That skeleton car moved to the paint shop and made room for the body of a beverage trailer I am buiding. If you follow the link you can see the prototype I am trying to copy. Prototype
I have several of those Front Range Geep's. Did you re-motor them or use the existing motors. They seem to run pretty well with the original Mashima can motors but I have lost the drive shafts on one of them. I found that the bodies are still available: http://www.ppw-aline.com/bdfrgp7.htm and the chassis and re-powering kits are also available
I re-motored them with helix Humper motors The mashima can motor looks like a really good motor however. I may use that in the Tunnel motor. I had 3 of the helix on hand and used them in the GP9's so all locos would be alike. Maybe not much of a problem using DCC. I used Northwest Shortline driveshaft kits. These work really well. I can get you a part# if you like. I haven't had much time to work on them. I got a bunch of stuff I want to do. Got some Kato SD45 undecs to do and 3 Kato F40PH's for a Ski Train project.
Davec. I would appreciate the NWSL drive shaft kit part number if you have it handy. I started work on one of the Front Range GP7's but moved onto something else when I couldn't find the driveshafts. Seeing your geep's made me pull it out and start working on it again. This will be a Chicago & Northwestern GP7 I chopped the nose and liberated the exhaust. The number board section is from the high hood as per the prototype and the front windows are from and Athearn GP cab added lift rings and drilled holes for other details like the horn, antenna and beacon added grabs and trimmed the skirts to match the prototype. This particular locomotive had a long three pane all-weather window as found on some CNW locos. shaved the cab (to add details) and tried out some of the paint to check for color matching and visibility of the cut lines. It basically needs just a few details, a decoder and paint to be complete
Very nice! I've just purchased a couple of inexpensive GP-9s off eBay. Brand unknown. I wonder if they're Front Range. Mike
One way to tell is to look at the fans. They were the first to offer see through fans on a commercial model. They also had plastic handrails and a scale width hood. The underframe was metal with plastic air tanks. The fuel tank was stepped in and plastic pieces used to represent the air tanks were glued to the step. Prior to that the most common Geep was Athearn's. They had metal handrails and the fans were solid. Athearn's geeps had a wider than scale width hood to fit the motor they used at the time. Front Range models came with a Mashima can motor. Though I remember that some of the early ones used a motor and mechanism that was very similar to Athearn's (gold motor). Post a photo with some close-ups of the details and we should be able to identify it. It is possible that your model could be a Life Like P2K Geep. Here is an image from the Proto Power West website. It should help you identify your model.
Thanks Dee Das I think the handrails, while nice and fine, judging by the ebay photo, have larger knuckles at the tops of the uprights. Fans look to be see-through Both are painted Boston and Maine blue, and numbered correctly, but I wonder if they are custom paint jobs because I can't find a manufacturer who produced them. I'll post some photos on here when they arrive. Maybe a week or so, because they're coming from New Hampshire. Mike
Here it is. These are the drive shaft parts for the Front Range chassis. You can get them at Caboose in Denver or Walthers. Just custom cut the shaft to what you need. I like North West's weathered nickel wheels, That part is here too. If you are lucky enough to find one of the original Front Range chassis's with the Mashima motor and the Tapp brand trucks this will save you a lot of work. I have both and they run equally well. E-bay is the place to find this stuff. North West U Joint kit # 491-6 North West Nickel wheels # 37141-4 North West 2MM axle shaft #2093-4 Grandt Line 2MM shafts # 7011 may work too. You will have to measure the end of your flywheels to detemine the opening size.
That CNW Geep is a nice model. These are a lot of fun. You can cut them and modify them to do anything you like. If you want the walkway tread that is on the Proto 2000 model you can use S&S hobby products #311 EZ safety tread It cuts easy with scissors or a knife.
Check out Cannon & Company's website under "Whats Coming" They are maybe going to do some roof fans for the GP7-9 and F-units Not in production yet, But I definitely want these on some of my Front Range models. They look really close to the same design as the Highliners fans that Athearn bought out for their Genesis line.
Thanks for the part numbers Dave. I do have the original Front Range Chassis and trucks. They do run smooth.
Okay. It is with much pride and after 2 VERY PAINFUL years of not having a place to model. I FINALLY have my workshop finished and have been working on about 7 or 8 freight cars. Next up, I have to get going on the layout room. In any event, here are 3 cars I have had going at the bench:
I've been working on this open load and the heavy duty flat car I needed for it arrived in the mail today. I was excited enough that I didn't even wait to put the detail parts on so I could check out the effect. :tb-biggrin: The load is an actual load cell that was out of tolerance so I cut the cable off. I'm watching for a really bad load cell that has been partially eaten away by mild corrosives so I can make a companion load. I work part time for a very small scale company and have access to non-working load cells. The scale repair money let's me buy structures or rolling stock now and then. An additional benefit of this car and load is that they are heavy (load cell is 12.6 ounces) and will require a special movement train or only be placed right behind the engines on a slow freight. This is a simple project but my arthritis is increasing while my eyesight and skills are deteriorating and this fits my abilities. And it was fun!
Another attempt at Tomm mann weathering. This time I am using the high-class Windsor and Newton acrylic paint. It sure is finer paint than the types I have been using. It squeezes out of a tube and you can create the desired consistency just before application. Here is a bad example of spot rust weathering using a sponge. The pattern is too regular. Other side of the same car. Better, IMHO. Cotton Belt Kadee car. I tried to make it a repaint, too. Maybe I can reaccomplish that part as it doesn't look like a repaint (reweigh) at all. Oh, well. I'll think about it a little. Happy USA holidays.
I probably should have asked the same question :tb-biggrin: My Boston and Maine GP-9s have arrived from New Hampshire. They are older than I had hoped, but that's often the way. Much older, in fact. But they were cheap. They have metal hand rails and metal truck sideframes. No flywheels. No see-through fans either. Inside the shell, the trucks are linked by a spring steel clip which runs almost full length over the top of the mechanism. Weird. It works though. 1803 needs repair to the drive. One plastic housing is broken, so it rides up off the gear. Its motor and gears are very quiet. 1744 runs quite well, but is a bit noisy. I wonder if it would be possible to replace the drives with Protos at some stage. Anyone know who made them? Mike
These are certainly Athearn Blue Box engines. Some H0 modelers have made a project of making these run as smooth as a Kato and they certainly will do that with work. Here is the link to all you wanted to know. At least it will get you started. I saw this done in one evening at a model rr club and the improvement in the engines was just amazing. These should be very good runners. I have never heard of these engines not having flywheels. The details are another matter; that could take a lot of work. I have heard of modelers replacing the shells with Proto 2000 but not replacing the mechanism. Should be a really fun project. It would be good to hear first hand feedback on an Athearn tune up. [edit] On the trucks, Pearl Drops is no longer manufactured. My dentist recommended Topol teeth whitener as a substitute for breaking in the gears. Perhaps others have a better idea on this.
It's a handy little device that converts force into an electrical signal. The Mythbusters use them a lot to measure forces on impact and explosions and a whole bunch of fun experiments. One of my favorite ones, they use a load cell to measure the amount of force a slushy drink has if it was thrown out of a car and into the windshield of an on-coming car. To do that, they sandwiched a load cell between two metal plates, then shot the slushy drink out of a giant air canon! And because videos are always fun.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RzJFuX7ov0
A load cell is the sensor part of an electronic scale that outputs a signal to the indicator which measures the output and converts and displays it. Multiple load cell systems usually have an intermediate board that sums the signals and sends that on to the main board part of the indicator. Electronic bathroom scales often have 4 small load cells outputting to the indicator so that you get a consistent weight even if you don't stand in the center of the scale.
