WEEKEND PHOTOS JANUARY 2025

[robert.]

Couple things. Ever wonder how your wife manages to misplace so much of your stuff ? Mine misplaced a 1920 motorcycle headlight on me. I don’t know why she went to our garage and moved it. Sign on the door clearly reads “ no girls”
That’s not a small layout. Amazing when time moves on. Nobody needs hills switches or overpasses. Just sit back and loop run. That Hot Wheels collection sold 20g’s. I’m shocked. It sold to a artist. That repurposes items. Should be fun to see them crushed into a cube

[robert.]

Couple things. Ever wonder how your wife manages to misplace so much of your stuff ? Mine misplaced a 1920 motorcycle headlight on me. I don’t know why she went to our garage and moved it. Sign on the door clearly reads “ no girls”
That’s not a small layout. Amazing when time moves on. Nobody needs hills switches or overpasses. Just sit back and loop run. That Hot Wheels collection sold 20g’s. I’m shocked. It sold to a artist. That repurposes items. Should be fun to see them crushed into a cube

[webenda]

That said, I’ll be the first to admit I occasionally pause at the Hot Wheels/Matchbox rack at Walmart. They are just fun.

Same here. Thursday we made a run to Walmart to stock up before the snow fell Friday.
It snowed all day Friday. Here is is what it looked like this morning (4 inches of snow.)


I picked up several $1.18 MatchBox cars for the Auto-Carriers plus this neat XK140.
1956XK140MATCHBOX

[healey36]

Nobody needs hills switches or overpasses. Just sit back and loop run.

I'm with ya on that. Fire them up and let them run. There are two turnouts on one of the three loops, purely for aesthetics (I like the glow of the prewar lamps on manual turnouts).

[webenda]

The Motherlode Of Hot Wheels Cars Is For Sale

The owner will be lucky to see $3,000

That Hot Wheels collection sold 20g’s.

I was thinking it might go for $4,500 to $5,000.

"In point of fact, hardly anyone knows anything about economics"
--Ben Stein, The Capitalist Code, Chapter 1, Page 3 Copyright 2017 by Ben Stein

How right you are, Ben Stein.

[healey36]

Terrific little XK-140, Wayne...wish they'd downsize those tires a bit.

Taking down the Christmas tree and the display underneath today...took a break and gave the 290E set a few laps around the basement layout:



A nice running little set...already thinking about what to run in 2025.

[gregj410]

Nobody needs hills switches or overpasses. Just sit back and loop run.

I'm with ya on that. Fire them up and let them run. There are two turnouts on one of the three loops, purely for aesthetics (I like the glow of the prewar lamps on manual turnouts).

Well maybe hills. Couldn’t agree more. Some guy on YouTube was making a pitch to why a point to point layout is better than a loop. Maybe if it’s an automated back and forth. I believe I’d go nuts manually running it back and forth. I had a switch act up and I was inclined to just cut the wires and operate it manually over installing a new switch machine.

[ScaleCraft]

Depends. If you want roundy-rounds, fine. Most of us in 0 seem to gravitate to that.
My 0 has full loops, with branch lines....why I have a pair of powered PW 2349's with reversed QSI reversers connected back to back.
And all my 225E style conversions have functional front couplers. Big mainline lashups, single branchline and switching.
Works for me.

My #1 gauge in the backyard is point to loop to point, three turntables, printed waybills. Totally different ways of doing things.

[healey36]

I guess it depends on what you’re “modeling”, equipment or a railroad. If you’re mostly into building trains and watching them run (or, like me, fixing up old stuff and getting it back into running order), then a loop, big or small, with some nice scenery works. However, if you’re modeling a railroad and some prototypical operations, then point-to-point seems to make the most sense. I’m fortunate to be able to occasionally get together with guys that run a model railroad in a manner pretty close to the real thing, and it can be terrific fun. I’ve learned quite a bit along the way.

[ScaleCraft]

Yeah. I had to restore or modify most of my 3-rail 0.....and 2-rail 0.
All of my Lionel from 40 years are needed extensive work after a house fire. Took me instantly to the place I didn't mind modifying my stuff.

Still reworking a lot of older 0 and std 3-rail. Have a 392 on the bench right now. Bild-a-Loco Type 1 motor, drum armature and pendulum reversing unit. I have made pendulum units work well.

Axle bearings (not available) on an Ives std gauge. I can fix those. Works good.

Parts for some of this stuff is crazy, especially intermediate gear on an MTH Brass Piper. I think I was third repair person to get it, and it was a box of parts. Four months, last one in existence. Stupid design. Gears are half as wide as they should be, wears intermediate gear right out in display use.

[healey36]

What's up this weekend? Anything? Me, I'm just puttering around while (a) trying to recover from yet another bronchial infection and (b) observing the 90 year-old stepmother try to slog through recovery from a knee-replacement. Not sure what sense replacing a knee on a borderline unhealthy 90 year-old makes, but maybe a glimpse into the state of the U. S. "health-care" system as it currently exists. But I digress...

Pulled the Williams NW2 down off the shelf for a few spins around the layout mainline:



Rather ungainly looking but nice graphics, even if the WM never rostered an NW2. The real #125 was an Alco S-2. A bit too shiny to my taste...maybe an overspray of clear matte in its future.

[HONDO74]

The Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad had 2 NW-2 engines. Close enough for toy trains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_ ... a_Railroad

And NW-2 engines are appropriate for a prewar tinplate because they were made from 1939 to 1949

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ma_n_Pa_81.JPG

[healey36]

Sarge's not buying it...here's his #125, as it should be:



Alco S-2 #125, acquired new by the WM way back in May 1943. A terrific model...

[Dennis Holler]

Three rail or three rail?? LOL

And who says you can't mix tinplate and Scale stuff!

[healey36]

Nice Dennis!!

While we're pulling stuff down off the shelf, dug the kid's MTH Super Chief set (30-4021-0) out of the closet of his old room and gave that a spin:



After two decades of inactivity, the set ran like a champ. It came with baggage, vista-dome, and observation cars, but sometime along the way we added a coach and a full-dome car. The little F3 pulls all of it easily.