Well.... this will be the last time this little project will show up in this thread (save for it's new use as a backdrop for loco and rolling stock projects) it's been a quick, fun build...and am completely satisfied that I can build the larger one to a standard that I'm pleased with... I've added Woodlands Scenics med green ground foam clusters to simulate the juniper bushes found all over the SW...(in Austin, TX, they call them 'cedar' bushes!) Again, Thanks for looking! Bruce
Will be busy at the workbench for the rest of this month with this bunch of shells and mechanisms. Finally have the decaling done of the four PAs and the mechanisms overhauled. Next will be to install Gold Medal stirrups on the Concor PAs, one of the 4 is a LL PA and I'm leaving that as is. Slowly finishing decals on the NP F units and soon time for American Limited Diaphragms on them and the rest of the units. Converted the fans on 2 Atlas RS-3s and decaling almost done. Also added MT pilot inserts and all units will get MTs. The GN F units are just getting a slight overhaul and touch up of detail parts that have been damaged or are missing. Last is 2 Burlington E-7s. One a LL unit the other a E7 shell on an old Atlas/Rivarrossi that has been completely disassembled and overhauled with the frame being paint stripped and examined for Zmactitis of which there is no sign. This has the old Rivarrossi can motor mounted vertically. Big problem with the motors is lack of maintenance ie: regular lubing. When this motor gets noisy it is the service alarm function for it. Pull it out of service and use some Labelle or equivalent in viscosity lube on top and bottom bearings. For whatever reason the motor in this orientation tends to lose the lubricant out of the bearings quicker and then the common cause of death of the motor is the bearings heating up and eventual seizure of the motor, and or meltdown.
arrived in the post yesterday.... a build for a friend...Hell Gate Models Pennsy B60b! I'll detail this build in a new thread starting in a day or two... Bruce
I may have to get one of those to replace this stand-in that I built years ago. It is one of the foreign cars of my Santa Fe Fast Mail Express consist.
Now at the point of adding Gold Medal stirrups and MT 1015s to old Concor shells along with a Sunrise pilot to an old Rivarrossi E and a Concor PA shell. The LL PA just got a MT 1015.
my workbench has a bunch of log buggies I've been casting up for my logging short line. Also are old time flat cars in 25 and 36footers and lastly are old time boxcars I've been casting up as it's hard to find what I want. The log buggy I scratchbuilt and made a mold and have been casting them in resin. I buy the trucks and couplers and they are the only thing I haven't built myself. Keeps me busy and loads of fun. The other cars are cast using Bachman old timers for masters. I add the truss rods I scratch build, and brake wheels I bought from the LHS. Micro Mark makes the mold and resin for what I use.
The Soo Line Mountaineer arriving in Portal, North Dakota and North Portal, Saskatche A three year project that was built to be the theme of a hometown reunion features a Soo Line Mountaineer passenger train arriving in Portal, North Dakota from Chicago. The site is built to N scale on a piece of wheat board measuring five feet by fourteen feet as this location was the end of the Soo Line and the start of the Canadian Pacific, so includes Custom and Immigration Offices, and major turn around maintenance facilities. I made a DVD of pictures from the reunion, activities and people...and would like to used a train sound to represent some of the scenes. So, if someone has a recommended source I would greatly appreciate the info.
What's n Your Workbench Here are pictures of the C636W that I have been working on. It is a Con Cor C636 with a Bachmann GE safety cab and fabricated front porch. The shell fits on a Kato SD40 drive.
Finally finished the Atlas RS-3s that had been laying around for a number of years into the SP&S colors. I elected to redo the fans as a number of these in the later series had the fans covered by winterization hatches. Only a few had it done as there were earlier and later ones that did not have them. Also getting closer to being done with my fantasy paint scheme on some PAs. However in all cases some rain must ocassionally fall. In this case the truck on one of the older Concor/Kato units had been rebuilt with new gears which I had acquired except for the unavailable main gear that connects to the worm. I thought I had sucessfully found a repair using a modified gear from a long since defunct Bmann U boat truck. It worked fine up until tonight when I did one last test. Dang thing cogged up on the same truck 4 times so it was back to being depowered again. So I took the leap and ordered a set of Kato PAs in A-A. The old chassis behind everything works fine so it will end up being a donor for parts to keep the other one running. So in a few days I will have an interesting lash-up of one old Conco/Kato PA and two newer Kato ones and one Lifelike PA.
is it my eyes or does it look like the cab is on crooked? Any closeups of the fabricated front porch?
I could not get the Amtrak E9 ABBA set out of my head in SuperLiner Phase II paint. And also was intrigued by the B units converted to HEP units. So I ordered up the extra A and B units to make 2 sets of ABBA's and HEP units. So I am off to start removing the roof details on a few B units for the HEP conversion and then it is time to remove the grills and replace them with a more correct grill. After that it will be a lot of silver paint! This is my baptism under fire, my first kit-bashing of a shell. No photos yet..... but coming as soon as I get started.
Working on the foam piece that I used to practice my desert mesa carving technique...now it's going to be a mobile diorama for photographing locos and rolling stock. I glued some Atlas code 55, and decided to go ahead and ballast.... I don't have any Arizona Rock and Mineral 'Mauve' ballast on hand yet, so I ran to Hobby Lobby to seek some Woodlands' Scenic stuff (ugh) I discovered that Hobby Lobby had abandoned their small model railroad section, and given it over to 'grade school-'architect-student' style diorama types...Woodland scenics mini diorama kits, 'some' ballast and turf selections, and some adhesive selections, one or two styles of rubber rock molds, and a selection of pre-formed trees...wow...pretty disappointing...at some point I remember them stocking flex track, cork, 'how to' books, etc... The only ballast I could find in 'fine' was a bag of 'buff'...not my preference, but, since Woodlands Scenics ballast color selection is so limited anyway, I picked it up... Geez...I had forgotten (after 12 years) how much (and WHY) I detest using Woodlands Scenics ballast!...lol...again, apart from the limited selection, it's pretty difficult to work with COMPARED to working with real rock ballast from other companies. I'm glad I did this, though...I haven't used Atlas code 55 track before, the tolerances are 'finer'...so it's real important to ballast fairly 'neatly'... after painting the track with Floquil Rail brown, I applied the ballast to the inside of the rails first, then to the outside... after 'manicuring' with a paintbrush, I misted dilute alcohol over the entire surface until saturated, the started to apply Scenic cement between the rails with a small syringe....EHHHHHHH!...watch the WS ballast start to 'float'...lol...oh well. After numerous applications, it's 'done'...will 'weather' it today. I just don't have this 'problem' with Arizona Rock and Minerals ballast...with careful application of wetting agent and glue, it STAYS where you put it. Thanks for looking, Bruce
The first set of refurbished Concor/Kato PAs along with one LL A unit are finally done. The Concor/Kato units received a rebuilt and serviced mechanism including replacing some bad truck gearing finally ending up using a 2nd unit for a donor main truck gear that interfaced with the worm. The geared wheels are still avaliable but the main big gear of the set is not and the newer truck mechanism is different than this old beast. The Concor A unit had a Sunrise plow pilot, made for these PAs, added while the LL A was left as is. Both received MT 1015s in the pilots and Sunrise MU hoses. Only the A fronts have MTs as the rears and the B unit has the unimates as these will stay as a set. American Limited diaphrams were added to all units. The Concors as built did not have stirrup steps on either the A or B except at the feul tank area. So the frame was drilled for Gold Medal PA stirrups. Original Concor A and B did not have glazing but I was able to get a front window for the A from Concor that was for a later run that fit. The porthole glazing is Micro Kristal Klear. The SP&S although a mostly Alco road never had any PAs so this is a what if fantasy scheme. The nose treatment and side striping is from a NP freight set of decals. The stripes and lettering is from the SP&S E unit decals. The slogan on the side of the B unit is from a set of SP&S caboose decals that are no longer available. The A-B-A set eats up 15.25 inches of space although that could be shortened by going to a shorter MT in the units and eliminating the diaphragms. Sort of fuzzy front view. A 2nd Concor b unit awaits stirrups and it will get MTs since two Kato A units should be in this week to make a 2nd A-B-A set. As of this time the 2nd Concor/Kato A mechanism has been consigned to the donor parts box as parts for the 1st A unit. Debating whether to degear the one truck completely and just use it for electrical pick-up and run the unit under a B unit with one geared powered truck.
Now that the first set of PAs and the RS-3s are out of the way I'm starting work on the NP set of Fs. A number of the F units had twin sealed beam lights added to the lower light. I had one left in my headlight parts box from some earlier work so I slightly reamed out the headlight opening with a No. 11 exacto so that the twin beam unit would fit in snuggly. Have to fill in the top and bottom with a little putty and create the headlight cover with Micro Kristal Klear. I will leave the upper light there but block it from inside so that only the lower is lit. I also started adding the MT 1015s to the PB unit for the 2nd set of PAs. Due to some slight differences between the chassis floor and the end sills. I had to create pads of styrene .035 high to level it out and then use one spacer to get the right heigth. The original trucks had the coupler pocket removed and the truck end frame piece to clear the 1015s.
Finally got something to post! So now that I officially have a workbench I can start to post my little projects here! Recently I've been working on lowering the trucks on an older Bachmann cube car to be a little more accurate in height with what I've noticed on the prototype cars. Which coincidentally lets it run under my low laying bridge without getting caught up. Here's the picture! I think it looks better now (the center car) then the original which is shown to its right.. This is with micro-train trucks and BLMA 33" metal wheels as well. Another benefit I added was I replaced the plastic pins on the truck with actual screws so I could control how lose the trucks are attached to the car. This of course took some adjustments to the frame, which I had to remove some material to make room for the wheels (using my new Dremel!) and add a plastic tube used in place of the old bolster. In this case I used 1-72 screws which because of their small size required I use the plastic washers that came with the trucks to help hold the trucks in place (otherwise it would just slip right through the stock truck hole). 1/8 Styrene tubing worked well here with the pre-drilled hole in it being just the right size to not require a tap. It might be a bit too lose but time will tell. If so then it should be an easy enough replacement to use 2-56 screws. The trucks are a lot more secure to the car and can be adjusted well. I think I'll probably strip the paint on this car next and repaint it so the white height indicator bands are more accurate. I'll also be able to renumber the car and hopefully improve the lettering look with decals. I might even replace some of the ladders on the bottom so they're better looking. Glad to finally have something relatively interesting to show (It sure takes a while to collect the critical mass of tools required to get things done sometime, sheesh). I'll post the progress on it when I get it repainted and such (airbrush is coming in the mail soon!). Enjoy!
I just prepared some older units for DCC. Isolated the motors and ran wires through the frames. Since I was there I cleaned and lubed all three locos. One SD45 and two GP7's all from the 90's. The 45 ran crappy, but after some cleaning up and lube quiet and smooth. Now I just need some decoders.
