Large Scale Central

Christmas, and Trains ... or not

General Discussion
#1

Well, it was quite a Christmas.

I am now the proud owner of Auran’s “Trainz Railwayz” and a “Raildriver” controller to go with it. This means I can now operate simulator trains on my PC with a set of controls resembling those in a modern “desktop” diesel cab. It’s a lot of fun to use, and the software itself is quite impressive… but there are a lot of things that aren’t especially intuitive about how it works, beyond running the preprogrammed scenarios, so there’s gonna be a big learning curve. (I’d be happy just figuring out how to swap engines around on a train …)

My wife’s parents got me the new Bachmann “Thomas” set … so now when the kids come by and, moderately impressed by the size and noise of the trains, ask, “But, where’s Thomas?” I can now find him. And, after a little surgery, he’ll even run with the rest of my Bachmann products too … but that’s another topic for another day.

My wife tried to order me some AMS cars for Christmas, but was told the passenger stuff had little chance of being here even before February, and since we’re already waiting for the one she gave me last year, when they were supposed to be out LAST February, she gave up on the rolling stock thing, and bought me (us!) a Wii … which is a lot of fun as well.

I have a Bachmann forney on order. I was told the ONE unit the store had ordered was spoken for (and it wasn’t the version I wanted anyway) … so obviously, even ordering it early in December, it wasn’t going to come for Christmas, and reasonably, it’ll probably be after all of the various New Years shutdowns, etc… I’ll be genuinely surprised if it appears before March or April. And, the price tag was so extreme that even as an engine that will number among my smallest and least complicated it cost more than all but one of them, I couldn’t even really ask for it as a gift – I had to make it my xmas present to myself!

I just hope the manufacturers don’t blame not selling any trains this Christmas on the “economic downturn” … if they actually had trains here for Christmas delivery that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to ask for, there’d have been about $600.00 from this household spent on trains this year.

#2

Hey Matt,

Merry Christmas to ya. Sounds like you did pretty good.

I got a real shocker of a Christmas present. My daughter-in-law gave me her Grandfather’s oil can from being 35 years an engineer for the CB&Q working out of Centralia, Illinois. I was honored and a little shocked. I’m sure it will some day pass back to my granddaughters and they will know it was their great grandfather’s, but it is quite the gift to me. The daughter-in-law said her Mom thought there was a better chance of me keeping it for what it is than any one in her family.

Yeah, I’m wondering what it would bring on Ebay. But then again, I want to stay in good with the boy’s inlaws. :wink:

#3

Lets see I got a 23 gauge pin nailer, an 18 gauge brad nailer, and a 2 gallon air compressor to run 'em!

#4

Ric,
That sounds like a most excellent Christmas present.
The wife and children don’t buy me anything for the RR. I wonder what Freud would have to say about that :slight_smile:
So I buy myself something every Christmas. This year I bought an “Annie”, which should be arriving later in the week.
Ralph

#5

5.56 Stripped Lower, Complete Upper Kit…

for my Bday on the 18th I Ebay-ed a LGB 2037…

of course Thomas who can run nicely, but leaves his cars behind…

cale

#6

1tb external hard drive(to compliment my four others)…
CRRM “Narrow Gauge News” book, chronicling RW Richardson’s narrow gauge newspaper from the late 40s and 50s(awesome book).

Not too bad.

Matthew, if you need some help with Trainz, let me know–I’ve been busy with that for about two years and know way too much about it…

#7

Scored some very cool signed out of print books on the CVRR and Trains to Williams Grove. Totally unexpected very cool pictures but nothing I would model …however I’m sure others would:)…I love the historical part and the documentation though.

#8

One of the servers at Chilis gave me a book titled, “The Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads”, by Lucius Beebe. And a friend from our church gave me about 7 or 8 railroad books that he’d found at a thrift store. All are in excellent condition.

#9

I never really ask for anything but My wife did get me a HLW box car. Its more fun waching the kids open presents and I get to be a kid by playing with their toys LOL

#10

Pola Chapel and LGB truck. Off to buy two more loads of dirt today. Rather shovel in the 30s than the 90s…

#11

Santa’s train delivery gonna be late this year. It’s a long, funny story for another time. :wink: :slight_smile:

But he delivered a snow blower, which I knew would mean no snow at Christmas. :lol: Soo I could actually run outside but since I covered the raised section - the damn pheasants roost in the cedars above that section and poop on the track - I just let it be for this winter.

BTW I’m seriously thinking about building a plow and a rotary for next winter. What are the chances that the snow then stays away, eh? :wink: :smiley:

#12

If it were only that easy HJ?

#13

A nice little digital picture frame.

Mom got one for me and one for Karen & George. Karen & George got one for Mom. “Oh! Cool!” was Mom’s response. Not sure what she got for Carol and Randy. They’ll be getting in sometime this week.

#14
Garrett said:
If it were only that easy HJ?
Hey Garrett, you know me I like the simple way. ;) :D ;)
#15

Well, the year I decided to build a garden railway, we had a colder than normal year with rain measured in FEET after years of drought…so obviously my luck runs differently than yours HJ!

#16

Not much train-related this year at all. A $50 gift card to Nirvana (er, Caboose Hobbies), and a book of O. Winston Link photos of the N&W. Gotta try to replicate some of those in the back yard someday… The “big” thing this year is on backorder–a new set of ivories for me to tickle. I’ve become woefully out of practice since we had the kids, seeing as how they find it a bit difficult to sleep whilst I work through “Rhapsody in Blue” at 1 in the morning. Since you can’t plug headphones into an acoustic, it’s time to go digital. Next - the quest for a good pair of headphones. Something tells me my iPod ear buds are going to be a bit lacking in the fidelity department.

Later,

K

#17

Got a Pola “Grizzly Flats” station, along with another Pola product, the “Red River” station. Both will stand in nicely for the stations at Bovill, and Deary, ID. I guess that I’ll have to scratch the station at Potlatch, ID.

#18
Kevin Strong said:
Not much train-related this year at all. A $50 gift card to Nirvana (er, Caboose Hobbies), and a book of O. Winston Link photos of the N&W. Gotta try to replicate some of those in the back yard someday... The "big" thing this year is on backorder--a new set of ivories for me to tickle. I've become woefully out of practice since we had the kids, seeing as how they find it a bit difficult to sleep whilst I work through "Rhapsody in Blue" at 1 in the morning. Since you can't plug headphones into an acoustic, it's time to go digital. Next - the quest for a good pair of headphones. Something tells me my iPod ear buds are going to be a bit lacking in the fidelity department.

Later,

K


I broke down and purchased Bose headphones last year, an awesome investment…especially with kids that are sleeping!
You would enjoy the books I got this year…the drawings and photos are very cool…If I was only into steam?
:wink:

#19

Got a call from the dealer, Santa showed up with the goodies. Now it’s just a matter of arranging a trip to the coast, my once a year “let’s do some shopping” excursion. :smiley: Most other times the post office or courier gets to deliver.

#20

Santa (well, his allies in the post office) delivered me a Bachmann Percy set on Christmas Eve, which I thought was rather clever of them.
I’ve had Percy running on rollers. Trundles quite nicely. Eventually, I’ll make sure he runs in the same direction as my other locos; life at shows could get a little … interesting :stuck_out_tongue: … if he didn’t.