Its all beginning to wrap up now, the CPI (Coffee Pot Interchange). This was the "brain child" of Fife, he initiated the idea of getting 12 guys to participate in a scheduled exchange of rolling stock among the participants. Fife in turn developed a schedule to minimize where ever possible the distance between the participants. Then on a monthly basis each person would send the car to the "next" person on the list. While the car was at the various locations, pictures would be taken and posted on the CTT Sunday Photo Fun thread.
The whole thing has been very enjoyable, seeing my car on the various layouts and to think the distance it has traveled. Additionally receiving on a monthly basis a "new" car in the mail to run on my layout. Then just about when I was accustomed to seeing the car around, and looking for the ideal shelf location for it, Off it would go. Can't beat that! Having the excitement of a "new" piece of equipment, and it not costing anything, other than postage? Really great! THANKS FIFE, for a job well done! And, I also appreciate the involvement from: Bruce Pfeifer, John Fullerton, Brent Leister, Frank Eagles, Rich Mastriano, James Sturgeon, Frank O'hare, Wes Whitmore, Kurt Polak, Doug Murphy, and Jon Englehardt. It was fun guys !
The CPI exchange was; Coast to Coast and included 7 states, for a total of 7016 miles! (Just imagine how rare and valuable that makes these cars on ebay!!)
I thought it would be really cool to have some kinda document that recorded the trip and we came up with a "Way Bill", which similar to a "Car Card" recorded the specific route that each car would take, and an Arrival/Departure indication, along with the mileage and initials of the participant.
And we had to have a "Certificate of Travel", especially if we needed to prove the authenticity.
And FINALLY, since most of us have had to suffer through an onslaught of GRITS, it seemed appropriate that some "California Tofu" (which is a Grits neutralizer), be included with each car.
Since the exchange is drawing to a close, I thought what I would do is post one picture of each of the cars I received and any relevant comments to that particular car/story line.
1. Fifes Car. Since Fife is involved with law enforcement, AND California at the time was haggling over a "budget", the story line just fell into place. Bootlegging, it was obvious!
2. John Fullertons Car. This was probably the highest quality car I saw, it was a Weaver. John and his wife had made a trip to Ca., and I wanted to ensure it include some pictures of AGHR, the Desert, and Harbor areas. The story just kept growing and growing.
3. Brents Car. This one was obvious, especially since I had previously worked for Wonder Bread/Hostess Cake. It was one of the more challenging, trying to keep control of the creame so it would not leave any oily residue.
4. Chiefs Car. It actually DID have a problem with one of the trucks. I have the same set, definetly was not one of MPC's better moments. I was a little surprised I didn't get more comments regarding the Ohio State outline, and Flag were adorning the car. (That took a LOT of work.) I did try and secure the truck better, hope it made it home. Well deserved of the name, "Carolina Cripple".
5. Rich's Car. Now WHAT do you do with a tank car? Especially when it has Slurry written on it. So the story line was developed for repair.
6. Jim's Car. I have a few AF, and have always thought they were well done. As it was close to Memorial Day, a celebration was in order. Decorating not just the car but the engine, and the town took awhile. (I'm still finding confeti on the track.) The whole family got into decorating and preparation for the photos.
7. Buckeyes Car. There had been an image that was in CTT with some guys walking along some tracks, and boy the uproar that that brought on. (Everyone was saying the same thing just slightly different, anyway we all know how dangerous rails can be, but we have to be responsible for our own actions too.) So I couldn't help it, the car just HAD to run over a few people. (Black Comedy?) It was easy to pose, especially I just had amputated a lot of persons for passengers.
8. Wes's Hopper. Definetly required a theme along with some kind of load..... The State budget issue here wasn't getting any better, and with the significant shortfall, a gold shipment seemed in order. The mock gold is actually unpopped popcorn. Made one heck of mess with the coal loader, throwing popcorn everywhere! I spent awhile with Photoshop adjusting the texture and coloring the corn. The story just rambled itself out while looking at the pictures.
9. Kurt's car was definitely one of the more attractive ones. And it arrived here amidst the fires that was going on. So was trying to see what I could do with the fire affect. The real challenge was trying to distort the car, and maintaining the distortion from picture to picture. Writing in flames was down with a little download I had found.
10. Dougs car lended itself to many, many tales. But, with Dougs involvement with Thomas the Tank Engine for his son. I just HAD to do something along those lines. Especially since I had gone through the same thing with my son. (I think we have 40 or 50 of the die-cast pieces that were originally brought here from GB. (Doug they were then being distributed by a company in Rockford.)
11. THE John Deere car! I have been really looking forward to that car, especially since we have a whole shelf of JD equipment. (Originally purchased by my parents for my son.) I had planned on a "Land of the Giants" type story, but could come up with a facility for "modification", AND didn't want the big tractors to take away from the focal point of the train car. The story line just materialized and the characters were the fun part.
All in All I really enjoyed it! I know I have learned a lot about Photo Shop as a result. And, I have signed up for class for Digital Cameras and Photo Elements 8.
BEEN AN ENJOYABLE EXERCISE !!!! THANKS !!!!
Don
Good summary. Fills me in on what I had missed prior to the Suzie Q adventure.
To be sure, there's a future article brewing.
It has been a fun project. It was very important to me to get dbaker in the fold, as I wanted a coast-to-coast theme. He jumped aboard with both feet and gave us some of the funniest storylines. Thank you, Don.
The bigggest reward has been the fellowship, hands down.
The car exchange was a lot of fun. I looked forward to seeing a car come each month. It was great seeing your own car on other’s layouts. I appreciated the imagination that the other guys put into using my car, as it was the only S gauge in the lot and would not “fit” their layouts without some imagination. It was also neat to see the guy’s cars. I had not really looked at other scale cars with any more than a passing look before. That was very interesting.
As already stated, the exchange also cemented a bond that developed from interacting on the Pot. My humble gon now proudly has a place of honor on my shelf, and I look at the card with the names of the participant’s and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face.
Thanks to all who participated.
Jim
As one who participated vicariously I want to thank all of you who participated in the exchange. It has been fun to read the stories and see the layouts that each of you have. It has been nice to have a common theme among a number of the threads from the Coffee Pot to Sunday Photo Fun to random posting of photos in other threads. This project has indeed helped to make a bond here, even among those of us who are lurkers.
I hope something like this will be repeated.
Again Thanks to all of you for all of your work to provide entertainment and make this site feel friendly.
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Was fun. Got to drag at the end. In fact my car is still not back but not due yet. Thanks to Fifey, this was a good project.
NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS. Mr. Baker was sworn to secrecy. THERE ARE GRITS IN EVERY CAR THAT LEFT ROSEYVILLE.
The black sticky W/S ribon has been stuck in the interior, frame or trucks [some all] of all the cars that left Roseyville. Imbeded in the black sticky stuff are grits. You have been "GRITTED".
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
I guess all the Yanks went into shock being "gritted". No replies.
fifedog Mornin' boys. Mornin' English. And today's Mid-Atlantic region weather ---> Only thing I picked up yesterday was an MTH dwarf signal (stop it B!). and our own DennisB1's new paperback - REALISTIC MODELING FOR TOY TRAINS, which Dennis signed for me. Had a nice long chat with him, and really hit it off. Spent even more time chattin' it up with Carl Swanson, mostly about some up coming article materials... Check out the CTT photo on the YORK thread. MartyE gets credit for posting same, and he was the only one who brought a camera. But MISTER Tony Lash was our photographer...howzabout dat? Missing was DMUinCT, whom I later saw at his table. He didn't think we were crazy enuff to take a photo in the rain. It was great seeing Roy, Buckeye, Wes, Marty, Mitchie and John (who was being a trooper---really under the weather). It seems that I look as forward to the fellowship at YORK, as I do the treasure hunt (even more so on second thought). Buckeye even gave us all delicious OHIO ST buckeye candies (which are more tasty than...) ***This just in*** DATELINE - YORK, PA It was reported to a local police officer yesterday that a beige colored boxcar with black roof, having reporting marks of "NC", has apparently gone missing between Ypsilanti,MI and Roger's Corners,OH. Mr. F O'hare, owner of a regional rr line in central Ohio, stated that he was only making this report "for insurance purposes only". Given as a possible cause was a bad set of trucks, that earned this piece of equipment the name "Carolina Crippler", and the car probably fell off into the abiss in some ravine along it's last manifest. No further details.
Mornin' boys. Mornin' English. And today's Mid-Atlantic region weather ---> Only thing I picked up yesterday was an MTH dwarf signal (stop it B!). and our own DennisB1's new paperback - REALISTIC MODELING FOR TOY TRAINS, which Dennis signed for me. Had a nice long chat with him, and really hit it off. Spent even more time chattin' it up with Carl Swanson, mostly about some up coming article materials...
Check out the CTT photo on the YORK thread. MartyE gets credit for posting same, and he was the only one who brought a camera. But MISTER Tony Lash was our photographer...howzabout dat? Missing was DMUinCT, whom I later saw at his table. He didn't think we were crazy enuff to take a photo in the rain. It was great seeing Roy, Buckeye, Wes, Marty, Mitchie and John (who was being a trooper---really under the weather). It seems that I look as forward to the fellowship at YORK, as I do the treasure hunt (even more so on second thought). Buckeye even gave us all delicious OHIO ST buckeye candies (which are more tasty than...)
***This just in***
DATELINE - YORK, PA
It was reported to a local police officer yesterday that a beige colored boxcar with black roof, having reporting marks of "NC", has apparently gone missing between Ypsilanti,MI and Roger's Corners,OH. Mr. F O'hare, owner of a regional rr line in central Ohio, stated that he was only making this report "for insurance purposes only". Given as a possible cause was a bad set of trucks, that earned this piece of equipment the name "Carolina Crippler", and the car probably fell off into the abiss in some ravine along it's last manifest. No further details.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
Even though I did not participate in the train car exchange, I have truly enjoyed looking at all the postings and pictures, that you guys have made. I bet you guys are thankful that all the cars have returned to their owners safely. You never know what USPS, FEDEX, or UPS will do to a beloved train car.
Thanks again for sharing,
Chuck
Chuck, I'm not really concerned about the shipping damage, (as we all know MPC "Hi-Cube" cars were manufactured with shock absorption characteristics in mind, via the loose fitting parts.) I'm concerned about the GRITS, that stuff will probably be worse than caustic acid !
As a observer of the exchange, it was fun to follow along. I would have desired to participate, but know that I would not have been able to be consistent with passing the cars along. Still, thanks to all that did take part in this. It would be fun to follow along with another exchange, but I am sure it was quite a task in getting the thing up and running.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
I still cringe recalling the Hostess products oozing out of that car. a memorable saga indeed. Thanks, guys.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Thanks Fife for putting this together! Had a great time!
The best part was the look on my Bride's face, each month, when each new car arrived, with hands on hips, asking, "what did you buy now", and the somewhat confused look when I told her I didn't buy anything.
Kurt
Has everyone found their GRITS? some may be in more than one place.
Havn't seen mine yet, are they dissolving grits?
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
One last lap around...
Looks like our conductor friend has fully recovered from his "near death" experience. Shake-and Bake's car is being set out for a special run across country.
Heading west out of Cumberland and into the Narrows.
Arriving at Meyersdale in time for a little over-under action.
A quick loop around Helmstetters Curve. Check out my new cabin.
And finally, over Flagherty Creek and the Keystone Viaduct.
And a special guest stopped by to see Don's car off. How fitting it's going home on the Super Chief.
Fife.....Your story brought a tear to my eye.
FIFE,
That last pic, is that in NC, seems so real with all the SNO HI O and all. WOW if its not real I'll need better glasses.
laz57
Gots to find me some O-scale beavers to make it NC.
We got plenty in PA.
Fife, those are great pictures, everyone looks as if it would be a page in a calendar. Great job.! Sure would like to see that layout.
Fifey, did not know you thought so much of me to call me SUPER.
Sweet, Fife. A labor of love.....and your commentary always helps me understand the actual basis for the scenicing design. Pardon my ignorance, but can you tell us which SF ABA engine set that is? Thanks.
RockIsland - MTH 30-2131 Railking (early ProtoSounds) of a decade ago. They have the station sounds announcing the "Super Chief". The only thing laboring is that lead A-unit (only power of the A-B-A) up my grades. The SantaFe trains belong to Fife-pup.
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