sfcouple Not neccesarily a bad idea but I've never seen one since: back in the 1950s my brother and I received a gift from Santa Clause of an American Flyer layout on a 4x8 piece of plywood which had an automatic cattle loader. The loader consisted of a vibrating piece of a fuzzy material in the stock yard that would allow the 'vibrated' cattle to move up a ramp and into a cattle car. it sort of worked! But boy oh boy what I wouldn't give to have that American Flyer locomotive and cars with me today! Neither my brother nor I have any idea what happened to them? Wayne
Not neccesarily a bad idea but I've never seen one since: back in the 1950s my brother and I received a gift from Santa Clause of an American Flyer layout on a 4x8 piece of plywood which had an automatic cattle loader. The loader consisted of a vibrating piece of a fuzzy material in the stock yard that would allow the 'vibrated' cattle to move up a ramp and into a cattle car. it sort of worked!
But boy oh boy what I wouldn't give to have that American Flyer locomotive and cars with me today! Neither my brother nor I have any idea what happened to them?
Wayne
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
Paul,Just the thought of coupler mounted X2F couplers makes me chuckle.. All to sadly that's the way most younger modelers think of those couplers.
Younger modelers meaning those that wasn't around when the X2F was body mounted and worked quite well when properly mounted.
As far as backing up there are those among us that can't back a cut of KD coupler equipped cars without dumping them on the ground.
I suspect I could back a cut of cars with truck mounted couplers around those 15" curves since its all in the speed.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Ah the X2F coupler.
A string of cars with truck mounted X2F's on 15" curves. Guaranteed to derail on every backup.
Those were the days
Enjoy Paul
The final nail in the X2F coffin was when the KD clones hit the market (not that I like them) but then the X2F was finally relegated to memory for most of us. The X2F is dead, long live the X2F!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
True, brass track has its problems, especially with oxidation, but it still beats the steel track some manufacturer put out. Steel track is a waste of resources, and belongs in the dustbin of bad ideas along with plastic Kadee coupler knock-offs. The other products (horn-hook couplers, track with fiber ties) would never be seen on my layout these days, but I understand that was what was available back then.
Southeast......Southwest
Ship IT on the FRISCO!
Chief cook & bottle-washer, SLSF Arthur Sub, Paris, TX, circa 1975-1978
Not bloody likely...............
JetrockMaybe it should be filed under the "whimsical industry name" category, but it seemed like model railroads of the 1960s (as seen in MR) were often likely to have an "unobtainium" mine somewhere. This mythical mineral must have been completely mined out, as the modern unobtainium industry seems to have vanished among contemporary model railroaders. Or is there demand for an April Fools' edition of "The Model Railroader's Guide to Industries Along The Tracks: Unobtaininum Mining"?
Lionel railscope, poor performance and black and white images.
Jim
eaglescout
I don't think brass rail was a fad or a bad idea as many of us still utilize it today. It never warranted as bad a rap as it still gets from many out there. It may not work as well for DCC but works fine for DC users.
csxns riogrande5761 to out fit more than a few cars Pelle Soeborg.
riogrande5761 to out fit more than a few cars
Pelle Soeborg.
Ah, did Pelle do the magnetic brake hose treatment to his entire fleet?
It will be interesting to see, but in terms of practicality, I wonder if the magnetic brake hoses will ever grow beyond a novelty stage. The fact that you have to buy and install them individually on potentially many many cars makes me think only a few individuals will go to the trouble. But I could be wrong. They are cool looking.
Russell
The GSB sd 40-2 was another disappointment. Nice body, motor and details. Terrible trucks and production delays doomed a great idea.
I'm not going to re-read through 5 pages but did anyone mention those magnetic air hoses that WOWed everyone a year or two ago? I was recently reminded of them in another forum and every since the initial wow factor, I totally forgot about them. Bad idea or no, they looked cool in a close up video but seriously, how many peope had the time or money to out fit more than a few cars with them? Probably it would be rare to find a layout with all the freight cars outfitted and operational.
After the initial video's of the magnetic operational air hoses came out, I totally forgot about them. I but a number of peope bought a few to play with but expect these may have fallen into the category of this thread after a year or so.
Hi all
Well I am surprised
No one has mentioned the most useless and incompetent piece of model railroad design that just should never have been allowed to continue.
As it covers up bad first design and when failed you can never get the right spare.
And that is traction tyres.
They get the lemon of a life time award from me because all it means to me is that the loco so fitted is a, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!! erhm sorry about the language, but I hate them it means cheap skate poor design in the first place.
I just will not knowingly purchase a loco so fitted and then if discovered straight away before use will then be returned for refund.
I just won't pay good money for a #### product I can't afford to.
I am surprised many Toy Train products are listed they are surely out of context with a Model Railroad thread
I had some similar items as a child and loved them.
Strange or funny names for Railroads and lineside are as old as the hobby it's self.
Love them or hate them I think they are here to stay.
regards John
mersenne6 Jetrock - It's my understanding that the biggest deposits of unobtainium can be found on Pandora
Jetrock - It's my understanding that the biggest deposits of unobtainium can be found on Pandora
I used brass track for the first 15-20 years . . . it was the only track available. When I built a layout in out first house, in the late 70s, I used NS . . . because it looked better.
I see all the comments about the X2F coupler. True, it was ugly. And also true, many manufacturer's versions were lousy at best. But . . . as many have pointed out, it was better than a lot that were available before, and it became sort of a standard until modellers made the Kadee the defacto standard.
I bought my first HO models (in 1957) from a fellow who decided to get out of model railroading (he later got back in, and became a very accomplished modeller). All the equipment had dummy couplers . . . they sure looked good, but they still were dummies. I soon changed everything to X2F, and that's what I used until the mid-70s or so. They, unlike some other things people have cited, served a purpose.
BRAKIE eaglescout don't think brass rail was a fad or a bad idea as many of us still utilize it today. It never warranted as bad a rap as it still gets from many out there. It may not work as well for DCC but works fine for DC users. Where the bad rap came from was from the pages of MR and RMC in the form of infomercial articles. Brass track worked back then and it still works today.
eaglescout don't think brass rail was a fad or a bad idea as many of us still utilize it today. It never warranted as bad a rap as it still gets from many out there. It may not work as well for DCC but works fine for DC users.
Where the bad rap came from was from the pages of MR and RMC in the form of infomercial articles.
Brass track worked back then and it still works today.
I agree that brass track works fine. My first layouts used brass track both sectional and fiber tie flex track from Atlas.
I don't personally like the color as well as NS, but operationally it's fine.
Enjoy
Paul
Southgate - yes - power straight from the wall socket to the rails was very common in pre WWI Europe. Marklin and Bing both offered numerous sets that ran off of 220v. I knew a collector many years ago whose entire train collection was made up of these trains. The insulation on the center rail was something to see and he was very careful not to run them too fast - in case of a derailment.
BRAKIE'tender water'
aka: bilge water and panther pee
maxmanCoffee clutch
That term been use for years in some areas of the country just like coffee fix,coffee crutche,cup of mud,cup of joe,java and my favorite 'eye opener' plus a host of other names.
Another my Grandfather use was 'tender water' if the coffee was too weak for his taste and that was any coffee that wasn't strong enough to hold a spoon up.
duplicate due to lag glitch
maxman Just plain wrong: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/coffee.html Sorry, just trying to provide some feedback. Wouldn't want Big Dog to copy your post and have the incorrect word inside his copy cup. Coffee clutch is just a terrible phrase that should have died off with brass track. Anyway, it's just a relatively minor cosmetic change.
Just plain wrong: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/coffee.html
Sorry, just trying to provide some feedback.
Wouldn't want Big Dog to copy your post and have the incorrect word inside his copy cup.
Coffee clutch is just a terrible phrase that should have died off with brass track.
Anyway, it's just a relatively minor cosmetic change.
I don't know how I'm going to break it to all those people who have been saying it "wrong" for all these years. Well, I guess they unwittingly "coined" a new term - best let Wiki and Urban Dictionary know, heh heh.
Anyway, don't shoot the messenger, like thousands of others, I'm just passing on what I've heard as a popular saying for many years.
riogrande5761 riogrande5761 coffee clutch not to shift gears, but it is coffee klatch Thats a new one on me, maybe it depends on what part of the country you live in? For me it's northern California, Texas, Indiana, New York and Virginia. I've always heard "Clutch". You know the old saying, YMMV.
riogrande5761 coffee clutch not to shift gears, but it is coffee klatch
riogrande5761 coffee clutch
not to shift gears, but it is coffee klatch
Thats a new one on me, maybe it depends on what part of the country you live in? For me it's northern California, Texas, Indiana, New York and Virginia. I've always heard "Clutch". You know the old saying, YMMV.