Work?

Still havin’ fun at it.

Bringin’ three old buddies up to date.  

Nick

Funbench?

More descriptive than "workbench"?

Nick: P2K's?

I've got a brace of P2K GP7's that I will need to install DCC/Sound into... sort of wondering what I'll be up against.

Andre

@ Andre

Old dual mode Atlas GP38s I think one or two have NCE decoders.  I’m interested in seeing what’s inside your GP7s.  You might have to be as handy with a hacksaw as a soldering iron.  Think seriously about some help from the Decoder Buddys.  

Send me an email if you’d like.  amsnick2000@yahoo.com

Nick

amsnick...

Ugh... was afraid of that. These are not the latest n' greatest, so I don't think they even have even the 8 pin connectors in them. (Not "DCC ready".) I've had them for a long time. I've already replaced the split gears in them. They look great. (P2K did a great job on that model.)

Getting DCC/Sound installed in them is way down the priority list, but they WILL have to get DCC/Sound eventually.

It's been a few months since I had them apart for detailing and replacing the split gears,,, and I can't remember if the weights are two piece (like found in yellow box Atlas Alco RS-3 or RS-11) or one piece.

Hacksaws I can do. Just wouldn't look forward to it.

Andre

P2K GP20 for Andre to look at...

that my Father-in-law gave me.  Someday it will be red and have sound too.  It’s only on my workbench to show you.  Definitely a hacksaw job.  Probably go first class, 21-pin Decoder, Decoder Buddy, Scale Sound Systems speaker, ditch lights and so on.

I’ll have to ask you about the cracked gears.  I bet they haven’t been changed out yet.  P2K put out some fine locomotives.  This one goes back in the cabinet until I find some time....  Can’t stay on my workbench!

Nick

DMRG 4427

 4427 is moving along towards completion.  DCC wiring and decoder are installed, yellow stripes and side lettering have been decaled.  Numberboards, conspicuity stripes, and "F" still need completion.

This is probably the closest to the "official" two-tone red DM Rail Group scheme that I'll produce for a while.  I guess I should just call this "two-tone black"... 

-Fuzzy

Hi again amsnick...

I've already replaced the cracked gears in my older P2K GP7's. I think I have a few more P2K's (not GP7's) that need gears.

Speaking of which, I need to check all of my locomotives with Athearn (or clone ala' P2K) inside bearing trucks.

All fer now. Done tuckered-out. Off to bed.

Andre

P2K GP20

That model has been available long enough you may be able to find the later (gray box) drive with sound at a swap meet.  Mine has an original sound decoder that sucks up a lot of starting power and is a lot of trouble to mate with anything other than identical unit.  But there is obviously room for a decoder and speaker.

When I rework a P2K geep, I take a silver Sharpie and put a letter 'A' on the trucks to remind me it's already had split gears replaced.  So far, haven't had to do one a second time.

P2K concern

Hi Graham Line,

Couple of week’s ago I just bumped into the current draw issue head on.  The only way I could get the motor to turn was on my bench power supply.  At first I thought I fried a decoder.  Both were OK but I had a couple of deep sighs....

If it doesn’t run with a 9 volt battery I’ll have to Google motor and gear replacements and order paint and decals.  Might go to the bottom of the priority list at that point.

Sure worked well on the Tech ll. 

Nick

What can possibly go wrong?

This should be an adventure...

Jerry

GP30 Cab interior

Started a detailing project on this locomotive in 2013... Trying to finish it and get it off the workbench.

.

Sawmill Complex for Mulvaney Lumber Company

Sawmill Complex for the Mulvaney Lumber Company

What;s on my workbench?

What's on my workbench? A new workbench... it's not much, but it will have to serve when I move into an assisted living facility in a bit.

My "bench" is a lap desk, one with inside storage. I've added a cutting mat to the top, and will be putting  a luggage handle on it for carrying. I'm also putting a cabinet latch on the lid to keep it closed when it's tilted upright. With this, I'll be able to take small projects with me to work on while I'm on dialysis, and do something productive with those 12 hours a week. I'll take zip-lock bags with me for scraps.

Also on my new workbench are several cardstock buildings Since my budget is going to be extraordinarily limited, I'm having to find ways to stretch my modeling dollar...  and cardstock structures are one way to do that. I've found and purchased a lot of textures, and a few kits. While the kits are nice enough, most of my structures will be freelanced . The kits are great though for learning techniques, both in construction and in texturing.

The small buildings are completed, and are from Clever models. The modular warehouse is from TeamTrack, and was very instructive in teaching me how to build larger structures and layering multiple materials.

The warehouse will be a transfer facility on a T-Trak double module. The four apartment buildings will form a small housing complex on a single module.

My workbench is on my workbench

I'm a little space constricted in my workbench, and it has spilled over onto other furniture. So I'm working on fixing that. 

I'd been thinking about elevating my DCC programming track for a while, and a week ago I dug out some scrap lumber (the 2x2 started life as a leg on my module at Ft. Meade in 1996), my chop saw, and slapped an elevated section on my workbench. Better yet, it not only holds my programming track, but two other tracks, giving me an inproccessing track and a RIP track. 

This morning, while in the shower (isn't everyone inspired in the shower?), I realized that I could now add a pegboard as a back, and it would also protect the back of the tracks from people passing by, which I had identified as a potential problem.

One trip to Lowe's later... I think I want more hooks and baskets. 

It is still messy, but it is getting better. 

@jeff

Jeff,

Good job on expanding the workbench.

How is your Brightech light working out, now that you've had it for a while?  I've thought about adding one, but haven't yet pulled the trigger.

Al Carter

Benchwork on Workbench

I took a break from model building to finish the fascia and foam top for the last part of my layout, Angela's Landing.  It's the last part with benchwork, but I'm excited about building the sawmill, so it may not be the last part finished!

Brighttech light

I haven't used it perhaps as much as I expected to - it's great as a light, since it's color matches the lighting in my garage/layout room. 

Of course, one of the reasons I haven't used it as much as expected is because I haven't done as much modeling as expected. That _is_ changing. I'll be using it tonight as I work on an Owl Mountain flatcar I should have finished a year ago... then a City Classics structure. 

Getting it all right !!!

I recently got an eBay deal on an Athearn SD60 demonstrator. It was an old Railpower shell that was painted and weathered really well. For a 4 foot model, it is actually quite convincing!

I'm not sure what years these could be seen. I believe some might still be around in PRLX reporting marks but I'm not sure about that.

Frustratingly, I noticed one of the ditch lights has fallen off. They were just glued on and had no lighting, So I was going to need to redo those anyway, but Grrrr.... I hate it when parts get lost.

It had an old Athearn Gold Can motor in it when it arrived.It ran okay, but I run Mashima, Roco/Genesis and I have a few Kato and old Helix Humpers in my collection. To avoid having to mess with a lot of speed matching, I decided to throw a Roco/Genesis motor in it and rewire everything with appropriate DCC colors.

Ahhh, what I didn't realize is that this was an old Athearn SD40T-2 frame which requires some heavy grinding/ material removal to get things to fit. No problem, I was able to get that stuff done fairly quickly. So, it is on its way to becoming another unique loco in my fleet. All I am waiting on are some new splines for the drive shaft. I like the hex drive Athearn produces but it stinks how many different lengths there are with no way to really adjust them for custom builds.

A foobie gets finished, finally

Back when I started this puppy the Robins Rails 50-foot PS-1 was the _only_ 50-foot PS-1 in HO scale.  My girl was little then.  She's 37 now. (Excuse me, 29 years and 101 months old....)

 Why is it a foobie?  Turns out the prototype in the picture back there has an 8-foot door and tabbed sidesills.  If the Herald King decals were the correct size the name wouldn't fit between the door and ladder.  But they were shrunk slightly to fit the old Athearn 40-foot boxcar.  So they fit, barely.

And yes, the ampersand was backwards.

So during one of moves it got packed away and forgotten.  A recent purchase of a Microscale BN boxcar data set got me to looking for some projects to finish.  Found this one hiding in a box....

A little more weathering and I'll find this shelf queen some honest work.

Scott Chatfield

Wheels. Lots of wheels

It has been a busy summer so I haven't had much time for modelling;  however I can squeeze in 5-10 minutes here and there so I've been doing small tasks.  The current one is painting wheelsets.  Oily black on the wheel faces for standard bearing cars, flat black on the axle and back of the wheels.  Makes a huge difference in the appearance of the cars. 

Marc Simpson

After purchasing the MTH

After purchasing the MTH taconite cars a while back, my Walthers cars in comparison looked a little plain and I was trying to come up with something to make them look better.  Last summer there was an article in the Missabe Railroad Historical Society publication Missabe Ore Extra about adding air hoses to ore cars. 

I ordered some of the brackets from the authors Shapeways shop, painted and added them to the cars.  I was looking for a little different look for the air hoses then he had, so I bought a few different types of air hoses, but all of them bypassed each other and didn't have a "connected" look.  I like the look of NARC's Magnalock brake lines but there is no way I can justify the cost for all of cars I have. 

Settled on Hi-tech Details 22" air hoses, superglued them together in a way that the hoses stay between the cars because of compression, only ones not glued in pairs are the front and rear car and in the middle of the 48 car sets.  At least for now the air hoses draw my eye away from the over sized grabs.

They are at my workspace 3 4-car sets at a time.

Brackets on the sprue

Painted and mounted 

Glued hoses, not every CA works well. 

Compression works well, these are not glued to the brackets, they slip right out if I need to separate the cars 

Much better

First train is done and working perfectly, now just a few more 48 taconite car sets to retrofit and then time to try and sort out what will look good on the ore cars.

Mike

In perhaps the most boring

In perhaps the most boring post so far, I've been working on this shelf for a corner of my MW yard.  

The tie crane axles are scratchbuilt from z scale wheels, brass rod and American Model Builders pillow blocks.  The hydraulic cylinders are scratchbuilt from brass tube/rod and styrene.  The wear blades are just painted strip styrene, everything else is random parts from the spare parts bin.  The shelf is a Preiser kit cut down and painted.  

It was inspired by this messy little storage area at work.