Saw somewhere else where someone was making loads for the new run of Intermountain autoracks they had just received. I didn't get any yet but I do have some from the original Red Caboose releases so decided to try out loading one. Here is a test try Not bad so far
Well the tear down of the donkey engines is done and the components loaded onto 3 flats, 1 log car, and one gondola. The short flats are Bmann 34 foot old timers that I fitted with MT trucks and relocated the brake wheel to the car side. 100_1558-1 by John Moore posted Jan 1, 2022 at 4:33 PM The car in the rear is my scratch built flat with a load of fermentation vats for the brewery.
So my workbench just got 4 more decoder installs. The first one is my Intermountain SD40-2 which is not the best performer in my stable, but I have been told it’s much better with a decoder installed. So we will see. Then I have 3 E units that are older Kato Blue box, yellow Milwaukee Road. These must have been some of the last of the blue box as they had LED lights and the nice PCB type board in them. I have an older BB Kato that has no board and just an incandescent bulb and brass rods for the lighting. These E units will be getting Digitrax decoders in the A and C units and an ESU sound decoder in the B unit. This will be my first install of a sound decoder in an N scale loco. Oh fun
Which E units? Curious because I've an E8A Milwaukee Road in the UP livery (blue box too) that I converted to digital a decade back with a TCS Z2 decoder.
My current list is the BN business train, going to do a bit of a freelance version, will be an ABB set of Kato F7s with details to make the AB set F9s, and the final B will be a HEP/fuel tender. This is based off info I received from some of the men involved in the upgrading the original F9 AB set, they had plans to turn a second B unit into a fuel tender and HEP as the original fuel tanks were so small that they were limited in their use. But my train will also be about 23/24 cars, so I'll probably need all 3 units to actually pull the train. Other project is redoing the last 4 cars on the American Freedom Train, I currently have Bachmann cars for it, but I'll be using the new MTL single window coaches as the base. Also going to redo the sleeper as Des Plaines makes a kit for the correct car, so I'll be replacing the 10-6 sleeper with it. However for myself, I won't be removing the skirts, unless I can figure out a way to cut the skirts out from the small skirt sprue.
Getting ready to take some $3 a piece boxcars purchased 20 or 30 years ago and convert to some flatcars. Not my first trip down this road. Looked at flatcars new and used and rebelled at the prices. Even looked at Shapeways at bodies and again prices caused a rebellion. The cars are going to use the underframe from the boxcars and trucks and then with styrene and wood I will build the bodies. The car shells will go in the parts box for possible future use. 100_1559-1 by John Moore posted Jan 2, 2022 at 12:08 PM
Nice. The A unit I have is an excellent runner. I believe it was my first kato which I picked up used along with a matching 4 and 6 passenger car box set when I first got back into N scale in the late 90's. Been wanting to get a B unit which I eventually acquired but in the UP lettering. I go back and forth about updating to sound but have to mill out the chassis to make room for a speaker. Not a big deal but would rob it of some of it's excellent tractive abilities.
With my NWSL Chopper I cut some stained real wood strips and then ACC'd them to the first flatcar deck. Once dry I will use a sanding block to trim any excess from the sides and then cut some stake pockets for the sides. The flatcar is 41 feet long by 10 feet wide. I will start work on the 2nd car tomorrow while watching the predicted snowfall. The wood was stained with India ink in alcohol. Like most of the flats I have built these will have the brake wheel side mounted. 100_1560-2 by John Moore posted Jan 2, 2022 at 5:27 PM
There is plenty of room to mill the chassis in the rear for a speaker of an “A” unit. But the “B” unit uses the same chassis, and already has a milled out area for a speaker. Since there is no nose on the B unit the speaker can fit there with little to no modification (depending on the speaker) and you will be good to go.
Well ready for minimal lettering and trucks. The stake pockets are cut from Plastruc channel. Brake wheel is a MT part. 100_1561-3 by John Moore posted Jan 2, 2022 at 8:32 PM An aged flatcar is ready to run off some more miles.
Lemme see… Insulated the chassis on the 4 engines I put decoders in the other day, now they are safe. Installed a Decoder in my InterMountain SD40-2, but I’m gonna sell it. Rewired one of my T-Trak module sets, no more shorts now (See T-Trak thread for pics of the work below) Worked on scenery for one of the front-to-back modules Started scenery on the second front-to-back module Almost finished the middle module of my RTE 66 set. Yup I was busy today.
Been working on some tug boat traffic to put on the snake river. Using tinker cad. In the design and test phase. This is the Tidewater Maverick. Will be modeled in 86/87 as the Betty Ann (was the name prior to Maverick). Will be pushing a wood chip barge and container loaded barge from the port of Lewison and Wilma on the Snake and Clearwater River respectively.
Scenery done on one more module, and about 90% on a second module. I will post some pics of them in the morning when there is better light… and the glue has dried. now I just need a couple “old” buildings that are in good condition for my old town side of my RTE 66 modules.
The flatcar project is finished for now. The rear Left two cars are 41 foot built on boxcar underframes. The front left two are built from old Atlas metal caboose underframes and are 35 foot cars. Both sets of cars have stake pockets made from styrene channel and stirrup steps made from brass ladder stock The decks of all four cars are built from real wood planks. The three cars on the right are Bmann 34 foot old times that I have modernized with MT trucks and couplers and the brake wheels mounted on the side. 100_1564-1 by John Moore posted Jan 5, 2022 at 2:23 PM
Real nice. I'll take about a dozen with stacks on the ends and hand wheels on the ends. Then I'll get a little steamer to move them. Richard
So here was my dilemma: Its Winter. Its Cold. Its Snowy! I will be doing the following at my computer desk in the house !!!! I model 1980-current. I have these 2 box trucks with 1950's era cabs. . . I bought (4) 1984 Ford 9000 LNT Semi Tractors and a 40' trailer off Lowell on swap meet. . MY plan is to take the boxes off the old trucks and put them on the frames with the newer cabs... . . Then I will make 'stake beds' for the old frames and cabs. One will go in "Georges Scrap Yard". The other will be used in "J&J Horse Ranch". . I also have two OLD 'Navajo Freight" trailers that I am going to cut the 'bullnose' fronts off of and patch in flat fronts on the trailers. I will sand them down and repaint. These 2 will be stand ins until I can find some newer 28' pup trailers. .
Working on updating this brass Lemke BR18.201 (4-6-2) to DCC. I got it used on what I thought was a bargain due to running gear issues but has proved to be more of a challenge getting it sorted than I thought. Ergo wasn't motivated to light or put sound in it. So started digging into the valve gear and think I got it sorted. I believe whoever had this before dropped it and bent the valve gear and in an attempt to get it running again bent everything up worse as the loco did run albeit really rough. A few .6mm nuts and bolts I had for scale modeling and some CA to lock them worked perfect to replace some of the pins in the gear train as I had to break just about everything down to get at and straighten all the bent parts. Smooth like a swiss watch now so on to finish the electrics. It's a beautiful loco so worth some effort to get it back to running condition with sound. Right side put back together with everything straightened out. Left side waiting assembly after testing and ensuring the right side worked smoothly. The only thing not bent was the connecting rods lol. All back together as far as valve gear so getting the electrics ran and tested.
Ordered another TGV, and some decoders. This should be the last of my drop in decoder conversions, 1 TGV (that’s not here yet) and 3 P42s. This leaves me with a Kato TGV that isn’t decoder friendly (Orange one), a Tomix Shinkansen (Hello Kitty) and a Kato and Tomix commuter train that I want to convert to DCC still. I have 2 Kato HB-E300 trains that I want to convert, but I can also just as easily leave them DC and be happy… not sure what I’m gonna do on those yet. The HB-E300 locomotives uses a pcb that is the same as the P42s but they use SMD LEDs on both sides of the board. I’m good at soldering, but my eyes are not good enough to solder things that small. I may be able to hardwire a decoder to the factory board, but there really isn’t much room inside that loco… so this is why I’m on the fence converting these engines.
