Best Of New Brass EP-2 assembly & Mod clinic

[mmagliaro]

Regarding Neolube and Jax blackeners,
I would not say Neolube "rubs off" with your fingers.  It will wear off a wheel tread fairly quickly, but on most model surfaces,
it's on there to stay.  It is graphite suspended in an alcohol solution.   It applies easily with a brush and
because it's not really a paint, it leaves an incredibly thin coat that is easy to apply evenly.

Jax, which I do use, does leave a blackened layer of oxidized metal that is electrically conductive, although
like all blackeners, it's not as conductive as clean shiney metal.    If it is your first time, practice on some scrap metal first.
This stuff is tricky.  The wheels must be impeccably clean.  In fact, a light sanding with something like 1000 grit sandpaper is a good idea.   The tricky part is that you really have to submerge the wheel in a little cup of the stuff.
It does not work well just trying to brush the thin watery solution onto the wheels and it will make a mess.

The other tricky thing is judging the time.  Chemical blackeners actually oxidize a thin layer of metal.  If you overdo it,
you could end up with too much oxidation that just flakes off.   I actually cut the Jax 50/50 with water,
so the oxidation time is longer.  This lets the chemical penetrate deeper into the metal before the outer layer
of metal starts becoming unstable and flakey.

Finally, when it's done, you pluck the wheel out of the solution with some tweezers, dab it on a paper towel, let it dry,
and THEN wash it in alcohol and brush it a little with a soft toothbrush.  You MUST get rid of all that chemical, or it
will happily corrode the metal over the coming weeks and months and you'll start seeing whitish or greenish
powder and rust on the wheels.  If cleaning with the alcohol causes some of the black to come off, it's no
crime.  You can dunk the wheel again for a touch-up.  In fact, I find that the blackened coat always works
better that way - blacken, clean, then blacken and clean a second time.

Is this scaring you, Ron?   If so, do it on some spare wheels you don't care about before you turn the stuff loose
on your beautiful model. 

[nkalanaga]

24 ft 2 in was the MILW standard height.  It could be lower in bridges and tunnels, and poorly tensioned sidings could go higher, but the standard was 24 ft 2 in.  That's very handy in N scale, as it's exactly 1 13/16 inches.  For what it's worth, the GN used the same height, and much of the catenary looked very similar, except for the larger suspension insulators, needed for the higher voltage.

As for photo catenary, two spans would be 300 ft, which would be plenty long enough for a motor and caboose or baggage car.  It wouldn't take long to solder that up from brass wire, and the poles and crossarms would be easy.  They wouldn't have to survive abuse on a layout, so you could use actual tapered wood poles if you wished.

If I was doing two spans, I'd start with the contact wire, solder the hangers to it, making them overlength for easier handling, then cut them to the proper length.  Finally, solder the messenger wire to the hangers, and you have your catenary.  That would be a major pain on a layout, especially if one needs a mile or so of wire, but two spans could be done at the work bench.  Since your pantograph springs are just strong enough to hold them up, tension isn't an issue, and the contact wire should stay straight.

Also, as you've probably already discovered, the MILW's mainline overhead used two parallel contact wires, to handle the high currents.  Many yard tracks only had one wire, and half as many hangers.  The MILW actually used the (apparently) standard 15 ft hanger spacing, but with two contact wires, they had twice as many hangers, staggered to give the apparent 7.5 ft spacing seen in photos.   For N scale, given the small size of the wires, you could probably get away with a single wire and the 7.5 ft spacing.  The wires were only about half an inch in diameter.

[bbussey]

Yes, that's the number Kirk and Matt came up with as well, minimum of 24 feet.

[u18b]

Thanks guys.

I just hope my springs are tight enough already to get up to that height.

[u18b]

Well, lookie here.  I stumbled into something that turned out great.

I must confess, I've been dreading this moment.
Time to add the grab irons to the sides and nose.

The kit comes with some 8 or 10 mil brass wire for this purpose.




This is the reason this step is saved for last.
The Kumata folks wisely left the grabs off of this area.  This kit was made just for this scheme.
And this is why---- the area needs a silver decal.  So if those grabs were there, it would make working in this area VERY difficult.




Same for the nose.




So I dutifully shaped my first grab iron-  and I thought.  Wow.  This is really oxidised.  Looks like an old penny.
I'm going to REALLY need to shine this up.




Wait.  Forget that.
I have some fresh brass wire.  I'll use that.

But WAIT.  Hold the phone (as my Dad says).
Why do I have to use BRASS wire?
Why not guitar string.  I use them often in modeling.
Good ones are made of a metal that can easily be soldered.
And stiffer than brass- they make good handrails.



So I picked one that was a good size.
Measured and decided that since the other rails had layers of paint on them, I would use something bigger than 8 mil.

[u18b]

I thought- this may work out great.
No painting.  No decaling.
The grabs are already silver.

So I went to work.
Here is my test fit.





Need to trim them, so I used a permanent marker on the inside.


I'll cut just a little more than the blackened area.



I then put the grabs in place- but I need a spacer.  The distance needs to be correct and uniform between the two.
So I used an 8 mil wire.




The front rails were wider, so I needed a wider spacer.




Here is all my rejects.
Usually, the drop down part is not level.  One side is lower than another.
And while it is pretty hard to see- using the three foot rule, uneven rails is GLARING under macro shots.
So as you can see, I rejected over half of the ones I built.




Since solder might damage paint and decals, I superglued the grabs in place.




No painting!  They just need a clear coat so they will not rust over time.

[peteski]

Nickel-silver strings?!  I learned something new here.  I always thought that guitar strings were made from steel wire (I would have thought that nickel-silver didn't have enough tensile strength).  Also, I thought strings needed to be ferrous (magnetic)  to work with the guitar's electric pickups. I wonder if you could have used the nickel-silver string, instead of brass,  for the "portable catenary"?

How do I find those nickel-silver strings?  Is there anything mentioned on the package?

You also mentioned needing to protect them from rust?  Nickel-silver doesn't "rust": It develops a layer of oxide which makes it look dull-warm-silver (just look at your N scale track).  That would probably make it look just right on the model (they almost look to shiny now).

[u18b]

I could be wrong.  Sorry for the confusion.  I corrected my post above.

These are magnetic.
But they solder really well.

I use 10 or 12 mill for stanchions, and 10 or 8 mil for the handrail.

Or Gold Medal stanchions with 8 mil handrail.

All of these have guitar string handrails.

As you can see, I've used them a lot.
And always keep a supply.

[u18b]

I agree they can't be pure nickel silver.

But something in my brain says they are more than steel.

Maybe they are steel with a nickel silver coating to reduce rust and corrosion.

Sorry I'm fuzzy.

But they do solder well.

[spookshow]

Nickel/Steel alloy seems to be a common composition for electric guitar strings. There has to be a magnetic component for the pickups to work.

Cheers,
-Mark

[peteski]

I believe that addition of nickel (or chromium) to steel makes it stainless steel. No rust. 

[mmagliaro]

Guitar strings are made of a lot of things, but speaking specifically about electric guitar strings, which is where you would need ferrous metal to activate the field around the magnetic pickups, they are usually made of
nickel-plated steel, nothing more complicted than that.

That's why you can solder to those.  Nickel solders pretty well.

And remember, nickel is magnetic.  Pure nickel strings work fine on a guitar pickup.  In fact, in many ways,
they are more desirable than the plated ones.

One brand of pure nickel strings is "D'Addario XL Pure Nickel"

And here's a nice write-up on the history of guitar strings and the metals used therein:
http://www.guitarplayer.com/accessories/1019/pure-nickel-strings/16364

[spookshow]

For the "where is this thread going to go next" pool, who had "font design"? lol

OK, who was lucky enough to bet "the metallic composition of guitar strings"? Congratulations - you can now pay off your mortgage! 

Cheers,
-Mark

[u18b]

I was kind of thinking the same thoughts.

This has been an interesting, informative thread.

(who know what lurks ahead of us).

[u18b]

Where will this thread go next?

How about workworking.

I wanted a nicer box.

Here is the one that came with the kit.  Nice covered cardboard.
KMT boxes have traditionally been silver for Hallmark and NJCB.
This one is silver and black.  Nice new Kumata logo.



No surprises.  Typical of most brass.
But I wanted something better.




So I went to Michael's or Hobby Lobby (forget which) and bought a nice wooded box- unfinished.
It appears to be a white pine or spruce.
Some of the boxes had patch filler over knot holes.  I tried to pick a box that had solid smooth wood on top.



Has a simple latch in front.





I chose this box partially because it better fit the depth of N scale.
I figured I could trim the yellow foam.



But then, the yellow foam would not fill the entire bottom.
So I figured I could partition off sections.
One section could be for the model, the other could be for "stuff" (like the Digitrax decoder paperwork).



Now, I'm not a woodworker- but I have a friend who is.
He sanded and stained the box for me.
I love it.



But the box looks a little bare- and has no identification marks.

So it was back to Corel Draw.

I drew a line drawing of an EP-2.
Nothing fancy.  Just the basics.




I then experimented with the size that would look best.
4 inches looked pretty good on the box.
I got to also use my new font!



I then experimented with different looks.

The top would be two-layer plastic.  White is the top surface, and the laser etching would expose the black layer. (like a nameplate on an office door).

The second is the reverse image.

The third sort of reminds you of a blueprint.

And the last would be brass.




I decided to go with the black.




I have contacted a small business I found online by searching "laser etching" (or something like that).

I commissioned her to make this in black anodised aluminium.
So the outside surface will be black, and then wherever the laser burns will be bright silver.

When I get it back from her, I will clearcoat it and mount it.

Hopefully it wont be too long.