Weekend Update 1/15/23

[davefoxx]

I’m working on decoderizing an old Life-Like Proto2000 HO scale Seaboard Air Line (SAL) E6A.  At this point, the guts have been ripped out and a Decoder Buddy Mini is installed on a styrene mount where the old PC board resided.  This motherboard takes a 21-pin decoder.  Plans include a speaker behind the cab, where the blue tape is reminding me to install that before I run all of those wires over it, and an LED headlight.



I bought this old E6A on eBay to run with my Rapido Budd cars that I received for Christmas.  Rapido has told me that they will run their E8 model in a Seaboard paint scheme, but they haven’t announced it yet.  This engine will substitute until the Rapido E-unit arrives someday to run my SAL/SCL Silver Star.  Pray for no cracked gears!



DFF

[altohorn25]

More Rock Island passenger equipment. I started these this morning and finished them about 3:00pm.  **Disclaimer....these are NOT prototype.....they are Foobies.....yes, I know that, yes I painted them up anyways.....sue me..... 

I ordered two undecorated Railsmith baggage cars from Lowell (one fluted and one smoothside).

The fluted car I cut the middle section of skirting out and replaced the molded on steps with Gold Medal Models metal steps. The smoothside car is pretty much stock.

Krylon rattle can Dull Aluminum paint. Decals by K4 Supply (nice product by the way....).



[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[altohorn25]

A few photos of them with the rest of the train on my layout.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Cajonpassfan]

Prepping for another op session in a couple of weeks. Decided to turn one of the B units of my IM UP F3 ABBA set into a dummy - I don't need the power of all four nor do I feel the need to spend money and effort on yet another ESU DCC conversion. Used a BLI dummy frame with the IM shell...this requires a bit of trimming as the BLI frame is a little wide; a few passes on a belt sander, pic below. Happy with results.
Otto K.

[BCR 570]

My good friends Michael (Dayliner) and John came over today and we were able to move several steps forward with my layout re installation.  This comes after months of preparatory work on the extension of the Fort St. John Subdivision along and through the wall.

Our first task was to get the Highway 97 section levelled with shims and secured to the brackets with screws:




We then secured the shelf for the FSJ Sub extension to the wall with screws (only one for now as the other holes require a concrete bit and screws):




The third task for this work session was to install the new benchwork for Septimus on  the bedroom wall:






I will now begin work on extending the track and wiring into Septimus so that I can fully test the 'S' curve through the wall.


I also made some progress on my MLW M-420B.   I installed the bell, front and rear headlights (Eric castings drilled out for fibre optics), lift rings, and the grab irons at each end of the roof:




I also removed the Atlas side frames from the trucks in preparation for the kit-supplied ZWT trucks:




All in all, a good week!

Tim

[daniel_leavitt2000]

It's too bad they didn't just make a whole ZWT side frame part that snaps into the gear case. Gluing to Delern had always been an issue for me.

[ednadolski]

**Disclaimer....these are NOT prototype.....they are Foobies.....yes, I know that, yes I painted them up anyways.....sue me..... 

https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Foob:  "Foob   Failure Out of Box"

They may not be prototype, but they certainly are not foobies any more, thanks to your excellent work.  Well done!

Ed

[BCR 570]

It's too bad they didn't just make a whole ZWT side frame part that snaps into the gear case. Gluing to Delern had always been an issue for me.

Hi Daniel:

They actually glue to the outside of the brass contact strips.  There are dimples to accept the bumps outside the axle points on the contact strips.


Tim

[sd80mac]

I applied the decals to my 3D printed N scale D&RGW "Fowler Clone" single sheathed boxcar.  Luckily I have a large stash of various N scale D&RGW decals.  The 40 individual decals I used on the boxcar come from three Microscale decal sets.  One was a mixed set for 40' boxcars that included the a D&RGW boxcar.  I used the Flying Grand herald from a D&RGW steel caboose decal set. This was the right size to fit the way it needed to between the boxcar's outside bracing (rather than the larger Flying Grand the was included with the 40' boxcar set).  The car data is from a generic data decal set.  All decals were applied using Micro-Set and Micro-Sol with frequent pricking with a new #11 blade tip while they were setting to try to remove any small bubbles on the uneven surface the decals were applied to.  Lastly, I airbrushed another gloss coat to seal the decals, and prep for weathering.



Erik

Wow Erik! Nice job! Even though you have the body sitting on a stack of pennies, I didn’t realize the size until you placed the pencil next to the boxcar! Wow!

Donnell

[peteski]

Hi Daniel:

They actually glue to the outside of the brass contact strips.  There are dimples to accept the bumps outside the axle points on the contact strips.


Tim

Hmmm.  In all the examples I have ever dealt with in this type of design, the contact strips are loose and are kept in place by the sideframes/bottom gear cover unti.  Once that is removed the contact strips are loose and will not support the axles. They are free to be removed.

If you glue the new sideframes to the contact strips, what retains the contact strips keeping them tight against the gear case? 

[Erik W]

Wow Erik! Nice job! Even though you have the body sitting on a stack of pennies, I didn%u2019t realize the size until you placed the pencil next to the boxcar! Wow!

Donnell

Donnell,

Thanks!  Yeah, the prototype for these cars were built in 1916, so though they are a 40' car, they're significantly smaller than later built 40' all-steel boxcars.  So this has been kind of like building a Z scale car!

I found this photo of a couple of Rock Island "Fowler Clones", that are nearly identical to the D&RGW ones, next to a Rio Grande 40' steel boxcar.


Erik

[dnhouston]

Working on the mountains behind the yard

[Olivani]

Working on the mountains behind the yard

That is looking very good, how did you achieve that ?

[dnhouston]

Started with some castings


Then hand-carved plaster to blend them together


A wash of alcohol and ink


spray painted on three (3) different diluted shades of tan


Then a final wash of alcohol and ink to bring out the shadows and blend it together

[craigolio1]

I made long awaited progress on three Briggs Models BC Rail 8-40CM. I started them about four (five?) years ago with the original intent of mounting them on Kato SD40-2 drives, as per the kit design…. But for reasons I won’t get into that didn’t happen and it was looking like they would never get done so when Rapido released theirs I bought two. I had too much time and $$$ into these three to throw them in the parts bin so ultimately it was decided to make them into dummies and that’s going well!

I found that a Kato passenger car truck from one of their heavy weights was the perfect axel spacing and into that, the SD40-2 axels are a perfect fit.

I made a styrene floor to which attacked the trucks and fuel tank. To fill in the gap between the floor and trucks I added a frame made from styrene T. Finally I added a weight cut from an old hinge which also adds much needed stiffness to the floor.





I glued stops inside the shell which hold the floor level and it’s got a nice tight snap in fit.

The trucks are mounted on 1/8” styrene tube. Screws will foul the centre axel so I’ll copy Kato’s snap on design by flaring the end of the tube with a bit of heat. The side frames on the trucks were filed down on my belt sander until the axel cups were just barely exposed. The side frames will be glued on.



All three are now assembled and height matched to the Rapido model. Which makes them ready for road testing.



The next step would be to sort out side frames. That’s still a question mark. And finally I’ll install function only decoders to add truck lights and number boards. These will never lead so I’ll not bother with head and tail lights.

They roll and track like a Kato passenger car so these will be fun to add in as mid train helpers etc.

Craig