IRONROOSTER riogrande5761 There is a McKay's where I live - I guess it must be a chain - I never noticed model train goodies there before - guess I'll have to check more often! If you're talking about the McKay's in Manassas, I've never seen model train stuff there either. But they do have some shelves in the front with odds and ends on them. Enjoy Paul
riogrande5761 There is a McKay's where I live - I guess it must be a chain - I never noticed model train goodies there before - guess I'll have to check more often!
There is a McKay's where I live - I guess it must be a chain - I never noticed model train goodies there before - guess I'll have to check more often!
If you're talking about the McKay's in Manassas, I've never seen model train stuff there either. But they do have some shelves in the front with odds and ends on them.
Enjoy
Paul
I think your McKay's an my McKays are completely seperate companies, as far as I know the one I went too only has three locations all of which are in Tennessee.
Also Paul, that's an amazing story!
Best deal I ever had was when I went to a tiny (20-table) train show back in the mid-1990's for the local chapter of the NRHS. It was a Friday night show (from like 5PM to 9PM) in the basement of this small church. It was a "paper" show, meaning that no models were there, mostly just books, magazines, timetables, pictures, etc. If you didn't like RR paper, you would be bored stiff. Well, they had a White Elephant Table, and on it was a lower quadrant semaphore spectacle (no blade...and the blade had been broken off). Also on the table was a large strip of stainless steel with black letters painted on both sides.
This stainless steel was coiled up like a watch spring and had a rope around it to keep it from rolling out. I looked at the stainless steel and saw that it was in a Futura font (typical of passenger cars, especially New Haven cars). Hmm... I pried apart the layers, and could make out "NEW"...and I thought, "Hey, hey...this might be a New Haven letterboard! Ooh, I want!"
So I ask the old guy behind the table, "How much for the stainless steel?" He looks for a tag, doesn't find one, and calls across the (small) hall, "Hey, Charlie (or whatever his name was), how much did you pay for this stainless steel sign up in Maine?" Charlie repled, "Twenty bucks." The old guy looks at me and says, "Twenty bucks?" I could not get my wallet out fast enough.
I rolled it out to my car, and put it in the trunk. As I was also a dealer there at the show, a couple hours later we're packing up when I see the same old guy humping that old semaphore spectacle he had on his White Elephant Table. I was about to offer to help the old timer when I said, "Heavy enough for you?" The old guy looks around, and says, "You want it?" I said, "Sure!" He hands it to me and says, "Keep it!" And he walked away as quick as you please.When I got home, I cut the rope on the stainless steel sign, unrolled it, and it read "NEW MILFORD", not "NEW HAVEN". I went, Huh? I flipped it over, and the letters on the other side read, "HOUSATONIC RIVER". I went, Wait...this sounds familiar. Excitedly, I got my NH books out and looked it up. Seems the NH had 5 Parlor-Lounges that were all in the "River" series, but they conflicted with the NYC's "River" fleet of cars (they crossed the same rivers, after all) and passengers were getting on the wrong train at GCT. The NH, only having 5 cars (and being a tenant, not the landlord) graciously re-named their 5 Parlor-Lounges into the "New" series. "Housatonic River" became "New Milford". The car was not selected by Amtrak, and ended up in a scrap yard in Maine where it was used for many years at their yard office.I polished up the stainless steel, and now it hangs on the wall in my club mostly because I don't have a 21-foot long wall in my house to put it on:http://ssmrc.org/spring2013/dsc_3723.jpg
So for $20, I got a New Haven passenger car nameboard and a semaphore spectacle...plus a cool story. What more can one ask for $20?Paul A. Cutler III
I was at a train show several years ago and was there maybe 10 minutes. just about that time they were doing a drawing for door prizes when they drew my ticket number. I could pick out what I wanted from the prize table. There sat an A-B set of Bachmann Plus F7's in my favorite EL livery!
Also, about two weeks ago, I picked up a Con Cor mill gondola and a 5 car pack of newer BB Athearn tank cars (both items new unbuilt kits) - - all for $8!
Related story..............
Wayyy back in the late '60s I realized I was missing out on deals as I didn't have the cash in my pocket at the time. I began to carry $100 squirreled away for just that purpose. It came in very handy on a handful of occasions - for cash in hand was very much a persuader - especially before everyone had universal credit cards. Ha, I still carry "mad money" today, which from what I can tell is quite unusual..............
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Day after Christmas, 1971, Woolworth's.
Everything on this table $1.99
Stacked high with A.H.M. Rivarossi passenger & freight cars, track, buildings.
I shuffled through the blue and yellow boxes and found...
a New York Central streamlined Hudson!
Still got it! Runs beautifully, too! I was a junior in high school on a budget. I should have made an offer on the whole table but who would have known there would be an Ebay some four decades later.
Yes, there's deals out there, if you're patient and not caught up in the "gotta have it now" marketing model.
Congratulations on your find. I see you were so excited you couldn't even wait to get home to shoot the pic—you're still in the parking lot!
Ed
Friends of ours came over for the usual Saturday night prime rib and hockey game. Their son said here Brent I bought you a present. He handed me a rather gnarly looking caboose that had been slopped over with water colours by some kid. I scraped a bit of paint off it and as suspected it turned out to be brass. He picked it up for a quarter at the kids toy trade and flee market that happens at the local fairgrounds a couple of times a year.
It is S scale, I'm HO, so I told him that some day I'll try and clean it up and if it is worth anything,, we'll split the profits. I really should get to it as it appears to be a somewhat elderly model. Who knows!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
My best deal came from Wal-Mart. I picked up a deluxe wire stripper. When I checked out the cashier couldn't ring it up. The computer sysytem couldn't read either the scan or when she manually typed in the code. I was in a hurry and told her to forget it.
Next week the same thing happened and the cashier called her supervisor and told her what was happening. When she couldn't ring it up either she said I could have it for a dollar.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
I went into the local pawn shop to look over their PS3 video games and found a Athearn BB GP38-2 for $7.99..I bought that and a video game.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Modelling HO Scale with a focus on the West and Midwest USA
Nice.
Sean, the unknown train travler,
it's a place called McKay's. They sell primarily used books and used music. They also have a section devoted hobby stuff such as Old Video Games, D and D and Magic cards, occasionally someone will sell them unused Modelrailroad stuff and thats what I happened to be lucky to find.
So tell us more about that "used book" store...
Nice!
So guys, I went to used book store today to sell some books to them, ended up coming away with this!
All for $20