Train Show Haul

 As threatened I went to a train show in Simpsonville, SC this morning. It was a small show, but there were some deals to be had. 

On the N Scale front, I was hunting urban buildings and managed to buy four nicely-detailed buildings. Some of the bases will have to come off and the modern cars have got to go. But otherwise, they're quite nice.

I also picked up five ore cars for my I1 to pull. They're quite elderly and as such are equipped with Rapido couplers and deep wheel flanges. The later will have to be replaced. The former I can live with as these cars will be run in a unit train that will pass from one staging yard to the other.

 

 

I also picked up a few things for my children's (really mine) O Gauge layout, the V&R Railroad. One vendor was selling a Lionel USRA 0-8-0 and a trio of freight cars for 60 bucks. That was smoking deal so I snapped that up. That is my son's Victor's train to run. 

I also scored a Lionel Percy for my daughter Rosie. They are both super excited to come upstairs and run the trains. That makes me happy. 

And what Lionel layout is complete without some of those cantankerous operating accessories? None! I snapped up this operating gateman.

Speaking of the V&R Railroad, it's lived on the carpet long enough. I'm planning to build a 5x8 table for all this stuff along with a kid-friendly control panel.

The Train Show Haul

 

As threatened, I ventured to Easley, SC for the Central Railway Model and Historical Association train show. I didn't have my hopes up very high as the past few years were kind of a disappointment with very little N Scale. This year however bucked that particular trend. 

One thing I was hoping to find were some DPM kits to finish of Johnstown. Not only did I find some but, they were an absolute steal at $6.00 apiece! They normally sell for $13 to $18. So needless to say I snapped them right up. Normally I like to walk through a train show before buying anything just to get the lay of the land, but in this case, I knew if I didn't buy them right then an there, they'd be gone.

My other big find was a fully-reconditioned Lionel KW transformer. At 190 watts, the KW is the slightly less-powerful little brother of Lionel's legendary ZW. When I built the V&R railroad for my kids, all I had were a pair of train set transformers. I found that Postwar-era Lionel locomotives overloaded them in short order. But the KW can run this pipsqueak of a layout without breaking a sweat.

Despite being 60 years old, ZW and KW transformers remain in high demand and as such usually command premium prices. There is a caveat, they must be reconditioned or subject to a thorough safety check before being put into use. Mine was reconditioned with a new power cord, new rectifier disks and new rollers. I paid $70. You can find them as is for less but it's not worth risking electrocution or burning the house down.

Phone System Upgrade, Scenery and the V&R Railroad

With summer over and the craziness of Thanksgiving behind us, I finally felt ready to get back to work on the layout. I know I haven't been posting nearly as frequently as I used to. Part of the reason is the demands of having a two-year-old and an infant. On top of that, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year and as such spent all of my spare time in November writing. But now, I'm finally back in the saddle.

The first thing I did was upgrade the phone system. As mentioned previously, you could pick up two phones and talk but there was no way to make them ring. To solve that problem, I ordered a device called a Private Branch Exchange or PBX. I got it for about $60 off Amazon. It allows you to connect up to eight phones. Now you pick up the phone, dial the extension you want and the phone rings. If you're looking for an inexpensive way to add a phone system to the layout, this is the way to go.

Another project I'd been dragging my feet on is building the mountains at the entrance to Johnstown. Plaster is a lot of work, I just didn't feel like doing it. I finally sucked it up and did it. I then used patching plaster to create rock outcroppings.Now the mountains need paint and the rocks need stain. A friend of mine (Hi Jess!) told me I should "Bob Ross it up," so in that spirit I'll "put some happy lichen trees" on there. Once all that's done, I'll ballast the track.

 

One more reason I've not made much progress on the Pittsburgh Division is, it's no longer the only layout in the train room. I brought some of my old O-Gauge equipment back from my parents house and whipped up the V&R railroad. It's name for my kids, Victor and Rosalie. 

The layout consists of two loops of Lionel tubular track. The curves on the outer loop are O-54 and the O-31 on the inner. The O-54 is great for my son whose idea of operation is to hurtle the trains around at top speed. The train on the outer loop and can hold the rails while the train on the inside usually goes careening off.

Scenery was dead simple, a few cotton snow blankets from the dollar store, some snow trees and ceramic houses I had laying around and that was it. Right now the layout is on the floor, which works  for my kids at the moment, but ultimately, I'd like to mount it on plywood. 

So that's all for this update. I'n the coming weeks, I'll be building a Cornerstone Ice House and laying more track in Johnstown. Stay tuned.