Broadway Limited Inventory Reduction

[modelbob]

I found this sale through the Model Railroader newsletter. It's been going on for a couple of weeks now, and the prices are quite low.

I bought a red GG1 (to go with the green one my son bought me) for only $120. They were originally $280.

I also bought a PRR M1A 4-8-2 for $130, originally 300.

The other prices on the list are similiar, new for what you see normally see used on ebay going for.

Here's the listing:
http://www.standardhobby.com/couponspecial.htm

I'm not affiliated with Standard Hobby and don't really have any experience with them except for this order. I will tell you my packaged showed up as promised, and the products were exactly what I expected so I'm a satisfied customer.

[mushroom2]

Glad you liked what you got, Bob. Now I can rest assured that when my red GG1 and M1A show up, I'll be happy. Sheesh. Must be some Pennsy fans in the house :D

Ordered mine last Sat. They bungled the address so I'm still waiting for the order to clear, but I'm drooling already.

You get the 5 stripe or the buff 5 stripe?

[modelbob]

> Glad you liked what you got, Bob. Now I can rest assured
> that when my red GG1 and M1A show up, I'll be happy.

I think you will. My M1A has nasty little squeak, but I'm guessing a trip to the hobby shop for some plastic safe oil will get rid of that. Other than the squeak, she's a nice loco, looks really good and handles the track quite well.

> You get the 5 stripe or the buff 5 stripe?

I got the gold 5 stripe. I'm not really sure of the years for the various schemes, but the red and gold sure seems like a nice look. Admittedly, the buff shows off the "cat whiskers" a bit better, especially when it's in shadows.

[George D]

Bob,

I've got the same squeak on my M1, or so my friends tell me (too many hours flying a Huey :D ). I used some graphite grease on all the pivot points on the side rods and it seems to have cleared it up. At that price I'm tempted to get a second one for double heading up our club's giant helixes.



George

[George D]

Here's a picture of that helix:

[mushroom2]

Good grief!!!! How high is that thing?

[modelbob]

> I've got the same squeak on my M1, or so my
> friends tell me (too many hours flying a Huey :D ).

Well mine's pretty loud, since I can hear it pretty well and years of railroading has about the same effect on the ears.

> I used some graphite grease on all the pivot
> points on the side rods and it seems to have
> cleared it up.

Yes, I'll bet it would.

> At that price I'm tempted to get a second one

I'm tempted to buy about 5 of 'em and then sell them on ebay later. I mentioned that to the wife and she said "Yeah, right, like you'd actually sell them once you got 'em..." Have to admit she's probably right...

It's a really nice loco. I've got it out on the layout right now doing some break in running. It's been backing around the layout at moderate speed for about an hour with no problems. My minimum radius is 22" for the track it's on, but still the fact it can smoothly back through a couple of switches and a crossover speaks well of its tracking ability.

[modelbob]

Good grief!!!! How high is that thing?

Looks like you could enter the helix and run out for a quick burger while waiting for you train to show up at the top... :)

[George D]

Good grief!!!! How high is that thing?

It's probably 5' or 6' of climbing, starting around 3' off the floor. We have a two level layout that requires using a staircase to get upstairs. Our mainline run is 16 scale miles (HO) with a minimum radius of 40".

We have two helixes. The one I posted first is the most impressive of the two because the inside track is a continuous run from the upstairs yard down to the downstairs yard. This one shows how trains rise a couple of turns then run on the layout for a while then go up another couple of turns before going out on the layout again

[mushroom2]

Wow! Anyone ever take a good rolling car and give it a nudge at the top? :D:D:D
What's the grade on the big one?

[JeffShultz]

I think that there is more track in that second helix (much less the first) than I have on my entire layout....

[SSW]

whee... I'd hate to get a knuckle in that one. Be picking up pieces

[George D]

Wow! Anyone ever take a good rolling car and give it a nudge at the top? :D:D:D
What's the grade on the big one?

The grade's about 1 1/2 %. If you have free rolling cars and something gets uncoupled, you have a problem. It's very rare - the track work is good. The real problem is the limitation it places on the length of trains a loco can pull on the layout. Another problem is string lining. I have an ABBA (all powered) set of Stewart F7's and I can't put enough cars behind it to see what its pulling limit is. After about 50 cars, they start to pull toward the inside of the helix. Our modern long train fans put locos at the front, middle and back and they move some loooong trains.

If anyone is in the southeastern part of VA on 23 -24 April, stop by. We're having an open house.

George