One of my coworkers figured out I’m into trains (could be my Windows desktop wallpaper of the NS Reading Heritage SD70ACe) so brought in some stuff for me.
A Lionel 400-6 RDC
An AHM FM C-Liner in Conrail
A Life-Like train set F9 in Conrail
and a Tyco F9 in UP.
No idea what I am going to do with such things. The two F units both have cracked WHEELS on the power truck. Never saw that before.
–Randy
It’s the thought that counts. Set up a roundhouse or engine terminal scene, photograph it and make that your screensaveer for a while.
Sounds like a thoughtful gesture.
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I really like the previous suggestion.
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-Kevin
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Great idea and guaranteed to make your co-worker feel appreciated. After that, maybe dumify them and practice your weathering? I’ve worked with quite a few life-likes and Tyco locos and while I’ve seen cracked gears, I’ve never seen cracked wheels either.
The Lionel RDC is a nice gift. If it’s running (even if it’s not) it’s probably got some value. A great shiny shelf item at the least or a very good candidate for a round-the-christmas-tree train.
I’ve never figured out how to react when someone outside the hobby thinks I’m playing with toy trains. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “My uncle has boxes full of old Lionel trains in his attic” or something similar.
I remember years back in my bowling league one guy on the other team was talking about a friend of his. “His teenage son has a big model train layout set up in their basement, with cities and tunnels and bridges and the whole deal. It’s really pretty cool.” I was just about to chime in about being a model railroader myself when he added “course his son’s retarded so it kinda makes sense he’d still be into that stuff”.
[:S]
That just burns me up. No wonder I’m pretty much the sole financer of my hobby…
The hobby has a hard enough time sorting out the scale model/toy distinction to expect outsiders to grasp it, and any attempt you make to explain is going to sound geekier by the minute to them.
When people ask me about the value of uncle or grandpa’s Lionel or Flyer stuff I try my best to be helpful. I do have a general notion of what is pre 1970, pre-1960, and pre WWII. The finer points of what Lionel 6464 boxcar was sold only at Sears in 1955 and thus is very rare, is beyond me. But I also do know a few dealers and individuals who do know and are in a position to make an offer.
When somebody offers to give me a box of train stuff which looks like mostly junk I say “thank you” and take it. Sometimes there can be one gem in such a box, especially if the original source was in the hobby a long time. Sometimes, nope it’s all junk. If I decide to throw it away at least an informed person made that decision. We’ve all heard the horror stories about what trains (or worse yet, Kodachrome train slides from the 1950s) the families threw away.
Being known as a “train guy” can have its advantages. One day at work a fellow worker came in and gave me a big envelope - filled with railroad passes from the 1895 to 1910 era, from several railroads. Someone in his wife’s family had worked for the railroad back then. They had been saved but nobody in the family cared anymore, so it was me or the trash bin.
Dave Nelson
I got the MTH Rugged Rails equipment I set up for the grandson from a co-worker.
Lots of track, cars and an F40ph.
Mike.
Since my large scale Thomas no longer runs well, I could probably pick up a loop of Lionel FasTrack for around the office tree and run the RDC there. It’s in kind of sad shape, body is all dinged up and decals are missing, and the entire horn assembly is gone - probably yhe D batteyr leaked and destroyed a good bit of it. Otherwise it’s nearly impossible to kill these old Lionels, so I am sure I can make it run.
This sort of went down the same way Carl mentioned, coworker one day entioned “hey, I have a bunch of old trains”.
–Randy
I’m connected to several RR operating and history groups. When people ask, I compare it to Civil War re-enactors (except only one of us gets ever costumed up). History, research etc. By that time, their eyes have usually glazed over and it’s time for another beer.
Well, I dunno about the Conrail paint and lettering, but I re-worked this AHM C-Liner into a reasonable facsimile of its prototype for a friend…
I put the re-worked shell on the chassis of a Stewart Baldwin AS-16, and installed C-Liner sideframes from Detail Associates. It’s not only a decent runner, but looks good even with the very nicely-done C-Liners from Proto, which my friend acquired later.
Wayne
Despite AHM offering it in Reading (in the second gen scheme of green and yellow!), no C-Liners ran on the rails around here. So while I COULD paint it for some other road (and definitely would need to repower it with a new chassis), I really don’t have a place for it with the local railroads. I guess if I set up a PRR interchange… Or NYC, then I could put an EMD 567 sound decoder in them - by my era, the CFA-20-A’s on the NYC were remotored with EMD prime movers.
Way out there project, for sure…
–Randy
Might be crossing forum boundaries, but I would have leveled that guy before he finished “makes sense…” I have a nephew who is mentally challenged. He is not "retarded’. In fact he is brilliant in his own every day way. The moron who made that statement is the one who is retarded. Sorry to rant, but that crap pisses me off.
I was trying to add a quote from a previous reply, but the quote didn’t stick (my error). Drill up a few responses for context. My apologies.
Kudos, Drum Guy! Also not to hijack the thread, but the “r” word is as derogatory as any racial or other discriminatory label. I am foster dad to a severely disabled sweet daughter, and if I ever heard someone call her that, or any other similarly challenged person, there WILL be a pointed verbal confrontation.
On topic, Someone gave me a box of train set junk too, including (I think) one of those C-Liners in Conrail paint. It’s tucked away safely but I’ll probably never use it. Are they kinda rare? Dan
Edited in: I took a look, it is a C-liner, but with hokey Blomberg dummy trucks, and only one left at that.[:(]
When I was working in a warehouse as a forklift operator my checker said her father had lots of Lionel train in a closet and he gave them to my husband and now our former guest bedroom contains a 4x8’ Lionel layout. Here comes the catch… We enjoy the layout as a family and talking about extening it.
Needless to say I was surprise…I never thought her to be much into any hobby since she loved watching old movies from the 30-50s…
So, you get angry when the word “retarded” is used because of you’re nephew, but yet, it’s ok for you to call someone else that AND you also called him a moron.
Got it!
I’ve seen a few cars that had cracked wheels. The cracking seems to occur as a result of the plastic wheels being pressed onto metal axles, and over time, the crack spreads out from the center of the wheel out to the treads.