Weekend Update 2006/01/08

[3rdrail]

Well, it's the first Sunday of the new year, and folks have been remarking about the warm weather in the Eastern half of the continent. As far as model railroading, I received two of the new Atlas double sheathed boxcars from FRTS this week. All I can say, is, if the Micro-Trains version of this car is "The Cadillac of N Scale", the Atlas version is "The Rolls Royce of N Scale". The level of detail on these cars is incredible and looks like it would hold up under a microscope. Now all we need is something from Atlas to pull all these steam era cars! (Aside from the Shay.)

So, what have y'all been up to, aside from many enjoying the unseasonably warm weather?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I went and watched two good friends get married. It was a great time.

And now I'm going to go do some walking along the old NCRR trail (with my camera this time!).

[Wlal13again]

Went to Macungie and got some picks of NS action on a warm, sunny January saturday. Will post some on thursday..

[Ian MacMillan]

Put up some drywall and put the speeder away for the "winter". I installed the upper and lower fascia boards on the small 8' section that I have started, and will begin the landforms next.

[central.vermont]

Put up some drywall and put the speeder away for the "winter". I installed the upper and lower fascia boards on the small 8' section that I have started, and will begin the landforms next.

Winter!!! What winter?!?
I doubt you even have any snow. :-*

[atsf_arizona]

SNFF 2007 1 7 06


Started working on weathering and tuning the passenger locos. 

As many of you know, the too-far coupling distance between many
of today's N scale F units, PAs, E's, etc. - has always bothered me.

And, since the amount of space available at the ends of any of these
covered wagons is very limited, I am a strong proponent of truck-mounted
couplers for these applications, in order to achieve more prototypical
coupling distances.  Hence, for the moment I like to work with the
traditional Kato Fs, PAs, E8s kind of truck mounted couplers.

This week, I started implementing the close-coupling work on the Kato PAs
and Kato E8s in the fleet.

Here's several shots showing the end results.

Note:  This coupling distance gives just enough clearance for 12" curves.
I would think you may have problems with this distance with Kato PAs or
E8s on 9 3/4" curves.

- - -

Comparing the close-coupled (rear) vs. the stock too-far distance (front):



The couplers used.  Unlike the Kato F units, in which we use the short-shank
Unimates on both ends,  the Kato PAs and E8/9s require an asymmetrical coupler
configuration to get the spacing right:



Here's the results, in a layout view:



And for comparison, the too-far original spacing:



Next, proceeding on to weathering the passenger locos and streamlined cars.  As
noted in:

http://therailwire.net/smf/index.php/topic,11860.0.html

Do so is a bit different than freight.  Mike Skibbe's comments in the thread above
are just great.

Enjoy!

[John Burkush]

Worked adding details to 2 B&M LL SW-8's for an article in "Modelers Notes"
section of the B&M RR HS newsletter.
The work involves building number boards for the hoods, adding 5 chime horns
and building handrails along the hoods.

[MEC_FAN]

We did some wiring on the layout this week and also got two more 4' lights up and 8' of valance panel.
Got the passenger station for Northern Maine Junction pretty well finihed and also the pump house and diesel tanks also.

[wm3798]

I re-milled the frame of WM-40 to get the shell to fit better over the decoder installation, and also compared the GP-20 drive I used with both the pre-DCC Atlas GP-9 frame, and the new drop in chip frame.  Looks like the next choppers I do will be on Atlas drives.  The new DCC frame only needs a little nip and tuck to get a headlight into the short hood.

I also installed the last DZ-143 I had laying around...  Gotta pay off the credit card so I can send another order in to Tony's!

Lee

[railspike55]

OK Iam willing to get some LOL now.

These are the two modules that have been setup in the only spare room I can use.

9' x 8' 

These were designed to except N track 4' modules in between for aditional running length. That never happened. By adding that filler piece I am able to run twice around
and get some trains running now.

Any thoughts ideas I am open for sugestions.... (insert can of worm here)

left side....


right side...

[wm3798]

Looks like a good start for some scenery experiments and railfanning...  Look at Ed's website to see how much fun you can have in a small space.

Lee

[railspike55]

Lee
Your right Ed's layout is outstanding, if could get just get close to that look I can live with it.

What I need to do is scale down and choose some of the area I wanted in the dream layout to fit the smaller version.

Trying some ideas for an addition and make an L shaped layout. This will give me a longer run and maybe a small yard. Also want to add a logging road.  Maybe off the left end.

Ron