eBay Estate - TT

[Richard-B]

All...

Many items listed, both rolling stock and engines, from a Northern California Estate.
https://www.ebay.com/str/steviewonder2002?_bkw=tt

Seller said source was a TT modeler in Mill Valley... but I have not been able to verify.

NB. I have no connection to these auction items...

[tomvanhoy]

The sales have generated some unusually high prices, in my opinion. But it has been stuff I haven't seen on the market for a long time!

[Richard-B]

<snip> The sales have generated some unusually high prices

As have a number of recent TT items... They either tend to go low... or VERY high.

A number of engines in the past few months seem to be going over the pond....

[MacG]

What a pretty vintage collection!

[Bill Dixon]

I purchased a few items from this estate. Some at a good price. Some I Wanted, I paid a bit more than I normally would. One or two items I placed a cheap bid on and got.

Have a fleet of logging cars to prepare. Some nice MOW cars and a few others.

I chased after and purchased two flat cars, a 42' and a 50'.
The 42' car stripped down nicely into something I can use as a master to cast a fleet of cars. The deck came off.
The 50' car was very nicely built. The deck was not removable, but was thin enough that I can add a new deck on top. It will be a master as well.
I am going to use 1/32" thick, 3/64 scribed siding for the decks. That works out to about 5 1/2" deck boards. A bit narrow perhaps, but the next size up, 1/16" is close to 7 1/2" board which is too wide. The boards should be 6" or .050", but nobody makes scribed wood at that spacing.

I'll post pictures when I have some results.

[TheKnighTT]

The last American TT stuff offered on German ebay were six HP Products cars and two badly repainted F7s for about 750$. I think it's understandable we choose ebay.com.
I got some of the equipment from this auction as well, to get some trains running. Some of it is beautifully modeled, including uncoupling levers to the couplers. And some is spray painted without taking out the wheels from the truck. It will all need some reworking. But I'll show pictures as well. I got the other set of log buggies, Bill.

[TheKnighTT]

As a last add on, he's offering a Gandy Dancer catalogue for 129,99$.

[ConducTTor]

As a last add on, he's offering a Gandy Dancer catalogue for 129,99$.

I think his perception of the world is not very good lol.

[Richard-B]

As a last add on, he's offering a Gandy Dancer catalogue for 129,99$.

I have a couple of those... would be rushing to list them if I thought this was even close to reality!

He's off by 2 orders-of-magnitude... IMHO - $1.29 would be a good start price! ...even $12.99 is a stretch.

[Bill Dixon]

I chased after and purchased two flat cars, a 42' and a 50'.
The 42' car stripped down nicely into something I can use as a master to cast a fleet of cars. The deck came off.
The 50' car was very nicely built. The deck was not removable, but was thin enough that I can add a new deck on top. It will be a master as well.

It has been a fight to get the flat cars to something use able.

This is the state of the 40' car. In the picture it looks warped but it is not. And being a cat owner, it has the obligatory piece of cat fur on it.
Lots of fun trying to cut decks from wood. Now getting to where I can get reproducible results.
Been staining the decks with a creosote stain as that is what came to hand first. Going to switch to something brown.
Added a lot of lead weight under the deck out of site to add some weight to the car. Still a bit light so will need a load.
Needs stirrup steps, grab irons and decals. I think I have a workable car. Will see how the next two come out.

The 50' car has been a trial!
Started out OK. Added trucks, couplers. Cut a deck. Tried again, and again, and again. Eventually got a good result. Glued it to the car then stained the deck.
MISTAKE!
When you stain wood it warps unless well braced. A resin casting is not enough bracing. I ended up with a car that looked like an English Long Bow. Sigh!
First try to fix the issue involved wetting the deck again and drying it under weight in the hopes it would dry straight. Better, the car is now only swaybacked but still not useable.
So the deck came off.
The car originally had a deck that overlapped the sides with cutouts for the stake pockets. It looked good but I was having a hard time replicating this. After a long contemplation of the resin casting, out came the files and sandpaper. I sanded the side smooth. Made a spacing template and then added stake pockets of .040" Cubes (roughly). They should be around .050" but nobody makes Styrene that size. On a previous model I tried using C Channel but it is really too wide and too shallow. I have since found out that somebody on Shapeways makes TT Scale stake pockets so I may be ordering them.
Now at the stage of gluing the new prestained deck on.
It will also needs stirrup steps, grab irons and decals.
I will post a picture when I have something worth showing.