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I bought an excellent 356 Freight Station from Stout a few months back, and just got around to making it operational.  The pads on the 2 carts look to be good, but I have a question.  Are the rubber fingers supposed to be hard or soft?  Mine are currently soft, and one of the carts doesn't move as well as the other, so when cart 2 is coming into the station, cart 1 hasn't got to the release point yet (cart 2 does get to the release point when cart 1 comes into the station).  I put the same load of plastic suitcases in both, so they should weigh about the same.  The track is clean (no oil or dust), and I've been playing with the adjustment knobs to get the right vibration level.

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Thanks @David Johnston.  Actually the fingers on my unit are surprisingly soft IMHO.  While the unit was labeled c8 as per Stout, I think it had been used since the signs were documented as being repros.  So perhaps the sleeves were replaced and the fingers are new and soft, I don't know.

Just today I took delivery of a NOS cart for the 356, but haven't looked at it yet.  I will open it up on Tuesday and see how it compares to the ones I currently have.  I'm thinking if I can't solve the speed differences, I can have 3 carts on the track, with 2 being in the station and the third one coming into it to release one of the two.

I received the NOS cart, and its performance around the track was similar to one of my original carts, so the entry/exit cycle to the shed for both those carts is perfect.  The feet on the new cart are relatively soft, but a bit firmer than the original carts, so I ordered replacement pads.  I'll post an update on this thread after I test them out.

I said I thought 3 carts would work, but it didn't work so well in my initial attempt.  After I moved on from that I found that my release mechanism (which I had greased at the start) was still sticking a bit.  That may have been why the 3 cart cycling didn't work.  I'll check that out and post an update on that with the above info.

Final update.  I got the replacement pads installed on the 2 original carts, and now the slow one moves faster than the fast one.  It turns out that I couldn't get any 2 of the 3 to sequence correctly due to the speed variations.  However, I did get the 3 cart configuration to work successfully.  Cart 3 would come into the shed with carts 1 and 2 in there already, release 1, and then 1 does its thing around the track, releases cart 2, and so on.  I ran that for over 5 minutes without a hitch, so it's ready for display.

I spent some time customizing the carts.  I detailed some suitcases (painting the handles and latches), added some unit numbers to the back of the cart, added a much needed 'Keep Off' sign on the sides of the cart, painted the exposed axles, and then gave the little guys some eyes.

I know, kinda lame, but it gave me something to do.IMG_4453

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  • Detailed Carts

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