A little brass painting today.

Looking good Mike!

Looks good . I assume in traditional Southern RR style, hi short hood and no chopped hood?

Nothing but high hoods in the early years of the CC&W.  On the old HO layout, we did have 3 SD9m's with chop noses, but the rest of the fleet was all high nose.  No high nose bell though, normal underframe mounted bells.  Only real change was the Leslie RS5T horns in place of the stock Athearn 3 chime that came on the HO models.   My SD will sport the stock pair of Leslie A200 blats mounted just behind the cab for now.   i might get a chime horn for it in the future.   

And its a mid 1950's Max Gray brass import, not many of those out there, so no major modifications to the old girl.  Cant wait till I can mask and lay down the green.  I should have the chassis back together here in a little bit.  The carbody needs to cure till probably sunday at the soonest before I can mask up for the green.   Even with baking the model, a day or cure time prevents any paint crazing.   

Woke up at my normal work day get up time and couldn't get back to sleep, so, off to the train room after making my mug of coffee.  Got the chassis back together and ready to go.  I do want to replace the rubber shaft set up from the motor to the transfer case, but I lack anything larger enough for this application at the moment.  Forgive the messy bench, but its an organized mess.  You can see the chassis for my All Nation NW2 on the left side.   Mike the Aspie

Here she is, out of the paint shop and waiting on everything to cure.  Custom decals are in the works, my decal guy took the old club file and upscaled them to O from HO.   I have a line on a caboose that matches what we used on the HO layout.   Great weather today for painting, low humidity, cool temps and till a little bit ago, sunshine.  I allowed the green to sun cure as with my wife home, I cannot bake it due to the smell.  I do the cooking, so its my oven hehe.  But the smell gives her a migrane so thats out for now.  Once the beast is cured, I will reinstall the lenses and number boards and install window glass.  Will finish taking down the the tinplate layout in the next couple weeks and get started on the benchwork for the new layout.   

That is a long run for a plastic tube.  Try two short lengths of Toyota #0 tube with a short length of metal tube in between.

it will have a metal shaft with horned balls on each end and drive cups at each end at some point.  This works ok for now, 

I use both.  For things that turn, like trucks, I use the NWSL glass-filled horney balls on the truck end; Toyota hose on the motor end.  For straight or slightly curved coupling, just hose.  Lots less noise.

nothing moves on this one, straight run from motor to central transfer case, this is why that thick tube works ok for now.