TCA MG Club cars 2012

Already in early November the annual TCA MG Club car arrived. It is a tribute to the recently fallen flag of Birmingham and Southern in the form of a outside-braced boxcar. It has been made by Weaver and has the usually quality features of Weaver; sprung metal trucks, highly detailled and well decorated. Another load of BS. A nice car indeed.

Toy trains in the back yard

Today it was finally good weather. We took a lot of the Lionel stuff outside and laid a small layout with tubular track on the brick pavement in the back yard. That was fun. Although some overcast clouds threathened to spoil our train party, it remained dry and occasionally saw a bit of sunshine.

It was good that we tested the trains, because the MTH Camelback steamer had a poor battery and will get it replaced soon. The Lionel 289E runs but not optimal; at full throttle it will run, but not as hard as it should, so I better start to figure out what is refraining the toy train engine from running fast. All in all it was a relaxing afternoon in the back yard.

TCA MG Club cars 2011

Last week the TCA MG club cars arrived from Weaver. This year I bought the three-pack because it were Reading cars; 2-bay composite hoppers. Some hand-crafted coal-loads were made by Don and he sure did a great job. They do look awesome.
I hooked the cars up to the SW-1500 switcher and drove them around with some other Weaver cars I had accumulated over the years. The night express run slowly over the attic floor.

The new TCA-MG beer reefer

This week a beautiful beer reefer club car arrived, designed by the TCA member group and produced by Weaver model trains from Northhumberland PA. The beer brand is probably historic "Century beer made by the Schneider brewing company from Trinidad Colorado". The name of the brewing company suggests a traditional beer that is brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot and therefore is likely to be healthy.
Personally I like the pea-green colour, which is a truely old colour for an old reefer. The Weaver Alco FA-2 took it for a ride.

TCA-MG Club car #2

This week the 2008 TCA-MG club cars arrived and they are handsome indeed. The designers chose for the new 40' flat cars of Weaver with wooden crates on top. The details of the wooden crates, the dull grey colour of the weathered planks and the details on the flat itself (stake holders, steps, texts) are well done. The crates apparently contain Electrical components from the Electrical Generator Company in Windfall WV. According to the text they are heavy and should not be lifted with hooks. Surprising content.

The flats run smoothly on straight rails but were obviously not designed for my 027 curves. The wheels do then touch the central beam under the flat and this results in friction. The flats do not derail as my 50' flat does in 027 curves, but they are merely slowed down.