Re: It's Official: No More Flyer
On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 02:01 PM, Jim wrote:
Interesting as the rep I spoke with stated no new tooling but continued production in a year or two
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Jim Marski
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Somehow, I doubt it.? Lionel's been gearing up HO with their latest announcement of road specific detailed NKP, PM & C&O Berkshires with ESU LokSound or DC with a DCC socket.? No Legacy or LionChief electronics.? They seemed determined to compete in the serious HO market.
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Rich G(ajnak)
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Re: It's Official: No More Flyer
Not a surprise, but I suspect it will have little effect on the scale side of our 1:64 hobby.? Folks who want RTR trains for a plywood-based home layout will have to choose between Lionel O and HO equipment.? Or, horrors.............something in N scale.? As a youngster, I dabbled in Marklin and found it ran well without much trouble.? ?Looked decent to my eyes at that time.? Ed L.
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Ed Loizeaux
Los Altos, CA
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Re: It's Official: No More Flyer
Interesting as the rep I spoke with stated no new tooling but continued production in a year or two
Jim Marski
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On Jan 26, 2025, at 4:48?PM, Rich Gajnak via groups.io <rustytraque@...> wrote:
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From the NASG website:
?
"Dick
Kramer, the NASG membership secretary, attended the 2025 Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, MA this weekend, and asked the Lionel representative there, point-blank, what Lionel's plans are for their "American Flyer" brand, since they are no longer listing
products in their bi-annual catalogs. The Lionel representative stated that due to lack of sales, Lionel will no longer be producing American Flyer products going forward. Doug Peck, owner of Port Lines Hobbies and a Lionel dealer, confirms that Lionel had
been hinting at this to him for the past three years. The catalogs only list what they still have available in their inventory."
?
This
is a significant loss, another reason for folks looking to change scales to move right past S to O.
?
Rich
G(ajnak)
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It's Official: No More Flyer
From the NASG website:
?
"Dick Kramer, the NASG membership secretary, attended the 2025 Railroad Hobby Show in Springfield, MA this weekend, and asked the Lionel representative there, point-blank, what Lionel's plans are for their "American Flyer" brand, since they are no longer listing products in their bi-annual catalogs. The Lionel representative stated that due to lack of sales, Lionel will no longer be producing American Flyer products going forward. Doug Peck, owner of Port Lines Hobbies and a Lionel dealer, confirms that Lionel had been hinting at this to him for the past three years. The catalogs only list what they still have available in their inventory."
?
This is a significant loss, another reason for folks looking to change scales to move right past S to O.
?
Rich G(ajnak)
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Hi Bob --
I add 2 oz to a "naked" 40' PRS box/reefer which I suspect brings it up to about 4 or 5 ounces.? ?Never weighed my brass cars (many) but they are definitely?heavy enough!? ?I have three SWM flats running lead on a 30 car freight of mixed materials and I have no problems (54" minimum radius and 2+% grades).? I think Ed L.'s weighting system pretty much parallels mine, but his layout has about the same design minimums as mine.? ?If it works, no need to make things heavier as that causes more stress in the train (couplers, stringline effects, need for more horsepower, etc.).? ?Perhaps you can run the car unsealed (just setting the body on the floor -- easy enough?to glue some wood or plastic strip in the body?to keep the floor from going up too far into the body) to see what is / is not needed?? ??
I just?pulled my SMMW kit out to feel how heavy it is, and it is plenty heavy without adding any weight for my purposes.? ?I didn't see if there is a weight to be added in the box, but if there is and it's steel, I will change it out to lead, IF I think it needs?it.? ??
It's a very rare kit that I totally seal.? I usually just hit a couple of small places with a LITTLE bit of glue so that I can break into the car, if I have?to.? ?I only totally glued one car of all that I have built, but I regretted doing that.? I decided on this after I overweighted?a PRS boxcar to NMRA RPs long ago and discovered that it was very unnecessary.? However, I could not tear into the car without damage, so it has been a heavy weight its entire life leading the?M&E train behind it with a brass boxcar, three brass express cars, an RPO and rider coach -- the other 5 cars are plastic, including two HW baggage cars.? At 11 cars, it is a legitimate steam?double header, 4-4-2 or 4-6-2 and 4-8-2, on?the 2% grades.? (photos)
The only?cars I have that used a significant amount of weight more than what they came with (none) are the AM two bay hoppers and the smooth side streamlined passenger?cars.? ?Their lack of weight caused stringline issues (passenger?cars) and buffing issues with the hoppers being pushed off the track by the weight of the cars behind while on a downhill grade.? ? Have fun! Bill Winans
I think we all have come up against this!? I
bought several of the River Raisin Milwaukee Road cars from
years ago.? Being a fan of the road and given it was a part
NASG/RR project, I had to buy as many as I could afford. If i
caught the local way freight of 20 cars, generally half would be
ribbed sided cars! ?
So more recently I bought just one of the Smoky
Mt. cars that represents the older version of this car.? I
started on it a couple of evenings ago.? I'm now trying to
determine how much weight to add to a 'sealed car'? I know the
NMRA has it's guidelines, as does SHS for their cars (similar as
I recall) but the RR brass car comes in at 12oz naked.? The
SMountain version is about 4 oz? So I gathered a couple of large
steel nuts as Jim recommends--now I'm at about 7oz.? I just cut
up some of lead type that puts the weight at 10.? my gut feeling
says this is a bit too much!? However since this car is resin,
also subject to sagging and I don't want to have to dig back
into it going either way --add or subtract?? I've had little
problem with string-lining but I generally arrange my cars in
mind--something that might be difficult to correct when you have
a vintage Regal USRA gondola at about 2 oz during guest
operations!? Most of my brass cars outweigh my more typical AM,
SHS and SSA cars, though the SSA boxcars are probably the
heaviest (and longest)
Suggestions? or should I stage a contest of
sorts? Has anyone else built one (or more?) of these!?
Bob Werre
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To the group,?
Al Clapp contacted me Friday to share with me that Bob Yanke was no longer with us.?
Bob was originally an HO guy who was introduced to S scale and never looked back on HO. He sold most of his previous equipment, torn up his layout and converted to S. I believe on of the few carry overs from his HO layout was his ore boat. He was a N&W fan and had a nice basement layout representing that fallen flag. He was a steam - first generation diesel fan and I believe a number of his diesel locomotives found a happy second home with Bill Lane.?
Bob was a long time member of the Cuyahoga Valley S Gauge Association and later a founding member of the Northern Ohio S Scalers (NOSS).
Bob was never verbose, he spoke his mind in just a few words and was always direct and to the point. Unfortunately our numbers continue to dwindle. RIP.
Mike, Ohio
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I bought my first S scale from him after I moved to Columbus almost 4 years ago. He invited me and my son over to his place so he could tell me more about S scale. Wish I had the opportunity to have gotten to know hum better.
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It is an interesting question how recently the NMRA standards have been updated, but if they have been essentially unchanged since first promulgated, they would not take into account the fact that trucks over the years have become much freer-rolling than in
the bad old days, as well as less messy lubricants such as powdered graphite and teflon powder.? I don't have my own railroad with turnouts and reverse curves to test cars, but my seat-of-the-pants/what-feels-right is only about 1 1/2 oz for a PRS house car.?
That is six of the ? oz weights I've had on hand for years.? My sense is that 4 ounces is plenty.
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I think we all have come up against this!? I bought several of the River Raisin Milwaukee Road cars from years ago.? Being a fan of the road and given it was a part NASG/RR project, I had to buy as many as I could afford. If i caught the
local way freight of 20 cars, generally half would be ribbed sided cars! ?
So more recently I bought just one of the Smoky Mt. cars that represents the older version of this car.? I started on it a couple of evenings ago.? I'm now trying to determine how much weight to add to a 'sealed car'? I know the NMRA has
it's guidelines, as does SHS for their cars (similar as I recall) but the RR brass car comes in at 12oz naked.? The SMountain version is about 4 oz? So I gathered a couple of large steel nuts as Jim recommends--now I'm at about 7oz.? I just cut up some of
lead type that puts the weight at 10.? my gut feeling says this is a bit too much!? However since this car is resin, also subject to sagging and I don't want to have to dig back into it going either way --add or subtract?? I've had little problem with string-lining
but I generally arrange my cars in mind--something that might be difficult to correct when you have a vintage Regal USRA gondola at about 2 oz during guest operations!? Most of my brass cars outweigh my more typical AM, SHS and SSA cars, though the SSA boxcars
are probably the heaviest (and longest)
Suggestions? or should I stage a contest of sorts? Has anyone else built one (or more?) of these!?
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
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Re: Scale Trains has reefers on preorder
Neither did I.
- Peter.
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On 01/26/2025 01:43 PM, Bill Hawk via groups.io wrote: Thanks for heads up.
I’m registered at ScaleTrains, messages ON, but I never get their announcement emails. Dunno why not.
Bill
--
Peter Vanvliet (info@...)
owner, Fourth Ray Software
Houston, Texas
(personal web site)
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Re: Scale Trains has reefers on preorder
Thanks for heads up.?
I’m registered at ScaleTrains, messages ON, but I never get their announcement emails. Dunno why not.?
Bill
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On Jan 25, 2025, at 12:47?PM, David R. Henley Jr via groups.io <henley31c@...> wrote:
? Hello all,
? ? Got a nice surprise in my email this morning.? Scale Trains sent an email out showcasing their new products for preorder.? The ACF 40' Wooden Reefer was one of the offerings.? They will be released in eight road names /paint schemes:
?
- American Refrigerator Transit/ART
- Bangor and Aroostook/BAR
- Fruit Growers Express/FGEX
- Orange/Unlettered
- Santa Fe Refrigerator Dispatch/SFRD
- Union Refrigerator Dispatch/URTX
- Western Refrigerator Lines/WRX
- Yellow/Unlettered
The Fruit Grower Express and the Santa Fe will have six road numbers that you can get.? All the rest except for the unlettered will have three road numbers available.? If you preorder by 24 Feb 2025 then the price is $54.99.? The regular price after pre-order is $68.99.? The expected delivery date is October 2025.
?
? ?Not sure how available some of these road names were with SHS and MTH but being a Missouri Pacific modeler I am excited for the ART reefer.? This is the single ART shield herald design.? I only have one like it because a club member custom did it and I was able to buy it from his estate sale after his death.? So for the Missouri Pacific, Wabash, and ART this is an entirely new model.? I know some have complained that Scale Trains has only brought out the same old stuff.? So far Scale Trains has helped this relatively new S scale modeler quite a bit.? I do hope that when they come out with the F7s that they release them again for the Missouri Pacific so I can get different road numbers or even for the Texas & Pacific.
?
? ?So check out Scaletrains.com and preorder some reefers.? Its been a while since they released the steel rebuilt boxcars.? If they see a lot of preorders come in then we might get more models in S scale released from them sooner than later.
?
Regards,
David Henley
?
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I'm not sure how I got these, but the appear to be in excellent condition, but do not have couplers or trucks. $56 for the pair plus shipping. PayPal friends or check. Kevin
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On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 10:17 AM, Bob Werre wrote:
I'm now trying to determine how much weight to add?
Suggestions?
Hi Bob.......My layout has generally broad curves and gentle grades.? My personal standard for weight has been two-thirds of the NMRA recommended weight.? It has worked fine for me.? The light cars always have weight added (a load, underbody weights, etc.) to increase weight.? The heavy cars are just run without any weight adjustments.? As a string-lining test, I once ran a long train of heavy cars behind a very lightweight wood flat car coupled to the engine.? It ran once around the layout and nothing bad happened.? After that, I had no worries with my standard weight being reasonable for my layout.?
?
Of course, curve radius, grade steepness, banked track, etc. will all have some effect and so testing seems like a good idea.? My track was always perfectly flat even going around curves.? Banking curved track seemed (to me) like the perfect way to increase the likelihood of string-lining.? I didn't want that and never did have that problem.? I also placed additional weight directly over the trucks as much as possible.? My opinion, worth what you paid for it, is that the NMRA weight advice is WAY too heavy for a well-constructed layout.
?
Good luck............Ed L.
--
Ed Loizeaux
Los Altos, CA
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Re: Scale Trains has reefers on preorder
The previously-produced SHS & MTH reefers are listed on the NASG
web site:
and
- Peter.
On 01/25/2025 07:53 PM, David R. Henley
Jr via groups.io wrote:
Hello Brooks,
? ? I looked up the achieved Showcase Line webpage.? It looks
like the only road names and paint schemes that SHS offered that
Scale Trains announce today are the Santa Fe Reefer Dispatch in
the orange, the unlettered yellow, and the unlettered orange.? I
cannot check the two MTH catalogs because I need to update Adobe
Flash or some other nonsense to view them and my computer is not
cooperating.? Maybe someone else on the list can say if MTH
offered any of the schemes announced by Scale Trains today.??
?
Regards,
David Henley
--
Peter Vanvliet (info@...)
owner, Fourth Ray Software
Houston, Texas
(personal web site)
|
Re: Scale Trains has reefers on preorder
On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 06:47 AM, Michael Krope wrote:
However, in August of 1980 I saw a wooden car on the Burlington's Chicago racetrack. It had the BN logo as well. Rail historians feel free to chime in and challenge my rapidly diminishing powers of recollection.
However, it wouldn't have had the Westinghouse K brake system these cars are illustrated to have.? The K system was outlawed for interchange for newly built cars in 1933.? Railroads were eventually allowed to retrofit cars with the AB system (after a few delays due to the Depression and effects of WWII) until 1953, when the total ban took effect.
?
Rich G(ajnak)
|
I'm not sure how I got these, but the appear to be in excellent condition, but do not have couplers or trucks. $56 for the pair plus shipping. PayPal friends or check. Kevin
|
I think we all have come up against this!? I
bought several of the River Raisin Milwaukee Road cars from
years ago.? Being a fan of the road and given it was a part
NASG/RR project, I had to buy as many as I could afford. If i
caught the local way freight of 20 cars, generally half would be
ribbed sided cars! ?
So more recently I bought just one of the Smoky
Mt. cars that represents the older version of this car.? I
started on it a couple of evenings ago.? I'm now trying to
determine how much weight to add to a 'sealed car'? I know the
NMRA has it's guidelines, as does SHS for their cars (similar as
I recall) but the RR brass car comes in at 12oz naked.? The
SMountain version is about 4 oz? So I gathered a couple of large
steel nuts as Jim recommends--now I'm at about 7oz.? I just cut
up some of lead type that puts the weight at 10.? my gut feeling
says this is a bit too much!? However since this car is resin,
also subject to sagging and I don't want to have to dig back
into it going either way --add or subtract?? I've had little
problem with string-lining but I generally arrange my cars in
mind--something that might be difficult to correct when you have
a vintage Regal USRA gondola at about 2 oz during guest
operations!? Most of my brass cars outweigh my more typical AM,
SHS and SSA cars, though the SSA boxcars are probably the
heaviest (and longest)
Suggestions? or should I stage a contest of
sorts? Has anyone else built one (or more?) of these!?
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
|
Re: Retail Coal Dealer (for sale)
I wouldn't need the coal hopper if you can otherwise move it.? ?
Would $55 make you smile???
Woody?
On Saturday, January 25, 2025 at 04:03:07 PM EST, Ed Loizeaux <loizeaux@...> wrote:
Gents..........
This is the only structure remaining in my formerly bustling city area.? It includes figures, coal conveyors, yellow hopper car, and a sound module with audio of men shoveling coal by hand.? Speaker is inside.? Would someone like to make me a reasonable offer?? It can be shipped safely.?
Email preferred.? Phone works.? ? Loizeaux aht? SBC? //? Global? daht? ?net? ? ? ? ? ?1-650-962-1577
?Thanks.........Smiling? Ed? L.
-- Ed Loizeaux Los Altos, CA
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Re: Scale Trains has reefers on preorder
When I first saw the word reefer, my heart sank.? We've been billboard reefered to death. But these? Yes lots to buy. This group can be used right up to the second generation diesel era. I only say this because in 1980 I remember a bulletin being posted in the yard office stating there will be no more ice bunker reefers in service. Of course, those were steel cars. However, in August of 1980 I saw a wooden car on the Burlington's Chicago racetrack. It had the BN logo as well. Rail historians feel free to chime in and challenge my rapidly diminishing powers of recollection.
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Re: Retail Coal Dealer (for sale)
Hello Ed
I think I am going to make one of these using my over a hundred years old oak barnwood.
I have boxes of sliced beam wood of all different dimensions
Ten years ago I was going to use a lot of it but never did much other than loads for flat cars
Yours on the hobby
Fun watching your listings
Roger Haag. ?Hendersonville?
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On Jan 25, 2025, at 4:03?PM, Ed Loizeaux <Loizeaux@...> wrote:
?
Gents..........
This is the only structure remaining in my formerly bustling city area.? It includes figures, coal conveyors, yellow hopper car, and a sound module with audio of men shoveling coal by hand.? Speaker is inside.? Would someone
like to make me a reasonable offer?? It can be shipped safely.?
Email preferred.? Phone works.? ? Loizeaux aht?
SBC? //? Global? daht? ?net? ? ? ? ? ?1-650-962-1577
?Thanks.........Smiling? Ed? L.
--
Ed Loizeaux
Los Altos, CA
<1737838531309blob.jpg>
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Have a short one? Want a long one? Satisfaction guaranteed.........!!
I was thinking of a long flat car?? What were you thinking about?
The previous longish flat car I offered disappeared quite rapidly with offers from several folks.? Since this car is even longer, perhaps it will do just as well or even better.? This car is built from a BTS kit.? I do not know all the prototype details, but I am sure folks on this list will know more about that than me.
This is a finely finished model which, I think, has been discontinued by BTS.? ?Note the rotating axle caps.? Really cool.......
Make your best reasonable offer and see if I smile.? A smile gets you the opportunity to operate this car on your layout without delay.
Private email preferred, but phone works....? ? Loizeaux? aht? ?SBC? //? Global? daht? net? ? ?1-650-962-577
Thanks for looking...................Smiling Ed L.
-- Ed Loizeaux Los Altos, CA
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Jeremy Lighthouse
Kevin Macomber
Bob Werre
Roger Haag
