# Early 350 Royal Blue saved



## longle (Mar 7, 2015)

As promised in my 282 thread here are some pics of the restoration I did in 2013 on an early 350 Royal Blue loco. I had been hunting for an early version (real wire handrails) for a while but you never know when fate will jump in and surprise you. I also restore antique tube radios and one day while hunting through a bunch of boxes of radio parts at a flea market this is what I found when I opened one of the boxes to see what was inside.










It was rough but complete so home she came.

Tender before. Yep, the coupler is on the wrong end:









Tender after:









The chassis on the poor man's test support:









The finished unit:


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

That's a beauty!!! What did you use for the lettering and graphics?


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## longle (Mar 7, 2015)

I bought a set of rubber stamps and I say "rubber" with tongue in cheek. I'm not happy with the results. Instead of rubber the stamps were made from a semi-clear vinyl or silicone type product. Almost impossible to work with as the "rubber" doesn't actually hold any of the paint, it just sits on top and when you apply it the paint spreads. I stamped the tender no less than 30 times and finally gave up figuring it was the best I was going to get with what I had. When I restore military radios I'm used to real stamps that stamp crisply so this was very frustrating. I may be tempted to re-do it someday if I can find a better stamp.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice job Larry..Those rubber stamps you speak of are junk!!! I bought a large lot of them from a distributor for my restorations, and like you said, after 30 tries I was pulling my hair out!!! I finally gave up, gathered all of them together, and sold them on ebay for the next un-lucky guy.There's enough issues in life that I didn't need these darn things adding to it,lol!! I now use dry rub transfers and love them. Off subject, do you have any knobs for drive-in speaker units?? I'm restoring a couple of them, and don't want to pay a crazy price for them... I'm cheap!!!


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## longle (Mar 7, 2015)

If they are the push-on type this guy has them pretty reasonable. About 3/4 way down the page, $4.49 each. I don't have anything like that.

http://www.driveinmfg.com/drive-in_theatre_parts:


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

flyernut said:


> I now use dry rub transfers and love them.


Me, too! Crisp and tidy, every time.


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## Hans (Oct 24, 2012)

Are these rubber stamps the same as they sell at portlines? http://www.portlines.com/stamps.htm


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Hans said:


> Are these rubber stamps the same as they sell at portlines? http://www.portlines.com/stamps.htm


Yup, these are the same...


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

It has been mentioned by Doug at Port Lines that whatever stamps remain in inventory will be it. The normal supplier has either gone out of business or is unwilling to produce more as Doug cannot get in touch with them. If you want the stamps from Port Lines, now is the time to get them. However, with all the belly-aching I've seen about them, I'll stick with dry-transfer...thank you.


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