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Happy March you all, 18 years we been coming here. Coffee, Soda, Doughnuts, And other great foods Locked

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Posted by smokey1 on Thursday, March 23, 2023 7:35 PM

Becky, Actually from what I have read that wasn't an actual color for the 402 back then

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, March 23, 2023 7:52 PM

pennytrains
I find I'm more grateful to my younger self for taking the time to write someone's name on the back of a photo I took in 1989.

Very wise!  I remember a Don Phillips column in (I think) "Railfan & Railroad" about what he called the "Who IS that?" syndrome.  The story was his mother had died and he and his brothers and sisters were going through the family photographs.  No problems with Mom, Dad, grandparents or uncles and aunts and then the REALLY old photos began to surface.  "Who's that?" "I don't know, and who's THAT?"  The end result being the "unknowns" were going to be consigned to trash can oblivion as they didn't know what to do otherwise.

Don's REAL point of the article was label your railfan photos with "who-what-when-where" so folks in the future going through your stuff won't go nuts! 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, March 23, 2023 8:02 PM

smokey1

Becky, Actually from what I have read that wasn't an actual color for the 402 back then

 

According to Henning's Trains (and they're usually right about these things) the color of the 402 is "Mojave."  Here's their color chart for vintage Lionels.

https://henningstrains.com/collectorcolor.html

However, check the caveat printed vertically.

 

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Posted by smokey1 on Friday, March 24, 2023 8:26 AM

Flintlock76
 

smokey1

Becky, Actually from what I have read that wasn't an actual color for the 402 back then 

According to Henning's Trains (and they're usually right about these things) the color of the 402 is "Mojave."  Here's their color chart for vintage Lionels.

https://henningstrains.com/collectorcolor.html

However, check the caveat printed vertically.

 

According to my book "Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1900 - 1942 Mojava was the main color but some examples have been noted/found in mustard, brown, cream, and dark green.

Just not your Apple Green. Crying

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Posted by smokey1 on Friday, March 24, 2023 5:09 PM

Here is a pic of one of my 402's and my 418 passenger car

 Yes my room is a total mess at the moment

 

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Posted by fifedog on Friday, March 24, 2023 5:11 PM

smokey1 - Now that's a classic toy train.YesCowboy

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Posted by pennytrains on Friday, March 24, 2023 6:35 PM

I realized I was thinking of the 42 not the 402.

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by pennytrains on Friday, March 24, 2023 6:41 PM

Flintlock76
then the REALLY old photos began to surface

Got A LOT of those.  My dad was born 67 years before I was so I have almost zero resources figuring out if they're even related to me or not.  Which is a pity because some of them are tin.  Never had a chance to know his parents and I often wonder if I'm looking at their likenesses with innocent but ignorant eyes.

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 24, 2023 10:01 PM

pennytrains
My dad was born 67 years before I was so I have almost zero resources figuring out if they're even related to me or not.  Which is a pity because some of them are tin. 

Lady Firestorm feels your frustration.  Her late brother Brian, the erstwhile family historian, left a mass of old family photos he collected, some of them tin like yours, but with NO documentation.  She and her sisters have their work cut out for them trying to figure out who's who.  If he wasn't dead they'd kill him!  Angry

Unfortunately I suspect many are facing what I called "trash can oblivion."  What else can they do?  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, March 24, 2023 10:05 PM

smokey1
Yes my room is a total mess at the moment  

Don't feel bad, the workbench in my Chugger Barn has a "BIOHAZARD!"  sign on it!  Now that the weather's warming up and I don't have to wait two hours for the heater to warm the place up I've GOT to organize the thing! 

Just a further My 2 Cents worth on the 402:

I checked my Doyle's guide to pre-war Lionels and according to Doyle (and he was working with TCA collaboration) the only color the 402/402E locomotives were produced in was "Mojave."  However the "successor" model (for lack of a better term) the 408E, very similar to the 402, was produced in "Mojave," "Apple Green," "State Brown" and "State Green."  

And that's a gorgeous 402 in the photo!  Wow! 

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Posted by fifedog on Saturday, March 25, 2023 8:22 AM

Mornin' guys and gals. Rain and 43 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. FifeMax is sick of the damp weather, as he gets put on a leash, which he detests, to keep his paws mud-free. Heading to Volunteer at the RR museum after while.

Spent a few hours in the train room yesterday planting more trees. Our local Surplus City had a 20% off sale on floral, and I discovered some light green amaranth clusters that yielded 10-12 "trees" per stem. So I was able to forest some bare spots along the back of the layout, as well as "green up" some color saturated areas.

Will shoot some pics for SPF. Hopefully some more folks might contribute to this weekly thread.

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Posted by dbaker48 on Monday, March 27, 2023 10:55 AM

Good Morning,
Had a couple of very interesting days. A little background, wife has a get together scheduled for the first part of June with 4 high school classmates in Palm Springs. The 3 other girls all live out of state, (Nevada, Florida, Conn.). The girl from Nevada is coordinating all the details, and she rented an AB&B for 4 nights. Kay thought it would be a good idea if we took a drive out there to check out the place a little. Good idea.

Also, Chris is working a job site at the Salton Sea, and Borengo Springs, both sites are about 50 miles SE of Palm Springs. (Which is about 100 miles from our place).

So off we went, had a pleasant drive to PS, found the AB&B, looked nice enough and in a safe looking area. Then checked out restaurant, shopping and airport locations, all looked rather convient.

Then we talked with Chris about meeting up the next morning for jobsite visits, and a brief visit to the Salton Sea area. If your not familiar with the Salton Sea, I think you would find it interesting to do a Google Search. Essentially, it is a large body of water east of San Diego. It is the largest "lake" in California, and rests in a cauldron 280 feet below sea level. The area was formed by "run-off" from the Colorado River. The area was a Very popular recreation area in the 50's - 60's. Then as a result of water shortage, the water was diverted away, and run off from agricultural, began to pollute the area. It is now a "dead" water area. All the amenities have been either destroyed or abandoned. And with nothing feeding the Sea, it is evaporating. Currently the salinity level is over twice what the ocean is.
Anyway, the State is drilling a couple of wells in the area to test the aquafer 600 to 800 feet down. (He is the project manager at 2 sites.) Viewing the area was extremely interesting!! They have thousands of hay bales on the shore to divert wind gusts and prevent dust/soil erosion. Visiting the site which is at Salton Sea City, which is all but disserted, was quite interesting!

Then went to the other site, Borengo Springs, which is located about 60 miles away and in a state park. That drive was remarkable with all the natural scenery and wild flowers. Borengo Springs would be a great place to stay for a few days.

We decided to drive around to the east side of the Sea, and return home. Keep in mind this is all in the desert!
Recently a vast Lithium deposit has been discovered in the Salton Sea area, and feasibility studies for mining is being conducted. Chris suggested we go by the geothermic area where some hot mud pits, a mud volcano, and geothermal wells are in operation. Saw that, heh, not much to see. Then went on to "Slab City", and "Bombay Beach". These areas were extremely popular in day. They have been taken over by the Bohemian/Artist community and extremely interesting. The average income is negative.

We finally got home that evening, but it sure was eyeopening, and very depressing what happened down there. If you can do a google on Salton Sea, Bombay Beach, and Slab City.

Sorry such a long post, thought some of you might enjoy.

Have a great day and Stay Safe.

Don

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Posted by fifedog on Monday, March 27, 2023 12:00 PM

d baker - definitely sounds interesting. I had caught some show awhile ago about Salton, before and after. Keep sharing. Smile, Wink & Grin

While at the RR museum yesterday. Started researching Cumberland in the early 50's, and discovered the sports car races held at the local airport. All kinds of exotic cars would race on an improvised road course on the runways. Lots of crowds. Lots of footage of these events on YouTube. So for those of you who want planes,trains and automobiles on your layout, try that approach.

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Posted by 8ntruck on Monday, March 27, 2023 11:08 PM

The high school robotics team I mentor hosted a competition here last weekend.  I volunteered to be a robot inspector.  Fun job.  It lets me get a close look at the robots and talk with the kids who built them.  It also gave me a field side place to watch the matches, as part of the job is making a quick visual inspection as the robots came on deck for the next match.

After the competition was done, the lead robot inspector encouraged me to inspect at the world championships in Houston next month.

The school fields two teams.  One is largely the upperclassmen, and the other is largely the underclassmen.  The upperclassmen team ended up in the #1 seated alliance, while the underclassmen ended up on the #2 alliance.  They met in the best of 3 final round.  Sadly, for the upper class men, they lost 1 match to 2.  All 3 matches were close with the winner only winning by a few points. 

This same thing happened to the upperclassmen team in the competition we went to a couple weeks back, so the upperclassmen were frustrated and discouraged. We have one more competition in New Orleans this week.  We appear to be one of the better teams that will be in attendance, so they still have a chance at winning.

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Posted by fifedog on Thursday, March 30, 2023 5:29 AM

Mornin' guys and gals. Sunny and 38 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. Wifey will be headed to B'more to tend to her sister for the next week. Fifey has to fend for hisself. Big fat raccoon was caught on trailcam overnight.

Spent yesterday on landscaping. First at Middle Princess's castle, tearing out bushes and leveling stumps. Then at Fifedom, ripping up juniper for the next section of creeping flox. Had not worked that hard in sometime.

MartyE popped up on YouTube, spotlighting a Lionel GE Demonstrator. Good to see him.

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Posted by dbaker48 on Thursday, March 30, 2023 7:51 AM

Good Morning,
STILL RAINING HERE!!  Historically we have about 4.5 inches per year, so far this year we are at 27.7 inches!!  Getting sogging!!  The river channel behind us has been flowing very quickly most of the time, but its doing the job!  It is unreal seeing everything  so green.  But beautiful! The downside of course is houses sliding down hills, and pot holes all over the place.  And, we have more to go, more coming next week as well.  The government is saying the drought is over for the majority of the state, haven't heard that in years.

Its great to be retired through all this!

Not much else going on.

Stay safe!


 

Don

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