should not be coming from.  Yes, it was stopped, and that was a permanent situation.

This guy is on its way to my railroad! Should look great pulling my MTH Madison cars...

Question: Is this topic so popular because (most) of our significant others don’t get excited when we show them the new train OR because we can’t show them we bought ANOTHER train!! Just pondering.....interested to hear your thoughts.  For me it’s probably both!

It’s definitely nice to share with people who appreciate the excitement of a new purchase! So thank you!

Perish the thought, I show my SO my new train purchases.  I just don't show here "all" of my train purchases!   She would know if I never bought a train that something was wrong.

Gerhardt, You may have hit on something.  My wife gets briefly excited about some of my purchases but her response to others is ho hum.  Yes, it is nice to post here where we know someone will appreciate what we purchased.

Well look what came today!  A second Premier PS2 H9 I bought from a friend.  This one is a little different in that it started out with Erie livery and the previous owner lettered it for WM.  He left the cab roof black and the smokebox gray, but I like it in that it looks a little different from the factory painted #821 I already have.

My wife gets “pre purchase approval”. That way there’s no surprises. It’s better for both of us that way.

She likes the MTH passenger cars I just bought, she thinks it’s cool that they have interior lights...

I got a great deal on two more #7 line World's Fair cars. I now have a train with six!

Now I can start my new layouts(fixed and portable for shows).   This prewar Lionel OO 3 rail, bought it today up near Crown Point, IN before my wife and I went on a Jeep ride.