Locos and rolling stock
Instructions for Old Athearn Metal Kits
Hi All - I just came home with two box loads of old Athearn Metal Box Cars purchased from an older enthusiast who was cleaning out his basement. Some of the cars are finished and look great; but most of them are in a semi finished state. Sadly, there is not a single one that has the assembly instructions included, although there are a couple of boxes of spare ribs, grabs, ends and doors.
Better Electrical Pickup for locomotives
I have been using the methods in the attached file to add electrical pickup to both steam and diesel locomotives as well as tenders and thought it might be of interest to the group in general and the post below.
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/7614
Peter
cheap locomotives
Has anyone tried to cobble together a semi-complete locomotive from replacement parts? From Bachmann trains for instance, you could in theory build a 70 tonner minus circuit board and light bulbs and (possibly) couplers for about 47 dollars, (not counting all the charges that come with ordering) and add in components needed it would be around 50 dollars. Would that be economically feasible?
N scale dummy couplers
Hello,
I've been looking into N scale dummy couplers and was wondering if any one had any experience with Bachmann, Con-Cor or any others I might not know about.
I want couplers that will couple up when pushed together but I can uncouple manually.
Since I have a lot of rolling stock to convert, Micro-Trains couplers are rather expensive.
Anyone have any input?
Thanks,
Andrew
Scratch brush weathering
One of the methods of weathering wooden freight cars is the use of a scratch brush, Micromark has it listed as a "Mini Brush with Brass Bristles."
This method uses a few steps. The first step is to airbrush a model with a base color to represent raw wood. After that dries then airbrush the car color, in my case this is boxcar red.
Better replacement for traction tires?
Traction tires. They do their job, but they're the source of problems like loss of continuity and they break, come off, pick up junk, dirt, etc. Plus, the rubber is very sensitive to any oil, such as the grease in No-ox.
Model Power HO 2-8-0 - any advice?
I have a Model Power 2-8-0. It's tender driven (with rigid trucks and 36" wheels!), but all in all not a bad little engine. Being all plastic, except for the brass driver tires (which pick up power), I am surprised at how well it runs and how good it looks. It's no Spectrum or Proto 2000, but it's a lot cheaper as well. And kitbashing is easy since the motor is out of the way!
Here's a photo from the Frateschi web site (the company that makes these models in Brazil):
Any advice on measuring or comparing steam driver crank throw?
I need help! I am trying to determine whether I can use a Bachmann 4-4-0 (old time, not Spectrum) driver with a Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0 driver. I already know about the different axle design, and have an idea on how to modify the 4-6-0 frame to deal with that. The overall diameters are within a few hundredths of a millimeter, and I can skim the surface of the larger one if I have to. The different counterweight style is not a problem - in fact it's the reason I'm considering the change.
CNR Box Car Colour for 1950's?
I am working at paint and decaling of a handful of 40' and 50' box cars for my 1950's layout set in Southern Ontario. I seem to be running into a variety of browns applied by model manufacturers to Canadian National box cars. Some seem more red, some more brown. I realize that there may have been some variation from paint batch to paint batch, and the sun may fade things. But what was the original colour used? Should my 50' CN automobile box car look oxide red, or tuscan red when it rolls out of the paint shop?
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