May 10, 2019 - May 10, 1869 = 150 years

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I think both models have their place. The out of scale, but attractive CP119 and Jupiter with LionChief and Bluetooth are good value at $500 street price, and the entirely new tooling brass and diecast models at $1100 each are unique and attractive to many who can afford them. Two entirely different audiences with different tastes and capabilities.

Or you could hunt down one of the sets of the 2 engines that were imported by PSC quite a few years ago - they run ~$3500.

A case can be made that neither are as important as food, shelter, medical care and saving for retirement . Fortunate is the hominid who can do all of these.

One would think so, but then rational thought eludes many......

.....I don't want my kids to inherit too much money and be demotivated .

I also have embraced this philosophy.

[G3750]

In the interest of thread drift, does anyone know what became of SMR trains and their exquisite 19th century locomotive models?

I would have thought this would be right in their wheel house.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

In the interest of thread drift, does anyone know what became of SMR trains and their exquisite 19th century locomotive models?

I would have thought this would be right in their wheel house.

SMR is done; doors closed.

[Roy]

I know there was a lot of golden spike HO brass, in 1969. No three-rail O, unless Marx re-ran the Crooks stuff, which I don't think happened. Was there any brass O, at that time?

[G3750]

In the interest of thread drift, does anyone know what became of SMR trains and their exquisite 19th century locomotive models?

I would have thought this would be right in their wheel house.

SMR is done; doors closed.

I knew that, but was wondering about the details, if any.

[chuck]

Here ya go.

http://smrtrains.com/

[G3750]

Here ya go.

http://smrtrains.com/

That is one of the saddest things I have ever seen in the model railroading hobby.

[rogruth]

Here ya go.

http://smrtrains.com/

That is one of the saddest things I have ever seen in the model railroading hobby.

I think this happened with a lot of small businesses.

[chuck]

Specifics are different but some of the core themes echo a series of op-Ed pieces John Smith did for O Scale trains a while back. Series was called Crapolla from the Cupola. "How do you make a small fortune in imported brass model trains? Start with a large fortune."

Banks seem to be interested only in loaning money to people that don't need (and sometimes don't want) it. If the intended audience was overall more tech savvy SMR might have been able to use kick start or go fund me. Anyone with the necessary knowledge/expertise to make the stuff domestically can make way more money doing medical device or other esoteric machinery. It's sad, but that's what's happening.

[Roy]

This happened during the so-called Great Recession, which followed the subprime mortgage crisis. Folks with immaculate credit couldn't get a loan to buy chewing gum. We wouldn't have had a mortgage crisis, if Republicans hadn't changed the mortgage laws, then started folding high-risk loans into higher quality investment instruments. Rich psychopaths made out great, while the rest of us suffered.

Reminds me of when Reagan changed the tax laws, so that corporate raiders ripped off and destroyed businesses with savings. It also reminds me of how Wall Street operators would pay off reporters from The Wall Street Journal and Barrons, to manipulate stock prices in the early part of the twentieth century. That's what Republicans do - transfer wealth from hard-working, savings-oriented Americans to the very worst of the rich.

Some Christians like this, because they know a middle-class America has less use for them. The church has a long history of allying itself with the worst of the rich and powerful. Conservative Christians and the psychopathic rich thus constitute an "axis of evil", indeed, they are "the focus of evil in the modern world".

[HONDO74]

This happened during the so-called Great Recession, which followed the subprime mortgage crisis. Folks with immaculate credit couldn't get a loan to buy chewing gum. We wouldn't have had a mortgage crisis, if Republicans hadn't changed the mortgage laws, then started folding high-risk loans into higher quality investment instruments. Rich psychopaths made out great, while the rest of us suffered.

Reminds me of when Reagan changed the tax laws, so that corporate raiders ripped off and destroyed businesses with savings. It also reminds me of how Wall Street operators would pay off reporters from The Wall Street Journal and Barrons, to manipulate stock prices in the early part of the twentieth century. That's what Republicans do - transfer wealth from hard-working, savings-oriented Americans to the very worst of the rich.

Some Christians like this, because they know a middle-class America has less use for them. The church has a long history of allying itself with the worst of the rich and powerful. Conservative Christians and the psychopathic rich thus constitute an "axis of evil", indeed, they are "the focus of evil in the modern world".

[Roy]

What's your question?

[healey36]

While many had blood on their hands in the 2007-2008 melt-down, I think the seeds of that disaster were sown with passage of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (95th Congress, Carter Administration), which pushed for an easing of credit-qualification rules, primarily for those at the lower end of the income scale. It took about fifteen years for that thing to gain traction, but eventually there were a lot of folks qualifying for loans they were incapable of servicing. Once the banksters figured out they could bundle those up into credit-default-swaps (CDS) which they could sell off as securities, the risk was passed to us knucklehead investors (and we were all investors).

I don't recall any Reagan tax changes that teed up the corporate raiders. I think that started to great extent with the boys at Drexel-Burnham-Lambert in the mid-1980s with the whole "junk-bond" schtick, a scheme whereby companies were bought, loaded up with debt to finance the purchase, than used to collateralize the next. I got news for you...Jay Gould and his kid George were doing that a hundred years ago, just Milken made an art of it.

Reagan did index the tax rates, which basically tied the tax structure to inflation. No more bracket creep as incomes rose due to inflation, with the government reaping a bonanza with pegged rates. Now Congress had to actually pass tax legislation, and we all know how that worked out.

[webenda]

I've bought almost nothing expensive since the days of the Century Clubs, but I figure I don't want my kids to inherit too much money and be demotivated .

Your goal to leave your kids as paupers may backfire if the price of used Lionel trains continues to climb.

Example of where prices might go.

[chuck]

Healey36 said

Once the banksters figured out they could bundle those up into credit-default-swaps (CDS) which they could sell off as securities, the risk was passed to us knucklehead investors (and we were all investors).

The main culprit for the meltdown was repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999. This broke down the barriers between investment and commercial banking. it allowed/encouraged "banks" to engage in the creation of "investment instruments" like the mortgage backed securities. The basic mathematics behind this financial instrument was/is sound. The issues were that the people executing these "devices" were a) not following the guidelines on what properties would be included, b) the demand for these securities drove (a) to create more and more of these securities and created opportunities for fraud in terms lack of oversight on every aspect of the lending process up to an including outright fraud/theft in the creation of loans for non existent property, c) lenders used (b) to encourage people to take out loans where there was almost no way for them to pay back in order to up the demand to create more mortgage backed securities (pressure from the "investment side" over rode the mortgage sides usual cautions). This became a vicious cycle that lead to increasingly risky loans in the name of "easy profits". Everyone should have known better from the bankers (both sides), the lenders, the home owners, the inspectors, etc. EZ money never is easy.