Model Train Journal

Hope everyone has a nice & relaxing holiday weekend! I'll be heading up to Roanoke for the weekend to chase 611

Finished the Jersey City passenger terminal this week. Just have to add a few more figures to the platforms at some point












Also added a walkway on the bridge -


Had to move some freight & passengers -






















Amtrak's Acela blasts through Elizabeth, NJ on the NEC as it heads towards DC

NS ES44AC 8149 leads 195 through Welch, WV


NS ET44AC 3621 & AC44C6M 4011 resting at South Yard in Roanoke, VA





With a solid set of UP power, NS 212 hustles northbound through Danville, VA

Two NS GE motors are about to split the signals at CP BANKS in Marysville, PA. The classic PRR era signals are on borrowed time as the generic replacement can be seen on the left

Nice work on the platform!

What is the big white square in the lower right corner of the last photo of the layout (aka just before the cut over to the 1:1 trains, the Acela)

I think that's the white trim around the layout's periphery, Chuck.

Nothing good to report here. This LC/MTH 254E (Traditional) stopped running a couple of years ago:



I think it's got less than one or two hours of run-time on it. It's been sitting on the back of the workbench waiting for me to get to it, but that project pile is getting too big. Calling around to find an MTH service-center that can/will take a look at it.

Healey

Ah, Thanks. Pulled back some of the earlier shots to match the background. The "corner" is being whited out (literally).

yeah the white is the layout face plate.
I've always like the prewar Lionel electrics. So when you say conventional, it's built with a pullmor motor & real e unit?

MTH-designed open-frame motor and an electro-mechanical E-unit, all of Chinese manufacture. I have an LC/MTH 265E with the same motor/E-unit that was DOA...took that one in for warranty repair. It had a non-functioning E-unit. This one ran at least, albeit poorly, before giving out. I understand that getting parts from MTH for these is difficult...I haven't the time or the temperament to deal with that right now.

I called M. B. Klein (modeltrainstuff.com) who's listed as an MTH service center...they said they don't service any O or Standard guage in-house anymore, and flipped me a guy's phone number that they recommend. He seems to be adverse to answering the phone, lol...

healey36 wrote:MTH-designed open-frame motor and an electro-mechanical E-unit, all of Chinese manufacture. I have an LC/MTH 265E with the same motor/E-unit that was DOA...took that one in for warranty repair. It had a non-functioning E-unit. This one ran at least, albeit poorly, before giving out. I understand that getting parts from MTH for these is difficult...I haven't the time or the temperament to deal with that right now.

I called M. B. Klein (modeltrainstuff.com) who's listed as an MTH service center...they said they don't service any O or Standard guage in-house anymore, and flipped me a guy's phone number that they recommend. He seems to be adverse to answering the phone, lol...

Looks like one of the fingers in the E-unit is bent/broken. Dropped it off with the guys at Toy Trains Unlimited in Hanover, PA...I'll leave it to them to figure it out.

The QC seems to be a big issue w/ both MTH & Lionel. ( More so from Lionel I've noticed)

Agreed. No intention of created yet another bashing-thread, but I have had lousy luck with MTH...at least five of the ten MTH loco's I own arrived DOA or failed within a short period of time. I stopped buying Proto-equipped gear due to the failure rate, switched to "traditional"...one of those arrived DOA and the other, this 254E, failed after an hour or two run-time. I figured the open-frame motor and E-unit would be fairly bullet-proof - guess not. The 254E is the last new loco I bought and will probably remain so.

I haven't bought any new Lionel gear for years. The last one was an LRRC Berk from about eight years ago. Other than a defective smoke-unit it runs well.

It used to bug the crap out of me, but since I'm not buying much new stuff anymore I just let it go. If you're not looking for all of the modern electronics the eighty year-old stuff runs just fine for me.

healey36 wrote:Agreed. No intention of created yet another bashing-thread, but I have had lousy luck with MTH...at least five of the ten MTH loco's I own arrived DOA or failed within a short period of time. I stopped buying Proto-equipped gear due to the failure rate, switched to "traditional"...one of those arrived DOA and the other, this 254E, failed after an hour or two run-time. I figured the open-frame motor and E-unit would be fairly bullet-proof - guess not. The 254E is the last new loco I bought and will probably remain so.

I haven't bought any new Lionel gear for years. The last one was an LRRC Berk from about eight years ago. Other than a defective smoke-unit it runs well.

It used to bug the crap out of me, but since I'm not buying much new stuff anymore I just let it go. If you're not looking for all of the modern electronics the eighty year-old stuff runs just fine for me.

When I used to read and post on the OGR forum there seemed to be at least one post every day like this but it was about Lionel.