And the monks up in the N Scale Zendo tucked away in the moutains need a way to get to town for thier once a year outing from the monastery. So its time to build a critter. Cutting down the body.
Trimmed the main body to 9 ft. high by 10 ft. wide and had to cut wheel openings in the front. Added cab section and engine compartment. The whole thing is 32.5 scale ft. long. Tomorrow when all the glue is well set out comes the dremel to finish the front wheelwells and add a running board below the door of the operators compartment. Then I have to section the roof to size and think about some interior details and maybe rig a light. A trailer car of one truck only is being considered for this car due to limited electrical pick-up of the chassis, so I will have to solder on some wires and run them out the back for the trailer. And while all this was going on the famous Deekus The Cat was supervising the electrical testing of her favorite loco to run under the tree.
A lot of filing and cutting on one end of the chassis and some more on the body but at last I have a fit. Also sectioned the roof to width. However looking at that hood some of it has to go. That is enough hood for a 10 or 12 cylinder and these little gals had a flathead four. This is loosely based on a FWD railcar of somewhere between 1916-1926. When done this will join two others I have done all based off of a Kato power chassis and a small boxcab powered by an SW-9 chassis. Also in the collection is one Galloping Goose. This chassis has laid around for awhile now and I am not even sure why I bought it. Back when I acquired it I had purchased some Kato 105s and I think I mistakenly got this in the batch. I've mulled around mounting a truck chassis on it and it was one power component for the aborted track inspection car project awhile back. So here is the other three with the exception of the Goose.
Took a brass tube that a grain of wheat bulb just fits in and cut to length and installed in roof for headlight. Also cut the hood back by about 3 scale feet. Now working on trailer car with electrical pick-up from one truck off two rails. Using a 34 ft Overton as the trailer.
I double dog dare ya to paint it as the Partrage Family Bus and have a n scale Keith hanging out the window....... Nice project........even without Laurie Partarage......what a babe (circa 1969......)
Managed to drill and file out the floor of the Overton to accept the two rail pickup truck I found. Haven't the foggiest idea from whence it came since I only have one and it is different than any of my other trucks on my Bmann tenders and the wheels are larger than the others. But it works. Decided on a rear light on the trailer so used the same method of drilling out the roof and installing a section of brass tube. The headlight lenses that came with the kit will probably fit into the tube which will give me a nice lense for front and rear. And today is wiring day when I try to install both lights Truck pick-ups in the trailer and motor leads so hopefully when done I'll just have to connect two wires And the passengers and crew of the critter up at the N Scale Zendo in the mountains anxiously await its completion for the once a year trip to town.
Dug into my steam parts box and came out with a Nn3 steam pilot which was applied to the front after some modifications. Then spent an hour this afternoon soldering the wiring into both the critter and the trailer car. I also trimmed the resistor leads down and soldered it to the contact strips. Going to hang a bell on it somewhere and give it a single airhorn then create a passenger door at the rear on one side. Also have to figure out were to run the wires between the two and how I'm going to couple them. Close to being ready for paint though.
Added radiator grill from a Gold Medal diesel kit that was split and both sections ACC'd to hood front, then trimmed in thin styrene strip around the bonnet. Kato P42 number boards added to the roof over cab front from the diesel parts box. Rear door on engineers side fabricated out of .010 and .015 styrene and porthole window added. Three roof hatches added for ventilation. Stained headlights with the kit for rear red light in trailer roof shown on box in front of critter. First coat of paint applied.
That's looking awesome. Reminds me of one I found looking for something else today: http://www.elsrr.com/railfan images/els22.jpg
Finished the painting today and the glazing, plus got the holes drilled to route the wires, and built up the drawbar post pads on both units. Installed the lenses for the lights and went through my parts boxes and found a bell, and a single chime airhorn. Installed pads for the drawbar mounting on both units and drilled out rear of trailer for a coupler mount. Will probably finish this up either by tomorrow evening or Saturday morning.
One day before Christmas and it is nearing completion. Installed a old short metal drawbar from the parts box and secured to loco chassis with a machine screw. Trailer car drawbar post is a 1/16th styrene rod. Bell installed in front of hood and airhorn on engineers side roof. Crew of Monks from N scale Zendo in cab. All decaling done on critter and trailer car, still needs dullcoat, then just have to hook up wires and install bodies plus check for any needed paint touch up and on to test track.
Weights added to trailer car and all wiring connections now completed inside body of trailer car. Roof will remain removable to access wires if needed. A dab of Micro Kristal Clear is used to retain rear light in trailer car roof. An MT 1015 was applied to rear of trailer car. Next is to dullcoat both bodies.
John, this is just fantastic! I have really enjoyed watching the development of this. I hope to see a video of it running down the track. biggrin:
The builders photo with a load of Monks from the N scale Zendo. Kit was an HO kit cut down to N scale and the kit itself was based on a 1934 Ford 21 passenger bus that saw service around Detroit as city bus, school bus, and was also converted for use as a railcar. Trailer car is a 34 ft Overton combine that had a pick-up truck of uncertain ancestry adapted as the front truck for extra power to the motor and the rear light. Interior window details were secured with Micro Kristal Klear since it is water soluble and allows later removal. A Nn3 steam pilot was added, new roof hatches from styrene, head light and tail lights are from brass tube with grain of wheat 12-14 volt bulbs, single airhorn came out of the parts box, number boards are from a set of Kato P-42 boards, and the bell hanging in front of the hood is a old Sunrise bell. Rear passenger door was fabricated out of .010 and .015 styrene. Original hood was cut back and a set of diesel louvers was split into two pieces and ACC'd to the hood front as the radiator grill. All window glazing used the kit clear plastic sheet except for the baggage and end doors in the trailer car where Micro Kristal Klear was used. The power chassis was first intended for an aborted rail inspection car project and had been slightly modified so it caused me to have to use part of the kit under chassis for one end. Some further filling of the power chassis was needed here and there plus some notches at the wheel wells to clear spring assemblies cast on the chassis. Then there were some styrene blocks applied inside the body to sit level on the chassis. Next was to the test track. After some stutters and some shake and shimmies, and after getting some crud off the wheels it was off down the track. After some break in running then it was through the switches and unpowered frogs. The pick-up trailer car worked fine as it navigated the switches at slow speed. Nice bright rear tail light so I got the soldering connections right. Another shot showing the illuminated headlight. Also seen in the previous rear shot is my torture chamber of 7 and 5/8th radius switches and it was on to those next and it is one of my few locos to be able to negotiate those thus certifying it for tight curvature logging line service in the future.
As a postscript the traction test was just performed and it pulled five additional cars on the water level grade could do more but stopped there. Went to a tough 5% grade on the test track and was able to get two additional 40 ft. car plus the trailer car up that grade. Based on that I should be able to get a total of two to three cars 34 to 40 ft up the planned 2% logging grade comfortably in fact I just did 5 counting the trailer car. All testing was done while starting on grade. There has been no additional weight added to the critter other than the weight of the body shell. There is plenty of room for tungsten putty but I don't see this pulling more than another possible 34 ft coach or a wood ice reefer. Thus the testing is complete the Monks can get to town to celebrate the holidays, and this will be my last project for this year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the folks at Trainboard.
