recycle old parts

[jbsmith]

Today i swapped out number of couplers for Kadee #5s and many plastic wheels for metal ones.
Before i knew i had a small pile of old plastic wheels and couplers.
I was not about to just toss them away,they just might come in handy someday,but what to do with them?
As Red Green likes to say "Imagination costs nothing"
That is when i turned around and spotted my empty 40foot gondolas.
So I grabbed one,experimented and voila! the wheels fit perfectly inside the gondola.
I had enough wheels to fill two 40ft gons,,just stagger them a bit and it is a perfect fit.
Now the gons have loads.
Did the same with the old plastic couplers, just threw them into a 50ft gondola.
These loads can be fresh from the machine shop that made them, or overhauled them, or
on the way to be overhauled, or to the scrap yard or something like that.


Go ahead and post your own old parts recycle ideas!

[jonathan]

Deja Vu.

I paint my plastic wheels brown before they go in my gondolas, just to give 'em some character.

The old X2f couplers went into the trash, but the plastic knuckle couplers all go into an Altoids Tin--so do all the extra gear box pieces that I don't use.  I still have a box of old locos and rolling stock.  Whenever I try to get an old piece running, I start with the plastic couplers.  If I can get the old piece roadworthy, then it gets the metal wheels and kadees.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Joe323]

I'm using some of my old Life Like stock the practice painting and weathering techniques.  Got this idea from when I toured the Boeing Plant in Seattle and I saw they kept the body of an old 727 near the paint shop to practice on.