Weekend Update 3/31/13

[CodyO]

I`ve bought a few of those bowser trainphones have yet to install them but seeing all those N5c`s makes me want too!!

spend a hour this morning putting a few more pieces on my GHQ L1 kit, boiler is mainly done but have to order tenders and then install all the detail parts on them!!Other than that DCCed a 4 unit set of Erie F7s, fixed a traction tire on a GG1 and a 2-8-2.


How exactly did you lower the ride height on them? and I`ve also wanted to swap out couplers on them for Z scale couplers.

[eja]

The Bowser trainphone antenna on my former scale models (HO) actually enter the roof at both ends rather than just hanging in the air on one end.

Just curious if the N scale version came that way too ?


eja

[wm3798]

Slipped another set of decoder installs out the door, but otherwise still no actual modeling.

Everything looks awe inspiring this week, though.

Lee

[Swing Motorman]

How exactly did you lower the ride height on them? and I`ve also wanted to swap out couplers on them for Z scale couplers.

This is just a process I made up myself, so your mileage may vary (and sorry this runs long, it's hard to describe briefly).  With the roof, trucks, and couplers removed from an N5b or N5c, you'll see that the bolsters have a little tube extending down from them, into which the truck bolster pins fit.  You can shave this tube off flush with the rest of the bolster to lower the car height.  The flanges of the stock Bowser low-profile wheels won't hit anything on the undercarriage, and if you installed under-shank MT couplers, they will now sit at the right height! 



IMPORTANT CATCH: when you shave down the bolster tube extensions, you also need to trim the little nubs next to them.  These nubs are the common N-scale sway suppressors, which need to hang just a hair above the truck frames.  Take your knife and run its blade flat across the bolster, running lengthwise down the car perpendicular to the car sides.  If you're flush against the newly cut bolster, you'll take a bit of plastic off the sway nubs also.  Do this on both sides, then looks to see which set of nubs looks most even.  Cut the worse of the two sets off; as best I've learned, this sway control system works best with only one set of nubs.

Reinstall couplers, trucks, and roof and you should be good!

The Bowser trainphone antenna on my former scale models (HO) actually enter the roof at both ends rather than just hanging in the air on one end.

Just curious if the N scale version came that way too ?

I never noticed this until last week, when I stumbled across this image on the Whippany Railroad Museum's N5c restoration page: http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/exhibits/equipment/cabooses/penn-n5c-cabin-car



A great view of how the antennae end at the cupola.  I expect I'll be using thread, super glue, styrene scraps, and black paint to model this sometime soon.

Quite the week for Bowser N5s all of a sudden!  Dave's yard shot looks gorgeous, makes me really want to get to work on a decent backdrop for my cabin car fleet...


-Steven

[RWCJr]

Have the ventilator part of the roof finished, still sanding. I pre-paint units as they are built and added. But due to the bulk of the model, all paint gets scratched and chipped, so a final major mask and paint job is still ahead. It adds to the construction to paint, then have to scrape to bond the next pieces, but it helps me "see" the model to plan the following steps. Really having fun with this project.
Robert

[chicken45]

I never noticed this until last week, when I stumbled across this image on the Whippany Railroad Museum's N5c restoration page: http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/exhibits/equipment/cabooses/penn-n5c-cabin-car



A great view of how the antennae end at the cupola.  I expect I'll be using thread, super glue, styrene scraps, and black paint to model this sometime soon.

Quite the week for Bowser N5s all of a sudden!  Dave's yard shot looks gorgeous, makes me really want to get to work on a decent backdrop for my cabin car fleet...


-Steven

I've seen a few different configs for where they enter the cupola. Just keep that in mind before you commit. I'll try to find some more pics when I get home.

Thanks for the ride height info! Did you look into Z scale couplers? I don't know what adding them will do since you've lowered them, though. It really makes a difference since the cars are already so small.

[Hornwrecker]

Damn, another thing to put on on my to-do list: lowering the N5s.  I put FVM metal wheels on mine last week, and they ride a lot better, but the height.  Oy!  If you couple an ESM  boxcar to them, the coupler sticks up about halfway out too high.  I've got a couple of antenna kits to install on my older paint scheme ones, but I'm don't think too many of the trainphone cabins made it into the mid 1960s.

[dnhouston]

Robert, your roundhouse is shaping up nicely.  I can't wait to see it finished.

[Cajonpassfan]

I've never tried affixing ballast with thumbtacks, but whatever works for you...



Happy weekend, all.

MC, those rocks like totally, well you know, ROCK!!!
Dang....very.nice scene!
Well, except for that manicured tunnel portal....would they have bothered to build one like that when blasting through what looks like solid rock??
Otto, layin' low...

[nkalanaga]

There, probably not.  In the real Sierras, where there could be a few thousand feet of hill above the tracks, certainly.  It isn't a tunnel but a "rock shed", along the same lines as a snowshed.  The idea is that, instead of loose rocks landing on the tracks, they land on the roof.  Given the small rail of the time, it didn't take a big rock to bend the rail or derail the train.  This way the rocks could be shoveled off the roof as needed.  Built strong enough, the rocks could be left, and eventually new ones would start rolling off on their own.

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:   That's how I'd demotor an RDC too.  But in GP38's case, I assumed he probably didn't have the trucks, so would have to find new ones.  If he does have them, and is missing only the motor and gears, so much the better!

[sizemore]

Busy day at Enola per usual...

Pure hotness. The telegraph/phone lines really make the scene with a good background selection!

The S.

[timwatson]

This is just a process I made up myself, so your mileage may vary (and sorry this runs long, it's hard to describe briefly).  With the roof, trucks, and couplers removed from an N5b or N5c, you'll see that the bolsters have a little tube extending down from them, into which the truck bolster pins fit.  You can shave this tube off flush with the rest of the bolster to lower the car height.  The flanges of the stock Bowser low-profile wheels won't hit anything on the undercarriage, and if you installed under-shank MT couplers, they will now sit at the right height! 



-Steven

Steven a tip someone taught me, after doing this step, lightly file the shaved bolster smooth and then take a popsicle stick or rounded dowel rod and then "burnish" the bottom of the truck bolster. Rub hard on it and it will bring back the slickness that was once there. It makes a difference in swivel.

[Swing Motorman]

Hey guys,

This is a lot of handy tips for N5 modifications, especially the filing and burnishing one.  Thanks all around!  What do you say we start a new thread for this?  That'd make it easier for people to search for it and find relevant info a few months or years down the road, rather than bury it in a Weekend Update.

I'm messing with the cupola endings of my N5c Trainphones now, so maybe I'll start it once I have pics.


-Steven

[Cajonpassfan]

Ummm, thanks, I actually do know what a tunnel is.....I was referring to the tunnel in the other picture MC posted, the one with the cut stone tunnel portal. This photo, with a shed, I reposted because I was attempting to compliment MC on his amazing rockwork which shows off so well in this photo. He is an artist.....
Otto K.