For all of You Train Lovers

[Pops1967GTX]

 

[69a100]

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The man in Black!

 

[Basket case]

 

[snakeyes]

 

[Basket case]

 

[snakeyes]

 

[snakeyes]

 

[Photon440]

Well something musta gone wrong here.

 

[YY1]

"picking the switch"

..or it got thrown under the loco

 

[Photon440]

Something similar actually happened to me once. I was using a Trackmobile (a small machine used to move rail cars around, much smaller than a locomotive) to push a caboose into the service area. I was lined up for a certain track, the first truck went that way but for some reason the other end of the caboose went into the next track. A truck by the way, is the name for what people see as the wheels, usually consisting of the two wheelsets, two side frames and a center bolster, so there's a truck on each end like in that locomotive photo.

Besides the derailment, the extreme angle of the trucks meant some damage from mangled brake rigging and a torn off driveshaft used to drive the caboose generator while in motion. Plus, an old guy named Andy - part of the cleaning crew - had come along for the ride and was inside sweeping when the cab hit the dirt, he was more surprised than shaken up.

This was long ago, probably around 1986. Cabs were being phased out not long after that. I've switched countless cars thousands of times in my career, I never had an explanation for why that one switch popped over by itself like that.

 

[YY1]

Just like old car parts model train guys have to deal with ridiculous pricing.

Here is an ebay listing for what is normally a $5 swap meet item.
It's an older tooling and there is a newer version by a different manufacturer that is MUCH better quality. The newer version is typically $30.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PRR-Pennsylvania-HO-Car-N6B-982086/183739424667?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

WHO falls for this kind of impulse price listing technique?

less than 1 min searching ebay for "prr caboose" turns up this, new in the box but with a slightly different paint scheme-

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Model-Powe...759918&hash=item46926a86ad:g:U4QAAOSwC8pcG7aD

...and this, upgraded with $5 worth of upgraded couplers-

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Model-Powe...963791?hash=item48c8b533cf:g:~6AAAOSwmkJcx2Pa

These MUST be the same people who send money to Nigeria and bitcoin to "microsoft" when they call about their computer being infected.

 

[Basket case]

some of the HO stuff is ridiculous in price anymore.

 

[YY1]

The most I've ever paid for a locomotive was $400.

But that was a modern brass-hybrid PRR Q2 4-4-6-4 duplex drive with sound.

I had to have it because it's such an oddball design, and the prototype actually ran through the area I grew up in and am loosely modeling.

I've seen three of those sell used in the past 2 months for over $1100 each!!!

The ones I actually run (and fit on my RR without looking way too big) are under $250 and usually around $100, many less than that. I have about 75, Most bought used at swap meets or ebay, and some from the manufacturers in house "scratch and dent" "yard sale".
I bought numerous $200 and up retail units there for either $25 or $40 each!
Including some engineering samples and prototypes.

I can't bring myself to pay over $30 for a single car either even though some are over $65 and some new passenger cars are approaching $90! I do have a few "must have" $30 cars but most of my fleet cost between $5 and $15 each.

 

[Basket case]

HO is bringing what O-27 and O Gauge goes for or more. Beautiful stuff without question, and I'd love to have some of the PRR steamers, but I'll stick to my O-27 junkbox finds.

 

[polywideblock]

 

[polywideblock]

 

[polywideblock]

 

[polywideblock]

 

[Basket case]

UP Big Boy 4014 in steam for the first time in 60 years, double heading with UP 844

 

[Budnicks]