Locos - Rolling stock (general)
Securing couplers on elevated track
I am building an elevated loop in my son's bedroom. I bought a PROTO 2000 E7 engine and a full set of Rivarossi passenger cars. They already have knuckle couplers and I added the appropriate amount of weight to each car. I am testing everything at ground level and when I run at high speed I experience a lot of decoupling. The curves are 28 to 30" radius, so it's not because of tight turns.
What 3D printer?
Prices on 3D printers are coming down significantly, to the point I feel I can justify one. I can’t afford (or use inside my future residence) a resin printer, which would obviously be the best and most expensive option in current technology, particularly for smaller scales... so I’m looking at filament printers, with enough print space to do N scale objects 100 feet long at a minimum, and with resolution as high as possible, while keeping the cost within my limited budget. I know there will unavoidably be artifacts such as layers, but I want to minimize them.
To choose KD 148 or 158
A modeler getting interested again after 60years has accumulated a couple dozen cars which have horn hook couplers, truck-mounted on plastic trucks.
The choice must be made to forever go with one of the two KD coupler types:
#148(whisker spring version of KD#5) or
#158(semi-scale, whisker spring)
Are there ideas and suggestions?
Decal frustrations
Well, tonight was NOT the night for modeling. I was hoping relax in the train room a little after a busy day. Tried decaling some boxcars. Generally decaling has gone well for me. For some reason it didn't go well tonight. They adhered very wrinkly. Then, I tried cleaning one off and made an even bigger mess.
If anybody has any encouragement for a very UN-relaxing night of modeling or ideas how to fix/improve my decaling feel free to share.
-Matt
What's on your workbench? December 2019
Welcome to December! Thanks to all who shared their November work.
Let's see your recent modeling progress! We learn something new when your latest work is shared.
Eric
Eric Hansmann
Editor-at-Large, Model Railroad Hobbyist
Covered Hoppers - Cement
Are covered hoppers used for cement service always the 2 bay variety? I researched this as best I could and didn't really find a satisfactory answer.
Long or Short Rolling Stock?
These comments came from an on-line booklet called The Ultimate/Definitive Guide To Model Trains. I found the section on recommended rolling stock length to be confusing.
Right or Wrong?
I am facing a dilemma. That is, I have two freight cars I am about to complete and they have no matching prototypes for them. As a prototype modeler, well sort of, I try hard to make sure all of my freight cars are a close representation of specific prototypes. This is a satisfying way of modeling that I really enjoy.
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