Side shot Saturday - Starting 8 June

Good stuff, as always. The power car project appears to be making good progress; I, like yourself more than likely, look forward to seeing it in its final form. It will be quite an addition to the collection/roster.

Was to Peru once, some three decades ago when the Shining Path people were still raising hell randomly. Nothing like coming down the stairs exiting the Pan Am 727 to see a couple guys with submachine guns looking everyone over. I once thought it'd be great to see Machu Picchu, but I suspect that time may now be in the rear-view.

For many years we had no Flying Yankees here other than a Consoli/Western Coil Zephyr that The Old Man acquired a few years before his passing. It's a monster with a number of eccentric features, not the least being its origami-like vestibules and a motor that reaches operating temps approaching that of the sun's surface after 10-15 minutes of run time. My daughter finds the Consoli a hoot, so I've passed that on to her, replacing it in the fleet with one of MTH's Lionel Corp. final versions:




I did lament not having an original FY on the roster, even if it was pretty far down the wish-list. This would change, however, in the last 2-3 years. A two-rail friend of mine came into possession of a battered old example that had belonged to an acquaintance of his, one that hailed back to the guy's childhood. It's in rough shape, but it deserves to be brought back into service. Then two more turned up in a box of stuff that came out of the attic of a neighbor's parents' house, deposited on my doorstep with a note to "disposition as appropriate". They are in marginally better shape than the first. Two of the three are early examples, having the "strap" pick-ups on the undersides of the vestibules (all of which were missing). The search for replacements was long, but I eventually found them on David Laughridge's (Dr. Tinker) parts list. Other parts such as missing number plates, grabs, sockets, etc., were a bit easier to find. I think I now have everything to bring them back to operation...the debate over what to do with them cosmetically rages.

I've not visited the Zephyr in Chicago for many years. From your pics, it looks to be in better shape than I recall. I've been monitoring the efforts of the New Hampshire-based Flying Yankee Association to take possession of and eventually restore the Flying Yankee to operability. My understanding is they've recently acquired the train from the State of Massachusetts. I'm doubting this thing hits the rails before I've got six feet of dirt on top of me, but take satisfaction knowing it's in the hands of folks that care about it and have it inside out of the weather.

Another project is the glacial effort to refurbish a 1098 set from the late 1920s. The 253 loco was in really rough shape, so that was stripped, soldered back together (where only broken tabs remained), then repainted with a dark green that didn't quite match the original. After that was done (it still requires its pick-up roller assembly's replacement, but I'm deferring that), I move onto the three cars (610/610/612). First up was the 612 observation. We soldered the platform railing back into place, replaced a broken latch coupler, then stripped the badly rusted roof for repainting. We did not repaint anything else, as I didn't want to give up the faint New York Central markings. Further search for a paint match proved futile, but I eventually settled on Train Enamel's 428 Dark Green:

  

It's still off, but we'll go with this until something "better" turns up. The expectation that one might exactly match 100 year-old paint is likely greatly misplaced, lol.


 

The aluminum Flyer was the apple of The Old Man's eye, but he never found one in decent shape. A number of the ones I recall looking at had some strange pitting on the underside of the car castings; never sure if this was some issue of impurities in the metal or perhaps a weird metallurgical effect on the aluminum and the grounded AC for the lighting. Which was a better "model", Flyer, Lionel, or Western Coil? I'm not sure, as they are all quite different in construction. The faux shades in the windows on the Flyer aluminum set was definitely a notch up IMHO.

Numerous small craters/pits in the aluminum underside, maybe no more than an 1/16-1/8 inch across, typically toward the center, gradually diminishing to the outside edge. Definitely not a result of the casting process, at least it didn't appear to be. I seem to recall it looking something like this:

Rolling Rock Brew time.

   Bill

          

          
          

          

          

Dammit, now I’m thirsty and all I’ve got in the fridge is a couple Miller Lites.

It's fine by me to keep these photo threads running but I am finding that I don't necessarily have something to show every week, more like every other one. Anyway, anyone is free to start this thread if they wish!

harborbelt70, healey36, AF3020, a thoroughly engrossing thread. It merits a second (third??) read, as it contains much detailed / interesting information. I enjoy both the historical and production aspects given. Alfred