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Having whined about finding so little at a hobby shop in San Bernadino, I have to give credit to the great one in Pasadena, that I got over to see a year ago: The "original" Whistle Stop.  There is that musty smell of old cardboard boxes that are deteriorating, and is not an unpleasant odor.  It also means you just MAY find a real treasure, if you search all the shelves, and are willing to climb up the wall to get at something.  I spied a box that said ULRICH...my heart skipped a beat.  Could it BE???  I found a little stepladder and clambored up to carefully reach it.  On the side, it read: General Service Gondola, Southern Pacific.  Showed the original price of $8.95, which was a freaking FORTUNE back in 1959, when I first noticed this kit existed.  I remember reading an article in Model Railroader that claimed this was the hardest kit in the universe to actually try to put together and have it STAY that way.  (I'm assuming the drop bottom feature, is what made it the number one source of suicides among model railroaders.) My HANDS were shaking, to have this in my hot little paws.  I wouldn't have cared if they said its now TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS, I would have bought it.  I felt like I had an artifact from King Tut's own layout (the Cairo and Western Ry.)--and held it tight against me, in case some "Raider" had it in mind to wrest it from me. Wisely, I decided to OPEN it, at the sales counter.  It contained only some spare parts from what looked like several model kits, not a single one being left over from anything Ulrich ever made.  What a heartbreaker.  I thought I'd sort of made up for it, by finding a kit of an old style gasoline service station right below it, called "McLeod's Super Service" for a rather rude price.  As that is my real last name, how could I say no, especially as I was made to assume it was the only one of its kind this side of Saturn? (Haven't had time to put it together yet, typically, but meantime I see its easily obtained for less money, from Walthers' site.) Sigh.
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