Weekend Update - February 25, 2007

[3rdrail]

On the off chance that a great many Railwire "asshats" are busy shoveling snow this afternoon, here's the opportunity for those of you lucky enough to have decent weather today to share what y'all have been up to this past week.

It's a nice balmy 68 deg. F around here. 

[amato1969]

Nice weather report -- I just finished shoveling a few inches of slush off my driveway.  More snow is falling now, so it's a perfect time to do some decaling.   ;D

[Erik W]

Here are a couple of shots of my D&RGW roster.  I just finished adding decoders and weathering 5 IMRC F7s.  Also seen in the photos are Atlas GP9s, SD7s and a GP-7, Kato F3s and my customized IMRC FTs.






Erik

[wm3798]

I finally decoderated my Laurel Valley GP20, so it is now in revenue service supplying run-through power on BT-1 and WM-6.  It's sister, 1801, will be entering the paint shop shortly to relieve it of it's Armour Yellow, then it too will receive a decoder.

Other than that, not much this week.  Work is starting to pick up again, so time is getting more and more scarce.

Lee

[John]

Lets see ..

1. Shoveled 3" of snow !!!

2. Installed 5 Tortoise switch machines and 2 DS-64s to control them.

3. Started to build 3 BOD-H block detectors for the upper level ..

4. Finished wiring the lower level for block detection, cut all the gaps needed.

5. Starting CAD drawings to photo etch my signals ..

[Chulvis]

Interesting, John. How many signals do you think you'll have on the layout?

I am going to need 3 signals for each end of the sidings .. 30 or so signals there ..

2 signal bridges per crossover  .. about 14 ..

and a bunch of intermediate signals .. 20-25 ..

I have no choice but to try to make them myself .. it would be too costly to go with some of the great commercial products ..

[Chris333]

John,

Who are you gonna have etch your signals?

Micro Trains uses Indiana Micro Etch for all their work (like the sides of those autoracks)
http://www.imei.net/

[Roger Holmes]

I have no choice but to try to make them myself .. it would be too costly to go with some of the great commercial products ..

That's because of the outrageous markup that DEALERS charge ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Chulvis]

Interesting, John. How many signals do you think you'll have on the layout?

I am going to need 3 signals for each end of the sidings .. 30 or so signals there ..

2 signal bridges per crossover  .. about 14 ..

and a bunch of intermediate signals .. 20-25 ..

I have no choice but to try to make them myself .. it would be too costly to go with some of the great commercial products ..

John,

I think you hit the modify button instead of the quote button...either that or I answered my question for you. ;D

[atsf_arizona]

Erik W, I really like your great photos!

Here's my little goofball project for this week. 

The excessive coupling distance between the LifeLike E6s
(even with short shank Unimates) always bugged me. 

I came up with a bit of a 'Rube Goldberg' solution as shown in the
pictures below. 

Idea was to do as simple as possible, no chopping of anything permanent, and see what
I could come up with.

So far, I've had good-enough tracking characteristics
with this, due to the skew forces on the trucks not being strong enough to force
any problems (so far).  True, it's not what I would call my long-term solution.  For
now, it seems OK.   Does look a whole lot better. 
 






















Next, I'll paint the cRapidos silver, keep testing.

Does anyone have any ideas how to improve this method? 

I'm still trying to figure out how to easily make something that
can fit both coupler pockets, equalized the load and eliminate the
skew.

Love to hear any suggestions.

Have a good week, all!

[Ian MacMillan]

Got a chance to start painting my AN roster. First to the paint shops were Atlas MP15's with Sound.

Here is the first unit out #1234 (1200 Series) in its base weathering, still needing to have its paint faded, handrails installed, and details such as snowplow, antenna, mirrors, shades,horns, train lines, and MU cables installed.

The paint is all beat to hell from working the paper mills all day.

[Chris333]

Just pulled this out of the acid:



Full length handrails for a Kato NW-2. Any past attempt to make railings has failed so I tried to etch these. So far all my etchings have been .005" thick, these are .010" and a little harder to get nice even thickness here at home.

Now I notice Erie 401, 402, & 402 all match the Kato phase, but the stacks are different...back to the lab. (maybe Atlas VO1000 tall stacks will work?)

[keystonecrossings]

John,

Interesting solution for close coupling. But I'm curious, have you tried running this arrangement through #7 crossovers? I'm wondering if there will be stress due to the torque as the units twist and turn through a crossover.

Looks good, but I doubt it would work for me long term.

[wm3798]

John,
I rigged a similar drawbar, only I used a slightly longer Rapido shank (I have about a million of them in a box, so I have no idea where it came from...)
What I did was cut off the "box" from the Rapido, leaving a double-ended T shank of an appropriate length.  This allowed both sides to flex equally, and I had no problems through S curves at turnouts.  My rig was between a pair of FA's, which are 4 axle, so the dynamics may have been a bit different.

Lee

[inkaneer]

John,
I rigged a similar drawbar, only I used a slightly longer Rapido shank (I have about a million of them in a box, so I have no idea where it came from...)
What I did was cut off the "box" from the Rapido, leaving a double-ended T shank of an appropriate length.  This allowed both sides to flex equally, and I had no problems through S curves at turnouts.  My rig was between a pair of FA's, which are 4 axle, so the dynamics may have been a bit different.

Lee

There was a write up in one of the Nscale mags about 2-3 years ago using this method as a way to close couple the Atlas ore jennies.   For my FA's I used the Unimate "T" shank dummy couplers as it was an easy drop in installation.  This was on the original issue FA/B 2's which had the truck mounted couplers.  The newer split frame FA/b 1's and 2's take a body mount Unimate with more work envolved.  I use the Unimates on my Kato E8's also.  I also have Unimates mounted on my LifeLike/Walthers ABA C liners that I just got but I am still not satisfied with the spacing between units. 

A double "T" shank drawbar can easily be fabricated with some styrene rod, a drill and soem glue.