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

[Alcomotive]

Had to go spend some of Todd’s new retirement money. I decided to get out of the house for my final trip to the LHS b4 the blizzard tonight.

BNSF boxcar from Athearn. I am not a Athearn freight car fan be it RTR, primed for grime or Genesis. But, while in there and it was packed, the owner was telling a guy he can’t take in anymore consignments or estates. The guy’s comment was he needed to pay his car and rent this month. The owner looked at me and 2 other guys and asked if we would help this guy. Out to his car 4 of us go. I purchased 20 of these at a really good price but between the other 2 guys and me he almost made he says the rent and car payment. The owner of the store brought the rest that we didn’t. He is known in the store so they aren’t stolen…View attachment 158264I may keep some, weather and sell the rest. They look nice but at $40.00 retail no frickin’ way.

Got home and a few packages were there. I unboxed 3 tank cars from Walthers Mainline. Very nice cars and fit my 2015 scheme easily. My 2 slurry and 2 acid tank cars are still out roaming the UPS system. I got a text from the person I ordered from apologizing but he put the wrong address on the box. I forgot I purchased them with all that’s been going on around here.
View attachment 158265
2 hours after posting I have sold 18 of the 20 Athearn box cars purchased. I am keeping 2. Good enough

Dang I missed out

 

[Alcomotive]

Battling a little with this one, runs fine except on one curve where it derails every time, not sure if my track has moved (unlikely as it's screwed down) or the B2B on the loco.

Check the wheels for proper gauge....

 

[Smudge617]

Check the wheels for proper gauge....

Yeah, I will, it's a pain to do as I've only a OO b2b gauge, which will work but I have to remove each axle to measure it as it doesn't fit over the centre gear, I've ordered a NMRA gauge but it's still on backorder.

 

[TLOC]

Yeah, I will, it's a pain to do as I've only a OO b2b gauge, which will work but I have to remove each axle to measure it as it doesn't fit over the centre gear, I've ordered a NMRA gauge but it's still on backorder.

Do you have any calipers?

 

[TLOC]

Dang I missed out

James, not really. Nice cars but nothing exceptional and all modern builds. But the price would have been right. He took the 18 because I felt like keeping 2. Sold 15 minutes after I pressed send. I made $8 per car, they were sold for $26 each or 35% less then retail. He will pick them up next week.

 

[Smudge617]

Do you have any calipers?

Yes I have one, I'll give that a try, thanks

 

[Smudge617]

Postie is being nice to me again, just received these this morning.

Athearn GP40-2. (DC)

Some loads for my freight wagons.

And decals for my switcher.

 

[rgeiter]

Check your wheel gauge. Those gears have a habit of cracking. I had to replace all of mine when I got them out of storage.

 

[Smudge617]

Check your wheel gauge. Those gears have a habit of cracking. I had to replace all of mine when I got them out of storage.

Yeah, I will, gears aren't making the usual clicking sound tho'

 

[rgeiter]

Yeah, I will, gears aren't making the usual clicking sound tho'

They usually crack where the axles are pressed into the gear.

 

[Smudge617]

They usually crack where the axles are pressed into the gear.

I've got spares to hand if they need replacing.

 

[Smudge617]

This arrived in the post this morning, I knew something was coming, and I've had some surprises in my life, but this is definitely not one I was ever expecting.

In case you don't recognise this, this was Tom's, the weathering looked great in the foto's he posted, but to actually see his work is amazing.

To say, Thank You Tom really doesn't cover it.

 

[BigGRacing]

It looks super real!

 

[rgeiter]

Oh, that’s nice! Wow!

 

[TLOC]

This arrived in the post this morning, I knew something was coming, and I've had some surprises in my life, but this is definitely not one I was ever expecting.

In case you don't recognise this, this was Tom's, the weathering looked great in the foto's he posted, but to actually see his work is amazing.

To say, Thank You Tom really doesn't cover it.View attachment 158392

View attachment 158390

Enjoy it! Merry Christmas

 

[Smudge617]

My day just get's better and better, the Intermountain ES44AC arrived by courier earlier, the sounds are amazing on this.

The seller for some reason also included this 34' Erie Hopper, with load, which was a nice surprise.

And the trucks for my switcher chassis also turned up.

 

[CambriaArea51]

My day just get's better and better, the Intermountain ES44AC arrived by courier earlier, the sounds are amazing on this.

Looks like there will be some weathering to do.

 

[Smudge617]

Looks like there will be some weathering to do.

Yep. but not this year. and not the Loco, that's staying as is.

 

[Alcomotive]

This came in today finally....I mentioned this before in coffee shop. Athearn ran 3 different numbers I have 2 of 3 now....

 

[Iron Horseman]

include your picture (below)
tell us about it - When Amtrak started service they had visions. This was their day 1 vision of a passenger locomotive. It was the only locomotive painted for Amtrak on May 1, 1971. My guess is that it was "inspired" by the non-inpirational Penn/Central black. Because #4316 started life as Pennsylvania #5716, built in October of 1952. It then became Penn Central #4316 and sold to Amtrak.This was the only unit ever painted in this scheme. My guess is they decided since so many of the units coming from the charter roads there already silver it would be better to go with the much more common silver Phase I paint scheme.

This is manufactured Rapido. Originally supposed to be 1 of 350 but so many were pre-ordered for retirement gifts of Amtrak engineers they decided to up the count to 1 of 500. It comes in a wooden gift box fitting a retirement gift that still smells of fresh shellac. I didn't know anyone still used shellac.

give your review - The unit looks fantastic as all my Rapido have so far. Run test and review will have to come later after I get some track put down to run it on.

reason(s) for obtaining the item - The museum layout is set in 1974, and I have been putting together a phase I/rainbow train to be time period appropriate. This loco was certainly still running at that time so it fits. Not to mention that I actually saw this unit in person. It was Garden City Kansas on the eastbound Southwest Chief. It was running late about 1:30 AM or so and I took a photo, but it did not come out. Black locomotive against a black night and all, sigh.