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Old passenger car kits...for example "Blue Line", ABL

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: East Peoria, IL
  • 12 posts
Old passenger car kits...for example "Blue Line", ABL
Posted by trainmaster1017 on Saturday, May 16, 2020 9:07 PM

I have a number of old Blue Line cars which I have constructed with old Ahtearn ends and newer more authentic trucks. I got all these Blue Line kits for $1.00 each when our old "Hobbymodels" store shut down!! Still the wood bottoms and details!!Hobbymodels as in Morgan Baldridge..does that date me sufficiently??

Peoria, Illinois USA? I answer to "Dick"

If I could learn how to post pictures I would be glad to show them off, as constructed!! I will soon be 85 and still collecting!! Layout?? What`s that??

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Saturday, May 16, 2020 10:25 PM

Please do post pictures. There is a sticky topic with instructions.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,439 posts
Posted by dknelson on Sunday, May 17, 2020 12:05 PM

If I remember right the Blue Line passenger cars were nicely painted steel sides on a wood floor.  A similar looking passenger car was the American Beauty line.  Both lines had glossy paint but glossy painted metal looked more like the prototype than glossy painted plastic.  Blue Line had full length but also "shorty" passenger cars.  American Beauty might  not have had the shorties.

Dick if it had not been for this coronavirus thing I would have been in Peoria for the last 3 days at the NMRA Midwest Region convention.  There were going to be presentations on railroading in Peoria that I was looking forward to.  

Dave Nelson

 

  • Member since
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  • From: East Peoria, IL
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Posted by trainmaster1017 on Sunday, May 17, 2020 2:40 PM

I would but I do not know how to do that. I use an elderly(like me) desktop-Win10. I need education...I do have pictures I can send somewhere with e mail!!

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: East Peoria, IL
  • 12 posts
Posted by trainmaster1017 on Sunday, May 17, 2020 2:52 PM

Dave, you are correct. I still have 2 intact Blue Line kits in original boxes. If someone will send me a link with picture posting instructions I will be glad to share my Blue Line cars as modified as Burlington completed!!...to my e address!! tchrappr@mtco.com



 

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    September 2013
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Posted by caldreamer on Monday, May 18, 2020 8:08 AM

I am still looking for a Blue Line observation car painted in WP colors for a friend of mine.  Would love to find one for him.

    Caldreamer

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Monday, May 18, 2020 8:41 AM

 There are some Blue Line instruction sheets and other information on hoseeker. Ah, a simpler time:

Painting Instructions: Wash car with carbon tet. Dry thoroughly.

 

                                --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,439 posts
Posted by dknelson on Monday, May 18, 2020 10:56 AM

rrinker

 Ah, a simpler time:  Painting Instructions: Wash car with carbon tet. Dry thoroughly. 

                                --Randy 

Well at least they eliminated the "lick fingers thoroughly" instruction.

Carbon tetrachloride, my goodness.  It was a common household "spot remover" when I was a kid.  And my first summer job I had to clean a small printing press using carbon tet.  I also had to clean off the gold printing on a bunch of 3 ring binders for a corporate project that failed so the binders could be reused  I knew it was "hazardous" stuff but when my rubber gloves kept disintigrating I figured out it was more than just hazardous.

Carbon tet was also a popular track cleaner.  After all you'd want your track near that shredded ASBESTOS mountain to be clean, wouldn't you?  And then there was the MR article which in some manner used raw mercury in small drill holes in the tabletop as part of a turntable indexing system.  I'll get right to that project as soon as I am done cutting up this sheet of lead for freight car weights.  There was lead in the paint then too.  And there was a time when silver solder with high cadmium levels was said to be just the best for locomotive construction.

And nearly every model railroader photographed in MR or RMC was calmly smoking a pipe while working with this stuff.

We won't even mention the articles on do-it-yourself 115 volt wiring ...

Dave "6 toes" Nelson 

 

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Franconia, NH
  • 3,130 posts
Posted by dstarr on Monday, May 18, 2020 6:10 PM

trainmaster1017

I would but I do not know how to do that. I use an elderly(like me) desktop-Win10. I need education...I do have pictures I can send somewhere with e mail!!

 

If cs.trains was a real website you could just  upload your photos, they would display, and life would be good.  Unfortunately cs.trains is not a real website and it does not allow upload of photos.  You have to find another website somewhere that will accept your photos and then take a pointer (a URL in internet jargon) from the hosting web site and stick it into your post on CS.trains.  We all used to put our photos on Photobucket which was free.  Couple of years ago Photobucket got greedy and demanded we pay a user fee.  If you didn't pay, they broke the URL to your photos and all the posts you ever made lost all their pictures. PITA.  I switched to Trainboard (www.trainboard.com) but any photo posting site will do.  So, what to do?  Upload your photos to your photo host site, what ever it may be.  Click on the photo to obtain the URL of your photo. Click Control C to save it to the clipboard.  Go back to your cs.trains post and click on Insert /Edit Image (icon with mountain scenery). Click control V to paste the URL from the clip board to the Inset/Edit Image icon.  Good luck.   

  • Member since
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  • From: Shenandoah Valley
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Posted by BigDaddy on Monday, May 18, 2020 6:33 PM

trainmaster1017
I would but I do not know how to do that. I use an elderly(like me) desktop-Win10. I need education...I do have pictures I can send somewhere with e mail!!

There is a sticky post on how to do it.  Most people, who have problems, read the instructions and decide they can do it differently.

I sent you a pm, I will post your pics. 

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
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  • From: East Peoria, IL
  • 12 posts
Posted by trainmaster1017 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 8:49 PM

FYI!!..I have an obs and coach  in original boxes...wood bottoms and all in IC which I plan to build with new kitbashing materials to go with my Walthers IC S/L cars.

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: East Peoria, IL
  • 12 posts
Posted by trainmaster1017 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 8:55 PM

Big Daddy...OK...so (Showing my lack of internet thrills)..what is"sticky post" and pm?? private e mail??? If you do old fashioned e mail send me a message that has your e address. All my pictures of trains and models are in Picasa which I can e send anywhere for which I have an e address.My e address is posted in an earlier post above in this blog...that is what this is...right???

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: East Peoria, IL
  • 12 posts
Posted by trainmaster1017 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 9:07 PM

Kevin..I am ancient ...what is a sticky post??? and how do I get to it from my desktop ancient computer. My pictures are all stored on an external HD. I also asked "Big Daddy".

trainmaster1017
  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 12:57 AM

trainmaster1017

Kevin..I am ancient ...what is a sticky post??? and how do I get to it from my desktop ancient computer.

You are posting this in the general discussion forum.  Postings to this forum are in chronological order, either from last to first, or first to last.  I believe that most folks view the postings from last to first, because who wants to wade through postings from years ago to view what was posted earlier today.

In any event, when you open this forum you’ll see three posts (currently) that don’t change position.  Two of them have a little lock icon meaning that they are sort of permanent.  The other one has a lock icon and a “sticky” icon.  Generally the sticky thing means it is a posting that the forum owners want to maintain its position at the head of the pack for a specific period of time before it starts to travel into antiquity.  In the case of the sticky plus lock thing, that posting was put there as a temporary thing, but is locked to prevent it from moving until the issue it addresses goes away.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 1:18 AM

To see PMs, or private messages, to the upper right of your posting you should see a box that say “welcome, your name”.  It doesn’t actually say “your name”, it says your name.  Anyway, below that there is a selection that says “your messages”.  Click that and it should open to messages someone has sent you.  Big Daddy’s message should appear there.

  • Member since
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  • From: Maryland
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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Saturday, May 23, 2020 6:46 AM

I still have a big sheet of lead roof flashing for making car weights.............

Just don't do it while eating your lunch...........

Sheldon

    

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