David Smith has posted an incredible Z track and coupler guide on his website. It is an incredible article and resource! jamesriverbranch.net/clinic_2.htm Be prepared for a BIG surprise... Rob Kluz
Duh, my brain is full. Man, that is one great article. I have to look into some of these great points. Very nice presentation ! .
Very good compilation, professional and well written. Congratulations. Hopefully the saga continues with test results. One thing I'm not sure about is the dirt pick-up of delrin wheels. My experience is the complete opposite. On our train shows my fairly long train of PFE cars equipped with MTL trucks require substantially less cleaning than any other cars with metal wheels. I think, the issue is more about the smoothness of wheel surface. Lajos
ive been operating a big n scale layout for about 20 years, hundreds of cars, all kinds of wheels. the plastic ones get a thick layer of crud that i have to clean off every few months. but i rarely need to clean metal wheels at all. go figure. jim k
That was a well written piece. Very good. My question is who is gonna step up and make kato type pickups and wheels to power tenders in those trucks? I know...I know...someone will say make your own. I tried...I failed. I had the best blueprint in the world from Russell Straw to use a few years back. I can admit after trying that for whatever reason this is a skill that is not as easy at it looks.
from the pictures joe posted on the upcoming SD40-2 i believe they will have kato style pickups on those trucks. maybe you were only talking about steam tender trucks??? dave f.
Yup, pretty much. I have tried to fabricate my own, just never been good enough. Its funny, I have done numerous tender conversions in N scale to make things like the MP american run better, and the LL 2-8-8-2, where I wired the tender to the loco. No problem. But making the actual pickups has not been easy.
Thats why I been spending my time converting AZL trucks to MTL couplers. I love the sound it makes and I dont have to clean them. I actually got them to do the automatic drop off. so I got the best of both worlds.
