Help needed

Hello all.....Need a little help; I received 2 HO scale cars that I would like to know who made them as I cannot find any markings on them. Both look like wood side box cars, one has "Dentyne" and is red, black and white and the other is :"Krey's" and is orange, black and gray.

I also need a good source for athearn parts other than Athearn, any recommendations?

Finally, for now, I have a model power crossing signal, I must have something wrong as the way it is wired, only the right hand side of each lights up, throw the switch and only the left side of each will light. How can I make both sides of each signal light up at same time? do they blink? Are these any good or should I get other brand?

Got a lot of Ho railroad equipment from my late father and decided that instead of leaving it in the boxes I should use it...Thanks for your help and I am sure you will be hearing from me again as I am clearing out a section of the basement for my new layout and will have lots of questions....Mike

Reply to
Mike Kasiorek
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Are the cars wood, metal or plastic. Plastic cars tend to be easy to identify as they are done in the millions and have readily identifyable characteristics with regard to the coupler pockets and so forth. MDC and Train Miniture are two companies that have done a fair bit of private label cars. Bevbel usually uses Athearn cars and paints and decals them for other roads. Wood cars have been around for a very long time so almost any name could be the maker. Metal cars were only done by a few companies, one of which was Athearn many years ago when they got started but those were steel cars that were modeled.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Reply to
Bob May

Train Miniature of Illinois was producing a 40' wood side reefer ca. 1980 lettered for "Krey's Ham & Bacon" in gray and orange (kit No. 2454). I believe this was based on an actual car, although Train Miniature produced many billboard reefers that had no prototypes. I suspect a "Dentyne" car is of the latter ilk. Geezer

Reply to
Geezer

Mike Kasiorek spake thus:

What, if anything, does it say on the bottom of the cars? Usually plastic models have the mfrs. name molded into the bottom. (May be hard to see.)

Sounds like it uses an external switching unit to make it flash, but that it works fine. If you want to use it, you can probably find some easy-to-build circuits with a little scrounging around on the Web.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

I'm kind of supprised that nobody yet has tried to give a strait answer to that question. I've gotten a lot of funny answers including such as there are no taxis there and other such silly things. The truth of the matter is that the area is set in their minds as the place to do their nesting and has been for a long time. Way back when, the world was a lot warmer than it is now and the nesting grounds were a beach where they could just walk a few feet and do their nesting. Over the eons of time, the world got colder and the ice finally started staying around all year long and that is the way that it is now. Basically what I am pointing to is that the world used to be a lot warmer than it is now and things went along just fine. The fearmongers actually have it all wrong about the warming of the climate being all kinds of disasters happening. The world has been warmer than it is is now (even a thousand years ago, the world was warmer than it is now!!) and will again achieve temps much higher in the future even without any meddling by humans. The real truth of the matter is that plants that support us grow better in warmer weather and we'll be enjoying a much better life when the earth gets warmer. The higher CO2 also helps plants grow better and faster than lower levels of CO2. Finally, the latest "indicator" of global warming causing problems is the hurricanes that happen. We've had worse recorded hurricane seasons in the past despite the cooler climate back then and such seasons will happen again. The whole thing is that the fearmongers are always trying to latch onto anything that attempts to prove that they are right and forget that there may be other reasons for certain things happening. I look forward to the higher temps! The earth will produce and support more people and everything will be better!

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Reply to
Bob May

Skwawk! Pollyanna wanna cracker?

Yeah, you'll get your reward in heaven, too. Your faith is touching.

Touching the limits of credulity . . .

Reply to
Steve Caple

Skwawk! Pollyanna wanna cracker?<

Well yes and no. Mother nature has a way of taking care of herself. If a warmer climate is coming I'm sure it's a way to get rid of the human infection!

Reply to
Jon Miller

Jon Miller spake thus:

Good to see I'm not the only misanthrope around here.

His (Bob May's) idea is pretty meshuggah, though. Can you say "flat earth"?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Bob May posted:

Actually I think Bob makes a good point here. We might not agree on the details, but the fossil record clearly shows a global tropical environment at one time with not only heavy, but extra healthy vegetation not to mention an abundance of animal life during the same period. In addition, from what I understand, air bubbles trapped in ancient fossil amber have test registered both higher oxygen and air pressure levels (which is it itself a healthier atmosphere than what we have today). It's been suggested that such a hyperbaric environment is at least partly the explanation of gigantism seen in so many types of life forms in the record from aquatic life, to plants, reptiles, mammals, birds and insects. Sloths used to be so big that a grown man could walk under one and not even have to duck and I've seen fossils of dragonflies with nearly a 3' wingspan and a centipede over 6' long just as examples.

The question would be what caused such an environment and if as the doomdayers suggest, even a little bit of warmth causes such global destruction, why was there such an abundance of flourishing life across the spectrum of all types of species in a global tropical environment? There was that environmentalist movie a few years back saying a temperature increase would throw us into an ice age practically overnight yet the fossil record indicates such a high temperature period existed, for what your average scientists would say, millions of years. At least we actually have evidence to support one view.

The Old Farmers Almanac once published a book titled Acts of God which documented some of the worst storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and such America has ever had. It's really no worse now than it's ever been. Even New Orleans wouldn't have been as bad if the levies hadn't broke, and it's been known for decades that they would eventually fail if a hurricane hit at the right spot on the map.

Would higher temps be good? Without the tropical factor, it would probably benefit some areas and cook others. It's nearly impossible to say for sure but I'd guess nature will take care of itself whatever happens.

And now I realize I'm way off topic. Sorry, but it was an interesting subject. And I still think it would be hard to fly with those little wings. :)

~Brad H.

Reply to
flyingdragon64

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote: [...]

Yes, in the northern latitudes. In the southern latitudes, closer to the equator, things weren't nearly as lush.

The problem with understanding weather and climate (and ecology, for that matter) is that it's a chaotic process: a few small changes in a few apparently insignificant factors can cause enormous changes elsewhere in the system. Worse, these changes are essentially unpredictable (though they are explicable by hindsight.)

The general trend of temperature is up, and it's happening faster than predicted a mere 10 or 15 years ago. One effect: seasonal cooling of the mid-Atlantic isn't as great as it used to be. So there's more energy available in its surface waters for the hurricanes that form there. That may be the reason why the hurricanes are worse. Sure, there have been really nasty hurricanes in the past - but the average hurricane strength has increased over the past 10 years or so. Of course, we won't know whether global warming really has been driving the worsening of hurricanes until we have a run or ten or fifteen years of really bad hurricanes. By then it will be too late, though.

Reply to
Wolf Kirchmeir

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