What's New for January 2010? - January 5, 2010 Well here it is a new year...2010. So far the 'Wooly Bear' caterpillars have been right. Snow and cold. It NEVER snows before Christmas in DC, and this year we got a bunch! Global warming? Where is it when you need it?
And so it's back to work on the railroad, I'm sure not going outside if I don't have to.
Building Your Own Mini-Scenes
Woodland Scenics has done a very nice job of creating complete scenes with their combination of figures, vehicles and accessories (Auto-Scenes). We stock them all. But even before Woodland Scenics came along, a person could always set up a neat little scene with the right choice of items. Just to show you how easy it is we have selected a black Escalade from Ricko ($11.25), some hardwood trees ($6.50), dogs/with fire hydrant ($5.30) both from Bachmann, and some golfers from Preiser ($10.49). You may need a little red and black paint from Poly-Scale ($4.60 per bottle) to get the clothing colors just right. Now wasn't that easy? Definitely a conversation piece
STEEL RELATED STUFF
 We have all the parts, instructions, bits and pieces for the new 'Youngstown' Ingot cars and we can ship immediately. This car was produced from the prototype drawings and is cast in a tough gray resin. You need only a little weathering. Our car is made in N/HOn30 and HOn3 versions. The prototype was made in standard gauge and narrow gauge, so if you are an N scaler you can get a perfectly accurate car standard gauge car and if you are an HO scaler you have your choice of HOn30 or HOn3 versions. Price is $22.50. It takes about 30-40 minutes to build your first one and about 15 minutes for the next car.
Western Scale Models
You may have heard of ''Western Scale Models'. If you haven't you have missed something. These guys make some of the finest white metal casting kits for the hard rock mining and lumbering modeler that I have ever seen. They produce models in HO, O and large scale. Fortunately for us steel mill modelers many of these parts work very well for our uses. The bad news is that the owner is going into semi-retirement and discontinuing production of his HO scale line. The good news is that I have stocked up on his HO stuff that has excellent adaptability to HO steel modeling. Pulleys, gears, pipe fittings, dynamos, motors, valves, lots of stuff. Check out the listing.
Walthers Track
We stock the full line of Walthers HO Code 83 track and switches. When I say that we stock this track, I mean it. We keep 48 pieces of the popular track in stock and a dozen of the less popular items. Bridge track, etc. So if you have ever gone into a train shop and looked at their selection of Walthers Code 83 track and been disappointed to see just a few pieces, well you weren't in Peach Creek Shops!
Bachmann News
Having a good stock of Bachmann has always been one of our goals. This has not been easy this year. The economy, production delays, late deliveries from China, (I was really thrilled to get my shipment of Thomas 'Annie' coaches 3 days AFTER Christmas.), customs backups, etc, have all contributed to delays in obtaining product. But things did come in and hustling these out the door in time for Christmas was a challenge. I thank all of you who ordered from us and displayed great patience (Except for the guy who wanted to place and order Christmas Eve and wanted it shipped next day air. I told him Santa Claus had already left the North Pole. ( I really didn’t say that, but I wanted to.)
There are some changes in the works at Bachmann. They have announced an across the board price increase of 5% with the exclusion of some Thomas products. Here is the good news. WE WILL NOT RAISE PRICES ON ANYTHING WE HAVE IN STOCK UNTIL IT'S GONE! When we have to restock we will of course show the price increase.
One other little tidbit. Future production of ALL Spectrum models will have Bi-modal DCC decoders. This will allow the model to run on a DCC or DC layout. Bi-modal decoders are a compromise. They run perfectly well on DCC but on DC you lose about half of your throttle. You have to turn the throttle up to about half way before the loco will run and top speed is often slower. Want the good-ol' DC operation? Open the tender, unplug the decoder, and replace the plug with the jumper plug provided. Now you are back to full DC operation.
Bachmann will be closed for inventory during the month of January. Nothing will be shipped until late in the month. We are still waiting for the C&O H-4s...Just remember that patience is a virtue, and virtue is it's own reward. Maybe that's why there is so little virtue.. Subscribe to our newsletter (click here) to stay in touch!
Can't Find It?If you don't see it on our web site, just ask.
We probably have it, and if we don't we can get
it and sell it to you at a discount!
voice: 301-498-9071
fax: 301-498-9302
email: peachcreek@aol.com |
