G scale Rio Grande Southern Engineering Report

[rodsup9000]

Fortunately there are accurate large scale models available for every caboose the RGS ever owned, but in the meantime I plan to make the same mods to my existing caboose.  I also plan to paint the handrails silver per RGS practice.

Although the short RGS cabooses which came from the D&RG all started as bobbers, they were 8-wheel cabooses through the "modern era."  Sister caboose 0402 is seen here on Wikipedia:

 Dave, this is where scale is a little different in large scale. Your big hauler is 22.5 and most of the accurate RGS stuff that I know about is 20.3. With some reworking, the big hauler can be a great 20.3 RGS #20.
Also along with the price of the big hauler cars ($25 to $40) 20.3 rolling stock goes up ($100 to $150).

Rodney

 

[Dave V]

The Annie chassis came from Bachmann today for RGS #25.  Wow, was that fast!  Also, the the difference in quality and detail is unbelievable.  I'm gonna probably have to detail the boiler now just to make it look worthy of the new chassis.  Oh darn!   

All that remains is the transplant.

It was said when passenger service was still provided by RGS varnish (before the Galloping Goose era), the conductor would announce the train's arrival at Telluride as "To-HELL-you-ride!"  Telluride was, of course, named after silver telluride, the ore from which the RGS adopted the moniker of "Silver San Juan."

[k27463]

Wall of text incoming.

Dave, word of warning from someone who's been there: the air tanks under the running boards are too long to fit with the larger cylinders of the Annie chassis.

I ended up cutting down my air tanks, but others have trimmed off the short running boards and fabricated more accurate ones.  Up to you!

Personally, I also feel trimming down the extended smokebox and mounting the headlight on a hanging bracket also makes a world of difference in how the locomotive looks, but that's up to you.

Anyway, other things I feel are worth noting...

The Annie chassis does have better gearing; it'll run much more smoothly.  I suspect that the banging around inside is due to a loose weight, which you'll have to transfer to the new chassis.  My weight didn't fit too tightly, so I had to conjure up some spacers to make sure it didn't move around.  Wiring is simple, but really frustrating as some locomotives are assembled with red on the right rail, others with red on the left.

If you want to use the sound for the tender in the future, be careful which plug you use on the new chassis; old Bachmann chassis only had a plug for the sound system contacts, while the new one has a backup light plug which is connected to track power.  You probably don't want to use that one.

The pilot truck is extremely awkward, puts bad sideways stress on a pivot, and will likely snap off at some point.  You can remount it to the chassis with a metal strip as a pivot, which with some added weight on the truck will also let the engine track much better.

Front couplers are useless on anything below 10' diameter curves due to front overhang.

Any questions?

And here's a photo of my locomotive pre-Annie chassis; I added battery and radio control for operation at friends' operating sessions.

[Dave V]

Thanks for the run-down!  As you can see I'm partway through the surgery.  At this point I'm trying to figure out which wires run to the front switch and which are extra.

[Dave V]

Perfect fit!  I just spliced the smoke unit/headlight wires from the old loco shell into the new chassis.  I don't know what sort of fit problems others have had, but this was one of the most painless surgeries I've ever performed on a loco.



And, while I was at it, I knocked those brass pilot braces into a more RGS-like black.

[Dave V]

Okay, I understand the issue now...  The front of the air tanks are in contact with the steam chests and now the running boards are slightly pushed up.  I didn't quite understand what you were saying.  It's not the worst thing in the world, but it'll give me something to think about.

[Dave V]

The Bachmann ET&WNC bobber caboose that came with the set is not a Rio Grande Southern prototype, but I upgraded it a little to match RGS practice. Handrails were painted aluminum, end platforms and roofwalks painted mineral red, weathering added with chalks and washes (sealed with Dullcote), and clear styrene "glass" was added.

[Dave V]

The F&CC was one of the first of Colorado's narrow gauge railroads to be abandoned. When it was flooded out in 1912, the F&CC liquidated its equipment, with much of it ending up on the Denver & Rio Grande and the Rio Grande Southern. By the 1940s--the era I model--no boxcars would still be in F&CC paint, but hey...if they were, they'd be pretty worn out!



"Gramps" tank cars spent most of their lives between Alamosa CO and Chama, NM. The moniker "Gramps" belonged to Lafayette Hughes, a grandfather and owner of an oil refinery in Alamosa for which these cars were in captive service. I don't believe they ever ran on the RGS, but again, I'm not being picky.

[Dave V]

Got the synchronized chuff to work in the loco...  It's certainly no Tsunami system, but it does help.  The loco also has a smoke unit, whose testing will wait until after I fix the air tanks.  Bachmann makes replacement air tanks for the Annie for $10, which is an option if I screw them up while shortening them.

Once the air tanks are "deconflicted" with the steam chests, I can start weathering the beast.

[Dave V]

  So pissed at the post office right now.

Won an LGB D&RGW high-side gon on eBay last week and the tracking site says it went out for delivery yesterday morning, but it didn't show up with yesterday's mail or today's.  I didn't get home until after 8 tonight so obviously it was too late to call anybody at the post office.  No notices or delivery attempt sheets left anywhere.  Why put a package on a truck just to bring it back to the post office two nights in a row? 

[jpec]

I feel your pain, Dave...won an eBay auction and in tracking the parcel I noticed it had arrived at thelocal bulk mail facility. I figure I'll see it a day or so later. Nope. 3 days after that, I checked and found it was now in a BMF in SC....got it 2 days later.

Jeff

[Greyryder]

I feel your pain, Dave...won an eBay auction and in tracking the parcel I noticed it had arrived at thelocal bulk mail facility. I figure I'll see it a day or so later. Nope. 3 days after that, I checked and found it was now in a BMF in SC....got it 2 days later.

Jeff

Had something coming in back in December. UPS handed it off to USPS in Columbus, I live about an hour away from there. They sat on it for ten days, before punting it over to Michigan....

[Dave V]

The gondola did come finally!  It's a very good representation of a D&RGW high-side narrow gauge gondola courtesy of LGB:



But the big story today was the arrival of Russ' track!



It's almost a complete 8' diameter circle, a ton of straights, and a turnout...a mix of Aristo, USA Trains, and LGB.  Some are fairly oxidized; some fine-grit sandpaper should fix that up.  Thanks again, Russ!

Now I need to survey the ROW, as soon as tomorrow's snow melts...

[wazzou]

I would first try steel wool on the track rather than sandpaper to try and avoid grooves as much as possible.

[eric220]

Ah, the venerable LGB gon. Check out them classic LGB couplers!