Refurbishing Junk is an Enjoyable Pastime

[bn7023]

What did he make? (2)


6705


I think it would have been easier to lengthen the flatcar than shorten the boxcar.

[lvrr325]

No idea but it reminds me of a Varney kit that put a tender body on a flat car.

[bn7023]

What did he make? (3)


6853


What is that thing sticking out on the roof? Is it a self-propelled car?

[lvrr325]

That is an Athearn RPO with the custom grille from an AMT '32 Ford Sedan kit stuck on the end and what looks like part of some model car sidepipes stuck on the top. I would say yes they had a drive in it at one time but there is no real prototype for it.

That grille is a hard piece to find, most of the '32 Ford kits they made got re-released dozens of times but the sedan only a couple times. That grille and some fenders in the kit are similar to how The Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe album cover car was customized. For whatever reason AMT chose to include those parts with the sedan instead of a coupe. The grille insert (chrome part) is meant to be '58 Edsel.

[bn7023]

Unfortunately, I don't understand what you say about automobiles at all. 20 years ago, I admired tail fins and chrome plating.


7068

[lvrr325]

The kit that nose comes from was first released in 1967 as a double kit with a Willys coupe - you can see the nose piece in the box art. It's not a stock, original car but highly customized in a 1960s style.

www.scalemates.com/kits/amt-2332-t-263-200-1940-willys-1932-ford--1364046

This model shows one re-release in 1973 and none since.


Here's a built-up example:

www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/127618-amt-32-ford-sedan-from-double-kit/


This is the car that was on The Beach Boys "Little Deuce Coupe" album cover. Note it's similar but not identical:

www.streetmachine.com.au/features/little-deuce-coupe-beach-boys

AMT tooled up just about every body style for the 1932 Ford - roadster, coupe, touring, Victoria and this tudor sedan.

Here's an example of the kit on eBay:

www.ebay.com/itm/126429996485

[bn7023]

amazing. Thank you lvrr325
It turns out that this comes at a certain cost. He tried to create new value by combining two things. What he didn't want many people to understand was his innocent attitude.

[mvlandsw]

Apr 30, 2024 10:42:04 GMT -8 bn7023 said:

What did he make? (1)


6543

Do you have any ideas for breathing life into this? Is there no use it than removing as parts?

It might be an auxiliary water tank for a steam engine. The wire might provide power for the backup light.

[bn7023]

mvlandsw, these handrails were well made. They might be a diversion from some product.


What did he make? (4)


7382


What is the meaning of these partially white?

[wagnersteve]

May 7, 2024, starting about 10:20 a.m., EDT

Gentlemen, if my memory is correct, when I walked around the Delaware & Hudson's facilities at Whitehall, NY, in the summer of 1962 and took notes on what I saw there, among the D&H's M of W equipment was a tender body on a flatcar. The main flaw in the Varney model somewhat resembling was the rounded stake pockets on the flatcar body.

RE the white-painted parts on the billboard Blatz Old Heidelberg reefer; almost surely those were painted by a previous owner of the car who wanted t hem that way. One of my earliest adult friends who was an HO model railroader back in the 1960's liked to paint the ladders and grab irons cast onto the plastic bodies of boxcar red Athearn and other models of steel freight cars representing cars built from the late 1930s up until then black -- not something real railroads were likely to do in that period. That model reefer is was almost surely Athearn, or possibly a clone of an Athearn car by another manufacturer; the "dead" give-away is the part of the roof casting that fits into the car's body above the reefer doors. I try to paint those on similar models to match the car sides, as on nearly every full-sized car that doesn't have the entire top of the car sides painted a different color from the rest of the sides. The modle's owner has also changed how the trucks (bogies, in British English) are attached to the cars and installed Kadee magnetic couplers.

Athearn's earliest mostly high-impact styrene HO 40' reefers had "operating" doors with hinges that were seriously oversized. The firm's earliest plastic models also had rubber inserts in their trucks' sideframes that were supposed to represent the springs. Those were, for me, hard both to install and to remove.

[bn7023]

Below is an early product of Athearn reefer.


7426


I have seen trucks with rubber blocks only in some instructions.

[lvrr325]

Athearn initially produced the reefer with operating doors. However the hinges were delicate, oversized, and difficult to assemble leading to the doors being cast into the body as a fairly early revision. The tab in the roof center was a remnant of that. That I know of no one cloned these cars.

Rubber blocks turn up once in a while, but often the rubber dry rots with age; I think it was a way to reduce cost and make assembly easier. Athearn replaced the multi-piece trucks with plastic one piece trucks in the mid-60s.

[bn7023]

What did he make? (5)

7643

The handrails seem to be the most valuable.

[lvrr325]

Looks like it's just broken under the cab.

[bn7023]

Wagnersteve's comment reminded me of one model. I owned a Tyco stock car that had the walkways and ladders painted black with amazing precision. 8003









See the Tony Cook's website for the original stock model.