Weekend Update 1/4/15

[alcors110]

that conrail gp38 looks great!

[Puddington]

Starting to build two Briggs Models Canadian Pacific Railway 1923 Minibox boxcars. The kit has resin shell, a choice of ends (regular and lumber door equipped) choice of walkway, brake gear and brake wheel. Kit includes a fret of etched parts. You add the MT 1015's and trucks (I have some on order and am using stand in's)



Ride height looks good as does coupler height. I'll be doing two; both in their last days of revenue service (1970) so they will be patched up a weathered.

If you model Canadian railroading between the 20's and 70's mini boxes are a must - Brigg's has done a great job on these kits.

[delamaize]

Starting to build two Briggs Models Canadian Pacific Railway 1923 Minibox boxcars. The kit has resin shell, a choice of ends (regular and lumber door equipped) choice of walkway, brake gear and brake wheel. Kit includes a fret of etched parts. You add the MT 1015's and trucks (I have some on order and am using stand in's)



Ride height looks good as does coupler height. I'll be doing two; both in their last days of revenue service (1970) so they will be patched up a weathered.

If you model Canadian railroading between the 20's and 70's mini boxes are a must - Brigg's has done a great job on these kits.

I probably missed it, but whats the story of the Minibox boxcars? Is their a thread for them somewhere?

[Puddington]

I probably missed it, but whats the story of the Minibox boxcars? Is their a thread for them somewhere?

 The CP minibox went into production in the 1920's. 7500 cars were built, and some were in revenue service into the late 1970s. They lasted in work train service even longer. PGE purchased some of these cars from CP, and used them for work train service. There were 1000 cars built with end lumber doors. Briggs Models introduced the kits last year. BCR570 (Tim) has done a few ex CPR PGE/BC Rail versions and I wanted to add a couple for "flavour".

Here's Brigg's website:http://www.briggsmodels.ca/cp-minibox.php

[craigolio1]

Weekend work was limited but finally managed to settle on a redesign of upper deck supports after "months of testing" under load showed unacceptable sag in bracing for the wall mounted shelves. We may be slow on the Idaho, but we are thorough. 



The basic idea now is to have a longer vertical piece that screws into the 1x2  wall strips to spread the load better. These new supports are also cut from plywood instead of 1x2  pine furring  strip.  This one is a large with a 16 inch horizontal, whichecks will leavery 2 inches up front underneath for lighting for the lower deck.



Here is an overall shot of the new pieces clamped into place for some adjusting and also for measuring slots that will need to be cut in the backdrop material. This scene will have mostly tall hillside with some occasional sky on the backdrop, so the Masonite needs to be installed before scenery, though you can see some stray foam pieces that will serve as the hillside the tracks cling to as the run upcanyon.


Pete.

Great idea. That L bracket from plywood will be very sturdy. Much more than 1x2.  It's also very cost effective and custom sizes are no problem. Plus, you could go to 3/4" or sister two together to get more strength.  I'll put that in my pocket for later.

[peteski]

This weekend I finished working on a Minitrix Bavarian RR P1 4-4-2 locomotive.  I acquired it recently (eBay). It was a used model, soaked in oil - it needed a tuneup!

So I took it apart and dumped the parts in my ultrasonic cleaner.  Actually, in this photo the tender is already reassembled (it was also fully disassembled for cleaning)


Since I had the loco apart, I decided to install a DCC decoder and replace the old-school light bulbs with warm-white LEDs.  There wasn't much room in the powered tender but it still made sense to install the decoder there (since the dummy loco needed all its weight for good electric pickup.  The only room for the decoder was in the location of the original circuit board over the motor.  But there wasn't much vertical clearance over the board for a decoder. Digitrax DZ126 was a bit large and thick so I decided to shoehorn a DZ126T in there. But I also had to chuck the original circuit board and etch my own (for ease if installation).  I also etched circuit boards which would fit in the spaces where light bulbs used to be. The LED boards will also house the current limiting resistors.

Here is the original circuit board from the tender. It sits on top of the motor.




Since this was a one-off design I just did some rough sketches of the circuit boards and I cut some blank PC board material to size.  Then using an old-fashioned technical pen and some thinned Testors hobby paints I painted the pads and traces over the cleaned bare copper cladding.  The paint will protect those areas from being dissolved by the etchant.


After the paint dried, I put the boards in the Ferric Chloride etchant.  I heat it up to about 40 deg. C to speed up the process.


About 20 minutes later the boards were done. Here are the blank boards after cleaning and removing the etch resist paint.  Also in the photo are the resistors, LEDs, and the decoder with the wires removed. These will all be soldered onto the boards.


All the components are soldered/glued on. The original (brown) circuit board is also shown in the photo.


I had to run couple of extra wires to the front headlight (the original bulb was non-directional and hard-wired in the loco).  The wires are hidden, running inside a plastic plate which houses the pickup wipers for the loco's drivers.  On the front (right side on the photo) the wires are already soldered to the LED board.


Finished chassis.


The new circuit board with the decoder and the rear LED board (on the left side of the tender) installed in the tender.


Here is the finished model.




This was a fun and enjoyable project!

[GimpLizard]

Here is the finish model.


This was a fun and enjoyable project!

Not to mention a darn nice looking model. Well done.

[chicken45]

I can't help but admire you, Peteski. The guys out there that do what you do are truly amazing.

[Cajonpassfan]

Wow, nice, very nice Peteski. The new board is pure genius.
Would you mind providing some key dimensions for the running gear, i.e. driver diameter, and axle spacing, including the powered tender. And, how does she run?
Much appreciated, Otto K.

[craigolio1]

Peteski I'm always amazed at how you have the stones to tear down these models. Nice job. How does it run now?

Craig

[peteski]

Thanks guys!
I actually enjoy and look forward to tearing down any new model. That is my favorite part of the hobby - seeing what makes these things tick and how they are designed.

This one was tricky as far as removing the boiler and taking the loco apart.  First the sand dome top had to be lifted exposing a hidden screw. Removing the screw freed the weight inside the boiler.  That weight was then trapping the loco's cab. The cab was also the item holding onto the frame. Once the cab/weight was slid back enough to unlatch from the frame, the cab couple be separated from the weight and everything came loose.  It was a puzzle! I did it without looking at the exploded assembly diagram (I consider that part of the challange)! 

Otto: I will take some measurements later. Maybe I'll start a separate thread to make it easier to find later.

How does it run?  So, so.  The motor is the ancient Minitrix motor used in their early locos.  Overall, the motor is not too badly designed but the commutator is the weak point.  There are huge gaps between the segments.  The brushes are also almost worn out (too short) and they wobble while the motor is running.  I need to find some replacement square cross-section brushes.  Ideally I would like to replace the commutator with a better one. Bachmann motors actually have excellent commutators. Maybe I'll do it later using a Bachmann as a donor. .  It'll also need new traction tires. They are old and even after cleaning they don't have much grip (all 6 of them!!)

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Wow, Peteski!
Great looking loco (with flanges that could decapitate you a la Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade!)
Glad you have the balls/bearings to brake apart a loco like that & the skills to re-assemble!
(Seems like every loco I touch joins the boneyard in the drawer below my workbench  )
Very groovy!

This weekend Silicon Valley Free-moN participated in the Great Train Show at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, CA:



A great layout in a great space with great light (except when I wanted to shoot video!).
My last Free-moN outing for awhile, so wonderful time all way around, especially seeing some new modules, youngsters running trains, and an engaging audience.

More photos on the Layout Engineering Report.
Here's the video (which looks much better in 1080p!):

Happy New Year!

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  I have no idea where you would find one, but for years I made motor brushes for an antique electric razor from a discarded BN traction motor brush.  It was laying in the railroad dump at Pasco, so I grabbed it, and carved off pieces with a razor saw.  If you know anyone working with large DC motors they may have a similar brush remnant you could use.

[peteski]

Thanks Nick. I do have some larger brushes (like ones in a Dremel tool which are also square) but before I resort to chopping those up I'll see if I can find some original replacement parts.   if I lived in Germany, that would be easy. I suspect that every hobby shop there catering to N scale has at least one pair of those in stock.

[Lemosteam]

Peteski, i have some Minitrix motors from repowering leftovers.  i can look at their wear.  These are from minimally run decapods, which i think are nearly the same motors.  they have tose snap on brush covers like your image......