I’m pretty sure depleted Plutonium is what they made some military bullets, like 20mm for the Gatling gun on fighter aircraft, out of, but I do not know if it has/had a steel casing or whatever. Because it is considerably denser than lead, it gives superior ballistic performance. Conventional armour piercing is lead with a steel jacket, covered with a copper plating to engage the rifling. I have a .50 caliber in my toolbox; best center punch I’ve ever had.
VGN, you should double check.
You can go to Wal-Mart and buy the depleted uranium weight kit. It is usually used for fishing, but it can be modified to your specs. It only costs around $40 for around 15 pounds of it. Good luck! (NOT)
You could always use GOLD, It’s about the same wieght as lead without being toxic, low melting point and good resale value. Then change the name of of your RR to the Gold Line RR. 
No go get the Uranium from Wally World… ITS GRREAT!
Oh yea I forgot you have to have a prescription b/c ppl use it for meth and nukes!
Before we deployed to Iraq, we were given a briefing concerning DU and its effects. I’d stick with something a bit less confrontational!
Rick
There ain’t no such thing as “depleted Plutonium!” Pu239 emits one alpha particle and becomes U235, the fissionable isotope of Uranium. (This is not an improvement!)
Depleted Uranium is U238, the non-reactive Uranium usotope - non-reactive meaning that it can’t be used to make a fission bomb. Chemically it is VERY reactive, and deadly to living things. Among other things it is used to make armor-busting projectiles for the GAU-8, the nasty nose cannon of the A-10 Warthog - one more good reason to avoid trespassing on military gunnery ranges.
ANYTHING having to do with Uranium, depleted or otherwise, is definitely, “Do not try this at home!”
Chuck
Nose cannon? … Its more like a fuselage built around a gun! [8D]
Plutonium !?? Oh well. I guess my penchant for getting the most bang for the buck got the best of me.
NO!
Victor
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
back in the days of light weight engines I would increase weight by adding solder to a shell. I wuld melt the solder in a clean tin can on low heat so I wouldn’t melt the can seams that had a V bent in the edge, hold the shell inverted in water to disipate the heat and slowly pour it in in layers. the only shell I ever distorted was the top half of a Rivarossi big boy that is now sway backed. I never had a problem with diesel or GG1 shells doing this. I wouldn’t reccomend breathing too many of the vapors but I doubt they are very harmful in small quantities. You can add a lot of weight this way. My Bachman GS4’s will pull like a Bowser now that the skyline casing was filled with metal.
this is great lol
why not imbed a large guage iron wire under the roadbed and then use those fancy “rare earth magnets” in the loco to really suck em down on the tracks. Think of the better electrical contact and the traction you could get. One could use the magnets to keep cars from rolling down hill etc.[D]
It’s probably available at ROENTGEN’S -R-US, along with used nuclear weapons from the USSR, old reactors, undepleted uranium, weapons of all sorts and all kind of wonderful stuff for the modern model railroader.
Dave you are correct! Jim Fitzgerald did an article on N-Trak and its benefits, way back in the late 1970’s, to Early 1980’s.
The loco in question was a non-prototype diesel made using 2 Con-cor U-50 models. I saw the loco in question at the 1988 NMRA convention in B’ham. Had several nice lunches that week with him, and I’m not an N-scaler. It really was a good puller. Jim was made an honorary SER member for his services as the N-trak co-ordinator for the convention.
His use of DU was a joke. According to Jim, it was really weighted with lead.[:D][(-D]
Does this forum topic fall into the category of “…what was he thinking?”
But if you aren’t into Lionel, who want’s a glow-in-the-dark box car???
If you are into alchemy, you could turn lead weights into gold. One way to finance your hobby.[swg]
I have to say that the person responsible for starting this post is a total idiot. I’d like to live one day in his shoes and see how it actually feels to be mentally challanged! And yes, you can buy depleted Uranium at any local fast food store with a side of fries, not you ing dip!!!
sorry about my cursing, I just get heated over idiots being idiots!