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I have come to love this machine. The Vortex Mixer. After using this for 5 days now I am more impressed each day. I had no idea how unmixed my paints were.
It is a lab rated machine. Generally used to mix blood in the vials prior to testing. It truly creates a vortex within the container which really does mix the paint. There are many types of Vortex mixers at Amazon many cheaper. I picked this one after spending many late nights watching You Tube vortex mixer reviews. $91.00 with tax on Amazon and free shipping
Just as Nicolas Cage found his “unicorn” Eleanor, at long last I have acquired mine!
Ive been looking for a “blue banker” for awhile now and finally added one to the stable.
Kato AC4400CW awaiting a Railpro module and scale sound speaker like her BNSF counterpart.
So I got another locomotive in Southern Pacific.....
ATHEARN RTR ATH86829 SD40(SD40R) DCC & Econami SOUND LED PRIMED FOR GRIME DESERT STORM #7319
Had to have it in my stable. Got a great price on it. It will fit in just fine. It will need some weathering for more of a realistic look like the proto type. I will need to get some more pictures as I only found 2 thus far...
So I got another locomotive in Southern Pacific.....
ATHEARN RTR ATH86829 SD40(SD40R) DCC & Econami SOUND LED PRIMED FOR GRIME DESERT STORM #7319
Had to have it in my stable. Got a great price on it. It will fit in just fine. It will need some weathering for more of a realistic look like the proto type. I will need to get some more pictures as I only found 2 thus far...
That is a sharp locomotive.
I was shocked on how few pictures of the locomotive there are on Railpictures.net. That site normally has tons of locomotive pictures when I search for one.
So, I did a search on Duck Duck Go, my search engine, but Google should be ok.
I typed in “Southern Pacific desert storm locomotive“ and hundreds of pictures popped up of it.
That is a sharp locomotive.
I was shocked on how few pictures of the locomotive there are on Railpictures.net. That site normally has tons of locomotive pictures when I search for one.
So, I did a search on Duck Duck Go, my search engine, but Google should be ok.
I typed in “Southern Pacific desert storm locomotive“ and hundreds of pictures popped up of it.
Even though the old layout is torn apart and the new one is barely in the planning stages I've still been picking stuff up here and there. I have some other stuff I haven't taken photos of yet, but this Atlas RS-3 just arrived today.
One of the LHS' around here still has a fair selection of LL P2K cars, and the other day I noticed they recently got in a bunch of multi-packs, including some 4- and 6-packs of gondolas, boxcars, and stock cars, and a whole bunch of 2-packs of gondola kits:
I couldn't resist, I grabbed one of the six-packs of WP gondolas:
These must be a little older, they only come with horn-hook couplers. I replaced those with Kadees and the wheelsets with Intermountain metal wheels. The original installed wheelsets were metal wheels with plastic axles, which I generally don't care for. Here's a couple in the yard:
I brought a (non-trainfan) friend along with me and an antique lantern up on a high shelf caught his attention. He wanted it to use on his deck when he has guests over in the evenings, where he hangs oil lanterns for lighting. As we're driving away from the store, he was looking at it, and says, "Hey it says 'New York Central' on the top." Turns out it's a Dietz lantern, possibly made before WWI.
That is a sharp locomotive.
I was shocked on how few pictures of the locomotive there are on Railpictures.net. That site normally has tons of locomotive pictures when I search for one.
[trimmed]
From what I can find, that's not actually a "Desert Storm" commemorative paint scheme-- that's the tan primer underneath the regular SP paint. Supposedly a handful of units sat outside for a while after being primed, then were painted with a new "environmentally friendly" (possibly water-based) paint. Unfortunately after a short time in service, made worse by SP's heavy tunnel routes, the top coat started coming off in sheets. At some point the nose was repainted, that's why some pictures show a relatively clean red nose while the rest of the unit is still a mess.
SP 7319 appears to have been the worst, but there are some others such as 7354 with similar paint issues. Based on pictures online, it looks like the paint started peeling around 1991, and was repainted sometime before 1995. Thus, there was only a 3-4 year time frame in which people could have gotten pictures of it.
Yipes! I seem to recall my first 6 packs were $29 or so. You know, a discount for buying 6 at a time over the $5.99 price each. I remember when I was bent out of shape when they crept up over $40. At that price today those should be in the safe. Certainly glad I've got a huge stock pile of them.
Also interesting they still have some of the really old blue box caboose. Those have to be pushing 30 years of shelf dust.
Yipes! I seem to recall my first 6 packs were $29 or so. You know, a discount for buying 6 at a time over the $5.99 price each. I remember when I was bent out of shape when they crept up over $40. At that price today those should be in the safe. Certainly glad I've got a huge stock pile of them.
Also interesting they still have some of the really old blue box caboose. Those have to be pushing 30 years of shelf dust.
These are factory-assembled cars, which cost a little bit more than their kits. It ain't like what it used to be, but new production car packs from Athearn or Intermountain cost even more these days.
This particular shop has lots of new old stock, including Branchline and Roundhouse kits, Bachmann Spectrum, Athearn blue box, and more. When I first moved to the area about 15 years ago, they had about three 12-foot long shelves filled with blue box kits. They still have some today, including a surprising number of dummy locomotives still in stock, but not as much as it used to be. The next aisle from the photo above, for example, has a shelf full of pre-merger Proto2000 locomotives, including things like BL2's still unopened. Same thing with Atlas, they have a slew of pre-dcc Master series locomotives and even some yellow box ones.
Mornin' everyone! Flo I am starvin' lika Marvin! I will take a steak on the fly n cheese eggs scrambled with all the fixins' and a dozen strips of bacon with a side of hash browns! Wash all that down with some Tropicana OJ please! Daggum weather drivin' me nuts. Well on the bright side 43...
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Anyhow I finally found an Atlas model of the Alco #5! ATLAS #10000029 Alco Demo S-1 Diesel Switcher #5 w/Kadees
Bought a trio of the Athearn 60' Trailer train flat cars from ModelTrainStuff this past Saturday. Arrived today. Pretty quick for cheapest shipping cost selected.
The deck of the car provides for lacing tie down straps through the pockets instead of just glueing em to the floor of the car.
I'll post a video later of these cars in a train.
We stopped at Midwest Model Railroad in Independence, Mo. on Tuesday. What a store. Big, neat, well stocked, clean, informed staff and well lit. Worth the trip and stop.
I have been looking for these 3 WC covered hoppers for a few years at decent pricing and different numbers. I do buy from Midwest online but this was an opportunity to see the store. Prices in the store though are higher then online. I did question the price difference and that is what I was told. Store prices though are the same as the online or in-store pricing at Hiawatha Hobbies and Lombard Hobby. So I have now been in person to my 3 favorite online stores.
