Buy anything cool lately?

Thought these mid 90's NYC passenger cars go well with the 785

I saw this MTH Railking M60 Patton tank on flatcar at York on a layout in the Purple Hall, had to have it, I couldn’t find one in the halls, so I got home and found one on Ebay. It makes a nice addition to my military train.

Here is a Patton tank on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in DC, the Trackers do a show there each Spring.

@Dennis Holler posted:

Barn find and road trip to pick up and bring home an American Flyer  1953 factory dealer display layout #150

Dennis,

  This reminds me of the All Aboard pre-fab American Flyer layout that snapped together, that of all people (surprisingly to me still!) that my mom had...

http://americanflyerexpress.co...og-X165-12-Pages.pdf

Hope you are well!

Tom

Hi Craig, I like your M60 on the flat. This is the type of tank that I used when I was in the Army. Suggestion is when a tank is on a flat cat the turret is turned around with the main gun facing backwards in a thing called a travel lock. This way when the tank is on the flat car the main gun does not get jarred around. Anyway it looks real good. The second photo with the camouflage reminds me of my tank in the service as we were doing camouflage test 1973. Brought back a lot of memories

@RonH posted:

Hi Craig, I like your M60 on the flat. This is the type of tank that I used when I was in the Army..... The second photo with the camouflage reminds me of my tank in the service as we were doing camouflage test 1973. Brought back a lot of memories

Thanks for your service, Ron. It's great to hear your first hand point of reference and insight as to how the tanks were transported.

@RonH posted:

Hi Craig, I like your M60 on the flat. This is the type of tank that I used when I was in the Army. Suggestion is when a tank is on a flat cat the turret is turned around with the main gun facing backwards in a thing called a travel lock. This way when the tank is on the flat car the main gun does not get jarred around. Anyway it looks real good. The second photo with the camouflage reminds me of my tank in the service as we were doing camouflage test 1973. Brought back a lot of memories

Ron,

Glad you like the tank. Thanks for the first hand tips. And thanks for your service.

I was running this train at the AFRH and noticed a veteran staring at the Sherman tank for twenty minutes or so, I went over to him and said “you really like that tank”. He opened up and told how he lied about his age, joined the Army underage at 15, and spent WW2 in a Sherman tank, stayed in after the war was over, he served in Korea, and Vietnam. He is now in his 90’s and looked like early 70’s. Remarkable.

I bought the two cars NIB from the Bay for a very reasonable price.  The Pennsy is a 6-17406 (made in the USA!), and the Borden is quite old.  It looks to actually be a Fundimension product.

On a somewhat related vein, in November Borden starts selling their egg nog.  Apparently the formulation for the Houston area is a bit different than the rest of the country, probably due to the local dairy that initially produced it and was bought by Borden.  It is the only brand of egg nog I buy.  In 2019 (I think) they modified the formulation to be the same as the rest of the country.  There was a significant outcry.  They changed the formula back before production ceased, and labeled the new containers as being 'original' or something.  Since then, the local plants have stuck with the original.  Frankly, egg nog is the last thing I should buy, but I buy a lot.  Oh well, it's only for a couple of months.

My York purchase finally arrived and I didn't even have to go to York this Fall.  One of the dealers posted, on FB, pictures of the engines he had on his table.  While going over the pictures, I spotted an MTH engine I've been looking for, an RK Imperial GS4 with Christmas lights.  A few messages between me and the seller and the engine was mine.  Now I can add this engine to my Christmas train that I run at the TMB open house. The Christmas train is the first train on the attached YouTube link.  The video was taken by one of the club members

https://youtu.be/IW_r4X-MdtQ

@texgeekboy posted:

I bought the two cars NIB from the Bay for a very reasonable price.  The Pennsy is a 6-17406 (made in the USA!), and the Borden is quite old.  It looks to actually be a Fundimension product.

On a somewhat related vein, in November Borden starts selling their egg nog.  Apparently the formulation for the Houston area is a bit different than the rest of the country, probably due to the local dairy that initially produced it and was bought by Borden.  It is the only brand of egg nog I buy.  In 2019 (I think) they modified the formulation to be the same as the rest of the country.  There was a significant outcry.  They changed the formula back before production ceased, and labeled the new containers as being 'original' or something.  Since then, the local plants have stuck with the original.  Frankly, egg nog is the last thing I should buy, but I buy a lot.  Oh well, it's only for a couple of months.

I bought the Bordan one new in the mid 70s. Nice car!

@Dave Ripp.,

I'm guessing the guy that sold it got it from an estate sale or store closing for next to nothing.  I got it for $23, and it was new.  The cellophane window on the box wasn't sealed well so over the years it had some dust accumulation, which I carefully removed.  I like it better than I thought I would.

Got this LTI mohawk on the Bay for a great price! Rebuilt the burnt out smoke unit. The LEDs were doa in the loco, so I just switched them over to regular bulbs for headlight and firebox. Gave her some tlc! Really enjoying scale sized LTI locos.

Today's show finds. On my second loop of the tables, I spied the 2343's, non powered is very clean, powered needs cleaned and polished, I think it will be nearly as nice as the non powered unit. Price tag said $50 for the pair. I couldnt find my wallet fast enough. The coaches I got toward the end of the show, super clean postwar 2500 series, $100 for all 3 cars. Very happy, seen lots of great deals on pre/post and modern era Lionel today.

@artfull dodger posted:

Today's show finds. On my second loop of the tables, I spied the 2343's, non powered is very clean, powered needs cleaned and polished, I think it will be nearly as nice as the non powered unit. Price tag said $50 for the pair. I couldnt find my wallet fast enough. The coaches I got toward the end of the show, super clean postwar 2500 series, $100 for all 3 cars. Very happy, seen lots of great deals on pre/post and modern era Lionel today.

Wow. That's a killer price for those postwar beauties. Have fun with them!

Thanks Donnie, I plan to, should look great pulling the coaches once I give them a trip thru the shops to clean and service the old girls.    AD

I finally opened up my Lionel Amtrak Heritage set...

Notice the domes are different on the new Phase III set from the old phase I set

Here is how they cleaned up, opened both up, tons of white mold on the inside and it looked like nobody had opened these up, if since new as there were no screw driver marks on any screws.  Both motors look new, little to no brush "dust" on the frames from running and brushes look new.  Even the motor slots were clean.  Powered up perfect with only occasionaly not going in reverse when I sequenced the E unit, but got better once a few cycles were done.  I try not to mess with E units if I dont have to.  A warm water bath and polish with genuine Pledge made the shells shiny again, if a bit faded on the black letters.  Still cannot believe they were so cheap.    AD

@artfull dodger posted:

Today's show finds. On my second loop of the tables, I spied the 2343's, non powered is very clean, powered needs cleaned and polished, I think it will be nearly as nice as the non powered unit. Price tag said $50 for the pair. I couldnt find my wallet fast enough. The coaches I got toward the end of the show, super clean postwar 2500 series, $100 for all 3 cars. Very happy, seen lots of great deals on pre/post and modern era Lionel today.

Where was the show? I'm West of you, West Lafayette.

Dennis, it was at the Miami Co fairgrounds in Peru Indiana.  They have 2 shows there now each year, fall and spring, usually just before or just after the York dates it seems.  Two buildings full of trains, sometimes even in the parking lot at the spring show.   AD

Got a few things within the past few days. Yard lights and rail yard master from Model Tech Studios. A 2 set locomotive work platform kit and mechanic figures.
Gene