All, How many of us have acquired Dead as a Door nail Locomotive either for the Loco Shell, a project, Trucks, Couplers etc.. and have placed them in their JUNK BOX long ago and forgotten them , only to Rediscover them now? My point is being this current project! Tom
Exactly! I have stumbled across things I forgot I had. Also...the experience of rediscovering long stored locomotives from my teens (Con-Cor Alco PA/PB set in Great Northern Empire Builder scheme ha ha), and refusing to part with them. Good luck with your latest project!
The best / worse, (depending on perspective / outlook), is when you re-buy something you forgot you had. Argh!
Or -- you know you had purchased something -- put it away -- then can't find it. Even after an exhaustive search..... don't ask ..... And -- yeah, in the above search -- forgotten "stuff" had surfaced. (That was cool) Wolf
I looked for two months to find the Peco turnouts for my N scale Boston Mountains Sub Division layout. Finally found them on the layout behind a building. Haha Joe
My problem is buying things that I don't end up using as I change plans. It's getting to be a really bad habit. I have a Kato F40PH in Virginia Rail colours sitting in it's box, with a new decoder sitting right next to it, that I have never run. I bought it last year with the intention of repainting it as a poor man's VIA Rail F40PH. But this is looking less and less likely I will ever do so.
Two years ago I went through all of my "junk", sorted it out, labeled boxes for things like Motors, Body Shells, Structure Parts, Scenery, Autos, etc., and threw away everything deemed Absolute Junk. It's nice to gain space and have things organized, but there are numerous things I kept that will probably never see use.
Cruising by my bookshelf I use ti store my loco's..I see a Folgers K cup box...humm..whats in there I think to myself. I dig it out and there is a huge assortment of Peco electrofrog turnouts I purchased about 10 years ago.. I hate getting old..
These are my forgotten cars and locomotives. These are all that are left after taking most of my ATSF roster to Show Low. The three Kato U30C's, I have been looking for for almost a year before finding them. A great deal of what in these boxes will end up for sale or trade And it is fitting that the images are upside down
I like using Excel for cataloging my trains, but I lack the patience to define and type the sort of things we all amass after years in this hobby. Motor, Mystery, Dual Flywheel, Runs Sometimes, Not Other Times Automobile, Looks Like Nothing I've Ever Seen, Lacking Front Axle Lamppost, Burned Out Grain-Of-Wheat Bulb Coaling Tower, Bachmann, All Busted Up Signal Bridge, Bachmann, Too Narrow For Double Track/Too Wide For Single Track Miscellaneous Tiny Screws Unlikely To Fit Anything I Need Them For Body Shells, Kato, Ruined While Stripping Paint Steam Locomotive Side Rods, 1 PR, Not Sure Where They Came From Locomotive Wheels, 24 Ea, Mehano Etc. Etc. Etc. .....
As a model freightcarologist, I like slightly less-modeled prototypes like 1930s USRA steel rebuilds with the heavy fishbelly center sills, and Texas affiliates of natonally-known trunklines, such as MoPac's International & Great Northern. So when Atlas announced its model of I-GN USRA rebuilds in 2 numbers, I ordered both of them. When I saw them in a hobby shop almost a year later, I snatched them up. Then my old order came in, the one I forgot, so I had 2 of each number. Gave me a good excuse to investigate re-numbering.
Long forgotten purchases? Hoo-boy, this question has gotten me looking at my inventories, my storage boxes, my old photos, and wondering if I would enjoy spending more time on my layout and workbench instead of on the internet. Every few years I remember the undecorated ABBA set of Concor F3s I bought about 1975 with the intent of converting them to FTs, which were not made in N scale at that time. To use for 1950s ATSF freight service in Texas. I now have 2 freight F-unit consists for that service. I pulled out the old undec Concor F3s a couple years ago for a demo shop of background on new layout. I’ve had a Concor Santa Fe DL-109 maybe 25-30 years, I think the real railroad had ONE. Interesting as an oddity. Ran okay but have hardly run it at all. I’ve seen a photo of it running in Houston with an E-6 B unit trailing. Don’t think anybody ever made that in N. I acquired an Atlas E-7 shell and a non-running E-7 with the idea of kitbashing an E-6 B. Sitting in box with the DL-109. I’ve had a Concor Santa Fe DL-109 maybe 25-30 years, I think the real railroad had ONE. Interesting as an oddity. Ran okay but have hardly run it at all. I’ve seen a photo of it running in Houston with an E-6 B unit trailing. Don’t think anybody ever made that in N. I acquired an Atlas E-7 shell and a non-running E-7 with the idea of kitbashing an E-6 B. Sitting in box with the DL-109. I detailed, coupler-converted and zebra-striped an AHM high-hood Alco RSD-15 some, oh? -25 years ago and have 2 more AHM RSD-15s ready to go into service when and if I ever convert, paint and stripe them. When and if. Similarly, I’ve had an Arnold Rapido GP7 in service that I painted and striped 35 years ago (shown). It still runs, but sounds like a coffee grinder. I hadh the idea of running consists of 2 GP units for mainline freights. For that project, I have on hand 3 GP7s and GP9s, one more Arnold Rapido and two Atlas. I could make 2 consists of 2 GP-7/9s. I think bought them late 70s and now that I have them, no urgency to finish. I did major redetailing on a Minitrix H-12-44 switcher and won 3rd place in a regional model contest in 1978. Used it a lot as my main switcher since it was “real Santa Fe”, then then it broke. The plastic underbody fuel tank that holds electrical contacts in place broke, and not a part I could fabricate effectively from non-metal materials. And metal parts would short out. Kept my eyes open for years for a replacement part. Finally, someone sent me an old non-working H-12-44 and I intended to cannibalize the needed part. Now I can’t find the part. My layout is mainly post-steam but I have an old Bachmann northern lying around. Bought it on layaway about 1971 or 72 because I couldn’t afford to buy a $30 loco outright out of my $1.40/hour paycheck. Photoed it on a trip in 1975 in front of preserved prototype in Albuquerque. Hasn’t run since it lost the pin that connects rod to a driver on one side. Found an old steam loco actually forgotten, an Arnold Rapido Pacific 4-6-2. (not shown). I believe I bought it in 1970 in a salvage sale in a tent where the local Woolco store blew down in Hurricane Celia. Die-cast metal body, one of greatest pullers ever. Well, the Pacific is now a 0-6-2 since pilot wheels off but still stored with loco. If I ever get it to run again, it can pull an occasional movie-filming train. Saddest thing is a loco not forgotten but lost. A friend in Alice, Texas who models Tex-Mex gave me a brand new Atlas TexMex GP-38. I don’t model theG P-38 era and it doesn’t fit my layout geographically, but it was a gift and I would feel bad parting with it. Sentimental thing. But I have not been able to find it the last two years. I cannot believe I would have given it away or traded it off. Here it is on a picture staged on a diorama to demonstrate making a background to simulate the Tex-Mex in Alice, Texas.
