I Would Hate to run a Train Store...

SW Hiawatha:  I didn't remember they did the Dakota with the V-8 and a five speed.

It was in the two/three years before 2008 (when I gave up and got, very reluctantly, a Ford with what I consider an antique five speed,  since the six speed smaller Nissan Frontier was $8000 more than this huge, monster long bed club cab F-150)   2008 and from Ford was the last year you could get a full sized manual American pickup.  And,

as feared, it takes up too much space in my garage.  As of now, they still make the

Frontier.  The dealer for the Ford was hungry and went all the way to Pittsburgh for

it, and it was exactly right, except for color, with everything I wanted, and, especially!,

nothing I did not want.  Seems like everything I want is a hassle to get.

Looks to me like HO is a lot more prevalent around here (about 2.5 million people in the area). There are no O gauge clubs, they are mostly all HO maybe some N and G clubs. We also have two train stores that carry O gauge, one has a fair amount of O gauge and is the one I go to, the other has very little. Both of these have other gauges as well, mine has everything Z to G. We have probably 4-5 hobby shops that are mostly HO & N only and no O gauge. One of the HO shops I visited with my grandson was almost happy when he told us they had 'HO and No O'.

We have probably 4-6 train shows per year in the area and there is hardly any O gauge at any of the ones I have attended. Maybe only a couple of sellers per show have O gauge out of maybe 40-50 total sellers. The rest is HO and N. I don't recall seeing any G gauge. I prefer the new modern stuff and there has been very little of that at any of the shows I have been to, most O gauge was postwar and a lot of that looked to me like it would be good for parts donor items and that's about it.

Jeff Davis,

I'm glad I made you smile. I have always believed people should smile and laugh more. I think its good medicine. Merry Christmas.