Back Home After A Great Train Show

This past weekend we met up with a group of friends and family for one of the largest annual train shows in the country. The grandchildren accompanied us this year as well. This was their first visit to any train show and I suspect it was probably the first of many train shows for them.

I shot quite a few photos as well as some video... a bit of each will be shared here in the coming days depending upon how my health is holding up through the rest of this week. Right now I could use about a month of sleep!

Before I get into any specifics about our trip, I thought I would start with something simple and show some photos of a train I bought while at the show.

I always begin the show with a long list of items that I want to purchase and/or research while we are at the show but, by the end of the day on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed in that I didn't find anything I was hoping to see. Just as I was sharing my disappointment with Sheila, George and Barb, and as the words were coming out of my mouth, a beautiful O scale Hudson locomotive caught my eye... THIS was something which was on my list!

After some wrestling with my own thoughts for a few minutes, checking over every inch of the model and convincing my hands to part with the money my hand was holding, I purchased this beauty! 

It runs beautifully... it has nice sound effects such as bells, whistles, steam, and squealing brakes... it has puffing smoke... and it is a big and heavy model. This model is so heavy that Lukey couldn't possibly lift it. I can barely lift it without grasping it too tightly and breaking one of the detail parts on this beauty.  

When we arrived home and I put this locomotive in a test track, I quickly realized that I don't have an appropriate transformer for the Proto-Sounds. The sound effects require a pure sine wave AC power supply which I can't get out of my old Lionel transformers so... I ordered a new transformer. I can hear some of the sounds with my old transformer but I have no control over them.

I also quickly realized that I need a new rechargeable battery so the sound does not cut out everytime I change directions. A new battery was ordered along with a new transformer.  

This locomotive really is a beautiful piece of machinery! It has a lot of detail and it is built amazingly well. I'd like to add a little bit of weathering to it and add some highlights to bring out some of the detail. It will look great on a shelf as well as when it is puffing smoke, squealing, whistling and chugging around a track!

When I get the sound working as it should, I post a video of this new locomotive...