Why I Oughta...

Day three of showing off the various treasures from the Elkhart Antique Flea Market up in Wisconsin that we scooped up during our visit in May.  First there was the chandelier that Nat scored from these two sweet gentlemen .  Then there was the Schlitz beer glass pitcher .  And then yesterday was the vintage Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shaker sitting on a cute bench .  The last of the treasures is this Lionel Gateman accessory - item number 45N.  It is destined as a Father's Day gift for my Dad who is the original model train guy in our family.  He runs his early 1940's train set from his childhood and has a handful of vintage accessories. This one was cheap - the guy took my $5 offer - and because it doesn't come with the box is probably priced close to right.  The reason?  There just aren't that many guys who want to buy vintage trains these days, right?  They either have them or they're gone.  I think that is driving the prices down a bit on vin

Last week, I showed off the newest addition to the Mantleburg Line in the Target Launching Balloon car , but it wasn't the only new car we bought at the Christmas Train Show out in Wheaton a few weeks ago.  We also added this car above - that has some action just like the balloon car.  It is called the #3510 Satellite Launching Car and is part of the "Pre-War Celebration Series" of reproductions from some early 1940's cars. That silver/metal-looking satellite launches up in the air when you position the car on on operating segment of track.   You can see it here (I've tee'd up this video to start at the right time) in action . It does a very quick trip to the ceiling then down.  Adds some fun operating concepts to the train that takes it from running around in a oval to something that is a bit more interesting for the kids and makes them last a lot longer down in Papa's basement with their Christmas Trains.

Over the weekend, we took my Dad and the Gooz to the annual Christmas Train Show out at the DuPage County Fairgrounds to pick up a few things for everyone's Christmas Train layouts.  With so many boxcars already around, I'm only really interested in getting 'action cars' or 'operating cars' and that's why this "Lionel 6-19824 US Army Operating Target Launcher" car came home with us. See that blue thing on the top of the car?  That is a fan/heater that blows air up through the top of the car and makes a balloon kind of 'hover' above the car.   Here's a quick video that shows the car in action .  It's called a 'target' car because there's a companion 'shooting' car that you can use to aim at the balloon.   Here's a short video that shows that action going on .  Alas, this time, we only got the balloon car, but there's always next year when we can pick up the shooting car, right?

We were at my folk's house over the weekend where the kids helped add all the ornaments to Noonie's Christmas tree and help set up Papa's Lionel Christmas Train.  One of the ornaments that the girls brought to my attention was this one above:  me in Kindergarten from 1983.  Lots of blonde hair in my bowl cut....what a dude!  I have the sneaking suspicion that the King of the Ball Tossers is going to look an awfully lot like this in just a few short years.  (Hopefully, with half Nat's genes in him, he'll be a lot cuter, smarter and kinder than his old man!  And...if I'm hoping, I might as well hope for a punter, too, right??) As for my Dad's Christmas Train:  Since we're staying at Equation Boy/Man's house, we haven't set up our train for a few years and with my parents moving into their new place with a HUGE basement, my Dad had designs on a new layout for this year's holiday season.  I went to one of our storage units and climbed on top

Big Rob and his guys were at it over the weekend down in Frankfort as they once again helped my family move.   We had Big Rob over at our place in Elmhurst back in early August  and here they are down in Frankfort.   More on this move - and that house - in a different post. If you need someone to move you and not charge you crazy prices, give Big Rob a call at (773) 858-3965. Tell him Jake in Elmhurst sent 'ya!