Buy anything cool lately?

Picked up some Legacy Alaska SD70Macs from Nicholas Smith. They were an exclusive to them. This is the superbass unit, powered is numbered 4001. These will look great with the Lionel Denali Star 21" passenger cars!

A JEP 0 gauge set was delivered today. Pictured here with the clockwork I got a few weeks ago. The gazebo came in yesterday. It’s in its place but will be illuminated and peopled shortly. The Rough RR train was brought back from Disney by my daughter. I’m thinking it fits in as a park ride. That needs some passengers.

Lionel 27101 Morton Salt covered hopper from the 2004 Volume 2 catalog.  I purchased this from another forum member.

Neal Jeter

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

Bought and received another K-Line 15" aluminum car to add to my California Zephyr consist, this one is a diner. It took awhile to find this diner, and as you can see in the photo it does not have CZ name on it, but rather Empire State Express! So, like the other non domed coach I bought the other day, I'll have to change the nameplates to CZ and rename the coach. I found the CZ font online, I should receive it soon. That will be the last thing I do, after I change to LED lighting, paint the interior, install paneling, and carpet.

This coach is used, but the body is in great shape and it has all it's interior parts. But it show's some miles!! The roller pickups were toast, broken springs on both. Good thing I only paid $50.00 for the coach. Fortunately I had some Lionel pickup roller assemblies in my toolbox!

Front roller pickup I already removed it. It has a broken spring:

Rear roller pickup, defective spring also. Wheels are looking a little used too!

New Lionel roller pickup front:

New Lionel roller rear:

As you can see in the first photo, the lights are working and they work perfectly while the train is in operation! Yay. time to take it all apart and begin on the interior.

I believe what you’re showing is/was an ongoing problem with K-Line roller pickups, insofar as the springs were not insulated, and the track current passed through the spring(s), fatiguing them prematurely.

One of my Father’s Day gifts.

I got this Weaver Delaware & Hudson Sharknose A-B set. I had previously purchased an MTH D&H passenger set and was pulling that with a D&H RS-3 as a placeholder until I could get something like this. This sharknose is beautiful but was very start-and-stop until I ran it around a lot and also cleaned the wheels. Now it runs smoothly except that it slows or stalls over my Fastrack manual switches when going slow. I've seen that before but maybe not this bad. I turned off the direction lockout switch so at least it doesn't go into neutral-reverse. I tested all the wheels and both rollers by putting leads on them one by one and all the wheels on both trucks turn. The pickup rollers seem to be sprung well so I assume they're making contact. I tested my 3 Fastrack switches and found they all have large gaps where there's no power on the rails.  I did a little soldering on the bottom of one switch as a test to get power to the rails at the V past the frog where the tracks diverge. There was no shorting when the train passes and now it moves past that switch a little better. I still don't know why this engine has trouble with the switches because I would think with two pickup rollers and the two wheels on each truck that don't have traction tires making good contact with the rails it would be able to bridge any powerless gap, but it doesn't always. Still like it and the price was good. Will just run it a little faster past switches for now.

@John's Trains  you might want to check the roller pickups to make sure both are pushing power to the motors. My 3RD Rail M10000 was stalling through switches if it was going slow enough. Found out there was a broken feed wire which is an easy fix. Be careful on putting track power to switches where it was not originally. The short is more likely to happen when in the turnout position. Guess how I know

Well for Father's day my Trainz order arrived earlier than expected. Now the family is off the hook for gifts. Two cars have original boxes and two have none. I try not to buy cars without boxes but the price was right. Three are K-Line the other is a Lionel.  Thought I would try the panorama feature on my camera. Rock Island, Union Pacific, Grand Trunk (Lionel) & Western and Milwaukee Road. This is the view our my back deck. Wondering again why I want to move???  Of yes bigger train room! And Grandkids.

Had visitors about 6 am this morning. A successful hatch and a mess of goose goo left as a thank you. My dog loves to eat the stuff so we try to pick it up fast.

The two "damaged" UP passenger cars purchased on eBay from TRAINZ  arrived today and needed only 5 minutes with a screwdriver to adjust their frames and car ends to "repair" what looked like serous damage,

They were probably dropped: landed on their couplers which caused the frames to shift; and, move the plastic car ends.

Feeling very fortunate to pickup the offset dome car and the coach for <$100 delivered. The dome car will be a perfect donor as the third short dome in my EMPIRE BUILDER trainset.

@ScoutingDad posted:

@John's Trains  you might want to check the roller pickups to make sure both are pushing power to the motors. My 3RD Rail M10000 was stalling through switches if it was going slow enough. Found out there was a broken feed wire which is an easy fix. Be careful on putting track power to switches where it was not originally. The short is more likely to happen when in the turnout position. Guess how I know

Thank you for the suggestion. I think you're right about the pickup roller. I had the engine upside down yesterday and tested power to all wheels and rollers and the wheels spun, but intermittently sometimes it wouldn't run. Today after handling the engine I put it back on the track and suddenly it ran slow and perfect through the switches with not a shudder. I picked it up, turned it over, put it back on the track and the problem was back. So I observed up close and slow what happened at both mainline switches. It always stops exactly where the rear pickup roller first hits the dead spot in the middle of the switch. I then observed where the front pickup roller was where the train stopped. I tested it and the track where the front roller was had power from the center rail to the outside rail. So I think that front roller must have a on-and-off feed wire. Will have to take the thing apart. First time for everything.

Made an eSnipe bid a few days ago and forgot about the item believing someone would outbid me.  Instead, I bought it this evening:

It will go well with the Thomas Lion Chief engine recently purchased to make our club's permanent and travelling layouts more kid friendly.

@John's Trains posted:

Thank you for the suggestion. I think you're right about the pickup roller. I had the engine upside down yesterday and tested power to all wheels and rollers and the wheels spun, but intermittently sometimes it wouldn't run. Today after handling the engine I put it back on the track and suddenly it ran slow and perfect through the switches with not a shudder. I picked it up, turned it over, put it back on the track and the problem was back. So I observed up close and slow what happened at both mainline switches. It always stops exactly where the rear pickup roller first hits the dead spot in the middle of the switch. I then observed where the front pickup roller was where the train stopped. I tested it and the track where the front roller was had power from the center rail to the outside rail. So I think that front roller must have a on-and-off feed wire. Will have to take the thing apart. First time for everything.

You might want to see if you can run a jumper between the two pickups as an added bit of insurance. I used to run AMT/Auburn/KMT/Kusan F units with their matching passenger cars - between the less-than-ideal contact the F units' pickups made with the third rail and flickering passenger car lights (AMT/Auburn/KMT/Kusan Achilles heel seems to be their pick-up designs). I eventually added jumpers between both the F unit pick-ups and the passenger car pick-ups and that helped the engines run through turnouts without tripping the reverse unit (no replacement drums or contacts for those are available, so they need to be treated carefully - a constant current supply made life easier on them), and the passenger car lights operated flicker free.

Just picked up this Atlas O Premier BNSF Buffer Car airslide hopper. Atlas is doing a heck of a job with the MTH tooling. This car has a great weight to it and the paint is outstanding. This will look great with my Lionel 30k tank cars. Trainworld still has a few in stock!

@biscuitag97 Got mine yesterday and love it! I really like how they added that paint at the top which I assume is to represent the material that provides extra traction for better footing. Nice picture and great car! Almost wish I had bought 2!

Depending on your definition of "Cool"!

@Big Jim :  I vote for as broad a defn of "What's Cool" as possible.  I think Snoopy and surf board is cool, will make a great ornamental for your desk or table and is likely great fun.  Will be neat if you ever have any youngsters visit your layout, I bet they will like it too!

Best Wishes

Don

OK so Big Jim has Snoopy , pennsyfan has a Disney train from his daughter, and Pingman has Sir Topham Hatt the Gateman.  So in keeping with this trend, on a very hot (have to stay inside) Friday afternoon, I give you:

Mickey Mouse and the Abominable Snow Man sharing a locomotive, a gift from Disney World...from my Grandkids!  Note it is a STEAM locomotive with a vertical boiler (shades of the "Tom Thumb")...so it is officially trains...yes?

Best wishes and hope you had a laugh or two on this one...strictly for fun!!

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

OK so Big Jim has Snoopy , pennsyfan has a Disney train from his daughter, and Pingman has Sir Topham Hatt the Gateman.  So in keeping with this trend, on a very hot (have to stay inside) Friday afternoon, I give you:

Mickey Mouse and the Abominable Snow Man sharing a locomotive, a gift from Disney World...from my Grandkids!  Note it is a STEAM locomotive with a vertical boiler (shades of the "Tom Thumb")...so it is officially trains...yes?

Best wishes and hope you had a laugh or two on this one...strictly for fun!!

Don

LoL - Don, I like it! Reminds me of taking my son on the Expedition Everest ride in Disney World Animal Kingdom Park! ;-) Probably where your Grand kid's got your gift. Treasure it.

Thanks Scott - I believe you are right, it was the Expedition Everest Ride- they did tell me but I couldn't remember as I typed the post. Thanks for your comment.

Best wishes

Don

I dunno, looks like Yeti size bottle of rum to me! 😉