i recently bought some freight cars on ebay (over 100) and when i was checking them for weight , couplings etc i found that some of them were weighted with ( AMERICAN ) one cent coins … pennies how did american coins get inside box cars in AUSTRALIA… has anyone else ever " FOUND " something inside anything they have bought… peter
Maybe they got it the money from a coin collector or from a service member. Kevin
Hi!
While I typically use the “store bought” weights to get my cars up to standard, I have used US pennies over the years - affixing them with Walthers Goo. I have also sold about 100 cars on Ebay the last few years, but none have gone to Australia.
Assuming the cars came from Australia, my guess is that the Aussie builders decided to get rid of their “foreign coins” and use them for weights. After all, a lot of Americans (especially servicemen/women) have visited your wonderful Country over the years - and surely left some coins there.
ENJOY !!!
Mobilman44
It has been fairly common practice to use pennies for weight, I have seen it suggested many times. The coins can cost less than going out and purchasing weight.
They’re mine, and I can proove it. They have all got engravings of Lincoln on them…[:-^]
I needed some washers awhile back. Went to the hardware store to get em. They wanted 7 cents apeice for em. I said ,“to heck with that”, and went home and drilled holes in nickels.
I’ve used pennies and nickels for weight many times. I have one car that’s worth around 100 Pesos. Doesn’t take many Mexican coins to do that.
A older model railroader who lived by Himself passed away a few years back and He had been using a box car as a bank…his fellow model railroaders came in after He passed and took all His stuff to a model railroad meet and sold it…Some one ended up with a box car with cash in it…Cox 47
I WISH I could find some money somewhere!
Be careful what you wish for. You might end up with one of my boxcars that’s floating around out there with several East German Schiller 20 mark coins in it. They’re worth about $5 to the right collector.
So that’s what my wife meant when I ask her about where all my pocket change was going and she said “It’s probably in Australia by this time!”
As an aside those were really some tragic fires you folks recently experienced. My sympathies to the families of those who lost their lives.
I’m sorry, my fault, everybody return your pennies to Stebby…
regarding claiming ownership of the coins … please send airline ticket and i will be glad to present them to you… regarding the fires 181 confirmed dead i think these are the ones found in cars the total death toll will be closer to 300 because around 7000 homes were lost and bodies have not been identified yet… australia is a strange place ( with even stranger people ) up north in queensland we are having floods an area larger than texas is under water this time last year my home town was under water to a depth of 5 foot in places i was very lucky the water was 2 inches below my doorway
That has got to be the weirdest story I have ever heard. From this I can only guess where those cars came from.
Maybe most of you know this: all tire dealers carry strip weights exactly like those the hobby shops sell, but are usually cheaper. They also may have used strips which they’ll give away or sell for the same price as the turn-in salvage value.
Hal
Well I quess you are going to have to go and get them.
I once went to one of the car junk yards that let you go get your own part for an emergency brake assembly for my '88 Grand Am. When I pulled the center console to get to the brake lever I found a ten and twenty dollar bill plus some change. The part cost me three dollars so I made twenty seven dollars for 30 minutes work. I weight cars with plaster. Cheap and forms itself to whatever shape the car is. It is great for box cars, covered hoppers and particularly tank cars.
Unless they have the Lincoln monument on the back. Then the penny’s are mine [;)]. German coins in a box car? I think I need to go shopping. I have a small collection of foreign coins although they’re all from Malaysia. I just need to find them. And the paper money.
Do you mean the lead stick on weights they use when someone guys a set of fancy wheels and doesn’t want the ugly clip on lead weights to the front? The wheels on my car are so fancy you can’t put clip on weights on the front [^].
jjbmish, what’s on the other side? Yer wrong… Um, it’s mine… [:D]
Well then you get to go and retrieve them. Have a nice trip. Watch out for the Croc’s! LOL