O Scale Train Auction

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Reading T-1 built from the Wolfer Kit

Maurer’s Auction held an auction today in East Earl, PA. The items being auctioned were from Lee Stabb’s estate.

Lee Stabb was a modeler from Reading, PA who passed away last year. Lee had a large railroad over his garage he used for his business. Here are some images of the railroad.

Lee was also a Weaver dealer at one time, I bought a new Weaver G1 from Lee a in 2018. There were a number of Weaver models that were brand new and other models that saw regular service on his layout.

Lee enjoyed a lot of the anthracite roads and models of those roads were scattered throughout the auction. A little something for everybody attending.

A nice little P&R camelback, this might have been a modified Gem model

For the Reading fan, there were plenty of Reading models in the auction. There were four Wolfer T-1’s in the auction. They looked great, but I still like the Overland T-1’s a little better. Since I have a pair of the Overland’s, I stayed away from the Wolfer models.

Another Reading T-1 built from the Wolfer Kit

There were couple of Weaver G1’s, an SGL G3’s, and a number of Weaver RS-3’s in the auction. There were also two sets of the five car passenger sets from SGL and also a couple of the add on cars.

SGL single car add on car

Most people were taking notice of the kit-bashed N1’s and K1’s that were built from the old AHM IHB 0-8-0 plastic kits. I was told John Myers did the work kit-bashing these locomotives. They are nice models, but they sold higher than what I wanted to pay.

Reading K1sa built from the AHM IHB 0-8-0
Reading N1sa built from the AHM IHB 0-8-0
And something for the PRR modelers

2019 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

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Today was the Spring Strasburg O Scale Show. Rich Yoder and John Dunn put on another fine show.

Most of my purchases were made prior to the show and I just picking them up at the show. The one big find was two pair of RYM Proto48 PRR trucks for $25 each.

There was a far amount of nice models for the Reading Modeler. I saw a Weaver Crusader locomotives and one set of cars. There was a Weaver G1 on a table. And I saw a pair of Reading T-1’s on different tables. One was an Overland import and the other was an assembled Wolfer model.

Lots of other things to look at also and some very good prices.  It was a nice show and I had many great conversations with different modelers throughout the show.

Jim Mucka was holding some track with too many rails on it.

Attalee Taylor seemed to have recovered from his encounter with the pickle car in Chicago.

It was good to see Michael Rahilly (yellow shirt) at his regular table at the show.

2019 Chicago O Scale Show

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Just returned from the 2019 Chicago O Scale Show. Another great show!

There were some new models from new manufacturers at this show, as well as a host of used models and those from estate sales. I always think this show can’t get any better and it always does.

Let me start with a couple of new manufacturers. Bill Yancey has a new line called Modern Era O Scale. He is offering limited run kits of FMC boxcars in four versions. he also has decals available for the cars.

Next up is Ross Dando, his new business called Twin Star Models. His first offering is a resin kit of a Rock Island rebuilt 53′ flat car. The flat car is among the very best in fine pattern making. Gene Deimling wrote about the steps taken to develop the patterns for this car in his post “MODELING: Applying Technology to Model Making”

The castings for the kit were done by Jon Cagle, he is one of the best casters there is. Good to hear that Jon is still involved in kit making. Maybe he’ll release something new in his own company, Southern Car & Foundry.

Altoona Model Works had a brewery series of models on display at the show. I really liked the size of the buildings. Freight cars should appear small next to large industries.

There was a Key B&O rebuilt EA on a table. I had to fight the urge to take this home. That would have clearly moved my focus to the Reading going through New Jersey. Still not sure I want to make that jump.

There were some great prices on brass freight car models including this PSC B&O W-2 hopper car with a price tag of $75 on it. Strange thing was it was still on a table late into Saturday. I didn’t check on it on Sunday.

You never know what might turn up on a table at Chicago. How about a box full of PRR H25 car sides from an American Standard kit they had advertised but never released.

This year I drove out with John Dunn. I had a great time and really enjoyed our time on the ride. After walking around the show on Saturday, John mentioned that he had found everything he was looking for at the show except an Overland Ferdinand Magellan observation car. Turns out, there was one on the table directly behind our table. Here he is taking a look at it.

Attalee Taylor was having a reaction to a certain pickle car. He just couldn’t put it down.

I did get out to visit a couple of the layouts that were on the tour. I’ll post more on the layouts soon.

Stoney Brook Bridge in Hopewell, NJ

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Yesterday was a cold wet rainy day, but I was off from work and wanted to be on the road seeing something. I took the morning to explore a little more on the Reading’s line through New Jersey.

I took some time to explore this four track bridge which spans Stony Brook and Pennington-Hopewell Road. It has three arches over the brook and a steel girder/concrete through span over the road.

This is located between Pennington and Hopewell, NJ. The bridge is still used today, but the line no longer supports four tracks worth of traffic, only a single track remains today.

Also visible on under the bridge it appears that the span was two tracks at one time and widened with tracks on either side of the original abutment which was in the center.

In Memoriam: Lee Stabb

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I received a sad email today notifying me of the passing of long time O scale modeler Lee Stabb.

I couple of years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Lee at his home to purchase a model from him. He was a great host and gave me a tour of his layout which filled the second story over the very large garage. We never did find the models I had come over to purchase, but I did purchase a different locomotive from him that day.

Here are some views of his layout. Including a few of the Reading N-1’s that were built from the IHB 0-8-0. I saw at least four on the layout that day.

It was always nice to talk with Lee at the trains shows, I will miss him.

2018 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

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Today was the Spring Strasburg O Scale Show. Rich Yoder and John Dunn put on another fine show. I was busy most of the day helping my friend on his table but did get around the show to see some of the models.

There was a far amount of nice models for the Reading Modeler. I saw a pair of Weaver Crusader locomotives and one set of cars. Still think I should have brought that passenger car set home with me. That would have pushed me towards modeling the Reading as it ran through New Jersey. I have to say I’ve been leaning that way a lot lately.

There was also a nice Overland Reading T-1 on a table. Lots of other things to look at also.

2017 Strasburg O Scale Show – April

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This past Saturday was the Spring Strasburg O Scale Show. Rich Yoder and John Dunn put on another fine show. The had over 90+ tables of O Scale materials for sale and they had 111 people through the door, not counting the vendors.

Terry Terrance gave demonstrations on 3D printing. He had a $200 machine and was making a phone booth as the demonstration piece. Rather then have this set up like a clinic Terry kept demonstrating the machine over the coarse of the show. Guys would sit in and ask questions while the machine kept working. This was set up just across from where we were set up so I got to see the crowd that sat in at different times during the morning. There was a nice steady flow of people all morning interested in find out more about the whole process.

From a modeling update, there were a number of interesting models at the show. There were Pacific Limited, Keystone, Precision Scale, as well as Yoder freight cars on the tables. Also there was a nice selection of both high end and regular guy locomotive models at the show. Something for every budget.

For the Reading Co. modeler, there was a Weaver G1 and a couple of SGL G3’s. There was also number of Reading diesels in both the 60’s Green and Yellow second generation paint and the olive green of the first generation locomotives.

In looking at older posts about the shows I noticed that I hardly ever put images of the people that make up the shows. Time to change that, so here are Bill Nesbitt and Buzz Burnley, first photo; Mac (Michael Macewan) second photo; and Carl Jackson, third photo.

2017 Chicago O Scale Show

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Just returned from the 2017 Chicago O Scale Show. All I can say is the show gets better every year. There were many new models at this show as well as a host of used models and those from estate sales.

Some of the new models were on Bill Davis’ tables. He had three new Single Track 139′ Lattice Truss bridges with two on display. One was straight and the other two skewed left and right. They don’t fit my modeling area but they were very nice.

American Scale Models also had more variations of the Erie cars he has been importing.

Norm Buckhart of Protocraft had production samples of two new Greenville Gondolas on his table. These looked really nice. They should be available later in year.

Ted Schnepf of Rails Unlimited had a new resin stock car kit of a CB&Q stock car. The car is available as either a built up body (you add the details) or a flat kit.

Two new kits were on Marvin’s tables. First up was the Southern Car and Foundry New Sand Springs RY Co. kit. It is a beautifully cast model of a prototype that had four cars on the roster in 1952 (my modeling period). I wanted to support our manufacturers but the chance of ever seeing one of four cars out of over 700,000 boxcars on the rails in 1952. SC&F is talking about doing the composite car of this design. If they do I will be ordering that car.

The second new car was the Glacier Park Models AC&F GS Gondola. I did not get back in time to pick-up one of the new gondolas before they sold out what was on the table, I will get one, I’ll just have to order it.

I did get to attend one of the clinics, Lee Turner filled the room with people who wanted to hear about how he paints and weathers models. He was great, sharing lots of good advice from his experiences. My only wish was that it was longer. Lee is very generous in sharing his knowledge and skills.

I’ll post more on the layout tours and the trip later this week.

2016 Cleveland O Scale Show – November

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Yesterday, the Cleveland O Scale Show was held in Kirkland, OH. Sam Shumaker continues to put on a fine show. This one was no different.

There was a fine selection of new and used models for all price ranges. The show was well attended and had over 100 tables sold.

Even in Cleveland there was something of intrest for a Reading modeler. A Gem B8 Camelback, clean and looking as nice as the day it was imported 40+ years ago. Thankfully, someone else took it off the table at the beginning of the show. It was priced low enough that it almost made me stray from my 1952 modeling period and buy a model of a prototype that was retired in 1948.

It was very nice to see Jay Williams and Bob’s Photos at this show. We don’t always see them at an O scale show. I made it a point to bring home some photos for future projects from both of them.

I did have a funny thing happen at Jay William’s table. I was going through a pile of photos  of freight cars when I saw an image in the pile that I recognized. It was an image of an H21a. I know the photo because the negative has been in my collection since the eighties. I turned the print over and sure enough it was written on the back “Image from the Collection of George Losse” in my hand writing. It is a small world.