3rd Rail L3b Mohawk

Looks good Norm. Nice to see some NYC on the layout...

Jim

Your layout and weathering work is amazing.  What would make your mohawk truly amazing if I may suggest? Swapping out those  generic railsounds 4.0 and installing railsounds 5.0 board from a Lionel L2 pre legacy.

Thx guys. Gary, I may do that at some point even though those sound boards are now $55. I thought they used to be $40 for a while there.  

VERY nice!  I have one of those also, but must admit that I tend to prefer the smoke lifters installed. Thus those various late model NYC Mohawks looked good when parked in the engine terminal next to a Niagara or two.

Norm Charbonneau posted:

Thx guys. Gary, I may do that at some point even though those sound boards are now $55. I thought they used to be $40 for a while there.  

The RS4 boards that have been available for a while are still $40-$45.  The newer RS5 and RS5.5 boards are $55.  I bought a few last year during the November half price parts sale.  Hopefully they will do that again this year. 

Bob posted:

Norm Charbonneau posted:

Thx guys. Gary, I may do that at some point even though those sound boards are now $55. I thought they used to be $40 for a while there.  

The RS4 boards that have been available for a while are still $40-$45.  The newer RS5 and RS5.5 boards are $55.  I bought a few last year during the November half price parts sale.  Hopefully they will do that again this year. 

Sounds interesting. What is involved in changing/up-grading to those RS5 and/or RS5.5 boards? Is it just un-plug the old ones and plug in the new ones?

Fantastic Norm 

Great picture Norm.

One of my Mohawks came without smoke lifters. I made copies using ones from another engine.

As for RS5 boards, what is the perceived advantage? The crew and tower com will be wrong for this engine.

Pete

Bob, thanks, that makes sense. I stocked up on a bunch of RS4 PRR boards a few years ago (their K4 and a half board is one of my favorites). 

Now, to finish this up, maybe I’ll post it tonight:

Norm- the scenery , weathering, layout, simply awesome!! It made me feel as though I was right there in the moment!! Excellent!

As good as it gets !

I do like those ears NORM.  Great job!!!!!!

Hot Water posted:

Bob posted:

Norm Charbonneau posted:

Thx guys. Gary, I may do that at some point even though those sound boards are now $55. I thought they used to be $40 for a while there.  

The RS4 boards that have been available for a while are still $40-$45.  The newer RS5 and RS5.5 boards are $55.  I bought a few last year during the November half price parts sale.  Hopefully they will do that again this year. 

Sounds interesting. What is involved in changing/up-grading to those RS5 and/or RS5.5 boards? Is it just un-plug the old ones and plug in the new ones?

Yes, railsounds 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5 all have the same footprint board/pin out.  I'd wait for the Lionel Jan 50% off sale and order then.

On another note did 3rdrail cancel the latest Mohawks they had scheduled?

Another great video, Norm!

I was taken back by the last minute of the video.  The ground level camera position brings the buildings and scenery from the far side of the layout into the scene.  The perception of distance is enhanced by perceived difference in motion between the fore-, mid-, and far-ground structures.  One can't get that with a backdrop.

Jan

PS.  Do you have any track with a grade?

Thanks Jan, that's just my iPhone riding on a flatcar getting pushed along by an Atlas F7. Buildings in the background are about 10' from the line it's running on. My layout is a flat double-tracked loop. 

I noticed you don’t run any smoke   on your Mohawk,any reason why.Thanks

MR-150 posted:

I noticed you don’t run any smoke   on your Mohawk,any reason why.Thanks

Not sure of Norm's reason/reasons, but I've found that smoke fluid messes up the weathering, plus falls back down onto the track and scenery. Remember, that stuff really is NOT "smoke", but vaporized oil.

I may run smoke on a few engines here and there when filming a video but for the most part they are not worth the maintenance hassle. Like HW mentions, the smoke fluid makes a mess of the flat finish of the weathering. It also oozes out over time from every opening in a shell if smoke fluid has been dribbled onto the shell when refilling, or the smoke unit leaks into the innards. 

That is amazing.