That’s what I did when the opportunity arose! Worked for 40+ years, now I play!
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It would not behoove me to retire before I’m out of high school!
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Sure it would.
And have no money?
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A lot of working stiffs have no money.
And I am happy not to be in that category!
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Oh boy. Today was not a great day. So, since I got my job, I’ve been quite busy. I did manage to buy some trains with my new-found wealth; I’ll talk about that later.
But today. So, I was driving out to my grandparent’s farm, I came over a hill too fast, went skidding off of the gravel road, and went in the ditch. In the end, the car hit a fence post. Now, before anyone starts worrying about me, I came out of the accident with literally just a scratch–a small cut on my arm. The auto was not so lucky. The fence post broke, and a chunk of it hit the windshield. Too, it was a barbed-wire fence, so the side of the car is all scratched up and the tires may be damaged. All in all, there’s potential tire damage, a lot of cosmetic damage (that could turn to rust), and a ruined windshield. Amazingly, the auto still runs “like a clock” (or maybe like old Marx stuff… 
) My grandpa helped me get it out of there, and so there was that. I’m lucky that I didn’t go off the other side of the road and run into a big telephone pole…
Still, it would not be practical to drive it in the condition it’s in, so I’m going to be shelling out some money for repairs. Luckily, it’s not a new Hyundai and hasn’t been particularly dapper-looking for some time, so aside from the rust potential I’m not worried about decorative hubcaps or the like. In other words, my train budget has probably been pretty much extirpated for at least a month if not more.
Your regularly-unscheduled model railroad ramblings shall return next week. Please excuse this interruption of life.
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Engine_1988, I’m glad to hear you weren’t injured. It’s also nice that your grandfather was close enough to help. I hope your insurance helps with the repairs – I know windshields can be expensive and so can tires. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
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Thanks!
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Okay–here’s where things are at.
I’m still waiting for news on the cost of repairs to the auto. Insurance will not, unfortunately, cover it.
Moving on to better things: TRAINS!
So, a while ago, a big order from Trainz.com finally arrived. I got a CP “Royal Switcher” for about $35…
The primary reason that I wanted one of Marx’s CPs is because I saw the real Canadian Pacific Empress when she was in Minot.
I’ve been working on putting together my own little rendition of a Final Spike Steam Tour; so far I’ve got the loco, a beat-up Marx B&O dummy that needs to be disguised as a CP FP9, and some NYC cars that also need to be mocked up in CP colors. And the reason that I’ve been referring to my model as a “Royal Switcher” is because that’s precisely what it is–an 0-4-0 (essentially a switcher wheel arrangement) with all the trimmings of a Royal Hudson. It runs pretty well, especially now that it’s got a new light bulb and some lubrication.
Moving on to another good deal: a Lionel #41.
It didn’t run when I got it, but some cleaning and lubing and now it runs quite well (but very loudly). The plan is for it to shuffle tankers at the currently-nonexistent oil refinery just south of Williston (above the grain elevator near that bracket). Now, about that work train behind it…
As you can see, I finally picked up a crane–a nice six-axle one too–to go with my old work caboose. I also got a bunk car while I was at it. I got extra lucky in that both the crane and the bunk car are in Lionel Lines colors; perfect for the Lionel & Marx Railroad!
I also got this neat coal dump car. It works pretty well.
Because of the coal dump car, I bought a remote control track–not much else to say there.
And here’s an interesting thing. For $20-something I bought this beat-up 44-tonner “as-is”. What I didn’t see in the pictures was its big secret.
Somebody removed the motor! They fabricated a bracket to hold the truck in place instead. The E-unit is still there, though.
My plan is to couple it to my 8111 NW-2 and have them work together at my big yard, and use the 44-tonner to hold electronics.
I also bought a turnout and some parts I needed, including Electrocouplers for some modifications to my NW-2.
I also got one of those cheap DC “L.A.S.E.R.” switchers, a 456 coal ramp, and the special N&W hopper. While they are visible in some of the pictures, I’ll post some proper pictures and maybe a video of the full setup later.
Finally, I purchased a junked-out K-Line signal bridge. It’s missing a lot of parts; I’ll modify it and put it in place near the exit to the Lignite yard.
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The #41 is probably the most reasonably priced and easy to get SCALE model Lionel ever offered.
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That it is–and for only $30-something, in this case! Plus, I think that it’s just plain cute. It’s not a great puller (as should be expected), but it can manage a short train and should be more than comfortable shifting tankers.
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Alrighty, here’s the promised video of the coal ramp. Or, at least, here it would be if
the Forums weren’t bugged. Oh well. Maybe I’ll do it through Youtube or something. In the meantime, here’s a photo of the switcher.
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What are your ‘camera’ settings? The default resolution on many smartphones is ridiculously high for an Internet post, and effective file size can balloon fast.
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YouTube is still better. All you need is the share link and the new forum software here does the embedding automatically.
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My camera (it is a real camera; I don’t have a smartphone) can only make videos to the card at 480p; the video is 44 MB as an .AVI. The video is just under 1:20.
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It doesn’t really matter the size or type. If you want to post a video, you have to upload it to an off-forum site like YouTube or Vimeo, and then paste a link to the forum.
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Sort of. If you look at post #11 in this thread, you can see that I did somehow upload a video. This is the only one that I’ve had sucess with. .MP4s and .AVIs are supposedly supported, but just don’t work reliably (in other words, rarely).
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True. I started a YouTube channel of my own not because I was interested in being a YouTuber but for the convenience of pasting videos to e-mails and sites like this.
It’s pretty easy to do and doesn’t cost you anything.
Here’s one I shot a few days ago just for the fun of it:
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Neat!
I already have the account; I’m just too darn lazy to actually post the video. One of these days when I have more time and I don’t want to just rewatch American Graffiti…
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