Best Of Polar Express build

[Lemosteam]

Installment fourteen... Spooky marionettes, and a coffee pot!:

Had a couple hours to play and decided to finish the interior of the combine. It will not be lit but looking through the car I have added strings made with strands of hi flex wire dangling down and dabbed some liquid electrical tape onto the wires to simulate the puppets :

 



Created the fire spit and coffee pot and mounted it next to the fire. It is made from 32 gage wire srtands with a small portion of insulation left at the end, one strand for the hanger, one strand for the handle, and the other strands wound and trimmed to make the spout:

 

 I also took a different approach to powering this car, because I knew the features on the roof would be so delicate.  The press fit of the wire inside the other cars makes their roof fairly hard to remove.  I used two 00-90 screws and soldered leads to the circuit board, drilled holes in the floor, and added a nut to secure the screw.  Another lead soldered to a second nut will screw down against the first nut and eventually be connected to the trucks for power, it works great as you can see from the last installment:





Next I will be adding the ladders and grabs to the roof of the obs, and hopefully the new trucks will arrive by the weekend.

[Lemosteam]

Installment fifteen... Finally a drumhead and some ladders with an attempt at magnetic snow covered roofs:

My new phone has a 16 megapixel camera so I took a chance and took a pic of the drumhead on my Lionel observation car.  Brought the image into MS Paint and took the snippet and reduced it.  Cleaned up the colors a bit, pixel by pixel, and printed it at 15% onto photo paper. The drumhead plate is an Alkem PRR freight number plate with its numbers ground out.  I carefully shaved the paper from the back of the glossy printed medium and Using the raised edge as a cutter, pressed it down until it fit inside.  Glued it in and then put six coats of Glosscoat over the top? Here's a closeup showing that and the added ladders and roof grabs shown in the movie and a side view of the nearly completed car:

 



I have also been toying around with a solution for removable "snow". Two rare earth magnets one at each end inside the roof and some very thin sheet metal in corresponding locations inside the snow and wha-la! As you can see the snow says with the roof upside down, but the snow comes off with just the right force:

 





I am waiting for Kato trucks to arrive to update the trucks to two axle and better rolling resistance. I don't want to finish this thing only to find that my Berkshire can't put the darned thing!  Also waiting on som more Lima interiors so I can finish the observation interior seating...

[peteski]

Um, the drumhead doesn't light up?! 
JK!  It looks fine as-is.  For that size drumhead you didn't need 16 megapixel source photo. That sign is probably 1/8" diameter, right?  Even if you printed it at 2400 dpi resolution, the printed image would be reduced to 300 x 300 pixels on paper.  You could have used a 1/2 megapixel image as a source of the image. 

The only thing that bothers me is that the car looks like it is sitting on stilts.  I'm not sure why that is as I don't recall the stock trucks making the car sit that high.

[chicken45]

I will pay you $20 to put a lip on the end of that balcony.

[peteski]

I will pay you $20 to put a lip on the end of that balcony.

He does have a point (and he already mentioned this once before in an earlier post)- I'll throw in another $20!     But even with the lip, the entire car seems to ride too high. It might just be the angle of your photos.  But the end-platform floor does seem to be paper-thin.

[Lemosteam]

I'll decide once I get the new trucks.

 Peteski, yes very high. These are Rivarossi trucks on a Lima body.i may lower it some later.  You'd be surprised how washed out that image became. I was just happy it was visually readable. Aaand, the movies drumhead is not lit, see Joshua's earlier Pic!

[chicken45]

I'll decide once I get the new trucks.

 Peteski, yes very high. These are Rivarossi trucks on a Lima body.i may lower it some later.  You'd be surprised how washed out that image became. I was just happy it was visually readable. Aaand, the movies drumhead is not lit, see Joshua's earlier Pic!

Yes. Please see my pic for the lack of lighting on the drumhead and the lip under the balcony. 

I remember sanding off the lip on top of the trucks for lower riding, but it made the car very wobbly.

[Hornwrecker]

I think if John installs a third rail in the middle of the track, the ride height will look just fine. 

I think I may have some marble dust somewhere in my scenery supplies.  You could use some to add some sparkle to the snow on the roofs.

[chicken45]

Do you have a Coupler Height Gauge?

[eric220]

Re: trucks, I think you should put it on 2D-P5's!   

[Lemosteam]

In the immortal words of Charlie Brown, Auuuughhhh! 

Joshua, I get it. Now don't get "lippy"   

Eric, if those had electrical contacts I might have!

Bob, I might just take you up on that! I have four more snow roofs to make! I was trying to think of a better solution than Baking powder, something more permanent for a roof that will get handled time to time.

[peteski]

I'll decide once I get the new trucks.

 Peteski, yes very high. These are Rivarossi trucks on a Lima body.i may lower it some later.  You'd be surprised how washed out that image became. I was just happy it was visually readable. Aaand, the movies drumhead is not lit, see Joshua's earlier Pic!

John,
I was just joshing you about the drumhead - it looks really good! 

I don't recall if you already mentioned this or not, but what did you use for the railing around the observation deck? Looks photoetched.

[nkalanaga]

I think part of the height issue is because the bottom of the rear platform is higher than the bottom of the side sills, and there's nothing under it.  On most passenger cars there'd be a center sill/draft gear in the middle, probably some type of end sill or coupler "carrier", and at least probably a more substantial support frame for the platform itself, with at least corner steps.  There would also be passenger steps at the front corners, eliminating some of the open air there, and possibly more boxes and tanks under the car, but I wouldn't swear to those.

The car itself does seem to sit too high, but not as much as the rear view makes it look.

[Lemosteam]

Peteski, I know and thanks.  Of all the folks that actually could light it, i would expect that from you!

It's funny, the RR cars are really high too- even with their trucks.  i need an 0.06" styrene shim to get the body mount couplers to the correct height, using my coupler height gage  .

i think there is room to remove some material from the bolster under the car, but I still have to get wires/electrical pickup in there.  I certainly did not do anything to lift the cars during the build.

[nkalanaga]

I'll agree that the RR cars sit too high, and there isn't much that can be done, unless one wants to start filing and chopping.  Adding steps and platform frames will help, though, and I'd hesitate to lower the car much with prototype plans.  It's possible that the car is also "vertically compressed", and lowering it would make the roof too low.

I think part of the problem could also be the trucks.  Most passenger cars had 36 inch wheels, rather than the 33 inch RR used, and the sideframes pretty well hid the tops of the wheels, often with a raised area for the bolster, making the center of the truck even taller.  The straight upper edge and smaller wheels may make the car look higher than it is, compared to the truck frames.