good show finds

I did pretty good this weekend at the Worlds Greatest Hobby show in Puyallup Wa. I found a Atlas Kato EL GP35 for $30, a Delux GN chip car for $6, what was left of a Kato U30C shell and box for $5, brand new Kato GP50 BN whiteface for $40, and traded a dash-9 for a new Kato BN C30-7 plus a MT box car. All in all a good show with 3 N scale group set up. I am already dreaming about fixxing up the GP50 with the correct blower, anti-climbers and side sill mods to get a more correct look for a late model GP50.
Kevin

 

Sounds like it was a good show. Sorry I missed it. I did hit he Boeing Employees swap meet last week and got quite a few good deals there. Especially happy to get some Micro Structures etched brass buildings for $25.00 each. 2 digitrax decoders for Kato F7 @ $20, and six Red Caboose GN flat cars for $30.

And perhaps the coolest booth at the show was Ngineering. They had a bunch of things wired up with their nano-leds, and they were incredible.

 

Last weekend I got a Kato CN -9 for $59 in roseville, ca.




dave t

 

I thought it was a fun show as well. I originally was excited that there would be the big guns there - Atlas, Kato, Walthers, etc. - but they really didn't have much to offer. I did enjoy seeing the Athearn propane tankers, and plan to buy 1 or 2 when those come out. Props to the guy in the Walther's booth. He entertained countless kids with his Train and Race Car set. Those kids would have those race cars flying all over the place. And the Milwaukee GP20 racing around was fun, too.

I bought a couple of ExactRail 50' TTX boxcars for about $3 off list - not bad considering they are new and probably in demand still. I also bought several semi trailers at a little over 1/2 list price. My oddest purchase was a single Intermountain 2 bay covered hopper for BNSF. It was without trucks or a box, and was $2. I've been wanting a couple of the brown BNSF versions, and since I probably have a couple of extra sets of trucks rollin' around, I figured what they heck.

The layouts were great, and it's nice to see N scale really represented. The Mt Rainer group is consistently good, though I think I've taken about a million pics of them over the years. The 4-D group (can't remember exactly their name) was good, too. This was the second time I've seen them, and in addition to a roundy round Ntrak set up, thy have a decent sized branch line that runs off onto its own benchwork. I wish all the Ntrak groups would do something similar - and operate it. They operated theirs some, but it is hit and miss it seems. Finally, the United Northwest group was there as usual. They have a great new scene that they've been working on for a while that is coming together nicely (mains split by a river down a valley/canyon). However, the thing I've noticed the past few times I've seen them is that they don't seem to have much running. I'm not sure if it's just my timing or what, but while the other groups will have 1-3 trains out running at all times, this group doesn't seem as together or something. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, and it's just bad timing on my part, but I would think that there should be a consistency in that regard at a show. Just my 2 cents.

Overall, a lot of fun, and many great things to see if only my budget was bigger. Tons of families/kids, so right there they achieved much of their goal.

-Dave

 

Dave,
I'm not sure about the UNW Legacy layout, but over on the UNW Ntrak layout we had at least 6 or 7 trains running most of the time. Saturday we had Thomas and all of his friends running on the green (mountain) line to the delight of all of the kids. In addition, we had Thomas movies playing at our drive-in.

Allen
Federal Way,WA

 

You know, I forgot that they had two set ups. If by legacy layout you mean the one with the elaborate curves/bridges at the one end as well as the new river scene, then yes that's the one I am referring to. The past few times I've seen the layout it seems that there isn't as much activity going on. Again, that's just my personal experience at the moments that I'm there.

Hope I didn't come off sounding negative about it. It wasn't a bad thing, but I think I get excited to see trains running through their new river area, and I end up standing there for 5 minutes waiting for something to come along and you just lose interest. I will say this: People seem to love the "Look for XYZ..." papers that they (you) give out. Where's the bigfoot, etc. Lots of excitement for folks looking for a diversion from just the trains.

-Dave

 

I made the three hour drive down and was very impressed. I finally found myself a DRGW heritage SD70ace, ($100), and also picked up the KATY heritage loco ($75) from TexNrails. I was very impressed with the amount of inventory they brought, took me over half hour to go through it all quickly!

I was impressed by the layouts too. The only two I had seen before were the Mt Rainer, and the club that really nice bridge scene. I would have to agree with you, I didn't see much running on the layout that had the bridge scene. First time by only 1 train running. Second time, nothing running at all. Its a shame they don't run more. I also like the club with the branch line added on. Wish my club would do that!

This was the first show I have been to with the big manufacturers there. Unfortunately the people I wanted to grill most were Atlas, but the only rep there was an O scale guy, and claimed he had no idea what was going on in the other scales. Alright if you say so.... cool: There was a ton of locos on display at Atlas though! The walthers booth was pretty cool, and the kids were having alot of fun with it. I watched a kid crash a racecar at full speed into the Milwaukee engine, but the rep wasn't even that worried. The other manufacturer booths were alright, but nothing to exciting, although the HO Athearn SD70ACe's were sure nice!

Anyways, I consider it worth my trip down, and will probably come back next time it rolls around in 5 or so years!

 

Mr. Riffle & group.

I'm Peter Kim and I am the Club President of the United Northwest.

Firstly thank you for your candid observation regarding our Legacy layout. The layout itself is going on 30+ years now and was getting pretty long in the tooth.

Recently we started, and are in the middle of major improvements (electrical & module additions) to the layout. However since the layout is housed in a trailer for most of the year, we sometimes only get to see it in its full configuration at shows. Unfortunately that's where we encounter problems. Also we have dedicated personnel for areas of the layout (electrical, scenery, infrastructure) etc based on people's backgrounds and expertise. So when we're down, the guys are working underneath and not much happens. It's a bit different dynamic from the other "true modular" groups that are a bit more bulletproof and have ability to operate more trains.

However things are getting better as the electrical improvements alone have reduced our troubleshooting downtime, and hopefully when our improvements are completed we'll be good for a long time. It's frustrating when we have issues, but we just have to keep a good sense of humor about it.

 

Kevin, I found the correct blowers for my GP50's from Kaslo Shops. Not sure if they still are around. I got them from Central Hobbies up in Vancouver, BC. I may have some around - let me look. Otherwise you can do surgery on some Atlas SD50/60's.

 

Thanks Peter, I was going to order up some SD60/50 parts but I will look into Kalso as it would be easier to get them redy to go. I looked for you at the show but did not see you.
Kevin

 

Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the show. Since our container ships arrive on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday every week, my weekends are always shot.

 

You work in the ports?

 

Ok, since no-one has asked - where have you hidden the Atlas curved turnouts???

 

Yes, I work in Marine Operations for Hanjin at T46 in Seattle, watching over the ships.

Unfortunately no, I don't know where the Atlas track is.

 

I went to the show but didn't buy much as things have been extremely slow at work lately. But did browse around and look at factory booths. Talked to the guys at Atlas and gave my $0.02 on making a chop nose GP-7/9. They said they would definitely take it back to the factory and discuss it with the right people. YAY!!!
I spent the majority of my time gluing the cold deck log stack in the log yard and doing some scenery around the lumber mill on the UNW legacy layout.

 

Thanks for the reply, Peter. What you say pretty much matches with what I felt. It seemed like they were in just a bit of disarray, but if they weren't able to run much due to electrical/project things, then that explains it. Certainly the other layout had more going on.

BTW, I miss seeing your MILW SD90's on the layout. They are very cool to a MILW fan.

-Dave

 

David,

Thanks again. I'm glad that you remember the Milwaukee SD90's. I still remember a show where an older gentleman came up to me and stated in a really condescending tone, "You know, the Milwaukee never had those didn't you know?" I just pleaded the 5th and claimed to not know that the Milwaukee Road never had SD90MAC's. Too funny.

Anyways thanks again and hopefully I can properly introduce myself at the next show.

We are displaying at the Pacific Science Center Show in January, and of course our own show in Monroe on Feb 6-7 next year.

Take care and have a great Thanksgiving everyone!