Thanks, to clean the rust off them I use vinegar, right? What is the ratio of vinegar to water or do I use straight vinegar and how long do they soak? Thanks---John
I just toss them in a jar of white cooking vinegar from Aldi. I've never watched the time too closely. Sometimes I come back in an hour and sometimes I forget about them until a day later. I'll brush them off with a wire brush under running water and then put them on a towel in front of a fan to completely dry, though with something simple like stanchions you could probably just towel dry them.
I have the rusty rails soaking in white vinegar. I also have decided to change liveries on this one. Seeing as though it's black already I am going with a Penn Central GP35 which ran quite frequently through my home town in the late 60s to the early 70s. I am going to try to find a better detailed GP35 for my Housatonic RR short line project. I figure if I mess it up a bit it won't show as much plus this will be a good learning curve to get me use to trains. I removed the headlight in the nose and puttied the void. The Penn Central has no lights in the nose. The tower in the picture is the Mass-NY border. I am not sure if the train is entering or leaving Richmond Mass.---John
I just ordered decals, has anyone ever used Herald King HO decals. The price was right at $7.00. ---John
Good to see this project moving along. Good idea to keep going on this one as a learning process. My experience -short as it is- with train mods and such has been that if you already have model skills the learning curve isn't very long but it's no bad thing to be able to start on something you're not as attached to. Good luck!
Make sure to clear coat before use. Herald king has been out of business for almost 20 years give or take. Just bought a bunch of HK decals myself.
My bad someone else evidently bought the rights. As they like champ had gone out of business. And the shops around here gave me crud about trying to buy these. So evidently this one got past me .
John, I ran across a spare end rail section for an Athearn locomotive. PM me your address and I will send it to you. Here are the pictures I promised of the old (1990’s) GP-35. Dale
Got your address John, I’ll get it headed your way. Thanks for the compliment on the geep. I’m not to happy with how the low light blank turned out. I’m going to redo it. I painted it with rattle can paint from Walmart as a down and dirty repaint to go with 2 SD 40-2’s a friend did for me. That is the noisiest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m going to have to put a can motor in it one of these days. Thanks, Dale
Hi John and Dale, I am late to the party here but I just found a complete set of these older GP35 handrails. John, the stantions I see in your images are very early metal stations, inthat the portion where the handrails go thru are it appears flattened then a hole punched where as a bit later and like the one Dale is sending you are the stantions have the bent loop on top stantions. The later metal stations may be a better source for you. I can send you enough to finish the handrails if you need. BTW good job on the putty mods on the nose. That way you don't even need to mess with those older rusty stations. Let me know if you want these stations. Thank you Tom
Thanks for all the help, I should be all set on this, the next one will be much easier now that I have learned a few tricks---John
I did a second coat of Tamiya putty then wet sanded it. Looking pretty much the way I want it. A coat of black on the entire shell will help.---John
I got the nerve up to try the railings. They needed the holes in the shell reamed out a bit where the previous owner painted . Out side of that they fit pretty decent. Don't know why railings would bother me, I've been welding real ones since vocational high school then as a job since 1969. On to the next side.---John
Thanks. Here's a better picture of the road number I am doing. The rails on the old Athearn are a bit wonky looking but they'll do for my first train model. I definitely want to look into the newer Bachman's. I saw some at a train shop down the road and the level of detail and hand rails impressed me.---John