# Thrift store score



## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

I just picked all this up at a thrift store today for a 20. some need a little bit of work. My question is, what’s the best way to clean them? I think they might have decals


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## 65steam (Dec 18, 2019)

Wow, great find! I'm partial to GN, NP, and CBQ ...


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

I am not sure I would clean them - oil the bearings on the wheels, yes, but clean them. Real rolling stock is dirty. That Merchants Dispatch car is nicely weathered, BTW.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Dibs on the red Oscar Mayer car🤪👍

I used a red sable blusher brush from the make up aisle at Walmart to dust them off, then I spot clean them with a damp Q-tip. I touch up stains, working them into the weathering. Then I finish it off with clear flat.

The trucks I would clean the bearings and axle points, then puff a little powdered graphite into each bearing. Then, using the felt buffer wheel on my Dremel, I spin the wheel to work them in. I try to avoid oil if at all possible because it is a great dirt attractor.

That is quite a find, and should be fairly easy to make them all track worthy. The spring trucks on most of them are especially impressive.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Those ultra soft blusher brushes are awesome for dusting anything delicate like the tops of electric lokomotives around the pans, structures with a lot of roof detail, the roofs of passenger wagons, etc.

Every model railroader should have one of these for cleaning and dusting.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Thanks everyone for the advice, I didn’t see any manufacturers names on any, do you think they are old?


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

What's amazing to me is they all have knuckle couplers !! Usually stuff that's tossed out are cheap old stuff with toyish horn-hook couplers and overly deep wheel flanges...This stuff looks A1 !
The yellow and white refers look to be needing couplers, but, hey, so what...
Nothing needs cleaning.. Just get any gunk off the wheel treads by digging your thumbnail into one wheel and turning opposite wheel..
$20 ? Wow ! Amazing find for a thrift store !


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Xrperry said:


> Thanks everyone for the advice, I didn’t see any manufacturers names on any, do you think they are old?


Looks like old Roundhouse, Athearn and Globe among others. Many of those came with sprung trucks to separate them from toy stock. I'd say they were at least 50+ years old.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Looks like fairly common old rolling stock…..note that the lettering and logos on those cars are pad printed on, not decals….


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

If you have an airbrush, just spray them with air to get any obvious dust off.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Old_Hobo said:


> Looks like fairly common old rolling stock…..note that the lettering and logos on those cars are pad printed on, not decals….


After putting on a good pair of glasses you are right old hobo


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Lemonhawk said:


> If you have an airbrush, just spray them with air to get any obvious dust off.


I did have one but it is lost in a box somewhere


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

2nd dibs on that Oscar Mayer car! Lol🤪 
Speaking of soft brushes for general dust removal, and/or excess weathering chalk removal. A standard shaving cream brush works well also...


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

kilowatt62 said:


> 2nd dibs on that Oscar Mayer car! Lol🤪
> Speaking of soft brushes for general dust removal, and/or excess weathering chalk removal. A standard shaving cream brush works well also...
> View attachment 565254


Yeah...but a blusher brush just has that woman's touch...

...just sayin'.🤪


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

kilowatt62 said:


> 2nd dibs on that Oscar Mayer car! Lol🤪
> Speaking of soft brushes for general dust removal, and/or excess weathering chalk removal. A standard shaving cream brush works well also...
> View attachment 565254


That’s a good idea, thank you


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Does anyone know what the southern pacific, 5th one down on left, is used for? I thought a log hauler.


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

That's a bulkhead flatcar, the bulkheads being the vertical ends of the car. They carried logs, steel pipes, concrete culverts and many other loads.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

shaygetz said:


> Yeah...but a blusher brush just has that woman's touch...
> 
> ...just sayin'.🤪


I can see the ladies looking at you in the makeup aisle.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Gramps said:


> That's a bulkhead flatcar, the bulkheads being the vertical ends of the car. They carried logs, steel pipes, concrete culverts and many other loads.


Thank you, greatly appreciated


Gramps said:


> That's a bulkhead flatcar, the bulkheads being the vertical ends of the car. They carried logs, steel pipes, concrete culverts and many other loads.


just for the heck of it I took an old shotgun cleaning rod that was soaked thru with oil, cut it with wire cutters just to see what it looked like


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

That would be a prototypical load. You could do a search for "bulkhead flatcar" and get some photos. They carried almost anything.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Gramps said:


> That would be a prototypical load. You could do a search for "bulkhead flatcar" and get some photos. They carried almost anything.


Thanks gramps, I’ll do that


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## Mixed Freight (Aug 31, 2019)

Xrperry said:


> Thanks everyone for the advice, I didn’t see any manufacturers names on any, do you think they are old?


To me, about 8 or 9 of the items look like Athearn Blue Box items, circa 1970's? or 1980's?, give or take . Someone probably added sprung trucks to these, as they would originally have come with plastic trucks. The Northern Pacific Wood-sided Caboose, maybe a Model Die Casting/Roundhouse product from approximately the same era???

The CNW 50' box car and the Colorado and Southern/Burlington Route reefer look to be kits, circa 1950's? The Merchants Despatch reefer and the SP bulkhead flat car look to be ready-to-roll stock (or pretty close to it), circa 1950's or 1960's? I dunno, who we talking here? Varney? Ulrich? Walthers? Other?

All just my best guesses, of course. Your guesses may vary.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Mixed Freight said:


> To me, about 8 or 9 of the items look like Athearn Blue Box items, circa 1970's? or 1980's?, give or take . Someone probably added sprung trucks to these, as they would originally have come with plastic trucks. The Northern Pacific Wood-sided Caboose, maybe a Model Die Casting/Roundhouse product from approximately the same era???
> 
> The CNW 50' box car and the Colorado and Southern/Burlington Route reefer look to be kits, circa 1950's? The Merchants Despatch reefer and the SP bulkhead flat car look to be ready-to-roll stock (or pretty close to it), circa 1950's or 1960's? I dunno, who we talking here? Varney? Ulrich? Walthers? Other?
> 
> All just my best guesses, of course. Your guesses may vary.





Mixed Freight said:


> To me, about 8 or 9 of the items look like Athearn Blue Box items, circa 1970's? or 1980's?, give or take . Someone probably added sprung trucks to these, as they would originally have come with plastic trucks. The Northern Pacific Wood-sided Caboose, maybe a Model Die Casting/Roundhouse product from approximately the same era???
> 
> The CNW 50' box car and the Colorado and Southern/Burlington Route reefer look to be kits, circa 1950's? The Merchants Despatch reefer and the SP bulkhead flat car look to be ready-to-roll stock (or pretty close to it), circa 1950's or 1960's? I dunno, who we talking here? Varney? Ulrich? Walthers? Other?
> 
> All just my best guesses, of course. Your guesses may vary.


sounds Good to me, I haven’t a clue. Thanks for information


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Xrperry said:


> Thank you, greatly appreciated
> 
> just for the heck of it I took an old shotgun cleaning rod that was soaked thru with oil, cut it with wire cutters just to see what it looked like
> View attachment 565311


Xrperry;

You got yourself a great deal.

A very common load for a bulkhead flatcar would be pulpwood. Smaller logs (use real twigs) stacked sideways. The bulkheads helped restrain the many small logs from coming off the ends of the car when it was moved. They would also typically be held down with cables, or chains, run from end to end of the car and tightened down on the top of the load. Your shotgun rod logs are a little big, and would be awkward to load between the bulkheads. I won't say this was never done in real life, since just about everything imaginable has been! However, such large logs would more likely be loaded onto your other flatcar, the one without the bulkhead ends.
Another common load on bulkhead flatcars is finished lumber stacks wrapped in plastic. There are commercial models of such wrapped lumber loads available. As gramps said, such a car might be used to haul lots of other types of loads too.

I disagree with the suggestion to oil the axle ends on your cars. Oil attracts dust, and the combination of oil and dust forms goop that eventually makes it harder for the wheels to roll, rather than easier. If the wheels are taken out, by lightly prying out the truck frames the wheels are between, then they and also the truck frames and even the cars, if you want, can be cleaned with plain water, and a single drop of dish soap, like Palmolive, Dawn, or Joy. Do not use alcohol, or ammonia-based household spray cleaners, such as Fantastic, or 409. Any of those can damage the lettering & graphics of the cars.

If the wheels and axles on your cars are plastic, and you want them to roll better, you might consider replacing the "wheelsets" (two wheels on the same axle) with metal wheels available from Fox Valley models, Intermountain, Kaydee, & other brands. If you prefer to keep the original plastic wheels, the part that rides directly on the rails will probably be covered in goop, and need to be cleaned. The easiest way would be to put them in an ultrasonic cleaner, if you have one. Failing that, soak them in soapy water, or alcohol, overnight, and then clean them with an old toothbrush. If they are really caked with lots of crud, you can leave them in the trucks and rotate them by hand while holding an x-acto knife against the opposite wheel and letting the knife blade scrape the crud off.

While its seldom necessary to lubricate model wheelsets at all, If you do, use a dry lubricant. Kadee sells "Grease em" which is fine ground graphite lube. Labele makes a white dry lube powder. Either of these would work. There is also a special tool called a "truck tuner" available from www.micromark.com that reams out the "journal" hole where the end of the axle fits into the truck frame.

Traction Fan 🙂


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

traction fan said:


> Xrperry;
> 
> You got yourself a great deal.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the info, I need all the advice I can get


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

I just picked these up at the same thrift store , they were there when I bought the others but passed on them. Went back today and they came home with me. Another 12.00 . O well lol.


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

Pulpwood is another common load


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

I will gather some twigs and give it a shot. Thanks for the info


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

The second load of cars look good also. A deal.


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## Xrperry (Aug 10, 2021)

Thanks mopac


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