# The 771 Stockyard and Car



## T-Man

In a rough condition, it is time to start. 










Undoing all the tabs.



















The vibration unit.









The hot rail and the fence.


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## T-Man

*Turn on the Oven.. Cleaner.*



















I used a 2 by 4 for a bench to work the square walls and the fence. I gave great support.










The roof.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man,

It's neat to see one of these on the operating table. I think I had mentioned a while back that one dealer had a dozen or more of these things for sale at the Wilmington show.

First time for me seeing the innard working. Cool stuff. Quite the lucky gizmo to have fallen into your Mr. Fix It hands!

Do you have the cows? Portlines sells them, but they were rather expensive, if I recall.

TJ


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## Reckers

I couldn't ask for better timing on you posting this one, Bob! I spent part of this morning dragging cars and locomotives out of boxes and putting them on shelves; finally found the new roof for the stockyard. Now that the roof is on it, I have to figure out how to wire the thing up using a three-wire system that comes with it. After that, I have to turn three partial cars (some the old hook couplers, one the knuckle) into a single car that works. By the way, I just won an ebay backup stockyard; they didn't say if it worked or not. I thought it was cheap enough to buy for parts. If you find you need something (roof is missing) on yours, I may have it in a week or two.


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## Big Ed

Reckers said:


> I couldn't ask for better timing on you posting this one, Bob! I spent part of this morning dragging cars and locomotives out of boxes and putting them on shelves; finally found the new roof for the stockyard. Now that the roof is on it, I have to figure out how to wire the thing up using a three-wire system that comes with it. After that, I have to turn three partial cars (some the old hook couplers, one the knuckle) into a single car that works. By the way, I just won an ebay backup stockyard; they didn't say if it worked or not. I thought it was cheap enough to buy for parts. If you find you need something (roof is missing) on yours, I may have it in a week or two.


The roof is there, he is holding it up with his fingers.


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## Reckers

I meant the roof was missing on the one I just bought on Ebay, for parts. I just hooked mine up to the transformer and, faith and begorra, it works! No cows yet, but it vibrates!


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## Big Ed

I saw a whole box of cows just the other day on e bay. They were listed as original not used new. There was 22 I think it was, and with shipping went for around $20 bucks.

I was cruising e bay looking at S items.

How many came with it do you know?


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## Reckers

For some reason, I think it was 4 black and 4 brown---not sure, though. I'll start watching for them. My second stockyard (the parts one) has one cow with it. I'm considering getting some lil plastic hogs and putting Velcro on their trotters to see if I can expand my livestock business. In Kentucky, we're pretty fond of our country hams.


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## T-Man

I have cows , the felts are shot on most of them. The roof was bad so it was painted a few weeks back. So I have it complete. Soon I will be done with the stripping and I have two old windows too!


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## tjcruiser

Reck ... your stockyard appears to be in really nice shape (excepting that little rust spot front/center). Roof, building, fence all look crisp.

T ... nice cows. Get 'em on the payroll, and have them start earning their keep!

TJ


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## Reckers

It's in very good shape, T. I still need a herd, I have one fallen window to reinstall and need to find two more. After that, I have to open a chop-shop to break three partial cars down into a single car that works. Fortunately, the cars aren't powered: they're essentially a chassis and trucks with a tunnel inside to guide the cattle in one door and out the other. I've yet to determine what the lever on the truck does. T-Man might be able to shed some light on that part. Great looking car and herd, Bob!


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## T-Man

Len, 

It's the contact arm for the outside rail. You need a third rail to run it. That's the only lever I see.

Part link


The arm rests on the blue dot.


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## Big Ed

This guy sells a replacement felt for the cows on e bay.

Boring video, but something might be helpful to you S men on tuning the cows pads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmZDX9rafmA


Edit, I found these I don't know if they are his,

http://cgi.ebay.com/American-Flyer-...850202?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item4cf958a31a


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## T-Man

*The barn*

Nice Find ED, The e bay guy has windows for the signal tower too. I found the krlhauler on ebay he has no listings for parts. 

Mask, and paint. I used magnetic card pieces for the door. Maybe I should sell them in a kit?










The result.










With roof. The last parts cleaned.










The car tested and works fine.


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## tjcruiser

Hi T-Man,

Nice work on the repaint / doors. Clever use of the magnetic cards!

I just noticed that your original doors had only a yellow outline design, whereas Reck's original doors had a full-yellow design. Interesting difference. Pics Post #1 vs. Post #6. It also looks like Reck's barn might have some press-relief shape in way of the doors?

Just curious,

TJ


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## T-Man

*Barn Raising.*

My doors are to far toward the center. Not bad though. I had trouble with the two tone on the fence. My blue tape kept lifting paint. I made the base brwon and kept the fence yellow. Sfter seeing Reckers fence I thought it was too much yellow. SOOO here it is!!!

The after and before.










Here you see the two tone and the yellow fence to the right and above.










Another after and before.


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## T-Man

*Turf War for the greener grass.*


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## gunrunnerjohn

Well, you have one cow that's certainly going crazy there!


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## Reckers

I can sure tell which one is the dominant bull in that herd!


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## tjcruiser

He's just pissed because Wall Street had such a sh*tty past week or so ...


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## Reckers

Kinda looks like my last wife....


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## T-Man

big ed said:


> This guy sells a replacement felt for the cows on e bay.
> 
> 
> 
> Edit, I found these I don't know if they are his,
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/American-Flyer-...850202?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item4cf958a31a


I ordered the pads, now it's just wait and see. The jumping bull got de-padded.


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## Reckers

Looking forward to watching it, Bob! I had sort of an odd development on mine. The original stockyard I bought about 6 months ago was lacking a roof (I bought one) and the operating button(s). I just ordered a battered one. 

I also won an ebay auction for a pretty rusted, paint-chipped and roofless one with no roof (or button) for parts; it also had what should be my sole cow. When I opened the box, I found it was not just cow-less: it had a roof and was in near-new condition with some paint scrapes on the track area and two windows missing. I recall another stockyard was being auctioned at the time that was in better condition, but cow-less. I'm guessing they were switched in the mailing process and someone else got my t-bones. Seemed like close enough to a fair trade that it wasn't worth me objecting and the seller didn't, either. I guess I'll eventually have two stockyards and move cows from one side of the layout to the other.


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## tjcruiser

Reckers said:


> I guess I'll eventually have two stockyards and move cows from one side of the layout to the other.


Reck,

Bulls in one; heifers in the other. And DON'T let us catch them rompin' around together under the moonlight!  Then again, if they do, you might have more cows than you know what to do with!

TJ


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## Reckers

Good point, Teej! I'll have to tell Rowdy Yates to round up the herd, load the steers into the boxcar and ship 'em off to T-Man's stockyard....or to Mac's meat-packing plant!


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## T-Man

I received the ebay package yesterday. Complete with direction and windows. With super glue gel I got the pads on. They were separated brown from black but I thought the forward point was still hard to see. I tested the pads to determine the direction.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man,

So the "grain" on the felt is directional, making the vibrator "walk" the cows in a forward direction? Similar to Recker's "guy on the roof" car, I guess.

Clever,

TJ


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## gunrunnerjohn

Interesting, Lionel uses the little rubber "feet", I didn't realize these cows were different. I still have a couple of the stockyards and cars in the closet waiting for me to get them running.


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## Reckers

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Interesting, Lionel uses the little rubber "feet", I didn't realize these cows were different. I still have a couple of the stockyards and cars in the closet waiting for me to get them running.


I was surprised to find out the cars have the vibrating system built into them, too: I had previously thought they just sat there and carried the vibration from the stockyard to do their business. When T-man mentioned the third rail thing, I went back and looked again. Got one of the cars working, last night, but still need to buy some livestock!


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## gunrunnerjohn

The Lionel cars also have a vibrator in them, I suspect that part of the design is very similar to the AF ones.


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## T-Man

The Lionel version has a vibrating plate and it is also in the car. The Flyer has vibrating "sandpaper". I find it more efficient. The car also has paper. 
The cows only need to go forward in the Lionel version, the Flyer cows are adjusted to a left or right curve. Brown goes left, counter clockwise, the black go right clocwise. The whole idea is that they orbit in the pens until the gate is open. The pads have to be installed correctly. Brushing helps to adjust the pads as needed. I only had two make it up the ramp on the first test.


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## gunrunnerjohn

I don't argue that the AF version probably works better, the Lionel one is very balky and difficult to get working properly.


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## T-Man

I know.


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## Reckers

American Flyer cows mooooooove better!


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## Reckers

How do it work????

Ebay just happens to have a cattle car for sale this morning, Item number: 170683230706. Or should I say, most of one:


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## tjcruiser

That's some clever engineering / thinking from way back then. Until reading this thread, I had no idea that the cows mooooved through the car, too. Very cool.


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## T-Man

Notice the two rivets to each side of the vibrator. The right supports it to the frame, the other moves the paper. You can just barely see the black paper.


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## gunrunnerjohn

The cows move through the Lionel one too, the problem with the Lionel is the lousy design of the platform. It seems that the AF one was designed by a better engineer.


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## Reckers

gunrunnerjohn said:


> The cows move through the Lionel one too, the problem with the Lionel is the lousy design of the platform. It seems that the AF one was designed by a better engineer.


I'm just gonna give the Lionel guys a break and nod my head instead of elaborating....


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## gunrunnerjohn

That's mighty nice of you.


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## Reckers

*nods* The man's a saint.


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