Welcome back everyone. The days are getting longer, and we are almost to March. While in Illinois, I hate winter, not as much fun as it is in NH. It does allow me to get a lot of model building done and I hope the same is true for you. Let's see how we all did this last weekend of February. Saturday: I slept in a bit and fought the urge to go to the not so local hobby shop. I wanted to get that GP30 project done. I sat down to the work bench with a cup of Earl Grey and a podcast and went to work. Work was tedious but by the evening I have the locomotive completely flat coated, and a light dusting of weathering applied. I needed only to add the fans, clear pieces and assemble to call the project done. Ang and I then went to a pub for a mini celebration. Sunday: I had promised Ang that since I had barricaded myself in the work shop all day Saturday, that I would go with her to an Antique mall that we had never been to. She rewarded me with homemade blue berry muffins for breakfast. While she was getting ready, I glued the fans into the GP30, carefully placed the number boards and cab windows in and started searching for a suitable nose headlight assembly. We went to the antique mall, and I did better than her. I picked up a vintage 1960's Sunbeam percolator coffee maker that looks brand new right down to the original store label affixed to it. Knowing this would outlast any modern offshore built brand, I picked it up as well as a few vintage bar tools and a very cool Mid Century Modern AM/FM radio that works perfectly! Perfect for the layout room. Once home, I carefully cut the clear assembly from an Atlas N scale Geep and fed the light tubes into the nose headlight assembly, assembled the locomotive and DONE! And here she is. This locomotive has a long story best shared on another thread, but I had to do it twice and that had really killed my motivation on it leading the project to stretch a good five years. The N scale fan kits by BLMA, now Atlas are my favorite detail that really stand out on an N scale locomotive. Ang made a wonderful stir fry for dinner and just like that, the weekend was over. So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday, March 4th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
The repairs to the Atlas FM16-44 didn't go so well. When I pulled the male universal I discovered that not only was the pin broken off, but part of the universal was gone, too. So drilling it out was no longer an option. The black thing in the picture below to the drive gear on the right is the broken male universal. It looks bigger than it is due to the shadow my desk lamp cast. I looked up the Atlas replacement parts catalog on line. The part is shown in the diagram but is not listed the order form. So I was forced to try to make a replacement part. I had some 1/16" plastic tubing, I drilled through and inserted a couple of small stubs of .03" brass wire. The hard part was trying to measure the diameter of the drive shaft. The brass bushing was too small to get the calibers inside to reach the shaft, and I could not get the press fit bushing off without damaging the motor, and the motor drive shaft was also tapered at the end. It was also clear that thee shaft that holds the drive gears was not the same size as the motor shaft. I took a small piece of mold putty and pushed it in to the bearing carefully to get an impression of the hole. But I did not have a bit that exactly matched. On first attempt I drilled it with a bit that was slightly smaller, but when I tried to push the replacement I made onto the shaft, it split. I made a second piece, drilled it with the same bit, and then using a small burring tool reamed the inside of the piece to slightly enlarge it. I was able to fit this on the shaft ok, so I reassembled the chassis and test ran it. The unit ran fine on the stand, but when I placed it on the track, it ran fine in the forward direction, but when reversed it lurched slightly and then stopped with the front wheels spinning. The replacement was slipping on the shaft. I then had another idea. I found a small piece of 1/16" heat shrink tubing, trimmed it slightly longer to where it extended about a 1/8" beyond the bearing, and drilled it out to insert a short piece of .03" brass tube. The tubing slid easily onto the motor drive shaft. I gently heated the area with my heat gun on low until the tubing slightly compressed. I reassembled and put it back on the tracks to test run it. At first it worked fine in both directions. I added a few cars and ran it in both directions but after a while it began slipping again. I guess this loco will made it's new home on a roundhouse siding.
Good mornin to Y'all, Well - Saturday's battery change went well. From there - I just wasn't feeling it for model RRing - couldn't get motivated. I messed around with a brass cab forward for a few minutes. We binged the new "Reacher" -- enjoyed it very much. Y'all have a great week, Wolf
Made good progress on wiring track feeders to barrier strips, but none are yet linked to my power pack. Spent some railfanning time yesterday hoping to find NS's CNJ Heritage Unit. I missed it depart, but it was in trailing position and it was raining. Maybe next time.
All in all, a good weekend. Did not get everything I wanted to do, but I did get all of the track cleaned which was the major goal for the weekend. I ran the CMX Tank Cleaner on one train and it was followed by a Centerline Cleaner "mopping" up any excess. This does a pretty good job. I went back and spot cleaned a few places, but all-in-all the two cleaning cars did the trick. Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I ran some trains. Here's some switching at "AD HOC MILLS" on the elevated siding and a mixed-freight "peddler" passing by and entering the portal that goes underneath the buildings. Lots of little details to clean up in this scene, but its getting there. Have a great week all!!
Small steps, yet still progress. In my limited available time this weekend, I worked on the pavement areas around the N scale Kimberly Clark Paper Products Plant, in New Milford, CT. I got everything smoothed out, sanded and painted, along with a little pavement weathering. There are many steps to go, including ballast, ground cover static grass, and a lot of details, including power lines to bring power in to the new factory substation.
Spring windy season has arrived here in El Paso early as we have had two bad dust storms and on other days a lot of wind. I had not planned on doing this project because of the wind/dust but Saturday was a beautiful warm day so I worked in a spray job on my "Progress Rail" PRLX 8104. I shall let it dry for 4 or 5 days and then apply my DIY decals.
Was kept fairly busy on what seemed like an unusually quiet weekend in our area. Took the cat to his appointment on Saturday and when we returned I finished the cart for the smoker that I have been working on for the past few weeks. On Sunday I wrapped up the annual TB winter layout party by adding some printed signs to a couple of structures, adding another layer of scenery material over some areas that already had a base layer, and installed 2 short sections of fascia.
Holy cow I totally forgot about the winter layout party… again! When will I learn to keep it in mind? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Great weekend! After a quick jaunt to Colorado Thursday and Friday I was able to get back to work on the two modules I need finished for March 23rd. Saturday started out with a quick trip to two LHSs. I needed four UP5s and my usual LHS didn’t have them. Found them at the other two. Also started picking up materials for a new module set that a friend helped design. I took a track plan from last year and redrew it. I kinda threw it together and it had issues. He took that plan and made it better. The new set will be a great addition to the Free-moN layout. Six to seven industries to switch out. Got home and finished the scenery on the two modules. Now to wait until warmer weather this week so I can paint the fascia then I can call them done. Sunday was a lazy day, nothing done. I spent the afternoon working on my itinerary for the NMRA convention and NTS. I now have three tours set up and ops on a couple different layouts set up. Monday is celebration day. 25th anniversary with my wife. I will be setting up modules in the garage today to start repairs. The warmth has arrived finally. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Unusually busy weekend doing other stuff. Turned into extra chores. A few minutes ago, I began setting up car side assemblies to check if needing touch-up (some did). Next the actual gluing. Then on to slope sheets. Have a good week all.
I finished building mt Lester WA Sand Drying House: And I applied grab irons and brake gear to one of my 36' NP boxcars: Oh, and I masked off then applied Great Stuff foam for scenery base on one of my Lester WA modules:
Well, next to nothing done. Some parts I thought would be here, still not in hand. Shuffled a couple things on the workbench. Finished getting stuff ready to have taxes done this morning. Sunday I sat down, watched some Rocky & Bullwinkle. (Educational television. Ha ha ha...) Fell asleep, then came Monday morning...
Pictures of my step-daughters painting: Moose: The Three Bears, (on ice or, um, is that white glue?) I'll be remounting them and painting the base a nice light brown to set off their colors.
