An east coast on-line N scale dealer is retiring and turned over the business to his brother. Over the past couple of months there have been some very attractive sales going on 'blowing out' old inventory. I've been doing business with this hobby supplier long before their internet on-line presence was started. Today I acquire some 'oldies but goodies' which reminded me of what the hobby was like about 20 years ago. Back then you could get non-DCC ready locos for under $25.00 and freight cars for about $6.00 to $8.00. While not the most detailed nor prototypically correct (in most cases), a newbie could get into the hobby with a relatively low outlay of money for decent equipment. Basically... I paid less than $100 for four locomotives and two freight cars. Today... you 'might' get one locomotive and 1 freight car. The main differences are DCC 'ready' and pre-installed Micro-train couplers. There are ways to make the old equipment DCC ready and changing out couplers is not a big deal for most.
I have been using him for the last 15 years or so. I am not sure how things will go with the brother though......
I recently got an atlas SP SD9, as well as two WP u23 locomotives. The u23s came with decoders almost older than me, I may have to update them to something designed in the last decade.
My freelanced shortline got some 'new' power today, an Athearn F45 with sound. I can't resist the Santa Fe scheme...I'll just turn the BNSF patch into my own.
I've been sticking with the Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) theme I began a few weeks ago on eBay. BLI just released a new batch of F3 and F7 units as well as new runs of E6, E7, E8 and E9 units. Picked up the D&RGW F7's and the SP E7's in Golden State scheme.
I have some new Roundhouse WP box cars coming in the next few days. Always love picking up some new WP equipment!
Well my daughter decided she wanted a train set, so I went to the local train shop and picked up a bunch of UniTrak and a few of the sets and setup a small layout on a hollow core door. So far she is running trains a few hours a day and learning more about trains by asking lots of questions!
It was serandipity... the SP Golden State arrived at the e-tailer site the same day the Golden State Warriors won the NBA title. Maybe it was planned all along... hmmm... Sent from my SM-G530T using Tapatalk
For those who are interested, the following is a list of all of the MP15 Coors locomotives produced by Atlas for the N Scale Enthusiast: ATL 07-01 Road number 2006 (Silver, lettered for Coors Light; part of the multi-manufacturer Coors Train Set) ATL 07-02 Road number C997 (Red) ATL 09-10 Road number C991 (Silver) ATL 09-14 Road number C995 (Red) ATL 09-15 Road number C998 (Red) ATL 09-16 Road number C993 (Silver) In addition, Atlas produced numerous freight cars in various Coors and Coors Light schemes for the N Scale Enthusiast over the years. These include 40' reefers (wood and steel sided), centerflow hoppers, Pines trailers, tank cars and cabooses. Micro-Trains also produced a piggyback car.
Based on this, it looks as if I have at least a couple more units to find! One red and one more silver, plus the Coors Light unit. I’ve seen all sorts of the cars, through eBay. I’m more interested in the locomotives only. Besides, I think the 5 Model Power Coors/Coors Light tank cars is good, and the 25 car MP reefer train is more than enough!! When that train ran at a show, friends knew I was somewhere close!! I think many still do! The list is good to know!
Picked up 6 Red Caboose Bi-Level Auto Rack cars. If you are familiar with these cars, they are getting hard to find. Red Caboose sold out their N scale line to InterMountain and they are no longer in production. I found a internet dealer that showed zero stock on line but when I called him, he had 6 still sitting around so I purchased all 6. Got lucky. Brings my Red Caboose Auto Rack fleet up to 25 cars.
DCESharkman, I love it when kids are involved in a model railroad layout. My daughter helped me make trees for my N scale layout, even sold some to a local hobby shop. She probably made around 150 trees during her senior year of high school. Joe
All separate orders, but they all arrived today. Only got home from work a little while ago. Haven’t run them yet. I’m excited. Atlas 4-4-0 USMRR “Gen. Haupt” from Streamlined Backshop w DCC installation. Atlas 4-4-0 PRR No. 1510 from eBay, no DCC yet. Bachmann W&ARR Boxcars (4)
They run superbly just like all their other models. Well weighted which means they wont string-line off curves or crossovers, and the couplers behave themselves matched to others, including ride height for us. I bought a former bunch and 'donated' them to a friends layout to modernise the fleet since that is the power he used to use. FWIW, dave
