N scale question of the week 29 june 2011

[delamaize]

So I thought about this today, and I thoght it might be fun to come up with a question of the week, relating to N scale. if this ends up being something popular, I will run with it untill I run out of idead for questions.

So Last night, I was tweaking the heisler project, trying to get rid of a tiny bind that was hindering my slow speed preformance. Well to keep a long story short, adjustments lead to failure, one of the connecting rods failed and bound, then it tweaked the crank I had built and bound the whole thing up.  Frustrated, Angry, and burned out, I went to bed. So I ended up having to totally rebuild the whole steam motor today, and in the process corected a few things. the pistons hug the boiler closer now, the whole thing is beefier, and smoother, it looks better, the alignment is a lot better than before, and best of all, slow speed preformance greatly improved.

A few days ago I was messing with the Key H-5 repower project, trying to get the quatering right. Finally I got frustrated, and decided I had enough of it for the time being, I eyeballed it, and left it alone. Later I decided I was going to give it one more shot, I tried to run it before quatering it, and Lo and Behold, it is damn near perfect.

So that brings us to this weeks Question:


when did your project look like it was going to totally end in disaster, but things went better than expected. Or when did a project look like it was going to go good, and it totally failed?

[DKS]

when did your project look like it was going to totally end in disaster, but things went better than expected. Or when did a project look like it was going to go good, and it totally failed?

That's two questions... (winkies)

Sorry for being a smart a$$... will answer it (them) shortly.

[Guilford Guy]

I became very disheartened with my initial attempt at an RS3 nose job when I screwed up chopping the short hood. Fortunately time fixes most things, and when I returned to the project this year I was able to make a lot of progress I never thought possible. Right now I'm just waiting for funds for paint.

[wm3798]

Covered it here:
http://wmrywesternlines.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Lee

[Day One]

Back in about 2002 I bought a Life Like SW9/12 and decided to convert it to DCC since Lenz had recently come out with the LE077XF decoder that was small enough to fit in side the tiny switcher. I bought 2 decoders at the time, though I'm not sure why I did that now, it was a good idea. The decoder install seemed to go OK and I was going the extra step of trying to fit in working headlights front and rear. (the unit only shipped with an operating front headlight) I'm not sure how, or why, but somehow I managed to fry the decoder during the install and I never got to see the thing run before I packed up all my trains and put them away for about 5 years.

Flash forward to this week, I've been going through all my engines and checking them to see what needs any attention and adding operating beacons and number board lights, when I came upon this loco. I remembered that I had ordered that second decoder 10 years ago so I decided to get this thing running. I actually managed to find the old new decoder and so I hacked out the dead decoder from the unit, used it as a guide to cut the wires for the new decoder and promptly had the new one installed. Only this time, I had tiny surface mount warm white LED's and surface mount resistors to put in place of the old 3mm yellow LED's and axial lead resistors. I could actually get the shell closed all the way and it looked like it was good to go. I set it on my programming track that is run with a SPROG USB and it...well...it hummed and flashed it's lights erratically. These are the only LENZ decoders I've ever used (apart from a few atlas units with Atlas branded OEM boards made by Lenz) and I thought for sure I'd fried another one. I messed around with it, un-wired it and pulled it out and tested it and still got erratic behavior. That was enough for me, I left it on the bench and walked away. I was going to send it back to lenz along with the other one for warranty repair (10 yr warranty with 6 months left! I found the receipt with the new old decoder.)  Today, on a hunch I tried the thing on my digitrax system and lo and behold it worked! I put it back together, lubed up the mechanism and ran it a bit and the thing runs pretty nicely!  I'm not sure why it doesn't like to run with the SPROG USB acting as a command station, but I'm not going to worry about it too much. It'll run on the digitrax powered layout, not the SPROG programming track.

[Brakie]

My Landstar Grain started out like a disaster waiting to happen since some of the parts(the silos) wasn't fitting as planned and had to be tweaked so they would fit together.

I am happy with the results..

[DKS]

More than a few of the structures I bashed for the James River Branch were built more than once. The one I really didn't think I could pull off was the bank. The original bash turned into a mess, and because it was based on a discontinued kit, I had to abandon the project.



Later, when I came across some N scale windows that perfectly fit the openings in a different kit, I started over, and the results exceeded my expectations.
 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I finished Worcester Union Station. I should probably quit model trains while I'm ahead.

[Guilford Guy]

Geez Dan, that's worthy of a major award.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

That "kit" was my own personal albatross. None of the parts fit right. The instructions were incomplete and often defied the English language. Parts weren't burned all the way through. Several sheets had major imperfections on the face of the plywood. My personal peeve was the building structure was to be built before the supports for the structure installed. Oh yeah, those supports were made out of cardstock that I had to measure and cut myself. For Christ sake, you have a laser mill. Cut the damn supports! I ended up building up the supports myself not using the directions because nothing wouldn't fit.

Construction began in 2003 when the kit came out. It wasn't complete until 2010. The project lasted through three moves, college, and 4 jobs. What a PITA.

Here are some in progress shots:





And the complete model with prototype photos:

[jnevis]

Daniel- That is bloody AMAZING!!!!
I was going to post my attempt at a GP39v but can't compare and concede.

[Bendtracker1]

Construction began in 2003 when the kit came out. It wasn't complete until 2010. The project lasted through three moves, college, and 4 jobs. What a PITA.

Awesome!
Makes my NW crummy look like child's play...

[pnolan48]

Daniel,

Awesome perserverance! Since I've been out of the Worcester area for about 20 years, I didn't realize it had been renovated--although still very sparsely used.

I cataloged about 100 of what I called "Stupid Mistakes" over on Trainboard a few years back, dealing with failures and sometimes unexpected successes. After a while I just ran out of material, although the cross-country trip with my layout in pieces, bouncing around in a 26-foot box truck probably deserves a lengthy post.

[DKS]

Construction began in 2003 when the kit came out. It wasn't complete until 2010. The project lasted through three moves, college, and 4 jobs. What a PITA.

PITA, maybe, but look at the results. Worth all of the pain, it was!

[pnolan48]

Daniel,

I am still utterly amazed that you actually managed to build that monster.

Perhaps my best answer to what disaster turned out better than expected was ----- I didn't buy that kit!

Oh, did I want to, since I grew up east of Worcester. But I had too many other things to buy like track and switches.

I've had better luck with some of the simpler kits, like Somerville Junction and the Creamery, although I managed to build part of the latter inside out due to my reading of the "unstructions." I joke here, as I tend to misread everything in my rush to get going. I truly admire N-Scale Architects selection of topics and the finish of the kits.

I think the Union Station project was just too far a reach at the time.