Mail Call! Railway Post Office, commonly abbreviated as RPO has rolled in!

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Sorry about the pictures. The pickle cars taken the same way were fine
 

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Today somewhat easy day, so i went to Renningers Antique shops to find a ladle. That's right, my newest addition to steam locomotive roster being all brass, is still very light on its feet. I figured i'll try casting lead weight to fit in the boiler and Renningers didn't disappoint. The seller said that previous owner was using the laddle to pour oil, so i'll have some major cleaning to do before i try to melt lead in it.
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From reading about pouring lead, nothing beats cast iron.
 
Colorado Midland Modeler said:
What a great find! I'm a bit ignorant on this type of car, what specific materials would one of these have carried for a company like Heinz?
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Yes, actual pickles. Carried in the pickle brine. The stations even had similar vats so the cucumbers were constantly "pickling". I didn't know this until I started looking at old Sanborn Fire maps, and near the station would be a structure named pickling vat(s).
 
KriegslokBR52 said:
Today somewhat easy day, so i went to Renningers Antique shops to find a ladle. That's right, my newest addition to steam locomotive roster being all brass, is still very light on its feet. I figured i'll try casting lead weight to fit in the boiler and Renningers didn't disappoint. The seller said that previous owner was using the laddle to pour oil, so i'll have some major cleaning to do before i try to melt lead in it. View attachment 250606View attachment 250605
From reading about pouring lead, nothing beats cast iron.
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You might be better served by a ladle made for casting bullets. They are smaller with a small pouring spout, so they are very easy to handle. I casr my own lead bullets for some antique guns of mine so I am used to pouring small amounts of lead.
 
DeaconKC said:
You might be better served by a ladle made for casting bullets. They are smaller with a small pouring spout, so they are very easy to handle. I casr my own lead bullets for some antique guns of mine so I am used to pouring small amounts of lead.
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The weights for steam locomotives will definitely be bigger. This way i can pour the whole thing instead of making several small pours.
 


-Possum- said:
A couple weeks ago, Texas Hobo posted an N scale Linde boxcar, and I had to find a HO version. Found one on the 'bay, with Kadee's, metal wheels, and sprung trucks to boot!

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You got a great bargain! I looked on ebay and several other places, and while some of the LifeLike Linde box cars are "brand new", even in the boxes, they all have the original plastic-framed trucks and hook-and -horn talgo-mounted couplers. The real joker is the shipping costs! $8.49, which in some cases is more than the price of the car. I could, of course change out the couplers and body-mount them, and have spring-loaded trucks in my parts drawer, but I already have two pieces of rolling stock enroute that I really didn't need, nor really have room for on my layout. Guess I'll pass...for now.
Happy, Healthy New Year!
 
migalyto said:
Those are absolute beauties!
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BigGRacing said:
AthearnIncredible! First actual set of 5 that I have seen. They are the best designed paint schemes on the planet in my opinion.
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They are very nice indeed, well worth the wait I think.
I think this the the first complete set Athearn have produced. I know they've done them before, but the first time as a set of five.
 
Williams by Bachmann 80-Watt Transformer Model #1000080
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Heavy-Duty 80-Watt AC Transformer [29999-00750] - $109.99 : Bachmann Trains Online Store

Bachmann Trains Online Store Heavy-Duty 80-Watt AC Transformer [29999-00750] - Warehouse Find - Extremely limited availability Item has been tested & is fully functional, however we offer NO WARRANTY on this. Be sure to consider this BEFORE you purchase. Limit one per customer, all sales final...
shop.bachmanntrains.com

Why did I break my self-imposed spending freeze, again? Because I wanted it! Do I need it, no, but I didn't have one of these. I got mine on eBay at a great discount, guaranteed to be in like-new condition and perfect working order. The deal was just too good to pass up.
 
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Walthers Mainline SD50, DCC ready. It runs well, but opening it up to install a decoder turned into an all-evening job. This is the second Mainline locomotive that I’ve bought where the disassembly instructions were incomplete. They neglected to tell you about two additional screws to remove. So not knowing exactly what was going on, I wound up taking the chassis apart to get it disassembled, because it did not slide apart like they said. excess glue gumming up the parts. Therefore, I wound up replacing the wires I thought I had to cut to take it apart.

Added find details were also pretty fragile. I think I’m done with Walthers Mainline locomotives.

Since it was going to be consisted with another local that has sound, I put in a mobile Soundtraxx decoder. Well I should’ve read the fine print. This series decoder does not have CV5-6, so how am I supposed to speed match this in a consist? It also doesn’t have CV 22, not a huge deal, but I’d prefer to have it. Ordered a decoder that would meet my needs.
 

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