3 of the bulkheads measure out at 50 ft. and the other at 42 ft. The big green mainline log cars equipped for interchange are also 42 ft. while the black woods log cars, home road only, are 34 footers. All these are from a bunch of underframes in my parts box collected over the years so I don't even know who made some except for the Bmann 34 footers. I have been thinning down my parts bins for awhile now and decided to save some money plus have some fun in building some of my own stuff. I also have a bunch of Overton underframes left over from kit bashing larger wood cars that I am going to play with, probably doing more log flats. They should come out at about 35 foot.
Got the kitbashed cabeese gloss coated and ready for decals after adding some ladders. The steamers in the back have also been gloss coated and will be my hurricane project. And yes the one in back is a cabbage stacked wood burner.
Three more ready for decals. Two 2-6-0s and a MicoAce 2-6-6-0 converted to a logging engine. But the real jewel is sitting behind. Found a bunch of lighthouses at a thrift store midweek. They are made by HarborLights and the series is This Little Light of Mine. According to the old price sticker still on some of the boxes they came from a Hallmark store. I picked up four at $5 apiece. Very close for N scale which is why its in the photo with the locos for comparision.
Still lining up projects from the parts boxes and bins so I dug out this old steamer to see what I could make from it. Had it for a long time and bought it used then. However it still runs although bawlky. This 2-8-8-2 may be an earlier Concor or it could be one of the even earlier incarnations prior to Concor. So I had it out, took it apart and even found the original shell, but not tender. Will clean up everything and then attempt to come up with another GN steamer that is not out there in N scale that I know of. And if that fails then I may just section the loco, install a smaller motor, lock down the swiveling truck, and go for yet another GN loco also not produced and not likely to be. Whats it going to be if succesfull? Well I'm keeping that under wraps for awhile.
Nice bunch of projects, and great find on the lighthouses! Wish I could find my other parts box. I know I've got one more box of N-scale stuff in this house somewhere. And if I find it, I might find the 0-8-0 that goes with the tender I have.
More progress on the loco shell. Needs a day or so for the putty to set plus I still have the entire front dome to remove and most everything on the smokebox but the stack. Then it is into the paint stripper and check to see how much more sanding once the residual paint is gone. Have to also rework the front truck and pilot area.
Started stripping the old Minitrix 0-6-0 during the storm and took it down to its all metal boiler shell. Fit a MT steam pilot conversion in place of the cow catcher with the only mods being to the attachment shank of the MT pilot. Had to get rid of the raised screw hole and make the part flat and slightly thinner. Tender for this is way too wide and stands out as such. Sanded the bottom body sill down and then the flared top of the tender. Reduced it to exactly ten feet wide now. Will keep the headlight and add a bulb where the small brass weight was in place of the bulb. Mounting and wiring for the bulb was already there. Also getting a new more modest sized stack from the parts box. Tender has a metal drawbar and I found earlier that the loco drawbar post conducts part of the current to the motor. So I will take the pick-ups from one of my surplus tenders and adapt them to the rather nice trucks and insulated metal wheels. Then I will run one wire from the rear truck to the loco motor and enhance the pick-up which will be from the drawbar and the one wire. This will stay a wood burner for the logging line with some more mods to the tender. Loco shell in the rear is the previously posted 2-8-8-2 shell being almost completely stripped of just about everything. Loco I have plans to build had a smooth jacket with little on the boiler. Once the shell is done then I start on the mechanism and that will tell me where I need to cut and section the boiler and by how much.
I started on a Clinchfield Ice Breaker Car for a friends line. It's something fun and a little out of the ordinary. I'll post more as I progress.
Got rid of the horribly oversized wood burning stack on the MiniTrix and replaced it with a Bmann 4-4-0 stack. Added extensions the the tender wood rack using part of a Bmann oldtime gondola wood side and then some styrene. First coat of paint applied also. Next its into the lighting parts for a headlight bulb and repaint the headlight and maybe add a 2nd one lung airpump. By the weekend I should be tackling the tender pick-up installation.
Wooded up the tender feul bunk this evening then set about figuring out how to adapt this to tender pick-up. I am using Azalea trimmings. The dead branches from the Azalea bush make great N scale logs, a trick I learned from a Master Model Railroader friend. The bark texture is great for N scale. I saved a lot of my small stuff to use for firewood for my steam donkeys. I split the small stuff using a single edge razor blade to get split logs from the slightly larger stuff. Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue secures the load. Spent an hour trying out different things to get tender pick-up and finally came up with a method that worked. So tomorrow I'll go searching for my brass wire and do a little soldering on the drawbar. Rear truck gets a longer mounting screw that will come through the floor and have the rear truck wire attach there. Thought about using some of the Kato trucks I have or even the Bmann trucks. Tender floor is to thick for brass strips inside and making contact with the tabs on the trucks. Using Atlas axle wipers to conduct power to the mounting screws and the metal drawbar.
Except for decals the MiniTrix 0-6-0 is done. New wood burner stack, new MT pilot, and installed the headlight bulb. Tender received an extended wood rack and real wood. The tender was a tad too wide so it was trimmed on the lower sill and the top flare area bringing it down to the same width as the loco cab and my other tenders. Installed a MT 1015 on the tender rear by trimming the rapido pocket except for the back section and simply mounting the MT in the area once occupied by the rapido. Had to file the rear opening a little wider for the coupler shank to swivel properly. Managed to install pick-up on the front tender truck, however the rear truck was a washout because of too many technical issues. The tender behind this loco is shorter in length than any of my surplus tenders so using the chassis of one of them was not feasible. I even looked at the Kato caboose chassis that I have used before. The tender is shorter by about 3-4 feet than the Bmann tender on the 2-6-2 behind it. But I did improve the pick-up some over the original. At some point as things become available I will revisit the rear truck pick-up.
Very nice, John! And thanks for the tip on the scale firewood/logs. Here's some of my latest projects, all wrapped up into one: First we see the car float bridge, made from a pair of Atlas girder bridges. They're cut about a half inch shorter (one had a broken end, and I didn't want it too long anyway), then I pulled out the track, snapped off the track clips, added some strips of styrene (to make the tie area level), cut and inserted some wooden strips, and added the wheels and pulleys they use to connect to the car float. Next is the idle/reach gondola (ignore the box car, that's just stock MTL). This was a covered gondola before that I've lowered, cut out the ends for steps/ladders, filed the trucks and frame to allow for tighter radius curves, and added the "cement weights" (basswood for now, will add staples for lift rings and paint it cement color). And then there's the box cab, made from an old caboose.
What a mess, parts and tools everywhere and metal filings galore. But I managed to section the old 2-8-8-2 frame and resecure both pieces with everything plumb. Had to section the front driver frame first to determine measurements that would carry over to the loco frame and shell. Prior to cutting the main frame I had ground out groves on each side to accept brass stock. That also made sure that the alignment would be close to right with very little tweaking. Brass reinforcements were ACC'd in using gap filling ACC mixed with metal filings from cutting the frame. Frame is rock solid now. Shell has been sectioned and is in the process of being reglued. Cab although not shown here has been also reworked. This is a old loco that I have had near on thirty years now and it barely ran and needed a lot of work which is why I choose it for this project. I have two newer 2-8-8-2s that are far better, one having never left its box yet. May still have factory air in the box. When the glue sets firmly in a day or so I'll start giving this gal a Belpaire firebox and re-attach the cab. Then its on to reassembling the front drivers and doing some repairs on the rods.
Making more progress on the boxcab: Got the doors in, filled in the roof walk holes, smoothed out the roof, started scraping off the curved caboose grab irons and filed the bottom flat in preparation for the I-beams. Also, here's how it looks on my mock critter: I left it perched up on top of the chassis floor to give a rough idea of what it'll look like with the I-beam frame on it. Much better! Oh, and I got a little more done on the idler/reach gondola: Got the angled side braces on. A few are a little bit crooked, but thankfully, that appears to be the same on the prototype. Also installed the ladders (from the caboose I'm using as the boxcab) and started working on the grabs (from wire in an HO craftsman kit that I'm cannibalizing). Further research shows that the actual idler/reach gondola used at Bush Terminal was a high-sided gondola that was cut down for use as the idler/reach gondola, just like mine! I'm so prototypical I didn't even know it!
First coat of paint on the old 2-8-8-2 conversion after shortening the boiler, adding the Belpaire firebox. and re-attaching the cab. Added steam and sanddomes, and new stack. Drilled the boiler for the handrail staunchions and added two cross compound airpumps. Also replaced or added some additional air reservoir tanks under the running boards/walkways. Next will be to add some piping below the walkways and appliances on top of the Belpaire that is already drilled for them. This will be a relatively clean lined boiler as the prototype.
Worked my way past the motor disaster with a donor motor from a more modern 2-8-8-2. And while I was at it I decided to get away from the plastic siderods so it became a doner for front and rear engines. Plus I got metal gears in the bargain. Had to rework the motor mount because the new motor was shorter and a little more round than the original. The white object in the foreground is a pilot mounted sandbox being scratched from styrene. Once I have the pilot sandbox done then I'll snip a few of the extra bracing off the pilot. And yup it is a 2-6-8-0.
And with the sandbox installed on the pilot bandstand. Time to let the glue dry, sand it a little and make the filler hatches for it.
See, I told you you'd find a way to make it work. You're a MacGuyver-type. Next you'll be building a nice Decapod with some chewing gum wrappers, paper clips and duct tape... Meanwhile, here's the latest workbench update: Finished adding the grabs to the idler/reach gondola. Just needs a little straightening here and there (though the prototype had rather bent-up grabs anyway). Also added the eye bolts to the cement blocks used for weight. Headlight assemblies came in for the 59-tonner so they've been installed. I've also adjusted the front and rear decks (they were a little crooked before). And I added some styrene under the roof to bring it up just a little (looks a lot more like the prototype this way). Next step is roof details, including a pair of exhaust mufflers with feed pipes (I'll be using a large paper clip with a piece of red plastic pipe from a can of dust off), then time to paint both. They're sitting on a piece of test track that I've set up for testing my equipment on a 5.5" radius curve. All but one of my locomotives works on this curve, and quite well I must add! Only the RSD-15 wouldn't make it (which is what I expected). The Kato F3, Kato GP50, Atlas GP40, Bachmann PCC Trolley, and even the Bachmann Plymouth switcher could handle it with ease! [video]http://dev.checkertaxistand.com/photos/idler_gondola/5.5-inch.avi[/video] So those, plus the box cab and 59-tonner (and the SW8 my drummer is sending me) will all work on my layout. YESSSSSSSS! :thumbs_up:
