Running Bear's Coffee Shop XLVIII

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1987
 
Garry- I tell them I'm to feeble. Mentally and physically . lol Keeps me out of trouble.
As to NP rail cars , I only have six boxcars that haven't been run in years.

Phil
 


Flip said:
Montanan- While in service, were you a pilot ?

Phil
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I was in the Navy Phil. I wasn't a pilot. I was a fire control technician. I worked on the radars and computers for the guided missile systems. I really liked working with electronics. The old saying "Join the Navy and see the world" held true for me. 73 plus countries in six years. I was in the "tin can" Navy on destroyers. Loved it because we could get into so many small ports that larger ships couldn't.

I started flying when I was 16. My uncle was a carrier pilot during WWII and he was my mentor when it came to flying. Years back I used to get a lot of flying time in, but in recent years I don't get as much seat time in as I would like. With the expense and with having too many other hobbies and interests, there's not enough time for everything.
 
Karl the little I sell on eBay I never chose "make an offer" as an option because I know some people can be a bit crazy and I start the auctions at my rock bottom price. Nor would I ever make an offer to someone who has not chosen "make an offer" as an option.

When there is the option to "make an offer" I am always reasonable with my offers and 90% of the time they are accepted because they are reasonable offers. I have had sellers tell me some of the crazy offers others have made.

I am a bit surprised to hear you have received crazy offers considering your auctions always start out at great prices to begin with and your shipping rates are more then reasonable. It is amazing how may people would be so ridiculous with their low ball crazy offers.

A deal is not a good deal if it is not good for both sides.
 
Good Morning, I slept in today, Villanova convincingly won the Big East, the Maple Leafs lost (again), and the Devils finally won one.

It's 43°, overcast, and quite windy again. It's supposed to remain cloudy, and make it to 50°.

My Tangent x58 box cars were delivered yesterday afternoon. They are fantastic replications of the PRR's "Signature" box car. I got one in PRR, and one in PC green.

PC 361450 - 03-14-2015.jpgPRR 118003 - 03-14-2015.jpg
 
Nice looking box cars.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one with more modest items coming in. Loved the UP 4-12-2 and Kens video, but I didn't get much in myself. A Vermont Railway box car from Kadee found on Amazon was all I got in the way of freight equipment. In looking at my rolling stock, I have a real shortage of eastern railroads so when I see one at a decent price I'll grab it. The other items that came in were a couple of bulk packs of Kadee 158 wisker couplers. I like the look of the more close to scale coupler. I'm not going to binge out and replace all of my older Kadee couplers but as time passes, will eventually upgrade all of the equipment that I can. I still have a few locomotives with the EZ mate couplers that will have to be replaced. Also got a Walthers corrugated fence kit in to put around my scrap yard. Future projects.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting my two HO Stewart Baldwin VO-1000's, looking forward to get cracking on my own Milwaukee & Western versions of Santa Fe's Beep, have no idea what to call the Alco rebuilt one though (suggestions?)...still have to find a GP9 and an RS-11 shell as well, plus....possibly, a pair of AAR and Blomberg trucks.
So far, my M&W is a Alco and Baldwin system...;):D
 
montanan said:
Nice looking box cars.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one with more modest items coming in. Loved the UP 4-12-2 and Kens video, but I didn't get much in myself. A Vermont Railway box car from Kadee found on Amazon was all I got in the way of freight equipment. In looking at my rolling stock, I have a real shortage of eastern railroads so when I see one at a decent price I'll grab it. The other items that came in were a couple of bulk packs of Kadee 158 wisker couplers. I like the look of the more close to scale coupler. I'm not going to binge out and replace all of my older Kadee couplers but as time passes, will eventually upgrade all of the equipment that I can. I still have a few locomotives with the EZ mate couplers that will have to be replaced. Also got a Walthers corrugated fence kit in to put around my scrap yard. Future projects.
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This year, I find my self passing on many offerings, when I see the price tag. The x58s, were pricey, my recent order from Kleins - three Accurail kits + shipping - cost less than one x58, but I could not resist a well done model of a modern PRR box car, both as delivered and in PC Colors. BTW, they are equally at home painted Conrail and NS, as they remained in service to at least 2005.

Personally, while I like the appearance of the Kadee # 58s, I find that they do not work as well on my switching/operations orientated layout. I have gone back to #5s, the #148 whisker coupler bulk pack version, although I haven't replaced the couplers on any cars with #58s installed.

I'm about ready to begin the demolition of a good portion of my layout, so I'm going to be limited for a while. I'm planning a lot of projects for use on the "next" layout.
 
Milwaukee Road 113 said:
I'm eagerly awaiting my two HO Stewart Baldwin VO-1000's, looking forward to get cracking on my own Milwaukee & Western versions of Santa Fe's Beep, have no idea what to call the Alco rebuilt one though (suggestions?)...still have to find a GP9 and an RS-11 shell as well, plus....possibly, a pair of AAR and Blomberg trucks.
So far, my M&W is a Alco and Baldwin system...;):D
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The March 2015 Railroad Model Craftsman has an article on re-working Bowser Baldwin Switchers to appear more like Milwaukee Baldwin switchers. The article concerns BLW S12s, but VO 1000s could be candidates for a similar revision.
 


WJLI26 said:
The March 2015 Railroad Model Craftsman has an article on re-working Bowser Baldwin Switchers to appear more like Milwaukee Baldwin switchers. The article concerns BLW S12s, but VO 1000s could be candidates for a similar revision.
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One to add to the shopping list then....cheers mate! :D
 
MB Klien is probably my first place to go for model railroad supplies. If they don't have what I need, there are a few others that I go to. I just got one order in from them and two more on the way.

Sounds like you're in the remodeling mode. I never had a track plan drawn out, but I did have a plan on what I wanted. I stuck to the plan but did have one learning experience when I had to tear out a bunch of handlaid track because I didn't have the building I wanted in hand. Things wouldn't fit and in order to maintain my 32 inch minimum radius, a rework had to be done. I ended up using Shinohara track and turnouts to complete the layout because they were the only one at the time offering code 70 flextrack and turnouts. I am very happy with Shinohara and things ended up working out fine.

The last town on my layout was years in the making. The area say empty and turned into a dumping ground for all sorts of model railroad supplies. With no hobby shops around and no internet retailers around at the time, the project was probably set back 8 to 10 years. I finally was able to move forward with MB Klien and slowly began to put the last yard and town together. No track plan again, but I set the actual turnouts and track in place to make absolutely sure that things would fit and work out right. Although the scenery in the last town, Logan, aren't completed, I have done a lot of operating on it and with the right planning (finally) everything is working the way it should. Keep us posted on what you're doing.

Getting to what Louis was talking about with ebay, I have managed top get some items from them but in so many cases I have seen items bid way over retail, let alone what it could have been had for at online retailers. It was sometimes a real comedy to see what people were bidding items up to. In a number of cases I went to Kleins website and found the same items at less than half the price. I have managed to find a few hard to find items on ebay, but I wasn't going to get into a bidding war. I just took my time and did manage to get what I wanted at a more than decent price. I thank that many times people haven't looked at online retailers and had no clue as to what things were really worth.
 
This was a shocker!

Publisher of Railroad Model Craftsman closes

Published: Friday, August 22, 2014

Carstens Publications, Inc. closed permanently on Friday, August 22, 2014. Carstens Publications, Inc. has been publishing Railroad Model Craftsman and other hobby magazines from its New Jersey offices for more than 50 years.

In an announcement, president Henry Carstens wrote that the current economic climate has placed the company in this position. He thanked readers for their patronage over the years.

Any idea who took over?
 
Hello gang,

50*F with a 20mph NW wind here in central MD. Gonna be colder soon I'm afraid...

Karl, haven't seen you on here for awhile. So your garage makeover is almost complete eh? Excellent. Hope you still find time for trains...

I was out in my un-refurbished garage [a.k.a. the trainroom] yesterday for the first time in months. Harsh weather and health issues put a temporary damper on my enthusiasm level for layout work. But now, after making a deal with SWMBO, I will soon be getting an extra wall to extend my layout. But there's still one hurdle to be cleared: Need to relocate a tall standing freezer to the laundry room, which sits at the bottom of a 4ft-deep flight of stairs. That's something that will definitely require several able-bodied adult males to accomplish safely. I was out there measuring the width of the freezer, then the width of the laundry room doorway - it will clear with about a half-inch of open space on either side, as long as the door itself is pulled all the way open. Now I need to find a time when my son and a few of his friends will be available to make this happen...
 
1988
 
Afternoon All,

Just finished cleaning up from my demolition work on the layout and double checking my measurements. I have cleared almost 18 ft worth of mainline track and scenery. I still need to do another scrapping on the bare wood before progressing any further. That will probably be the only thing that gets done before vacation.

Instead of quilting today MOH and daughter went furniture shopping for daughters house and put daughters car in for tire rotation and front end alignment before our trip. We are taking her car since it is larger than ours.

Karl- Thanks for the video. The NHRA does seem to have catastrophic failures when they happen.

20150315_151120_zpsasqif4hr.jpg


I hope everyone has a good night.
 
montanan said:
Getting to what Louis was talking about with ebay, I have managed top get some items from them but in so many cases I have seen items bid way over retail, let alone what it could have been had for at online retailers. It was sometimes a real comedy to see what people were bidding items up to. In a number of cases I went to Kleins website and found the same items at less than half the price. I have managed to find a few hard to find items on ebay, but I wasn't going to get into a bidding war. I just took my time and did manage to get what I wanted at a more than decent price. I thank that many times people haven't looked at online retailers and had no clue as to what things were really worth.
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Seen that a few times....you want how much...!!??:eek::eek:....then there's few further that has the same up, for the fraction of the price! I think that Amazon is starting to get famous for that now....;):D
 


Amazon doesn't have a lot of what I'm looking for, but their prices are good. The Kadee Vermont Railroad car was $32 with free shipping. Having acquired most of my rolling stock well over 20 years ago, the price was a bit of a sticker shock until you realize what the price of well detailed cars are today. I did manage to get quite a bit of scaenery item from them also. I get a lot of Amazon gift cards and they build up and you really don't feel like you're opening your wallet for them.


I also get a kick out of people trying to sell items on ebay at full retail price which are fairly common place, and then you are expected to pay shipping on top of it. Come on now.
 
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