Weekend Photos - 4/20/18

[webenda]

What I mean about the look of your photos...the coloring in this image just doesn't look right. It has a water color look to it.

[chuck]

If you had not posted that image I never would have known the engineer and fireman (or would it be the conductor?) were separated by that gray electrical panel. Here it is again from a Wikipedia image.

The respective "cabins" are a) very small, and b) very far apart. The colors look spot on.

This is a modified Lionel GG-1 cab interior that was installed in a Williams scale GG_1.



Despite the engines size the interior was crammed with equipment and was probably noisier than it was for people on the ground. There were blowers and electrical noises from the electrical controls/transformer that were located at the center of

[G3750]

Not sure why he was disappointed, unless he planned to meet someone and they didn't turn up. Member halls were packed with folks selling stuff, as were the dealer halls. Only saw a couple of table gaps in the member halls. Can't say I saw a lot of guys buying stuff, but then, like most of us here, I think we've pretty much hit saturation.

The thing that I continue to not understand are the folks that trot out various gear and attach 1985 prices to them. It's so obvious that there's still a massive amount of stuff out there and not enough buyers to sop it all up...stop trying to sell a pre-war Lionel 2-6-4 for $375...ain't going to happen. When I see that, I figure the seller is just in this for the social aspects...he knows he's not going to sell anything, or very little. Standard gauge is pretty much a dead commodity, yet folks were still asking $3,500 for a State set...they're crazy. Talked to a number of guys who said the bulk of their sales come from eBay...given the volume of stuff to be seen at York, I suspect there's not that much being sold there either, certainly not at York prices.

I did an informal poll for York for Thursday and Friday, asking vendors how they were doing.

On Thursday in Orange and Purple (dealer) halls, consensus was that it was a poor day. That's perfectly reasonable, given temperatures in the mid-40s, sleet and rain, and the reality that most people don't take off an afternoon in mid-week to go to a train show. One vendor in particular, who I saw multiple times while walking around Orange, was publicly complaining about the lack of sales 1 hour into the meet. What a whiner!

Some vendors chose to skip April and there were some empty tables in Orange.

Friday was a different story. Business in the dealer halls was brisk, from both observation and dealer feedback. Lots of smiles in evidence. The junk, er member halls were actually experiencing jammed aisles! That's something I haven't seen since the mid-2000s!

I can't speak for Standard Gauge as that's not my thing. For the most part, I saw some pretty decent prices on modern 3-rail items. Williams brass PRR locomotives were available for very reasonable prices. There seemed to be a glut of the usual older freight cars (Lionel, Weaver, MTH, even K-Line), but people were dealing. I got a Z-Stuff DZ-1020 set of crossing gates for $65 (market is anywhere from $95-125).

George

[christopher2035]

What I mean about the look of your photos...the coloring in this image just doesn't look right. It has a water color look to it.

The only thing I can think is with this image, I had to shoot into the sun, well with the sun on the wrong side for favorable light anyway, so that's why it may look a bit off.

[healey36]

Friday was a different story. Business in the dealer halls was brisk, from both observation and dealer feedback. Lots of smiles in evidence. The junk, er member halls were actually experiencing jammed aisles! That's something I haven't seen since the mid-2000s!

George

I generally agree George...lots of activity.

Being primarily interested in prewar tin, I tend to spend most of my time in the "the junk, er member halls", and I tend to hit the same folks over and over again. Rarely fail to find what I'm looking for (except for a Hornby coach Sarge is looking for, lol). Folks have been calling the death of TCA and York for ten years...it'll out-live me, so I'm not particularly worried.

Healey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Williams brass PRR locomotives were available for very reasonable prices.

Hmmm.........should have let you go shopping for me,

[robert.]

What I mean about the look of your photos...the coloring in this image just doesn't look right. It has a water color look to it.

The only thing I can think is with this image, I had to shoot into the sun, well with the sun on the wrong side for favorable light anyway, so that's why it may look a bit off.

It looks digitally enhanced. below is a photo i took outside.

[robert.]

7F03EC26-32BA-4306-839B-263A2F8EEAED.jpeg

[rogruth]

The Strasburg photo may look a little like a painting but I think in this case it is a beautiful effect no matter how it was done.
Christopher,
Someday I may send you a request for payment.
I really do like that photo.
It reminds me of photos I see of the Savannah area that look much nicer than the actual scene but a lot of factors go into getting it just right.

[G3750]

Williams brass PRR locomotives were available for very reasonable prices.

Hmmm.........should have let you go shopping for me,

Rufus, I'd be happy to. These will be around at the next York, too. If I had a spare $1000, I probably could have come home with at least 3 Williams brass Pennsy engines (Pacifics or Mikados).

As to the wisecrack about "junk" halls, another friend who interests lie in modern locomotives and I regularly tease a buddy who sells postwar in the Silver Hall. Maybe the joke is on us, because he usually cleans up, money-wise. And I have found some pretty cool things in the member halls myself.

Chris, love the photos of the kids at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. I've done that several times when we lived in the Hershey area.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Williams brass PRR locomotives were available for very reasonable prices.

Hmmm.........should have let you go shopping for me,

Rufus, I'd be happy to. These will be around at the next York, too. If I had a spare $1000, I probably could have come home with at least 3 Williams brass Pennsy engines (Pacifics or Mikados).

I will have to remember this in the Fall.

[G3750]

Hmmm.........should have let you go shopping for me,

Rufus, I'd be happy to. These will be around at the next York, too. If I had a spare $1000, I probably could have come home with at least 3 Williams brass Pennsy engines (Pacifics or Mikados).

I will have to remember this in the Fall.

Now remember, they will more than likely be 3-rail engines. But I would be glad to help you out.

George

[webenda]

I remember that John Allen painted his locomotives gray to two reasons.
1. Black locomotives do not photograph well. Details are hard to to see black on black.
2. Model train room lights are not nearly as bright as the sun. A gray locomotive looks black under typical indoor lighting.

I must say, Christopher, the detail in your gray locomotive photos is excellent. The detail visible is what attracted my attention.

What would the photos look like if the contrast was increased, to make the locomotive darker and the sun lite area brighter?

Different!

[rogruth]

Wayne,
To me, the only gray part of that loco is the smokebox. ?/

[webenda]

Wayne,
To me, the only gray part of that loco is the smokebox. ?/

I don't know what to tell you Roger, except I agree. The locomotive itself has always been black. In 2016 Strasburg painted #90's smokebox dark grey... or so they say. The smokebox looks dark gray to me.