So what am I making room for?

I’ve received a few notes about “why” am I getting rid of stuff via the Bob’s Making Some Room giveaway on Facebook. I suspect that there is a suspicion of some sort of insider “the end is near” angle going on. Hardly.

In my re-working my layout, I’ve cut out one of three mainlines, which means there is at least one 30-car freight train that can’t be parked on the track.

I have also bought more rolling stock in 2017 than anytime in the last 10 years. While I was always good for a couple of freight cars annually, I rarely buy locomotives. I’ve bought three of those this year alone! Have I gone crazy? I’ve even bought New York Central passenger equipment (first time in maybe 15 years) and some Florida East Coast passenger gear, and I'm not really a passenger train guy. 

So something has to go to make room, and the cars that don't conform, are first up. Oh, even my British OO trains lose their layout and are going in some tubs because I need the space!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a cheap shopper. Like many of us, I’ll wait for some time to get for “my” price. Unfortunately, “my” price has been met on quite a few items lately. While many of the cars I’ve bought have been un-run, I have been searching out the best and lowest prices I can find. The lone exception is a Lionel Pacemaker double-door boxcar that is a set breakup from a modern New York Central outfit from a year or two back.

Nor represented here are the multiples of Menards NYC cars I’ve added (the dark green NYC boxcar, the light green NYC boxcar, the Pacemaker NYC boxcar, the NYC hopper, and the intermodal cars). Oh what a difference unique car numbers has on the decision to buy ...

And the bubble always bursts when my wife asks the eternal question: “Where are you going to store it?”

Beats the heck out of me!

I had never really set out to collect the American Model Toys streamline cars because of their vintage and difficulty to find at what I thought was a good price. But things are changing. I got the AMT NYC coach, dome car, and rear observation car in a single lot.

I bought a second rear observation car (left) obviously not in as nice a condition as the first (right), but I figured I’d need a first and second section for the 20th Century Limited.

I thought that the AMT cars look pretty spiffy behind a jet-powered RDC!

The 30-7332 NYC Pacemaker 3-dome tank car in red Pacemaker livery. Okay, chances are nobody every shipped gasoline or milk or oil in a three-dome tanker painted in Pacemaker red. But if they want to, on my railroad they can!

An MTH RailKing no. 30-76062 NYC Pacemaker stack car and an MTH Premier line no. 20-93132 NYC (PLE) 50-foot boxcar

MTH 20-98021 NYC S-502124 Premier line gondola with LCL containers LNL 27203 NYC double door boxcar cigar band green

MTH PL NYC (P&E) 20-93024 MTH Coll Club (1999). I sure thought I bought this car when it came out, but a rummage through the basement didn’t turn it up. Until after it arrived, of course. A Lionel no. 2955 NYC single-dome, postwar repaint (metal) as NYC car no. 9638. This was pretty neat. One of several repaints from a collection being liquidated on eBay through an estate sale. Very well executed job, and a good re-purposing of a vintage car that might not have otherwise found a home in a largely modern era fleet.

Two New York Central livery variations of the same car. The no. 17283 NYC double-door in the brown Early Bird livery. Also shown is the 27268 NYC double-door boxcar red Pacemaker scheme. This Standard O car was a set breakup piece. Both DD boxcars have automobile frame loads on the inside.

While I only paid $25 for the Early Bird car (note the original MSRP was $65), I did laugh when I saw the original price at Mizzell Trains was $45 and it had been marked down to $11.25. I was still pleased with the $25 price.