Product Review - Loco Cradle, Book, Loco Shell, Parts, Paint, Glue

 I've been on the road for about 5 days.  Yeah, I don't post the blog every day.  In fact, I usually don't post until the weekend, and the post come out daily the following week.  Often I'm doing it all on Sunday evening.  When I'm traveling I love to go to hobby shops in the evening when I can.  Chicago is FULL of them so I go to the ones I'm close to.

  There is a very old hobby shop on the Midway side of Chicago that I like to visit.  Its owners are old and grumpy and you are usually treated like a potential thief until you buy something, but they have old stuff that is out of production and I love to find things.  Now, if they would only let me behind the counter.  Today I found a Bowser loco cradle.  Just what I wanted!

This one is large and very soft.  It holds an HO loco quite snug.  I just thought...why aren't these things available in other scales?  I love the extra area up top to sit tools.  I had one of these many years ago, but it dry rotted from sitting under my hot lights for so long.  It was $15 which is a LOT for a small hunk of foam, but I'll get 10 years of use out of it.

 When compared to the Peco one that I bought about a month ago, there is no comparison.  It is FAR better quality.

 For $6.25 I bought a used copy of Colorado Railroad Structures Volume II by Klaas Gunnink.  It just so happens that I'm thinking about building an HOn3 D&RG water tower to go in my office with my models and this has the perfect plan.  It is all plans, in fact.  It was ok for $6.25, but I would not have paid full price for it.

 And now for the I AM STUPID category.  Yes, I am an impulse buyer.  I've admired the Utah Railway locos in my new home town and this Rail Power Products #410 UR Shell was irresistible.  I got 10% off the $45 price tag, but should have gotten a lot more.  Normally I'm a good negotiator but it was late and I saw it after I'd already bought some stuff.  Not sure how it wound up in this Chicago store, but it had to go home with me.

 This old store has TONS of parts, so I always buy up some for the parts drawers.  Today I harvested a bunch of Tichy nuts, bolts, washer castings and some doors that looked like they belong on something I need to build.  I like having all the different castings so that I know which ones to order for bigger projects.  Tichy was smart to cast them in brown!  Hello, Grandt Line????

At my local hobby shop, M.R.S. Hobbies in Sandy, Utah I bought Testor's Flat Black and Dull Coat, along with some thin ACC adhesive.  Testor's Dull Coat is about one of the best products that I've used and I swear by it.  I'm continuing to replace many of the paints and chemicals that I lost in the move.