Ram: Please tell us more about the Full Throttle Z Scale couplers - I have not heard of them before. I have tried mounting MTL 905s on some cars but it is not always possible. Tim
First of all I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmasand happy New Year. I have had little time to work on the layout and plan ondoing an updated video number 23 maybe today. This is what I have been workingon inside the workbench this week. Just a few miscellaneous projects I've hadlaying around and intend on putting on the layout. The tourist trap I've hadconstructed for quite some time and it was on the old layout and needed alittle bit of rehab. The rest of the structures are built for specificlocations. The loading ramp will go in the ghost town as well as the adobehouse and garage. The green stucco building will go at the T. Leary chemicalfactory. The tourist trap will go along the highway on the way into the ghosttown. Mike
Please tell us more about the Full Throttle Z Scale couplers - I have not heard of them before. Tim: This is the retailer of FT, but the actual couplers are made for him by Bowser and are called "Bowser Bucklers" for some reason: http://wdwfullthrottle.com/series_trucks.htm. Unfortunately, the only way to get the coupler at this time is to buy the entire Z scale truck with metal wheelsets and cut off the coupler-this is expensive. About a year ago, on this forum, solutions to the age-old issue of a better N scale coupler were being discussed and these products were brought up. The actual coupler is close to scale size in terms of the knuckle, has a short shank and a small box, and the knuckle will open and close so it's not a rigid one piece item. At the time, a number of us contacted FT, and he had Bowser make 500 couplers without the wheelsets (the mold includes the truck sideframes), of which I bought about 30-40. I don't know if they all sold. A prototype etched brass coupler draft gear box with attachment points for cut levers and air hoses is being made up by some advanced modellers here and on Railwire, and should be available soon, and will make the FT much easier to install. It does come with a trip pin like the MT couplers, but I think the cat-whisker design is too stiff for this to be of much use, so it's usually cut off. If the etched box works out, the combination will be a major advance toward a functional, close to scale-sized N coupler. Of course, it would be nice if someone would make single and double shelf knuckles for modern rolling stock, like HO has, but I don't see that coming soon. I suspect progress on the draft gear box will appear on Railwire's "Best of the Wire" archive section under "notes on body-mounting..." You are a great detailer, so I think you'd agree that N scale is not too small to have properly scaled, accurately rendered mechanicals like couplers, wheels, etc. along with the static details we like to add to our stuff. There is a lot of resistance to change and it won't be for everyone, but there seems to be a trend toward body mounted couplers and metal wheels and this is just going one step farther down the evolutionary path with a coupler that functions but also looks prototypical. In case there are still unsold FTs without the Z wheels available, you can contact William Dean Wright, "Uncle Will", the owner of FT at dewaa128@aol.com, see if he still has any. Richard M.
Well - I just about finished the Engine House last night - here is a picture - standard Heljan/ConCor kit, with paint job, weathering, liquid window maker window glass, and some small details. Still thinking on some signage to come. Tim
Here is some preliminary work on my idea for replicating the carbody openings on the Kato F units w/o actually cutting the shell... I'll be using Plano Models photo-etched grills (even thought he molding of the Kato units is superb)...most of them the FARR type vertical slit, but some horizontal grills also, depending on actual photo references for the units I'm modelling during the era... The openings, or lack thereof, will be visible behind these beautiful photoetched pieces (especially the horizontal version), so I thought it would be advantageous to replicate the openings, especially considering all the other detail work I'm adding to these units. Microscale black, 1/8 inch stripes fill the grills perfectly, top to bottom, so, with the reference pics I've accumulated, and a pair of dividers, it's pretty simple to transfer the lengths needed for the '4' main openings...these were applied to the area, then lightly soaked with Walthers solvaset (considerably more powerful than Microsol...I use this for larger decals) I'm using various width silver striping from Microscale to replicate the 'structural' members visible withing the carbody openings per the reference pics... here are a couple of in-progress pics...I believe I'm going to try to replicate as much of the structure as I can, since I've come this far! Thanks for looking, Bruce
She's doing her nails at Jerry's workbench...the lighting is better there ! R O F L M A O :tb-biggrin:
LOL......no not her nails! She has been wanting to put a kit together for some time, and tonight she started building her first laser wood kit.
Here's the FP45....5941 pulled the last ATSF Passenger train through Franklin Canyon, which is why I redid the Athearn models number. BLMA grabs, horn, crew, MU hoses, lift rings and can antenna are some of the additions.
Here's a cool detail I learned from a Trainboard member......a scale timetable on the dash inside the cab. You can see it if you look hard enough on the Engineers side. (Cut from a real ATSF timetable so the orange is as correct as is gets! LOL)
I was just posting some more 'in progress' photos... Here are a couple of pics of the F cab unit 'assembly line'...I think this is as far as I'll go with replicating the structural members in the 'openings'...in the proto pics, the diagonal members are visible behind the stainless grills, but it's tough to pick out other vertical members... Here the FARR grills are overlayed in place so I can gauge what will be visible or not visible under them... Again, Thanks for looking! Bruce
