Great Northern railway

Re: "stumbled across this on Youtube". 

well worth a look ! - incredible modeling.  I would require at least 2047 lifetimes to accomplish what Dr. Nicholas Muff has achieved.  Remarkable.  Have been familiar with his name for a while as he did some very nice drawings of a Chicago Great Western 2-10-4 and caboose in Mainline Modeler Magazine, as well as drawings of Kansas City Southern 2-10-4's in Railroad Model Craftsman (I believe).

bummer.

Thought I'd try to duplicate the clickety clack of freight cars on 39' rail but nada.

I used a diamond impregnated thin metal cut off disk and making a very shallow slot.  Maybe too thin of cut off wheel..  May try the thicker brown dremel cutoff wheels.

NCE decoder 'light it'.   

Some testing.

Soldered two input wires to connect to the track.

There is one hot and 3 grounds for white/green/red.

Checking the output voltage is 4.5 volts.

A default LED on the decoder lights.

Cutting at the 'X' disables this LED so outside white LED's can be used.

The white and green are able to power 5 red LED's (didn't try more).

This will be good for 'cabeese' marker lights.

Also, able to power 5 white LED's: again, didn't check if can light more but I'm guessing it can.

I was hoping the decoder would power the LED strips I bought last year but nada.

I had to use another circuit that produced 7 volts (10 but resistor added) to light the strips.

On the decoder, the max voltage was 4.5 volts from the white and green and nothing from the red.

The manual says I can increase the brightness via CV140/1/2 for white/green/red respectively.  I set all of them to 255 (max) and no change; and the red gives out no current (as it did, originally).  

Also, I tried just a 3 LED strip.

Bummer, looks like the decoder is about 2.5 volts too low for the strip lighting. 

I just tried connecting the LED strips directly to the DCC track.  The LED strips are rated at 12 volts: putting a resistor in series and connected directly to DCC works.  I just won't be able to control them via DCC.  I'll use the decoders just for the 'cabeese'.   There are a lot of variations of type of lighting so can be useful for buildings.

Sam, nice work! I am sure you will figure out something to control the LED strip. You always seam to make things work they way you want! Good luck!

Thanks, Mike,

I found some 4.5 volt LED strips on ebay so those should work.  They are normally, battery powered.

NMRA MCR Div 7 meeting.

Our annual 'Christmas food and bring pictures' show meeting.

Our usual see two layouts after the meeting.  

One railroader's layout was unavailable.

Jerry's superb Reading layout.

His house is ready for the holidays.

Not often when you can use your neighbor's barn for modeling purposes!

Jerry is building for someone a 1/4 scale rocking beam ferry.  Been working on it for a year and should be done next year.

Not sure where he finds time.  Been working on my layout since 1979 and will keep busy until I croak. 

The beam is motorized.

Jerry is in the center.

I wasn't aware that we were having an 'ugly sweater' contest but he won!

As Johnny would answer: it was so ugly that my camera was blurred.

It was so ugly that this web's software took awhile to upload it: which has never happened before!

UP 4-12-2 bald face nine with double walschaerts decoder install. 

Again, TCS 1517 WOW101 steam with KA.

I painted and lighted this engine a few years ago along with a lot of lead weight.

I didn't want the hassles of trying to remove all the weight for the running lights so I ran them along the outside of the boiler until I got to the fire box and drilled some holes in it.

The head light, marker lights and cab lights were all connected under the lead so I also left those 'as is'.

Wiring harnesses from tender to running gear and to boiler complete.

Again, too much detail on the front of the tender so elongated hole made in tender undercarriage.  Had to make the elongated hole perpendicular to the length of the tender because the tray for the auger is right in the middle of the tender.

As with the Big Boy, two 00-90 screws were drilled/tapped with a piece of plastic to keep the wires from interfering with the front truck.

Still need to hook up the speaker, etc in the tender. 

New delivery.

Thought each of the interchange engines should have their respective company caboose instead of GN on the 'tail end'.

Forty years ago, when I wanted a nice GN caboose, I had to buy brass.

Now, they make some nice plastic ones, and a lot cheaper than present day brass 'cabeese'.  Interesting, a lot of the brass steam is pretty cheap but rolling stock is, proportional, a lot more expensive.

I've got tomar marker lights so I want to add working lights to these 'cabeese' using LED's and the NCE 'light it' decoders.

1.  PRR N8 caboose by Bowser.  I like those antenna's on the roof so I got one of those.  A very nicely detailed caboose.  Had to get the 'buckeye region' one

UP caboose by Atlas.

Again, a very nice model.

The ladders are a little thick.

C&O wood caboose by Walthers.

Comes with a lot of detail parts to be added.

Another local railroader says the C&O steam era are red so I've got to paint this one.  At least the parts are off so painting should be easier.  Ordered some micoscale decals.

Found this picture for modeling purposes.

I see you got yourself some nice caboose there Sam! They are going to look great on your layout!

New delivery.

Picked up an empty box in case I find 'something' on ebay without a box. 

Large sunset box for an articulated.

Can paint the top to the appropriate color for that importer.

Cincinnati model railroad club.

Yesterday, I went to this O gauge layout and did some 'train running'.

A double layered layout that is built around a  U shaped isle.

One isle. 

The U part

Other isle.

Got to run a C&O allegheny. 

the helix to get from one level to the other.

Also ran a NYC mohawk. 

Two staging yards: lower.

upper.

Some MTH 2-rail N&W J and C&O diesels.

Work area.

Sam, sure looks like a fun time!

Great looking 2 rail layout also!

New delivery (actually an old delivery)!   

Got the MTH Milwaukee EP-2 back from the MTH repair facility.

Quick service: mailed it Nov 21 so only took 3 weeks and a day.

As previously mentioned, I was worried they wouldn't have parts for a several year old engine but no problem on this engine.

They had to replace the motor and decoder.  The motor was bad and caused the decoder to fail.

Robert at MTH was very helpful.  He suggested using the manual couplers versus the automatic ones because, if the metal air hose touches the rails (ie turnout) it could cause a short to the decoder and cause it to fail.

I just purchased this engine from Trainz.  They said to send them the proof of receipt and they'll reimburse me.  Nice of them.

MTH provides manual coupler replacement parts in the box.

Next: 'road test'.

As mentioned, previously, I already have two Milwaukee EP-2's but this MTH engine has sound and working pantographs. 

This is the only MTH HO engine I have.  I've got about 11 MTH O gauge engines.  They are very nice with cast metal boilers and even the electrics are cast metal superstructures (GN Y-1, W-1) and I've been pleased with their performance and reliability.  

MTH is the only one that makes scale GN engines between MTH and Lionel (not counting 3rd rail sunset).  Lionel likes to slap a decal on the side of theirs and call it GN.

UP 4-12-2 decoder install (cont)

Final assembly.

I had a 'sugar cube' speaker already in this engine so I kept it in the tender.

I had to cut two wires (pink/black) and re-solder them to get under one of the screw plates to hold the bottom of the tender to the top structure. 

The back up light was way too small to drill out for an LED as I feared it would just 'snap off'.

Some nice details on the Key engine:

Working 3rd valve.  Unfortunately, the sound decoder doesn't have this type of steam engine.

See through walk boards.

Functioning smoke box door.

The above was the 2nd 4-12-2 bought as it had the 3rd valve; double walsch valve. 

This 4-12-2 was the first one bought with factory paint, coast drive, functioning sand doors, cab hatches and tender hatches, see through walk boards and working greasley valve. 

The 3rd 4-12-2 was the first one made and it was painted a grey boiler: my weakness for multi colored engines!

Almost forgot:

Offset coupler added.  Off a little bit but should be 'close enough' for the electric 'pulling' the train.

New delivery.

The microscale decals for the C&O caboose and steam engines came in and the USPS delivered my quarterly GNRHS.

Backdating the walther's C&O 'cabeese' to steam era.  

The Walther's package that I bought is a 'two pack' of cabeese.

Per a local C&O railroader, I need to have a red caboose for the steam era so they need to be painted.

Fortunately there are exploded views of the caboose, how it comes apart and where all the hand rails go.

There are a lot of cabeese models on the market.  I'm trying to get one caboose for each of the interchange railroads that I have.  The latest models have exceptional detail and, when considering the price, are equal to or better than the brass cabeese.   I've been buying the latest cabeese with all their detail for many of the interchange engines but I didn't find much for C&O so I'm forced to do a little 'modeling'. 

With the exception of 3 screws holding the interior to the bottom everything just 'pops' in place and vise versa.

Since the caboose will be red with black roof, undercarriage, it's best to paint each part separately to remove the hassle of masking.  Plus, I'm used to painting brass which I bake at 200 degree for 2 hours which eliminates any fear of masking tape removing paint.  I know I can't bake plastic so I'm not sure the paint won't get pulled up from masking tape.  

Primer will be applied first as red (along with yellow) is extremely difficult to get good 'coverage'.

They give you all the hand wires.  There are indentations where the holes need to be drilled. 

Since all the clear plastic inserts need to be flush on the inside, insure all wires are NOT protruding inside the walls.

Initially, I used a hand drill but too slow plus I broke the bit.

A modeling drill press works great and really speeds up the process.  I used #80 drill bits (which you can buy in bulk of 10 from HD online).  The bit is so small, it's best to put the bit into the chuck with only about a 1/4" exposed.  This reduces any side flexing. 

My choice of thin CA to secure the wires.  I like this brand as it gives a very small rod to apply the CA, thus not getting too much on the desired area and not wasting it.  CA can be put onto a flat hard surface and then picked up via a toothpick but I find this too messy, slow and it dries out.  This brand comes with caps to keep the CA from drying up.

Once done with the CA, a key to keeping the outlet from clogging up is to squeeze the bottle while upright to push out excess CA left in the outlet.  If you don't you'll need acetone to clean up the thin rod. 

Even with the small application rod, puddles form around the hole so a paper towel is used to remove excess CA.   The CA leaves a shine on the surface but the cabeese will be painted plus dullcoat would also cover the shine. 

Stack and support wires added.

Half of the cupola hand rails added.  There are not enough of the eye bolts to do both cabeese.  It's going to be difficult to make such small items.

Some wire hand foot steps also on the end plates.

C&O cabeese (cont):

I discovered why there was a shortage of eye bolts.  They provided plastic ones for the roof.  I cut one off and, just looking at it, it fell apart.  They are useless so I used some fine electrical wire and tweezers to construct my own.  With the loop of the eye bolt so small, the wire needs to be flexible.

Not perfect but better than nothing, which is what I had!

Brake wheels added.  I was going to replace the plastic chain across the gate but no one will see it.

Had to use my homemade eye bolts on the sides and use the 'good' ones in the corners.

Thought it best to remove end 'metal' work with a brand new xacto blade before painting it. 

Drilled out holes for the tomar industries lighted marker lights.

Both 'cabeese' ready for cleaning with soap, vinegar and water, dry, then prime.

As with the C&O caboose, I could not find any NYC cabeese so one of these will be a NYC caboose as the two look similar (at least to me)!

C&O cabeese (cont)

Primer.

After washing the parts to remove human prints, plastic shavings and mold release agents, etc, the parts were air blown dry and then left on the heater vent to dry. 

Tools of the trade.  A 45 year old binks and scalecoat II paint.  Normally, I use scalecoat but this isn't brass and, although I have scalecoat II, I've never used it (or don't remember).  Anyway, it is suppose to be good for plastic. 

It takes several passes in multiple directions to get good coverage.  Several light coats are always better than a few heavy coats. 

All painting is done in the detached shop.  Keeps all the fumes and mess out there.

Some cardboard on the table saw makes a good work bench.

70 degrees should be warm enough!  Fortunately, it got into the 40's the last few days so it feels like a 'heat wave'.

C&O cabeese (cont):

About 14 hours have passed since the grey was added and the paint seems dry enough for the next phase. 

Green and black added.

Normally, I only add one color at a time but this situation lended itself for two colors. 

Masked off areas that will be red to prevent different shades of red, later on, should I get some green or black on 'red' surface areas.

Green interior added.  I'm partial to burlington green for interiors.  Didn't worry about getting full coverage as will only be seen through small windows.    

Scalecoat II #10 black (gloss) added. Will have to do the main roofs later as the green paint was added to the underside of the roofs.  

I always remove the masking tape just after 'clean up'.  The paint surface is dry enough for light handling, not good to leave tape on new paint for a long period of time as it may adhere to the surface and more easily able to clean up any over spray with a toothpick and water. 

I'm using a very fine point tip.  I find on these plastic models, hardly any paint needs to come out for good coverage.  It takes several passes but the paint thickness is very thin so these parts should go together with no problems.  

Change gloves often and use fine pointed needle nose tweezers for small objects.  Paint mask doesn't prevent fumes but good for particles, plus in a well ventilated area: 24'X28' and only minor painting.

Sam Thanks for your post on this! A lot of information and I get to see some fine work being done! Keep it up as I am always checking in to see what you have going! Again wonderful job!

New delivery:

Woodlands just plug and play 'control panel' for LED's in buildings.

Want to use these capacitors to remove LED flicker in the cabeese when installed with the NCE 'light it' decoders.

More trackside details.

Junction boxes, instrument sheds and signal relay buildings. 

SP wood caboose.

As with the C&O caboose, extra details needed to be added that come in the box.

Need to convert a few cab forwards to DCC.

GNRW operating session (3rd sat at 7 PM each month):

I was busier than a one arm paper hanger but I had a good time, especially when there was five trains on the mainline at once.  At times, I could have done a better job at dispatching.

Jim really was having a good time!

With three Bob's, it was easy to remember names but all three kept answering when I called one!

Bob and his grandson Owen saved me from having to work the roundhouse and switcher duties.

Depending on the size of the 'crew', we can just bypass St. Paul's yard (needs 2 people) and eliminated the electrics (another 2 people) and go straight to the interchange/staging tracks and give the logging railroad the 'day off'.

Bob brought his grandson Owen with him (age 12): good to see someone younger than 55!

Pizza was good and the last 'engineer' left at 11 PM.

C&O cabeese (cont)

Final paint (not counting dull coat).

Masking:

Red applied to 'cabin car' sides and black main roof.

Didn't have any red scalecoat II so had to use scalecoat.  Normally, not good to mix the two but I think I'll be OK with this surface, especially since the coats are very thin. 

Tape removed.

Next, yellow highlight paint for the hand rails, decals and dull coat before assembly.  

Looking Great Sam! Keep up the wonderful work and soon it will be on the tracks!

New delivery.

Early Christmas

Six packages arrived today.

The functional marker lights for the 'cabeese'.

Athearn Burlington caboose for the O-5 and O-5B 4-8-4 northerns.

No box but must of been mostly a display.  Athearn's early basic caboose but metal wheels and kadees have been added.

Walther's very detailed SF caboose for two 4-8-4 northerns, a 2-10-4 and the 2-10-10-2.

New in the box. 

D&RGW caboose for the L-105 4-6-6-4, L-131 2-8-8-2 and M-68 4-8-4 northern.  A more detailed version by Athearn versus their early kits.

Has metal wheels and kadee compatible couplers. New in the box.

NP caboose for the A, A-2, A-4, A-5 northerns, Z-5 2-8-8-4 and Z-8 challenger.

Another very nicely detailed model by roundhouse.

New in the box.

Neighborhood helpers.

PRR Q-2  duplex 4-4-6-4 by Westside.

Made in 1970.  A rigid wheel base on the drivers.  Not much usage probably due to a large radius needed (guessing 30-34").  Pretty nice paint job by previous owner.  

I put in a low bid not expecting to get it but, for $280 (including shipping), I'll take it!

Basic backhead detail with an open frame motor.

Visit to a local operating session.

Bob models the Santa Fe.

Tried to include all the local celebrities. 

C&O 'cabeese' (cont)

Decals, final touchups.

Microscale decals.

Solvaset applied with a very fine soft brush.  

With wood siding, usually some spots with the decal doesn't set into the grooves so a sharp blade along the wood seams fixes that.

Functional marker lights installed.

Hand painted the hand rails and the window 'roofs'

Fun putting those small numbers over the door!

More fun putting on the builder's date info.  Had trouble knowing which way was 'up'.  Really doesn't make any difference: can't read it anyway!  Took awhile just to find them on the decal sheet.

End rails.

Final note on paint: never recycle used paint back into the original bottle.  Used paint has been thinned plus there's always contaminates in the spray bottle, minor but it adds up if paint is 'dumped' back into the original bottle after each spray. 

Dullcoat added.

Used scalecoat satin on the parts.

Also, the trucks.

Also, dullcoated the two early run Athearn Burlington and D&RGW cabeese.

The westside PRR Q-2 needed new foam cut for the box.

SF and SP cabeese.

While the dull coat is drying on the C&O cabeese, might as well start on the others.

I'm finding that the manufacturer's keep 'upping the bar' as next generation cabeese are produced.

This Walthers SP, I had to drill/insert all the handwires whereas the SF caboose already has them done: for me, when I can, I get the latest version to save me a lot of work.  The caboose had to be disassembled to drill out the end hand rails. 

Hand rails on both the SP and SF get white paint.

All the hand rails were already attached in this platinum SF series caboose, only the black hand rails needed to be painted.

I 'came to the table' to late as most of these cabeese are several years old so I have to take what's being sold on ebay.

C&O caboose (cont)  

Partial assembly.

Good news bad news.

Light test video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be    

Inserted all the clear plastic windows.  Needed a popsicle stick to protect the surface plus keep from crushing the window roof while using some electrical pliers to 'snap' the windows into the holes.  

Had to remove them as the metal weight had to go in, first!

Partial plastic cut away for access to marker lights.

Cut away part of the interior so the NCE 'light it' decoder could be installed.

Pick up wires soldered to some .020 phosphor bronze wire bent to contact the wheels and secured with a 090 brass screw drilled/tapped into the truck frame.

The wire may be a little too stiff as there is a lot of drag so I may use some thinner brass wire.

Original wheels had to be replaced with Intermountain metal wheels.

Hand drilled holes into the undercarriage for the wires.  A little black touch up is necessary.

The decoder allows independent control of marker and interior lights.

F0 controls markers and F1 the interior.

All off.

Markers

Interior.

Bad news.

Lights work when caboose isn't moving, they go off and on, mostly off, when in motion.

I was hoping the 'keep alive' capacitors would work but:

I left off the end railings until I resolve this issue.

Sam, you wired the caps in series going - to +. That equals slightly less capacitance.  Wire cap + to cap + and - to - then each pigtail to the appropriate leg + to + & - to -. This adds capacitance. 220uf &220uf=440uf now. (try to recall it like jumping a car battery )

Thanks,

I'll try that.

The NCE 'light it' decoder schematic says to put them neg to pos but, obviously, that's not working. 

PRR caboose marker lights install. 

Now this works really well and took very little time installing it.

Lights are always on but not a bit of flickering when the caboose is moving.

Creating 'springs' around the axles.

Used some .015" brass although some thinner would be a little more flexible.

Had to put a 'Z' bend in the wire from the 090 brass screw to the axle.   Just took the wheel off and wrapped the wire around it and then bent a circle for the screw.  The wire isn't tight around the axle but provides enough 'surface area' to always be in contact with the axle.  The wire wants to regain its original shape so no problem tightly wrapping the wire around the axle as the wire will slightly increase its diameter after winding it.  

There is a separate wire for each axle: easier to manage.  One wire may be sufficient but I'll stick with two.

Some decoder wire used: again, had to drill a hole in the floor plus through the frame.

These LED's come with a bridge circuit and resistor so polarity is no problem: DC or DCC.

A Ohio company: 

It appears they have the 0402 LED's:

Just noticed: the 0402's don't have the bridge rectifier.

https://lights4models.com/prod...led-pre-wired-by-ip/    

The ones I used are larger (UP3) but small enough to fit into the marker light housings. 

PRR caboose (cont)

roof put back on and conductor added to platform.  Used canopy glue so easy to remove.

New Delivery.

Actually, I picked them up at Menards from an online order.  Order online and they come in nice shipping boxes.

My first Menards buildings.  Sash and door and gas station.

Got them mainly because of all the lights and motion devices attached.

The people came free with purchase of items.  Also, got a converter plug for them.

Roof red lights blink and the sign is lighted.

Reminds me of Andy Griffith show.  Lots of lights, even gas pump globes are lighted.

And the shell sign revolves.  Reminds me of the bar when I was about 8.  They had a round coke sign and we loved throwing snowballs at it as it would sound like a big drum. 

They are on the interchange/staging tracks to 'dress up' that area a bit.  

Burlington caboose. 

This is an early Athearn production.

As with the PRR caboose, I used the LED's with the attached bridge rectifier.

While apart, the end platform, steps and hand rails got painted per what I saw on this caboose via 'google'.

Only molded in plastic hand rails but a little paint helps them look better.

The top shell pops into the bottom frame with the plastic tabs on each end.

Put plastic windows in the caboose.  Fortunately, the cupola comes off making it easy to add windows.

Marker lights and a little paint touch up makes this lowly caboose a little more respectable.  Flagman added to the rear.

I see why these LED's don't flicker as when I turn off the 'juice', it takes a few seconds for the LED's to turn off.  

I used .010 wire instead of .015 and the .010 is a lot easier to use.  Only problem is finding either one.  Used to get it from Tower and they no longer sell this product.

Walther's sells it but wanted 11 bucks to mail it.  Each car takes about 12" of wire for the trucks. 

Nothing fancy but the wrapped wire is very effective at transmitting electricity.

D&RGW Athearn caboose.

Found a new source of 'wrap' wire.  Left over from when I 'strung' my catenary, about 10,000 years ago!  It's about .010, probably 1000' and, best part, it's free!

Same treatment as the Burlington caboose, LED's and windows plus another dude on the platform.  Had to replace the plastic wheels with Intermountain. 

I don't know if being in series might be a form of voltage division used by a board..? It's the only real use for series caps I can think of offhand, spliting voltage to tap off of.

A local railroader suggested try putting the capacitors on the output to the LED's.

============

UP caboose by Atlas.

Functional marker lights install.

Had to separate the tops of the end ladders/framing before removing the bottom from the shell. 

Becoming routine. 

Sam , you sure have been up to some great work! Love the marker lights, as it really changes things! Wonderful job!