I have a friendly e-mail to post from a Walthers writter on the snowblowers! THANKS Lance Burton! You see guys this proves that model companies see our posts!!!!!!
I have to agree with Lance. The Walthers rotary with tender is a good looking machine. I just wish Athearn would have made their rotary to sit level and at least look good. Thanks for all the information on the rotaries Lance, and welcome to our family here at the TrainBoard. You would be most welcome to visit often and possibly answer some questions the members sometimes post regarding the availability of items listed in your catalog, especially for scratch building and kit bashing.
Alan's right, I don't know of any other place you could get so much good info. Those would be cool to model, wonder if they would interfere with the trucks on sharp curves? Still would look great though. Watash, did you say the rear bolster could be reworked to make it sit more level? Hmmmm, which storage box is mine in............. 2slim
I have done the work to mine to make it sit level! You will be getting into some real plastic surgry for the rear 3 axle truck! It has to have the frame bolster filed down, and the top of the trucks mounting pot that goes up into the frame to make it that the truck doesn't "drop" when picked up or for when putting on rail the truck will hand slightly! Then file on the truck frame around the truck to frame contact area to lower it even more, and then you can take a Kadee fiber washer, preferably the .10 of an inch thinkness washers and put them on the frame bolster for the front truck to slightly raise it. I have done this a few different times, once for myself and 3 or 4 times for customers in the shop. In doing so, you may have one time with a single .10 of an inch washer on the front truck, and on another snowblower, you may have to use two .10 of an inch washers! It all depends on home much you take off the rear truck! But be ware, do not file the rear 3 axle truck to thin! It will in time, warp with age and the weight it supports being its plastic and has been filed which will weaken it! This is why I had raised the front truck. I didn't want the rear truck plastic to thin to later on warp or even crack from stress on it.
Gotcha John. Thanks for the advice! I'm still throwing rocks at the three I have! The main thing is to try and keep the standard 3" above the rails for the scoop bottom. I'll keep it in mind when I get to them.
Watash, Let me know ole buddy! I might be able to help you along when you go to work on them! I'll take you though the paces of doing this. Its pretty simple actually..
Watash.... you bein' a funny guy! HA! I'm going to put a motor in the blower I'm workin' on. To spin the blades! And be pushed by one of my big guys! HA! In reverse the motor will shut off... by means of a diode! The loco will pull it but the blades won't be engaged! In forwards the loco will push it and the blades will be engaged! [ 10. October 2002, 11:48: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
John, Great idea!!!! Be a good way to keep cats clear from the tracks!! One hit from that & they'd never come back!!!!
I use my Railway Cannon for cats, dogs, mice, and children that try to reach for anything on my layout, and that includes humans with sticky itchy fingers (they used to have!) And I am unanimous in that!
My Trio of EL-5's (3 2-8-8-0's) with alot of moving side rods fixed a cat once! riped the fur right out of its tail and one hind leg! The snowblower wouldn't do that much damage!!!! Then the cat was afraif of the basement for a long time.. HA! Bad nasty mean things down their it says to itself!
of course, if modeling the right era, you have a lot of telegraph wires along the track. a little extra work and some fine wire, you can have a hot wire trackside!!!! just need to turn it off before recovering a de-railment!!
An electric fence, sort of! HA! That would teach a cat from jumping up on the layout! But since my 3, "Triple header" EL-5's got to my cat she since then learned laying in my tunnels is no place to be! Specially when shes laying on the right of way! And these 3 Giants are comming right along, side rods and all!
I guess you could hook the wires up to one of these "bug zappers" and have fried kat! Guarantee he wont come back! He might learn to fly though. There was a warning the Ranchers put out in west Texas a few years ago. Any stray cats found in the fields, will be shot! I found out, it was because the stray wild cats were eating up the wild Quail and dove (squab) population. The ranchers used to buy us boxes of ammunition if we would drive their fields and shoot the wild rabbits for them, which we did. Three rabbits will eat as much feed and grass as one full grown cow! That's why, see? I was also offered ammunition to shoot the kitty cats, that is how I found out about it. No, the only cat I shot, was a wild cat, the real one! And that sucker was mean! He was eating young calves. We finally baited him, and I dispatched him with an 11mm Mountain Mauser. The closest we could get to him was a little over 350 yards, but that old German sniper rifle had an excellent Kayliss scope, so it was no problem, now he is hanging on the rancher's wall! [ 12. October 2002, 15:16: Message edited by: watash ]
11mm Mauser?!? is that about like a .44-40 cartridge? I've never heard of one, but that would have to be a hell of a gamestopper!
It was pretty close. The bullet measured .433" diameter, weighed 450gm had a 60/40 lead filled copper case, hollow point filled with grease, then forged closed to a point. They were outlawed as in-humane in WW I, called "Bum-dums". The whole shell is 110.5mm long and holds 130 grains of powder. it has 71 foot pounds muzzle energy. There were not many made, and not recommended for ladies. The scope would fold to one side and the rear peep sight has clicks up to 540 meters. The scope is variable power. The barrel is fitted with a Scheutzin-Schlichter recoil repressor. The action is a Brevex long-bolt, (cocks on the up-stroke, like the Mannlicher Schoenauer). I have forgotten how to spell these names. It was made for troops to lay down on one mountain and fire accurately at the enemy across the valley in the Alps. There were supposed to have been four sent to Stallingrad during WW II, but the collector I sold it to, wasn't certain of that. [ 13. October 2002, 08:03: Message edited by: watash ]
Wow! That's a longer shot than I would've tried, for sure... I don't know that rifle but at that kind of range I would expect either a light 7mm or the ever-popular 30-06. I've been toying with the idea od converting one of my old cabooses (cabeese?) to snowplow duty. There's a prototypical one in the small caboose village at Tilton, NH that has always looked interesting to me.
I've seen some pictures of the UP's converted Vanderbuilt tender to wedge snow plows... I been thinking of modeling one of these as well to go along with my snowblower that I free lanced to be a part of my B&O "MOW" train. I know the reasoning behind UP's Vanderbuilt tender wedge snow plows tho, it was for the fact it could be filled with concrete or water or some fluid for extra weight to keep its trucks on the rail. I have a few Vanderbuilt tenders that aren't of the B&O style so. I'm going to take one and do some plastic surgery to it and kitbash one like the one I seen a picture of! Might be an interesting *fun* so.... And then freelance it to a B&O wedge snow plow!
