This Hudson Highlands ice reefer stands awaiting pick-up by an out-bound local freight. Its first destination is the railroad's interchange point with its parent company, the Hudson River & Western, at Brewster, NY. From there, it will start its long odyssey to delivery points across the country.



CNJ999

John,

I can't wait for my turn to have URTX 27215 visit my layout!

I will send the routing list out to participants in the next day or so.

I'll be sending this covered hopper out on the road. It is a Bowser kit.

This is my interchange car. It's a Branchline Yardmaster kit with Intermountain wheels and #58 Kadee couplers.



Bill

Great looking cars guys!

I guess I need to pick one of mine. I am hoping to get one of TOFC done in time.

Bruce when do the cars go out first?

My hometown railcar prepares to interchange. I hope you will like its vintage.

Tom,

The first notice will be in a week or so.

Allen, Are you trying to get us to loose track of the cars! [:-propeller] :up:

That car is going right to my Ballentine Beer Distributer Warehouse.

Bill, . .That's a fine looking car to start the season off with. [^] I'll have to look for some companions to go with it, and something appropriate to pull them with. Have you decided on what you are shipping cargo-wise? I usually try to have it arrive at an appropriate destination. :up:

PS -Looks like the Ballentine Beer Distributer Warehouse will have a long wait for the Napa Wine Skin; sorry about that!

Allen,

I have all sorts of products. I have soft drink products, Ballentine Beer, paper products, metal aircraft parts, farm supplies, seeds, petroleum products in 50 gal. barrels, Remington Typewriters, Colt Firearms, finished rayon, metal castings, finished wood products, bricks, brass products, and several others. The car was sitting in front of Todd Publishing. They make periodicals.

I am having my ops session March 1st. So I can move the car from a destination with a commodity of your choice to the interchange point during that session.

Let me know.

Bill S.

Wow! . .That's quite a diversity of products. Since I have no idea which layout I will be going to, why don't you go ahead and make a choice of product. The Pacific Northwest does have a lot of paper and wood products, but we also have high-tech and veggies too!

I'm afraid you guys are going to be the recipients of my first attempts at weathering freight cars. I've got a couple of candidates that I just sprayed with dullcote. If that's not the correct first step then I've already messed up. [:I]

We've had some questions about the best way to package the cars for shipping.

In the years that we have been doing this, I have tried several techniques, and I have seen several more on the cars that I've received.

Here are my thoughts.

If you have one of the boxes that come with RTR cars, the kind that have good, tight fitting inserts, and your car fits in it, then use it. Here is an example of one, and there are several other types as well.



With this type of box, just place it in a larger box, surrounded with styrofoam pellets, and you are good to go.

If you don't have a box like this, I suggest that you just get a piece of bubble wrap (the kind with large bubbles), and wrap your car in it.

Cut the piece of bubble wrap wide enough so that it will extend about 1.5" beyond the couplers on both ends, and long enough to wrap around the car at least 1.5 times.

Lay the car on the bubble wrap.



Roll the wrap around the car, and fasten with either two elastic bands or some Scotch tape. (Do not try to wrap the ends of the bubble wrap around the ends of the car -- just let the bubble wrap extend beyond the car by that 1.5 inches. It should be stiff enough to protect the couplers if you have used the larger bubble wrap and made at least the 1.5 wraps - two might be better.)



Finally, insert the car into a larger box, surrounded by the styrofoam pellets. (You would still add more pellets on top of the car.)



That's it from my experience. Any current or past participants who want to jump in here, feel free to do so.

What I have found out doesn't work is to try to securely cushion a car inside a Athearn "shake the box" type box. It is better to just use the bubble wrap.

Also, if your car has fragile detail parts on it (cut levers, plastic mu hoses, etc) they are likely to break no matter how you package it. Remember, these are going to get packaged up 9 more times before they get back home.

When you open the packages you receive, take note on how they were packaged, and try to duplicate that (unless it was bad packaging) when you ship it on. Also, I save the box that it came in, and re-use it. Most of those outer boxes will make it at least half-way thru the cycle.

I have always sent my packages by the US postal service. I send it first class (priority mail), not parcel post. I have not insured the cars or asked for delivery confirmation. We should let our fellow participants know, either via e-mail, or here on the forum, when the cars depart or arrive

Well, those are my thoughts. Feel free to jump in with yours.

Is that "vintage" the car or the contents?

Heavy snow in the area has prevented me from photographing my 40 ft. XM box. As soon as the weather abates, I'll get a photo out.

Pete

in Michigan