Still Workin' on the Railroad!

This week we continue our look at cool model railroading stuff that I have laying about! I bought a tub full of HO railroad stuff about five years ago, and this was in it! 

Yes, it's another Tyco item! The "Operating Floodlight Car!" Let's open her up, shall we?

And there she is! In mint condition too! In fact, she looks so good that I always just assumed that she worked. In all these years, I'd never tested her! So, for this post, I grabbed a section of track and a 9 volt battery and gave it a whirl....

Whattayaknow? She works! 

Now, for completeness, the back of the box...

All sorts of neat-o stuff!

Then, I got to thinking... I've never actually seen a train car like this out in the wild. Do railroads really use these? Have they ever? A quick question to my favorite AI search engine provided this answer...

"Floodlight cars, as depicted in model railroading, are largely a creation of toy train and model railroad companies like Lionel, Bachmann, and TYCO, designed to add visual appeal and functionality to model layouts. These cars, often equipped with swiveling or rotating lights, are marketed in various scales (e.g., HO, O, S) and branded with railroad names like Union Pacific, Amtrak, or Pennsylvania Railroad.However, there’s little evidence that dedicated "floodlight cars" were widely used by real railroads in the way they’re portrayed in model form. Some sources suggest railroads employed specialized equipment, such as cranes with attached floodlights for wreck recovery or maintenance work, as seen in a salvaged Norfolk Southern RR wreck car crane with articulated lamps. Additionally, road-rail vehicles or maintenance-of-way equipment might include lighting for nighttime operations, but these are not standalone "floodlight cars" as modeled.The concept seems to stem more from the creative liberties of model manufacturers than from widespread historical or operational use in actual railroading."

Well, there you have it, I was right. The "floodlight car" is more toy than prototype. I think Lionel must have produced the first one and other companies followed in the later years  still, it's a pretty cool item, and I'm sure it looks cool going around the track.

That's it for this week! Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Workin' on the Railroad!

 One of the coolest things about a train layout is when you have pieces that actually work like the prototype they model. Or at least kind of, sort of, work like the prototype...

Lionel was big into these types of accessories, but when HO took the model train world by storm in the '50s, the accessories were scaled down as well. 

Our little item this week is from the '70s. Tyco was the king of entry grade HO model trains back then, and they offered several accessories to spice up a young modeler's layout. I picked this one up off off Facebook Marketplace a few years ago. The Tyco Freight Unloading Boxcar!

Here is the box, in all it's brown border glory! Tyco collectors love the brown border box era. As you see, it states that you can unload the crates by remote control!

Looking inside, we have a Burlington boxcar (which really can be hooked up to your train and run on your layout) and some little brown plastic crates. Ten of them, to be exact. This example has all of its crates, which I'm told is rare. I'm sure those tiny things got sucked up in vacuum cleaners and chewed on by playful puppies all the time!

Upon opening up the box above the train car, we find the rest of the set. This includes the track and siding where the crates are tossed. And, of course, the remote control button!

Here is what it looks like set up. The button fires a servo which flicks the little plastic boxes out of the train car and into the corral area. It's pretty violent! I hope grandma's good china isn't in one!

Here's a shot of the little men inside the car. 

How do those boxes get into the boxcar? Why, though a hatch in the roof, of course!

On the back of the box we have a list of other train accessories with a little extra going on with them. I actually have a couple...

And there you have it! My example of this set is pretty much mint, so I'm fairly sure it wasn't played with much. And actually, even as cool as this idea seems at first, I don't think someone is going to sit there are run it over and over and over...

By the way, there is apparently another version of this kit that features a U.S. Mail car. 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Rocketing on Land!

 The year was 1975. Estes model rocket company had bought out another hobby rocket company called Vashon a couple of years earlier. Vashon's rockets differed from Estes' in that they used reusable motors that were filled with Freon for propulsion. Estes used black powder single use motors. 

For a while, Estes marketed both types of rockets, dubbing Vashon's kits as "Cold Power." During this time they realized that the Cold Power technology made an idea that many kids had been toying with actually safe; rocket cars!

I bought one at a local hobby shop about that time. I built it (which was fairly easy) and went to the Park and Ride lot across ftom our apartment. I nailed the guideline down, filled the aluminum motor with Freon and let her rip! It really moved! And after I picked it up, I noticed the motor was all frosted up. Cold Power indeed!

Flash forward 50 years. My Land Rocket is long gone. Every now and then I search for one on eBay, but there are almost none. You see, they didn't sell them for long (only one year) and they didn't sell that many (hence, only one year). Then I see one pop up on Facebook. For five bucks!!! I quickly messages the seller and after a few hours I owned a new old stock, never used, Estes Screamin' Eagle Land Rocket just like the one I had as a kid! Here it is!

The box is probably the weakest part of the purchase, but it still displays well!

Upon opening it, you find the very lightweight and completely unused parts...

This was the downfall of the whole Cold Power line- Freon. Once it was outlawed by the EPA, there was no more fuel for these beasts. I happen to now own a 50 year old full can. (Don't tell anyone!)

The "motor" is pretty much an aluminum tube with a nozzle. It actually does provide a good amount of thrust when venting the Freon...

Here we have bits that I'm surprised survived. The nail was to anchor the guideline, which is on the spool. The foam disks are the tires (these are usually rotted away, but other than a dented one, mine are in good shape). The clipped disk protects your hand when launching.

The body of the car is very lightweight vacuformed plastic. It has to be trimmed when building, which mine hasn't been.

The chassis and wheels are heavier plastic.

The parachute is standard Estes parachute plastic, printed with a drag chute on it. You also got decals!

And here we have all the paper work...and there's a lot of it! I'll let you look at your leisure...

Finally, we have the sides of the box, just for completeness...

So there you have it! I won't be building it, since a kit in this condition can go for a hundred bucks, on up. I think this one survived in someone's garage for 50 years. Now it will have a prized position on my shelf! 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive!

 Now that I have the Bee Gees stuck in your head, let me introduce our item for today! From 1978, I have Milton Bradley's "Stay Alive" game! I picked this one up at a thrift store that loved to use those horrible grease pencils to mark their prices. Still, it's not a bad example. Here you go...

Apparently I spent 1.91 on this gem. Kind of an odd number, but it probably made some sort of sense to the store. I see by the copy that this is the "Ultimate Survival Game" which means those guys on that TV show are a bunch of dummies. Why eat bugs when you can just play this? Suckers!

And opening it up, we see the board. This game could be played without taking it out of the box, if you wished, but that's not as fun in my opinion. Anyway, that's a lot of plastic! 

Here are the instructions. The game is very simple. You just place your marbles on the board and then take turns moving the slides until only one marbe remains. There is a little thought that can go into it, since you can easily figure out where the holes are on the slides, but since you're taking turns it's hard to set yourself up. 

Here is the board, freed of the box. It just looks better that way, I think 

This is a game that I never had as a kid, but was fairly popular. It's fun, but it's not my favorite. I guess never having played it as a kid, I don't have that nostalgic factor. 

Interestingly enough, I remember the commercial far better than the game. In fact, I quoted the last kid's line before he said it when I was watching it on You Tube, which is a little scary.

You wanna see the commercial? Here you go!

Commercial!

So there you have it! Have a great week and try to Stay Alive!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Closer to the Breaking Point

 This week we have a very simple game from 1976. Ideal's Breaking Point! Let's take a look, shall we?

The box illustration pretty much sums up the idea. You put the little balls on top of the big balls and try not to dump the little balls into the tray area. This girl seems to not quite grasp the concept, as she's apparently excited to have just lost. 

And here we have the actual game. One thing that I found interesting (because I'm easily amused) is that the colors on all of the parts are reversed from the box illustration. Apparently the illustration photo was taken in an alternate reality. I'm surprised the girl doesn't have a beard like "Mirror Spock." (Deep dive for nerds. You're welcome)

And here are the (pretty crumpled up) instructions!

The first three pages are all game description and assembly instructions! Yay!

Finally, on the last page, we get to how to play. It's very simple. In fact, when I was setting up the game to photograph it, my wife said, "It's like Jenga!" I hadn't thought about it that way, but she's right. I do like how you use the little stick to place the balls. 

So, is it fun? Yeah, it is. It's not my favorate game, but it's got some playability to it. I'll keep it sitting up on the ol' game shelves, I guess. 

I really don't remember where this one came from. I didn't have it as a kid, and I can't remember buying it. I sort of remember it being thrown in with my eBay Sub Search purchase (with that blockbuster game, Recall!) but I'm not sure.

Anyway, like I said, I'll hang onto it.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Chasing the Getaway (cars)!

 As you may know, a few weeks ago I purchased a Getaway Chase Game game from a guy on Facebook Marketplace. He made sure I knew that the cars were shot, but it was such a good deal, I didn't care. When I got it home, I found out just how bad those cars were... Real bad. 

They were completely rusted out, which is weird, because the rest of the game (and box) were in near mint condition. I had thought that maybe I could fix them, but when I saw them, my doubts got huge. 

Here they are...

They are rusted so badly that the wheels won't turn! Totally shot. If I was going to rebuild them, it would have to be from the ground up. So, I cracked my knuckles, rolled up my sleeves...and went to eBay.

I figured I had so little invested in the game that I could spend a little more for some easier to fix cars and still be way ahead. Soon I found a listing with two very clean looking cars that the seller said weren't running. At fifteen bucks, I couldn't resist. I snatched them up!

I got them about a week later, and boy are they purdy! Here they are next to the old cars... New car on the left, old car on the right. The new cars look smaller because they aren't on their chassis, but they're actually the same size.

And here are the guts. I don't have to tell you which are which...

Now the new cars were clean, but they were missing a few parts (spare tire and side pipes on the gangster car) and a couple of pieces were broken (headlight on the gangster car, windows on the cop car) So I decided to combine the best out of both sets and whip out the super glue to make a really nice set. Here they are!

By the way, the old cars were so rusted that I didn't even see they have an on/off switch! It's there, right in front of the guide pin. Straight (as in this picture) is "on." Sideways is "off."

And now it was time to see if I could get them running. I wasn't exactly holding my breath, since these little motors hadn't spun in about 60 years. Still, you never know until you try, so I dug in. Here's a picture for reference...

The first thing I did was to take a 9 volt battery and a couple of pieces of wire to see if I could get any life at all out of them. The contacts are on the side of the motor where the metal clip is. One motor did nothing. The other jumped slightly and then whirred to life! So I knew I could save one!

I then pulled out my secret weapon: contact cleaner. This stuff is designed to clean electronics and I use it on my stereo and bass amplifiers (and basses, come to think of it) all the time. I sprayed each chassis and whiped them down. Then I sprayed each motor through the little vents. I pulled out my 9 volt and tried again.

Both motors worked! I won the old toy lottery! I went to the store and bought to C Cells (not from Sally at the seashore), and, after more difficulty than there should have been, got them in each car. A little more cleaning, and futzing with the contact points and battery position, and both cars were officially running!

Now I needed to see if they would run on the track. I set it up, and switched both cars "on." They both sprang to life! I set them on the track.... and they bairly moved. Not daunted (ok, maybe a little daunted) I gave them a little push with my finger. The result?

Success!!! They zoomed around the track!

Then I decided to try a switch!

Now I could see how fun this game really is! It's pretty cool to watch them almost touch and then switch them away from each other! Cool stuff!

So there you have it! I now have a completely working DX Getaway Chase Game! I'm a happy camper!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!