Car Interchange...Revival?


Alcomotive

Grandson of an ALCO Builder
Many, many, many moons ago.......on a far, far and away past of trials and tribulations. This modelrailroadforums group members...... a select few mind you embarked on a 1st beta run program of doing a car interchange between active members.

I have been wondering if a select few members would be interested in doing this again. I will volunteer as a moderator or rather dispatch operator for this if any one is interested.

The last time we did this we didn't quite have right group of people or participants involved and then the program was scrapped literally due to many dysfunctional happenings. Cars disappeared and people disappeared and so on.

I think I would like to give it a go with members that have been long standing in this group if anyone is interested.

Here is an an example of one of my cars that made to JTEX/ A&P and it came back to me in good hands. I still have it today!

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Anyhow here is the old link.....thread as to where it all started and then died.



I think it would be worth while and interesting to try this again. I would like to propose this but before doing so we need to agree on the rules and the time frame of interchange and the agreed members for Beta test 2.0.

These are the last rules that were used: (We may need to add or edit this)

Inter-change car rules.


1. Members wanting in on the car trade must be a member in good standing on the forums and current members agree.

2. Owner of the car has final say as to whom it can or can't go to.

3. Shipped USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. Each member pays to ship the car to the next member.

4. Member can use the car for a maximum of 1 month before it has to move on. The secretary dispatcher will provide the names of everyone involved and where the car goes on its next journey.

5. Each member provides 1 or 2 cars to be rotated. HO scale car must have metal wheels and KayDee (or KayDee compatible) couplers installed.

6. No member may modify, change, permanently affix or in any way do harm to another members car. Unless noted by owner with specific directive. Some people may want whatever happens example: car gets tagged with graffiti or patched or weathered or other.

***Accidents will happen I’m sure. Please notify the owner of the car immediately if it comes in the mail damaged or an accident happens.

7. All members will provide the following information to the secretary dispatcher:

NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE #
EMAIL
PHOTO OF CAR
DESCRIPTION OF CAR
*work order with directives or limitations.

8. Each member will provide the USPS Delivery Confirmation # to the secretary each time a car is shipped. That way all of them can be tracked constantly.

9. Each month, we’ll post the pictures on the forums in the weekly photo fun section.


So, I added some edits thus far....

Let's see who is willing to participate and adds any suggestions or edits. The car interchange is for US but I think we can even allow CA if everyone agrees that the time need to extend to 2 months if that happens. 1 month doesn't cut it. Also I would suggest not choosing your prized rolling stock be sensible or perhaps that is not an issue for you. Let's hear what ya'll think.
 
Many, many years ago I was a member of an NMRA Special Interest Group (SIG) called the International Car Exchange (ICE). I participated in two "trains" and still treasure the photos other members took and forwarded to me of my car on their layout. I would love to participate (here it comes.....) but in my current situation (NOT covid related) I don't access to the layout to run trains. I don't think it would be fair for me to send out a car without being able to run the cars I receive. By the way, "trains" were set at 6 to 8 cars to keep the interchange moving.
 
Many, many years ago I was a member of an NMRA Special Interest Group (SIG) called the International Car Exchange (ICE). I participated in two "trains" and still treasure the photos other members took and forwarded to me of my car on their layout. I would love to participate (here it comes.....) but in my current situation (NOT covid related) I don't access to the layout to run trains. I don't think it would be fair for me to send out a car without being able to run the cars I receive. By the way, "trains" were set at 6 to 8 cars to keep the interchange moving.


Layouts are not required. A simple piece of track with whatever sitting on a shelf or other will suffice.
 
I just might maybe possibly consider doing one again in the future after this whole zombie apocalypse thing but it would have to be strictly with trusted members and all the contact info. Yeah that last one didn’t pan out so well.

Just maybe... 🤔
 
I just might maybe possibly consider doing one again in the future after this whole zombie apocalypse thing but it would have to be strictly with trusted members and all the contact info. Yeah that last one didn’t pan out so well.

Just maybe... 🤔


Ya I was hoping for that too. I may just reach out to a few individuals privately and go from there. I will think on it for a few days. There is just a select few that been around 10 plus years hmmmmmmm........ 🤔
 
I have several foreign cars from other model railroaders or clubs that run on my CM&N railroad and I enjoy seeing the different roads in action.

Perhaps instead of a car exchange we could trade logo decals of our railroads to one and and another.

Rules would be simple in that you must trade two of your logos for two logos from a Forum member's railroad.

Just an idea.

Greg
 
Many, many, many moons ago.......on a far, far and away past of trials and tribulations. This modelrailroadforums group members...... a select few mind you embarked on a 1st beta run program of doing a car interchange between active members.

I have been wondering if a select few members would be interested in doing this again. I will volunteer as a moderator or rather dispatch operator for this if any one is interested.
I've always been interested in this. As someone else said I do not have a layout so don't know what sort of cool pictures I could come up for someone elses car at "my place". I also therefore don't have any industries that might need loads from other members cars, so they would just have to be "through" or "transfer" type moves. If others can live with that, the only thing I might get worried about would be getting too many interchanges that would make postage a unacceptable cost. Express postage for an HO scale frieght car size box used to be pretty cheap but seems to have gotten quite high lately.

I would like to have some sort of waybill "passport" that gets stamped, signed, marked (whatever) by each railroad it visits. Could start a collection and say "this car has been on every layout in the tour" sort of thing.

Could also start a collection of the photos of all the different cars that have been at "my place". Every car in the fleet has been through here sort of thing.

As to the issue of missing equipment perhaps we could have insurance policies. That is I put in a refundable deposit of $50 or so. If a car goes missing on my railroad, the owner of the car is given that money. Amount would have to be enough that it is more than the cost of a car and the return shipping so it behooves the proprietor to return the car rather than forfeit the money. Assuming no incidents and I want out of the exchange the $50 is returned. Problem with this is that leaves someone handling real money and all the issues associated with that - a job I would never want.

As to trusting people, I choose to think it is not a matter of dishonest members. I think it is just stuff happens, well meaning people get distracted, people forget, things get sidetracked and fall through the cracks. Maybe those missing cars from the first attemp will still return someday.

We could all agree to only send out only low value cars (Athearn BB, Round House, Bachmann Silver, etc.). eg. Don't send me your Scale Trains Rivet Counters Multi-Max Autorack that is going have parts break off when I look at it sideways.

Just rambling.....
 
I heard a saying once: "If you lend a friend $50 and you never hear from them again, it was probably money well spent." I'd like to participate, but my layout is far from being usable.
 



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