Buy anything cool lately?

@mike g. posted:

Steve, that is a great way to use a engine house! I took one of mine and turned it into a bar! LOL

That works!

There is an old round house by me that was converted into a restaurant/bar. You can still see where each engine facility was. I believe it was a CB&Q location.

@mike g. posted:

Oh by the way Coach I agree 1983 is a great year! Thats the year I graduated from High School!

I hope you all have a great week!

KIDS 

Got my first autoracks from MTH. They look pretty decent on O54 curves. They are apparently a couple inches short of scale, but I think that helps them look good on my small layout.

@Dennis Holler posted:

1937 236W passenger set

@Dennis Holler, Congratulations on that beautiful train! Your station scene in the background reminds me of an article by Ron Hollander in the January 2021 issue of Train Collectors Quarterly. He described his recreation of an illustration from Lionel's old catalogs. The illustration depicted nine 156 station platforms leading to a 115 station in red and cream, with the tracks running under the station. Hollander built his scene with 11 platforms and a larger 116 station over the tracks. Your scene looks very much like the catalog image and Ron Hollander's recreation of it.

John

@Stinky1 posted:

Got my first autoracks from MTH. They look pretty decent on O54 curves. They are apparently a couple inches short of scale, but I think that helps them look good on my small layout.

Souple of Inches, so what, If they were a scale weight, your table would break. It' s the conseption that counts

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

@c.sam posted:

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

Those are beautiful locomotives! Same for the bridge and layout. I like the work gang, too.

John

Thanks John for the kind comments.  There's an interesting story about the convict gang below. Comes from a good book by Steven Little, once Mayor of Marion, NC.  I saw him do a live reading enactment some years ago at 'Train Day's' in Old Fort NC. He dressed in 1800s period prison garb and told this story. Fascinating and highly recommended.  It tells how the RR was built after the Civil War to connect the lowlands of central NC with the high country of Asheville and west. Elevation change was over 900' in under 7 miles.

@c.sam posted:

My 'Hodgepodge Locomotive'.  Acquired this handsome Premiere E8 from a forum member and it arrived today. Was able to find a 35 yr old (?)  Weaver B unit that is a pretty close match. Weaver introduced these nice E8 units way back before MTH became a manufacturer. Mike then took over the tooling and improved it over the years. I have had the Lionel E5 Burlington dummy for some time now and had it custom painted into SR 2800.  I like the shade of green on the new one rather than the older B unit - more subtle and 'classy'.  :-)

Other than the couplers of the Weaver being way too long, these 'odd fellows' make into a fine 3 unit locomotive for the Southern RR.

That’s an impressive looking layout and the engines look perfect!

Jay

I got this MTH Southern SD35 w/PS2 off eBay a few days ago for a very good price. I have been looking for this model for a couple of years and finally got it.  In mid-March I also Purchased a Norfolk Southern and UP SD50 with PS2 and a Southern Pacific SD35 w/PS3 which I was also looking for since 2020. Sometimes it's best to wait because you can always find what you are looking for.

My unpowered SD35 with a rc car

Ron

@Chris3671 posted:

I got this MTH Southern SD35 w/PS2 off eBay a few days ago for a very good price. I have been looking for this model for a couple of years and finally got it. ......... Sometimes it's best to wait because you can always find what you are looking for.

Nice engine. Yes, waiting does sometimes pay off!

John

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

From 2003 to 2012, I regularly commuted on Metro North from Goldens Bridge in Westchester County to Grand Central and still occasionally ride the train into the city. When Atlas announced these cars (must be almost 2 years ago), I just never pulled the trigger mostly because I didn’t have an engine to pull them. Then, last year, Scott Mann announced that 3rd Rail would be making the P32 Genesis engine in the Metro North New Haven livery… Although I placed an order for the engine, I still never got around to ordering the cars. Then the cars anppeared and, almost immediately were hard to find Luckily, forum sponsor Nicholas Smith had a few left and I was able to get a cab car and 3 coaches. The cars are really nice - pretty heavy, detailed interiors (but no commuters!!!), and nice crisp graphics. I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!! Now I just hope that Jonathan @GG1 4877 is correct that the P32’s should be done in 2025. For now, I’ll have to borrow some motive power from MN’s MTA cousin, the LIRR.

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

WHO IS THIS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH PAUL!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

From 2003 to 2012, I regularly commuted on Metro North from Goldens Bridge in Westchester County to Grand Central and still occasionally ride the train into the city. When Atlas announced these cars (must be almost 2 years ago), I just never pulled the trigger mostly because I didn’t have an engine to pull them. Then, last year, Scott Mann announced that 3rd Rail would be making the P32 Genesis engine in the Metro North New Haven livery… Although I placed an order for the engine, I still never got around to ordering the cars. Then the cars anppeared and, almost immediately were hard to find Luckily, forum sponsor Nicholas Smith had a few left and I was able to get a cab car and 3 coaches. The cars are really nice - pretty heavy, detailed interiors (but no commuters!!!), and nice crisp graphics. I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!! Now I just hope that Jonathan @GG1 4877 is correct that the P32’s should be done in 2025. For now, I’ll have to borrow some motive power from MN’s MTA cousin, the LIRR.

I did my last review of the design drawings a week ago on the P32s.  I'm waiting on corrections which I expect sometime in the next week, so this project is going forward!  Not to get too far into the weeds, but I get questions from design like, "Do we have to do the nose hatch instead of the number board on the P42s?".  Of course, the answer is "YES!"    Once the P32 is finally correct it will go into tooling and then it's time to start doing the painting diagrams.

I am hoping the first run of Genesis locomotives make a good impression as now with the NYC, PC, Conrail, and MTA beach ball heritage schemes, there are some new paint schemes for a second run.  I like the PC one the best.  PC & Conrail MTA is a candidate for sure on the 2nd run FL9s whenever they come around again.

In all seriousness, the MTA Comets look great.  There was a FL9 in MTA paint for sale somewhere I recall recently.  It may have been this forum.  I was interested as I don't have that one, but my wallet and by extension my wife, would not have likely approved.  My train buying has been a bit intense this year.

Enjoy!

@Apples55 posted:

I really didn’t want to buy these… not now, anyway

"... I’ll have to check to see if any of the cars have a bathroom… first rule of riding the Comet cars - don’t ride in the bathroom car unless your sense of smell has died!!!

Paul,

  I thought you would want to model all aspects of these cars? Maybe you can have some Arttista figures at the platform holding their noses?

Tom

Seriously, those cars are great looking.

FYI...Years ago, if it helps you, there was an F10 in Metro-North paint too, not sure who put it out, but it looked pretty good.

Tom

Am building a 'Mail train' plus some passenger revenue cars for my PRR K4 recently acquired. I caught this handsome Weaver RPO car (lower Right) from some years ago and the MTH Express Reefer on Trainz and realized that Lionel now has the tooling for these and that it matched a SR car I bought last year from a Forum member. Very nice units.  Now I need a 72' PRR Combine to start transitioning to passenger equipment for it...

@RSJB18 posted:

WHO IS THIS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH PAUL!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I am sorry, but the rest home says Mr. Appel cannot be disturbed (more disturbed???) for several weeks - or until the arrival of a pre-order. Please leave a message 😁😁😁

@GG1 4877 posted:

I did my last review of the design drawings a week ago on the P32s.  I'm waiting on corrections which I expect sometime in the next week, so this project is going forward!  Not to get too far into the weeds, but I get questions from design like, "Do we have to do the nose hatch instead of the number board on the P42s?".  Of course, the answer is "YES!"    Once the P32 is finally correct it will go into tooling and then it's time to start doing the painting diagrams.

I am hoping the first run of Genesis locomotives make a good impression as now with the NYC, PC, Conrail, and MTA beach ball heritage schemes, there are some new paint schemes for a second run.  I like the PC one the best.  PC & Conrail MTA is a candidate for sure on the 2nd run FL9s whenever they come around again.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the update , Jonathan. That is good news… but you couldn’t just leave it there. You just had to open the door to a possible 2nd run with all the anniversary schemes. While I like the very colorful PC version, as an NYC fan who really likes the lightning stripe scheme, I’d be in for one. And, as if that weren’t enough, you had to bring up a 2nd run of the FL9’s… still sorry I missed the first run and would definitely be in for one. Have I ever told you you’re a bad influence