Here's a nice car I'm adding to my in-progress Milwaukee North Western 3-rail O-gauge layout. This 1/43 scale Milwaukee Road '32 Ford Coupe by Motor Max was ordered directly from the Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club (MLRC) website. One doesn't have to be a member of that club to order from their site which is a good thing cuz that would jack the price up significantly. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
Well, as I haven't done a TRAIN TIME post in a while and all my toy photography has slowed down while working the photo scanning project I thought it would nice to pull some stuff from the archives. I may even make this a regular feature having way more than enough photos to do a post like this every Friday.
The train guys have what's called "Front End Friday (FEF)" wherein we post a photo of the front of any locomotive: toy, model, or real.
"Hello. My name is Ed and I'm a Hiawathaholic."
For Front End Friday a Two-Fer-One special: Toy train + 12"-to-the-foot scale:
1st photo: Hiawatha No. 1 Class A Alco May 1935 No.68684 Retired Nov 9 1951 (photographer unknown, print bought off eBay)
2nd photo: Pre-war American Flyer O-gauge Hiawatha on my small layout
Made in 2007 by Accu-Spec Sales & Manufacturing for First Response Replicas, this Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (C.M.St.P. & P. - aka The Milwaukee Road) Railroad staff car is a terrific addition to my fleet of vehicles and trains lettered generally for Wisonsin or the Milwaukee Road in some way, shape, or form. It was my goal earlier in the year to start photographing more of my diecast vehicles but as always happens with me I got sidetracked - and you can bet there's gonna be more side roads taken here before long!! Ya know, I don't have GPS - not on my cell phone (which BTW is the cheapest piece of crap on the market, just short of two tin cans tethered together by a string), not in my car, no where, no how. But not having a GPS over the years has allowed me to get lost and see some innerestin' sights. Whenever I do things like that I tell Bettina, "We're takin' the 25¢ tour!" LOL Anyway, I hope you liked taking this 25¢ tour of First Response's CMStP&P Ford Two Door Sedan. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
First Response C.M.St.P. & P. staff car with Road Champs Wisconsin State Patrol car
I pulled out some New Marx Trains/Ameritrains engine and rolling stock a couple of days before New Year's and played with trains during a rare couple of hours straight of 'me' time. Marx Trains was the company formed in 1993 by Jim and Debby Flynn under license by Jay Horowitz of 'American Plastics' who had revitalized the Marx playset line with new licensing under the 'Marx Toys' masthead. In 2004 Marx Trains was sold to someone else and the firm re-named 'Ameritrains'. By this time a series of legal entanglements, over-investing in new tooling, and a general decline in collector interest of tinplate spelled doom for the line and by 2007 Ameritrains was history. Sad because between Marx Trains (often referred to as 'New Marx' by collectors) and Ameritrains there was some gorgeous products.
The biggest drawback to the New Marx/Ameritrains line were the engines. The newer engines used can motors vs. the open frame motors of the originals and they were simply poor pullers. It's hard to get a New Marx/Ameritrains engine to pull 6-7 cars reliably. I've seen videos of older original Marx engines pulling upwards of 30 cars and I've had the older engines pull nearly 20 cars on my old train layout.
That being said it's still a treat owning and operating the newer stuff even if they don't pull a lot of cars and now that I'm running a very small layout that whole argument of pulling long consists is immaterial because short trains look better. Anwho, I started the evening by 'dressing' the 'Jeep' layout for The Milwaukee Road by pulling out a Milwaukee Road engine and rolling stock and a tin-litho station made by Sunset Trains and Toys and lettered for The Milwaukee Road. In addition, I finally placed my New Marx 'Lumar Dinor' on the layout - first time it's been used. Also, this time around I also pulled out some 'Built-Rite' scenic backdrops I'd recently acquired. It's a lot of fun being able to change the look of the layout by swapping out buildings and scenery elements. So let's see get on with the show. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Ameritrains No.8501 Milwaukee Road Chippewa 2-4-0 Engine and Tender
Better coverage of the Lumar Dinor will be forthcoming
Shots along the right-of-way
There are three Built-Rite panels with mountain scenery on them and two Built-Rite panels with cityscape. There wasn't enough room in the back of the layout to set them up properly but it was good to see them in use anyway
