Elgin Aurora and Southern

Two updates in two days,, what, did he lose his job ??

Anyhow,, for those of you faithful readers playing along with the home version, you may recall the saga of the Aurora & Geneva Rwys #2, a brass GHB Brill Semi-Convertible car in 1:24 scale. For those of you not playing the home version of our game, or those that can't remember, check the older posts, I'm far too lazy to rewrite the story again.

The Aurora & Geneva Railway Company #2

Fast forward to September 2010

Another one of these relatively rare cars found it's way onto eBay. The car was listed at a much higher price than the original 25+ year old price I was able to get mine for, and the car didn't sell. I sent the seller a friendly FYI email advising of market conditions and what I paid for my car, and sure enough, a day or two later, the car was relisted with the lower price I paid for mine.

I posted a notice on the Yahoo Large Scale Trolley Group in case anyone else might be interested in the car, and luckily no one bit. We'll get to the luck piece in a minute...

About a week later, the seller sent me a private email and offered the car at a much discounted price from his lowered asking price. Fool that I am, a fool and his money were soon parted !

And for the record, I don't know why I do this to myself. I had no interest or desire in having two of these cars, even with different car numbers !

In any event I ended up with the car. I'm glad it was me and not someone else, because I had mentioned the car to any number of folks, and it was NOT as advertised on eBay, the car was a far cry from the "Excellent Condition" it was listed at. Even with my discounted purchase price I was left feeling a bit cheated, and I can only imagine how someone might have felt getting this thing at full price. I bit the bullet and kept it, deciding to make lemonade out of this lemon.

(Dumb idea, I like beer, not lemonade !)

Anyways, the problems with the car weren't overly bad, just very frustrating and time consuming. I made the decision to work around the issues and build something different, settling on Elgin Aurora & Southern Brill cars of a similar era. The major differences were wood front ends, and Brill Model 77 trucks. A fellow LST member had a use for the original Maximum Traction trucks and a deal was quickly struck, further lessening the sting of the purchase !

I had just enough time the last week or two to get the car semi-presentable for Trainfest. New poles and hooks from Light Rail Products, new Brill 77EX trucks with NWSL Carpet Drives, some other minor detail changes (Car is no longer convertible). Much more to go, needs steps, final truck mounting, clean up, re-install the interior, etc.

The new trucks

Updates when it's all done !