Colorado Midland Railway Engineering Report

[Dave V]

Looks great Dave, your scenery base has a nice natural look to it. 

Is the backdrop a placeholder or is that a mock of your final?  I've only been in the area the Midland served a few times, but those mountains look more like Glacier Park that Colorado.

They are Glacier Park.  I picked them up at Caboose Hobbies cheap.  They're adhesive-backed and I haven't affixed them permanently since I'm still doing messy work on the layout.

I know they're not quite prototypical...but they're dramatic and they show some autumn colors so until I get around to actually heading out that way again (in autumn) to photograph the real thing, they'll do for now.

Did more track weathering and ballast work:



Also added depth and highlight to the rock faces using a variety of acrylic washes and drybrushed colors:

[Dave V]

Today was mostly wiring...permanently soldering feeder wires to a pair of 16 AWG bus wires.  You see a minor stall on a switch frog...almost done with those too.

[Philip H]

Now that is some serious Colorado hawtness right there.

[Dave V]

#50 (the Athearn 2-8-0) is a total loss I think.  It was stalling and shorting a lot and in the process of trying to find and fix the short I lost a key screw and managed to mangle phospher-bronze wipers in the drawbar.  And even after finding a new screw and straightening the wipers I'm still getting sparking and shorts along the base of the tender along with other nonsense.  Throughout the process I also managed to sever the whistle.  I had this engine stripped down to the frame halves, cleaned, lubed, and reassembled and...no luck. 

I'm not happy but what are ya gonna do...  I had an SD35 that also was a chronic basket case.  It happens.  Ironically last night my 4-6-0 gave me crap, first by blowing out the valve gear and then by throwing a traction tire after I'd fixed the eccentric crank.  For now I have her reassembled and running smoothly.  I've never been shy about troubleshooting an N scale steam loco.

[Chris333]

I have some of those steamers that I used for HOn30. Pretty sure I still have all the parts, brand new. Exactly what parts look to be the problem?

Edit: I basically have everything but the motors. All this and all the screws.

[Dave V]

Ah!  The drawbar is jacked and I'm missing the screw to the tender.  I still don't know what's causing the short.  I can't find my parts diagram so I wonder if I'm missing something like an insulating washer.

[Chris333]

I didn't find a part diagram either.





These are 2-6-0's, but I think they are all the same.

[Dave V]

Yes, that looks very familiar!  I'd be interested in buying one complete tender assembly from ya if you're willing to part ways.  That'd be the frame, the tucks, the motor mount, the coal load, the tender body (I've manhandled the hell out of mine), and the complete drawbar all with the screws.  The short I have is in the damn tender somewhere but my motor seems okay.  Let me know what you think is a fair $$$ and I can PayPal you.

As for the whistle, I think it launched off my workbench too, but a new one can be fashioned out of a cylindrical piece of plastic painted brass.

[Chris333]

I have the Whistle too. Just PM your address.

[Dave V]

I did some work on the "neglected" side of the layout.  The tunnels will (naturally) tunnel through a mountain.  The opposite portals will be natural rock.



Commercial abutments would not have worked for the truss bridge so I bashed one out of Chooch flexible cut stone and Styrofoam.  I'm going to use the @dougnelson trick of adding stone on the corner edge using gloss medium.

[Dave V]

Work continues on the CMRy Aspen Branch:

[Dave V]

We follow a double-headed mixed freight (bridge traffic between the AT&SF at Colorado Springs and the D&RG at Glencastle) the unfinished N scale Colorado Midland.

Also did a little scenery work:

[Dave V]

Finish-painted some more rockwork:





In other news, sorry to say that even with Chris' spare parts (which I used virtually all of at various attempts) #50 is a no-go.  I can't explain why she stutters and stalls at inappropriate times and won't run slow.  I just "bought-it-now" a Roundhouse 2-8-0 on eBay (and will have to deal with the Rapido coupler) and this time I won't take it apart.     Just have to figure out how to strip the lettering effectively so I can re-letter it for CMRy #49 or #53.

In the video above #50 appears to be running nicely but that's only because she's getting the assist from #34...

[Chris333]

I wonder if it has something to do with the way the motor contact touch the floor of the tender. Maybe if you popped the motor out and bent the tabs down. So that when you popped it back in there was more pressure on the contacts?

Just a guess though.

[Dave V]

I wonder if it has something to do with the way the motor contact touch the floor of the tender. Maybe if you popped the motor out and bent the tabs down. So that when you popped it back in there was more pressure on the contacts?

Just a guess though.

A good guess, but one I've tried a number of times to no avail.  If you allow too much pressure on the contacts the motor rides up too far in the mounts, so that's also an issue.