With the number of windows on this structure I decided to spray primer and then brush on the brick color.
Installed a decoder in the U30C. TCS recommends the CN for this loco, but with a tiny bit of extra frame grinding I was able to fit the slightly larger CN-GP in. The CN-GP has an extra function output that I'll need to get the headlight and Gyralite working independently. I also tried to add piping to the air tanks, but the only wire I have the right diameter is steel music wire that's an absolute nightmare and a half to try and make into pieces that small. That looks really good! I'm gonna have to remember this approach for the Gripps Luggage kit I'm doing for the club, I've been absolutely dreading masking off all those windows.
I like the red oxide color too, but then most older bricks around here (DFW) are that color, especially older brick buildings and streets.
I hope to find the right color for our "Cream City Bricks". It's a yellowish tan from the local clay. So much softer than the red bricks.
I plan on painting the foundation and weathering the brick. That should lighten the brightness and add some detail to the bricks. The doors and window frames will remain the primer color. Now to decide what color I should use for the foundation.
Trying to finish up an ongoing project that has been on the back burner for too long. I started working on my Southern Pacific Sunset Limited back in 1994. Two Con Cor PAs and a dogs breakfast of Atlas/Rivarossi, Con Cor and MRC/Rowa cars painted up and decaled for the Sunset. That morphed into kit bashing the head end cars, the lounge cars, diner and the blunt end 10-6 sleeping car for the tail end. I picked up a boat load of ROWA Budd Slumber Coach roofs to outfit all the cars while adding aluminum fluting to the sides of many cars. Con Cor released their Budd cars so I bought some coaches, sleepers and a few diners. I replaced the Con Cor PAs with KATOs. Then Roberto at M&R came out with etched metal sides for the entire 15 car train set. I had been slowly replacing all the kit bashed cars with the etched sides mounted on the Con Cor Budd cars and a Kato Business car providing the core for the blunt end 10-6. The tail car has the KATO electrical pick up to illuminate the Mars tail light, marker lights and the drum head. I never finished, because I ran out of decals. Microscale finally ran the Sunset decals again and I bought some but never picked up the project again. I recently pulled out the remaining car sides for the diner, coffee-shop lounge and two coaches to see if I can finally finish the train. The diner still needs window glazing and I am a good way into the coffee-shop lounge shown here.
THIS is on my workbench. It is a NEW Kato SD70Ace.... I had recently redid some scenery work. I vacuumed the track and all the area around where I worked. OK...so I must have missed a speck of debris. I seemed to have been pulled up into the gears on the front truck. No biggy right? Simple fix...pop off the front truck...clean the gears..reassemble..run train. NOT SO FAST !! First...notice there are NO screws holding the frame halves together. No clips...nothing that I can see. I guess its 'Magic!. Moving on for now. I did get the truck out of the frame fairly easily. Then comes the next problem. Kato decided sometime lately that they would make their brass pickups that go in the side frames with what they call a 'shock absorber' center axle cup. I am sure you have seen them. What a nightmare !!!! Getting them out and back in is something no one should look forwards to !! I finally got everything out of the truck frame. Cleaned and reinstalled everything. I checked that it all rolled nicely . Put the truck back in the frame. Put the loco back on the track and... NOTHING !!!! Zip...ziltch...NADA !!! I am so tired of manufactures changing frame designs and truck designs every other month that if I didn't have so much $$$$$$ invested in this hobby...I would set fire to all in a heart beat !! Rant over !
I'm gonna guess the two cross pins can slide fore/aft in the visible slots, which may release the two frame halves to come apart. And don't forget the fuel tank prolly has to come off the bottom too, before the frame halves will separate.
Not yet Joe. I will give it another try once the weather clears up again. It is suppose to snow again tomorrow.
Today my workbench was outside and I built a base for my up and coming 2x4 layout and I put some stain on the facia of the Christmas Layout I started last year. Yea I know, it still doesn’t have any snow on it, I will do that closer to the holiday season this year. There will be pretty facia on this once it gets the main landforms finished. And the much prettier Christmas layout.
Finally got around to programming my atlas commuter car decoder for the ditch lights to function properly. It had a Next18 slot so I had gotten a Loksound Pilot for it. Only problem was that I couldn't read any of the CVs since there was nothing connected to the motor output. I finally got a Next18 socket and was able to take the decoder out of the car and connect it via the socket to a DC loco for the motor load.
Build a box for my double T-Trak modules yesterday and today I built another one for 2 of my triples. And working on putting a decoder in a Lifelike SW8.
Repaired 10 trains today! Only 3 were mine and they got their couplers replaced, and a decoder reinstalled correctly, and a decoder reset and reprogrammed. The others were for customers and I had 7 dead locos, and now I have 7 good locos. One was a failure (would have been #11) but it wasn’t totally my fault. I put a decoder in a first gen Life Like SW8 and everything looked good. Touched each side of the frame with a 9v battery and the motor worked. Good so far, put the shell on put it on the rails and only the light works. woo woo woo everything worked with the battery. For those who do not know the joy of this locomotive, it will not work at all with the shell off, and the tabs that conduct power to the frame are delicate to say the least. Also being a first gen, it’s not DCC friendly. Well what I found out is the fuel tank when snapped on place causes the frame to contact the lower brush housing. This was no big deal in DC as it was the frame side the motor was connected to. When the fuel tank wasn’t in place, there was an acceptable gap. This caused the decoder to give up part of its ghost. I say part because the light still lights, but the motor doesn’t work, not even with the 9v battery and it won’t talk to JMRI either. But the light will go on and off on command or by changing direction. I have 3 more customer locos on my bench (4 if you count the SW8) that still need work. I’m gonna be busy tomorrow.
Okay, got a quick [hopefully easy] question for you. Have you ever put a DCC decoder in one of the Kato JR steam locomotives? They are such nice runners, I wonder if they would adapt well to DCC.
