Best Of New Brass EP-2 assembly & Mod clinic

[Ian MacMillan]

Now that is slick.

[spookshow]

Holy wow, Ron. That is amazing! 

Nice job!

-Mark

[delamaize]

I'm impressed that's for sure.

[mmagliaro]

Splendid work, Ron, and superb engineering.  Congratulations on making such a fine-running engine!

[u18b]

Thanks guys.

It is nice to have the mechanical part done.

Now to some more detailing.

Ohhhh...... and maybe my movie WAS more exciting than the Super Bowl.  I may have mis-spoken.
 

[superturbine]

Great work Ron!!

[u18b]

I appreciate the encouragement.

Here is our destination.

The 1948/49 Chicago Railroad Fair celebrating 100 years of railroading in America.

Hence the name of this scheme is: the Railroad Fair scheme, first introduced on the loco- #E-3

Link at Railarchive.net:  http://www.railarchive.net/rrfair/rrfair4915.jpg

[primavw]

Excellent build! You certainly got it running superbly! I'm pretty sure I will NEVER attempt this. Hahaha

[u18b]

Wow.
I've had this kit for quite a while... but I'm still dicovering things about it.
It helps to have a stock NJ 1983 Ep-2 in hand at the same time.

I just discovered that the new EP-2 does not use the same pantograph design as the NJ release.

I'll say more in a future post at some point, but for now, here are two photos.
I went back through my NJ Brass photos from a long time ago while researching my book.

NJ Custom Brass EP-2 pantograph.




Kumata 2003 new EP-2 pantograph.

[peteski]

Looks like the old one was better - equalized and sprung.  Actually usable. The newer one looks like the one used on Kato GG1s - it flops around. Not usable for use under scale catenary.

[u18b]

Looks like the old one was better - equalized and sprung.  Actually usable. The newer one looks like the one used on Kato GG1s - it flops around. Not usable for use under scale catenary.

Interesting......

but in actuality.....

neither is sprung.  So won't touch the catenary wire.

and it is the old ones that are floppy and horrible.

[peteski]

Interesting......

but in actuality.....

neither is sprung.  So won't touch the catenary wire.

and it is the old ones that are floppy and horrible.

Duh, my brain wasn't engaged again while reading the photo captions.   Seems that I've been having more of those senior moments since I turned 50.    Too bad that those aren't spung.  But I suppose those models were never designed to be actually operated. After all, they were unpainted brass. 

[Kisatchie]

Duh, my brain wasn't engaged again while reading the photo captions.   Seems that I've been having more of those senior moments since I turned 50. 

Wait until you get in your 60s.


Hmm... I'm thinking of
having Kiz put to sleep...

[u18b]

here is a little bit more comparison between the old and new.

The original NJ 1983 pantographs allow forward to back movement.



The frustrating part is that you can lift it up perfectly straight.  Then take a lap around the layout and the pant looks like this.



The new pants have stabilizers at the bottom that restrict the forward to back movement.



This does not keep it raised very much (well, it does a little, more friction= less likely to collapse)...
but it at least keeps it straight.



Next, time to start thinking about how to make these sprung.

[u18b]

I did a lot of searching on springs.

My Fleischmann track cleaning loco has pantographs with very small steel springs.



I found a manufacturer that would make any spring you wanted.  The smallest were like 6 or 7 bucks a piece.  Yikes!

So thus far, this is the next best thing I've found.


These are Orthodontics springs for people with braces.
They are NiTi - which means they are made of a nickel titanium alloy.
They are very strong.

You can just twirl the spring to "unscrew" them from the end pieces.



here is a size comparison.  I did the best I could with my calliper.  It was harder to measure these than you might think.



So I'm going to try these.

If someone else knows of reasonably priced springs that are smaller, let me know.