So, continuing from Posts #682 and #748... my Mark III Tamper is all finished. Only took about 10 months! LOL! The first two pics show the front and rear of the unit. The number placards are just styrene strips with decals. The third pic shows the eight hydraulic lines from the main tank under the entry to the mid open platform to the aux box there. The close up pic of the open mid platform shows all the hydraulic lines, plus some of the metal hydraulic(green color) lines, plus the various scratch built hydraulic gear in there. Overall, a fun build! Little nerve racking at times... but, still fun! Thanks for looking! JMS
Alan, nice looking Grain Complex, great work!!!! Did some more work on the X37b Boxcar, but not enough to take pictures. Did more work on the ExactRail 4427 CF Covered Hopper! Attached all the bolster pieces to the car along with the coupler covers. Attached the brake valve, reservoir which was all one piece, but running the line from the ABD valve to the Retaining Valve was the major PITA. Attached the "A" end cages and all the grab irons, went together very smoothly. Attached the "B" End Cages, Brake Housing, and grabs! All that is left are discharge gates, main air line, brake wheel and platform along with the walkway and a couple of grabs. See you all later! Rick J
Vector Cut Farm Wagon Last week I built a Jordan farm wagon but then I discovered Vector Cut laser kits and I bought two of their farm wagons and built one of them over the weekend. I think they look more common than the Jordan kit and it was a hoot to build with good instructions. The wood grain has to be added using an Xacto knife because the kit isn't made of wood but rather some other material. The framework on the underside is also easy to assemble. I think I prefer this over the Jordan. I especially like the spring supported front seat and handbrake. I'm glad my chosen era allows for both horse drawn wagons and early autos.
That's a great looking wagon. It does look like a good representation, and I think the finish is wonderful.
I finished work prior to painting on the Exactrail 4427CF PS Covered Hopper Kit. Shot of the bottom after installing the outlets and airline under the car. You can also see more of the grabs that were installed previously. Finished up the B end of the car installing the brake platform and brake wheel, also installed the trough hatch on the roof, car is now ready for painting. Will install the roofwalk and cut levers after painting and decaling. Thanks for looking! Rick J
I built this Dash 9 in 1991 or so. It has sat in my loco box for about 22 years. I got it running after cleaning the gearing, replacing the axel gears and lubricating everything. I used Rail Power Products for the shell and frame. It has Athearn drive parts and a can motor. The can motor runs well still and the unit will crawl when needed. i just installed a Tsunami sound decoder, led light. It is now in the paint shop for weathering. On the pictures I've found of it online, it has 2 different types of trucks. The front one looks like something off a EMD unit. I will be swapping out the front side frames as part of the weathering. It's nice to have the old gal running again.Thanks for looking. Dale
Working on installing the brass inserts so I can put athearn style trucks on this car. The car is a tyco bulkhead flat car with a pulpwood load. I took the car apart and took the weight off. Then I drilled out the hole in the weight to match the size of the insert then glued the insert to the weight. In the process of gluing the weight to the car. As you can see from the underside - pic #4, the insert does not come all the way to the top of the truck hole. Not sure how that will work when screwing the truck in. Then I will install a coupler box and hopefully everything will work correctly.
My layout has become my workbench and every DC only loco will probably be worked on on it. I'm not sure what to do first, lay the track, or convert what I can to dcc. The parts I need for the conversions are coming with the rail... I might just have some photo fun during the layout process.
