Well, it's been a while since I posted- I've been busy, and right now I'm enjoying a vacation trip with the family. But seeing as I bought some trains, it reminded me I should check in.
Congrats to Anjdevil & Jenni on the marraige!
I wonder why zinc pest is still so prevalent? I can only assume that quality control issues extend to the materials used, not just the assembly process. The less time they spend making sure stuff is well made, the bigger the profit margin
Wayne's kind donation of a pellet smoker kit for my 681 got put to use in the week before we left, I couldn't get it to work at first but the solution was give it more time in neutral to heat up the smoke chamber, and shorten the nichrome wire by a couple turns.
At the moment, I've enjoyed taking many relaxing walks along the beach, mostly hunting for sea glass. Planning another walk this evening. I've been spending more time away from my computer (by choice) than I have in possibly over a year, it's been nice.
I'll maybe keep the detail of 'what did I buy' to another post, but the short version is I visited two palces- a train store I always stop in at least once for the great deals you can get on stuff, and an antique store I'd visited last year that had been willing to part with an awful lot of O gauge trains for dirt cheap. In the latter case, they'd managed to sell off almost everything, and gone the opposite direction- what few things remained were marked well above market value, even at the 50% off sale they were having... apparently they're closing down. I managed to walk away with a couple of the cheaper items after some intense negotiating, but that was it.
As for the former, a very different story. I ended up with a number of things I wasn't expecting to find, but you'd have a hard time finding a better price anywhere else. I found some Gilbert HO rolling stock, including a nearly complete pikemaster set scattered throughout the store. I think everything was there except the locomotive, but the set box didn't come with me as it was in such disgusting condition it shoulda been thrown out ages ago. Also wound up with more Marx ho track than I know what to do with (I only wanted some, but was told to just 'take the whole box', what was I to do?).
In my opinion, the best finds were an LW that's missing the green pilot light cover (Ever since I learned about em, I had to have one, they look way cool!!), another Marx HO Rock Island F3 A-B in ok shape, and a 3356 Horse Car complete with the corral, horses (in their original box), and No. 90 Control Switch. The only thing it's missing as far as I'm concerned is the instruction manual and box! Not in flawless condition, but certainly not too bad. The LW was only $5, I think I paid $10 for the Marx track which had the F3 in it, and the 3356 kit n kaboodle was a steal at $25.
Tomorrow should be fun, some family are going to join us for the day and I should have a little cousin to entertain briefly with my trains.
-Ellie
