Direct from Kato - Parts just arrived to fix my VIA Kato E-8 (Rear Truck and Couplers) and P42 (Brass Strips). Took 2 weeks and a day from Chicago to Windsor - Not great but not bad seeing it had to cross the border.
I needs me some of those, where did you get them? Everything on MS is too tall. NVM, I found what you bought on the other thread! Now to find and order me some.
I don't know what happened to the last post. Here is what I posted: I bought them at some train store.com
Hi Everyone! I hope you all have been doing good. I have been enjoying my layout a lot lately and have almost sacrificed my computer for it !! Just kidding. But it is coming together really nicely and I couldn't be happier. I wanted to talk today about converting an old DC bachmann UP ??? to a DCC locomotive that will run on my current layout. I know the motor is in great shape including the gearing. I've run it in DC mode and it is a flyer !! Very smooth as well. Bachmann made some pretty impressive stuff for the time era. Below are some pictures of the old timer. I want to put in a dcc decoder chip and also a small speaker for sound if I am able to. Some milling may be required but no worries I have a few friends at machine shops that can help with that. One thing I wanted to ask about was converting the trucks couplers. I wanted to make them up to date so they will clash with my current rolling stock. I can come up with a few ways to do it but I figured I would ask for some advice. Maybe someone on here has done it before. I found a lot of info on HO but not much for N scale for this type of conversion. Hope to hear some ideas from you Masters of trains !! Cheers ! https://www.trainboard.com/highball...ia-wild-fire-and-growth-exhibit.128431/page-9
When evaluating how "smooth" a loco runs, most modelers look at how slowly it will run at a reliable, consistent speed. Most all will run "smoothly" at moderate to high speed, where momentum overcomes roughness in bearings and gears, as well as short interruptions in power to the motor. This loco does not appear to have flywheels, which are usually necessary for smooth, low-speed operation. It is also difficult to tell whether this motor has three poles or five. The latter is better for smoothness at low speed. It does appear to be "skew wound" (the gaps between the silver-colored sections of the motor, where you can see the copper windings, are at an angle relative to the motor axis.) This provides for less "cogging" when transitioning between poles as the motor rotates, which also translates into better smoothness at slow speed. Unless this locomotive has very high sentimental value for you, I would not invest in a DCC conversion for this locomotive. You may be able to find a more modern chassis for a similar loco prototype which will fit your shell, but the truck mounted Rapido couplers will likely not be available on it. Most more modern chassis have chassis-mounted knuckle couplers. Note the huge horizontal hole in the front plow to accommodate the swing of the truck-mounted coupler. Your railcars can likely be relatively easily converted to modern knuckle couplers, if you converted this loco with a more modern chassis. But finding one that fits this shell might be difficult particularly if you want to avoid a buy, trial and error process.
I have to agree, from a reward vs investment perspective, keep it dc and spend the money you would have spent converting it, milling it, etc, on buying a newer DCC ready loco. The crooked logo and white gears immediately dates it from the malaise era. If you want to do it your self and mill the frame with a Dremel as a personal learning experience, then maybe a dz123. They are small and at $15 still cheap to buy.
Thank you for your responses !!! I have to agree after hearing a few of your opinions here and also in the dcc and electronics thread where I posted this same matter. That it would not be the best idea. Im still trying learn about these motors and how they operate to how they are put together. So this will be a fun and exciting expirement. I have a few other dc locos that could be some good candidates for this job. I’ll be back with some updates soon y’all cheers !!
Unfortunately this weekend, not trains. Well they are on the workbench, but not being worked on. My truck has this annoying issue with the antilock brake light and the regular brake light just coming on at random times. Well it’s caused by bad solder joints inside the control module, and it just requires a reflow of the solder joints to fix. The hardest part of this whole job is getting the top off the module. It’s glued on with RTV and takes careful cutting to get it off. So here is the module all apart, waiting for me to solder it. If any of you own a late 90’s to the end of their run S10 then this is what you are looking at. And the joints that usually break are the 5 by the bar code sticker and the 4 large ones on the bottom. I have 3 at the top and 2 at the bottom that need help, but I’m going to do all 9 points.
Well I got the anti lock unit fixed, and I also fixed the same unit that was in my son’s truck as his was worse than mine. Ironically he only had 3 solder joints cracked I had 5. But his were much easier to see and apparently his were in more critical locations as his lights would come on almost any time we drive the truck. Will have to see if it’s fixed for good next time we can drive it. OK back to trains... or at least things for trains. Since I got stuff for my computer project I decided to try it out. Well I found out that the USB port on the power supply has just enough power for the Pi if I do not have speakers attached, but it has enough power for the speakers when not powering the Pi. So I will still need the buck converter for the Pi. Here it is running with things loosely set inside.
Got the insides done, for more details visit the build thread. https://www.trainboard.com/highball...system-in-a-antique-looking-briefcase.135861/
I acquired this thing some time past at a Greenberg in Jersey. The price was right and it was something different. I did not, at the time, know what it was. I painted and lettered it for my non-historic road. Recently, I saw a photograph of a Penn N-6a. It looks like this one. The high cupola, plus the braces/railings on cupola and smoke jack, the thirty foot length and four side windows are there. From what I can tell, what is incorrect are the roof ladders, only one window at each end and the windows on the prototype had four panes. Some photographs show a small window in between two larger windows on the ends of the cupola, but not all seem to have this feature. The only reason for doing anything with this is that I recently acquired a pair of Penn five stripe sharks. I posted a request for an A unit on the Trainboard Swap Meet, with the understanding that I might have to accept a pair. I got a response, acquired the items and did the power chassis swap. They just happened to be Penn five stripes. I am planning to put the chassis back into proper order (they do run, but they have this nasty clicking sound). As I plan to put the sharks back into proper working order, they will need a caboose. I went looking for a Bowser on FeePay, but the sellers all wanted too much. I have more cabooses than I really need for my non-historic, so why not white line this one and paint it for the Penn? Whoever did this did a nice job on it. It was efficiently done, as well, as it appears that he used the middle pieces that he cut out of it to raise the cupola and blank out windows. I am tempted to leave the ladders as they are, as whoever did this bash used them to keep the shell on the chassis. It works well. Adding the four pane detail is not difficult. I am tempted to leave the one end window, as well, as some may have had windows plated over during shoppings. I might try to make a pair of end windows if I can find something in my parts box. I have the Penn Maroon paint as well as the black for the roof walk. It seems that Microscale does not sell the Penn caboose sheet in N scale; only in O. I have a Merchandise box car sheet that contains a spelled out "PENNSYLVANIA" and numbers that will fit it, or, at least close enough for lack of anything better. I have the white lines, as well. What I am missing is the class designation, which is rather prominent in every photograph that I have seen of these things that carry the 1930s-mid-1950s paint and letter scheme. It appears that some did receive the shadow keystone scheme between 1954 and the early 1960s. I might have a shadow keystone herald somewhere. The questions to you SPFs or caboose experts are: 1. Is this an N-6a or close enough? 2. If it is not, what is it? 3. Is there a better decal sheet available? 4. I have found a few photographs of N-6a s or models. Does anyone know where to find more photographs or lettering diagrammes? The last two assume that it is, in fact, an N-6a or a close approximation thereof. Thank you in advance.
I didn’t get any pics last night, but I got my TCS decoder installed into my Kato Operation North Pole 2019 locomotive. This is my first TCS decoder and it went it really slick. I am doing to set up a layout this weekend and program/test it and my new DR5000... in the control box of course.
OK, guys, I recommend taking your retailer recommendation to private message, as you have inadvertently tripped the advertiser policy on the site, which strips the links as you frustratingly noted. Read more about it here: https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/policy-trainboard-posts-about-retailers.40760/
Hemi, I never made mine a link, just a .com message to know I got the right site. Sorry if I stepped on the rule book a bit there.
A ConCor autorack - I weathered 3 panels yesterday. How does it look? Seriously, am I on the right track here or should I just wash it off?
