Merry Christmas to all at Bachmann who work with a love and passion for this hobby that brings a lot of joy to all us "kids"!!!
Santa is bringing a WBB CNW big Hopper, a Chessie GP-38 and a CN Gondola with the barrels!!!
Dad's Getting the Seaboard RS-3!!!!! Mrs. Klaus has been workin on that !!!!!!
Oh and yes more TRack!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing.
Don't ask for nor want people to waste their money on buying me model railroad stuff for Christmas as people generally do not know what I need. I am very scale, location and era specific.
I really need track, particularly number six switches but track laying has ground to a halt since Atlas's production facility in China dumped them for a better deal from another company.
There's been a lack of Atlas code 83 track and switches for months now and I also need half a dozen code 100 switches for my staging yard. So, until deliveries start to happen, no track laying. :(
word has it that my better half is getting me an ipod big enough to hold all my music, almost 5k songs. music is my other big passion besides trains. Amtrak will send me a couple passenger trains, and ns is going to be ornery and not run anything at all, so i'll probably drive over to demmler and see what goodies csx has left sitting around for the holiday.
stuff for the layout? most of mine sits in boxes because I long ago ran out of room......
No one gives me any presents any more. I get what I want for myself. So ... people ask me how old I am this year and I pick a random number. Then they buy gifts for a child that age and I give them to charity. This avoids disappointment all around as well as making me seem sufficiently virtuous that my wife doesn't say too much when I purchase trains for myself. Well, sometimes she has something to say but I keep my buying pretty reasonable, at least from my perspective.
Mostly I just try to outlast Christmas. My father died suddenly on Christmas Eve when I was a kid and my mother died suddenly on Christmas morning some years ago so the whole thing is an experience of being completely out of sync with the rest of the world. It's crazy, I know, but I expect to die on Christmas. It's a family tradition, after all. But I always feel great when I wake up on the 26th. It's like my contract has been renewed for another year and, best of all, Christmas won't be everywhere for a while and I can feel like a normal person.
All of that notwithstanding, I hope each of you has a truly wonderful holiday and lots of warm, happy feelings with your families.
-- D
I'm getting a Dynamis Pro Box and a Bachmann 2-6-0 CN Mogul with sound. Found 2 good deals on Ebay.
No bachmann products this year but I can take pictures of the ones I own with my new camera and listen to my Alice Cooper Flush the fashion CD that I got from my sister as I run them. Model Citizen comes to mind, cause they got me fooled again! Every time I go to the club the little guys keep moving around, last time one was being eaten by a nuclear bush from under the porch. :D
don't have any kids . So I treated myself well , got a good deal on a couple of bachmann train sets in HO scale & now own a Ringling Bros. and B. & B. , and A Chattanooga Train set . Didn't have any 0-6-0 locos in the collection . Now if my lottery tickets would payoff . I would be "amused" and so would my bankers . The IRS , they are never amused but always interested . Hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas and will have a healthy & prosperous New Year . "Prosit zum Wohl " !!! J2.
doneldon
Sorry to hear about your parents passing on Christmas.
My Mother in Laws' Dad and Brother both died on Christmas Day. They were fishermen in Galway Ireland and a hugh storm came up and they both ran out to the harbor to beach the boat and they drowned.
There is a old Catholic lore that says that those that die on Christmas Day go to Heaven.
Dean Martin died on Christmas Day. I grew up listening to his music as my parents loved him and Frank Sinatra.
Losing a parent is always a big blow. I know it was for me. What's interesting is my 5th child a son was born in the same year my Dad died. That kid loved trains from a early age at at age 4 found my Dad's trains which I had packed away and kept opening the boxes and wanted me to set them up. I did have a G-Scale train for around the Christmas tree but did not have a permanent set up. Well because of Joey we set up Dad's trains and having those locomotives come to "life" again really brought back a lot of memories. Since then we have added a lot more pieces( mostly Bachmann !!-Thanks Bachmann) and are having a lot of fun making new memories, telling stories about my Dad and "Uncle Joe" who he is named after, who also would come over and help us build mountains and paint them as he was a professional artist.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I got a lump of coal :'( Oh wait! I can break it up and use it as a hopper load ;D 8) ;)
GG-1
You're an optimist
Fred-
Thank you for your kind words and the story about your son and your father's
trains. Trains are one of the ways I keep contact with my Dad, too.
-- D
I forgot to add Joey just turned 10 last month. So for 6 years we have been having alot of fun together.
On another thread I ranted about how Joey went from having some reading difficulty coming out of Kindergarden and by 2nd grade was reading at a 6th Grade level!!!!!!!!!!!!
When his teachers asked what we did I said we read train magazines, books and work on his "Train Layout".
THis hobby actually GIVES to us a lot more than the joy, fun, and pleasure of our particpation.
In a recent book Neil Young wrote Right off the bat from chapter one he talks about model trains and what it has done for his autistic child. We the hobbyists have benefited SO much from what Neil Young did for his son.
It truly is a 2 way street. The gold also lies in the lasting memories and friendships we make. I can say everywhere I go when I visit a hobby shop and start chatting with other train folks, they are nice people and always willing to help out with a question about a particular item wiring etc.
I always enjoyed Neil Young's music I have enjoyed him even more since learning what hobby he loves. I personally believe his input helped save an industry that was in a crisis.
Anyway hope to read more stories
Thanks always for sharing!!!!!!!
Santa was good, or at least thought I was.
2 GP-7's, with a third along the way, along with an RS-3, all Southern road.
E-6 AB Southern.
A modern tank car, again Southern.
A ballast hopper, undec.
And a Southern caboose already with metal wheels and knuckle couplers.
Also have some 12.5r EZ-Track coming with the lokies.
That will tide me well into the New Year.
It's great to be in N scale.
Happy New Year
Joking aside, I did buy myself an early gift or two just before Christmas, and around 2 o'clock today will buy a third.
First I bought a second MPC-Lionel, Chromed, Rock Isle & Peoria 4-4-0 "General" so I could bash in a front coupler and double head them (worked great, ran Christmas Eve 4-5 hrs not one hick-up). While there at the sellers home, I also bought back a MARX Commodore Vanderbilt freight set I regrettably sold (somehow forgetting it was the one in the family since new :o Oops). The man somehow new I would regret it and had saved it for me all this time. Wouldn't take more than $65 he paid either ;D. Though not a huge tin plate fan, today I should be the proud owner of a set of tin passenger cars and another Commodore! If I can trade/sell the second engine for a MARX Mercury, my tin plate aspirations will be about 90% complete lacking only a nice MARX station.
For my birthday I'm going to buy back the BL-2 too You just don't know what you've got till its gone sometimes ;)
BL-2-the most ugliest loco, ever :D
Lets see. On Sat the 21st it was my birthday. GOT up in the morning and had a breakfast sandwich. Walked the dog and thought I had indigestion. Came home and both my arms were hurting like they were hit by a base ball bat. Went to the emergency room and found out I was having a heart attack. One artery 100% blocked and 2 more partial. Within 1 hour both were fixed with stints and I get to stay around for another birthday and Christmass. They went thru my wrist with the wire in a hole no bigger then a mosquito bite. Can't say enough about how great they were at to hospital. Was home on Monday afternoon.
THURSDAY afternoon bought a new lap top and took delivery of a N scale 2-10-2 I ordered. One great week.
I guess you can count your blessings and be glad you are here to be able to tell us about it. Good Health to you in the New Year!
Dear Bobwrgt
That''s the best story!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a present you were smart enough to get over to the ER!!!!
Which artery was 100% blocked ? If it is what they call the LAD(it's not a light bulb) then you really had a good guardian angel looking after you because in medicine it's called the "Widow maker".
Have great Holiday and treat yourself well!!!!
You are correct. I thank the lord for a good day.
It was like being on an episode of Gray,s Anatomy. Also what a birthday party it was , there were a bunch of nurses ripping my clothes off.
I guess the important thing was to get to the ER before any real damage was done to the brain also. If you have chest pain and your arms hurt get to an ER fast. Glad I only live 8 blocks away.
Well, I can say that I did not get a heart attack for Christmas. :o Glad you are OK!
I did get a book called, "The Last Steam Railroad in America" about the last years of steam on the Norfolk and Western RR. With photos by O. Winston Link and story by Thomas H. Garver.
a bunch of nurses ripping my clothes off
Too bad it wasn't just that. That sounds like a lot of fun ;D
Well Bob its unlikely that story will be topped! :o I mean who doesn't want a 2-10-2? :D (glad youre OK ;))
I am the proud owner of a seven car prewar tin passenger train set now ($30 ;D). The new Commodore Vanderbilt isn't the right engine to match what turned out to be UP cars but its still cool. He is holding a very salvageable prewar Lionel 253 set for me too ($40). Guess I will be a bit over my original tin plate limit :-\ but with prices like that, I cant refuse 8)
Quote from: jbrock27 on December 28, 2013, 08:34:27 AM
BL-2-the most ugliest loco, ever :D
:D Not too sure about that. Take a look at an UP M-10000 (the correct engine for the tin train I bought today. :D)
:D Besides, I like ugly, Im a VW beetle and Dodge A-100 fan remember? 8)
You're right, the M-1000 is uglier!
I think the Bug is cute (just don't like the air cooled engine) and the Dodge, well that's just cooooolll man !! 8)
QuoteCheesy Besides, I like ugly, Im a VW beetle and Dodge A-100 fan remember? Cool
GG I have not heard anyone talk about the A100 in a long time. One of my favorites also.
Jerry
Finished of with another F7 alaska so now i have a A B A set up b unit have changed over to sound from another railroad . some coal cars and a 4x4 ploaris atv with snow plow my old john deere 52 b i didnt want to keep starting it in the cold to do the drive way with . more time for the railroad is the key for life DAve
here ya go...We were good boys this year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNXKUYnBElY&feature=share&list=UUHt0AMIYW5JAFV_Ja1wiVPg&index=2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNXKUYnBElY&feature=share&list=UUHt0AMIYW5JAFV_Ja1wiVPg&index=2)
Balrog
Great video lots of fun to watch.
What's happening to the O-Gauge layout you were workin on?
Happy New Year everyone!!!