What was your latest purchase?

Just picked up one of these Maha 9v rechargeable battery kits along with 5 more of the same batteries for my Digitrax wireless throttles.

http://tiny.cc/gw0yhw

Allen...

 

Just got the new TTX Maxi I cars and the BNSF hoppers from Kato

 

I just picked up an AC-8 by Key. It is a serial # 124 version, the last produced and it is a superb runner, by far the best cab forward from Key out of the box that I have. I would go so far as saying it is better than the Intermountain AC-12. Now after a 6 year quest, I've managed to pick up every model of AC cab forward from the AC-4 thru AC-12.

 

Now do you have the AC-9 Rear Cab?

 

Unfortunately I don't have an AC-9 yet. I want to find an oil burner, but I haven't been willing to pony up the money it takes to get one, plus they don't show up on the auction sights all that often. They seem to go for a much higher sum than the cab forwards do. I would also like to get my hands on the 2-8-8-2s, but they demand high prices as well.

 

From the public library’s withdrawn-and-discarded book shelf, I bought a little volume for 25 cents. Old House Dictionary: An Illustrated Guide to American Domestic Architecture 1600 to 1940. Written and illustrated by Steven J. Philips. Lakewood, Colorado: American Source Books, 1989. Original list price $16.95 Now available used for about $20 from an Amazon seller.
Rather than showing the book, I will show some of the structure models that the book helps me to describe.
This is Bachmann’s out-of-production Sears catalog house, kitbashed into a 1 story house.


It has a Pyramidal hipped roof, described on p.129 of the Old House Dictionary.
The window on the front roof over the front porch is a Shed dormer window p.65 because it has a sloping flat roof.
The dormer windows facing the sides are different. They are NOT the frequently seen “gable” dormer. The gable dormer has a vertical triangular wall section on its face just below the roof. P.85. The roof over the dormer is hipped. (The book does not directly give this name...) The basement has what appear to be casement windows p.45.
The colonnaded porch p.127 has simple columns—but the columns have the three major divisions, base, shaft and capital, p.51 and 15.


The nit picker’s union hall (with every basic frame stucture element that a nit-picker could ask for) demonstrates balloon framing. P.23.


Floor joists p.102 are visible from the sides because I neglected to use a header. P.95.
Roof trusses somewhat similar to W-type truss p.173.
Double-hung windows on the side and back p.65, and horizontal panel door (4 panel) p.118 on the side.
The shingles p.142 are individually-applied pieces of paper-thin cedar.

Johnston High School illustrates brick quoins p.131, visible on the far end corner and either side of the front entrance. Made up with an extra thickness of brick paper.


Finally, using up trainboard.com’s four picture limit per post, a beach house on piling foundation p.122.


Good investment of 25 cents.

 

layout so much that I replaced my Lenz 90

By the way nice job on those structures and use of materials Kenneth Anthony.:happy:

 

After seeing the reviews on here about the new Atlas coil cars, I took the plunge. They are pretty darn cool cars! Way to go Atlas!

 

Just ordered a pair of those coil cars yesterday myself.


Larry

 

Wow whatta month I had

Summer is usually very slow down here in SoFla, but several unexpected opportunities have come about and thanks to a financial windfall, I was able to put away some of the money to buy trains. My purchases over the past 30 days are as follows:

eBay
1 Rivarossi Mallet in poor condition at a bargain price. Cleaned, repainted, repaired and lubricated to end up with a like new model for $50,
4 ConCor Kato Hudsons of 80's vintage, all run great, mostly GN glaciers, but one exceptional mint Vanderbilt shovelnose model in the Kato vinyl box
1 MicroTrains 40' Box Car, NYC Pacemaker w/original box, but I am running it. This is the culmination of a 10 year + search.

Hobby Shop "Junk" box
The owners of my "adopted hobby shop" put aside a box of "junk" for me to make an offer. I bought the entire box for $100, and within a week sold some of the unwanted locos that ran well for $150. I kept 35 other locos, some of which will be sold or traded at the next swap meet, and added from the box to my fleet, a Rivarossi Heavy Pacific Alton Line Cardinal with the Mashima motor and Rivarossi's latest mechanism, and a ConCor Kato Hudson J3a in D&H livery which is an ugly paint scheme but it grew on me.

Parts Box Surprise
On a rainy day waiting for glue to set and paint to dry, I assembled from my parts box a complete MRC/Lima/Rivarossi Mallet which surprisingly runs very well. It is running this minute on my mainline.

Looking back, I am grateful to have been able to make these purchases, as this is long overdue.

Back to rest.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

 

My recent purchases have included several 12 packs of fox valley metal wheel sets with fine treads, and I am slowly converting over my rolling stock to metal wheels. The cars roll better, sound better and supposedly won't suffer from crud buildup on the wheels as easily (we'll see). I model in other scales as well, and most of my recent N scale efforts have been in building T-Trak modules with Kato UniTrack.

Bill in FtL

 

I finally pulled the trigger on a Loco Buffer USB computer interface for my Digitrax DCC setup; looking forward to having the kid operate with an old iPod instead of the Zephyr. Should be nice for programming / troubleshooting too.

I'm also on the lookout for commuter equipment in the Northstar livery, if anyone has some sitting around...

 

Have you called Scale Model Supplies as yet, they should have some...651 646 7781

Joe

 

The only Northstar coach I have was obtained there; by the time I realized I wanted them, everything was gone asides from the single coach, which they still had a couple of a few months ago.

I've also checked both of the Hubs, no luck there either. I'm hoping there are a few gathering dust on shelves of a shop far away from the Twin Cities somewhere... I know all of the local shops have plenty of commuter stuff for TRE, Coaster, and the other out-of-area operations.

None of the online stores I've seen have them in stock either; I suppose it's possible Wig Wag still has a few...

 

I posted a discussion here recently about my problem with getting Peco turnouts to “throw.”

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...-with-PECO-“lectric”-turnout-motor&highlight=

Several helpful Trainboarders suggested a Peco capacitor discharge unit. I saw a used unit at a good price- but from England- on “that auction site” but was outbid by one cent when my wife wanted taken on a shopping trip at prime sniping time. I’m not much one for sniping anyway.
My wife suggested a new unit sold in the US would be better, and I found one with a good discount at M B ¤¤¤¤¤. Got it in four days.

I also wanted to try out laser-cut kits, so I got an American Model Builders N 622 “Dill’ Market.” I plan to use it to model a “back alley house.” The older parts of the prototype city I am modeling, Galveston, Texas, have a front house/ back house arrangement with substantial homes on the front of the lot and small one or two room rental houses on the back facing the alley.
Here is a link to a prototype picture.
http://www.uh.edu/engines/alley.jpg

I have already kitbashed one “alley house.”


I will be looking forward to “laser alley.”

 

Just could not keep from pulling the trigger on the IM NYC box cars. Picked up and assortment of 30 units for running NYC at the shows.

 

After a real good look at these Pacemaker cars, I think it was a bad purchase. They seem to be more like $12 Atlas Trainman cars than $21.95 level cars.

 

This post should have read I liked the way my NCE Power Cab operated on my HO layout that I replaced my Lenz 90 with another Power Cab.
For some reason the "Edit" button was gone on this post so I had to correct it with a Quote.
Much better

 

I just recieved a Bachman 0-6-0 and have been running it, breaking it in. My goal is to add a 'shory' Vandy tender to make it a SP locomotive. It is really nice and runs extremely good....and, ijust pull 17 cars on the flat. Yes...there is driver slipage and my gues is 8 to 10 car max for smooth performance. Saying that...WHAT IS WITH BACHMAN??????.....The veritable N Scale joke when Quality is mentioned is doing some REALLY NICE STUFF. I tink it's time for someone to applaud them for their efforts in N Scale. It may be a bitter pill to swallow...But I think they are really making a effort to improve their line of products. BARFMAN jokes could be a thing of the past !!!!!!!!!!!!