Been married for almost 48 years. My wife and I gave up the fruitless hunt of trying to find something the other would like, so now we get our own gifts. Her line was where am I going to find old bicycle parts or tools? True enough cause other than cologne, I had no desire to wander thru the ladies department or nifty gifty shops and end up giving her the receipts so she could return what I bought!
I decided my first gift was to replace my 39 year old workbench stool. Got the padded Craftsman at half price at the local store. Unfortunately China made, but I can't imagine much going wrong with a stool.
I think Sears denigrated the Craftsman name with Chinese stuff and now it's like shopping at a slightly upscale Harbor Freight only you don't get a free flashlight with every purchase
but I think the tool quality is slightly better. I don't think this store will last thru 2018. The parking lot was almost empty 3 days before Christmas and I had to find the only open register on that side of the store. One clerk to service the large areas of sporting goods, garden (snow blowers), and tools. Shame to see them go down the tubes as I they once were my tool headquarters.
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My second gift to myself was an N-Scale GG-1 I found it on CL. Quite a difference between O scale Lionel and N-Scale. New in the box and untested but I hope it works. The miserable weather in our area (-5 as I write this) has put a real crimp in my riding so the trains will take up the slack. (The burgundy one, Tuscan to PRR fans, is a Christmas tree ornament/)
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My final gift was a ZW Lionel transformer. Serviced and ready to run. This is the 250 watt version made in 1948, (1 year after I was born!). Theoretically you could run 4 trains at once with this transformer, but that would be pushing it to the extreme. They came out with a 275 watt 2 years later that looked almost identical, but I don't need that extra power. Note: I just realized these photos were taken before the unit was serviced. Now has a new cord (the only thing it needed) and was cleaned and checked for proper performance.
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