Happy Thanksgiving to all. Have a safe and wonderful holiday.

Sorry to report , there has been nothing accomplished. I know in my last post I said that I was going to bite the bullet, fire up the garage heater and press ahead with the cabinet work for the end of the peninsula. However it got cold here, and not just cold, but dead of winter cold. After a day of work I just wasn’t up to trying to get the garage up to a temp that was acceptable to work in. Temps in Minnesota have been bouncing around in the single digits.

Even though the  temps have rebounded rather nicely  “the powers that be” have us getting ready to host the family for Thanksgiving. As much as I would to be working on finishing the benchwork, getting together with family truly is important. I do look forward to having everyone over –  the in-laws, the kids and the grandkids – there is nothing better. If I can find some time I will try to get some work done, but I doubt that I will. After the Thanksgiving  holiday my schedule opens up a bit.

So again I’m sorry, but I would like to wish everyone a “Happy Thanksgiving”.

A found treasure. How often do we hope we find some little treasure someplace as we poke through a hobby shop? There is a hobby shop here in town that used to operate out of an old house.  You would poke through the different rooms that were crammed floor to ceiling with merchandise. Newer stuff up front, older towards the back. Every once in awhile I would find something tucked in back that caught my eye. Maybe I didn’t need it but the price tag was original and now it was a great deal.

That store moved to a new retail location and those kind of finds disappeared as they went through their inventory and figured out what they had.

Recently while I was on a business trip to Los Angeles I had some time and I was walking around. I happened across a antiques store that had some Lionel trains in the window. My father-in-law has several old Lionel and Marx train sets that he still runs and I went in to see if they had something that I could pick up as a gift. Looking at  what they had on hand, even though I’m not familiar with the Lionel second hand market, I thought it was a little over priced.

Looking further I came across a display case with some HO trains on display. One of the items caught my eye. It was a brass narrow gauge 2-8-2 Mikado. The owner came over and asked if I needed any help. I asked him how much for that “gold” engine in the back of the case. He replied ( with some disgust in his voice ) ” that it wasn’t gold, it was only brass and that it was $35.00″ . To tell the truth I almost crapped my pants, I was almost sure I missed a 1 or 2 in front of that number. He confirmed that the price was right and not seeming too anxious I told him I would take it. Now I don’t model narrow gauge and I’m not sure I could ever fit it into the scheme of what I’m doing but $35.00 for a brass engine, c’mon.

So, I have my treasure found and a great little story. Below are a picture of the “treasure” and a size comparison for those unfamiliar with narrow gauge versus standard gauge.