Locos - Rolling stock (general)
SP ‘53 Daylight and Overnight pt 2
Decoders, and Solders, and Programs, OH My !
In this blog I will share a little about my experience as a first time decoder installer.
What I did right, and what I did different. And what I would do different next time.
The Kato F3A takes a drop in decoder, and these are not super difficult to install in and of themselves.
Cutting down molded on ladder details
So, I have several old Athearn blue box 50' plug door boxcars that I'm modernizing to my 1980 era. I have removed the roofwalks, filled the holes and matched the roof contour with no problem. My problem is the molded on ladders. I tried once before to remove them and the outcome was not anything I was happy with. Does anyone have a method they use or tool or technique that they could share? Or is this just a practice makes perfect kind of thing?
PFE reefer's ladders. What colour?
I model 1956 and I'm wondering if the ladders and grabs on these reefersshould be black or the same colour as the car?
.jpg)
R/C Steam Crane 1:43 Narrow gauge
Earlier this year I supplimented the equipment on my layout "Denton Brook' with a narrow gauge self-propelled 'steam' crane. This is all 0 gauge (1:43), and the gauge is 14mm (scale 2ft gauge).
However, it needed to be a fully functioning radio controlled crane, to lift cable drums on the layout, loading and unloading the lorries that drive into the yard.
Walthers's Passenger Cars, Atlantic Coast Line
A couple of weeks ago I acquired some really nice 85' modern passenger cars that came from an estate sale. They had no markings on them as to manufacturer? They appear to be of a very high quality, and are already set up for lighting via their truck pic-ups.
I inquired with a few other modelers that seemed to be pretty sure they were Walthers brand, and that often Walters cars did not had a brand printed on their bottoms, as Walthers has many different manufacturers produce product for themselves??
Representing brake gear - more art than science
Over on my Andrew's Trains site I've been working away at (and writing up how I've been) upgrading the Athearn Blue Box XAF10 Railbox cars (and yes I know they are not exact - but they're cheap and I have a few of them to upgrade and add to my fleet).
For more information you can head on over to the main site but I wanted to share some photos of the progress so far. This is a multi-part project that I've been working on for some time as I get a few moments.
Here are some excerpts from the article on adding brake gear (as art versus science):
Easy steam locomotive wipers.........
......can be made using printed circuit board to replicate the bars (don’t know exactly what they are called) that hold the axle and journals in their pockets on the frame. If you look at the attached photos it should be apparent what they are and how to make them. I cut slits in the top of the board to insulate the center area from the frame prior to soldering the phosphor-bronze wire (.015) to that area. On this model with the large wheels I opted to use two wipers per wheel. On models with smaller wheels I use a single wiper trying to make it as long as possible.
>> Posts index
Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: