Went to the big HessenCenter Flohmarkt.  Clearly there's lots of holiday downtime boredom, as it was positively rammed.  Good excuse to have a Turkish sardine sandwich or a Balkan ćevapčići  burger for lunch.

I am always on the lookout for a railroad lantern for my wife, old non-metric tools, optics, weather instruments gunnarmiller.substack.c… , radio hobby bits and bobs, hunting and fishing accessories, and gathering further supporting evidence for my thesis that no one has ever sold used ski equipment at a flea market.

A crack in my ski equipment thesis appeared when I spotted a guy walking out with a pair of skis in a bag!

After years of searching, I found a €30 bargain on a Deutsche Bahn Oberwagenlaterne/Zugschlusslaterne eisenbahnlampen-ausbess… .  A red light outlet on the front signaled the end of the train at night. Opposite it was a white light outlet, allowing it to be attached to the side of the carriage as a position light. Thus, the tail light signaled to the rear that the train was at the end, and to the front, to the driver, that the last carriage was still there.. This particular type was used from the '50s through the '80s (this one marked 08 85) by which time the glass panels were replaced by acrylic. It still has the original kerosene tank, but was already neatly converted for a grounded E14 household electric bulb; plug and play.

I also found an guy selling his childhood Märklin 3200 HO layout. I estimate mid-'70s as it's "Made in West Germany", and features tin rolling stock, original ballasted track with bridge, transformer, and even an oil container, all in the original box with original papers for €50. It employs old style center conductor track studs, so doesn’t interoperate with our other HO, but is a neat little stand-alone collectors item.

A guy was selling some old shortwave radio equipment.  I was interested in a '60s/'70s Blaupunkt portable, but didn't buy it as he couldn't demonstrate that it didn't suffer from blown capacitors.  His tube rigs hummed along just fine in the background, but we already have plenty of those substack.com/@gunnarmil… .

I like to go to flea and antique markets as they’re a timeline for the detritus of mankind substack.com/@gunnarmil… .