What was actually involved…
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I’m hoping that if I’m lucky I can pick up a GE Genesis, but obviously those have a hefty price tag on them. Maybe I’ll find a junked one that I can repower. This is supposed to be a modern railroad, after all, and, while the L&M doesn’t care about the age of locomotives, Amtrak does. So I figure that Amtrak ought to have a newer locomotive. I decided that, for the meantime, I’ll tack it onto my Bicentennial set and just say that they do an exchange like so. You see, there’s not one but three different groups doing passenger service on the Subdivision–Amtrak, which runs that single car up and down the line once a day to connect with the Empire Builder, the Wren Song Railroad, which has a tourist operation, and the L&M itself. There’s also the trolley company in Menardsville, but that doesn’t count. Still, if an Amtrak F3 or FA-2 comes my way for a good enough price, I might as well buy it. And a low-priced Preamble Express would also be pretty neat, and I think that it would pair a little bit better with my Bicentennial cars.
Lionel has Semiquincentennial stuff out now? typing in another tab EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
At this point I can (sort of) mentally block out the E-unit sound, but it is kind of obnoxious. Maybe I can stick a rectifier inside there and quiet it down.
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You might want to look into the Williams locos. They’re tough as nails and usually less expensive than either Lionel or MTH.
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I concur 100%! Williams locomotives are still around in pretty good quantity and with little to no collector interest the prices are VERY reasonable, much less than you’d shell out for a Lionel or MTH product.
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I have seen a few Williams locos of a suitable sort around, but now that I have a little money in my wallet they have all disappeared. It’s just a matter of waiting.
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Trust me, in this hobby patience is truly a virtue! It took me ten years to get my MTH Rail King Blue Comet set. When they were around I didn’t have the money, when I had the money they weren’t around! Finally the stars aligned!
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That is the perpetual dilemma of searching for trains!
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I did some looking, trainz.com has a Genesis for sale.
Click on trainz.com, select “More Brands”, select Williams, select “Trains”, select “Diesel Locomotives”, for pricing select “Personalized For Me-Lowest”, scroll down to see it. It’s priced around $128.
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That’s not bad; I may have to keep an eye on it. That’s kind of how I search for stuff, except I usually just select diesels and then of course do low to high price.
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Glad I brought it to your attention!
Williams locomotives are darn near bulletproof, the only negative thing I can say about them is the twin-motored ones tend to take off like rockets when you put the power to them BUT it’s an easy fix. Wire the motors in series and it tames them right down. Great runners then!
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Vintage 2400 types, nice! And with the old “Headless Arrow!”
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I have to agree. My experience has been with that Dash 8 of mine, which I’m pretty certain has been abused quite badly. However, even with all the issues (the truck side frames falling apart, random loose wires, and mysterious derailments), I have to love it.
I’ve always heard it as the “Pointless Arrow”, which, to me, seems a little bit more impolite to Amtrak. Still, those are spiffy cars.
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I thought about it and you’re right, it’s the “Pointless Arrow.”
I remembered the late Curtis Katz, railfan, cartoonist, and Amtrak employee had a column in “Railfan & Railroad” magazine called “Tales Of The Pointless Arrow” in addition to his “Railfun” comic strip.
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That must have been an interesting column to read. I never have had a subscription to Railfan & Railroad (I bet Firecrown’s happy to hear that), but I did pick up a magazine or two somewhere or other and rather enjoyed the Railfun strips in them.
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Long time no post, huh? Guess I better wake up my old thread!
So, in the time gone by, I have purchased some stuff.
Firstly, there’s this neat DC power pack, which was part of a $35 lot. It doesn’t work, but it appears that someone rewired it without bothering to find out what a wire is, and so I can probably put it back the way it should be.
Then there’s this very nice American Flyer transformer. It was like $17, untested, but it works very well! Only issue is that I will have to replace the plug, but that’s all. That screw is there because it was missing the extension handle, and I’ll be 3D printing a new one.
Then there’s this Marx DC power pack. It acts a little hinky; I’ll have to open it up and take a closer look. But it’s likely nothing I can’t rejigger! It was the other half of the $35 lot.
Then there’s this Amtrak FA-2 I found to pull my Amtrak train. It was fairly inexpensive for a can-motored loco, but that’s because it was missing a gear on one truck (it runs fine otherwise). I’ll probably 3D print a new gear.
Then this is the trolley I got way back before Christmas and only just now remembered to photograph.
And then we come to the big thing I bought: the Menards BN FP-7 A-A set! Yes, I’ve got the other locomotive, it just wasn’t in a good spot for a picture.
In my opinion, they definitely improved on the original–which was quite good to begin with. Mostly in the realm of sound effects.
And then there’s this enormous 250-watt American Flyer transformer. It cost just over $20, untested. As it turns out, it worked, but needed a new cord (which I installed). The bakelite terminal panel on the back is broken… not sure which way I want to go in fixing that.
And I picked up this nice K-Line Alco S-2 switcher. I’ve been wanting to get one of the Marx/K-Line/RMT Alco switchers for a while, and here was one at a decent price!
You may recall that, not long ago, I picked up a Marx-Tronic switcher for $10. Well, at Trainz.com, I found the whole train set for (I think) $25 or $30. It had everything (even the box) except the loco. So it was perfect! The track did have some broken bits, but nothing I can’t fix with a little glue and a little PLA filament… And then, for some bizarre reason, it also came with this Durham clockwork loco. Didn’t really need it, but I’m not gonna say no! As you can see, the label has come off, and it’s not in very good condition cosmetically otherwise. However, the handrails are actually quite lucky–while they are broken (as is, apparently, common with these), they’re hanging on by a “plastic thread”. I might be able to salvage them with some good plastic cement, or maybe E6000. Of course, even if I wasn’t looking for it, now that I have it, I’m gonna do everything in my power to make it nice. The clockwork motor does, in fact work, but (as is apparently also common with these) the motor cover catches on the third rail. Of course, there’s no way I would’ve been able to recognize the loco if I hadn’t have had read this most interesting thread by JamesP…
Then there’s this nice Reading operating hopper I got–I think that it was close to $20. Although I’m showing it here on the coal ramp, it doesn’t actually work on the coal ramp. But that’s fine; I only need one hopper there anyway. It does have very nice sprung trucks… that are very free rolling. So free rolling, in fact, that a small shove from my new Alco S-2 will send it rolling freely down the line… and down the helix… and into a piece of junk set on the helix. The car itself is fine, but I had to pick up a lot of coal.
I also got six of these Menards tankers. They’re probably the only cars on the whole railroad that actually fit the theme completely, with the exception of my big SOO Line hopper.
You may recall a while back that I managed to obtain a American Flyer 18B for $20 that would have worked if Fedex hadn’t smashed it. As you can see, I managed to (messily) epoxy it back together–and it works! I believe I had mentioned my plan to use my Lionel Type VW for my test track, however, the 18B had better voltage characteristics. Also, notice the ammeter (above the drill, it’s the little clear box)? That’s a DC ammeter that I made work with AC by way of a rectifier. If anyone wants to know how to do so, just connect the ammeter across the DC terminals of the rectifier and then connect the AC terminals of the rectifier in series with the track. Since this drops the voltage a little, I wanted to use the 18B, which puts out like 19.5v, whereas the VW puts out more like 17.5v. While on the actual layout a nice voltage of 16.5v is best, on the test track I’d rather have 18v–which the 18B accommodates nicely after the 1.5v or so voltage drop of the rectifier. As for the whistle control, I’ve got a plan for that too. But since the 18B has an on-off switch built in, it’s perfect for the test track, because I can leave it plugged in all the time and just switch it off at, well, the switch.
Some of you may know that I have been working at the abbey to help disassemble BroadwayLion’s impressive subway layout–a sad task, but it does have to be done. Anyway, he had quite a few subway stations that were scratchbuilt and lighted. There was not much hope of selling them (and most of them could not be removed from the layout intact), however, the monks said that I could have the individual components–which meant that I was able to have the lighted roofs and the like. Now, since I neither model HO nor subways, I couldn’t turn them back into stations–but I could mount the light bars to the bottom of my layout’s decks, so as to light up the layout more. So far, one has been installed, and more will be done soon, though none are actually wired up at the moment–that’ll come later. I would have rathered that the stations could be used, intact, on a layout, but at least this means that BroadwayLion’s work won’t go entirely to waste.
But long term, I’ll have more of the lights mounted, thus illuminating the dark portions of the layout. I’ve got a few ideas for power supplies–if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to scrounge up a PC power supply inexpensively.
And, saving the best for last, due to the generosity of Kim, I now have this (partially disassembled; I was in the middle of working on it) HO F7… once I obtain the necessary replacement parts, it’ll likely be running–even now, the motor runs quite well!
And, in the same line, there is this M&St.L caboose, which, as you can see, could use some new trucks. I did manage to obtain a whole box of trucks on Ebay, though all that I had really been after were the leading and trailing trucks for a steamer. Yet the lot included a ton of other trucks. I’ll have to see if I can make any of them work to replace the broken ones on the caboose.
And, also in the same category, there’s this American Flyer transformer. It’s a 75-watter, which is a decent rating, but it is also rather puzzlesome to me. You see, none of the terminals seem to do what they’re labelled as doing, and the throttle works backwards of how it’s supposed to! Well, actually, that could just be because I might be using the 16V constant terminal as base instead of the actual base terminal. Otherwise, though, it puts out the voltages it’s supposed to–if you know what terminals to use… Either way, some investigation is needed, as is a new cord–or at least a new plug. The old plug is pretty badly cracked. But once that’s out of the way and I’ve solved the Terminal Mysteries, it’ll be another handy little transformer! Also from Kim was a landscaping transformer–a small one, but those are incredibly handy!
Such have been the goings-on at the Lignite Subdivision.
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Thanks for the update. Ill have to have you give me a lesson on how to find your old posts, i know i started many and wouldn’t mind updating them. The search function here just doesn’t do that good of a job at narrowing things down a small enough list to find the original message to a thread i started.
It is really nice to see those old items back out of a box for the first time in 20 or more years and being enjoyed by someone again. It warms a persons heart to know that something once so cherished by a past loved one who passed is now loved again. My wife who has been busy making bits and bites will be really happy to see those pictures when she gets home late today.
Hopefully you have had some success with the local government in aquiring a new charter for a subdivision. 
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There are ways of using the advanced search to find specific threads, but, in my experience, chances are it leads you to a thread about Jim’s Burger World or the like–when one is not looking for threads about Jim’s Burger World. However, the My Posts button in the top left corner will allow you to get to a menu letting you further select to look at read threads, posts you made, and replies you’ve made, and even unfinished drafts.
And it warms my heart to see that you’re happy about it!
Well… not yet, but I have had success in getting a grant for a new industrial facility. That is, I was able to get some space to set up my resin 3D printer!
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Well, I managed to get the Marnold/LPC power pack working–a brass contact was out of adjustment. For that matter, I also opened up the Marx power pack… seems like the only issue there was dirty contacts; it works fine now. And I replaced the plug on that 100-watt American Flyer transformer.