Ace-Garageguy

Work doesn't have to be something you hate but have to do to pay your bills if you do work you enjoy and are good at, but for some odd reason, not many people ever seem to realize that,

"Lucky" often means being in the right place at the right time because you worked like the devil to get there.

One of the guys who works at the "antique mall" I frequent knows I'm into HO train stuff, and took me aside a few days back to let me know he had some I might be interested in. So...we met in the parking lot like we were doing a deal in illicit substances and I looked in one of two big boxes. "Sold" I thinks to myself, without even digging through it. "Make me a price" says I. "$60" says he, and I start peeling off twenties. Got it home, so far the two best items are an almost new, powered Bachmann GP-40 locomotive with all-wheel drive, and a Heljan 804 turntable kit, complete. Just those two alone are worth at least twice what I paid if I got 'em from eBay, and there's a ton of other good stuff: more locomotives, buildings, cars, electronic and electrical bits, etc. The train stall in the mall just happened to have been restocked again yesterday too, so I snagged several more vintage craftsman kits, a few built-ups and RTRs in unusual liveries, plus two beautiful powered EMD SW-1 switchers in Burlington Northern livery, different numbers. Again, the locos are worth at least twice what I gave for everything. EDIT: And Steve...I looked at every piece of rolling stock for anything Duluth South Shore & Atlantic. Nada.

Money sure doesn't go as far as it used to, even taking decades of inflation into consideration.

Well...guess I'll need one to keep the BRE Z-car and 510 company...

Congrats. Looks like a solid little car. Glad it finally has a home. Those 2.3 inline fours are pretty simple, reliable as bricks if they're not actually broken. If it's been sitting that long, turn the engine through manually before trying to crank it with the starter, and if it turns free...REPLACE THE TIMING BELT BEFORE YOU GO ANY FARTHER. A timing belt that old will almost certainly be brittle, and if it strips the teeth, valves can hit pistons and get bent (IF it's an "interference engine", which I don't know right off hand) causing a WHOLE lot more expense and effort. Best to find a service manual before you do much of anything to it. Information is a whole lot cheaper than ruined parts. Hope you didn't have to tow it far with the dolly too. Towing an automatic like that without dropping the driveshaft is a good way to kill one. Of course...if you already know all this, my apologies. Just trying to help.

Yup. SOP for everything-I-do.

Anyone want fries with that?

Sorry to hear about your health issue, and applause for your attitude towards finding a way to continue doing what you obviously enjoy very much in spite of it. I have no experience with using "safe" materials, other than using PVA glue to hold clear parts in place, which I've found to be entirely adequate if sufficient drying time is given. Best wishes and good luck to you.

Yeah, I've yet to see a chromed engine block on a real car...though somebody's surely done it.

Wait; there's more.

Yup, we're all different. I'd build myself a nice little big fab shop and build everything I've been working towards building since I saw my first cars and airplanes. I have all the skills, but at the moment, nowhere to build anything of my own...and I'm getting kinda short on time.

Words with hyphens can be tricky, and I've asked the same question here, but I think in the context of this game either choice would be acceptable.

Soon enough we'll all be worm-food.

Coming together very nicely.

"Foot Size Hankies" on the label probably wouldn't engender sales though...

Ann, unfortunately, just happened to be a man.

Fran San Cisco may have been the Cisco Kid's estranged little sister, but there's still no consensus among the genealogical community.

Low 80s, moderate humidity, no rain forecast but it kinda looks like it's thinking about it, and radar shows sprinklege in Charleston slowly heading this way...in the opposite direction that weather usually travels in. Last week was the coolest early August I can recall here since 1969, and the upcoming week calls for more of the same. But that's OK. I understand it's cooler because it's actually hotter, and I'm delusional.

Pretty fine piece of work...

Lately some things have gone up in smoke, but other things are working just fine, thanks...and I think I have a plan.

Last time I went to the "antique mall" where I'd been scoring a lot of old HO scale railroad cars and kits, all they had was O and a little S scale tinplate stuff. Little voice told me to drop in Wednesday, and they'd just restocked a bunch of HO. Not the goldmine of "craftsman kits" I'd cleaned out earlier, but I picked up a few nice old pieces, like a full-train set of Varney AeroTrain kits, mostly unbuilt, unmolested. Not cheap, but easily worth what I paid. The real AeroTrain was an experiment built by GM in the mid 1950s to test new ideas in moving commuters by rail. The passenger cars were widened GM bus bodies riding on special railroad trucks. Two were built and evaluated by several railroads in regular service, but didn't make it to production. They were said to ride "hard", attributed to their very light weight compared to traditional passenger cars. The newly-designed suspension system could have been developed further to fix that, but it didn't happen. IIRC, both full-scale trainsets still exist, in non-running condition with no engines. I also brought home a few Ambroid and other "craftsman" kits, plus some vintage built-up freight cars.

I agree.

This is another of Atlantis's semi-repops of Revell's double kits from the 1960s that were made up from the then-current parts packs. So...yes...it has a lot of extra parts. The extra engine is a 427 Ford, which can be built either blown/injected, or with two 4bbl carbs. The Ford engine is this parts-pack kit tree, not chromed: