Well last night I disassembled both little switchers and placed the shell parts in paint stripper getting ready for possibly having to modify the shells to the TM-TR02 mechanism. 100_0005-1 by John Moore posted Feb 19, 2023 at 4:01 PM And here is a shot of the rod equipped current mechanism and another mechanism from my TRW railbuses that rolls around the track effortlessly. 100_0004-2 by John Moore posted Feb 19, 2023 at 4:01 PM There is a strong possibility that I can modify the shells with an off center cab and one long hood and a short hood to fit this TGW mechanism. So now there exists two open options for these little switchers.
John... Just a thought here. On the small mechanism the rod on the front axle...where it attaches to the wheel...looks to be square. Is there anyway to file the corners off that 'square' ? The linkage may not hit the rails after that. Just a thought like I said.
Well not any if at all room to try and trim and actually the square linkage has more room from the rail head or frogs. Here is the mechanism with a dime in the picture showing just how small everything is. 100_0007-1 by John Moore posted Feb 20, 2023 at 11:07 AM
My project is not as hard as yours there JOHN, But i am tired of the wheelsets coming off the trucks. Metal wheelsets to the rescue. Have around a dozen or two to replace.
[QUOTE="Massey, post: 1255332, member: 35137" the RC Tow Mater. My son used to have that little guy.[/QUOTE] i made him a slotcar to race with lightning car we have
A couple little projects to keep me busy between locomotives. First, upgrading a Stewart Products sand/fuel/water stand kit for the club layout's diesel shop. The plastic ones that used to be there did not hold up under the rigors of public display! Hopefully some all-metal ones will withstand the accidental bumps a little better. Second, from the "lucky discoveries" file. I tried a few approaches to upgrade am Atlas Trainman ACF covered hopper to MT trucks and body-mount couplers, but the low end platforms meant the couplers were always too low and the mounting screws interfered with the axles. As a last-ditch effort before going back to the original trucks and couplers I grabbed a pair of Z-scale couplers and put them on. Turns out they clear the trucks perfectly, line up with the MT height gauge, and close up the coupling distance a little.
Well both orders from different venders in Japan arrived the same day. 100_0008-1 by John Moore posted Feb 23, 2023 at 6:46 PM My TomyTec TR02 mechanism arrived and it is not going to work on the little center cabs. Also received what will be the last passenger power on the Turtle Creek. Introducing what will be the Night Rider and Otto Kuhler inspired design. 100_0010-2 by John Moore posted Feb 23, 2023 at 6:46 PM An all pullman streamliner that runs at night.
Last November, I purchased a complete SP collection from a former TB'er and of course every SP'er has to have a #4449, right. Well now I have two and the one I recently acquired was an original run and confirmed by looking at the plastic tubes holding the driver axle pieces together. The question is not if these will fail but rather when will they crap out. IT will happen. Mine is now enroute to Kelley Duford to put a set of the "new revised" drivers into the mechanism. Since I have a Daylight version I am planning on painting it black when I reassemble. Here she is today : BTW, this loco had a KATO EM13 decoder in tender that worked, as well as a TCS FL4 in boiler to operate the lights. I plan on putting a sound decoder and 11x15 speaker in the tender (not sure which brand yet). If anyone is interested in the two decoders PM me and I'll quote a price, cheap. Be well !
I spent most of my time, testing all my boxes of locomotives to see what works and what doesn't. I have been surprised a few times by IM locomotives I forgot I had, and so far these units with decoders installed a long time ago do not seem to suffer from the plague. As the say even the blind squirrel finds nut every once and a while.
Progress thus far: Locomotives tested and used, ran for several minutes without issues - 688 Tested and failed, either bad decoder or bad frame(IM) 88 The testing is still ongoing....... I am up to the last two batches, all my passenger train locomotives and two large boxes of freight locomotives. I figure a few more days or perhaps this week until I am done, then it becomes the great decoder replacement! I have a few Zimo failures, many Digitrax, every NCE and a few Lenz, and several TCS. There are no ESU failures as of yet, but they are the decoders that are all recent in the last couple of years. Time will tell with them. So back to the grindstone as some might say. The silver lining to all the failures is that 95% of them are board replacement locomotives, so the fix is rather easy. It is the older locomotives with the Lenz Silver Mini or the Digitrax DZ143 that are not going to be as easy or fun to do.
My father and grandfather, from whom I learned it, referred to "a blind sow" in that saying. Same effect, but given a pig's excellent sense of smell, it's not likely they'd depend on sight even if they had it.
Thinking further about it, it is a good lesson in that the pig uses it's strongest abilities to solve the problem. Like we should; while sight is helpful in finding something that was lost, so is memory and reason (our trump cards).
On the other hand, the other similar well-used phrase is "Even a stopped watch is right twice a day."
