@Dallas Joseph posted:Railking SW-8 Swither Calf
Never had a calf. Judy was anxious to see one ............so
........stay cool everyone.
God bless.
The question is did she have a cow when she found out how much you paid for it, none the less a great look, and even if it costs you a steak dinner it's worth it
@Guttersnipe posted:The question is did she have a cow when she found out how much you paid for it, none the less a great look, and even if it costs you a steak dinner it's worth it
Judy didn't have a cow. Sometimes I think she is more excited about these purchases than I am.🤔
We had a swircher conversation and I mentioned a CALF and she wanted to see one............Well. 
@Dallas Joseph posted:Railking SW-8 Swither Calf
Never had a calf. Judy was anxious to see one ............so
........stay cool everyone.
Sure blame Judy for your spending!
@pennsyfan posted:Sure blame Judy for your spending!
I don't know Bob..........Judy has named it " NORMAN " . 
( from the movie ' CITY SLICKERS ' with the calf Billy Crystal delivered. One of Judy's fav movies. )
@Dallas Joseph posted:Railking SW-8 Swither Calf
Never had a calf. Judy was anxious to see one ............so
........stay cool everyone.
The only anxiety my wife has relative to my trains is when she sees the credit card bill, which fortunately for me is almost never......
Then there's the look on her face when she looks at my ever growing collection and says how am I gonna get rid of all of this after I kill you!
Enjoy Norman!
Bob
I bought the MTH Premier Line Pennsylvania RS-11 from Just Trains this past Friday.Very sharp looking.
@RSJB18 posted:Then there's the look on her face when she looks at my ever growing collection and says how am I gonna get rid of all of this after I kill you!
Enjoy Norman!
Bob
It would seem that your wife and Judy have similar telepathic connections. Bob.
@RSJB18 posted:The only anxiety my wife has relative to my trains is when she sees the credit card bill, which fortunately for me is almost never......
Then there's the look on her face when she looks at my ever growing collection and says how am I gonna get rid of all of this after I kill you!
Enjoy Norman!
Bob
Well Bob, perhaps your wife will come to the conclusion that, “Wow, you know what: Bob needs, and deserves, a bigger layout “.
Jay
@randr- What a great Father's Day gift ! Best Wishes
Don
Not exactly a 'bought lately', but three "low-end-locos" were made into runners awhile back:
A little background. Way back in the "Your First train Set" thread, I posted a photo of my first train set. At the time I mentioned that I had wore out the drive gears on the locomotive, and had bought a number of similar locomotives as parts donors, intending to have the drivers replaced. The selected unit was an MPC motor unit from what I believe was a 4-4-2 starter-set loco. The other locos I acquired were a Black Cave Flyer loco, a Workin'on the Railroad set loco (the infamous plastic-drivered 0-4-0), and a duplicate of the 8601 loco that headed my first set. Ultimately, the repair shop I selected (Ridgefield Hobby) chose to simply place the MPC motor unit inside the 8601 shell, transplanting the siderods and siderod yoke (the piece fastened to the front of the motor that holds the siderod ends), and painting the driver centers to match the original. This gained me an 8601 that now contained a mechanical E-unit (the original was manual) and a working headlight.
But what of the other three locos?
Well, they were mostly complete. This type of loco when found on the used market tends to have one of two defects: either a missing boiler front, or more cripplingly, a broken siderod yoke. Without the latter, there's nothing to keep the siderods off the roadbed. Two of the three locos, Rock Island and Black Cave, had both defects plus missing pickup sliders. The Workin' on the Railroad loco was missing its tender. Over time, I managed to pull together enough spare parts to have a fighting chance of making these locos complete, and a chance encounter with a couple of Forum members who were parts dealers finally supplied tthese obscure parts, shortly afterward I was able to install the parts and make all three runners.
So why wait so long to post? Well, to be honest, these are bottom-of-the-line starter-set locomotives, not particularly "cool" in and of themselves. But I did update my "first train set" post with a 2023 addendum stating that the three aformentioned parts-donor locomotives were repaired and are now functional. This update actually generated additional likes, something I didn't expect, given my post was from 2020 and on the first page of a three-page thread
So for the benefit of those who supplied the additional likes, here are photos of the three runners who were essentially saved from the bin:
Below: two views of all three locomotives together:
Below: the 8212 Black Cave Flyer from 1982. This locomotive originally had a boiler front and smokestack made of glow-in-the-dark plastic, much like the siderods and bell. I don't expect to be able to replace those with originals, but a siderod yoke and pickup rollers made this one into a runner. The adhesive-weakened decals (user-installed) I can probably replace by scanning them and printing reproductions on glow-in-the-dark sticker stock. I also received the set cars (an O27 boxcar, gondola and caboose, also with user-installed stickers)
Below: 8601 Rock Island Line from 1976. It's an almost-duplicate of my first Lionel loco, except that it has plastic driver centers like the Black Cave loco. Mine had all-metal drivers, so maybe it was earlier production. This loco received a siderod yoke and roller pickups (the originals had sliding pickups). This unit is the only one of the three that was designed with an AC motor (albeit with manual reversing)
Last but not least, is this 8803 from the "Workin' on the Railroad Timberline" set from 1978. This is the infamous "El Cheapo" plastic-wheeled loco with sliding pickups for the running rails (one can be seen just ahead of the front driver) and a reverse unit that consisted of a sliding switch arop the boiler. This loco needed the fewest parts--basically just the tender, which is ultra-cheapo in that those Symington trucks you see under it...are fake. They're part of the body casting and only two actual wheelsets exist under it. The same goes for the rest of the cars in the set. You also cannot hook a standard slope-back tender to this loco (I tried), but the plastic drawbar is too thick to work with the slot on the stamped-metal drawbars of most Lionel slopeback tenders.
So there you have it. I don't really know what I'm going to do with these three beyond fixing missing/damaged decals and maintaining them in preserved condition. My fanciful idea was to park them in an on-layout rail museum...that is, if I had a permanent scenicked layout with the room for one (as an aside, this may be the first--er, probably only time in history that any of this type of locomotive have ever been seen sitting on Atlas track ).
But if I had a layout to do that, I'd be tempted to put something like a Mini Commander in them for giggles (is that even still available?) and sneak them out on the mainline once in a blue moon. At the same time, these are kinda rarities despite their cheapness. I don't know of any examples of this body style being used unaltered beyond 1978--as far as I know, this body was only used three times and that was it.
---PCJ
@RailRide thanks for sharing the story. What a labor of love for these engines.
Good story, Pat!
@Dallas Joseph posted:Railking SW-8 Swither Calf
Never had a calf. Judy was anxious to see one ............so
........stay cool everyone.
Once again it's all Judy's fault, just like the fish frys.
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:Well Bob, perhaps your wife will come to the conclusion that, “Wow, you know what: Bob needs, and deserves, a bigger layout “.
Jay
You seem to be channeling Apples55, and are doing a fine job as his understudy!
@coach joe posted:Once again it's all Judy's fault, just like the fish frys.
YEP. I read your reply to Judy , Joe........ Judy says she likes this guy ( keep it up Joe and I won't have fish next Lent )
Gonna blame Aplles55 telepathy this time ...............RK streamline Pennsylvania passenger cars.
Came on FedEx this morning Ages ago I had Lionel's aluminum set but sold them when the lettering began peeling off .
( Judy was out trimming bushes this morning....she talked to the FedEx driver and he told her he inherited a large display of trains from a relative in Philly and wants to be able to do a layout. JUDY told him that he had to get involved with the O GAUGE RAILROADING ON LINE FORUM on the web. They had a good discussion I heard. )
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:Well Bob, perhaps your wife will come to the conclusion that, “Wow, you know what: Bob needs, and deserves, a bigger layout “.
Jay
@coach joe posted:You seem to be channeling Apples55, and are doing a fine job as his understudy!
With friends like you guys........
I do have a plan.......I just need to get the kids out of the way......
(Blue line is up and over yellow/ green) My existing layout currently resides on the left half of this plan.
@Dallas Joseph posted:YEP. I read your reply to Judy , Joe........ Judy says she likes this guy
Oops! Sorry 
@Dallas Joseph posted:Gonna blame Aplles55 telepathy this time .
Came on FedEx this morning Ages ago I had Lionel's aluminum set but sold them when the lettering began peeling off .
( Judy was out trimming bushes this morning....she talked to the FedEx driver and he told her he inherited a large display of trains from a relative in Philly and wants to be able to do a layout. JUDY told him that he had to get involved with the O GAUGE RAILROADING ON LINE FORUM on the web. They had a good discussion I heard. )
I notice Judy didn't tell the FedEx driver he should talk you.
Very sharp aluminum cars, BTW.
Does the diverging track slope downhill?
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