Buy anything cool lately?

Brooklyn Corey, I love your cat.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Bob - whatever one of the “few” sets is easiest for you to take some pix of. Thanks.

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Good eye, Guttersnipe. This diesel has special meaning to me too, as explained recently in another thread. Now I can't even remember which thread. Anyway, my young son and I used to watch these come in from Oceanside when we lived in Escondido (California) and do some switching there in the 1980s.

The main differences besides the different color hand rails and stanchions, are that the large Santa Fe letters are broader on the Lionel and the multi-chime horns are on the correct right-hand side of the roof above the cab on the Lionel. On the MTH one, they're mounted in the center of the roof above the cab. MTH's Santa Fe yellow is also slightly brighter than Lionel's yellow. I did install the "Barstow" (where they were serviced, about 150 miles north of Escondido) decal on the front, as I had on the Lionel.

Again, I got as close of a match as I could with what was available on eBay, as I was just looking for an unpowered dummy. So, by disconnecting the motors and Proto 1 wiring, it does the job.   I miss the real-life Santa Fe freight diesels. 😔

The area's you mentioned are somewhat familiar to me, and brought a tear to my eye.  I had a ranch in Daggett, and could watch them heading east into the Desert. However at that time I was missing the bloody nose SP's units.  I think this is one of the very reasons we love our trains

@bobfett posted:

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

Thanks very nice looking set! Am I correct that Frank’s were repaints of Williams, and not original product?

@VinceL posted:

Brooklyn Corey, I love your cat.

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

It's not all painted black yet, but I finally jerry-rigged some rear platform details for my roadrailers. The coolest thing I bought this year is this ETD from MacRail. The red part is reflector paint and the white parts are UV-charged paint squares. They glow red in the dark. No wiring!

@Pingman posted:

Bought this LIONEL 15"Texas Special Stationsounds car for a TS set I plan to paint.

The item arrived and on opening the shipping box it was obvious that the OB and paperwork had gotten very wet at some point before shipping. The car itself was cosmetically spectacular; and, looked brand new; the protective plastic film covering the plaques hadn't been removed and no wear evident on rollers or wheels.

The car would not respond to TMCC commands or to whistle commands in conventional mode. Bummer. It was returned for a full refund, so I'm still looking.

8/4/2023 EDIT:  Full refund received today. Could have used Trainz $25 MERRY25 coupon and bought one there but missed out. Saved search on eBay and WTB on the forum; patience.

@Pingman posted:

The item arrived and on opening it was obvious that the box and paperwork had gotten very wet at some point. The car itself was cosmetically spectacular; and, looked brand new; the protective plastic film covering the plaques hadn't been removed and no wear evident on rollers or wheels.

The car would not respond to TMCC commands or to whistle commands in conventional mode. Bummer. It was returned for a full refund, so I'm still looking.

Sorry to hear about the problem, the car looked great.(coming for from a SF fan) and a consist would be Spectacular,  hope you have better luck soon

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

WE've noticed

That's a shame Carl. Glad you were able to get a full refund.

@Pingman, Carl, all I can say is that’s a beautiful Texas Special sounds car, it’s sad reading your story, hopefully you’ll find another one. When they were first introduced by Lionel as Post War collection, the whole set, 7 passenger cars, ABBA, I had them all. If they had the more modern Legacy electronics, and the cars had been the 18 inch aluminum series, I would have kept them. Now, I ran into a like new RJ Corman SD40t-2 and a matching caboose from a friend, Lionel Legacy version 2018… Also, I found some Lionel main-line Dwarf signals, so, I’ve got work to do. Happy Railroading Everyone..

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

Thanks he’s the foreman and steals the show! 🐈

Gotta start adding captions to your videos for him. He's very interested in the trains. Nice collection of new stuff too.

Bob

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Thanks very nice looking set! Am I correct that Frank’s were repaints of Williams, and not original product?

Yes, but it depends which sets you are thinking of. The 15" cars are repaints; the 18" cars are original.

My long awaited PRSL Engine has arrived!

Here it on the point of the PRSL passenger cars that started me down the PRSL rabbit hole. 🤣

@bobfett posted:

OK, Mark. The Jersey Central set was handy.

Bob

Bob, I really like these Jersey Central cars and the other Reading cars that I think you posted earlier. Both sets are beautiful and they look good with the silhouettes. Until now I didn't think I liked heavyweight cars or silhouettes very much but these have changed my mind.

John

I received from Trainz a Williams 20910 Santa Fe FA-1 A-A set. I have other Williams engines that I love but this is the the nicest. It has a number of separately applied grab irons and etched grills. The previous owner (maybe one of you) took good care of it. Not a scratch, it looks like it's hardly been run, and it was really inexpensive. No box but that's ok. I'm running it with the cars from the LionChief Super Chief set. They're too short, but they and this A-A set take up half of the tiny oval, so it's good.

Nice looking engine John. I love it.

@John's Trains posted:

I received from Trainz a Williams 20910 Santa Fe FA-1 A-A set. I have other Williams engines that I love but this is the the nicest. It has a number of separately applied grab irons and etched grills. The previous owner (maybe one of you) took good care of it. Not a scratch, it looks like it's hardly been run, and it was really inexpensive. No box but that's ok. I'm running it with the cars from the LionChief Super Chief set. They're too short, but they and this A-A set take up half of the tiny oval, so it's good.

Nice engines, John. I had an ABA set of these and ran them for years pulling a Williams 5-car Santa Fe aluminum set. So, it was an all-Williams train and performed flawlessly. I even installed a painted engineer and fireman figures in the powered A cab.

Then I went to all command control and traded up. And even though the Santa Fe never had any ALCO Fs (only Ps), at times, I wish I’d kept this train for old time’s sake. You’ll love them. 😉

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Nice engines, John. I had an ABA set of these and ran them for years pulling a Williams 5-car Santa Fe aluminum set. So, it was an all-Williams train and performed flawlessly. I even installed a painted engineer and fireman figures in the powered A cab.

Then I went to all command control and traded up. And even though the Santa Fe never had any ALCO Fs (only Ps), at times, I wish I’d kept this train for old time’s sake. You’ll love them. 😉

Nice train Vern. I kinda thought the Santa Fe never had these, but then I didn't check it out because they're so beautiful. It's funny because I thought, already having the LionChief FT warbonnet, I wouldn't get any more, until I saw these. My wife likes the red and silver of the Lionel, so I used that to try to "make the sale."  :-)

John

@John's Trains posted:

Nice train Vern. I kinda thought the Santa Fe never had these, but then I didn't check it out because they're so beautiful. It's funny because I thought, already having the LionChief FT warbonnet, I wouldn't get any more, until I saw these. My wife likes the red and silver of the Lionel, so I used that to try to "make the sale."  :-)

John

Makes sense to me, John. Glad it worked and you did good.