Received notification today that the two MP15ac's that I ordered in January are in. Hope to have them in a few days.
Decided to finally put in another order with ExactRail. On the way are: - Rock Island Vert-a-pac - Union Pacific (yellow) GSC flat car - D&RGW Bethlehem 4-bay coal car (need lots but at their cost, that's another story). - Also found a 5-pack Athearn Thrall blue-end D&RGW coal cars (long out of production) to add to the 20 I already have, since 25 cars looks a little better.
I finally got around to picking up one of the Atlas NSC boxcars in CP multimark. It really is a nice model. I'm looking forward to weathering it. And speaking of finally getting something, here's a new-to-me Atlas C30-7 (still has its horn hooks!) that will one day work with this SD40-2.
Ah the CP Rail multimark, that was the only CP Rail livery I liked the new one just looks boring. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
They were very rare around here during my modeling era, so when you saw them they really made an impression. My brother and I didn't know what a multimark was back then. To us it was just pac man.
This is not about a "recent purchase", but it's a story I'd like to tell anyway... Quite a few years back, I was at one of those antique malls, just wandering around, when I spotted a "milk box" ( you know, the kind we used to keep our LPs in), with a bunch of train parts and other stuff. What caught my eye was a Lionel #675, as I knew those can be worth something, so I stopped and looked through the rest of the items. Mostly it was cheap train set junk, but at the bottom of this case was a Kato diesel, in BN colors. Now it was apparent that this box had literally been left outside as most everything had a nice coat of rust, and this Kato engine, being on the bottom of the pile, had the most realistic weathering job, as it was absolutely filthy. Dirt was caked to the trucks, as well as everywhere else, and it was just a mess. There was no way any of this stuff could ever made to work again, but the entire box was only $10 bucks, so I figured what the h*ll, and brought it home. After disassembling the Kato (SD40), and giving it (almost too) good a cleaning, believe it or not it ran! A bit of oil here and there, and it ran (and still does) whisper quiet, just as a Kato should. I was able to purchase the needed detail parts ( grab irons, horns, handrails) from Kato, and to this day it is a fine looking and running loco. I wrote to Kato and let them know of the durability of their product, and I hope someone connected with that firm might also read this. My only regret was losing that fabulous weathering job! Mark in Oregon
Just recieved this today. It's the newly tooled Bachmann 4-4-0 1870s style American locomotive. My all time favorite engine type is finally available with factory DCC and sound! It runs smooth as silk on my NCE powered layout and crawls through Atlas turnouts with ease. I love it. This may become a Cape Girardeau & Southwestern Ry loco from the 1880's Southeast Missouri area. Thanks Bachmann!
Picked up a LifeLike P2K GP18 in MP colors, complete with low nose and trucks from a traded-in Alco. It's not DCC equipped, but as soon as I can figure that out, it will be the Mop switcher for my Paris, TX layout. Soon as I get a picture taken (come morning, as I am at work right now), I'll post it here. That Santa Fe CF7 was picked up at a train show up in Tulsa back in February. It was purchased as DCC-ready, so I installed a Digitrax decoder. Both will see use on the new layout.
I went to the train show on Saturday and came across a personal unicorn. Came home with a Conrail B23-7, made by Atlas. Their silver level model. It was 40% off of street price, new in box, never run. My wife can be awesome. This is the biggest diesel loco I run (others are a SW1500 and a GP15-1) and I'm so impressed with the quiet competence and pulling power of this engine. It doesn't give a damn about crappy track in the slightest.
I have 4 Atlas Locos in my fleet, 3 Dash 8-40BWs and a Dash 8 CW unit. All are good performers. I have 2 issues, one of the BWs has some quirks in the. Decoder that requires me to reset it to factory some times and one of the ditch lights went out on the CW. I believe the bulb burnt out on it. Other than that, they almost run MU'd with no speed matching. I feel they were a good investment. When I run them together at the club, they are pretty neat looking. I think you'll be happy with it.
Atlas generally makes excellent diesels that run very well; the Conrail blue scheme is handsome as well. BTW, nice weathering job on the PC FGE box car! I've got one from the old Walthers flat part kits that looks basically the same except the narrower plug door. Moloco is supposed to be comeing out with a series of FGE cars this fall sometime. Cheers, Jim
I can't take credit for the weathering, that's all thanks to Joseph Saunders at Gandy Dancers. Good guy.
Latest additions. Must ... stop ... getting ... engines. The entire stable needs DCC sound and that should be the next priority. A new motor and sound is almost as much as the engines. PRR F-series Mogul PRR D16 (?) American
I was camping this past weekend and went to the local town to their train show. I got this Aristocraft/Newone 2-8-2 for the ridiculous price of $30 (CDN). It ran but rather slowly. I stripped it down, dug out all the old grease, oiled and re-greased it and added Kadee couplers. It is now one sweet runner.