Mail Call! Railway Post Office, commonly abbreviated as RPO has rolled in!


My first caboose for the layout and I think the 1st purchased caboose since 1975.

Fox Valley Models Milwaukee Road Transfer Caboose. It will be stripped unfortunately and painted for my free lance road the Wisconsin River Valley and Terminal RR.

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TomO
 
James that is a great haul for July purchases, congrats. On the way home from the hobby shop today we drove through Eagle, Wi. I said hi to the water tower for you

TomO

TomO


I actually knew the lady that came up with the design idea for the town. I believe this all transpired in 1977 or 78 if I recall correctly. Her name was Melody Erd, she was an incredible person and artist. A good friend of my mother's. Her son is the founder of the the cheer that we all know as the "wave" that sports fans do in the stadiums. He was the original and 1st mascot for the Milwaukee Wave soccer team "Dave the Wave" as his name is Dave Erd. He was 2 years ahead of me in school. I think in my older sister class. Anyways something happened in 1984 thru 1986 as the teams were officially started in 84. There was some dispute in the franchise on the mascot situation and of course royalties $ and credits. In the end Dave ended up leaving the franchise. I do not know what happened, all I know is they changed the mascot name to Mike or Beach guy or whatever. The Erd family were great people with creative minds. As families growing up, we would all go to the World's Fair together every year back then that was hosted in both Milwaukee and Chicago.

Thanks for saying "Hi" I will have to get back that way again. I went through there about 12 years ago. Need to pay a visit. I want to get up there to do some Musky fishing and then head to Canada to the Lake of the Woods. We shall see.

As for the Christmas in July.....well the gifts to me kept on coming! LOL it's out of control now. I picked up 8 new & used locos on the fly with DCC and sound. Still haven't gotten a deal settled on a GBW Alco yet. I have a line on one and 5 other locos. One being the Caterpillar SD70Ace for my CAT dealership. I even picked up more tankers for the JR fuels industry and a couple hoppers for the Big Stones Aggregate company. Then couple dozen box cars mostly 50 footers etc. Switches are slowly coming in too. I have to pick up 4 more pieces of lumber to finish up my shelving above the layout as well. List is on going and seems to be like 1 step forward 2 steps back and so forth. No worries though it's all good.
 
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TomO


I actually knew the lady that came up with the design idea for the town. I believe this all transpired in 1977 or 78 if I recall correctly. Her name was Melody Erd, she was an incredible person and artist. A good friend of my mother's. Her son is the founder of the the cheer that we all know as the "wave" that sports fans do in the stadiums. He was the original and 1st mascot for the Milwaukee Wave soccer team "Dave the Wave" as his name is Dave Erd. He was 2 years ahead of me in school. I think in my older sister class. Anyways something happened in 1984 thru 1986 as the teams were officially started in 84. There was some dispute in the franchise on the mascot situation and of course royalties $ and credits. In the end Dave ended up leaving the franchise. I do not know what happened, all I know is they changed the mascot name to Mike or Beach guy or whatever. The Erd family were great people with creative minds. As families growing up, we would all go to the World's Fair together every year back then that was hosted in both Milwaukee and Chicago.

Thanks for saying "Hi" I will have to get back that way again. I went through there about 12 years ago. Need to pay a visit. I want to get up there to do some Musky fishing and then head to Canada to the Lake of the Woods. We shall see.

As for the Christmas in July.....well the gifts to me kept on coming! LOL it's out of control now. I picked up 8 new & used locos on the fly with DCC and sound. Still haven't gotten a deal settled on a GBW Alco yet. I have a line on one and 5 other locos. One being the Caterpillar SD70Ace for my CAT dealership. I even picked up more tankers for the JR fuels industry and a couple hoppers for the Big Stones Aggregate company. Then couple dozen box cars mostly 50 footers etc. Switches are slowly coming in too. I have to pick up 4 more pieces of lumber to finish up my shelving above the layout as well. List is on going and seems to be like 1 step forward 2 steps back and so forth. No worries though it's all good.
James, interesting story, thanks.

Xmas in Summer. My 3 days of retail shopping therapy will start arriving hopefully tomorrow. I have a bunch of tracking #’s but I have not started looking yet.

TomO
 
I haven't picked up much of any new rolling stock or engines until a neighbor called me said he had a few things I might want
yep sure did four Stewart engines F7A and two F7B lettered for Western Maryland and a F3A NYC all powered never run
plus about 40 pieces of rolling stock Athearn BevBel Accurail Roundhouse a little of everything
Price $20 for all
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James that is a great haul for July purchases, congrats. On the way home from the hobby shop today we drove through Eagle, Wi. I said hi to the water tower for you

That locally famous water tower in Eagle, Wisconsin. Cathy and I would have lunch in Eagle when we rode our Gold Wing motorcycle. I forgot the name of the bar and grill that we enjoyed the most. The other place was with the horse hitching post I believe was with a name close to Saz's.

Greg
 
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Yes! Ok, I can share something that arrived recently. I'm supposed to be on a self-imposed moratorium on new equipment (because I will probably have to disassemble my layout in the near future), but that's not working. I've gotten to the point with this hobby where if I see something interesting, I might have to get it since it may not be in production or available much longer. Well, that's my rationalization anyway. 🤣

This was also a case of a sale at one online shop causing me to buy at a different shop. I received an email from one place with a sale on locos and started looking through their inventory. One caught my eye, but they were out of stock...so I went to another online shop I use and ended up getting it there. Oh well. Here's the result:

Athearn Genesis GP7, Sacramento Northern #712. I grabbed it for a couple reasons-- first, it seems that SN equipment is somewhat rare in HO or any model railroad scale. Plus, it fits my generic western 80s-90s theme that I'm aiming at (Whoops, just noticed one of the handrails is off, apologies).

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But, get this-- SN 712 is (I think) the first locomotive I have in HO that I've also seen in person! It was delivered to the WP in 1953 and transferred to subsidiary SN in 1971. She was retired in 1985 and donated to the Western Railway Museum in Fairfield, then later swapped to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA. I took the picture below during my visit in 2016. It's a really cool museum, the first I've been to where they let you climb on almost all the equipment and into the cabs of certain locomotives. Someday I'll go back and try their "drive a locomotive" program.

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My new Rapido GE B36-7 (Southern Pacific) locomotive arrived in the mail yesterday. While still in its protective packaging, I can see the many fine details on this locomotive. Tomorrow, hopefully I'll start the breaking period. A complete manual filled with humor accompanies the locomotive.

The Southern Pacific while not a road typically seen on the CM&N Railroad is making an appearance as a possible addition to the railroad's growing roster.

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Greg
 
These weren't exactly a mail call, but they're new acquisitions.

My club also manages a little storefront, and these four custom-painted & detailed NP F's showed up for sale. I bought two right off the bat (one has sound!) and the other two sat.. and sat... and SAT.. until I said "heck with it" and bought them also. The complete 4-pack looks pretty sweet!
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I normally don't bother with blue box locomotives anymore, but in the case of these, someone gave a damn and they look pretty good to me. I'm debating on if I want to follow through with BN patches.

Also, similar deal, this Kato RSC-2 came out of the donated estate of a past member. I'm not sure what's up with the number, as it's no style Milwaukee ever had, but it should be easy to strip off. I have plenty of MILW loco number decals. It'll make a fine partner to my Bowser Baldwin AS-616, as was the case for two Baldwins and an Alco like this one back in the day around St. Paul.
 
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Soooooo I finally closed a deal with Yankeedabbler! I got 2 brand spanking new Alcos! Oh ya! That's right! uh huh uh huh that's the way I like it! 😂 😂 😂 😂

Atlas 10003294 – Alco C424 Phase 2 w DCC & Sound Green Bay & Western (GB&W) 313

Atlas 10003287 – Alco C424 Phase 1 w DCC & Sound Green Bay & Western (GB&W) 322

Yes siree Bob! Love them! This is what will handle bringing the north bound traffic from WI to my yard.....I could have gotten the same paint scheme on both units but nah... I had to be different ;)



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and yes the hits keep coming.......


A CAT's meow!

Athearn Genesis #G68823-EMD Lease SD70ACE w DCC & Sound Demo #1201 CAT scheme!

This unit will be used to handle all of my Caterpillar freight for the dealership/distribution center I will have on my layout.😺

Although in real life this unit actually went to A&M along with 1202 and 1203 blue scheme units.


The locomotives, EMD road numbers 1201-1203, were delivered to A&M from Progress Rail’s Mayfield, Ky., facility. EMD 1201 made its debut at the MINExpo Show in Las Vegas, Nev., painted in Caterpillar® yellow. Modifications at the Mayfield shop included a new, modern paint design reflecting A&M’s corporate colors and renumbering to A&M road numbers 70-72.

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other locomotives I recently got are as follows:

Athearn Genesis G41410 Union Pacific UP BUSH #4141 SD70ACe no sound

Athearn #76188 HO Union Pacific GP35 Ready to Run #745 DCC ready

Athearn RTR SD40T-2 Southern Pacific SP #8529 _Model #95135 DCC ready

Athearn SD45T-2 #4945 DCC installed_Model #91638 no sound

Atlas Master #9184 GP40 Low Nose Rio Grande #3141 DCC and sound

ATLAS MASTER UNION PACIFIC DASH 8-40B #5698. DCC DECODER EQUIPPED and sound

I have a few switchers on the way too Alcos with sound and will share that when I get them. I will be posting a news fair on my thread JR's UPRR when I get them all programmed and set-up. I got huge haul of freight cars in as well. Various woodchip hoppers 8 of those, 50 foot Rail Box style cars about 2 dozen and a few undecorated as I will be painting those and 5 more propane tank cars by Atlas. I couldn't pass the price up at 15 bucks each.

I am waiting on 3 more boxes of tracks from Micro-Mark as they had a sale at 99 dollars a box of 25 flex track code 83. I am looking at some more structures. Particularily looking at those flat wall type buildings that are about a half inch thick....I want to do a little industry area with those. we shall see how that goes.
 
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Well I have a good news bad news kind of thing going here.
The good news is this Rapido loco arrived today!
Shes a beaut with all kinds of lighting effects and awesome sound!

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Whats the bad news?
It arrived on the one day out of 365 days when it’s neither safe nor advised to spend time in the train room, the other half's birthday!
I did run it a couple feet back and forth before scurrying back up to the kitchen! 😉
 
and yes the hits keep coming.......


A CAT's meow!

Athearn Genesis #G68823-EMD Lease SD70ACE w DCC & Sound Demo #1201 CAT scheme!

This unit will be used to handle all of my Caterpillar freight for the dealership/distribution center I will have on my layout.😺

Although in real life this unit actually went to A&M along with 1202 and 1203 blue scheme units.


The locomotives, EMD road numbers 1201-1203, were delivered to A&M from Progress Rail’s Mayfield, Ky., facility. EMD 1201 made its debut at the MINExpo Show in Las Vegas, Nev., painted in Caterpillar® yellow. Modifications at the Mayfield shop included a new, modern paint design reflecting A&M’s corporate colors and renumbering to A&M road numbers 70-72.

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Oh man, lucky. That's one of the few modern locos I still would like to own. I love the paint, even if it didn't last long.

Besides that I want the Rio Grande heritage unit, the CNW heritage unit, and the "heritage" locos Intermountain did for Milwaukee.

Speaking of Milwaukee, I got a new heavyweight tonight. Finally, my 1930 Olympian has a tail. The car is currently in the garage drying as I immediately painted the roof and trucks oxide brown, per historical accuracy. I'll come back with a current photo later.

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EDIT: Fresh out of the paint shop. At some point I'm going to have to get brave and also paint the underbody, it should be the same brown color.
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