Still Collecting Chessie
August 23, 2013
I have moved and I haven’t built a new layout yet but I am still collecting Chessie gear when I can. My newest engine is a Bachmann GP7 Chessie 5606. This engine like my last 2 is also DCC and the detail is fairly exceptional giving that it is a low end brand.
Over the years I have noticed Bachmann has been improving their brand. When I was a kid it was just well known that Bachmann was cheap crap that barely represented anything that may have existed to match the roadnames and numbers they were using. This newest addition is fairly close to its prototype and if I felt led to add some ladder rails to the nose and some hoses to the front it could even rival the Athearn Genesis model of the same engine.
I have also collected some Chessie rolling stock in the last year and I am up to 6 Chessie branded cars. My sons have also taken an interest in trains as many boys do thanks to things like Thomas the Tank engine. They have a wooden track set with the magnet couplers. I was able to find a Chessie Wooden Train kit and they loved it. The boys have a tendency now to call any train they see a “Chessie System” . Thinking ahead to when they are older I have collected many pieces of the Bachmann EZ track system so that they can partake in the hobby with dad. I have already let them play a couple times but right now since they are so young it always ends in some wheels being missing or a coupler broken. Still it is fun to share the hobby with them.
In other Chessie news, while taking the boys to see Thomas in St Thomas Ontario I saw some real still in existence Chessie System Box cars! They are rusted and beat to hell but it was nice to see the Cat in person after all these years.
Categorized as: What's up
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