Category: Useful Information

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2024 Father’s Day Train Sale

2024 Fathers Day train sale

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.

Just click the following link …

Click for $10 off at FactoryDirectHobbies.com

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.

You can also purchase train items here at ShowMyHobby.com, purchase a GIFT card for someone else to use on my site, or send any amount as a donation to continue supporting ShowMyHobby.com.

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.

Apply for membership at ModelTrainStuff.com

Mail List

You can now join our Mail List directly at any time via this page. Simply fill out the form below and click the Subscribe button. Our Mail List will be used for marketing purposes only starting in May of 2024. All buyers making purchases directly from this website automatically get enrolled in our Mail List. It is currently the closest thing we have to a Newsletter, however, mailings do not and will not occur on a frequent enough or predictable schedule to be named a newsletter.

Although I have not reviewed the entries in the Mail List as of May 2024, there are over 300 contacts already on the list. I do not think any of these contacts were added automatically with purchases previously made via eBay. However, I cannot be certain of that. Should we use eBay again in the future, I will update this section if I notice that eBay buyers are also automatically added to the Mail List. Additionally, since this website was originally created in 2018, I have noticed that hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people have been able to add themselves to a WordPress List where they were issued a system generated password. I think the WordPress List is separate from the Mail List. Soon, I will manage the WordPress List and if I can combine or transfer the WordPress List to the Mail List, I will notify people on the WordPress List that they are being transferred to the Mail List and provide a link to this page so that one can understand what is occurring.

Please do not confuse being on the Mail List with being an active ShowMyHobby Membership Subscriber. The Membership Subscriptions have not yet been turned on. Membership Subscribers will pay a monthly fee to maintain active memberships and will be able to post their own hobbies and collections on this site to be viewed by others and their specific guests. As the process of being a Membership subscriber involves signing up and buying the membership from this site, at that time, buyers will automatically be added to the Mail List because they purchased a Membership Subscription.

You can Manage your Mail List participation using the links presented in every message sent to you from us using the Mail List as the source of your email address used by us to contact you. Currently, SMS text messaging isn’t in use via our marketing efforts.

We do not share email addresses with other companies or sell contact information. However, in order to fulfill orders, we must either receive or share your contact information with our online card processor which is typically PayPal and with Shipping Carriers such as USPS and UPS. We may begin sending infrequent marketing materials beginning in May of 2024. Thank you for joining our Mail List.

If you have any questions or concerns, please Contact me.

Subscribe

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About the Mail List pop-up. As many of you may be aware, I am very much against pop-up and interruptive ads and things of a similar nature disrupting me when I am doing anything and everything. I despise the process and wish it had never been invented. So, if you have a similar aversion to such behavior, I totally agree with you. However, and unfortunately, the use of pop-ups and interruptive ads have proven to be the absolute best way to promote and market things via the internet. It has become so widely used that the email marketing tools used on this website have embedded the pop-up display as part of the Mail List sign-up process. All I am able to do is choose WHEN the pop-up shows up. It can either show up immediately the moment you first arrive at this site, within a specified number of seconds after you arrive, when you take an action, such as scrolling, or when you attempt to leave this site. I chose the last option to try to be the least intrusive as possible. I apologize for this deeply as I do not like any of these behaviors at all, but I am forced to choose one of the aforementioned pop-up behaviors in order to provide a Mail List sign-up form. While this page provides a form that anyone can visit whenever they choose to do so, I’m told that having on the site will not increase my Mail List as effectively as the pop-up. We will see what happens. So, forgive the interruption. If you are not on the Mail List, every time you visit this site and then go to leave it, a pop-up will display. Thank you for your tolerance, understanding, and your recurring visits.

Sincerely,

Management.

ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel (Live)

April 1st, 2024, ShowMyHobby will now provide the Live ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel. Within the past week, I have been experimenting with making Live stream videos. The number 1 reason for this is because of the amount of time it takes for me to make normal videos with my cell phone, download those videos, and then re-upload the videos to YouTube. I have well over a hundred videos where this process has not yet occurred. The number of hours represented by those videos a probably very close to if not over 150 hours. To give you a more accurate elapsed time figure, I would have to go through all the videos and the issue with doing that is my lack of “TIME” to do so. The ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel, based on the 3 live streams I have already recorded, may workout better FOR ME to be able to present you with videos of what I am doing.

Although LIVE streaming videos are there to allow people to see in real-time exactly what is going on, my ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel Live Streams will simply be used as a much easier, less time-consuming way for me to get recorded videos into the channel. Thus far, I do not know if I can EDIT those videos once I have produced them. I am going to attempt to edit video #3 right have creating this page announcing the channel. Either it works or it doesn’t.

My plan is to create a post here on the website for every Episode on the channel (except for possible PRODUCT videos that are specific to 1 product mostly verifying that product’s current condition). Those post should therefore appear in chronological order below, starting with the very first one which is me actually testing whether or not a live stream video will be saved and where in my channel I can find it.

Bear with me as I begin this process and try to figure out a way to make the videos more entertaining while still providing you with some decent information and content. Unfortunately, I have learned that I cannot PAUSE a live stream video and occasion have already occurred and will occur when I will need to walk away from the recording process meaning I will not be in front of or behind the camera.

The ShowMyHobby.com YouTube channel has been online for quite some time now already. The Live streams are the new thing. This past year, I discovered that it is very easy to pull-up and watch the videos in the SHM YT channel on my large screen TV’s, all of which are smart TVs with Amazon Firesticks attached to them. I mention this to you because basically you can view the channel on practically every type of Eletronic, computerized, video equipped device you have including cellphones, tablets, chrome books, laptops, iPads, and Televisions. And I hope you will view the channel and videos on the largest screened devices you have.

I am going to apologize NOW for my poor camera recording skills. I promise to work on these to try to keep the items that I am talking about in the focus frames. I also apologize for state of my living room where the majority of the videos have and are currently being recorded. It is a MESS. I have overrun my home with trains. IT NEEDS SOME SERIOUS HELP — which is why I am doing the videos and part of the reason for selling consigned hobby related items. The trains need a building of their own. YOU CAN HELP ME BUILD ONE MUCH FASTER than I will be able to do so on my own by donating to the cause, watching my online videos, promoting them by sharing them with others, and buying some of the items for sale on the ShowMyHobby.com website.

As much as I want and need the money that SHOULD BE generated by the videos, I DO NOT LIKE ADVERTISEMENTS. Personally, I absolutely detest advertising that interrupts me. So, if I had my way, no advertising would INTERRUPT you! I am going to try to hold out as long as I possibly can and try to PREVENT YouTube from injecting ads into my videos. However, they offer the platform for free. To offset the costs and profit from their endeavors, they make money by displaying paid ads around all videos to the viewers on the site. Guess what? I have no choice in the matter. They will always inject some advertisements in or around the videos I place on their platform. I must eventually agree to allow them to insert ads into my videos if I am going to make any money from doing so. To date, I have not received 1 penny from Google / YouTube for anything that I have posted there. And I currently couldn’t tell you if any video posted there caused a sale of an item on ShowMyHobby.com or eBay (when I was listing items on eBay). I hope the future is much brighter than the past.

Previously, I have not really been concerned about subscribers to the channel. However, I have set a couple milestones and a subscriber goal. As I reach the milestones, I will reveal what they are and an action that I would like for the subscribers to consider taking as those milestones are reached. So, if you like the content presented, please click on the channel subscribe button. Also, Like this page and pages where individual episodes appear.

I will probably not have a set day and time when I make the live videos. Most of them will probably be made very late at night and in the early hours of the morning. I do not expect the majority of my channel viewers to be able to catch me actually making a live recording. Even if you do, I currently do not imagine that I would be able to interact with any viewers while I am live streaming. I mostly plan to be behind the camera with the focus on what you are looking at and not me. Currently, I’m recording video using a Chrome book and its built-in webcam. I have a surveillance camera that I hope to start trying soon. And I also hope to try the GoPro Hero 8 camera as a webcam source. There is a train show in Hickory coming up this next weekend and I am trying to get as much done to get prepared for that as I can including promoting the event and getting more items online. I am working very hard on the HJR Lonsway Pike layout project too and am ambitiously trying to get a lot of the wiring, lighting, scenery, and town finished. I have things I have wanted to work on and record of the Easter weekend and didn’t get to all of it. Two nights ago I came up with a name for the town and wish to talk about that as well as get it done. Today, I have to put up some ads for the Train Show, see if I can edit the 2:45 live stream #3 video, and publish all 3 ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel Livestreams.

Thank you very much for checking out this page, showing and interest in ShowMyHobby.com, watching the channel and the videos, and providing your support.

ShowMyHobby.com YouTube Channel Live Playlist

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Outstanding Model Railroaders, Hobbyists, Collectors, Owners, and Enthusiasts including World Famous People that love TRAINS!!!

A couple days ago around the 21st of July, 2023, I decided to perform an online search. I knew Rod Stewart has a model train collection. I also knew that Corneilus Vanderbilt made a fortune owning real trains in the mid 1800’s. And, I also knew that Walt Disney was obsessed with model trains — the size people can ride on (7-1/4″ Gauge trains). My search revealed a slew of other celebrities and wealthy people who own, have, collect, or model trains. It was fascinating to discover the myriad of people that LOVE or Appreciate TRAINS.

A lot of other websites have really done a great job of identifying train loving people. I decided to publish a list of people that love model trains and own real trains on my website. And, I have decided to ask viewers of this list to contribute names and links to other websites or sources of information about train lovers and their model trains.

List of Famous People that Love Trains

Generated by wpDataTables

I will add a few more people to this list a little bit at a time. I have about 40 people to add right now, but doing so takes time. Keep checking back about once a week to see who else has been added to the list. There are lot of great stories about people and their trains. I encourage you to read the articles that the links refer to.

Eventually, you will be able to fill out a form and add names and links to sources. For now, I am going to allow comments on this post. If you would, please try to provide the 4 pieces of information that I have provided when you mention People that are model railroaders, hobbyists, collectors, owners, or enthusiasts. Feel free to mention yourself if you fit one of these categories and currently have a link to articles or postings about your trains. If you do not, don’t fret. I’m getting very close to signing up subscribers so that you can upload your owner train pictures, videos, etc. You can speed this process along by providing monetary donations via my Donations page.

Many thanks in advance for any and all contributions you make.

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Terms, Abbreviations, and Meanings at ShowMyHobby.com

As you view some the information provided on ShowMyHobby.com, you may encounter certain terms or abbreviations. Many of them may be self-explanatory or overtly obvious. Others, however, may not be and/or they may be the author’s own creation. In some cases, words, phrases, or abbreviations may be linked to site tags or categories. In the descriptions of some products, especially those imported into the site, some of the abbreviations may be expanded for you. In almost all cases where an algorithm was used to expand an abbreviation, you will typically see a term = value pair where the term represents a word or an abbreviation and its meanings is the word or phrase that follows an equal mark. Example: pLFW = Plastic Low-Flange Wheels. The term is “pLFW” and its meaning is “Plastic Low-Flange Wheels”. Below are several sections that identify most of the vernacular used on this website.

Product Conditions

In the shop, many products are listed from time to time. I use the following terms to describe the conditions of the products that are listed on this site. This site uses technology that posts products on this site to eBay and possibly other marketplaces. Those other marketplaces my use different terms for formal conditions. Attempts to match condition between marketplaces may be made, but it all cases, the conditions provided on this site are the most accurate. Conditions have a ranking value as well and many times may be the starting point of the established price or value of an item. For instance, New has a ranking value of 100% which represents that the item is Factory New and believed to be in its best possible condition. The Good condition has a ranking value of 60%. So, you might see a used product listed in the shop that has a starting price of 60% of its original manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Example: A new Bachmann Steam Locomotive that is NEW might have a retail price of $259.99 while that same used locomotive may be in Good shape with a price of $155.99 (60% of the $259.99 retail price of the new one). Be aware, that there is a possibility for an item to be Better Than New.

Conditions Meaning Rank Value
Enhanced This condition is typically a modifier of other conditions wherever 2 conditions can be stated.  When it appears where only 1 condition can be stated, then the previous condition was probably not known, and the item was found to have been enhanced or it was enhanced by this website’s owner.  An enhance by the owner can very easily make an item worth more than it was originally when it was first manufactured. 125%
Upgraded This condition is typically a modifier of other conditions wherever 2 conditions can be stated.  When it appears where only 1 condition can be stated, then the previous condition was probably not known, and the items was found to have been previously upgraded by someone. 110%
New Factory New 100%
Old Stock Older/Vintage Factory New item (Packaging may show signs of age) 95%
Like New Like New, Opened Factory Seal, May not be in original packaging, Probably examined, photographed, or tested. 90%
Excellent Excellent condition better than Great but not NEW. May not be in original packaging. 85%
Great Great (between Excellent and Very Good). May be missing original (or any) packaging. 80%
Opened Opened item.  Unsure about newness.  May not have been evaluated or tested. 75%
Works Tested and Works reasonably well or better. 75%
Very Good Very Good (between Great and Good). Is Functional. 70%
Good Good overall condition, useful, works, original packaging not considered, may have marks, scratches, blemishes, and inconsequential errors, damages or missing parts. 60%
? Questionable as in Not evaluated or not sure what it is. (Condition matches AVERAGE or FAIR) 50%
Fair Fair, Average, Reasonable, Unremarkable. 50%
Unknown Unknown – Not examined, Not Evaluated. Until it is, it is assumed Fair or Average. 50%
Used Used, Assumed Fair or Average, Believed to be functional and working decently. 50%
Untested Hasn’t been evaluated or tested and probably won’t be.  This condition is only applied to items that are believed to be functionally operational.  Until tested, it is assumed AVERAGE. 50%
Okay OK, some issues, (between Fair/Average and Poor), Useable. 40%
Poor Poor and has consequential issues, noticable errors or ommissions, but can probably be useful to someone albeit not necessarily as intended. 30%
NotWorking Tested but is Not Working properly 25%
Broke Broke and disfunctional as intended, may need repairs to be useful, could be missing necessary parts 20%
Bad Bad, damaged, beyond broken, almost unrecognizable. 10%
Junk Really Bad, typically unuseful, might can be rebuilt or used with something else or for an alternate purpose than intended. 5%
Free Free as a condition means this item has no resellable value as is according to me/us, but, I/WE do not with to trash it as someone might be able to make use of it. 0%

Package Types

Below are the abbreviations used for the type of Packaging or Container an item utilizes.

Packages Meaning
ABB Athearn Blue Box
Bag Bag
Bdl Bundle
Box Box
Btl Bottle
Bxd Boxed
Can Can
Crd Card
Crt Crate
Cse Case
Csm Custom Made Package
Ctn Carton
DpC Display Case
Dsp Display
Env Envelop
Fil File
n/a Not Applicable or None
No None
None Not Packaged
Slv Sleeve
Tub Tube
Wrp Wrap
Yes Bxd

Coupler Types

Below are the abbreviations used for the types of couplers on trains.

Couplers Meaning
1HHC 1 Hornhook Coupler
1KdC 1 Kadee Coupler
1OKC 1 Operating Knuckle Coupler
1Rc+1MLc 1 Rapido Coupler + 1 Micro-Line Coupler
2AKCs 2 Automatic Knuckle Couplers
2HHC 2 Hornhook Couplers
2KCs 2 Knuckle Couplers
2KdC 2 Kadee Couplers
2MLCs 2 Micro-Line Couplers
2OKCs 2 Operating Knuckle Couplers
2RCs 2 Rapido Couplers
HHC Hornhook Couplers
HHC+KdC 1 Hornhook Coupler + 1 Kadee Coupler
KdC Kadee Couplers
MC Missing Couplers
NoC No Couplers

Wheel Types

Below are terms and abbreviations for the type of wheels used on trains.

Wheels Meaning
HFW High Flange Wheels
LFW Low Flange Wheels
MFW Medium Flange Wheels
mHFW Metal High Flange Wheels
mLFW Metal Low Flange Wheels
mMFW Metal Medium Flange Wheels
NoTrks No Trucks
NoWhls No Wheels
pHFW Plastic High Flange Wheels
pLFW Plastic Low Flange Wheels
pMFW Plastic Medium Flange Wheels

This information is current as of March 30th, 2023.