Weekend Photos - December 2023

[webenda]

Increasing passenger traffic on the under-tree loop

Sharp photo! Great scene.

[healey36]

I've had a loose 6466W tender in the project pile for a very long time, hopeful that a mate would turn up at some point. A couple weekends back, I found this battered Lionel 2036 from 1950 on a table at the local indoor flea market. A tenner and it's under my arm and headed home with me:



The loco has issues, chief among them an inability of the drivers to track properly (another being a wealth of steel-wool fibers jammed throughout, aggravated by the Magnetraction). That said, it is remarkably intact given the beating it's obviously taken. It will find itself in the roundhouse at some point soon for an end-to-end teardown, but it will have to work its way up through the project pile...just too many projects.

[v8vega]

Can't beat that for $10.

[healey36]

I paid more for the tender than I did for the loco. Still, it's pretty rough and it runs (poorly). It'll be an effort to get it back to form.

Did the annual cemetery tour today, sweeping up and decorating the graves of various family members along with those of a couple of long-forgotten CMOH winners nearby. On the way home we stopped by Kenilworth to check out this year's Christmas garden:



The club really outdid themselves with this iteration IMHO.

[RBH29]

A $10 locomotive? Not bad at all! I visited the Kenilworth Christmas display last year upon your recommendation and was impressed by it. I might be able to see it again on our annual trip to Maryland. I'm also planning to see the train display at Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie. Have you visited it?

[healey36]

I bought a pile of stuff from the guy, mostly some wrought-iron hardware he'd salvaged from somewhere. There were a couple of nice rings in there I want to use to make a hitching post, a couple of latch/hinge sets, one of which I need for a door in a corner cabinet I painted awhile back, and an old fireplace poker that's an upgrade from the Chinese one I've been using the last ten years or so. I added the 2036 to the pile and he took $40 for the whole thing.

Haven't been to Marley Station in years, although I have a brother that lives not too far from there (Pasadena). If I get down there before New Years, I'll have to check it out. There's a couple fire stations in the city that I'd like to visit this year which I've not been to for quite awhile, including the meet/sale at Arbutus today (which I'm gonna miss).

[gregj410]

Ugh don’t remind me. Tree looks picturesque!

Dusted off my dads pw trains this Christmas

https://youtube.com/shorts/j5r6Ib2wPic? ... MnzVEM_oBF

[RBH29]

I just found out that the Marley Station Mall Train Garden's last day is today, Monday, the 18th. WBAL 11 TV reported that the mall's new management has increased the rent from $65 to $2,500 a month. Reportedly the layout has to be gone by the first of the year. Seems rather Grinch-like of the mall management not to allow it to stay over the Holidays.

[healey36]

I just found out that the Marley Station Mall Train Garden's last day is today, Monday, the 18th. WBAL 11 TV reported that the mall's new management has increased the rent from $65 to $2,500 a month. Reportedly the layout has to be gone by the first of the year. Seems rather Grinch-like of the mall management not to allow it to stay over the Holidays.

Bummer...

I might try to get up to Glen Rock this week to have another look at their display. It doesn't change much year-over-year, but it's big and it's great seeing the kids. They used to be open on Christmas Eve until about five o'clock in the afternoon, then they'd reopen around ten and run the trains until Midnight. For years they had a big Flyer S-gauge display in there with a lot of the operating accessories; only place I ever saw the postwar RPO-car work seamlessly. The trains were from and operated by a local, and he got as much joy from running that display as all of the folks that would watch him. Sadly, after he passed away, the layout came down as it proved too much for the firemen to maintain. Had a lot of great conversations with that guy...he is missed.

[healey36]

Tree looks picturesque!

This is the look I hope to eventually emulate:

[gregj410]

Is there a tree under all those ornaments

[gregj410]

Haven't been to Marley Station in years, although I have a brother that lives not too far from there (Pasadena). If I get down there before New Years, I'll have to check it out. There's a couple fire stations in the city that I'd like to visit this year which I've not been to for quite awhile, including the meet/sale at Arbutus today (which I'm gonna miss).

Same here. The closest I would ever get to MS mall in the past years was an occasional pass through to Anne’s foot longs and I’m not sure they’re even in business anymore. How is the Arbutus meet? I’ve been kicking around going out there for some years now but still haven’t done it.

[healey36]

I haven't been to the Arbutus show for a number of years; it's not too big, but one of those venues where you just never know what might turn up. It's not unusual to find old, frequently scratch-built Christmas garden items from folks emptying out their parents' or grandparents' attic. It was on the calendar for this year but, unfortunately, I didn't make it down there as the 88 year-old stepmother required a trip to the ER that morning (a false alarm). It's back on the calendar for next year.

There used to be a show at the Earleigh Heights fire hall as well, but I don't see it on their calendar anymore. It was a TCA show, again not too big, but I had a couple friends from the Severna Park area who I'd meet down there, then go to brunch. Both have moved on; one to Ohio to live with his daughter, the other to Florida. They both sold all of their stuff and pretty much got out of the hobby.

Now Anne's Foot-Longs sounds like a great spot. It's almost impossible for me to pass up a tube-steak.

[healey36]

I just found out that the Marley Station Mall Train Garden's last day is today, Monday, the 18th. WBAL 11 TV reported that the mall's new management has increased the rent from $65 to $2,500 a month. Reportedly the layout has to be gone by the first of the year. Seems rather Grinch-like of the mall management not to allow it to stay over the Holidays.

RBH - Here's a link to the TCA e-Train article re: gardens in the Baltimore area...might be worth checking out if you're in town for a few days.

https://www.tcatrains.org/etrain/holiday-train-gardens-of-baltimore-2/

[RBH29]

Thanks, Healey! I'll try to check out at least one of them. I'm also trying to visit the John W. Brown liberty ship in Baltimore. I'm interested in it because my father got to England on one during WWII. Merry Christmas to you and everybody else!