Source of parts

[Rowan]

Hi all,
I thought I'd share a source of parts with you.. from this critter, I have used lights (the ears), horns (mouth), buffers (feet), fuel fillers (the inner connecting part of the leg), steam dome (the large button on the front) eyes (eyes), and a few parts from inside.
These were part of a McDonald's giveaway over recent years, and there are now dozens available at thrift shops/op shops...


This guy is standing in front of Muddy Creek station awaiting the next train to an op shop.
Cheers
 

[Annie]

Makes note to check out the local thrift shops......

I like your Muddy Creek station, - what is it made from?

[Rowan]

It has no name on it. However it is likely Fischer Price or similar. It is made from heavy plastic, screwed together, and I"ve merely weathered it a bit to take the plasticy look from it. It normally houses the control unit for one of the track s on my display layout.

Here's a couple of others from my home layout.


This Buln Buln station has a home made roof.



 

[Annie]

Those are nice buildings.  I've been keeping my eye out for similar things from all the pre-Christmas toy box clearances that are happening at the moment.

[Rowan]

Op shops are my choice... these I bought for probably .50 cents....
You know that they have them NZ too... When we were over there last year (and renting a cheap car that only had a cassette player in it) we visited few op shops to buy audio cassettes (again for 50 cents or so), then just donated them back when we finished with the car.

 

[bkbates]

Rowan, would you please educate this Yank by explaining what an op shop is? From the thread, I'd say that they are similar to our charity second hand stores.

B2

[Rowan]

B2, Correct... op shops = Opportunity Shops = thrift stores/goodwill stores. We also have a store called Savers here, as you do in some places - I know there's one in Las Vegas, cause I've been to it.

The best source of stuff for us.........

Cheers
 

[crackingjob]

Car boot sales, Pound Shops, Charity Shops, Jumble sales...a few more to confuse MrB

[bkbates]

I don't know if I'd buy anything that some feller pulls out of his boot - it'll probably smell like sweat sox.

We have all those here, too. We also have something called a "flea market" which is probably a lot like your "Boot Sale" - a large area, like a parking lot (car park) where many folks come to sell off their odd stuff.

B2

[crackingjob]

same here...seperated by a common language

Crackingjob

[otherunicorn]

Of course it doesn't help that what we call a "boot" is what you call a "trunk".
Likewise, "bonnet" and "hood".

But then, there are those that speak "American" and those that speak "English".

[Annie]

When I was still working as a social worker I always found the clinical meetings that were held in the mornings really amusing.  You see we had doctors, nurses, OTs, social workers etc etc from all over the world working in our clinic and to hear them all trying to communicate with each other in their own particular brand of 'English' was a real laugh at times.

[trainboy]

i recently went to a national young leaders conference in Washington dc, i bunked with kids from all over the states and just hearing all of the different accents was really quite amazing......the word yall? who knew it was a real thing! And for some reason nobody knew what a Meijer was! go figure...actually you guys probably don't have many meijers ether....I LOVE CULTURE!

[Rowan]

How about the differences between Australian English and the English spoken in New Zealand??

Some examples...(NZ in brackets)......... thongs (jandals), shopping trolleys (trundlers), speed humps (judder bars), eskies (chilly bins)... or should that be chelly bens?

I'm sure Annie has some more examples...

Cheers
 

[otherunicorn]

and to quote some TV commercials, "your frind in the frudge".