Friends, Family, Trains, and The Ties That Bind Us.

Life is a series of connections for most of us. We all connect with other people from our birth to the end of life; this seems constant. We connect with family first usually, and as we grow that circle of people expands to our extended family, like aunts, our uncles, great-grandparents, grandparents and a sea of cousins.

By the time we enter school, we start making friends and explore other types of connections. We also begin to experience things, like sports and competition, bike riding, flying kites, music, model building, bullies and authority figures outside the home, pets, and all sorts of wonderful (or not) new things.

Understanding life really does not begin until one has their first loved individual pass away. That is when some inkling of what is up in life starts to coalesce in the youthful noggin, at least it was that way for me. As the years fly by, the list of the dear departed has grown in leaps and bounds. Such was my case last week, I lost a dear friend I'd made back in the mid 1970's.  He just dropped dead with, as far as I know, no real warning. This happened just a week before we were going to get together, and I'm still in some form of denial, but his absence at our meeting place was noticed by all that attended. Rest In Peace Charlie, thank you for your service, and thank you for many years of friendship.

 The Annual Pilgrimage To GEHAMS 

We at the Arizona Southern do not travel to many model train swaps these days. We do attend the G.E.H.A.M.S. show in Bakersfield CA whenever the dates and the weather align (meaning I-5 was open over Ft. Tejon pass).  This show, though a smaller show, is well attended and has many vendors and layouts on display. I was taken aback by the Z Scale layout, the level of detail on their equipment was amazing to me. Maybe the pricing of several vendors was a tad high, like retail plus, but if one shopped, there were some real bargains to be had. I picked up one ATSF car from Moloco for a very fair price, saving on shipping and such in the process. Checking my cars when I arrived home, I was joyful to see this was NOT a repeat in the road number department; beautiful car.

As delivered Topeka built Bx-94 50' XMLI offset doors.

I also won a cool 'door prize' and that never happens to me, well almost never. It was a RAPIDO model, a UP 40' boxcar in the "Be Specific" scheme from the early 1960's and into the mid 1970's plus.  Perfect for my era.  Of course 'free' comes with its own set of issues, the metal roofwalk was damaged, crushed a little bit at one end, causing the roofwalk to dislodge from its supports.  I could fix it, but it probably would never lay perfectly flat again without major surgery.  Bummer to say the least. 

Click on this stock Rapido image for a larger view.

Doing some research on the "Fallen Flags" website, I spied a few of this type of car with their roofwalks removed, "A" end ladders shortened, and the "B" end brake still mounted high.  Honestly that is one of my more favorite (early-mid 1970's era) configurations, even if the real 'RAILS' were not all that fond of it. Case in point is this car shown below:

Click on image for a larger view of this 1979 era photo.

I also came across some 1960's thru 1970's reweigh stencil decals for 40' and 50' cars and shaped paint patches in several colors from Smokebox Graphics to go along with them. All in all this should be a fun project. I may need to find some 50T Roller Bearing trucks, maybe Tangent?

Thanks for reading this far, feel free to respond, just say hi, or tell me to go pound sand if the mood strikes you.  

Best Wishes and Enjoy Your Trains,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

More On Freight Car Addiction

 

When does enough ever become too much?  I think I am there, or so close I can smell and taste it.  In fact I have so many freight cars now that I really need to part with some of the ones that no longer fit my needs. No more long trains with helpers, clubs are a thing of the past for me.  I no longer possess the patience to deal with the intricacies of club politics.

Even my former layout is too large for what I'm comfortable with. Its coming down. I've been rearranging all our storage and have the SAWZALL charged up and ready to begin the trimming of things.

Of course, my blindly being the consummate addict, I keep ordering cars when I can. I mean now a days, you either buy or you cry, as nothing lasts for long on store shelves, well, at least nothing I'd want to buy.

This brings us to the "why" I've added another page to this blog, we got another box on the way. Two cars are coming, an ADM covered hopper and a PC boxcar.

Tangent HO Model - Click On For Full Size

Tangent HO Model Patched PC Boxcar

Cars keep getting nicer and the cycle never seems to end; in with the NEW and out with some of the OLD.

TANGENT is addictive. Great models, pricing within reason if you shop around, and enough variety for almost anybody.

Thanks for reading this far, write back if the mood strikes,

Best Wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

SP Assigned A Different Switch Engine To The AZSO Interchange.

Well a new year is underway. It did not get off to a great start, but at least it's underway and hopefully things will change for the better in some way.

It seems that the powers that be over at Southern Pacific pulled the SW1500 that had become so familiar on the interchange job and replaced it with a SW1200.

We're quite enamored with this throwback power, the older lines of this locomotive remind us of our youth, back when SP had a little more variety. 

Overall the model looks better than the previous Rapido version we sampled. The paint of the grab irons and railings on the Rapido were too thick for our taste; it was the first thing noted when looking at that unit, so it had to go.  We like the P2k Walthers power, as it has always performed well for us. Even the problematic first units with the split gears were an easy fix and we have several still in service.

Thanks for reading this far, write back or leave us a note if the mood strikes you.

Best Wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR

Another Year Has Come And Gone.

2024 is just about over.  I for one am glad of that fact.  No need for another year like the one we just finished to come around again. Too much bad blood and too much craziness on all sides for my tastes. That, plus a bad year for personal health issues has left a bad taste in ones mouth.

I'd drink maybe one or two cups of coffee each morning when the year began, and now I'm on my second pot of the day, that is how things are going lately. This year Christmas feels robotic, any joy is M.I.A., or at least being searched for.

Another thing just happened as well; a milestone of sorts has been achieved. Moloco's new waffle side cars hit $67 each plus shipping.  As gorgeous as they are, the inbred frugality in me just won't allow me to spend that much on a freight car.  I'd love a MoPac car and a C.E.I. to keep it company, but that would be close to the price of replacing my busted MRC DCC with a NCE Power Cab system, and that just won't fly. So, that's the name of that tune.

Oh, and since I seldom post here without at least one photo, let me add a picture of a corn oil tank car bought on sale to serve a local commercial bakery on the planned shelf layout. It's a Tangent car, and was only $34 at Lombard's; I like that store.

Well, that's all for now, write back or comment should the mood strike. Happy Holidays!

Best wishes,

John Huey

CEO Arizona Southern RR