ID these senior citizens?

Discuss All Facets of 2-Rail, 1/48 Scale, Model Railroading
Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:11 pm

bob turner wrote:Can't wait for the close-ups.


Indeed.

A bit incongrous - old and rare, pulled by junk plastic?


Perhaps, but the cars were cheap then and that might have been the most that could be afforded for pulling them. Economical and adequate for some....
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Dennis Holler
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Dennis Holler » Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:50 pm

I like em, but then I'm easy I guess lol
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bob turner
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby bob turner » Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:06 pm

The Atlas and Roco? You? They are the opposite of Scale Craft.

Now admittedly they were inexpensive and accurate. I think for twelve bucks you got a Diesel, three pretty accurate freight cars, and a caboose. Plus a loop of track! Who could pass that up? I sent sets to a few kids, and actually kept a set. My F7s and F-Ms got traded off fairly rapidly for a Little Engines Northern and several Scale Craft tanks. I think I got the better end of those bargains.

and yeah - there are still a couple of those box and gons around here, and even a caboose. My excuse is that I use them for break-in runs when I don't want to load up a gearbox. Lousy excuse, since I rarely do break-in runs any more.

Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sun Oct 18, 2020 4:07 pm

bob turner wrote:I think for twelve bucks you got a Diesel, three pretty accurate freight cars, and a caboose. Plus a loop of track! Who could pass that up?


And that's what O scale needs today....
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby ScaleCraft » Sun Oct 18, 2020 5:42 pm

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
bob turner wrote:I think for twelve bucks you got a Diesel, three pretty accurate freight cars, and a caboose. Plus a loop of track! Who could pass that up?


And that's what O scale needs today....

What? POS European junk engines whose life expectancy was in minutes or the most hours? Plastic cars with plastic trucks, wheels, and couplers that fit nothing else in the known world?

How may folks would THAT turn off?
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Chris Webster
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Chris Webster » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:08 pm

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And that's what O scale needs today....

About 10 years ago, Atlas-O was selling 2-rail and 3-rail versions of the same trainset: a GP15-1, two freight cars, a caboose, and a circle of Atlas track. These sets did not include a transformer or power pack.

The Classic Toy Trains review of the 3-rail version is still online:
Atlas O Trainman line O gauge GP15 set - By Bob Keller | January 4, 2007

It says the 3-rail version retailed for $399.99 back in 2007. My recollection is that 2-rail set retailed for about the same amount.

O-scale today needs something like these sets, not the Roco stuff from 1970s.

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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:15 pm

Chris Webster wrote:
Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And that's what O scale needs today....

About 10 years ago, Atlas-O was selling 2-rail and 3-rail versions of the same trainset: a GP15-1, two freight cars, a caboose, and a circle of Atlas track. These sets did not include a transformer or power pack.

The Classic Toy Trains review of the 3-rail version is still online:
Atlas O Trainman line O gauge GP15 set - By Bob Keller | January 4, 2007

It says the 3-rail version retailed for $399.99 back in 2007. My recollection is that 2-rail set retailed for about the same amount.

O-scale today needs something like these sets, not the Roco stuff from 1970s.


The Roco sets of the 70s were what they were then - just extend that forward 50 years and I'd hope that something better would be available, but also be readily accessible to point to when someone asks me where they can get started in O scale. Telling them to go to train shows and to buy used stuff that may or not be needing help, and that they are pretty much on their own for everything is not an attractive entry point.
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bob turner
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby bob turner » Sun Oct 18, 2020 7:10 pm

Won't happen, but what I think would be neat is a plastic set like the Roco or whoever with Radio Shack battery/RC for maybe $150 with track. They could even use plastic wheels and ugly couplers - that would be entry level stuff.

If you look carefully at the plastic stuff, you will see good detail, proper size, and ease of conversion. Sure, some of it needed ladders and grabs chiselled off, but for the price . . .

No way would this junk sell for $400. That's why that effort failed. Opinion.

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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sun Oct 18, 2020 7:28 pm

bob turner wrote:Won't happen............


Sadly, no one will do anything as usual and then folks will continue to scratch their heads wondering why..........
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De Bruin
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby De Bruin » Sun Oct 18, 2020 11:37 pm

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
bob turner wrote:Can't wait for the close-ups.

Indeed.


Then wait no more I say! :mrgreen:

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This one has defied my not so meager attempts at identification, such that I’m delaying listing it.

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It has a All-Nation or Athearn-ish quality to it but I can’t find any advert, catalog or article for it, and it’s ends have a rib pattern unlike anything else I can find, not only in the rest of the pile, but on the club and my own roster.

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The ends are a stamped sheet brass, similar to AN or Athearns.

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Ditto the underbody center-sill except it’s has a deep “fish-belly” profile with a bracket mounted BC like those pre-war NRDX insulated box cars and some unusual (for this pile) narrow scale plastic bolsters. Decals weren't bad on this for a change too and it cleaned up well such I think it’s a really nice looking car.
Any ideas?
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Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:40 am

No idea. From what you describe it does not fit into any single source; possible then scratch from several sources?

Decent looking car nonetheless.
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Dennis Holler
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby Dennis Holler » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:15 pm

Looks like the All Nation center sill with the coupler pockets chopped off. I have a few of those but with the die cast bolsters. They are starting to look a little Z-pesty though....
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De Bruin
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby De Bruin » Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:43 pm

Thank You Dennis, that is most helpful. I thought it might be an All Nation based on some of the Western TCA's website "dope" but no exact match. I will list it appropriately. I think the narrow polystyrene/or resin car body truck bolsters actually come from USH's excursion into plastic kits as they match an un-built 50' kit example I have.
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Moving on, here's what I'm presuming is a Walthers pre-war 40', this one was missing a lot of exterior parts, details and a side door which alas I could not find a match for, so I used a spare Athearn stamping (not like that never happened in real life either right?)
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I presume this is a Walthers based on the cast white metal car ends, and the underbody parts. You can pretty much tell what had to be replaced or touched up based on the paint variation here. If I was keeping these I would likely fill in the seams between the car ends and sides/roof, strip off the decals, re-blow with clear lacquer and apply dry transfers for an appropriate road name/#.
This has been a struggle in self-control , I like this one too!
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De Bruin
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby De Bruin » Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:46 am

Taking another break from my CGW Mill Cities Ltd Project and suspending my listings on Ebay for the holidays, I retreated back to the club’s donation pile, turning my gaze to some of the 700 series Lionel stuff there-in.
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My door-stop brain-trust (a deep bench trust me) advised me to sell the 700 series Lionel freight cars as-is, and to avoid any serious disassembly or restoration efforts. Good advice but NO BODY wanted this day-glo orange 717 caboose (I know shocking, right?)
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After multiple failed sales attempts it was into the tank, the savory remnants of “Montana Guy’s” three different colors of enamel coatings here looking like blanched pepper skins, mmmm yum!
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My consultants also nailed the chronic issue with Zamak castings fracturing once the “pest” sets in (note curvature on the chassis) and it indeed broke in half once freed from the car body after the extended brake fluid bath aggravated the warping even worse than what you see here.
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After grinding and cleaning-up the remaining portions of the chassis bolsters, I cut a bass wood sub floor and replaced/rebuilt the missing portion with channels, joists, original gang valve (a nicely proportioned albeit rubbery piece) etc.
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Fortunately, the original Irvington finish was not too badly the worse for the experience, surviving the extended dip as you see, though the previous owner did sadly chisel/scrape off the reporting marks on one side.
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I replaced the replacement Bettendorf’s with a truly ancient set of castings as a simulation of leaf spring trucks though these look more like really old time top-beam passenger trucks to me, any one recognize these? I may yet further mill down the cast bolster pedestals too as this one looks “cleared for take-off” as is.
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The markers were rebuilt from “Montana Guys” original installation too, not as easy as I’d have liked either but consistent with my earlier NdeM caboose posting as I’m installing working markers as a rule now on all tail cars these days.
You get this far and why not? right?
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bob turner
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Re: ID these senior citizens?

Postby bob turner » Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:48 pm

Those were magnesium castings. Not realizing the fire hazard, I stuck a warped floorboard in the oven, then carefully increased the oressure with clamps until it was straight. That was 55 years ago, and it is still straight. The roofwalks just get replaced with wood.

The Williams brass repro was a pretty good reproduction of the 717 - not so the poorly done MTH die cast.

The 6-18000 Lionel trucks look good on this caboose - but a set of Bettendorf T might be more accurate.


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