Eventually, this page will display information on Henry’s Model Alaska Railroad Trains, which will also coordinate with Henry’s Travel Trip to Alaska 2022. These pages will be worked on a little bit at a time until they are completed (or at least mostly completed as model railroading typically continues until one is either unwilling or incapable of adding more to it.)
My accumulation of model Alaska Railroad trains began quite some time ago, with the first recorded item cataloged and given an acquisition date of 12/12/1982. This date may be off by several years because it was 2011 when I created my first version of spreadsheet to start cataloging and tracking my train collection. December 12th, 1982, is the oldest date that I have been able to find on the sticker of a train item that I purchased as a youngster. However, the first model electric trains I can remember receiving occurred during Christmas when I was in the first grade.
My Uncle David gave me a complete N scale Steam Engine train set and built-up layout. The following Christmas, my parents and “Santa Claus” gave me HO scale trains. I have very fond memories of both occasions because at that time, we lived in a small 3-bedroom house in Ellenboro, NC. When I woke up on Christmas morning in the second grade, “Santa Claus” had come, and had dropped HO scale train cars sparingly from the living room down the hallway and right underneath the covering for the access panel to the attic. My room was the last room on the right-hand side of that hallway, so when I stepped through the doorway, on floor in front of me was the first car. I picked up a couple more cars on my way up the hallway towards the living room where I would discover more trains and more presents around the Christmas tree. If I remember correctly, that was also the year, I received my first little red tri-cycle bike, to give you an idea of the significance to me of how grand the gifts were for me at that time in my life.
I am uncertain whether the N scale Alaska Railroad “Car Pac” 50′ Mechanical Plug Door Reefer Box car #11503 was given to me by my uncle in the first grade or if it was acquired sometime later over the next 7 years. All I know for certain, is that it was part of my saved collection that I inventoried in 2011 that had been stored in a trunk in my closet for just about 30 years. I still have this Atlas N scale train car. Apparently, I had been using it as a transition car when I put the cars in storage as a teenager because on one side of the car is a Micro-Trains Talgo knuckle coupler truck and on the opposite side is the original Atlas Talgo truck with a Rapido coupler. In my youth, I had attempted to add more weight to the car by filling it on the inside with green grass (made from sawdust and sold as scenery grass back in those days). I can still remember some of the grass falling out in 2010 when I removed the collection at that time from the trunk in my closet to access what I had to begin working on my N scale Desk Train layout (another project not yet finished or fully published on this website).
{put current photo of ARR11503 here}
The next addition to my model Alaska Railroad trains occurred on June 29th, 2013, when I drove close to Raleigh to purchase a collection of trains found on Craigslist from police officer Anthony of Durham, NC. Among some of the wonderful trains he sold me that day, were 3 pieces of the HO scale Bachmann McKinley Explorer Passenger Car set. While these were great looking train cars that he had upgraded the wheelsets on from plastic wheels to metal wheels, the cars still had issues including not rolling very well on my tracks plus having broken or malfunctioning couplers, and some scrapes and scratches. The 3 cars I received were 85′ Full Dome Passenger cars, very colorful, with McKinley Explorer Westours written on the sides of each one of them. They cars are named and numbered DESKHA #1394, TALKEETNA #513, and KNIK #56 respectively. I received the cars loose, without any boxes or packaging. Interestingly, nearly 3 years later, I would return to Raleigh again as a result of finding another ad on Craigslist and purchased the complete Brand-New Bachmann #00624 HO McKinley Explorer set from Chris. This added the first HO DC Bachmann Alaska EMD GP-40 Diesel locomotive #3015 to my collection, a duplication of 3 of the cars previously mentioned, and 1 new car that I didn’t already have, which is the McKinley Explorer Westours, 85′ Full View Vista Dome passenger car named and numbered: Kenai #50. My model Alaska Railroad trains collection was starting to grow.
In July of 2018, a member of a club in either Tennessee or Virginia, reached out to a lot of train clubs in the NC area. His name was Ken and stated that the widow of a member in his train club had asked him to help her liquidate her past husbands’ train collection. Ken sent out a very detailed spreadsheet for all of us to examine and prescribed a method in which he would use to take and deliver orders from interested parties. There were a lot of great items in McDonald’s collection. I made an offer a few pieces and managed to add a little more to my collection. Among the items added is the N scale Bachmann #24010 McKinley Explorer train set, complete with DC F9A powered loco, F9B Dummy loco, and 3 the passenger cars, track, controller. etc… Although it was a used set that showed signs of being operated, all the pieces came in the original box. Originally, the locomotive ran well when I first tested it, probably on DC tracks. However, over the years, I ran it some more, mostly on my HJR Lonsway Pike DCC layout, until one day, the locomotive just stopped running and wouldn’t run again. Eventually, I would send the locomotive to Bachmann for repair or replacement. They didn’t have any more F9A’s at the time and they couldn’t repair the locomotive. So, instead, they sent me a GP-40 Alaska locomotive like new in April 2019. Upon my request, the returned my F9A shell. I modified the Styrofoam carton in the original box to hold the Shell and the replacement GP-40 from Bachmann which arrived without a jewel case or container. Even though Bachmann’s N scale 2019 GP-40’s received new tooling, the GP-40 #3015 replacement that Bachmann sent me is not the 2019 version. In fact, the repairman had to build the GP-40 he sent so that it would have an Alaska shell and Rapido couplers. I’m not 100% sure that I have test pulled the cars in this set with the new-to-me GP-40 Diesel Engine yet. If I have a video of me test running this loco with this set, I will eventually insert it below:
{video of N scale McKinley Explorer set being pulled by GP-40}
As part of a birthday gift to myself in June 2019, I acquired my first HO scale Sound-Equipped model Alaska Railroad train locomotive during a Train Show in Hickory, NC. The Walthers Mainline Alaska EMD F7-A DCC Diesel Engine locomotive ARR 1532 is a beautiful piece of highly detailed working electrical art. It is classic diesel power provided by Walthers Mainline in a F7-A unit. Based on the colorful freight units used on the Alaska Railroad, the A unit features a Mars light, headlight, and 36″ dynamic brake fan. Other features include: Limited edition (one-time run of these road numbers), Factory-installed handrails, ESU Sound for DCC and DC layouts featuring: 4 function outputs with brightness control by CV, Fully DCC compatible; 14, 28, 128 speed steps; Dual mode DC and DCC, 4 air horns changeable by CVs, 2 bells changeable by CVs, Full 8-notch prime mover sounds, Compressor, Dynamic brake, Multiple realistic lighting effects, Same powerful drive as WalthersProto locos featuring: Five-pole skew-wound motor, 14:1 gear ratio, Helical-cut gears for quiet operation and easy multiple unit operation, All-wheel drive and electrical pickup, Dual machined brass flywheels, Heavy die cast metal chassis, Constant and directional lights, RP-25 metal wheels, and Proto MAX metal knuckle couplers. This locomotive is nicely priced by Walthers Mainline to use with both freight and passenger cars. Alternate Horns via CV163: Leslie A-200 (default), Wabco Single Chime, Leslie S3L, Leslie S5, Nathan M5. Alternate Bells via CV164: EMD Brass Bell (default), EMD Steel Bell. With the arrival of the F7 in 1949, EMD had exactly what railroads needed to begin dieselizing with a vengeance. Geared for freight or passenger service, they were equally at home in either assignment. Over the next four years EMD built over 2200 A and 1400 B units, delivered in a rainbow of schemes for nearly every railroad in America. Tough and durable, many soldiered on into the early 70s and several are preserved today. Talk about a great model locomotive, this one stands out very well and lives up to its production features.
In July 2019, after reviewing a lot of my HO & N scale DC locomotives, and sending 6 that were Bachmann’s in for repair, Bachmann sent me 5 replacement N scale locomotives. Among them was 1 new-to-me N scale EMD GP-40 Diesel Engine #3009. This locomotive, referred to within my catalog spreadsheet as ARR3009 has the new upgraded tooling for the 2019 DC locomotives. However, that new tooling didn’t make the DC GP-40’s DCC ready. It did, however, change the couplers to knuckle couplers by default. With the receipt of this locomotive, if I switch out at least 1 knuckle coupler with the 2 Bachmann supplied Rapido couplers, then I can now double-head my N scale Bachmann McKinley Explorer passenger cars in DC mode with 2 GP-40’s with different road numbers. What I will most likely attempt to do is take 1 of the knuckle couplers off the GP-40 ARR3009 and swap it with a Rapido coupler on the GP-40 NARR3015 (note the different reference name as I have both an HO and N scale version of the 3015 locos). I did this with 2 UP GP-18’s. And this allows me to double-head the locomotives in 1 heading setting and have Rapido couplers on both ends of the consist or reverse the headings of the 2 locomotives and have knuckle couplers on both ends of the consist. That way, if I ever get my hands on newer knuckle coupler equipped N scale ARR rolling stock, I will have a method of double-head-pulling those trains in DC mode without having to make any other changes. In fact, I will be able to swap back and forth at will without future coupler changes.
Almost the same day that the N scale GP-40 #ARR3009 arrived, I acquired an HO scale Alaska Hopper car from a local antique mall. In December, a refrigerated HO scale 50′ box #ARR11507 was acquired from the same antique mall. During birthday month in summer of June 2020, a 6-piece Walthers 932-7820 Alaska Railroad Hopper car set was acquired from a SMH’s consignor after not being sold to others at train shows or online.
Then, I visited Alaska and was able to mark another desired state and train ride off my bucket list, as I combined two of my hobbies together: Traveling and Model Railroading. On August 1st, 2022, I rode on the Alaska Railroad Passenger train from Anchorage, Alaska to Seward, Alaska. I experienced Alaska Railroad’s Gold Star Service on the top level of one of two Vista Dome Passenger cars with a window seat, and breakfast in the dining portion of the car on the lower level. The train ride was fabulous. I have lots of photos and videos form the ride. Eventually, you can read and listen to the full Alaska experience in my travel section on this site.
Early in the morning in Alaska, just after checking in at the Anchorage Alaska Depot, I went through the gift shop. I saw a lot of model trains and wanted to definitely get some trains to commemorate my travel there. However, I was about to leave Anchorage and wouldn’t be back again any time soon. They had several Walther’s 85′ passenger cars. However, upon reading the specifications of those cars, they require radius curves greater than 24″. I mostly have 18″ Radius curves on my tracks, so I didn’t buy any passenger cars. I bought an N scale Athearn Caboose and an HO scale Athearn Caboose, Alaska road numbers 1081 and 1084 respectively, referenced in my catalog spreadsheet as ARR1081 and ARR1084. To be certain these were not lost or didn’t get in the way for the rest of my travel, I do as I have done for decades, and had the gift shop ship the items to me. They were here before I finished my vacation trip to Alaska.
When I returned home, I was eager to put together an HO passenger set for my model Alaska Railroad trains collection. I wanted a set the matched as closely as possible to the consist of trains that I rode on during my trip. I was not aboard the McKinley Explorer Westours trains so the passenger cars in my collection already didn’t qualify as cars that I rode on. Neither did the locomotives I had. So, I geared up to find locomotives the matched what I rode on and took pictures and videos of.
I rode on another train in Alaska as well, and the model Alaska trains that I acquired on August 5th, 2022, at the White Pass & Yukon Route Train Shoppe have already been talked about and displayed a little a project in progress. You can see that project here. I am still working on that project too.
{continue with the next Alaska items acquired}.
While researching the date that Alaska Officially chose its current blue and yellow paint scheme, I came across a document produced by the Alaska Railroad showing an account of their history as of 2024. It doesn’t include any information about their paint scheme. However, I feel this is an important document. You can view below or on the official website. I am republishing this document without asking for permission to do so. Please be aware it may contain copyright material. I make no claims on this material and all content displayed inside belongs to ARR and/or whomever created it. I made no changes to it.
This page will provide you with some tips on HOW TO SELL TRAINS that You Inherited or You Own.
If you search the internet for phrases like “how to sell trains”, “how to sell my trains”, “sell my trains”, or “buy my trains”, you will get a lot of results from different people and companies suggesting to you various ways to sell your trains. Most of the information can be very helpful. Some of it will be biased as it should be depending on the source of the information and the source’s reason for providing the information.
I am a member of the Metrolina Model Railroader’s club. I happened to be the club’s Webmaster. This year, 2024, we received messages from people asking us if we (the club) would buy their trains, trains they inherited, trains one of their family members or friends inherited, or if we knew others that would buy their trains. Practically every time someone contacted us, they were not REALLY prepared to sell any trains to anyone. Most of them felt as if simply telling us that they had a lot of model trains to sell would be enough for us to consider buying them. IT IS NOT! I will explain why a little later on this page. Because I have answered the majority of those emails, I felt it necessary to put together this article on How to sell trains! I will be referring everyone that contact’s our club trying to sell us trains to this article. Eventually, a duplicate of this article may be placed on the Metrolina Model Railroader’s website as well. For that to happen, the club members will have to view this message and collectively make a decision on that.
Most of the information you can find on how to sell trains can be useful. So, let’s dig in and see if the following information on how to sell trains is useful to you.
The best way for me to help everyone is to allow you to tailor the information to your specific scenario by asking you questions that will help lead you to the best approaches for you to take to sell trains.
How are you related to the trains you wish to sell?
Are you the original purchaser of the trains?
Did you inherit the trains?
Do the trains belong to someone else and you are trying to help them sell trains?
How much do you know about the trains you are wanting to sell? Nothing. A little bit. A lot. Almost everything.
Do you have a list of the trains you wish to sell? Yes. No. I’m working on it. I don’t wish to try to identify the trains. I don’t know anything about them so I cannot successfully make a list.
Have you taken photos of the train items? Yes, I took multiple pictures of individual items. Yes, I took pictures of groups of items. Yes, I took pictures of the entire collection as best I could. No. I don’t want to take any photos.
Do you know the condition of the trains? Yes. No.
Do you know how much money you want for the trains? Yes. No.
As you can determine by the questions above, the more familiarity you have with the trains, the more likely you will be capable of selling the trains. Most train buyers KNOW what they wish to buy. So, the easiest way to sell trains is to let others know exactly what it is that you have for sale. At a bare minimum, you may need to know the following about the trains your are trying to sell:
Scale or Gauge = The ratio of the model to real previously or existing train item / prototype. For instance, HO scale trains are 1/87th the size of real trains.
Manufacturer and/or Brand = The company that produces and/or distributes the train item. Examples: American Flyer, Athearn, Bachmann, Con-cor, Herpa, Hornsby, Kato, Lionel, Marks, Rapido, Rivarossi, Scale Trains, Stewart, Tyco, Walthers. Many manufacturers have multiple brands too, such as: Bachmann: Plasticville, Spectrum Big Haulers, Williams, SoundValue, etc.; ScaleTrains: Kit Classics, Operator, Rivet Counter, etc.; Lionel: Porter, American Flyer, Racing, etc.; and Walthers: Cornerstone, Mainline, Trainline, Proto, etc…
Roadname(s) = The name of the railroad that the model train item is a representation of. Examples: Amtrak, Atlantic Coast Line, BNSF, Canadian Pacific, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Delaware & Hudson, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, Northern Pacific, Pennsylvania Railroad, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Via Rail, White Pass & Yukon Route.
Train type or train related item type = The type of item being sold. Examples: Trains: Locomotive, Caboose, Gondola, Flatcar, Boxcar, Passenger Car, Hopper Car; Tracks: Straight, Curve, Turnout, Switch Track, Bumper, Crossing Track, Flex Track, Buildings: Train Station, House, Car Wash, Church, Industrial Building, ; Structures: Bridges, Ramps, Signals, Towers, Tunnel Portals, Culverts; Accessories: Telephone Poles, Road Signs, Benches, Vehicles: cars, boats, trucks, containers, trailers, vans; Electronics: Transformers, Throttles, Command Stations, Boosters, Switches, Circuits, Terminals, Lights, LEDs; Scenery: Ground Cover, Trees, Grass, Rocks, Mountains, Plaster, Paint, …
Condition = New, Used, Good, Bad, Poor, Very Good, Great, Excellent, Like New, Works, Broken, Unknown, Not Evaluated.
Other things to say about the trains you wish to sell:
In my opinion, it is good idea to provide as much of the following information as you can. Not everyone agrees with me on this and people have been successful selling with and without providing a lot of information. Some people believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. That may be true, but when I look at a picture of an item without a good description of with very little descriptions, it typically simply generates questions, which delays my personal purchase, but I will ask questions about an item before buying it. If the seller doesn’t answer, I usually won’t buy it. When selling, I do my best to provide as much information as possible to prevent potential buyers from making up their on conclusions about something and to dissuade them from taking up more of my time by asking me questions that if I knew the answer to, I already provided the information. Invariably, unless all the items you are selling are extremely well-known by name or by photo, you will probably get asked questions. Knowing and providing an answer to the questions if also tricky. Why? Because some people hope you don’t know the answer which means you probably do not know much about what you are selling and thus they may likely take advantage of you. Providing an answer might prove to the buyer that THEY don’t know much about what they are buying and cause them to delay longer in making a decision because they have to deliberate on it longer or go research what they don’t know so that they feel more comfortable making a buying decision.
You don’t have to be an expert on everything you are selling, but the more you know about the item you are selling, the better chance you can offer it for a fair price and get a fair price for it. However, do not get discouraged if no one is willing to pay what you feel an item is worth. A buyer is only going to pay what it is worth to them, or they will keep looking for the item elsewhere until they find one priced to suit them. If you are flexible, willing to negotiate and able to negotiate the selling price of your items, you will probably sell more items. Unfortunately, you may not always be in control of what prices your items sell for. For example, if you put your items up for sale in an auction environment, you may be able to control an item’s beginning price which must be low enough to entice buyers to have any interest in it at all, but after the bidding starts, you typically have very little control over the winning price. Most auctioneers and sites make you agree to sell an item at its winning bid regardless of how low that is. Some auctioneers allow you to set a price point that if that point is not met, the winning bidder isn’t allow to purchase the item. the selling point is usually not revealed to the bidders. But, most bidders who win an auction but still are not able to acquire the item for their highest bid, will typically not bid on anything else you ever try to sell, because that is not an enjoyable experience.
In my opinion, it is a good idea to know the following about trains and train related items you wish to sell:
An Asking Price.
A Description of each item (the more detailed, the better).
Is an item functioning or operational? (For instance, if it is a train car, does it have all of its wheels and will it successfully roll appropriately on the tracks it was made to roll on? If it is a locomotive, does the locomotive power on and off, have lights, bells, and whistlers that work, produce steam or smoke, contact to cars and pull them, etc.?)
Is the original box or packaging an item was sold in available and if so, what is its condition?
For electronic items, such as transformers (power packs), lights, bells, whistles, locomotives, lighted cars, animated devices, etc. — do the items work as they are supposed to work?
Sometimes, as a point of reference, the original purchase price and date of an item is good to know. You may not need to reveal this information, but you can use it to help set your asking price. So, do you know the price that was originally paid for the train related item(s) you are selling?
Sometimes, as a point of reference, the original purchase price and date of an item is good to know.
Be careful about knowing the original price, though and letting it influence your asking price. Generally speaking, TIME has elapsed between the date the item was manufactured and made ready for its original sale and the date you are trying to sell the item. In many cases, quite a lot of time has elapsed. As you can imagine, almost everything you can buy these days can go “ON SALE” and be sold at a discount below whatever its suggested retail price is and/or even any price physically attached to an item. Only the person that bought the item has the best recollection as to exactly what they paid for it. So, if you didn’t purchase the item you are trying to sell, relying on any price that you find on an item can be used as a possible value for it whenever it was purchased. The price printed on everything practically increases over the years. However, that doesn’t mean that the real VALUE of an item has increased. The cost of producing an item that was made 20, 30, 40 or more years ago has certainly gone up. Some manufacturers are still using the same molds that were used a while back to produce the exact same items today as they did eons ago. Some manufacturers have changed, updated, and enhanced their tooling’s and molds. So, you may be trying to sell an item that you located online that was just produced earlier this year selling for an exciting whirlwind of a price, and because you have one that was produced 30 years ago that is still NEW in the Box, you may think you should put the same price on the one you have for sell as the one you found online. Well, although they may look the same, there can be a lot of differences. Below is a real example:
44 years ago I bought some trains the day after Christmas at a Hobby store in a mall. Within 2 years of buying them, I put away those trains and stored them in their original packaging in a sealed trunk. They stayed there for 30 years, untouched. About 15 years ago, I removed my trains from the trunk. 14 years ago, I looked those items up. I found some of the EXACT items I owned selling USED for 700% more than what I paid for them. I found some items newly manufactured selling NEW for 1400% more than what I paid for mine. 14 years ago, the manufacturer was still using the same tooling or very similar molds they used 44 years ago. Since then, that manufacturer has changed practically all of their tooling, and now produce newer versions of those cars. Right after typing that line, I visited that manufacturer’s website and I just pulled up one of the exact train cars that I own from 44 years ago, and right this moment the retail price that they are selling those trains for are 4500% more than what I paid for mine. The new version of the car probably is made of plastic that is thinner than the plastic on my cars, however, the new car has precision graphics, blackened-metal wheels with RP25 contours; body-mounted, magnetically operated knuckle couplers; non-magnetic blackened brass axles with needle-point bearings, and added weight for optimum tracking performance. These are some real improvements on the ones that I have with the exception of the thickness of the plastic. I am GUESSING at the thickness of the plastic being thinner simply because most other cars of my teen era have thinner plastic than their more recently manufactured models. I still have my trains from 44 years ago. They are still in great working condition and are stored in their original boxes. I have moved them from the trunk though and store them elsewhere. The wheels have a pewter ring over plastic insets which when I encounter a lot of these from other people who ran these cars many moons ago, the pewter outer bracket / tire of the wheel has separated from the inner plastic core and those wheels mostly have to be replaced in order for such train cars to be operational. I have a few of these cars in collections that I have acquired since getting back into the hobby in 2010 and I have tried to slip the metal ring back onto the plastic core, and thus far, that doesn’t last long or fails immediately in most cases. Also, those cars have a coupler on them that is not a knuckle coupler and will not connect to newer train cars that have knuckle couplers. Can I still run them? Yes. Do I? Occasionally I will bring some out and run them, so the answer is yes. Can I put the same price on them as the new ones? Not if I want any sane person to buy them. A quick search on the internet though reveals that similar, used cars from the 1970s and 1980s are currently being advertised for sale at an average of 950% more than what I originally paid for mine. What use can you get out of this information? Well, my guess is that those people trying to sell those items at 950% more than what I paid for mine are probably having a very hard time getting rid of them right now. They are probably not moving as fast as they would like for them too. Yes, they probably sell one on occasion, mostly to someone who ran across the new prices of $45 each and decided they were okay buying some used ones for $9.50 each. If I were to sell mine which are in Great Shape inside of their original packaging that is also in Good, if not, Very Good condition, I would have much better sales results offering mine for anywhere between $5 and $7 each. And, if I offered a discount for buying something like 4 for $18, that would be a far more attractive offer over the one’s selling used today for $9.50 each and more. So, hopefully this will help you see why whatever pricing you have or find for the trains you wish to sell is mostly good as a reference to help you determine a good Asking price for the trains you wish to sell.
Rare, collectible trains that are highly sought after may not be affected by the normal pricing methods. What those trains are, I really don’t know. I know what trains I like and the ones that I am looking for. A few of those have become scarce and seller’s are really getting much higher prices for them than they should. But that is because they are so scarce and a lot of people are looking for the same trains that I am looking for, maybe even for the same reasons. So, when demand is high and supply is low, and you have the supply that is in high demand, you might be able to put staggering profitable prices on the trains you wish to sell and get every penny you ask for. To determine that, you are going to have to do a lot of time consuming monitoring of trains being sold via various platforms to see what is being consumed or you need a good contact working for a train store who can feed you intel on what visitors to their store are asking for or buying. If you have such an item, you might be like Jay Leno with his car collection: If you have something that is incredibly pristine and coveted that someone else is willing to pay an outrageous amount for, then by all means price it correctly and provide as much information as you can about it. But since most people have the same exact trains that were manufactured in lots of thousands at a time, it would be extremely rare for you to have anything so incredible that it should be sold outside normal, average price ranges that others are selling such items for. I keep looing for the things that I want. Some have come up. Sellers are removing trains from multipacks and selling each piece for 4 times the cost of the entire pack when it was originally released. I make reasonable offers on these when I can find them, but thus far, I have a let a lot of these go without showing very much interest at all. Eventually, some one will have what I am looking for at a price I am willing to pay for it. Or, I just won’t ever get what I am looking for. As you become a seller of train items, you may have to determine how long you want to wait for items to sell. If priced too high, they will sell slowly.
I have 4 prototype trains cars that were developed by a hobby store owner that used to have a shop in my hometown. He closed his business 25 years before I met him. I bought those 4 prototypes from him. He had a great idea. He contracted with a company to screen print the roadname and numbers on the shells of these 4 box cars. The shells and frames were manufactured by another company and sold as “Undecorated” kits. He added wheelsets from yet a 3rd manufacturer and couplers from a 4th. I acquired these 4 cars from him as kits. He had planned to sell a lot of these as kits that buyers would put together. However, he closed his business before he could market these kits to potential buyers and before any of the 4 prototypes were manufactured in quantities. I have owned them for a little over 10 years, and about 1.5 years ago, I pulled them out of their storage place, and I finally fully assembled 1 of them and half-way assembled another one. I had to add my own weight to the kit. They are beautiful trains. Whether in kit form or assembled, it is unknown what I could possibly get for these items right now. The roadname happens to be a very popular railroad in my area as it matches the surviving railroad company that owns the majority of the real-world trackage in my state and quite a few neighboring states. Would someone pay $50, $75, $100, or more per car fully assembled and weighted according to NMRA standards? I don’t know. I’m not willing to sell them at this time.
I hope to finish the remaining 3 by end of next year. Until then, I use the one I completed as a transition car with a knuckle coupler on one end and a hornhook coupler on the other end. That is about as unique as anyone will ever find in the model railroad industry. Only 4 of those cars has ever existed and I have all 4 of them.
But don’t let any of that impress you. Model railroaders have been making their own cars, buildings, and everything else for over 2 centuries. Some do it by kitbashing. Eventually, those end up in the collections of someone else, recycled for some other reason, or discarded like toilet paper. Maybe they end up in a displayed wall collection or even a museum. For part of a Christmas display in 2023, I designed and built 5 MILL HALF-HOUSES in HO scale for our train club. Those are unique. For as long as they last and for as long as our club uses the modules for which they were designed, hopefully they will endure and be displayed each Christmas season. Will they last as long as me? Only time will tell. Will they ever be sold? Probably not. When they are no longer useful, they will probably be discarded and replaced by the next member’s innovative idea.
I made a Snowman with a Cowboy’s hat for the club’s trailer park module a year or two before the houses were made. The poor snowman has been lost, I believe. Most likely it fell off somewhere during takedown of the layout, was kicked around, and swept up by the cleaning crew. So, don’t get too attached to train items that you think are absolutely incredible and have a lot of nostalgia for you because as far as the next modeler, train enthusiast, or collector is concern, if they don’t want it, can’t use it, don’t have to have it, they are not going to buy it from you, no matter how great you think it is. And if you try to attach too much value or importance to it, especially when it exists elsewhere for less, you are not going to sell it for more than someone is willing to give you for it. Be willing to part with items for less than you might want to and you will find a new a home for your items much faster than if you demand a strong, aggressive price that your deductive logic dictates your item(s) must be worth.
How many TRAIN items do you have for sale?
For this number, count the important items, such as locomotives, train cars, buildings, and good size accessories. Combine really small items as one: For instance, a package of telephone poles may have 12 individual poles. Count that as 1 set of poles. A 5-piece train set may have a locomotive, a transformer, 12-pieces of tracks, 4 train cars, wires, etc. Its called a 5-piece set because only the locomotive and train cars are being counted. You could say this set has 5 trains. Or, you could say it is a 5-piece train set that includes over 25 pieces.
The following is my way of categorizing the size of a collection of trains:
Small collection = 20 pieces or less. Starter collection = 21 to 50 pieces (of items that allow someone who has nothing to be able to get enough items that include everything necessary to be able to typically run a locomotive pulling train cars around a track). Medium collection = 51 to 150 pieces. Large collection = 151 to 500 pieces. Huge collection = 500+ pieces. Empire Builder collection = At least 1 layout (mostly completed) and 1000+ additional train pieces (such as locomotives, rolling stock, vehicles, buildings, accessories, etc.).
Where to sell trains:
As you prepare to sell the trains you own or inherited, inevitably you will get to this question: Where or How to sell trains?
Since part of the HOW is the WHERE, then let’s examine some possibilities based on what you can do:
Are you willing to search the internet for places to sell your trains? Yes = Great. You are bound to find some good venues and opportunities. No = You may be limited to the information you have reviewed in this article.
Are you willing to allow potential buyers to come to your place or meet them in a safe public meet-up spot and allow them to look at what you have to sell and negotiate a price for the items? (Sales are typically in Cash, unless you use payment apps such as CashApp, Venmo, Zelle, and others). Yes = Craigslist.org, Facebook Marketplace, Berkshire Station (yard sales), and others (search online). No.
Are you willing to publish a list of the trains that you have along with photos and usually prices? Yes = Craigslist.org, Facebook Marketplace, and other places. Having a detailed list with individual prices and at least some photos of the items will work well. No.
Are you willing to invest the time to list every item individually or in small bundles with at least 1 good photo of each item, up to 24 photos per item, and allow an online market place to present those items, process payments from buyers, you ship the items directly to the buyer, and collect a commission on what was sold by the marketplace? Yes = eBay.com, Etsy.com, Bonanza.com, and many others. No.
Would you prefer to have 1 person or company buy all of your trains at once? Yes = Trainz.com, ModelTrainMarket.com, and others (some can be found in Craigslist ads or other Internet search results). No.
Are you willing to ship or deliver all the trains you wish to sell to company you find online and allow them to handle everything to do with getting rid of your trains? (Be aware, depending on what you have, 75% of your items will probably sell. It can be hard for a 3rd party seller to sell 100% of a collection, especially if the items are in less than average condition and if they are unpopular, old, or outdated.) Yes = ShowMyHobby.com – Consign Your Hobby page, Toys Trains and Other Old Stuff, Auction Houses, (Internet Search Results) No.
Would you prefer to have someone come and pick-up your trains all at once and take care of the entire sales process for you and send you a commission on the sells over time as they occur? Yes = ShowMyHobby.com – Consign Your Hobby page (for locals with a train collection located within 1 hour’s drive of zip code 28012. This requires that you at least provide an idea of what it is that you have for sell first. Not all collections will be accepted. Subject to my review and storage space availability.), Other consignment businesses possibly in search results. No.
Would you prefer to donate your trains? A. And receive a tax deductible donation receipt: Yes = A certified 501(c)(3) Organization willing to accept your trains. Goodwill may be one of those. Search for others. No = MetrolinaModelRailroaders.org – Donation page (They accept all donations, but cannot issue a tax deductible receipt.) B. You do not care for any compensation or receipt for your donated trains: Yes = MetrolinaModelRailroaders.org – Donation page.
Are you willing to attend train shows, swap meets, professional yard sales, flea markets, etc.? Yes = Locally: Berkshire Junction (Train Hobby Store in Iron Station, NC) Does a FREE monthly Yard Sales Event. Use TrainShowList.com to Search for these online.
How to attempt to sell trains to the Metrolina Model Railroaders club and its members? If you have followed along with me thus far, then if you wish to approach the Metrolina Model Railroaders club and/or its members to attempt to entice us to consider purchasing SOME or ALL of the trains that you have for sale, then you should have an idea of the best way to approach us. Instead of sending us an email that says, “Hey, I have a lot of trains to sale and wonder if you folks would be interested in buying them?”, a better approach would be as follows:
Keep in mind: It is unwise to assume that we will buy your entire collection regardless of how small or how big it is. We PREFER that you DONATE train items to us / MMRR. On occasion though, club members may be interested in some of the pieces that you have for sale. If you are unwilling to sell pieces of your collection, presenting your items to us / MMRR is probably not a good idea. You may wish to consider contacting me, Henry, at ShowMyHobby.com to see if I will consider allowing you to consign your train items with me / ShowMyHobby.com.
Identify, inventory, and create a list of the all the train items you wish to sell. Please know what the Scale of your trains are. If you have multiple Scales, you will need to add the scale to each item listed in the next step.
As a minimum, include the following information for each item that you have: Manufacturer / Brand, Model Number (if known or locatable), Item Name, Item Condition, Item Description, and Asking Price, (Scale if you have multiple scales of items you wish to sale).
As a minimum, take photos of the entire collection and/or photos of small groups of the items. The best method would be to go ahead and take multiple photos of every item. [I have a separate, albeit very long-winded and detailed guide on how to create photos to be able to share them with others. You should review this page prior to taking your photos because ultimately, you have to figure out a way to get the photos in front of someone you want to consider purchasing your trains. Emailing a lot of photos to anyone is a not a good idea and may not be successful by attaching them to an email. And, you cannot attach them to the MMRR contact up page. There is a better way all the away around so take the time to go through this post as well.]
The above steps will help you approach others as well as the MMRR. They will also prepare you the most to sell these on your own, consign them, or have an auction company sell them for you. They will even be the best preparedness you could have to entertain an outright offer for someone to buy the entire collection. If you are unwilling to do any of the previously mentioned steps, then this step is something you shouldn’t do with the MMRR. Use our Contact Us page on the MMRR website. Craft a message similar to the following except modify it to your specific situation [You may copy and paste this message to start with on that page]:
Hello MMRR,
My name is “so and so”. I [inherited] have some HO scale trains that I wonder if you people would be interested in. I have pasted a list of the train items that I have for sale. I also took some photos and here is the link to a Shared Google Photos album [Link address] so that you can see the trains I am selling. Please get back to me and let me know what you would to buy. I can be reached by the email I provided [and by phone at {number} most days between nAM and nPM. Thank you!
Would you agree that if you sent us an email similar to the above that we could very quickly determine if we are interested in what you are selling and could basically reply to you the first time with offers to purchase the trains that you are selling? Yes = You could approach other train clubs the same way. You could adapt such a message and post it on Craigslist and instead of inserting the photo album link, you could upload some of your photos to your ad. You could create an eBay account and post individual items for sale or groups of items. You could even offer the entire collection all at once. When you are prepared to sell your items, you will find a way to sell your trains. No = You should probably consider consigning your trains with ShowMyHobby.com or donating them.
Hopefully, this information has lead you to make a decision on what to do next regarding How to sell trains. Have fun and enjoy selling the trains you wish to sell. If you found this information useful, please LIKE it using the button below.
The 2024 Father’s Day Train Sale at Factory Direct Hobbies continued until June 19th as far as I can tell. However, a new sale called the SunShine sale appeared to start on June 20th. You can still save a lot of money on train items they are interested in buying.
I have recently returned from vacation and didn’t get a chance to prepare ShowMyHobby.com for a Father’s Day Train Sale. There have been a lot of visitors to the site this month. In fact, we exceeded the site’s bandwidth limit earlier in the month. I am not sure when it went offline as I haven’t found a notice of it going offline yet. Nonetheless, I have acquired more bandwidth to get the site functioning again. On Thursday, June 20th, I received a warning that by sometime tomorrow at the rate visitors are visiting the site, the site will have used more than 125% of the NEWLY added space. So, I will have to remedy that today to keep the site online. According to the notice the site is consuming almost a half a terabyte of data per day which would be close to 15 terabytes a month. Imagine what your cellphone provider would charge you if used 15 terabytes of mobile data per month. And, just FYI, unlimited plans have a finite number and its smaller than you think.
I appreciate the visits people. Thank you very much. However, please find something you like and buy it. The site doesn’t run for free, and bandwidth is expensive. If you are interested in something and don’t see it, use my contact us page and tell me what you are looking for. Keep in mind that the majority of the items I provide are items that have been placed on consignment. Yes, there are several hundred items that have not been placed on the website yet. If you visited a train show in North Carolina within the past 2 years and saw something on my tables that you are not interested in, then you would be the best person to contact me and ask me if I still have those items. I am unable to fill requests as I have no idea what or when someone will consign an item or their hobby collections. If you see something online currently and wish to make an offer on it, tell me what the item is and what your offer is and will let you know if we can make that happen or if I must provide a counteroffer for you to consider. I don’t have auctions turned on right now nor am I using eBay for their auctions right now either.
If you are a train modeler or collector, whether you are a male or not, you can no longer take advantage of model train sales for this year’s Father’s Day. However, Factory Direct Hobbies has a new sale going on and they have sales often, so keep checking back here to use my referral link so that you can get $10 off your next order with them. I am promoting model train sales at Factory Direct Hobbies because if you use the following link, you can save an additional $10 off any order you place if this is the first time you have used a referral link from me to buy something from Factory Direct Hobbies. You can find some really good deals over there right now.
Get $10 off your FactoryDirectHobbies.com purchase.
You can receive a $10 discount when you shop at Factory Direct Hobbies.
While writing this page, I also checked to see if TrainWorld‘s 2024 Father’s Day sale is still going on as well. It did last until late night Monday, but as of June 18th, their Father’s Day sales has ended and the discount code no longer works.
You do not need a discount code at Factory Direct Hobbies, but to get $10 off on top of their great 2024 Father’s Day train sale, you would need to click the above referral link. FDH will compensate me should you buy something from their site after following the link. TrainWorld doesn’t provide me with any compensation for referring customers to them. (Shame on them.) Nonetheless, you can still get a good deal at TrainWorld as well.
I am a model train modeler and collector. I do my best to take advantage of sales when I can, and I suggest that other’s do the same. I like a good deal and over at FDH, they have some items marked down more than 40% off during this sale. It’s huge. Now is a good time to get a good deal. Many thanks to you from me if you find something you are able to add to your collection from Factory Direct Hobbies using my referral link above during their 2024 Father’s Day Train Sales event.
If you happen to be a father, Happy Belated Father’s Day to you!
Enjoy the Greatest Hobby in the World — Model Railroading!
-Henry
ModelTrainStuff.com is BACK ONLINE and Back in Business. THEY HAVE EXTENDED their 2024 Father’s Day Train Sale as well! I left for vacation during the last week of May 2024, so I am not sure WHEN they re-opened. They are under new ownership by Joe Grubba at Factory Direct Hobbies. Their Rewards program is back up and running too. However, I do not yet know the status of their referral program. The referral link below will still get you over to their site. I don’t know if I will receive anything by referring you to them or not.
Get REWARDED for your purchases at ModelTrainStuff.com.
Use this referral link to open a New Customer account with ModelTrainStuff.com.
Hours: Friday, April 5, 2024, Noon to 7 PM Saturday, April 6, 2023, 9 AM to 3 PM
Admission: Adults $7.00, ($10 for both days). Attendees under 12 years old get in FREE. Free Parking.
Features: There will be hundreds of tables featuring model trains in all scales, railroadiana, railroad artifacts and antiques, and several operating model railroad layouts. Admission is $7 for adults, $10 for adult 2-day passes, and free for all under the age of 12. All proceeds from the event will go to the railroad history preservation efforts at the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum at 1123 N. Main Ave. in Newton, NC, and the Museum will be open regular hours during the show!
Hickory’s 22nd Annual Train Show
ShowMyHobby.com will be occupying 3 of the train tables at the Hickory Train Show. Once you arrive, you will have to find me among the other vendors and attractions. I have lots of great trains in very good condition or better. This year, I still have some S scale trains available, almost all of them are in their original boxes in very good condition. The collection includes mostly steam era trains but also includes a couple diesel locomotives. I have A.C. Gilbert American Flyer by Lionel and many trains by American Models. If you are an S scaler, this will be a great opportunity for you to pick up some additions for your layout or collection. However, please visit my website and view the S-Scale trains available and pre-order them, if you can. Although I will have a lot of the S scale items with me and some O scale items, I will probably have them underneath the tables since they take up so much space. So, unless you ask about them, you may not see them or be aware that they are there. If you are interested in starting your own S scale layout, you might be the first lucky person to pick-up the very realistic American Models’ tracks that I have which happen to be enough track to create a double mainline layout. I have 2 different radius curves available for 2 circles. If you cannot make this event, it’s okay, you’ll find a few of the items for sale on my website.
If you are coming to the train show and wish to pre-purchase items from my website, use one 1 of the following coupon codes indicating which day you plan to pick-up the items. Purchase before Wednesday at midnight, April 3rd, 2024 using the appropriate coupon code and no shipping charges will be charged online. After midnight Wednesday, items sold online will begin shipping on Monday after the show.
I also have lots of great vintage HO scale items, many of them are simply NEW items in their original boxes that are 10, 15, 20 or more years old. Some items are factory-built kits and others are kits that someone put together, but rarely, if ever, ran on a layout. I also have USED trains. The majority of all trains I have for sale are in good to very good condition. I also have lots of BUILDINGS and STRUCTURES. The buildings and structures take up a lot of table space at shows so sometimes it is hard to put those out on the tables. I have a lot of HO Bachmann Plasticville snap-together buildings that can be assembled in less than a minute. So, if you are interested in HO Scale buildings, please ASK me as many of them many not be out on the tables. A manual HO scale Atlas turntable is also available.
Athearn, Tyco, Bachmann, AHM, Lionel, American Models, S-Helper Service, Life-Like, Atlas, Roundhouse, Model Power, Midwest Products, Shinohara, Campbell, Con-Cor, Faller, MRC, Train-Miniature, and Walthers are just some of the manufacturers that I have from. Road names include everyone from Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe to Western Pacific railroad. So come on out, bring the family, see some model trains, and buy a train or train related item either for yourself, a loved one or as a gift for someone. Incidentally, electronic gift cards are available online on my website so if you need to, buy someone a pre-paid gift card and then send them to the show to pick something out. Obviously, the gift cards only work at my tables or for online purchases on my website (with the latter being the best way to use them.)
I am going to have a raffle registration on the table at the show. Fill-out the entry form if you wish to be on my direct emailing list and place your entry in the box. After the show, I will randomly pull one of the entries and email the winner. The prize will be the following display model trains that are currently up for sale on my website as 2 HO-like Classic Trolley Street & Cable Cars. One is the streetcar named Desire and the other is the Powell & Mason streetcar. I will email the winner and ask them to provide their shipping address. Once received, I will ship the prize to them on Monday. Because these are display models, they can easily be used by everyone regardless of whether or not you have an operational HO scale train layout. View the prize items on my website at this link address: https://showmyhobby.com/index.php/product/ho-like-2-classic-trolley-streetcars-cable-car-displays-desire-powell-mason/
The following pictures and videos are from previous Train Shows and represent a walk around of the tables I had there. Many of the items are still for sale now.
ShowMyHobby.com sells trains, train related items, and other collectible items at train shows and online via my website as well as on eBay. Most of the items offered for sale are consigned items. If you have a collection of trains you would like to get rid of, you can consign your trains by visiting the following link: https://showmyhobby.com/index.php/consign-your-hobby/. I will be attending other train shows throughout the rest of year which provides a great opportunity for your items to be sold. Many of the items currently available have been consigned by model railroaders getting out of the hobby and by recipients who inherited items from the estates of modelers and collectors. I can help your trains find new homes if you want me to. I prefer HO and N scale trains but can eventually sell most trains. I have a large collection of German and European trains that will be featured at future train shows.
If you are looking for electric model trains and accessories in HO scale, N scale, O scale, S scale and G scale, then attend the train show and stop by tables and check-out the model railroad related items I have for sale. I accept CASH and ALL Plastic Credit or Debit cards. I have Ready-To-Run items and kit items that require assembly. You will find a multitude of great items to choose from at this train show. Whether you are just getting started in model railroading or have been involved in it for a long time, you’ll find something that interest you at the train show and hopefully you’ll find something on my tables that you’ll want to take home and add to your collection or purchase as a gift for someone you know that loves trains.
If you only prefer to buy NEW train stuff from the internet and have it delivered to your home, visit ShowMyHobby.com. If you do not see what you like or want among my inventory, use the Factory Direct Hobbies link on website and get a discount off your next Factory Direct Hobbies purchase. The owner of Factory Direct Hobbies used to participate at local NC train shows. Now he has really taken his business to the next level and his success has recently allowed him to save ModelTrainStuff.com. Although MTS is not back-up and running yet, when they do become operational again and get their rewards programming functioning, there is a link on my site to them as well that previously saved you money on your purchases.
Hope to see you at the Hickory NC Train Show!
Happy Model Railroading and Train Rail Fanning …
SHIPPING SAVING ONLINE COUPONS
Review the latest update to the list of consigned items. You may see something listed that you like and want to make sure you get it. You can actually BUY ITEMS BEFORE THE TRAIN SHOW and then Visit the Train Show and pick them up without paying for shipping. Follow the instructions and use the coupon code mentioned below.
Although I haven’t taken pictures of Most of the items in the Consignment List, I am going to import the majority of the listed items into the website early Tuesday morning the 26th of September. You will easily identify these items on my website because they won’t have a picture that matches the item or there will be a note in the description of a pictured item that the item shouldn’t be ordered for shipping purposes because the packaging information is incorrect.
Instructions for Buying Train Related Items prior to the Train Show and Picking them up:
While viewing items in the SHOP on my ShowMyHobby.com website, add items you want to the shopping cart.
When you have everything you want in the cart, apply the coupon code that corresponds to the Day of the Show that you will be picking up your items: HTSPKUPFRI or HTSPKUPSAT. These coupon codes will remove the shipping charges from the total amount due.
Buy the items prior to midnight on Wednesday, April 3rd.
Print-out or write down your order including the order number.
Arrive at the Train Show Friday or Saturday. (Admission cost to get into this Train Show is $7 per adult. Children under 12 get in free.)
Locate my tables by asking any Show Vendor or Representative (as I do not know exactly where my tables will be located yet).
Tell me your order number or show me your printed order receipt and I will hand you your web-ordered item(s).
Additional information that you should be aware of:
Remember, all sales via ShowMyHobby are final. All items are sold “As Is”. No items are returnable. And No Refunds are provided for any items sold. These policies apply to ALL items and ALL sales whether made online, in person, or at a Train Show.
If you buy items using the Train Show Pickup Coupon Code, you must show-up during the published show hours and pick-up your items directly from me / ShowMyHobby.com. No other vendor is responsible for the items you purchased, nor may any other vendor supply you with the items that you purchased from ShowMyHobby.com. It is a good idea to show up at least 2 hours prior to the published end of show time. I am often not completely set-up during the first 1 to 2 hours of the first show day. Arriving between 12 PM and 2 PM is the best time to pick-up your online orders during a Train Show.
I’m not certain exactly where my tables will be at the Train Show. Ask around and someone should be able to direct you to my area. The coupon code will EXPIRE at midnight on Wednesday the 3rd. However, any order placed after 11 PM may not make it into my car so make sure you purchase your order prior to 11 PM. Also, be aware that I leave Thursday morning the 4th for this particular train show, so your order must be placed by 11 pm Wednesday night. Any order placed after 11 PM could get the items sold again without me being aware that they were sold on the website. I will print the items sold inventory pick list at 11 PM. I would end the coupon earlier if I could, but the system doesn’t allow me to change the time of day on which the coupon ends. Coupons end at midnight.
If you fail to show-up and pick up your order, next week I will package your items, weigh the box, and email you an invoice for the actual shipping costs plus payment processing fees. You will need to pay that invoice and then your items will be shipped to you. Be aware: the shipping fees will most likely differ significantly from any shipping charges my website may show you before you enter the coupon code. This will happen because in order for me to import items into my website, I must SPECIFY a PACKAGED WEIGHT and SIZE for every item. Since I haven’t taken a picture of several hundred of the items, it means that I also haven’t yet WEIGHED those same items or measured them to know what size shipping box will be required to ship them. To import the items, I am going to assign the same fictitious weight and box dimensions to all the imported items. This weight may not be anywhere close to the real size and weight of any particular item. My website automatically calculates the shipping box(es) size and total combined weight for multiple items based on whatever these figures are associated with each item. During the days prior to this upcoming Train Show, it is not a good idea to purchase items without pictures online if you do not plan to pick them up at the train show. Shipping charges for those items may be grossly incorrect.
To avoid unpleasant circumstances and inconveniences, try your best to pick-up any online ordered items at the Train Show. If you fail to pick-up items and further fail to promptly pay the invoice to ship items to you, you forfeit any monies you paid for the items or the right to receive the items. No refunds will be issued! Additionally, you subject your yourself to possible collection actions that might also include additional charges such as restocking fees. Please be certain to PICK-UP items at the Show or promptly pay shipping invoices if you are unable to make the train show.
N scale Kato Union Pacific GEVO ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 Locomotive pulling 3 Con-Cor North Pole & Southern passenger cars around the HJR Lonsway Pike layout.
March 15, 2024 (early AM). This is a review of a locomotive purchased from MB Klein’s ModelTrainStuff.com website. I purchased it just before they shut down under Hattons acquisition management. However, during the shutdown, I received a couple notices from ModelTrainStuff.com requesting that I write a review of the locomotive. I don’t think I even tried to do so because previous attempts to reach their website resulted in a message that they were temporarily closed and uncertain when they would be operational again. Over time, the message actually changed from the first time I saw it. As you may be aware, as of the date of this writing, Model Train Stuff is definitely going to be returning under new ownership as a result of a fellow North Carolina Hobby Business Reseller Joe Grubba, who owns and operates Factory Direct Hobbies. Several days ago, via a comment on a Facebook notice in a group that I am a member of, I stated that I would go ahead and do this train review but that it would most likely have to appear on my website since the ModelTrainStuff.com website is still currently inaccessible.
The Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 locomotive was ordered on November 27th, 2023, and received on December 11th, 2023. I mention this because as you can see, it took about 14 days (2 weeks) to arrive which is a little long for a shipment from Cockeysville, Maryland to reach Belmont, North Carolina. There is a video (that I am certain hasn’t been posted yet) where I mention the uncomfortable delay experienced regarding this shipment and the odd tracking information I received. Anyway, I opened this locomotive off camera the day it was received. I examined it and test ran it on the 11th of December 2023. However, as mentioned, I didn’t make a video or take any still photos of the locomotive the first day it was received.
The N scale Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 DCCS Locomotive is a DCC Sound Equipped locomotive. It comes with a pre-installed LokSound decoder. For me, this is a first! All of my other N scale Kato locomotives started out as either DC only or DCC Ready. There was a time when Kato USA had their Kobo Shop install decoders on certain units either by request or on special runs. I do not see any notices on their website today discussing or offering Kobo upgrades. However, a couple of forums suggest that there was a Kobo series of trains made. I do not remember it being a “series” but as I said, there was an American service provided via KatoUSA.com that offered DCC installs. All I know is that the locomotive was actually listed on Model Train Stuff and is listed at KatoUSA.com as having a LokSound decoder pre-installed in it.
I purchased this locomotive for several specific reasons. And those reasons have already been talked about in videos (that have not been posted yet, unfortunately). So, I will go ahead and mention the reasons now. {However, when the “Project” that this locomotive was purchased for appears on the site I will replace this sentence with a link to it.}
I have good size collection of N scale Union Pacific passenger cars. Even though I have other UP Diesel locomotives, I have a 7-piece Union Pacific Passenger Excursion set that I decided to also operate as part of a President Bush Funeral Train. I previously added the Bush #4141 locomotive to the collection. Research and videos of the train consist that made up the Bush funeral train show that the second locomotive that appeared right after the Bush #4141 engine was a Union Pacific SD70ACe Diesel Engine #8008. I looked extensively across practically every N scale provider for a UP #8008 SD70ACe locomotive in N scale. However, I did not find one. So, I settled for a locomotive that was on sale, has sound in it, and looks similar to the UP8008. The UP #5400 is what I chose to be the second locomotive in my Bush funeral train model. Plus, the locomotive can easily be used to pull any of my other UP fleet of both passenger and freight cars.
I do not remember the exact details of my initial test of the N Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400. I just glanced at my catalog spreadsheet where I keep all the information about my train collection and there are no notes entered for the 11th of December. This doesn’t mean I didn’t take some notes. I typically try to do my best to make notes and there exist a slew of handwritten notes clipped to a clipboard that is about 1.5″ thick of notes and purchases that have not yet been entered into my spreadsheet. There may be handwritten notes for the 11th of December among the stack of papers clipped to the clipboard just waiting for me to get the time to enter them. Only time will tell. For now, all I remember is that the locomotive ran very well (otherwise, I would have remembered that it didn’t, for sure).
On December the 12th, Day 2 of ownership, I took the first video presented below. Unfortunately, this video is NOT very impressive. In fact, I didn’t get the locomotive to function well at all on that particular day. Here, you will see the mishaps that occurred.
Since Day 2, I have operated the locomotive successfully on several occasions and have taken videos of the successful runs. However, one of those videos is 98 minutes long and the other video might be 2.5 hours long. In both cases, those videos are SIDEWAYS currently. Although I did not intend to do so, those videos start out with the camera oriented vertically and shortly after the start-up the camera is rotated horizontally. However, the videos have come out oriented vertically. It will take quite some time to rotate those videos {if the software I use will even let me do it. I’m thinking there is a 10-minute limitation built into the software and therefore it might not even load either of those videos up to allow them to be rotated. I will have to look, see, and update you on this later}.
It is 4:26 AM as I write this line. The photos that I have taken thus far need to be made ready for the website and although the video has been uploaded to YouTube, I need to finish its write-up. I need to get up earlier than usual in a few hours for a busy day today, so I will have to come back and finish this later. Because of that I will attempt to pull the locomotive out again, take a few close-up photos so you can see the details of the locomotive and one more video of just the locomotive running by itself. Hopefully it will prove to be a short video. And if I can get that done before bed tonight and posted on YouTube, then by Saturday, this REVIEW will be updated and if all goes well, you will get a better take on the LOCOMOTIVE itself. You’ve already been presented with some of drama. Trust me, it’s not over with yet. Trains in my collection have personalities and this newcomer is no different. In fact, it has become a CHARACTER already, establishing its behavior, making me ADAPT to deal with its idiosyncrasies. It is intertwined with a lot of projects that I have been working on since before Christmas and while it may take a couple years before I get the website updated with what just took place over the past 3 to 4 months, just know that I am working very hard, investing numerous hours, working on train projects.
Day 2 Video involving the Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400.
Day 2 testing of N scale Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 with LokSound.
March 15, 2024 @ 10:06 PM. I just finished taking some more close-up photos of the N scale Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 DCCS GEVO locomotive. I followed the photos by recording a video that last a little over 20 minutes. It would take nearly 3 hours 15 minutes to prepare the photos and videos for inclusion in this page. @ 1:12 AM I settled on how I wanted things to look and put together the following presentation:
I worked on putting together an N scale Train for Christmas 2023. The presentation for that is yet to be posted on the website. However, one of the tests that I conducted with the passenger cars of the Christmas train set was conducted with the Kato UP5400 Diesel pulling those Christmas passenger cars. Those tests are the first photos I took of the Kato UP5400 from ModelTrainStuff.com. Thus, the following picture gallery shows those photos and the video above was made during that testing time as well.
The pictures and video that I took on March 15th, 2024, show the N scale Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 Locomotive by itself with some close-up photos. The video below the gallery was made to highlight my opinions and review of the Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 Locomotive.
March 18, 2024 @ 1:00 PM. I finally clicked on the email from Model Train Stuff whereby they requested that I leave a review of the N Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400. I filled in the review and hit submit to publish it. I do not know if that worked or not because what I received was a Blank page after hitting submit. I think this is as I suspected meaning I don’t think it is possible to get a review to publish on ModelTrainStuff.com right now since the day they temporarily shut down their website. Nonetheless, I gave the review 4 stars. The following is exactly what I submitted via the email response:
Title Name: Kato N 1768954-S GE ES44AC Union Pacific #5400 Diesel Locomotive Review
In summary, the locomotive is very nice. It has moderate, molded-in details that won’t break, get smashed, or fall off. Everything looks very close to scale. The sound is rich and louder than MRC drop-in sound decoders but not as loud as BLI Paragon3 & 4 models. The locomotive comes without a printed function list. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing the standard Exploded Diagram paper. It might be underneath the foam inside the jewel case though. The locomotive runs very well, sounds good, and looks great. However, I had some issues operating it on my Atlas Code 55 tracks. It probably runs best on 11″ and greater radius curves.
It can run on 9 3/4″ radius curves but at low speeds. This is the first and only Kato locomotive that I have in my collection that came with a Decoder Pre-Installed by Kato. It’s good to see that they have caught up with what has become a normal and standard feature provided by most model train manufacturers. I give this locomotive 4 out of 5 stars with the 1 unearned star being because the locomotive will not run at all available speeds in all directions all over my Atlas Code 55 layout. It probably runs perfectly on Code 80 track. I recommend this locomotive to N scale fans and modelers of Union Pacific.
Note: After I updated this post with today’s attempt to submit the review to MTS, I clicked the BACK button on the blank page and returned to my filled-in email review. I decided to click publish again just to see what would happen. This time, I received an MTS logo and a Thank you for my review mentioning my name. So, the second time a website did accept the submission. The site named in the URL on the thank you page though was “stamped.io” and not ModelTrainStuff.com. This could be normal. I do not remember submitting a previous review to MTS via email before. I may have been logged into the website the last time I did a review which was probably years ago. Well, regardless, the N Kato Union Pacific ES44AC Diesel Engine #5400 DCCS Locomotive has now definitely been thoroughly reviewed so anyone looking for a review of this locomotive should be able to search and find one located somewhere…
December 3rd, 2024, I am still interested in a Christmas HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train that consist of at least 2 DCC Powered Sound-Equipped Diesel locomotives (preferably E8-A’s, just like their O scale models). Who else wants an HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train?
Previously, on February 2nd, 2024, I first published this article and stated that “Currently, an HO scale Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train set does not exist! I’m on a mission. Care to help me out? Can WE WILL this model train set into existence?” Since then, Lionel announced that they are going to make 3 HO scale North Pole Central Passenger Cars. Later in this article, you will see my opinion and reaction to what they have come up with. For now, just be aware that what they are preparing to create is not what I had in mind. So, in just a moment, I am going to let you and them know what it is I am hoping they will make.
On December 13th, 2023, I wrote a letter email to Lionel. I share the contents of that letter to Lionel with you in this article. I put up a survey form (that quite frankly is even annoying to me so I’m sure it is annoying my website visitors. Forgive me for that, but I’m serious about a Christmas HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train). Please cast your VOTE for or against an HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train set. I mentioned to Lionel that I would re-message them again on February 1st, 2024, about possibly creating this train set. It might take them a year or two to make it, but I would really like to have one with all the features I detailed in my letter. If you cast your vote, I will make it a point to send the results to Lionel periodically to let them know that I am NOT ALONE in wanting such a train set to be created. Thank you very much for your support and assistance. Let’s get this one done…
Keep in the mind that the images displayed here either come from Trainworld or Lionel. They were sent to me by Trainworld via one of their email updates on Christmas 2023 train releases. The models displayed are O scale. WE HO scale modelers need one of these. What do you think?
I have emailed Trainworld too asking for them to encourage Lionel to produce this train in HO scale. Wouldn’t it be great if Trainworld helped distribute them as well as drum up support and interest in the idea?
The letter and pictures have been posted. I had to modify the original photos in order to create the photos displayed on this page.
March 18, 2024. Today, I am just now getting to publish the emailed letter that I wrote and sent to Lionel and Trainworld on December 13, 2023. February was a very busy month for me and March has been just as busy. I was going to resend the letter along with the results on the 2nd of April, 2024, in hopes that I would have some Survey responses to include with my re-mailing to them at that time. I didn’t have many responses at all, so I didn’t update Lionel or Trainworld in April, 2024.
This is the emailed letter I sent to both Lionel and Trainworld on December 13th, 2023:
Wow!!!
I just received the flyer email from Trainworld that is at the bottom of this message. I am forwarding this to Lionel, back to Trainworld, as well as to members of the Charlotte, NC based Metrolina Model Railroaders Club.
LIONEL, would you consider producing in HO scale for an upcoming seasonal release (2024 or 2025), the following:
1) A North Pole Central E8 AA Set with Dual-Mode DCC & Sound, both locomotives powered and addressable separately, speed-matched, good heavy weight (die cast metal if you can make it happen affordably), with lots of details, and road numbers OTHER than #1225.
2) A Lighted North Pole Central 85′ Coach Passenger Car with detailed interior.
3) A Lighted North Pole Central 85′ Vista Dome Passenger Car with detailed interior.
4) A Lighted North Pole Central 85′ Dinner Passenger Car with detailed interior.
5) A Lighted North Pole Central 85′ Observation Passenger Car with detailed interior and lighted drumhead on the end that acts like a FRED (End of Train Device).
ALL OF THE ABOVE ITEMS should have Kadee Metal Knuckle Couplers, RP25 Contoured, low profile (code 70 compatible) Metal Wheels (of course) (with Kato N scale type power pick-ups on the wheels or some method that is low friction so that the cars roll exceptionally well), LED lighted interior (similar to Bachmann’s HO scale most recently released smooth side passenger cars), with actual people figures in all passenger cars, engineer and brakeman in Diesel locomotives, and be 18″ Radius Compatible right out of the box.
Could you offer all of that as a Train Set (cars and locomotives only)?
You could easily offer everything separately as well, plus offer it all packaged as a complete starter set too.
If you want to add some more bells and whistles or features, that would great, such as possibly putting a lighted & decorated Christmas Tree and other Christmas decorations inside the dining car; and adding a sound option to that car that plays a Christmas carol sung by the passengers with ambient dining noises in the background. Or, how about a family or two in the Vista Dome car, with one or two kids looking up into the sky, again with a sound option that has them excitedly screaming “Wow!!! There goes Santa in his sleigh with reindeers…” You get the idea, right? Cool!!!
I love the paint scheme of the O scale North Pole Central that Trainworld informed me they are selling for Lionel with the flyer they sent me below. It’s great. I just DO NOT COLLECT O scale trains personally anymore and I have tried my best to get rid of all of the ones that I have and that have been consigned to ShowMyHobby.com. I have enough HO and N scale Steam locomotives. I told myself I wasn’t going to buy any more, but I have ordered BLI’s latest N scale Merry Christmas 4-8-4 Steam locomotive that I am praying arrives before Christmas 2023, along with Con-Cor’s N scale Christmas Train by Micro-Trains. I have considered buying the Lionel Polar Express HO scale train set in the past and just about picked up a set from the new Berkshire Station train store when I was there in October. But I didn’t. However, in November, our train club, the Metrolina Model Railroaders, presented a version of our club’s layout at the 56th annual Southern Christmas Show, and one of our members brought their HO Lionel Polar Express. It WOULD NOT WORK! It took me forever to reset it to factory defaults. I tried to make it work using the LionChief throttle that came with it. That didn’t work. I tried our Digitrax DT500 throttles and that didn’t work. I used my phone and the LionChief app, and was able to get it to move, but it wouldn’t go more than 5 tracks without losing signal and stopping. I was within 3 feet of the locomotive. At first, I thought the set belonged to the club. So, after I was done trying to make it work, I wrote a note and left it with the set, suggesting that it be returned to Lionel for replacement. I later discovered that it belongs to a club member, and he recently posted a video on Facebook of his polar express cars being pulled by an MTH Diesel Christmas locomotive on another one of the club’s layouts set up at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. I say all of this to suggest that if you do MAKE the trains I suggested above that you NOT include LionChief in them and that you adhere to NMRA DCC standards. You can make a LionChief compatible model, if you wish, but I’m NOT GOING TO BUY THAT. Make one that WORKS consistently using NMRA DCC standards, and I’ll put my PRE-ORDER IN THE MOMENT I RECEIVE NOTICE THAT YOU INTEND TO MAKE THEM.
That brings me to WHY I included Trainworld in this notice and our train club. Little lowly old me asking you alone to create a model may not inspire you. But hopefully, Trainworld gets this and likes the idea too. And if so, perhaps they will contact you and say they would be happy to handle pre-orders for these models if you will produce them. I’m sending this to our train club in hopes that there are a couple members that would like to see something other than the Polar Express train on our tracks next Christmas or the Christmas thereafter. And if so, that they too will request that you look into creating the trains that I suggested above.
I know that this is the Christmas Season, and everyone is super busy trying to fulfill orders right now. So, I am also putting a reminder on my NMRA Calendar for February 1st, 2024. I will RESEND this request again on that date just to reinforce my interest in seeing the lovely North Pole Central Christmas Diesel Train Set in an HO scale version that I can use and operate on my train layout as well as take it to an upcoming Southern Christmas Show event and run it on the club’s layout. And to be quite honest with you, that would be a wonderful place to launch a presentation of your new train. Bring a film crew in, catch the crowd’s reaction, as that beautiful train goes around our French, Broad and Catawba layout. (The local Lionel representatives should know what I’m talking about.)
More than likely, I have sent this email to mailboxes at Lionel and Trainworld, where the receiver isn’t the right person to get this message. Please route this message to the appropriate person in your organization that handles new product development and marketing. I apologize that I do not remember the name of the Lionel representative whom I met at Dreams Come True Railroad in Cassett, SC on June 17th, 2023. We road on 7.5″-gauge trains and either his wife or his daughter had a wonderful time driving the trains. I think they road on trains for longer than I did. I also do not have Ken Bianco, Jr’s personal email address because when we met, he was scolding me for being behind the Trainworld tables at the Amherst Train Show. Apparently, he felt I should not have been there, although I was invited to be there by Jeff of Motrak Models, and I was simply sitting out of the way waiting for Jeff to finish talking to a prospective customer. Who knows if Ken remembers that or not. Anyway, please route this email to someone who can seriously consider making the production of the suggested HO scale North Pole Central Christmas Trains a reality. It would be really nice to have a set with the features that I mentioned above. And while I don’t think there is a movie out behind such locomotives or trains, HO scale needs a new, modern era, Christmas Train that is eye-catching, runs reliably and exceptionally well, consistently, on the most available tracks around, using the most popular train standards so that everyone who has some form of HO scale train tracks can operate the trains (at Christmas time or year-round). [And yes, this is a stab at Walthers for producing models that require 24″ radius curves or larger — shame on them…]
Many thanks for the consideration.
Henry Proposed HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train 2 Powered EMD E8-A’s DCC Sound-Equipped Diesel Engine LocomotivesHenry Proposed HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train 85′ Coach Car Spirit of MercyHenry Proposed HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train 85′ Diner Car FiresideHenry Proposed HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train 85′ Dome Car Aurora BorealisAbove proposed HO scale trains based on Lionel’s O scale North Pole Central passenger cars.
March 26, 2024. Yesterday, March 25th, 2024, Trainworld sent me a Lionel HO New Products Announcement. In that announcement, for the first time ever, it appears that Lionel is offering 3 different HO scale North Pole Central passenger cars. However, guess what? The cars are nothing like their O scale North Pole Central passenger cars and they are missing MANY of the features that I suggested and requested they include in their HO North Pole Central passenger train cars. Trainworld is taking PRE-ORDERS for these passenger cars. I am a little bit on the fence over them and almost put my pre-order in. Then, I checked the features, and apparently, these new-to-be-released passenger cars are simply North Pole Central paint scheme applications to their existing Polar Express passenger cars. I specifically mentioned in my letter to them that I would not be buying their TOY-LIKE productions with Frosted Windows in them.
I am looking for a realistic, fine detail, high-quality Christmas Themed passenger train cars in HO scale. Go back and take a look at what I would like to see in those passenger cars and/or look further down as I expand on exactly what I would like to see in them (pulled from the Survey questions I made a couple weeks ago). Also, because I have not yet seen a notice that the E8 North Pole Central HO scale passenger locomotives that I really want will be produced, there is no need for me to pre-order the passenger cars without a locomotive to pull it. I know. There is a Lionel HO scale North Pole Central steam Train Set that offers a steam locomotive. I do not want any more old steam era locomotives in my collection. I have enough of them. Although I do not have a UP Big-Boy, I’m oaky unless and until a great manufacturer has one for a steal of a price that runs on my 18″ Radius curves (not likely to happen again even though I sold a consignor’s AHM Big-Boy that ran successfully around my 18″ radius curves a couple years ago. It was manufactured a long time ago though and was DC only. Sound could probably be placed in the tender, but I just wasn’t interested in it at all.)
To date, the only email I have received from Lionel is their automated Talk To Us response message when I sent them my Product Suggestion request on December 13th, 2023.
Below is a listing of the features that are on these 3 HO Lionel North Pole Central passenger cars compared to my list of features as well as HO-Like features from their O scale version. As you can see, these cars are nothing like the passenger cars I am looking for.
{Need to put Comparison Spreadsheet Here.}
On August 2nd, 2024, I broke down and placed a pre-order for all 3 of the HO Lionel North Pole Central passenger train cars with Trainworld. Although these cars do not contain the features I WANT in my HO scale Christmas Passenger Cars, and I previously stated I wouldn’t buy these cars; I ordered them anyway. Unfortunately, they will not arrive before Christmas. They are scheduled to be released on New Year’s Eve, 2024. Practically ALL train manufacturers fail to meet pre-order shipping release target dates so honestly, I don’t expect to see these until well after the 2024 Christmas season is over and forgotten. Nonetheless, here are photos from Trainworld (which I imagine were provided by Lionel) for the 3 HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger train cars:
HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger BAGGAGE car (item#: 2455190)HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger DINER car (item#: 2455210)HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger COMBINE car (item#: 2455200)
On December 3rd and 4th, 2024, I updated this page. It took much longer than I expected. I attempted to get it finished prior to Trainworld’s 6:00 PM YouTube live stream event featuring Lionel CEO Howard Hitchcock presenting Lionel’s 125th Anniversary. However, that didn’t happen. So, I stopped updating the page to watch the event live. You can still view it you wish by clicking on the following photo:
Before the event took place, I printed the current survey results that were born because of this project. When I finish updating this page today, I will send yet another email to Lionel and Trainworld, this time attaching the survey results for them to see. You can view the results below:
If you watch the Trainworld video, you can listen to Mr. Hitchcock very early in the presentation explain Lionel’s marketing focus and practices. They strongly believe in marketing to the youngsters foremost to keep the model railroading hobby alive. That being the case, it is apparent that the products they produce will most likely need to appeal to children and youngsters first. If they plan to reach hardcore, discriminating, rivet counting, model railroaders, it didn’t come across to me as a very high priority of theirs, if at all. I also felt like the majority of the presentation was geared towards Lionel’s O scale products. That being said, I couldn’t find a time during the live stream where I felt it would have been appropriate to ask via the chat window if Lionel had any interest in producing highly detailed DCC-Equipped HO scale Christmas models.
One person mentioned in the chat window that he didn’t feel as if anyone at Trainworld or Lionel was paying any attention to the chat conversations. I mostly agree but also totally understand why they couldn’t and shouldn’t. Ken Jr needs to stay in control of the conversation so that it flows the way he planned and stays on topic. If a live stream presenter allowed totally unscripted open-ended questions and addressed them, then the presentation could run amuck, get out of control, and be about anything and everything other than the previously planned topics. So, I didn’t ask any questions or make any comments that were distracting. Instead, I will send both Lionel and Trainworld my email again this time with the current results attached.
Sending my product request and survey results to Lionel (and Trainworld) may be for naught though! As explained, the FEATURES I would like to see in a Christmas HO Lionel North Pole Central Passenger Train are far too advanced for children and my own survey results indicate that very few people are interested in such high quality, detailed trains like the ones I have suggested. Lionel collectors, users, and producers appear to be more interested in toy-like products instead of near museum quality pieces that I am wanting. You can certainly share your interest for or against the type of Christmas Trains I would like to have by taking the survey. If you are reading this right now, you would have had to take the survey or dismiss it prior to reading this statement. To take the survey again, visit my website from a different device or browser and you will be asked to take the survey the first time you visit this site from a new or different browser or device.
Once upon a time in December, 2023, I was looking through a Factory Direct Hobbies‘ emailed advertisement of some Broadway Limited Trains being released for the Christmas 2023 season. In that flyer was a very cool and interesting looking N scale Paragon4 with smoke Christmas Wrapping theme painted Reading Railroad T-1 4-8-4 Steam Locomotive with “Merry Christmas” written on the side of it. Some of my viewers know that I have “stopped” collecting Steam Engines. But that locomotive looked great. And the smoke feature is something that I do not know for certain that I have on any of my other N scale items. I might have it on another one because I have found an N scale sized funnel that might be used on such a locomotive on my N scale HJR Lonsway Pike, but I do not remember to which locomotive it belongs.. Anyway, over the past 5 years, I have been getting rid of the majority of my HO & N scale steam locomotives. I still have a fair number left that I intend to keep but I didn’t feel that I would be buying any more. Well, FDH got me. They hit me up at the right time and the BLI Reading T1 lust looks incredible. And, because it has “Merry Christmas” written on it, I said to myself, “If I could find a Caboose with similar paint scheme that has ‘Happy New Year’ written on it, then I could see myself buying those 2 items as my Christmas gift to myself this year.” So, I set out to find a caboose.
I invested several days searching for a caboose that I thought would match the locomotive. I found a Merry Christmas around the World N scale Diesel train set made by MicroTrains and distributed by Con-Cor. I only found the caboose I wanted in a 5-piece set available only on Con-Cor’s website at the time. As I browsed around Con-Cor’s website hoping to find just the caboose by itself, I ran across a lot of N scale Christmas trains promoted by Con-Cor or made by them. I put over 11 different items in my cart. However, Con-Cor doesn’t keep his website well maintained. The tracks on the HJR Lonsway Pike where I would be operating these trains mostly are Atlas code 55 tracks requiring low-flange wheelsets on any rolling stock that is used on them. High flange wheels will roll but they the will hit every railroad tie they encounter. So, because of this and a lot of other unknowns about the 11 different items in my Con-Cor shopping cart, I created a long list of questions for Con-Cor. Con-Cor also has a very high restocking fee if one returns an item to them and I didn’t want to buy something uncertain of what I would get. I sent them the email. Well, long story short, the response I received was unfavorable. We went back and forth a couple times and basically, they just didn’t have the time to address ANY OF MY CONCERNS or QUESTIONS I presented them in my long and specific email. So, at whit’s end and because the number of Reading T1’s available via FDH had dwindled to 2 and I had the last 2 in my cart on their site, I needed to hurry up and make a decision on whether or not I was or I wasn’t going to get any of these items for Christmas. I settled on the 5-car Christmas Around the World set JUST to get the Caboose out of it, and 3 passenger cars from Con-Cor. I ordered the FDH/BLI T1 Merry Christmas train. My troubles were just beginning apparently.
Con-Cor managed to get their order to me before Christmas. However, the train set was supposed to have a Diesel engine with a DCC chip in it. It does not have a chip in it. It is DC only. I had to complain. Con-Cor said they would make it right by sending me a chip. THAT has not happened yet (as of 2/2/2024) and now their parts guy quit and they cannot being to find me a chip until after they hire a new parts guy.
Factory Direct Hobbies tried their best, but someone how my purchase of 1 of the last 2 “available” Merry Christmas T=1’s ended up being delayed at the Custom’s docks and there was no way I would be receiving the locomotive before Christmas. So, I would have to wait. It arrived on the 2nd of January. But, on Christmas Day, I decided to TRY to work diligently to finish most of the HJR Lonsway Pike layout by wiring up all of my Tortoise controlled turnouts and all the lighting on the layout. Well, a month later, and I’m much further along than I was over the past 5 years, but I still don’t have the turnouts actually working. I have a very beautiful Control Panel made though and every house and building has been outfitted with lights and the lights leads dropped through the benchwork. I will put a lot of the renovations made in another Photo Album at a later time. It would be around the 20th of January before I opened the T1 locomotive.
I tested the Christmas Around the World train set. The train cars are very well done and the scenes painted on them are exquisite. They look a little weird size-wise because of them being Hi-Cube box cars. I’m not sure how close to scale these are. And, since I’m certain that the paint scheme never existed on any real trains, one could say that their is no prototype for them to be accurate with. Other than the short, stubby look, these cars are beautiful. They would have been BETTER if MicroTrains had installed metal wheels, but they didn’t. They roll nicely though. The DC diesel engine does okay. It tends to run a little rough and a little noisy, but it’s okay. I will like it better when it has a DCC chip in it.
The 3 passenger cars are very well done too. You know me. They could be better. The only disappointing thing about these are the cellophane jewel cases they arrived in. I really don’t see those cases lasing very long, in fact, there are some imperfections in them already. I have a lot of Con-Cor N scale trains, most of which arrived in much sturdier jewel cases or boxes. I told Con-Cor about this and made mention of it on a video in this album. One thing that would make them better would be seated people inside of the cars and interior led lighting with Kato style power pick-ups. But hey! Con-Cor didn’t make any of their trains to suit me yet.
I rain the Christmas trains from Con-Cor in different configurations and there is a video showing both trains running at the same time. There are some still shots of the 2 train consists as well.
Since I video-taped the opening of the Con-Cor trains when they arrived, I decided to do the same thing with the T1. It came out of the jewel case broken. The drawbar was broke and at least 2 pieces fell out. I suspect that a 3rd piece fell into the inside of the locomotive but if it ever came out, I haven’t seen it yet. It couldn’t be fixed by me, plus, the T1 is perhaps the second or third most expensive individual locomotive that I have in my collection. For what I paid for it, it was going to have to go back and be replaced with a new one in perfect working condition. I made arrangements through FDH for BLI to send me a replacement in exchange for me sending back the broken one. Although the drawbar was broken and a piece that I still cannot identify where it came from or where it belongs fell out, it still operated on my tracks and did so very well. I was able to find a route that the locomotive could run around on consistently with the least number of issues. Then, one-by-one, I added all the trains that I bought from Con-Cor for Christmas. This included 4 of the Christmas Around the World trains (excluding only the locomotive) and the 3 passenger cars.
When the replacement T1 came, I double-headed a consist of all the Christmas trains and ran them around the tracks. The 2 T1’s look good together and sound very good. They ran together pretty well too. The newest one is always in front in all of the pictures and videos. However, it derails a lot in one particular spot on the layout. Even running solo it does that so something is slightly different between it and the first T1 which rarely derails in the same sport or elsewhere.
Although I glanced at the paperwork for the T-1 and saw that BLI suggested light-weight Marklin smoke oil, I know I don’t have any such oil. I was hoping that oil made by BLI would work and so when a tube of it came that I ordered before the trains came, I put some of the smoke oil in the new T1 locomotive only. It never produced any smoke. Later, I read that BLI smoke oil is too high in viscosity to use in the N scale T1. I found some lightweight oil by Tyco that is probably 30 years old on more, but was previously never opened. It says it is Lightweight oil, but it too would not produce any smoke, at least not after having put the BLI oil into the locomotive. So, I have sent back the first T1 as promised. Thus far, I have seen absolutely NO SMOKE from the T-1 that I am most likely going to keep. I will try to find some Marklin smoke oil and order it to try it the next time I get a chance.
I really want to finish all the lighting and get all the turnouts and signals working on the HJR Lonsway Pike. I am trying my best to do so. I need a few more parts though and I cannot order them from a particular Chinese supplier until after he returns to work from celebrating the Chinese New Year. He is supposed to be back on the 16th of February. My time will become more limited though as a need to work on other home improvement projects becomes very pressing and takes the highest priority and getting ready for upcoming train shows at the end of February too. Plus, I have another layout referred to as the Uhaul layout which needs to be readied to a state to make it sellable the last weekend of February. I’m starting to doubt that I will get anything at all done on it before then. Plus, I have to work and there are tons of jobs to be complete and the workflow usually increases during this time of the year. I also have a lot of other challenges going on and need to put serious effort towards improving my health which means getting back on a healthier time schedule, eating regimen, and workout plan, all of which take many hours in a day, something I am running very short on as it is.
Anyway, this is the Christmas 2023 N scale trains that I added to my collection this year. I included 2024 because the T1 didn’t really get here until some time in January. When Con-Cor gets me a DCC chip and I get it installed and running good, I may attempt to obtain a few more of the Christmas Around the World box cars if it looks like the diesel will pull them well in DCC mode.
I hope you enjoy the Christmas Trains. You may be able to comment or Like this Album or the page on my website where I may appear eventually. May 2024 be a wonderful year for us all, ALL AROUND THE WORLD!!!
Currently, there are over 50 photos and several hours of videos related to the Christmas 2023-24 Trains. For now, to view them, open this Google Photos link. You may comment on the items in the photo album. As long as your comments remain on topic, mostly positive, and true, I will leave commenting turn on. But abuse this commenting opportunity and I will turn off that capability. I hope to return later and insert a couple photos on this page to break-up the writing. I will also turn on Sheena so that you can listen to her read this page to you. Just be aware, some words and phrases are harder for her to read than others.
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