Model Train Journal

Boxing up some ad hoc sets for young nieces and nephews, while attempting to blot out most of the dups from the collection (probably just the first step in a budding purge).

Always figured these two were low-end steam competitors in the years shortly before the war:


Lionel 259


Flyer 401

I picked up the 259 some twenty years ago at the semi-annual meet Lorne Strickler used to run at the Porters, Pa. Volunteer Fire Company. It's a weird one in that it is a late version but has a manual reverse. My understanding is Lionel made a bunch of them in the mid-1930s, even though the 4-cycle e-unit was being used in the 259E, and had been for a few years.

The 401 came out of a bin at one of the odds-n-ends sellers at York in the Purple Hall, maybe five years ago. I bought the loco for $20, sans tender. After about an hour of wandering around, it began to really bug me that I didn't have a tender. I went back and with 15-20 minutes of digging, found the/a matching tender. Picked that up for an additional $5. Somebody did an awful touch-up job on it, and most of the lettering is worn away on both. It currently sits in the project pile, but no plans for a refurb, just a mechanical clean-up. I have a set of the appropriate cars for it, so it'll be sticking around for awhile.

I bought a lot of stuff at Strickler's meet in Porters over the years. He had a good run over there, but interest started to die out 10-15 years ago. I picked up a bunch of stuff at Strickler's shop in Hanover too, one of the last in the area. Lorne passed away a few years ago and the shop closed. He was a good source of parts, especially S-gauge Flyer. Bought a ton of Heller plastic kits in there too when I was a lot younger. Ride by there now and the place is a vape-shop or some such nonsense...kills me.

What's everybody else got going on?

Healey

I took the kid fishing. Delval university has a small pond on campus. 6.5 years old with a Snoopy bobber and hot dog for bait. While see was fishing an old friend rode by on his bike. So we started to do what people do while fishing shot the sh*t. then he says "your kid has something. a 20 inch bass. i was slow to get the camera going here is some of it.
https://i.imgur.com/2oAEbSh.mp4

Time well-spent, mate. Snoopy bobber and a hotdog...she's destined for the World Bass Fishing League!

I recently received a custom built version of Dennis Brennan's kit of the Oblong Box Company. Crescent Locomotive Works did the building. Will sit on a shelf (I assembled about three of them this weekend) for the time being, but there's something quite nice and simple about it. Board won't let me post these .jpgs as the "attachment quota has been reached." Not very large, about 508 KB and 460 KB. Another time.

Neil wrote:Board won't let me post these .jpgs as the "attachment quota has been reached." Not very large, about 508 KB and 460 KB. Another time.

There isn't much storage space on these bulletin boards. I recommend uploading your photos to a photo hosting service like Flickr. I've never paid a nickel for my account, which I've had for many years.

I would be more than happy to contribute money to the forum to help support it if we could post pictures direct without having to use a third party program. I managed to get one picture posted after the forum update. I tried to delete that picture to open up space and it won't delete.

HONDO74 wrote:I would be more than happy to contribute money to the forum to help support it if we could post pictures direct without having to use a third party program. I managed to get one picture posted after the forum update. I tried to delete that picture to open up space and it won't delete.

It may be easy to post pictures directly to the board, when there's space, but it's just not the way photos are shared online. It would be better to help people learn how to use an image hosting service. I can help with Flickr, which is free.

Roy wrote:[I can help with Flickr, which is free.

Yes, the basic service is free but limited to 1000 photos. Owned by Smugmug which is not free, but it is what I moved to after Photobucket went nutz.

The value of storing off site is that you can use and post your stored photos in multiple places.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:Yes, the [Flickr] basic service is free but limited to 1000 photos. Owned by Smugmug which is not free, but it is what I moved to after Photobucket went nutz.

The value of storing off site is that you can use and post your stored photos in multiple places.

I've noticed the Smugmug URL on your photos. If you stop paying for your account, do they block your photos? Photobucket damaged a lot of bulletin boards and other websites, when they suddenly cancelled their free service. I've never come close to the Flickr storage limit. But, only stuff I'm sharing online gets uploaded there. It's a bad idea to store stuff online, just to clear drive space.

You can even share videos from Flickr. Flickr was started by Yahoo. I used to frequent some Yahoo groups, which had photo storage. I used it, to post videos. It wasn't long after that, that they discontinued their group's photo storage altogether. Any board, including MTJ, can do that, of course. Frankly, I'm surprised MTJ hasn't. Another good reason to know how to use an image hosting service.

Roy wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:Yes, the [Flickr] basic service is free but limited to 1000 photos. Owned by Smugmug which is not free, but it is what I moved to after Photobucket went nutz.

The value of storing off site is that you can use and post your stored photos in multiple places.

I've noticed the Smugmug URL on your photos. If you stop paying for your account, do they block your photos?

No idea. I'll worry about that if they raise the rates too high

Photobucket damaged a lot of bulletin boards and other websites, when they suddenly cancelled their free service. I've never come close to the Flickr storage limit. But, only stuff I'm sharing online gets uploaded there. It's a bad idea to store stuff online, just to clear drive space.

I never store stuff anywhere w/o a quintuplicate back-up on external drives

You can even share videos from Flickr. Flickr was started by Yahoo. I used to frequent some Yahoo groups, which had photo storage. I used it, to post videos. It wasn't long after that, that they discontinued their group's photo storage altogether. Any board, including MTJ, can do that, of course. Frankly, I'm surprised MTJ hasn't. Another good reason to know how to use an image hosting service.

I've not tried a video off Smugmug............. Hmmmmm............. Stored there but I can't seem to find a way to embed it here and have it play.

I use imgur. So far it is free. As the saying goes. "If you use a free product. You are the product". I have not been able to embed an imgur video.

I'm using iCloud. Two photos of the Frank Ellison Oblong Box kit from Dennis Brennan's company. Crescent Locomotive Works also installed LED lighting as part of the assembly and painting fee.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0o2_iAS ... _QnBU3D-bw

Dennis Brennan, Tramp's buddy?

Looks like nice results from a nice kit. The siding is reminiscent of an old friend of mine's methods using the innards of corrugated box sides to replicate sheet-steel siding. Somehow he made that work, quite brilliantly.

Here's how to share your photos on MTJ:

- Go to your image hosting service. Click on a photo you wish to post.

- On that page, there will be a Share button. When you click that, you will be given a menu of options, including one for Bulletin Board, BBCode, or similar. Click that.

- A box will appear with a link. Right click that link, then click Copy.

- On your MTJ post, click the Img button.

- Place your cursor between [img]_and_[/img], and right click. Then, click Paste. You're done.

I use the Preview button, to check that I've done it right. The photo should show up on the preview.

Yes that Dennis Brennan although I gather he and Tramp had a significant disagreement over the layout Dennis built.