Hobo Jungle

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Rufus!!! What a heinous and dastardly deed!!! Knowing full well I can't partake of such a fine beverage down South!!!

And, it come in pint and 1/2 bottles!

But wait!!.......Do I see the "BLT BY LIONEL" stamps on those cattle cars!!!!!!!

I hope not!!!

They're all wood (kits older than me...but rather decent actually...) with some resin castings (mine) with a coat of grey primer on them. They need a little more detail work on them before I'd call them done, but that's not my problem....

I intend for these to be finding a new home asap,

[2railjon]

Rufus, actually those cattle cars look splendid!! I was going to be even further impressed if you told me you hand built them using that 100 horse power circular saw in the background while sucking down double chocolate stouts cutting the basswood strips for them!!!!! You'd get my vote for modeller of the year!!!!

[2railjon]

Check it out!! My fire escapes made it in from Sodders Enterprises for my building fronts!! They're beautiful!!!!!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Rufus, actually those cattle cars look splendid!! I was going to be even further impressed if you told me you hand built them using that 100 horse power circular saw in the background while sucking down double chocolate stouts cutting the basswood strips for them!!!!! You'd get my vote for modeller of the year!!!!

Well, not those, but I did scratch together this one.....although I am wondering now why I put bettandorf's under it,

[2railjon]

Rufus, Excellent example of a scratch built piece-even more so on that gorgeous layout!!! Do you hand spike your rail as well?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yup! Make my own ties and switches....

[GP]

Check it out!! My fire escapes made it in from Sodders Enterprises for my building fronts!! They're beautiful!!!!!

Jon,

They look great! Are those some shiney new garbage cans I see in the box too?

GP

[hev52]

It's alright guys, I got my tire problem figured out. This fellow over here in Albany where I'm currently incarcerated got me all set:

http://www.wimp.com/repairtire/

Now what did he do?

Daisy that reminded me years back when we would do this with some stubborn trucks tires......................... Whatta think Mitch..................did ya ever blow off them rings on them damn Dayton wheels. We did one time and that f-ckin' thing went thru the f-ckin' tin roof. Lucky we weren't killed............. ....... Talk about cleanin' out your drawers.........................


BTW ..............ya don't have to worry about air pressure in your tires if yer runnin' steel wheels...............................


hev

[webenda]

I used to keep my head and body away from the projectile zone, hoping it wouldn't rip my hand off if it let loose. I never had one let go. One thing I used to do was inflate a little and then tap the split rim with a hammer. A few times it seated when tapped. I always liked the International Harvester style of wheel center for the Taylor wheels.



I still have my truck wheel tools after 50 years.


KEN-TOOL T-23-


HERBRAND No 1127

The gold paint in the stamped lettering is still there after 50 years! Beat that China!!!

Daisy,

The guy in the video is inflating a tubeless tire with hair spray. Hair spray propellent is butane, like in a butane lighter. I think the hair spray laquer is flammable also. After spraying butane into the tire through the gap between the rim and tire he uses his butane cigarette lighter to ignite the hair spray spray. Once the flame reaches the tire, the butane inside explodes inflating the tire. If you watch... at the end... the tire deflates because they had not repaired the leak.

[gtfan]

I think you have to be pretty lucky with that technique. If the bead doesn't properly seal, the tire won't inflate. I would use a comealong around the tread of the tire and use it to squeeze the sidewalls apart, to try to set the bead that way. Then if you can get air in faster than it leaks out, the bead should set and the tire will inflate. I've done that successfully with my hands on wheelbarrow and hand truck tires.

[Mitch]

Back in the old days, when the Coats machine would not blow the beads out far enough to catch, our old trick was ether. Generally, this was a problem on 8 or 10 ply truck tires. If after wrapping the strap around the center of the tread to help spread the side walls, (yeah, we also used a piece of dog chain and twisted it up to do the same thing), we give the machine one more shot at it, and if it failed, we sprayed starting fluid in the tire and we threw a lit kitchen match in the general direction. Instant bead seal!

Nowadays, at work, we got a 4 gallon air tank with a 1 1/2 inch nozzle on it that hooks on the wheel. Inflate the tank to 150psi, hook it over the wheel, and when you open the knife valve, stomp on the footvalve at the same time. I brace the tank up against my gut; the recoil is pretty good when you hit that valve, and even then I've had to blow 3 times to seat some tires.

Worse case would be those tires that come wrapped with paper all around, pulling the beads together. Those suck.

I did blow a left front steering tire on an 18 wheeler once. The split ring and the retainer went down through the medial, and the tire came damn near clear off the rim before I got 'er stopped.

[GP]

Ah ... busting down and mounting truck tires. That brings back old memories. I worked in the garage on the night shift at Ryder for 4 years while attending college during the day. I busted down thousands of those damn tires in those 4 years ... and I always held my breath until the lock ring popped and sealed! When I was doing them at the shop, I put them in a reinforced "tire cage" and hooked the air hose up and got far away from the cage. Out on a service call on the road you just took your chances back then. We did have one fella that was pretty near decapitated by a lock ring down in a South Florida shop back in the late 60s. The dumb *** was airing up the tire and standing over it when ... BOOM ... lock ring popped off, took most of his head off and continued up and thru the shop roof ... not pretty from what I was told.
That was hard, dirty, tiring work!

GP

[Daisy]

Thanks you guys for all the tire info, very interesting. But I think I'm trading my vehicle in for one of these!

http://www.wimp.com/snowconcept/

[Del Mar]

You might need it up there, Daisy. Had a look at wunderground for your area and the Fordson Snow Tractor would come in right handy for a trip to reload the Labatts supply. Not very good if you fall off the seat onto the aluminum tubes, but I'll allow others to speak to the subject of falling off a tractor.



San

[Mitch]

Daisy, I'd really like to see you own one of these, but after the installation of the "comfort" cab, with climate control, and the crash bumpers, and of course the power sliding doors and windows, the Serius radio w/navigation and bluetooth technology, front and side impact airbags, and all the engine controls, fuel injection, variable valve timing, egr valve, and of course the catalytic converter with 4 oxygen sensors, it just may not be affordable.