Fife, I didn't catch it at first... then it hit me. Nobody else was in the room at the time... whether or not you got me, you have no proof! I took an intial batch of pictures of some of the goodies I found at the Springfield MA show this past weekend, but I think I'm going to redo some.It was my first time attending this show since January of 2020... I stayed within budget, but it was a close one. I think I learned my lesson (I hope). My budget and total expenditures will not be discosed at this time I'll start off with this one... I saw it closer to the end of Saturday. Most of the stuff from this vendor was quite pricey for me. This one was a bit of an outlier- still not exactly cheap, but more within reach.Wound up buying it probably within my first hour of being at the show on Sunday. I made an offer to the seller, which he was happy to do, and felt right away that I'd made a good call to pick it up.I suspect the reason it was overlooked was due to the lack of a box, and the mpc number. But don't let that fool you! I took the time to inspect it, and noticed that while the shell was clearly an mpc reissue, the chassis was an original postwar 2329 chassis, in very nice condition too. And who could say no to magnetraction? I reckon the price I paid is about how much you'd expect an original chassis to go for on eBay, so at the very least I didn't overpay. The only thing I don't love, is the lack of nose decals. Were the MPC decals known to flake off? Or did someone just forget to apply them? Someday it would be nice to replace 'em.I have not yet had a chance to take her for a spin, but everything the vendor sells is apparently guarunteed. I did note the gears on the power truck looked rather dry, so I'll certainly be giving it a once-over anyway. But it wouldn't bother me if that's all it needed!Will be sure to post more pictures later... I promise it's not the only O gauge item I bought! That said... I did find a number of very nice HO pieces too. No S or Standard this year, just didn't see anything I "had to have", at a price I couldn't say no to.-Ellie
Northwoods - Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep an eye out.
You know...if you laughed at that, you're a little warped.
fife,
I do indeed have a #429 switcher in the collection.
It came with #430 Type XIV sloped back tender.
They make quite a good looking pair.
The 429 was cataloged 1939-1940, and also appeared as the 4321 in 1938. I'm not sure if this was a Chicago Flyer design or a Gilbert design. If a Gilbert design it shows the direction toward a more scale appearance that Gilbert was taking.
I have the whole Yard King set. The engine and tender are die cast but they were still being paired with the Chicago era tinplate cars.
Mine runs well and has never given me any problems. I like it and I would recommend it for handling any switching assignments you might give it in your yard. The only issue would be with couplers; the tender comes with either the sheet metal (curly que) coupler or the link and pin style coupler.
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
PS Need any more photos?
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Mornin' guys and gals. Not quite Duluth type weather, however it will be wanna-be dog-sled temps Fri-Sat. Pellet stove ready. Very quiet in Fifedom without the Mrs. She enjoyed grandparents day at the boys' school, and apparently the curly-top is quite the ladies man, especially when he flashes them baby-blues. She also apparently jinxed the oldest boys soccer team, because she attended their first loss this season... Meanwhile back at the rancher, I threw some burgers on the grill, and had to drag myself down to the mailbox, in between reclinerizing. Chief raised me well.
Northwoods - Do you have an AF 429 0-6-0 in your collection? Looking for your thoughts on it.
Good Morning,
It is a beautiful sunny morning here. I won't mention that just beyond the window glass it is -13 degrees. I did my best to keep the cold up here at KRM's request. I have my doubts that I was very successful. This is supposed to be the last day of extreme cold. We may even reach 20 above by the weekend.
One project for today will be taking photos of some new purchases for posting on various threads. I don't find much for the American Flyer portion of the collection unless its to complete a set or upgrade a piece. I have been very tempted by the New Marx equipment produced by the Flynn's. In fact there are some photos I will be posting on the Tinplate Heritage thread.
Have a great day
Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby
Northwoods,
Please keep your weather UP there!
Temps are heading to the - figures tonight.
Had the grandkids Saturday and we had a blast, pulled then all over the place on their sleds with the Gator. They liked doing 20mph behind it. Managed to dump them both but they held on tight the rest of the time. The kids and the dog slept hard Saturday night.
Pup is almost there on the house training already and it will be none to soon. Next will be to get her to go out on her own so I can stay warm.
I get it Fife, sorry. Yeah I could not get along without the work bench and test track.
Bout it.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
El Fixes ThingsWayne- yes please to those pictures! You know how to reach me already, of course
Will do!
Good Morning
Its sunny, mostly clear and a numbing 0 degrees. We won't even talk about the windchill. It won't get much warmer than that today. Its a pretty sight overlooking the frozen St Louis Bay. The John Beargrease sled dog race has been underway since yesterday; it should finish up sometime this morning. I'm happy to stay inside and watch the updates.
Have a great week.
Mornin' guys and gals. Mostly cloudy and 42 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. Nothing on tap today. Had a nice visit with the daughters and grandsons. Set up a carpet loop in the train room, and 5 year old enjoyed running his CP set all by hisself. His brother has a new BB gun he wanted to use, and we set up a tin can alley. Ms Kelly went back with Oldest Princess and grandsons, as there's a grandparents day at their school, and a soccer game, that she wanted to attend. We'll swap her back Wednesday. Until then, it's just FifeMax and me.
KRM... I appreciate the praise, but my workbench only recently started looking that nice. Yours looks spotless compared to how it used to look. Trust me!Fife- the track was a gift for a good friend. One time we got talking and he didn't have anything to test Lionel or Flyer since he does HO and N. I asked if he would like a little something, he said okay, and before I knew it I had decided to build him a test track. It turned out purdy good! Handed it off to him right before him and his friends had to head back home... promised I'd tell him how it all works later. Wayne- yes please to those pictures! You know how to reach me already, of course I should update- got to see my friend one last time, as mentioned, gave him his goodies from me before he left for home. I fixed up an N scale engine of his during the morning... he gave me two identical locos, between the two, both of which had problematic motors, I somehow got one good one. It's not easy working on stuff that tiny...The Springfield MA show was fantastic, but even though I spent a total of something like 12-16 hours there across 2 days, it wasn't enough time.I had a bigger budget this year than ever before... I wasn't expecting to use anywhere near all of it, but I ended up coming very, very close. Yikes! I can't wait to share the finds with everyone, but for now I need to get some sleep. I'm beat. Should sleep well tonight... then tomorrow, if I'm not too busy, I'll start posting pictures.Take care all!-Ellie
fifedogKRM - Point well made. I meant train show test track.
I laughed a little bit at that. About three years ago I built a two track set set-up for the club's shows. The old one got lost! One O Gauge track and one S Gauge.
THEN last year I built another with one HO and one N track. The club didn't lose the one they had but the old one looked like hell! I wanted one that looked professional.
Last show a gent who does toy train repairs told me they were the nicest looking test tracks he'd seen in years. Very gratifying, to say the least.
If anyone want to see pictures my e-mail's in my profile, I'll send you some.
KRM - Point well made. I meant train show test track.
fifedog Ellie - I don't recall ever seeing an operating accessory feature on a test track. Pretty clever.
Ellie - I don't recall ever seeing an operating accessory feature on a test track. Pretty clever.
Fife, Having operating accessory testing is a must have for a work bench test track.
My bench is not near as neat and organized as Ellie's. But it works.
Wayne, I had a lot of fun trying to make that wiring look tidy.thanks for the complements all!Tonight I wrapped the wiring up, going to hand it off to its new owner tomorrow. It won't see a lot of use most likely, but the important thing is that if my friend ever needs to test an O or S gauge loco or car, he'll be able to.I hastily scrawled notes onto it so that it was a little clearer how you're supposed to connect it up, and what does what.First day at the show in Springfield was a blast. I didn't buy nearly enough O or S gauge stuff, clearly gotta fix that tomorrow.Didn't have all the luck I hoped to have, but I picked up a few desirable Lionel HO cars, including an 0880 maintenance car that's in near pristine condition aside from some little rust on the searchlight yoke, and oxidation on the wheels. No broken railings, paint is nearly immaculate.I picked up a heap of Lionel parts for an absolute steal, lots of bus connectors for my super O track, finally can use that stuff!I'll be sure to post pictures of all the goodies, but that may have to wait until Monday, right now I need to get some sleep.Take care all.-Ellie
Very professional-looking wiring Ellie! You know, in a way it kind of reminds me of the switch linkage rods from old-time railroad towers.
That looks great, good job
Very anxiously anticipating the show tomorrow... supposedly less vendors this year, because they're hosting more operating layouts. I didn't quite finish the test track, but I did manage to finish my frankenstien control box for the remote control track section. It's a mix of pieces from a broken original control box, and stuff I had to scratch build. Shockingly, it seems to work just fine.Here's a close up profile shot of the control box before I installed it:For the record, the bakelite case was broken and many of the pieces long since missing. I was surprised I still had both buttons, to be honest. Was it worth it? Well... I'm glad I got it done, but ideally I'm never doing that again.At least my wiring is neat...-Ellie
Flintlock76 fifedog Flint - If you're going to YORK, you had better buy a bigger barn! Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of! Lady Firestorm says she expects the Barn to collapse one day from the weight of all the stuff and to laugh her head off watching me crawl out from under the wreckage!
fifedog Flint - If you're going to YORK, you had better buy a bigger barn!
Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of! Lady Firestorm says she expects the Barn to collapse one day from the weight of all the stuff and to laugh her head off watching me crawl out from under the wreckage!
Reminds me of a song: "Crawl out from the fallout baby, when they drop that bomb..." I guess the "bomb" in your case would be going to York!
Same me, different spelling!
Hi all,
Ellie, nice test track, looks about the same as mine!
Fife, glad the service went well.
Not much time for the traimns the last few days.
fifedogFlint - If you're going to YORK, you had better buy a bigger barn!
El Fixes ThingsSo we'll be seeing you up at Springfield in a few years?
I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind, but it's a long way to go from Virginia. And the "Russian Roulette" of New England winter weather's a bit off-putting as well. But, it's a "maybe."
Mornin' guys and gals. Sporadic flurries and 31 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. Babysitting youngest grandson today, and waiting to find out if the rest will join us, as the curly-top has had some type of stomach bug.
Made the trek back to Baltimore yesterday for my uncle's service. Was a fitting send-off, including all of his 17 grandchildren. I headed back home from the cemetery, with no traffic issues.
Flint - If you're going to YORK, you had better buy a bigger barn!
Flintlock76...but the curiousity's gotten the better of me. So I'm gonna find out!
Well this year I'm taking the plunge and going to the April TCA train meet at York PA, made the arrangements this morning. Club members have been telling me "You gotta go to York! You've GOTTA go to York!"
OK, I'm going to see what it's all about. I haven't felt any pressing need to go having had pretty good luck finding stuff here in Virginia but the curiousity's gotten the better of me. So I'm gonna find out!
Good Afternoon
Heavy rain dampened most of the attempt to get stuff out of the house, but I did get some done. I did get all the boxed up stuff in the dining room out and into storage. There was no point getting more out as the rain got much heavier, and I was soaked by the time I was done.
I'm off tomorrow to try to complete the attic evacuation. I'll be bringing my sawzall to release the Spooky Town module from the attic bannister. The new owner wants the train tables gone, so it looks like the sawzall will take the other tables apart and on the street.
Ellie - Nice test bench
Not much else - the Lawyer is coming over with paperwork shortly - the borough is dragging it's feet on the certificate of occupancy, which I need to sel the house.
OK off to work
I am the monster in your head...And I thought you'd learn by now, It seems you haven't yet.I am the venom in your skin --- Breaking Benjamin
Good lookin' test track Ellie! Nice job!
Sorry to hear about the loss of your pets, it's never easy.Train show fast approaches... only 3 days off now. I've been making good progress on a test track which will be a gift for a friend- he doesn't do O or S gauge but I talked with him and he thought it could be useful to have something to test stuff on- hence the test track! The overall length of the board is about 4' 8.5" (I thought I was being clever, you decide), ~6" of the board on one end is left open so that I can install some stuff to control the Lionel remote control track sections and some terminals to hook the transformer up to. I don't have any control boxes I can spare, but I found a broken one... I'm thinking maybe I can salvage the guts to make something usable.Staged some equipment on it for a "progress" shot:It's been so much fun to work on stuff since I finally managed to get my workbench cleaned up. I started a new system of keeping most of my tools hung from nails on the wall, and making sure that before I pull out a new project or walk away from the workbench (if I'm not coming right back) I clear off the workbench, making sure all the tools go back where they belong. Let me tell ya... life has never been better. Can't believe it's taken me this long, the difference is night and day comapred to how I used to do things.-Ellie
Good Morning!!
FINALLY have my new computer so I can get back in the swing. I'll try to catch up later.
Fife - Condolences on your Uncle.
KRM - Congas on the pup - very cute. Shepards and Schnauzers are my favorite dogs.
We lost our cat Cloud and our guinea pig Arnold within a week of each other, so it's been a very sad time here. Jenni is still very upset.
House is sold and moving all the trains out with the accessories is a real challenge. I need this house empty by next Monday. I took Friday off to accomplish this, I still have to work Saturday. Still have to get the certificate of occupancy from the borough. The inpsector is being a bit of a d@ck, so I'll need to call the borough office to get this finished. Just wahat I needed is to delay this closing. I't's already cost me $2200 just to get it ready for the inspection
OK back to my job - I think retirment will come in 2025, I've had enough I think, lol
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