A munitions train cut on a siding. Shouldn't there be guards nearby?



[Not for unsupervised children]

Isn't that one of those high speed Japanese trains?

Rick

Nice. Its the 2nd Amendment Express!
Is that a .50 cal?

Sean

That's .38Spl in the NKP gondola; .50BMG on the flat; and .22LR ready to be dumped from the Midget Mines hopper.

Traction tires are called for to haul it up a grade.

"2nd Amendment Express" -- I like that! In Massachusetts, you need at least a Firearms IDentification card to pull that consist out of a siding.

I love it!!

Need an NRA boxcar to go with it.

Wonder if a toy train wreck can create enough impact to set off one of those rim fire 22's.

Yet another good reason NOT to live in Mass.
I like it here in NH. The guns laws are very Constitutional.
I would however, load those with some dunnage to keep accidents from happening.

GREAT.........I love that.

All you need now is a matchbook and a cigarette.

The ORM-D Express

I love it. You can never have too ammo.

Great thread and photo of munitions train. You gave me a new idea on where to put my extra ammo. You need it around here. The only thing the police are good for are giving you a no seatbelt ticket. The safest place to be in Oregon are doughnut shops.

Tex

Rambo would be proud

An NRA boxcar is a great idea. BTW, I've used .38 caliber lead bullets for weighting freight cars for years, but not like that!

Hello All,
I have a question, if one of the bullets would fall across the rails
(running 18 volts)
Would the bullet go off?

A little off-topic, but I figure some of you guys would know: What is the shelf-life of gunpowder? I have some shotgun shells that are ten years old. Are they still good?

quote:

Originally posted by Chessie:
A little off-topic, but I figure some of you guys would know: What is the shelf-life of gunpowder? I have some shotgun shells that are ten years old. Are they still good?

If they were kept dry, yes.

I have 30-06 ammo headstamped 1953 that works fine. I have not 'chronographed' it to determine the speed, but since I don't have the data from the original load, I couldn't compare it.

I also have Danish 30-06 headstamped late 1970's and 1980's and it is the most accurate military round I have fired in an M1 Garand; good enough for matches. Same for .308 Portuguese and Australian from the 80's. Have fired 1000's of these and have never had a failure of any kind.

I have used pistol and rifle primers that were 38 years old and shot just fine.

Alex

Great freight train. The Second Amendment lives.

Many thanks,

Billy C

As long as the powder never gets moisture, it should last for a very very long time. I shoot rounds that are from WW2, and have no issues.

To answer the other question regarding a bullet touching the track. It won't go off. It would require a lot of voltage to get it to do so, or about the same as to kill some one.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeAA9ZY:
An NRA boxcar is a great idea.

As a life member, I'll second that!



Andy

MIDGET Mines??????? Ohhhhhh, that sounds politically incorrect. LOL You should rename it Little People Mines. Rick

quote:

Originally posted by Chessie:
A little off-topic, but I figure some of you guys would know: What is the shelf-life of gunpowder? I have some shotgun shells that are ten years old. Are they still good?

A while back, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of civil war lead bullets. I tried to glass-bead the top layer of discoloration off, but as soon as I did it sparked a quick flame. 146 year old gun powder still worked

quote:

I have a question, if one of the bullets would fall across the rails
(running 18 volts) Would the bullet go off?

I expect that transformer's circuit breaker would cut power long before the cartridge would get hot enough to "cook off". The initical spark would have no effect.

By the way, when a round cooks-off outside of a barrel, the brass tears and moves much farther and faster than the more massive bullet (lead part).

"You could put your eye out" or get cut. Nasty, but not like getting shot.

Some idiots have actually tossed .22 cartridges into a campfire to get them to cook-off. Dumb, but you're probably safe at 25 ft and with eye-protection.

But back to the O-gauge trains. That idea looked better than I'd guessed. It looks like a really "useful" ( ) train load.

Now, I'm thinking that for with kids around, it would be great to load up the dump car with used brass. Nice and shiney, and much easier to pick-up than the fake coal that misses the tray.

quote:

bunch of civil war lead bullets. I tried to glass-bead the top layer of discoloration off, but as soon as I did it sparked a quick flame. 146 year old gun powder still worked

Huh?

Almost all Civil War soldiers used minie-balls, black powder and percussion caps with muzzle loading rifles.

Minie-balls were somewhat conical with a hollow base. Old lead does get some sort of oxidized coating, but there'd be no gunpowder around.

Wouldn't actual munitions be carried sitting upright?

(goes off to watch Private Snafu cartoons)

---PCJ

quote:

Originally posted by Rail Reading:

quote:

bunch of civil war lead bullets. I tried to glass-bead the top layer of discoloration off, but as soon as I did it sparked a quick flame. 146 year old gun powder still worked

Huh?

Almost all Civil War soldiers used minie-balls, black powder and percussion caps with muzzle loading rifles.

Minie-balls were somewhat conical with a hollow base. Old lead does get some sort of oxidized coating, but there'd be no gunpowder around.

It probably was the coating that caught fire. Bullets of that era were often coated in beeswax and/or animal fat to help in ramming it down the barrel. The powder was kept separated from the bullets inside the paper cartridges.

Andy

quote:

Originally posted by Rail Reading:

quote:

bunch of civil war lead bullets. I tried to glass-bead the top layer of discoloration off, but as soon as I did it sparked a quick flame. 146 year old gun powder still worked

Huh?

Almost all Civil War soldiers used minie-balls, black powder and percussion caps with muzzle loading rifles.

Minie-balls were somewhat conical with a hollow base. Old lead does get some sort of oxidized coating, but there'd be no gunpowder around.

Yes, I meant minie-ball, not bullet. If it was fired with gun-powder, then there must have been some residue left. However, Andy might be right about the coating. I'll post a picture of them in a sec.

The minie-ball (not named for its size but for the French man who designed it) was a revolution in armament. It gave the projectile an accuracy totally unmatched by the round ball shot. it made frontal assaults across open fields immediately obsolete, but commanders on both sides mindlessly sent thousands upon thousands of soldiers to their deaths by maintaining obsolete tactics.

quote:

Originally posted by J.P.:
Hello All,
I have a question, if one of the bullets would fall across the rails
(running 18 volts)
Would the bullet go off?

Anybody watch the Mythbusters on Discovery?
They tested the myth that a driver replaced an auto fuse with a 22 round and wound up shooting himself when it went off under the dash.

They got one to actually fire under these conditions, but an auto battery puts out a lot more amps than a ZW and causes a lot more heating.

Jim

I saw that episode. The bullets that fired were nowhere near fatal though. It comes down to basic physics. If a round goes off in open air, I forget who said it but the cartridge would do more damage than the bullet. When the bullet is in the barrel of a gun, the pressure of the explosive gas that results from the powder igniting and then being channeled through such an enclosed space is what forces the bullet out at lethal velocity.

Right, Nick. That's what Newton says!

One question I always asked my physics classes was what would happen if you could manage to fire a 100 Kg cannonball from a 10 Kg cannon. The cannon would recoil at a 10x greater velocity than the cannon ball would leave the barrel.

Jim

I purchase bulk 45lc ammo and have it shipped. One supplier, who no longer is in business, from Ohio used to package 50 rounds loose in the box. There were 10 boxes or 500 rounds per carton.
On one occassion one of the rounds discharged during shipment, damaging several other rounds.
There was also some small damage to the box.

I saved one of the damaged bullets to see if would fire, but the bulge would not let it chanmber.

So that's where they got the name "bullet train". Rick

Would our the Congress and Senate (Democrats, Republicans etc.) let someone manufacture them?