Amtrak used strobes back in the early days - I haven't been near an Amtrak mainline in 10 years so I don't know if they still use them.

A friend who works for Geico loves the lizard and caveman. Business is booming. Looks like a caveman didn't come up with the marketing strategy.

As for posting about other manufacturers, the Bachman has been very tolerant. Simple etiquette would dictate that you inform people that other products may be available by another manufacturer and let them do the rest of the work.

Maybe Athearn will re-release the former MDC old timer series. They would go nicely with the former Mantua cars. A lot of these cars, and the AHM old timers, appear from time to time on Ebay. Just check the prices - they may be called "rare" or "vintage" but they are hardly scarce or worth very much.

Lionel may have a licensing agreement for this particular historical locomotive.

If you've ever been near a railroad line in the dark out in the country, the strobe let's you know that a train is approaching. You can see the strobe a long distance. I suppose it is visible during the day - don't know, haven't seen one.

For the O Scale Model railroad club in Brooklyn,check out this website:
http://www.members.tripod.com/~KnightTime/bayridgemodelrailroadclub.html

Both Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines have club show announcements. There are several clubs in the NY/NJ area that have open houses. The biggest that comes to mind is the O and HO club in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The Bay Ridge Society of Model Engineers, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY, have a nice O scale layout. They have open house in October.

First you need  to find a building or basement or loft unless you start a round robin club where you visit different homes every week.

I belonged to a club that moved once - in both cases the landlord kept raising the rent. When the rent was raised in the second location we couldn't keep solvent so we disbanded.

You also have to consider doing modifications such as meeting the fire code, burglarproofing and upgrading electricity - location of lights, outlets, etc. Then you need insurance - very important if you have an open house.

Once you get a location you need to decide on size and type of layout. Who knows electronics? Will you hand lay track or use flex? How will you pay for it?

In having belonged to two clubs I have found that there is always a core of people who do the work. There are people who like clubs so they can show up on operating night, run their own locomotives, drink coffee, complain that nothing gets done and tell you that they'll have their dues next week.

A club is a huge undertaking.

Wow - a golden oldie. Is it part of the 1 in 5000 series? I thought that I had owned both series at one time or another but don't remember this particular kit. It may have just been in their regular line.

Good luck in finding one.

There was a special on the local PBS station about the California Zephyr. You can buy a DVD of the program from PBS.

It is in the American Experience series and the name of the program is Streamliners: America's Lost Trains (Item no: AMER6303) the DVD is $24.95. Just google PBS and enter the word "Zephyr")

I have seen On3 modules that have code 55 rail for sidings. The track was soldered to pc board ties. The engineer gets "slow" orders for any move on that siding!

Maybe they owned the cars as opposed to leasing them. Chateau Martin wine used to have there own reefers.

Get yourself a Kadee spring tool. This tool will make working with kadee srpings a little lesss nerve racking. Putting a piece of thread through them, as mentioned above, works well.

Back in the pre CA days there were guys who used to use Walther's Goo or Pliobond on the springs to keep them on the tool.  I never had too much success with Goo but I knew modelers who used this method.

Go to an Artist's supply store or a place like Michael's and pick up some artist's acrylic paint in tubes. I found that raw and burnt umber, raw and burnt sienna and yellow ochre were all  the colors I needed.  I also kept a tube of Titanium white and black to brighten or darken mixes that I made.

Be careful with yellow ochre - it looks like mustard and a little goes a long way. You can then get a quart of cheap white latex or acrylic paint and mix your own colors. You can also try some base colors other than white.

You do have to experiment.  Don't be afraid to try more than one tint in a batch. You'll find (as I did) that the paints you make often dry to a different color. My first experiment with painting some hillsides a brown color wound up giving me pink hills!

Here's a good suggestion that I learned the hard way. When you get a base color that you like, write down the tints you used to make it. 

You can't go wrong with black on a steam engine.

In my last posting about HO passenger cars, the company I was referring to was La Belle. They have made some really nice passenger equipment over the years and the new owners are upgrading the kits. Main Line also makes nice kits but I really don't think they have any passenger cars.