I made a run up to Sarge’s place yesterday, a glorious cool spring day, one in a string we’ve been enjoying of late. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it, having run the BMW down to near empty and petrol having run scarce in the last few days. Efforts to procure a fill of hi-test had come up empty the day before, but I decided to roll the dice and head off, hopeful I’d find at least a few gallons somewhere along the way. A few miles this side of the Mason-Dixon I hit paydirt, filling up at a small Shell outlet…$4.069/gallon, but I was glad to get it.
I had a 3-rail Weaver model of a Reading covered-hopper to drop off for Sarge, figuring he could easily convert it to 2-rail, grunge it up a bit, then use it on the layout in one of his scenarios. Why I had this, I’m not sure, as it certainly doesn’t fit with the 99% prewar tinplate content here. Best sent to a good home where it’ll see some sunlight.
Rufus had mentioned he was leaving me something at Sarge’s on his most recent pass-through a week or so ago, giving no hints. I was expecting a few detail parts or other odds-n-ends, but what I found was this:
Wow, how bloody extraordinary is that? Just fantastic. Loosely based on Jack Kett’s clothing store from a vintage copy of
Toy Trains magazine, but in true model form. If I had one tenth of the skill and ingenuity required to produce something like this, I’d attempt it and send something back in return, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t. We’ll have to work something out. In the meantime, I’ll envision The Old Man, an avid pipe-smoker, in there trying to run down a pouch of Edgeworth.
Thanks, Martin. Pretty damn cool.
Paul