I don't know what scale they are, Ebay: 250020811537 280021095362 300020566575 250022011159 I just "Bought it now" a Hiawatha with tender for $5.00. Guess I'll find out what scale it is. Either way it will look good on the shelf.
I should have tried something stronger... I had to scrape and scrape and still have more to go. But, check out the crisp lines on the roof, and lots of grill detail that was turned to mush with the thick coat of color.
They make a stronger % Alcohol Next time use the 90%+ alcohol when stripping paint. Works alot faster/better than the 70% stuff. Sometimes the 70% stuff won't budge paint where the 90%+ stuff takes it right off! Just a tip! ELO works good also. I use it quite often to strip the paint from MTL Gunderson Huskys. I toss all of the metal pieces in a glass jar, pour in some ELO tighten the cap and swirl the ELO around till it coats all of the metal. Every couple of minutes I swirl it around again. After about 10 minutes the stuff is ready to strip, but, I usually leave it in a couple days. By then the paint is completely gone from the metal castings. For AZL Brass Loco shells, well, that is a sour subject with me. A NS C44-9 brass shell took 6+ months to strip using powerful/professional paint stripper. Stuff was nasty! Must have been a tough powder coat or something harder! Wound up scrapping a good deal off with a hobby knife! Ugh! OK, sorry for the long post! Like your modification work! Looks great! Hobo Tim p.s. For etched stainless screens you should look into the home etching kit from micro-mark.com.
I found the length in the April 1981 issue of MR as being 83'-6 1/2" over the pulling faces. The model is about 4.75" long... which is about 87' in Z scale. If my number crunching is correct, that means it is really 1:210 scale. So, the 1:209 from measuring the trucks was correct! Close enough for my untrained Z scale eye...
Hah, that's funny Mike. Now that you mention the old MR article, I've actually got that somewhere myself. I'll have to dig it out and maybe start on these projects this winter. After I finish remodeling my daughter's bedroom of course (John, Bryan, note that I've put that honey-do project off long enough it's now the "edroom"instead of the "nursery" ;-) 1/210 sounds a whole lot better and is a little bit closer to Z than 1/209. For the folks waffling about these turbines (and the PRR B6) if there are any left after Christmas, Hallmark puts them on sale for half price. The lines at the local Hallmark store can be very long that day, I think it's usually right on DEC 26th. Randy Randy
By the way, for you turbine fans out there (no pun intended), Pentrex has two VHS videos on the UP turbines on the last page of their summer sale offer for $9.95 each (that's about 66% off of regular price). The sale ends tomorrow on the 31st, so hurry. Looks like they are available on DVD for full price, too. I actually saw the Pentrex ad right here on TrainBoard so support one of the advertising sponsors. ;-) Randy
Can anyone comment on what, if any, EMD power ran with these in service? I've been scouring photos, and have seen them coupled to GP-7/9's twice, but mostly just by themselves. Any UP fans that have the turbine book or have watched these movies? I know the other ugly ducklins like the U-50's ran with GP-30/35's quite frequently. I'm trying to decide if I should just push it with a UP GP-35 or make it run on it's own.
I would put a GP35 under it for power, and MU with more GP35's, as the era is believable. Just put MTL wheels in the front and rear trucks, and build the fuel tank sides and truck sideframes to hide the GP mechanism, and don't worry about wheel spacing, becuase Z Scale locos are so low anyways, it would be hard to notice if the sides are dressed up nice. Just sand the MTL sideframes smooth fo added turning radius.
Mike, I've seen photos of these (don't ask me where right now) MU'd with GP35's, GP9's, GP9B's, GP30's, GP30B's. I could swear I've seen one MU'd with a U50 as well, but that must have been one of the later 8500 HP turbines with a U50 (not a U50C) since the U50's were made using the traction equipment from the earlier B-B+B-B turbines. The 8500 HP turbines were C-C on the cab unit and either C-C or some weird arrangement on the turbine unit (cab unit with diesel hostling engine/cabless turbine/fuel tender(s) ). The cab looked similar to the earlier turbines, but the shell would be much different. Come to think of it, I've seen photos of turbines, again I forget which ones, MU'd with a DD35 (the cabless type) as well. If you go back in the thread to one of the links I posted for more info (possibly the wikipedia entry), there was some comment about being MU'd with diesels for redundancy. If the single unit turbine went offline with that big a share of the power, it needed help to move the train to a siding or whatever. Hope this helps some. Randy
By the way, I think this weekend (Labor Day) or next week is when they restock ornaments at Hallmark before the big Christmas push. I know it is sometime in September at least. Randy
There were plenty in the local Hallmark store last weekend. I walked up to the counter with a pair of turbines and a pair of tenders. The lady goes, "Oh, you missed the third ornament that goes with these, there's a boxcar [sic] too." I didn't catch myself in time and said, "Yeah, but it's too big." She returns, "No, it's the same size, they go together." Oh boy... here we go again.
Been there done that. I was buying 4 or 5 at the same time. I'll get the boxcar for use as an ornament, but I will probably wait until the after Christmas 50% off sale. ;-) Randy
I just got the Veranda Turbine and can't figure out how to take it apart and I don't want to break somethin'! Any idea's?
kurt, you must first slice the black retaining strip from the bottom of two trucks (both inner or both outer trucks). do this carefully with a sharp xacto knife blade. this will reveal the screw(s) holding on the truck. once removed the screws between the trucks can be gotten to and these two screws will allow the base to be separated from the metal shell. some holds true for the tender (if you chose to take it apart -- carefull!) -- the plates holding the wheels has to come off to get at the screw holding the trucks. again the screws to remove the base from the body can then be reached with the trucks off. to replace the plates you should drill through the place where the original tabs held the plate to the trucks. then place it back on the side frames and drill through the ends of the truck frames. it will take a small amount of super glue (on the tips of the plate) to get it to stick back on the truck sideframes. then a styrene piece can be put in the tab hole to help secure it further. it is also possible to use tiny screws in the holes. the original wheels can be pushed in a little to get them in correct gauge, but the small flanges aren't deep enough to keep the trucks/wheels from derailing. they would track ok on smooth track but had a problem going over frogs in switches. MTL wheels can be substituted in the tender trucks, but you have to use a drill with a diameter the same as the MTL axles to try to enlarge the "cups" where the axles go. this is risky, but doable. MTL wheels are not big enough (wheel diameter) to work on the turbine trucks. i've been looking at some old low-profile Concor (N scale) passenger wheels for this. i'll offer more when i know (solve) more. dave f.
i'm told i tell people more than they wanted to know. unless you want this run, it is a great static piece as is. i'm putting a GP-35 chassis under one. have most of it together. working on converting an N scale atlas beer can tank car into the turbine tender (not so much weight). we'll see how it turns out. dave f.
Dave, I for one appreciate the full details. I hope to start on one of these myself this winter. I got my UP Turbine videos from Pentrex the other day and as I was watching them I noticed that all the detail on the hood behind the railing on the veranda is actually pretty flat, unlike the relief on the Hallmark model. It looks like it would be perfectly suited for my first attempt at home photetching. No promises that I will get this done, but I'm thinking to do the veranda right will require photoetched railings and new sides for the hood. Probably cut everything out like was done for the cowl unit style turbine (Mike's project?). Randy
randy, i hope you have a milling machine .. 'cuz that metal body is tough. i removed the posts that holds the screws and a little of the post at the top center into which the ornament "eye" inserted. i put styrene inside the top and thin (clear) styrene on one side to insulate. with a little fiddling here and there with the top styrene part one can adjust the height of the body over the mechanism. the trucks are the real problem. they need better wheels. i cut a wide "v" at one the end of the turbine truck frames (where they indent to form a square as view from the top). i left the bottom lip in place. then i cut the bottom supports off the MTL sideframe, filled the bottom a bit thinner, and widened the screw hole (also trimmed most of the box away from the front around the screw hole). i then drilled and threaded down into the lip of the turbine truck frames so the turbine frame (truck) can swivel in front (or behind) the power truck. you have to do some filing/fitting here and there, but they all line up just fine under the turbine. still more to fit, but things are looking pretty good. the next big step is modifying a chassis (which i don't have an extra off) to fit the square tank "thing" under the turbine. pictures ... some time ??? dave f.
