Con-Cor 4-6-4 modification

[Doug G.]

I fixed the cracked axle/drivers falling off Chinese Hudson problem with rubber reinforced ACC. That was about 5 years ago and it's still holding.

Doug

[mmagliaro]

just floating an idea for feedback sake

what if these were spun like a bobber on sewing machine
when it is being threaded

and thread with CA being wrapped around to seal and support
where cracked

is there room enough for such a fix
would it in fact work as a fix
inn my mind it seems theoretically like a possibility
but then I confess I have more time and experience in tailoring than MR'ing

nonetheless....just an idea and wondering if possible
sincerely--

I've wondered about this myself...  Perhaps start a thread with ACC or epoxy, and then, after the tip of it has dried,
apply some more glue and wrap around and around as tightly as you can, and hold it until the glue gets fully hard.
You can use this sort of thing with string or rope around two sticks with wood glue.
The reason I doubt it would work is that no matter what kind of string, or even wire, one would use, I would expect it to stretch under pressure, and the slightest bit of "give" on a cracked axle spells failure.   The glue itself would never be rigid enough.  You are basically trying to form a collar out of string and glue, and I highly doubt that would hold against the forces and not open up.  A metal collar seems like the only thing that could hold against that kind of pressure.

*Maybe* if one were to do this as a precautionary measure before the axle cracked, it would hold.   My money would still be on the metal collar idea.

[randgust]

Uh....

I guess I'm still wondering why you pulled the drivers to begin with to paint them.    In general, with steam, you can make yourself one heck of a mess attempting to take mechanisms apart to (presumably??) airbrush paint specific components.

I'll brush paint just about everything to do with steam locomotive mechanisms, paint what I can easily see, move the drivers ahead a hair by either twisting driveshafts or running it under power, paint a little bit more, etc.    I just generally don't airbrush steam in N, period, if I have a good acrylic paint that dries properly without brush marks.   I always brush-paint mechanism parts, diesel trucks, freight-car wheel sides, and other places where tearing things apart invites more trouble than its worth.   There are a lot of modelers that somehow reach the conclusion that brush-painting anything is somehow wrong; I've seen a lot more catastrophes from airbrushing stuff that could have been brush-painted in seconds.

I'm putting neolube on anything shiny metal that moves.   The only 'silver' that often shows is the piston rod, as it should be.

My favorite stunt to date was hand-painting the drivers on my Atlas 4-4-0 and then using a micro-fine sharpie to color in the driver spoke holes with a very dark black.   You can't airbrush that stuff.   

[nickelplate759]

Great question - because I'm doing one of the Empire State Express Hudsons, and the Scullin drivers need to be a nice even (off) white.  No matter how carefully I brush paint, I won't get it smooth enough to satisfy myself, so airbrushing it is!

Tried to do it last night, but discovered my white paint had gone bad.

Anyway, I'm also converting this to DCC, and it turns out (I didn't know this before I began), the Chinese-made Concor Hudsons pretty much have be be completely disassembled in order to insulate the motor.

George

[randgust]

I had to satisfy myself and see what it actually looked like in service......

Holy wipedown, Batman!

http://madisonrails.railfan.net/1940/41_5429a.jpg

I will now retreat back to my regularly scheduled serving of Crow a la Mode.  Never mind...

[victor miranda]

did you happen to order the scullin disc version?

this loco is on my list to tackle....

and why didn't you say so!?!?

I thought you were doing a little re-ferb work.

I wanna know how you do the metal parts.
(it was suggested that there is a modelairplane product that is foil that is
burnished into place.)

I'm too chicken to try it.

victor

[nickelplate759]

did you happen to order the scullin disc version?

this loco is on my list to tackle....

and why didn't you say so!?!?

I thought you were doing a little re-ferb work.

I wanna know how you do the metal parts.
(it was suggested that there is a modelairplane product that is foil that is
burnished into place.)

I'm too chicken to try it.

victor

Well, the fine folks at Fine-N-Scale make a very nice resin shell for this locomotive.  I finished the shell a while ago, and have been working up the courage to do the mechanism.  I did get a Scullin-drivered Chinese-made 4-6-4.   Since I never stripped down a steamer before, I'm a bit nervous about this part.

I just used paint to finish the shell - Polly Scale "stainless" for the stainless portions, "silver" for the upper boiler, and "Engine Black" for the black parts.  I wanted the boiler to look different from the stainless parts, but didn't want to go to the trouble of a metal overlay - plus then I'd have to do the train the same way, and it's already painted pseudo-stainless.

Here's what the shell looks like (cell-phone photo).  Probably should add the silver outline around the cab windows too.



George

[victor miranda]

on man!

I hope I do as well on my kit!

don't let the mechanism scare you. compared to painting, they are easy.

and if things go wrong... you have friends!

It will be repaired by me, if no one else.

victor

[nickelplate759]

Now that it's ALL apart, I'm trying to figure out where I want to put in a DCC decoder.   The tender is an obvious choice, but doing that means six wires between tender and loco (2 for motor, 2 for headlight, 2 for power that are already there) - that seems like a lot, but maybe it's OK.    I can fit a small (TCS M1) decoder under the boiler weight with only a little loss of metal, and then I can just keep the two existing power  wires between tender and loco, or add 2 more (total of 4) if I really want a backup light.

I'd appreciate suggestions.

George

[SkipGear]

Like so......



The stainless is Alclad Chrome and I can't remember what I used on the drivers. I didn't take them apart to paint though.

[SkipGear]

The loco really needs to be shiny. This was the premier loco in the fleet and was kept clean. Every shot I could find, the loco glistened in the sun. You have to shoot the Chrome/Stainless over a gloss finish for it to work right anyhow so the entire loco is painted Alclad Ultra Black Base, then the Chrome applied over that for the stainless areas. After that Alclad gloss clear to cover and protect the chrome.

[carlso]

Very nice Tony. The craftsmanship is great and the Alclad paint really is tops.

Carl

[nickelplate759]

First of all, Skipgear's loco made me drool!!  Nice job!

On the continuing story of the  Hudson.     I don't just want this to look good (maybe not as good as Skipgear's, but good), I want it to run well.

 It has a bind in it - and it turns out to be in a most fundamental place.  I stripped the loco all the way down.   There's a piece of plastic flex tubing used between the motor shaft and the worm shaft as a cheapo universal.  It's visibly uneven, and binding once per motor revolution.  Since the worm is supported by a bearing at both ends, I'm thinking I should replace the tubing with a ball-and cup joint from NWSL.   Of course, I don't have one handy, so that delays things .  I could just use a fresh piece of tubing, but that seems like asking for trouble.  Another option would be to use a solid piece of tubing to make a solid coupling between the motor shaft and the worm shaft - maybe leaving off the bearing between motor and worm.  I'm not sure that's a good idea, but I don't really know.

George

[victor miranda]

it is such a little piece of silicone tubing...

the NWSL ujoint  dogbones take up more space.
so you will need to trim the motor and worm shafts

... I hate to say this...
replace the tubing.

give me a little time to hunt.
I have some thin wall tubing that I use...

victor

[victor miranda]

this stuff looks right....

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXBWK8&P=7