This is my first custom n-scale work and will likely be my last. I made this for my dad's birthday. I'd say it turned out pretty good. This is pretty much a fantasy scheme as the 18 is still in yn2 paint but maybe this will come to fruition in the near future. Robert
Well I have been working on my fleet of Amtrak locomotives. Mostly it was speed matching them so they can run in any configuration I want. 31 down, about 12 left to install decoders and speed match. Next up, more of the same for about 300 ATSF units
NOTHING is on my workbench and that is a big improvement. I have not been able to work on trains for over a year, working on my history thesis. Stuff has piled and piled and piled. If I could afford an hour or two, I couldn't use it because things were so clogged up. I have spent 6 or 7 hour this weekend sorting things out, putting away tools. And now i can at last get TO my workbench. Hlopefully will bhave some progress on a train project in the next few days.
I finished up weathering these covered grain hoppers just so I could get the shot with the engines. I think the hoppers turned out pretty good.
Well I just received my frame back from having it milled. So now it's time to finally start my SD7 build. This will be painted in to SP Tiger Stripe. Still not sure if this will get the Mars barrel lights or not. This unit is going to be done as a couple of months after being delivered. Hope fully this won't be a to long of a project. So here is the start.
Nick, who did you have mill the frame? And happen to have any pics of the frame, so I could see how they did it? I want to do a pair of BN SD9s with a single tank.
SP&S 792 was a wood bay window caboose built by the Northern pacific for the SP&S. These were built from old wood double sheethed boxcars. I built this from a very old Rapido wood reefer. I cut off the ends as did the proto type and used the underframe for the end platform. The bays are from a heavily modified CONCOR bay...narrowed and the built up to it's correct height. I used Gold Medal endrails and added new windows all around. The ends are scribbed bass wood. I was going to make it NP...but decided on the SP&S at the last minute................
I added to my "second line" or "second tier" roster by decoderizing this Athearn SD75i. It came from the first run with the barely DCC compatible motor--I eventually had to pull out the teensy motor leads (they broke off short after enough handling)and solder decoder wire to the motor contact stubs, then hard-wire them to the MRC 1644-2 decoder, which had to have it's large but dim LEDs replaced with smaller warm white 2mm LEDs. I also had to replace the MRC speaker with a Digitrax 10x18 mm oval 8 ohm speaker to get sound that could be heard above the mechanism noise. The rear of the frame had to be milled considerably to accomodate the sound decoder, but it was pretty straightforward. I probably took it apart and reassembled it 25 times before it was right-ugh! Other than painting the wheels, trucks and tank, I did not add any detail parts to the engine. I may still add some paint fade and light weathering to the shell, but this one is meant to be a trailing or helper unit. BTW, this mechanism was literally packed in grease when I got it. It was totally cleaned out, and the trucks are quite free rolling, like Kato trucks. It still sounds a bit coffee-grinderish with speed or under load, but not enough to mask what sound the decoder can put out. Richard M.
After about a month hiatus, and having a new clear workbench, I decided to break it in with my SP&S weed sprayer project which will use a Kato 11-105 mechanism. I am also hoping to make this a track cleaner also if I can work out the logistics and technical items to mount a masonite pad under the 105 chassis. Also I plan to have this tow a commercial track cleaner behind it if I can get the tractive effort out of it. The prototype has a cab similar to a speeder, just wider. So using a speeder kit that contains two speeders I am bashing parts for the cab. The cab is three windows wide and has a different and larger radiator than the original speeded so two cab fronts have been spliced. The original radiator openings were filled with styrene and some details removed then a new radiator glued into place.
Made some progress on the weed sprayer. Cab is now fabricated and the bulk of the tank body also fabricated from styrene, and managed to get the measurements right so that it clips right onto the Kato 11-105 chassis.
Well, not really on any sort of work-bench (more like two cardboard-boxes), and not likely to see completion at least within the next two weeks, but my work-crew (if not me) is busily ironing out some kinks on my scaled-down version of Kalmbach's "Lake District Ry."... as well as laying some new track: Thanks for looking Sven
Nick, Thanks'. Next to NSNX2012 GP7 the hoppers looked way to plain and shiny. I will be waiting to see the outcome of your project.
Added some of the structural details under the cab and forward part of the tank this evening and attached the cab to the tank. Photo in background is a copy of the prototype I made to work with. I've only found three pictures of this critter in all my searches and none are real good enough for the finer details. So hopefully I will capture the flavor of the beast if not the exact thing. Next endeavor is to see if I can rig up a masonite track cleaner under this before I go further. I have the idea to try and spring load the masonite and to design it to quick connect/disconnect for cleaning or replacement.
On all three Santa Fe U30CG's based on reworked Minitrix shells on Kato U30C / C30-7 mechanisms, This weekend I added the Gold Medal Models stirrups, painted handrails, body-mounted the couplers. Here's #403: Numberboards and weathering next. Getting close to finishing. The thread detailing all the construction is here : http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?92144-Trix-U30CG/page17
