Weekend Update 2/16/20

[Maletrain]

Please tell me more about your Octo III gremlins, and how you solved them.  I have been having trouble with setting drift and am hoping you found something that will help me.

[freedj]

Please tell me more about your Octo III gremlins, and how you solved them.  I have been having trouble with setting drift and am hoping you found something that will help me.

I would set the end points and everything would seem ok, then I would toggle the switch once or twice and it wouldn't quite close the switch.  Then when i went back in to the manual align mode for that servo it would remember where it was supposed to be.  Auto align wasn't any better.  Most of my servos seemed to work OK but it wasn't as reliable as it should have been.  I thought maybe my servo mounts were moving under the layout as the servos were press-fit into the aluminum channel i was using. 

It turns out that I had the R2 jumper in place (maybe from the factory) and that locks the servo motion into a specific range around center.  It doesn't matter what you do for auto-align or manual align if you have a range jumper set.  It will let you attempt to set the end points but if the jumper is in place they won't have any effect.

I had gotten mixed up with the range jumpers and dcc address ranges and kept skipping that part in the manual.  It turns out that there is nothing to do with DCC on the octo III.  Thats all on the octocoder.

Now that I have removed the R2 jumper and manually set my endpoints everything has been solid.  I didn't try the auto-align, but I bet it would have worked as well.

[BCR 570]

More progress on the twin trailer flat car scratchbuilds - side sill assemblies now ready for installation:




More in the build thread,

Tim

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Work continues on my Conrail snow removal fleet. With the Russells done, the Leslie near completion, work starts ramping up on the flanger.

Conrail either ordered or modified a small fleet of these flangers between 1978 and 1980. These may be based on the International Car Corp bay window caboose, but I can not be sure. They certainly look like an ICC minus the bay windows and on stilts. And that is pretty much the construction process here. I started with a Walthers car and pretty much stripped everything from it. New end platforms built from styrene strip was added. The plow stacks were scratch built from whatever I had laying around. Blades are brass sheet. Not totally happy  with them, but they are probably passable.  The center floor section with the plow  stacks can be removed for lighting in the future.
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[ChristianJDavis1]

It was a steamy weekend here at my apartment (and it had nothing to do with Valentine's Day). Inspired by @randgust 's D16 thread and @wm3798 's vintage tinkering, I went about a theoretical steam kitbash that I had been sitting on for a while; placing the old Bachmann 2-8-0 shell on the newer (well, first run spectrum) 2-8-0 to create a passable Reading I10sa. Do I really need them? No. Did I have all the parts on hand? Yes. So let there be Steam.


Both engines lined up; the first one I did up front, the second in the back.


Overall side view of unit number one.


Front-end view of unit number one.


Front-end view of unit number two. Notice the front handrails are intact, which was not the case with the other (hence why I experimented on it first). May replace these with wire and add them to the other one.

And inspired by @Ron Bearden 's recent Shay adventures, I worked on mine a little to correct a lean in the tender, and hopefully the issue of the driveshaft slipping out of it's coupling.

[hegstad1]

Can you tell us about your backdrop? Also did you model Big Timber MT on your layout? It’s where I grew up.

The backdrop is from one of the online backdrop places.  I can't remember which one.  It was described as Montana and it looks like the Bridger Mountains to me (you would know better).  It was purchased for another small layout that I did a few years a go and I have just pinned it up behind this scene.  Big Timber?  No.  My scenes will be Missoula, Bonner/Milltown, Fish Creek, and Silver Bow Canyon for now.

[SAH]

Many times it was just to Altamont Speedway, a tremendous 1/2 mike asphalt oval with great Stockcar or USAC Sprintcar races.
It was one of my favorite trips for catching trains on the WP or SP or both.

I hadn't thought about USAC sprint car races in years.  When I was a kid my Dad would take me to sprint car and super modified (when they still looked like sprint cars) events all over OH and Western PA.  He was an avid race fan.  Fun times.

I'm in awe of your Shay rebuild Ron.  I need to muster the patience I have for scratchbuilding structures into effort towards making locos run better.  Someday soon I hope.

Speaking of scratchbuilding:  Not much work on General Tire recently.  In the minutes available here and there I got the rear entrance to the old admin building assembled and ready for paint.  I have no idea how it actually looked but this will do.

Steve

[Bob]

Hey Steve - really nice job on the back of the admin building - details like this really matter.  What did you use for the steps?  They look rather finely detailed.  The railings look like etched brass, and the small styrene pieces you cut go together beautifully!  Really nice job.  Bob

[craigolio1]

I’m almost done scenery on the Rutherford Creek module. Just some trees and wild flowers left.



Craig

[MK]

That mop bucket in the background looks like it's catching all the overflowing water. 

[nkalanaga]

That "Missoula" backdrop does look more like the hills along the Yellowstone Valley, such as Big Timber, than like Missoula. 

[SAH]

Thanks Bob.  The stairs are Gold Medal Models #160-35.  The railings, GMM 160-59.  GMM 160-34 also would work for the railings.  I've had these sets for years and am finally getting to use them.  The post and bracing are Evergreen HO 2x2 strip.  I used my trusty x-y cutter to make the landing as a sandwich so that it looks like a channel frame, and keyed off of those parts, a pattern to use to cut the roof from styrene so that the posts line up, roof to landing.  It worked pretty well.

[mrhedley]

Worked on detailing the river banks, getting ready to pour the gloss medium.  Still have to finish detailing the other bank.  The hill in the background is a work in progress.  I raised it with Stryrofoam blocks.  It will be covered with Sculptamold, painted, and details.  The track for this branch is Kato Unitrack.  I'll either go over the molded ballast with a wash or try adding a thin layer of ballast to remove the "shine". 

[chicken45]

Got a new bench and some Hobbyzone storage modules. 


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[hegstad1]

That "Missoula" backdrop does look more like the hills along the Yellowstone Valley, such as Big Timber, than like Missoula.

Oh, for sure.  This is tacked back there for lack of anything else at this point.  A proper backdrop will be done at some point.