They look great! The track cleaning tank car is nice, I may get one of those. The GP7 was a great choice to make, especially in the Standard line.... the Proto 2000 GP7's are great, but very expensive... a less expensive GP7 is indeed welcome!
Last but not least, the EZ track connector pack is also welcome... hopefully it will have that 2" straight we've all been wanting!

Thanks Bachmann,
-Paul

They say that if you pour WS Realistic Water on a nonstick cooking sheet and wait for it to dry, once it has dried and you pop it off you'll have a nice waterfall. I haven't tried this, though, and can't vouch for how well it works.

Quote from: RAM on July 06, 2009, 12:33:46 PM
Ray, What is fun to do and cheap.  Go to Dallas on a weekend and you can buy an all day ticket for DART for about $2.  ride the light rail as much as you want, and I think you can also take the train to Ft Worth. 

Yep, the Trinity Railway Express will take you to Ft. Worth, and a Dart / T pass works on the light rail system, the busses, and yes, the TRE commuter train!

Happy fourth of July, y'all. Enjoy the fireworks and our nation's freedom.
-Paul

Great!
Does shoplifting seem to be an issue? I'll only have one table, so keeping an eye on things should be pretty easy.

How badly has the economy hurt your business?
I could see that it could potentially hurt quite a bit - but it could possibly also help your business., ie, "I don't have the money to buy the expensive new sound-equipped diesel at my local hobby shop, but I'll wait a couple months and pick up a few cheap analog locos at the area train show"
I would think it would hurt your business more than help it, but I could be mistaken.

Thanks for answering all of my questions.

A new white vinyl drop cloth will suffice for a tablecloth, won't it?

Hey guys,
I've been in the hobby for more than 6 years now, and thus have some extra things that just don't fit in with the theme of my layout. I've sold some of them on various forums, but also want to rent a table at a train show to sell more of them. This will be my first time to be a seller at a show rather than a buyer.
Do you have any advice for a new dealer?
-Paul

If this is true, can IHC survive selling only their passenger cars, structures, and other such accesories if Mehano really did go bankrupt?
Most likely, no. Keeping 'secondary' items such as passenger cars and accesories in stock has never been a priority with IHC.

Yes, I agree. Models without DCC sound are better in my book, though I realize the merits of locos with sound...

Case in point: Athearn's sound-equipped Genesis F7's. A couple years ago, they offered them in an A/B set w/sound lettered for the T&P. However, the $300 price tag was (and still is) way too much for my budget. Guess what? I went without, and later bought some analog Proto 2000 F-units at Trainworld for $30 each, and lettered them using discontinued Champ decals I found on eBay.

I think manufacturers should realize that not everyone wants / can afford the high-end stuff, and, especially in a bum economy, should continue to make the more inexpensive, tried and true products.

Fine, one more case in point:
I wish Athearn would continue to manufacture more of its Blue-Box kits. While techinically they do still make them, they're much harder to find, and less are manufactured. I refuse to pay $13 for an RTR car, when I could easily make an identical car from the once standard $6 kit.
Now, when need rolling stock, I wait and go to a swap meet and get Athearn cars for less than $5 each.

I don't mean to pick on Athearn, but its true of other manufacturers, too.

Would a terminal railroad, say in the 50's or so, own its own locomotives and cabooses?

I was reading a back issue of TRAINS magazine in an article where they were talking about 'captive shippers'. They mentioned a couple of exceptions to the rule that an industry would only have on railroad serving it: one exception was the Powder River Basin shared line, an another was a 'neutral terminal railroad'

What's a terminal railroad? How would it differ from a short line?

 ...also have one or two IHC cars (apparently IHC is completely out of business)

No they're not;
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=013

How many come in a box, generally?

My Proto 2000 GP7 had that problem... I think yours might have a split gear.

Quote from: lwmlwm44 on February 19, 2009, 06:39:19 PM


You know it would be neat to have a site here where members could maybe put up some of their stuff for sale........but don't think Bachmann would go for that idea.

The Trainboard forum (www.trainboard.com) has something like that in place already, they call it the "TrainShop". It doesn't have as many people as eBay, but it's free to list! I sometimes put things for sale on there. - I think the link's in my signature.