One of the few truly rare pieces of plastic rolling stock in HO scale, it was offered for a short time back in the late 1960s in two variants, this one with separate castings for the roof vents and another with the vents cast in. Mine has had its smoke stacks replaced and the railings have some damage but it is in pretty fair condition, fulfilling a lifelong desire to own one. There's a definite "man cave" appeal to the idea of articulated trucks on a private car...
It's fascinating to note that the real one, built in 1864 for President Lincoln, was never ridden by him until his death, many at the time believing he thought it too pretentious for someone with his simple beginnings. The car, named the "United States", was built to ride both the Northern 4' 8 1/2" gauge and the Southern 5' gauge. It was fitted more like an office with no kitchen or sleeping area and was not suited for long distance travel.
Shortly after the funeral, it was sold to the Union Pacific RR. for about $8,000. 8 years later it was sold to the Colorado Central for $3,000 and used as a day coach. It slowly was downgraded to a work car until the 1890s, when it changed hands several times, finally ending up in the care of former SOO Line president, Thomas Lowery, who restored it to its former glory. In 1911, a nearby Minnesota grass fire burned it to the ground. I know of no items left from it on display anywhere.
As venerated as he was at the time, you'd of thought better care would have been taken to preserve it.
Found by a true brother in the Lord while out flea marketing. Original retail price back in the 1950s...$5.95.
If you have one true friend in the Lord you are truly blessed, and gestures like this aren't about the thing so much as they are a physical reminder that God has given you someone at your back. You would do well to honestly access whether you have one or not and...if not, why not?
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.---(Pro 27:6)
...for those of us who don't take our modeling too seriously. Walther's offered these kits initially to be a introduction course to building their more difficult heavyweight car kits. It wasn't long before they popped up everywhere...much like the Athearn Hustler, to be a model railroader meant owning one of these...
They featured full interior detail made from bits of wood and printed paper, and had a lot more charm than their ready-to-run counterparts that came much later. I picked these up in a box lot and look forward to giving them a full restore this football season.
I received a formal offer on the job I've been posting about lately...salaried positions being a new thing to me, I never knew they had to be formally offered. A true Joseph moment, I've gone from being under 3 managers to supervising over 150 people, half of them managers themselves.
DUDE!!!!...I can't believe I'm shopping for a briefcase...
A company car is included...an Accord or Civic most likely, not a private railroad car or limo...sigh...but hey, they pay for the gas and the upkeep.
I wonder how fast an Accord goes on the Interstate?
I suspect they'd take a dim view of me having runners go ahead of my chariot shouting, "Bow the knee, bow the knee...!"
I wonder what an $8 cup of coffee tastes like...and just what is a triple latte mocha with a shot of caramel anyway?
...a neat find in that box lot I picked up last week.
No one really knows what the "C&FW" stood for, though it's interesting to note that the show's engineers were named Charley, Floyd and later Wendell. These were part of a 3 car set with a TYCO "Dixie Belle" Ten-Wheeler...
Picked up with its original box in the used bin at the LHS on Christmas Eve, while helping my brother-in-law get acquainted with the hobby. I may post a better picture later...but, this seems so appropriate...somewhat blurred, with one set of wheels off track...kinda like the holidays went around these parts...
One of those "Right place, right time" moments as these, along with a large number of other vintage Marklin cars, locomotives and accessories, were bound for the trash when they were offered to me...
They were wrapped in newsprint dating to just after Christmas 1956. Because the paper showed no sign of frequent use, it's safe to assume that these rarely, if ever, saw the light of day after that Christmas.
This year I'll be taking the regular layout around to several locations that include at least one children's ward and one nursing home. I'll be setting up my LGB 0-4-0 Stainz locomotive and two coaches around my own tree this year.
This will give me an opportunity to place my mother's handmade ceramic houses under the tree to be enjoyed. She's also made an exceptional ceramic Santa collection, I'll have to see if there is room for those as well.
...picked up from a box of castoffs at a local train museum.
Restaurant Car
Salon Pullman
First Class Pullman, one of two
Express Baggage
I am ever mindful of my mortality and endeavor to 1. Keep my hobby simple and inexpensive and 2. Keep my beloved informed of the value and how to properly dispose of what models I have.
How these (and many others from that box) went from one modeler's collection to mine is simple really. No doubt, the original owner fell ill or died several years earlier. Family members then tore down the layout and boxed it up, probably intending to sell them once they knew what they had. Days turned into weeks, then months, then years, all the while the boxes gather dust and other flora and fauna out in the drafty old shed out back. Mom then passes away and the family is left to clear out the house, garage and shed so that they can settle the estate among them. The boxes are found, now not worth much to them so they pass them on to the local museum for a tax write-off. Local museum has no idea what to do with them so they set the boxes out for any and all passersby to pick and choose what they'd like. Few pieces actually go anywhere because they are mostly "old toy junk" and "European stuff" until I came along.
It is a sad story I see too many times. Please, please let your family in the loop. Make sure they know what you have and how much it's worth. Do not depend on local train clubs and other modelers to help you through. At best, too often they are well meaning and ill informed, at worst you will generate a flock of buzzards looking to pick you clean at any estate auction. Even better, pare down to the essentials (if such a word could rightly be used of a hobby) and enjoy it on a smaller scale. Contrary to the popular bumper sticker, the truth is---He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
...in the 65' "Shortie" version, a compromise designed for the tight curves of smaller N scale layouts. The NYC never owned vista domes, the tunnels on eastern roads were mostly built in the early to late 1800s, making them too low for over height cars like these. Now that major upgrade work to the tunnels has been done because of the advent of double stack container trains, these could conceivably be run by Amtrak but, I wouldn't hold my breath.
...the very thought of finding it on a vintage piece can stop a collector's heart. It came my way a couple weeks ago on this very nice Marklin 346/1 HO scale tinplate coach, a reminder of the first law of thermodynamics, entropy---matter tends to go from order to disorder. More on zinc pest can be found here and here.
Though these pieces were given to me, it is a constant reminder that my home and my treasure is not and should never be here.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
...gifts from a friend. I just love European equipment of all sorts, the pizza cutter flanges are second to none and a quick reminder to rivet counters that I don't take my hobby too seriously.
One of the blessings of this hobby in the computer age is the friendships you can develop with folks from around the country.
This little combination is the work of Ray over at one of my regular online haunts. The business car is a custom build he made for me as part of a car swap we had going in the forum. It sports my online name and looks and tracks pretty sharp. The Mantua shifter was one of the first locomotives I ever owned when I really got into the hobby in 1974. It was lost to time over the years and I really wanted to find one to place in my nostalgia yard. When Ray needed a particular locomotive and I had one to send him, he asked what I would like in return. I said, "Surprise me." He did.
My little piece of railroad history, I painted it to represent an interesting chapter in railroading, the chapel car. While a little modern for its use, chapel cars being banned by the AAR by World War I, I couldn't resist having a fire and brimstone slingin' LPB with his Bible (KJV of course) bring the Gospel of salvation through Christ alone to all my plastic populace. The decals were custom made for me by Tyson Rayles over at 2 Guys. The car number represents the month and year of my conversion, in an Army pup tent while on weekend maneuvers.
The support car is the work of another long deceased modeler that came my way while cleaning out the dilapidated shed the railroad used to reside in. I left it as found, adding Kadee couplers and pleated diaphragms for compatibility with my other equipment. It is in remarkable shape for having spent six years in a fallen down shed exposed to the weather.
Apparently AHM had Penn Line for a bit before Bowser picked them up in '63. First made by Varney in the '50s, then Penn Line, they were released under the Life-Like "Scene Masters" series in the 1980s. Very little had changed on them over the years. Life-Like did retool the truck molds and cast them in Delrin plastic.
These were $2 for the pair at a swap meet. They came with their original boxes though one was missing its trucks and couplers. There was also one complete original lighting kit included. It appears that it was part of the kit and not an aftermarket item. I installed a pair of Central Valley trucks in place of the missing set and body mounted Kadee #5 couplers. Now they will join my Life-Like variations that wear NYC and Pennsy colors.
When I was a member of a club, I ran Thomas often at train shows and open houses, to the delight of children and their parents. I well remember the squeals of a little girl as she came into one of our open houses. When her eyes fell on Thomas across the layout, she called out, "Thomas, Thomas, look Mama...", as she ran across the room. Just as she got up to him, Thomas' eyes moved towards her and she squealed, "Mama, Mama, he looked at me, Thomas is real, he's real!!" Moments like that made him worth every penny and there were plenty of those moments to cherish.
Then there was a meeting. Apparently one of the members had objected to Thomas running through their expensive and hard built scenery and so a vote had to be brought up. Though they were never named, it was clear from the agitated stance who it was, a modeler whose work I liked and looked to for inspiration. Not wanting a war to break out over something I thought trivial, I offered not to run the locomotive any longer. But, the die was cast, the issue had to be properly resolved and, by an overwhelming majority, Thomas was voted to stay.
Sadly, the friendship I had with the modeler involved, did not survive the debate. They chose to carry the resentment on, even though I never ran Thomas again. When I heard news of his death a few months later, I was deeply saddened at the thought of carrying such a chip on one's shoulder into eternity over something so utterly pointless. Now more than ever I remember that this is just a hobby, a mindless platform that God has blessed me with and to use to reach others. One day it will all burn, a thousand years from now it will be a distant, fading memory of a temporal life, as we live forever in His presence---or apart from it. Never forget that.
Just a Believer who happens to model trains on a very tight budget, providing a place to showcase my own model work as well as the work of others, regardless of type. Considerations for posting are always welcome. Please check out the modeling links I've put together as well...
Less than God could not have borne your sin so as to put it away; but the infinitely glorious Son of God did actually stoop to become a sin-bearer. I wonder how I can talk of it as I do.
It is a truth scarcely to be declared in words. It wants flame and blood and tears with which to tell this story of an offended God, the Heaven-Maker and the Earth-Creator, stooping from his glory that he might save the reptiles which had dared to insult his honor and to rebel against his glory; and, becoming one of them, to suffer for them, that without violation of his law he might have pity upon the offending things — things so inconsiderable that if he had stamped them all out, as men burn a nest of wasps, there had been no loss to the universe. But he had pity on them, and became one of them, and bare their sins. Oh, love ye him; adore ye him; let your souls climb up to the right hand of the majesty above, this morning, and there bow down in lowliest reverence and adoring affection, that he, the God over all, whom you had offended, should his own self bear our sins.
Though thus God over all, he became a man like unto ourselves; a body was prepared for him, and that body, mark you, not prepared alone, and made like to man but not of man. No, he was not otherwise fashioned than ourselves, he came into the world as we also come, born of a woman, a child of a mother, to hang upon a woman’s breast; not merely like to man, but man, born in the pedigree of manhood, and so bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, yet without a taint of sin. And he, in that double nature but united person, was Jesus, Son of God and Son of the Virgin; he it was who “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Death For Sin, And Death To Sin," delivered November 16, 1873.
Men, protect your daughters....
“Picture this: Some 17 year old snot nosed punk comes over to take out your daughter, and you say, 'No you aren't worthy of her.' (Immediately everyone is up in arms over your 'judgmental' and 'harsh' position, and for 'breaking your daughter’s heart.') Ok, so let's put it another way now: You have a beautiful, brand new $200,000 Ferrari Testarossa in front of your house, and a snot nosed 17 year old punk comes over to take it for a spin. Would you hand him the keys? See, what your problem is, is that you value a car more than your daughter. Men, protect your daughters!”
My sole purpose for this blog is to lift up the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified on a no nonsense, no ad platform showcasing my work and the work of other modelers, and to practice my hobby with the world behind me, the Cross before me and Kingdom of God in sight. All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible as I have found on my own that there is none more faithful to the original languages. Unless otherwise noted, all text and photographs are mine. Old ads and product reviews are respectfully posted in good faith that any copyright privileges are not being infringed upon, with no intent to profit or disparage in any way and will be removed upon request of their respective holders.
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