Derailing the thread again for a moment: I bought a bass guitar off of that auction site several years ago. The seller took two boxes, cut the ends out of both, taped them together, filled the boxes half way with peanuts, and sent it to me (seemed to have forgotten the case the guitar should have come with). When I got the 'package', the two boxes were very 'floppy' (tape does not make a good structural attachment) and the bass was now in 'kit' form. They did give me back my money but I'll never figure out why they thought that taping two boxes together would survive. They could have just put the bass in the case is was to come with, wrapped the case in just about anything, stuck on a mailing label and it would have been fine. Instead they had an empty case, a broken guitar, and no money. Switching topic back to trains...
I thought the same thing as you Tom, but I now see in Trovestar that it was made by Rowa and was sold by MRC, dating from 1969. Rowa made some decent stuff, including their N&W Y 2-8-8-2.
It is interesting how the human brain functions. Sometimes it just seems to disconnect from reality when money is involved.
relisted for $3 less I get that it's shipping from Japan to US, but let's say that even $75 USD is a fair price (which is still high), that means that it's $137 USD to ship one item. Yikes. Their whole store seems astronomical to me. I guess you don't have to sell much at those prices to come out ahead, though, eh?
Have to love the High $ and Odd Cents on MR Model Railroad items people List on ebay is ridiculous. Tom
Retail on that set is about $250 USD. The listing is pretty much in line with what the sell for if you want them now. Otherwise order them through a US retailer, hope that trix still has some in their inventory, wait a couple of months to get them and save about $20. John, Fleishmann makes a similar hopper that is even better with functioning discharge gates for about $22 a piece. You can operate them by fabricating and installing ramps on either side of the track where you want the unload point to be. I've a couple myself and there is a retailer in Canada I got mine from that still shows them in stock. Search FLEISCHMANN 851502 Caveat is they all come with rapido and the coupler mounting system is not friendly to any of the aftermarket knuckle style couplers. Dapol used to make some McHenry styles that connected into the NEM355 coupler pocket but those are almost impossible to find and expensive when you do. I believe you have locos with rapidos though so maybe not an issue?
I use unimates and Kato couplers for retrofits like these. I don't have a danged rapido anywhere on the layout.
Dapols should work with unimates. I just priced 5 pair short shanks with shipping from the UK (which is where these couplers tend to reside) and it's about $40. I'm going to get a set so I can see how well (or not) they work.
I only use unimates for consists that operate as multiple cars. My go to drop in coupler for the rapido is the Kato 2 piece coupler that works well with MTs.
I was wondering how long this would take after the conclusion of the National N Scale Convention. Watching since both Colleen and I have one... https://www.ebay.com/itm/384957467346
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265739775765?hash=item3ddf532f15:g:vgoAAOSwL2Vij522 I think folks on ebay have let iflation go to thier heads this is not even a real engine. You can by a set for this price..... Atlas Rivarossi 4004 N-Scale Union Pacific SW1500 Diesel Switcher 'Dummy'- Cased
Lovingly hand -mutilated with a soldering iron https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/39409788...uid=HR18q37NQYK&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265747353541?hash=item3ddfc6cfc5:g:jpcAAOSwUKtisitR This is for a non working unit. He has several pieces priced in the twilight zone.....
This may be a custom paint job overrun that was given to customers of South Orient Railroad (owned by Texas DOT and operated by Texas Pacifico, TXPF). If you model southwest Texas, this could be added behind a powered-diesel (with a change of couplers). To that modeler, it could be of interest at an unreasonable price. The eBay lister showed great restraint in not calling it rare/collectable. IMHO
I think these WP FTs are Intermountain, not Atlas. A good price and multiple bids underway. https://www.ebay.com/itm/165540090404