The Great Train Show...

...came to town last weekend. Looking to move into another market, it was important to attend if for no other reason than to show the organizers that there was a market to cater to. I bought a couple of trinkets...


...an HO scale AHM/Rivarossi 2-8-4 Nickel Plate Road "Berkshire", in excellent condition...and...



...this nice vintage lot containing a 1953 Mantua 0-4-0 Booster, two assembled Mantua flat cars and a 4 wheeled bobber from 1960-62, as well as an Ulrich two bay hopper from 1959. Note that they have the older Mantua hook/loop couplers that were pretty common at around that time, and that the bare zinc metal and brass looks like it hasn't seen air for most of their 50+ years of life.

I'll give more detail reviews of each as time goes on...right now, I'm enjoying a slow day at the house.

Go to a home school swap meet with your wife...

...you never know what you'll find.

Transitioning from a field man to management appears complete, I now have a pewter Mack tractor desk set. Picked up at a nearby thrift store for $2, it has all the qualities a modeler would want on a desk set. This one is about 1:64 scale...

UPDATE 6/20/11: Looks to be a model CH613, help....I can't find these anywhere....

Doughnuts...

...imagine that.

I was given two ancient HO scale freight kits by a friend. The interior bag is marked;

Doughnuts
FINCO Consumers Co-operative
Made by Co-operative Trading Assn. Inc.
Wholesale and Retail Bakers
4301 Eighth Ave.
Brooklyn, N.Y.



The lack of a zip code puts this prior to 1967 but it's obviously much older than that. Water damage is minimal, the mildew rubbed right off and that was the only affected kit. Any help finding out who made these and when would be greatly appreciated...

UPDATE: These are from the Comet line of car kits and date back to 1939...dude, that's an old HO kit. Retail price back then? 35 cents...

Oh, and yes...I should've looked at the instructions first. They told me who the manufacturer was...sigh...

The Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroad Club Open House, Oct. 23, 2010...

...in pictures...

Atlas #8700 S-2 and #8750 S-4 undecorated...

With detail differences that only the most hardcore rivet counter could find, these are among my finest runners.

Pluses...diecast frame for great pulling power, the usual flywheel and all wheel drive, nice detail. They run very well together and, surprisingly, work much better on my MRC Golden Throttlepack's full power setting than on pulse.

Minuses...no directional lighting (come on Atlas, even Model Power does it now), not easy to tear down for maintenance.

Yes, I plan to keep them looking like this...my interests are in the model, not necessarily in paint schemes. I find the undecorated gray and black of these offerings a nice contrast to the others and very easy to spot in a yard full of cars at a train show...when you're 50, you'll understand...

To my tract passin' buddy...

...I think I fixed the problem of my Chick tracts blowing away at the outdoor train shows...


Found it at Hobby Lobby on clearance...certainly beats weighing them down with a rock or a brick.

Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroad club open house, Jackson, LA, June 12, 2020...

Forgot to post these, there were 3 live steam 45mm gauge engines running and my table, on which I featured my Wilesco D10, my marine engine (running off of a compressor) and my Mamod TE1A...











The tea kettle is for preheating my water for faster steam-ups. All in all a very successful first show, I can hardly wait for Diamondhead in January...

Box lot...

What does one do when one's chores are done and you've put out your feelers (i.e. resumes/applications) for the week?

You spend a couple hours turning a box lot of parts...



...into a string of cars...



...nineteen and counting to be precise---and two locomotives. Sweet.

I have four classes of rolling stock I set up in the initial inspection of any new box lot;

RTR = Complete and ready to roll, all bits are there, may need a cleaning at best.

Rolling wounded = Complete with all axles rolling, missing minor bits and/or couplers.

Round tuits = Cannot roll, missing major parts but still salvageable, will sit for awhile 'til I get a 'round tuit.

Buzzard bait = Saved only to strip of all usable parts, then unceremoniously tossed in the trash.

Oh yeah, I can see you're edified. ;-)

Modela #3700/Russian DP-30 CO2 motors...

Picked these up at the R/C swap meet. One is a Czech made Modela model 3700, one is a Russian DP-30---as soon as I find a translator---and the third is an unknown maker. I had never heard of CO2 powered engines until Saturday and the price was way too good to pass up for an old tinkerer like me...




This is the Czech Modela #3700, new in box and complete with motor rebuild kit and CO2 charger. Both engines came with chargers that use 8 gram, rather than the more common BB gun type 12 gram, cylinders, found in most liquor stores to power drink chargers.




This is the Russian. I'm wondering from the way the manual is written if it isn't perhaps Soviet era. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: It's been pointed out that the copyright "CCCP" supports the pre-Federation Russia, making it a Soviet era item and all the more fascinating. Even the Styrofoam container is a high quality product normally reserved for only the best merchandise.


This is the unidentified model. Though it is brass sleeved, from the plastic cylinder head, I figure this one is probably a lower end model. It was a freebie (always a nice price, no matter the quality) and came with a broken expansion tube that was easily repaired by drilling out the head and re-soldering in a fresh, clean end. Because it's expansion tube is rather rumpled from use, it won't be used to power a model. I'll simply build a stand for it and use it as an operating desk piece.

UPDATE: Thanks to some help over at R/C Groups, this one has been identified as a Humbrol "Shark", from a line of Telco knockoffs from the mid 1970s.

CO2 engines are expansion engines that require a kick start in the right direction, much like most Mamod steam models. They apparently were popular free flight motors in the late '80s and early '90s until the arrival of much easier to control micro electric motors. They are still popular with purists who prefer the more realistic putter to the whine of electric motors...




Here is one in powered R/C flight...

Northwest Florida Modelers swap meet, Feb. 6, 2010...

Yes, I primarily do model trains---but---I enjoy models of all kinds, I can easily get addicted to model engines...and...I do write a modeler's blog, which kinda obligates me to visit such places...oh, the sacrifices I must make...alas...sigh...










This Proctor #701 "Antic" monoplane caught my eye, the gentleman was well on his way to the finish line, there was very little left to do on it...beautifully finished to this point and one of the better deals to be found there to boot.






With woodwork like this, I'd hang it from the ceiling to admire before I'd skin it over.



Somehow, I managed to get through there without the desire to empty my wallet and stuff my pockets full of engines, there were some nice fixer-uppers there.

I was disappointed at the lack of 4 strokers...there were at least three twins but, alas, no 5 cylinder rotary honkers I've been wanting to see. There also was a single cylinder 4 stroker there for sale at a decent price, but it was one of those closed in models---must see the monkey motion of the rockers to impress me. I did pick up a couple of facsinating engines I'll post a little later and my beloved finally found her Renwall #800:498 "The Visible Man" anatomy figure for her homeschooling work.