MODELING Weekend Photo Fun, April 21, 2017

r_i_straw Apr 21, 2017

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well, they let me post here. Through the years, mine has tended toward some auburn color. We'd likely let anyone post, with or without hair. Or even if theirs was purple, with pink and yellow polka dots..... Ha ha ha. :D
     
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  2. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    Absolutely allowed. As a matter of fact I am married to a redhead, the same one for 54.25 years. Your talent is welcome anywhere IMHO.

    Carl
     
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  3. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    What's 8-track, mister?
     
  4. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

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    Article 15, paragraph 1 says yes.:p

    I couldn't conceive of anyone not wanting to see that lovely flaming red cascade.:)
     
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  5. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

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    Not knowing your age, I wouldn't venture saying it's way before your time.

    Big tape cartridge, crappy sound, but good enough when blaring "Kung Fu Fighting" or "YMCA" going 60 mph down the highway in a convertible.

    More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_tape
     
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  6. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    I was being slightly facetious. I actually had an 8 track in my 79 TransAm. I remember we used to see them - seems like literally - spread along the highway for miles. I had the little splicer kit from Radio Shack to fix 'em too. It was really an elegant solution - it was just that they came apart in the middle sometimes that caused their demise, I think.

    .
     
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  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    My first was a Motorola, back in 1969. Oh how I recall that fun when a player ate the tape. But the cassette players which followed did that, too.
     
  8. Candy_Streeter

    Candy_Streeter TrainBoard Member

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    I had a friend who restored classic cars. He had a 1965 T-Bird with an 8 track player in it. But he didn't have any cassettes to stick in it. I would have loved to see how they worked.
     
  9. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    This is great - another Pontiac guy. I have a '73 Firebird -- and, yes, it has an 8 track player in it. It is not hooked up - nor do I have any 8 tracks (Any more)

    Too darn cool for school!!
    Wolf
     
  10. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Pontiac? What kind of car is that? Oh, now I remember. I think I had one once but could not afford to operate it. The local constabulary kept me well supplied with little pieces of paper which indicated that I owed the courts lots of money.
    [​IMG]
     
  11. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    It was an interesting system - there was a Looooooong piece of audio tape that basically looped over itself in a complicated arrangement of rollers. Think of a helix on a RR system. Anyhow, when the tape made a complete loop, the splice between the end and the beginning was made of aluminum foil. A sensor would detect that piece of foil and increment the head up one track, and the tape would start playing the next track. Obviously, after 8 times of sensing this foil, it would return to track 1 and begin over again.

    There was a button that you could push to skip from track to track.

    Now .. picture what happens once the glue on that bit of foil gets old. And comes unstuck.

    If it helps, consider a helix on a model railroad - backing up say .. 200 cars. And the track comes apart and starts dumping the cars into the void. And the engine keeps pushing them because it doesn't know there's a reason to stop.

    Now picture several hundred feet of audio tape strung along the highway - showing the anger of the former owner of said 8-track tape who threw it out the window. Since what you usually found following the above scenario was most of the contents of the inside of the 8track tape transferred into the inside of the player. See, the player would continue to gleefully play the tape even though it was no longer transferring to the pickup reel. And sooner or later, you'd hear that familiar Johnny Cash or The Beach Boys start to warble and sound odd .. and you'd gnash your teeth and yell something awful as you yanked the tape out of the player and tossed it to the wind ..

    .
     
  12. Candy_Streeter

    Candy_Streeter TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you for all the details. I would thing that a new cassette would last for a decent time before you throw it out the window.
     
  13. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    Well, they'd actually last a few years - but keep in mind that they often got tossed on the dashboard in the hot summer sun, or down in the floorboards - cookie crumbs and indefinable bits of debris landing on them. It was a hard life being an 8 Track.
     
  14. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Actually it was stereo using two of the eight tracks for each pass so it would change tracks only four times. Still, it was very annoying because the tape usually needed to be re-programed from the order they were recorded on the equivalent vinyl. They would have to reshuffle the songs so that each of the four "programs" were sort of the same length. That still left long pauses after some songs while the machine waited for the aluminum strip to cycle by. Many times they just cut a song in half so you would get a pause and a "ca-chunk" before the music picked up again.
     
  15. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    :LOL: I figured someone would catch me out on that. I thought I was complicating it enough already!

    I did read that eBay still makes brisk business selling 8 Track repair kits to collectors...with much upgraded foil bits.
     
  16. Eagle2

    Eagle2 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Occasionally...
     
  17. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    There was a notch in the case side, in to which a spring pressure wheel popped. That was the mechanism which "locked" the cassette into the player, and allowed easy ejecting or pulling it back out. But if that did not work correctly, it put too much pressure on the play head, or not enough and....

    When they failed, what a nice mess they made of your machine.

    Used 4 and 8 track tapes can still be found, el cheapo, at junk shops, second hands, yard sales.
     
  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks like a '69, with the usual bearing caps missing from wheels.
     
  19. Candy_Streeter

    Candy_Streeter TrainBoard Member

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    I wonder, What's the occasion ?
     
  20. MaxDaemon

    MaxDaemon TrainBoard Member

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    Probably when said red-head posts ..
     
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