Banana cheese logs

Happy November ~

Please enjoy some views and video of the all-electric roster below. Visitors since the last blog posting included my uncle and aunt from the Chicago-area. Also, some new rolling stock just came in: a K-Line reefer full of bananas, a MTH reefer carrying Phenix cheese, and three heavy-duty log cars carrying some massive sections of tree trunks. The banana car really has bananas inside. The cheese car is a scale version of a 36' reefer, and thus it is shorter than the other reefers in the fleet, but is still prototypical. The log cars are referred to as "skeleton cars" since they are "bare-bones" only - just a rolling platform for transporting big logs.

Until next time, keep your rails shiny ~

Trolley, L Train, Interurbans and Electroliner

South Shore and North Shore

3rd rail and overhead electrics

Loops of electric trains

The banana car has lots of accessories

New rolling stock

Three new log cars

New cheese reefer

Banana car with bananas inside

Bananas, cheese and logs

I saw the (PostWar) Light

This week involved some Postwar searchlight car endeavors. Many years ago I received a PW Lionel #3620 Searchlight car, but it was missing the searchlight assembly. I found a reproduction unit at the monthly train show at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Illinois, and used it for many years. Earlier this year, the reproduction searchlight assembly got damaged (cracked). I recently found an original PW searchlight assembly online and had it shipped to Billings. The #3620 now has all original, functional parts for the first time in decades.

Last month I obtained a #6520 PW Lionel searchlight car at an estate sale. While the car has many good features, it also requires some work. One of the couplers is broken, it is missing the searchlight lens, and the wire running to the bulb is disconnected. This week I was able to replace the lens, and I attempted to re-solder the wire running to the bulb. After several attempts, I found this to not be worth the trouble. Next month I’ll be headed to western MT for a train show, and I’ll see if I can sell/trade the car there.

Also this week I received 5 new pieces of rolling stock. I purchased these scale cars online: K-Line ATSF Dynamite boxcar, K-Line Kraft Cheese reefer, K-Line Union 76 tank car, Lionel US Army tank car, and a Lionel Philadelphia Quartz tank car.

Next week there should be a few more new arrivals, which will be the last new modern stock for a while.

Until then, keep those rails shiny ~

An original searchlight housing (L) and the reproduction housing

Handle with care

For the cheese lovers

Orange and blue oil

Contents are classified

Off to make some sodium silicate!