More Steamtown Pics!

Steamtown NHS August 2012

Just wrapping up the summer bucket list and this is one of my key to do's: visiting Steamtown in Scranton, PA.  If you haven't been here on one of the many jaunts to York or the like, you really should go.  If you like trains and are interested in how they work (along with Trolleys), Steamtown is a national treasure.  It is one of the few places to get a good, close up look at UP's best loco as well (hint, it is "Big").

Marc

PS Check out my Pinterest site for some very close paint and detail shots of the trains.  The textures these 100 year old items produce (and my camera can take) are really something.  You can almost smell the fresh paint!  Click on the pics to blow them up!

 The inside of a mail car (above)...

 (look familiar?  Lionel reproduced these in different gauges)

 Just a way cool little train in front of the Trolley Museum.

The ZW Prototype Grand Daddy of them all (above and below)!

At Rockefeller Center...

Ya I know, we've all seen it before. Never gets boring though, love the signage!!  Especially at Rockefeller Center (was there last night!).

Marc

No more GG1's.

You can't open a toy train magazine these days without at least 5 advertisements and no less than 40 references to the GG1.  In 2012, there ARE actually other trains that do run in the United States that are COOL and unique.  I myself have 4 O gauge GG1's and a few standard gauge flavors so I like the product but enough is enough.

In a nutshell, this thing has been beaten to a pulp.  Can the O gauge train producers and magazine editors please put the breaks on the enthusiasm for this particular engine?  I can count the times I've been excited about the GG1:

#1  Seeing one on a side track in NJ a few years back.
#2  Seeing a very nice one in the museum in PA.
#3  Seeing numerous GG1's on my pike as well as on many club pikes.
#4 Talking to and making friends with an actual engineer that piloted PA GG1's (that should probably be #1)
#5 Watching a standard gauge loco roll around the giant SGMA pike.

And there are a few others.  Suffice to say though, when I open a new catalog or eBay or anything and see yet more GG1's with an exciting modification of more accurate paint and grab railing application, my heart not only doesn't flutter but I actually get irritated.  More of the same made in Asia.   Concentrate on making less of what is already there and focus on quality and (dare I say), exclusivity.  End of rant...

Marc

In Seattle, these should be standard gauge!

While I am not usually a fan of purple trains, this streetcar in Seattle would be a wonderful addition to any standard gauge fleet.  Isn't it time that we move standard gauge into the 21st century with something like this?  And these things do move really nicely as well and they are near silent.  Oh yes, I took this yesterday, I am standing a few feet away.  Very cool streetcar system!  Tried the monorail but there was a line to get on, decided not to.

Marc

What the?

I just saw some of the prices people are asking on eBay.  They still are looking at the books and thinking that  mint in the box for reproductions gets full/list price!  Or that a trashed mess is still worth mint in box/full price!  People, people, people...  Really?  Do you think anyone is really going to buy that MTH 384e for $750?  Are you kidding?  Sheesh.

Marc