You are an expensive guy to know . I had one of those, ROARING U50's. Just ordered UP '77-80, CENTENNIALS IN ACTION and BIG EMD's for $84 total including shipping and tax. But I'll keep looking for GIANTS IN ACTION and BIG GE's as the best I could find on them was $115 and $120. Of course later they probably will be more . I lived in Laramie, Wyo in '63 and again in '69-'74. Some of that time was in an old-old building on 1st St. with UP's mainline across the street about 20 feet away. Also in about 70 I dropped out of college for year to get in-state tuition and delivered milk for a while 60 miles north to Medicine Bow. The highway between Laramie and there paralleled UP's tracks so saw lots of all those locos in that time period. Reason I'm modeling UP from late 40's to mid 70's. Later in the early 80's a friend of mine that grew up in Cheyenne went from being a civil engineer with UP to being a train engineer and I got to go through the Cheyenne roundhouse with him. Another friend had a 16,000 acre ranch with UP's southern track from Cheyenne to Laramie running on his north property line south of Ames Monument on Dale Creek (good trout fishing). North of him I walked the original abandoned UP tracks where there was still the footings of the Dale Creek trestle. The track is all gone in that section but I found some spikes that possible were from laying the original transcontinental track there. I've also been in UP's Hermosa tunnel on that stretch. Wanted to stay in it as a train went through but chickened out. I've got good memories from that time period. Sumner
I'm in a holding pattern currently. Home improvements need to be priority. Thank goodness there are many supplies at the big box store that I can disguise in a purchase for the house. Plywood, screws, glue, caulk, etc.... I'm sure I am not the only one. My last purchase was 5 Scale Trains coil cars that I am very happy with.
Found a little building at the LHS today. It will fit to cover the Atlas motor for the turntable and not look like every other one out there.
These bad boys finally arrived. Sold the LL pair I had with the same numbers a year ago in anticipation of these. Sent from my SM-S901U1 using Tapatalk
True to form: these locos needed fettling. They run super smooth and quiet right out of the box, but the gauge is too narrow. They caught or shorted on some switches, and derailed in places no other loco has trouble. All better now, but it's frustrating. I get it though. Since I worked in a hobby shop 25yrs ago, detail has vastly improved while costs have stayed the same or dropped. Sacrifices must be made somewhere for that to add up. Sent from my SM-S901U1 using Tapatalk
5 Atlas 45’ Trailers (CSX), 1 Deluxe Innovations 53’ Trailer (FEC) and 1 MTL 45’ Trailer (TIP intermodal) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Got a Tomix JNR 9600 2-8-0 in the mail today. Not quite as quiet as my Katos, but a nice running, very good looking little engine.
It's not very exciting but I bought this package of 4 Unitrack half sections at my local train store yesterday.
You can never have too many 50' boxcars, but you can sure try! The left two are old MDC shake-the box kits that I've upgraded with modern trucks, couplers, and brakewheels. I still need to re-number one so they're not exact clones of each other, but for $5 a pop I'm not complaining. The right car is a Micro-Trains car that I was pleasantly surprised to find contained a load of tires already in there!
2 sweet engines, Brad. I've always loved the UP paint scheme. I'm not 100% sure but I think that is the only diesel paint scheme the UP has had except for heritage and other special units.
There have been minor changes (e.g. tops of cabs or hoods were sometimes different, including green) , but the basic grey and yellow color scheme has survived. I have a hard spot for UP since they were allowed to gobble up SP after the SP/ATSF merger was denied by the gov't. I also have a sweet spot for KCS' paint scheme. I kinda like CPKC's new paint scheme (red body, white trim, white/yellow shield, with yellow & black towards the rear of the body).
I've added another MRL to my roster. Also the 2nd of two ATSF mill gondolas from MTL both of which seem to negotiate my layout just fine so
Picked up some like new Kato unitrack, 8 # 6 switches, 20 sections of 9 3/4 inch track and some short sections. The switches have the wire cut off.
That's a really nice haul of track. Will you splice wires onto the switches or use them as manual switches? Very nice pickup of engines and cars. The Rail Box car patched for MRL is really cool, something you don't see every day.
