Episode 8

Trains in Europe, Big Boy and deadlines

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Rare Orders, I'm Jim Fellows, and um Brian Johnson is not here today. Uh he's been very busy lately and uh will be joining us again in the future. But in the meantime, I wanted to make sure we got some more episodes out. Um, the last time we dropped an episode was March 31st, so very behind. So I apologize for that. It's been a busy, busy spring and early summer, and anybody who lives in cold climates can appreciate once uh the weather breaks, uh doing things outside is uh both a priority and a desire to be out there. So that's where things stand now. Um I'm gonna do things a little different today. Uh first of all, I'm gonna talk a little bit about uh what I did in during my time off here from the the podcast. Besides the normal, you know, work and do yard work and and things of that nature. But uh my wife and I were actually lucky enough to be able to travel over to Europe for uh for ten days. We uh spent time in Hungary and Austria. Um Budapest and Hungary to be exact. Uh and one of the neat things about that is traveling over in Europe is uh a fantastic uh passenger rail system, fantastic uh tram systems within the cities. Um you know, i in both Budapest and Vienna, you have you know above ground trams, you have um subways, buses, the the the the public transportation is second to none, really. Um and so I if you do go over to Europe, that is the the way to travel. But in particular, I wanted to talk about the the regular main line heavy rail trains. We traveled from Budapest to Vienna and then from Vienna to Salzburg, and uh we did return back to Vienna all by um traditional heavy rail, all electric. Um, and what I found interesting is I think to me it would resembled what maybe the 50s looked like in the United States for rail service, uh frequent passenger trains, um, small yards in every town of size. Now, a lot of the industry along there that used to be served by rail was not necessarily not necessarily served by rail anymore, but there were still um uh uh local switchers based in these towns, things like that. Um, a lot of them were diesel, they could go off to some of the little branch lines you saw going off. Um on a two-hour trip from uh Vienna, I mean from Budapest to Vienna was uh I saw at least six freight trains going the opposite direction, and uh numerous other passenger trains. Um the passenger trains we were on were all very clean, timely. Um, the infrastructure was in excellent shape. It was interesting to note that uh Hungary being a little poorer country, uh you know, not in good financial condition as Austria. Um some of the infrastructure was older and such, but still in good condition where you got into Austria, things were more modern, newer, um, but still, you know, again, excellent service in both both locations. So, you know, it's kind of like a like I said, a throwback to to frequency, um, type of service, the type of locations where so many of the small yards and things in the United States seem to be gone now, and it's it's all you know much larger and and so on. This is uh it was very interesting. Uh, I will be posting, I did post some pictures to my personal blog site. Um you can take a look at that. And uh I thought it was really cool. Um, you know, something definitely could very modelable. Uh I don't know anything about European model trains, you know. I don't obviously I know they have them, and it's very popular in Europe. So, you know, look at something different. Or if you are based in uh I know I have several listeners in Germany and so on, that you know, fantastic stuff. I traveled by train in Germany a number of years ago, and same thing, fantastic service, uh and uh just very different than the United States, at least of today. Um, so that's one thing. Uh second thing I was able to do this summer um was I made a trip down to Steamtown. I haven't been to Steamtown since it moved to uh Scranton, Pennsylvania, to give you an idea. And I think it moved down there in the 80s. When I was a kid, I remember going once or twice with my my parents when it was in Bellows Falls, uh Vermont, and um vague memories of it. I don't have great memories of that, but uh my wife and I went down there. We were able to see the uh big boy uh the Union Pacific is literally parading around the United States. Uh wasn't fortunate enough to see it under its moving under its own power while we're there. They were doing some service on it and such, um, which I knew was going to happen. So, you know, I wasn't uh disappointed in that case, but uh pretty pretty incredible machine parked next to the one that is uh on display at Steam Town, which is uh it's cosmetically restored. It doesn't operate, but it looks fantastic. Um, I think it's a great thing that the the UP has done in uh for the celebration of the United States 250th anniversary. Um, that they brought this out and was able to run it across the country. Very, very cool, uh, very cool thing to see. Um, and I know it's been a very popular thing, but uh back to Steam Town. Um neat to see uh a lot of uh engine facilities there, very typical, again, built pre-World War II. A lot of this stuff is sometimes some of it even older, um modernized over time for the um oh boy. I'm gonna blow it now, but uh believe it was the Lackawanna, or was it the Erie? I don't know. One of the two terrible, isn't it? Um facilities there, a lot of uh nice steam engines on display, a lot of nice looking diesels on display, a lot of stuff that needs restoration yet. Um one thing uh neat there was the the local regional line had uh one of their M360s, which is basically the Montreal Locomotive Works version of the Alco 3630s, uh painted in um uh patriotic colors as similar to what the DH did back in the day in the bicentennial years in 1976. So that was cool to see to hear that run and move under its own power. Um that is cool. I'm a big diesel guy, alcohol guy. Uh, so that was cool to see. Yeah, and um a lot of fun, a lot of neat stuff there. I highly recommend it. It's free to get in. Um, you can go on a basic train ride for I think seven, eight dollars a person. So, you know, some neat stuff there. Um, they have longer train rides, you didn't really have the time. We're cramming a lot into a weekend, uh, because from there we ended up going down to southern Pennsylvania. Uh, one of the goals was to go to uh Longwood Gardens. If you enjoy beautiful gardens and things, Longwood is a place to go. But uh well, on the way there, we're able to hit the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum, which is literally across the street from the Strasbourg Railroad. Didn't have a chance to ride the Strasbourg, but did tour the um Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Uh again, their focus is Pencil railroads that ran in Pennsylvania for the most part, but you know, fantastic displays there. Um, you know, beautifully restored GP30, steam locomotives, uh, E44, uh Penzi Electric in there, outside, a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, the outside was closed, the access to that was closed off. You can only see it from the street, but again, another fantastic rare, or it wasn't real expensive to get into the museum. Um, you know, there's stuff for kids there, uh, activities and stuff, so you know, good for the family to go. Um, and you can go on a uh knee train ride at the Strasbourg Railroad across the street, and again, that's steam powered, so that's again very, very cool. So, again, I highly recommend that. Um, kind of jumping back into our uh normal type discussions that we have on uh the uh frugal model rail order. Um saw an announcement that the manufacturer Westerfield they make uh or they did make, unfortunately. Um they have decided to close up shop, and uh, I believe the organ companies for sale for somebody interested, but they uh they're suspending or stopping production. Um, you know, maker of resin kits from the for a long time, long time uh resin kit manufacturer. This is on at least its second owner that's decided to to call a quits. And uh I don't know if the gentleman's retiring or what what the exact story is, but I do know they're closing it, it's for sale, um, which is a blow to the hobby in some ways because uh they manufactured a lot of the older style uh freight cars and things pre-World War II, uh certainly a lot of post-World War II too, but a lot of the older uh equipment, World War I era, um teens, twenties, thirties, that is kind of missed by uh a lot of the uh plastic manufacturers. I mean, there's a few out there. Accurail has some stuff and on some of their 36-foot cars and such that they've been starting to manufacture. So the gaps are slowly being filled that way, but um, you know, definitely, definitely a hit to the system, especially the people that like to do um uh the craftsman style resin kits. Uh I'll be the first to confess I've never built one of their models. I do have a couple kits in the stash that uh I need to build. Um, so it's definitely on my thing. So if there's something out there you want, keep your eyes open at shows or eBay, and um I'm sure over time they will only go up in price uh unless somebody does buy it out, which I hope that happens. But uh I was reading somebody else's that most resin manufacturers their uh most of their money comes from the newer releases of products, and that older stuff tends to be uh the as I say, the back catalog seems to be slow moving. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see what happens. Um, again, I would love to see somebody get it, but uh we'll we'll see what comes down the line. Uh new products. I haven't been paying super close attention. One that did jump out at me is Bowser is coming out with an N9 caboose. Now, for those wondering, those were built very early. Penn Central, they are the transfer cabooses, basically looks like uh a rectangular shed on a flat car, which is basically what it is. It's a rectangular shed on the frame of a box car, is what it actually is. Um, this is different than what Buford models has come out with in the past. Um, this is very accurate for Penn Central, Conrail, a couple other ones, uh PLE. Look like they're gonna be very cool cabooses coming out sometime next year. Uh price on those is 129, call it 130. Um, street price, I'm sure, will be a little lower. So not an inexpensive item, but at the rate of what cabooses are going from tangent from Ather and from Rapido, it's it's what the new line of cabooses go for these days. Um, but they're fantastic, and they're probably nicer than the uh the only ones I know of like these out there are the N6 caboose, manufactured by I want to say NJ International. Produced these back in the 70s. They're a brass caboose, not bad looking, uh proportionately good and such, and very little underframe detail. Um they run from anywhere from 50 to 150 dollars, don't come with trucks, aren't painted. So, you know, I think in the scheme of things, you know, the one to 130 caboose is the 150 dollar caboose is a thing that is uh gonna stay, you know. I know probably 20 years ago one of the gentlemen that runs the local used to run the local hobby shop, he doesn't have it anymore. Um he and I talked at the time there was a the $50 caboose at the time was just coming out, and we're like, it is there is a place for the $50 caboose. Well now there's a place for the $125, $150 caboose, road specific, super detailed, lit, um, ready to go. Um, you know, again, there are other ways to go. Atlas, Ather and other people make nice cabooses, they might be a little more generic, less specific, but not always. Um Atlas makes a New Haven, also Norfolk and Western, and other cabooses that uh their wide vision cabooses, they're all very nice and they can be had for under $50 new. So and they're nicely detailed and are accurate for a number of roads, so that that's kind of cool. So there are other alternatives to the $150 caboose, but for those who want the accuracy and specific things, um, I think that's the way it's going. You know, so I know one of the things that uh has bogged me down since uh since the winter probably was you know getting some motivation and um trying to renew the energy and desire to do stuff. I know one thing that helps me is deadlines. Um I had a deadline for um the New England prototype meet. I told the gentleman that runs that, David Owens, that I would do a presentation, and I did do a presentation on modeling reefers used in potato service in the 50s coming off the Bangorna Roostic, which basically means Bangorna Roostic Reefers, steel reefers, and specifically I was doing and um MDT merchant dispatch transport or which is a division of the New York Central. So I did do a uh a clinic on those. That is again go to my blog and there's there's the um clinic on that. Unfortunately, as much as I set up a deadline, I did not finish the models completely, but I had uh in progress models and kind of a um uh proof and concept that these MCARs can be modeled within a reasonable amount of uh accuracy, maybe not perfectly, but certainly good. And again, it did make me move along on some stuff. Um, speaking of deadlines, I am doing another clinic at the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association reunion, which is the weekend of September 12th, 13th, in there, um, down in New London, Connecticut. On that Saturday, I am going to be doing a presentation on modeling Pullman cars, both heavyweight and lightweight. This is kind of a generic um clinic where I will review various methods and how to do that. And once I'm done doing that, I'll have that on my website as well. Um, but you know, to me, I I I kind of need a deadline, otherwise, I put things off. Kind of like doing podcasts. Sometimes I push it off. I was kept wanting to do this and kept pushing it off and hoping I'd find time that uh Brian and I could get together, but it just wasn't working out this last couple of months. So again, I apologize for that. And just to confirm, the reunion is Friday the 11th. Um, the the basic show is the 12th in New London, and the 13th is uh layout tours. Um it's open to the general public on the 12th, so anybody can go into the show itself and go to the clinic. So if you're in New London, Connecticut, that should be a good time. Uh another show that's coming up is the um New England, or no, the Northeast Regional NMRA show. And that is going to be in Southbridge, Massachusetts, which is a little bit off the beaten path. Um used to be a branch line on the New Haven Railroad. It used to be the optical center of uh the country. Um they had a lot of optics companies. I believe Ray Ban was made there at one point. Um in fact, I think the hotel that it's at is one of the former optical company uh companies there, factories, uh, and the New Haven Penn Central uh and PW had rail service there well into the early 2000s before things completely petered out. So it's and I believe the station still stands. So kind of a neat little place. Um, and that's that's in October, um the 16th, 17th, 18th. Um, again, if you go to the uh New England Regional uh NMRA website to Google that and you can find information on that, and that would be an interesting thing. That's uh again, they have they do all sorts of stuff at these. They have uh layout tours or actually where you can operate it, but again, you got to be a member of the NMRA for that. But uh you can actually get a short-term membership to that for for like 20 bucks. So that's an interesting thing you can do. So again, I I support any organizations like that that support the railroads that support the model railroading. Um, I think the NMRA has done a great job at setting up standards and stuff. I know there's with any large organization, there's people that say, oh, but they do this, they should do that. Well, you know, I don't participate in a lot of their stuff, so I I stay out of it. Um, but I think overall they have been a plus to the hobby. Um and uh leave it at that. I'm not gonna badmouth a lot of people that spend a lot of time and effort to volunteer to promote monorail roading. Um local group here in uh southern New Hampshire used to have Friday night fun night, train night, something like that. I forget what it was called. It was at a local community center once a month on Friday nights. Uh COVID kind of put an end to that and never really picked up again. But it was it was a good thing to go to. You would get different people doing things there, doing presentations or how to build something, or or slides from a trip, or one gentleman took a motor uh car um trip over the uh the mountain division of the main central, which is part of Conway Scenic Railway, but you know, those small little putt-putt motor cars. Well, they that whole string of them that went up over that, pretty cool. I don't know if I'd want to do that because that's a pretty big drop-off, and a lot of these are open. But uh, you know, you see get to see things like that that you wouldn't necessarily see. Um, you know, unfortunately, that's no longer, but uh, I'm sure in other parts of the country there are all sorts of fun things like that to do, you know, and uh that was like a dollar, two dollar donation at the door to just pay for the room, basically, so that the guys running it were doing it out of pocket, which is you know always a good thing to do. But uh again, like I said, deadlines for me are motivation, setting goals, goal setting helps me motivate me too to get projects done. It's real easy to see things sitting. I need to get to that, I need to get to that. Uh, I know I get home from work in the evening, help get dinner together, do whatever errands or projects around the house that need to happen. And by the time you're all said and done with that, you're like, Do I feel like going downstairs? I don't know. Uh, my friend Chris Adams, who runs the Valley Local model railroad uh blog, beautiful model railroad of New Haven. Um, I recommend his website highly, but you know, he's like, do something every day. Uh, I used to say that, I haven't done that. In a long time, but I need to get back into that. Staying motivated is uh is key to accomplishing things and getting things done. Um I plan to use uh some planning and things to keep me motivated. That's another thing I like to do is plan. Um, I've done a lot of that professionally, um, so using that for my my personal life. I also determine the busier I am, the more I get done. Uh the old joke is you want something done, give it to a busy person because they won't procrastinate, they'll just do it. So I keep seeming to sign up for more things lately, which I think is a good thing. Um we'll see. We'll see. I'll I'll talk to you the next time and see if I've gotten anything more accomplished. Um my goal too with the uh the podcast is I'd like to do shorter ones more often. Uh right now my goal is to get back to one a month, and I don't think we hit that since the first of the year. Um so you know, we're coming up to September will be our uh anniversary of the of doing these. And um, like I said, I'd like to get back onto at least a once a month. I would like to do it every couple of weeks, which I think would be good. Also, my goal is to uh bring some additional people into the uh into interview and so on, get some different ideas. Um you know, I do know quite a few people in in the hobby, so good to talk to them. I know a few people who are in uh in the industry, in on the manufacturing side. That's always interesting to learn stuff about that, how things are done, to get an understanding of why um why do we do limited runs now? Why are things made where they are, why you know a lot of a lot of this, just uh or just what goes into making a model? What uh how much work and effort? Um, you know, because it's very easy these days, like, oh, I wish somebody would make you know XYZ. Well, you know, how many of XYZs would could we sell? I know I'm I'm a great one. I said, you know, you can sell tens of these, um, which is where the resin guys and now the three day 3D printer guys are coming into play. So the hobby continues to change, it gets, I think, better. Um, you know, like I said at the beginning, you know, we lose some businesses like Westerfield, some manufacturers, and that's unfortunate, but there will be new ones coming up all the time. There seems to be more and more popping up and uh doing some great things. So I am going to uh leave it there. I'm going to try to grab somebody to have uh on the next episode. Not sure who yet. I got a couple of ideas, and like I said, I hope Brian will be joining us uh sooner than later. But uh until he does, I'm gonna be uh taking care of things for now. I hope everything is going great for everybody. Hope you're having a great summer, and uh I hope you come back and listen to us, listen to me. Um now that we're trying to get back on schedule here with the the frugal modelers. Um I think uh I think we're gonna try to, like I said, keep this going and get things improving. And uh I hope to see you at some of the upcoming shows that I'll be at. And uh I look forward to uh to the next time we uh we get the chat and uh have a great time model railroading.