Great Northern railway

Thanks, Mike.

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GN outside braced caboose marker lights conversion.

An incandescent, battery, magnetic reed operated markers lights from last century.  This was always a hassle.  Forget to turn off at end of operating and the battery goes dead.  All this crap got pulled out.

Had to clean the paint off the axle for the 'wrapped wire' .

Pliers I use to make the bends in the wire including the tiny loop for the 090 brass screws.

Being a brass model, the trucks need to be insulated from the body.  I'm hoping the use of nail polish will be sufficient, over time, to keep everything electrically isolated.  Not much movement so, hopefully, will work. 

All seems to work well and a lot better than battery operated!

GN caboose less cupola.

Another conversion from battery to LED's.

The bridge rectifier, etc from the lights4models HS.  

New delivery:

Two very nice  'cabeese' for interchange roads from Bachmann.

The N&W caboose for the A, J and Y6B.

'Screwed up' on purchasing this Erie caboose.  I have a triplex only I forgot it's the Virginian triplex.  Obviously, this caboose is on 'loan' to the Virginian railroad!

One more GN caboose converted.

This caboose made it easy for electrical isolation as the bolsters are plastic.

Overkill.

Did a road test on all the cabeese: way too much drag.  I put too many windings on each axle (guess I got 'carried away' with the 'free' wire).  One caboose rolls freely and has a lot fewer windings.  Should be easy to just cut off the excess ones. 

Just noticed that the Menard's building has rotating window fans.

GN #383 caboose converted to LED's.   

Previously, wondered why this caboose was 'shorting out' on the track: one wheel set was backwards.  

The old incandescent lights don't always come out 'cleanly' so I have to cut off the outside marker light lens so I can stick a small drill bit into the hole and clean out all the old crud. 

Interesting: the old lenses are beads of plastic (which I don't remember, being old) and the new lenses are colored glass. 

Looks like 3 wraps of wire around the axle is sufficient for good contact.   Seems like this wrapped wire trick should work for all scales and would seem to be especially helpful with N gauge. 

ps: sorry about the bad picture: just glued the dude on the back of the caboose and he wasn't dry yet so had to take the picture at an upright angle. 

Eight done and 15 more 'to go'; at least the process is pretty quick with the markers already installed in the 'cabeese' that I did 4 decades ago.  I'm glad the brass cabeese already have the markers already installed as the paint might get damaged while drilling holes.  The plastic cabeese are easy to mark and drill.

New delivery.

The 3-4 volt strip lights came in.  I'm hoping these work well with the NCE 'light it' decoders for passenger cars.  Also, NCE's capacitors that are suppose to be made for 'keep alive' on the same decoder.  Plus my NMRA monthly mag, 2019 calendar, CCT mag and aviation mag.     

BLI new Big Boy is out video (last item featured):

Like Lionel and MTH, the whistle smokes.

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

An old Silver Streak wood kit caboose converted to LED's.

Was pretty light in weight but none needed to keep lights on which surprised me.

Two that actually were working and no changes needed!

A 30' plywood by Overland.

An old Tenshodo caboose.  One of the first brass cabeese that I ever purchased.

Was factory painted.  I remember back then, 15 bucks for a caboose, are you crazy!  Back then an Athearn caboose could be had for a buck fifty. 

Wish I could remember who made that conductor waving; probably the company is no longer in business, anyway!

Think I found it: you get engineer and fireman but I'm not paying $8.80 just to get one person.

 Labelle Industries # LBL7002

GN #181 caboose conversion to LED's.

Overland seemed to be mostly about making UP stuff but they did produce several GN cabeese.  A rather unusual model. 

Trucks were shorting out so used some heat shrink tubing for the bolster bolt, a couple kadee insulating washers and enlarged the truck hole.  

Only 3 windings of wire needed for good contact to the axle.

A few things I failed to mention about the LED 0604's with bridge rectifiers.

Sometimes the the wires connecting to these 0604's stick out a little bit on the other side of the LED. I use my good nippers to clip the wire off.  I've had one where the wire came loose but I just used my fine tip Weller soldering iron station and re-attached it.

They are much larger than the 0402's and, thus, the LED must be turned 90 degrees by hand so they fit inside the tomar marker light housing.

Once inside the marker housing, I tape the wire to the shell to insure the wires do not move.

The LED's need to be lighted when installing them as, since the wires on each side of the LED are exposed, they can short out inside the brass housing.  With the low voltage, I haven't had any burn out.  Usually, just a slight movement of the LED will remedy the problem.  Some black paint inside the housing before assembly helps insulate the area.  Also, once the glue is put around the area, and dries, there shouldn't be any problems with shorts.  I keep the LED lighted while applying the glue to insure no shorts by any movement of the LED's. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Two more cabeese converted.

Same style by Oriental limited.

30' wood caboose.

One more paint damage from old battery operated lights.

Insulated the bolster bolts with heat shrink tubing and kadee washers.

Bright boy used to shine up the axle and wheel.

Painted back in the 70's.

New delivery:

B&O wagon top caboose for the B&O EM-1 yellowstone. 

Not easy to find B&O cabeese.  Seems like it would be a popular road.

Got a very nicely detailed one from Spring Mills.  Most were sold out but got one of the last types they had left. 

Even has all the brake rigging.

Two more GN cabeese converted to LED's.

Both Atlas that came out a few years ago.

The ends with studs have to be pulled from the shell before removing the bottom.

Nice walkway detail.

GN cabeese updated to LED's.

Interchange and three GN cabeese updated.

GN and interchange cabeese still to be converted to LED's.

MERRY CHRISTMAS: PART 2:

MERRY CHRISTMAS: FINAL:

https://www.ashland.edu/admini...admissions-greetings

C&O wood caboose LED install  (cont)

Kids all went home after Christmas chow and gifts so might as well work on the 'railroad'!

Final assembly:

Test video of lights (marker and interior);

F0 controls the marker lights.  F1 controls the interior lights.

Turn off power and the LED's stay on a very long time.

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

As mentioned previously, I tried using some generic capacitors that were 220MF and 25 volts but they didn't work so I bought NCE's capacitors.  Don't know why!  What's sad is I have a major in mathematics and a minor in physics but that was back in the dark ages in 1968!

NCE's schematic and how I connected the marker and interior lights.

For the LED's, the 'square' is the plus side. 

The NCE 'light it' decoder  is small enough to fit inside the interior of this caboose (with some slight mods).  The capacitors leads were long enough to route them directly to the decoder.  This decoder only puts out about 4 volts so I had to remove the resistors on the LED's that I used. 

With interior screwed in place into the caboose, the decoder is under the center seats with the two capacitors protruding out into the interior. 

The LED wires were routed through a hole in one of the benches.

The input leads for the decoder came out  one hole and routed to each truck.  Had to drill some holes into the under framing to route one wire. 

Three wraps of wire sufficient for good conductivity.  Had to replace the original plastic wheels with Intermountain wheel sets.  I used a bright boy to clean off the axle and wheel as there is a blackening agent on the surface. 

All's 'well in the world' again

PM on a GN C-1 0-8-0 switcher.

This switcher has been working the Seattle freight yard since 1979 and it decided to start shorting on several switches (turnouts). 

Checked another engine with same string of cars. Checked all the insulated wheels on engine and tender. Check side rods touching insulated tires. Tried a different tender. Check if metal hose on kadee touching step boards or too low. Make sure gear box cover isn't too low.  Checked wires on decoder. Checked all the turnouts even though everything else works on them.  After about 3 hours, in desperation, cut a wedge out of four kadee insulation washers and put them between frame and insulated side drivers and all's 'good again'.  Go figure!  I even used a voltmeter to check the insulated drivers while pushing them against the frame and side rods. 

Hopefully, good for another 39 years! 

Old Athearn box car rocking while on the tracks.  Filed down the plastic tube on the bolster fixed that.  At least that only took about 60 seconds to repair.

If I was modeling the 60's, I would have left the car 'as is'!

New delivery.

Milwaukee caboose for the three bipolar electrics and S-3 4-8-4 northern.

Thought I'd try these as they have raised lantern poles.

Wayside structures.

All were cast metal and needed filing to remove the flashing.

Thick CA used to assemble them.

Some poly S concrete paint for the bases.

Signal relay structures.

Details West called theirs instrument sheds.

Some metal 'frames' are in the kit to stabilize the structure but I found some blocks of balsa a lot easier to hold all four sides together during assembly.

Junction boxes weren't painted but the sheds were painted using 'rattle can' silver.

HAPPY NEW YEAR:

N&W 2-6-6-4 class A by United (PFM) decoder install.

Got 'burned out' on LED install on cabeese so back to decoder installs.

Made in 1962 and installing a TCS WOW101 steam with 'keep alive'.

Engine made before sound so holes drilled in tender bottom.  Holes painted from the other side to make them look 'factory drilled'.  First successful sound made in 1972 by PFM. 

Also, as with a lot of the tenders, there is a open area under the tender deck so the brass was cut away for routing of the decoder wires.   A dremel cut off disk and filing used to cut area.  A little paint along the edges to 'dress it up'.

Marker (classification) lights drilled out for LED's.

Brand new #57 drill bit and oil used to drill out marker light.  Backside supported with popsicle stick.  Sides drilled, first; the front is last and has very little brass to drill through.  Oil added about 3 times to insure no heating or binding.  Also insures the markers are not broken off the boiler front.  Care needed on drilling.  I find the PFM (United, Tenshodo, etc) engines are mostly very sturdy in brass thickness and soldering and, usually, can take the drilling.  Other importers can have some pretty thin mounts and, sometimes, it's best to remove them, drill and then re-solder them back onto the boiler.  I have held them with wire cutters while drilling.  The ends of the wire cutters have jaws.

#57 drill bits bulk buying from HD online.

Four holes drilled in boiler for running lights.  Installed and glued in place.

Since I, previously, put a back head in the cab, an LED was installed. 

Tender light drilled out and LED glued in.

Ditto on the head light.

Holes drilled through front of boiler front to route LED's to marker lights. 

All I can say Sam is wow! You do some wonderful work! I would need a bench with a magna fine glass! LOL

Thanks, Mike,

I often have to use my optivision. Another 40 year old item.

I've got a magnifying lens but I never use it.

I need to get one of those  optivision !

Google: opti-vision magnifiers

I think they now come with lights.

New delivery:

Got more scalecoat paint from minuteman.

Got holiday free shipping plus about 10% off being a NMRA member.

Got paint for rest of engines plus interiors/exteriors of passenger cars.

N&W class A 2-6-6-4 decoder install (cont)

The usual.

Made 8 pin connector between tender and engine and 4 pin connector from boiler to engine and a PFM speaker was used.

Marker lights, four running board lights, cab light, glow box and tender light all working.  Still need to wire up the head light on the front engine. 

Left original open frame motor in engine.

Cut the ground wire from the one brush to the motor plus put tape over the solder joints to prevent shorts to engine boiler.  

N&W class A 2-6-6-4 decoder install (cont)

Final assembly.

There was enough room between the back of the open frame motor and the cab back head for the routed wires to all the LED's.

The head light, being on the front engine instead of the boiler, had the wires routed along the two engine frames.  A 2 pin connector was used for the headlight for ease of PM.  Also, a 4 pin connector made to easily separate the boiler from the engine frames.  An 8 pin connector between engine and tender in order to control all lights with different function keys.  

This model was already painted when I purchased it but a little extra detailing done.  Poppet valves and whistle painted brass and valve handles painted red. 

Being made in 1962, back heads were not normal for engines so one was added.

Runs fine in the yard, next will be 'road test' on the mainline.

Additional lead weight was added so it should pull well (versus 'good'!).

Have two other N&W engines that I consider iconic during the steam era that needs painting and decoder install: Class J and Y6B.  Have decals for the J engine striping but not sure if I'll mask versus decal for that.

Y-6B has removable cab roof.

Have one NWSL auxiliary tender and one BLI tender.

The NWSL probably made in the late 60's and the BLI, two years ago.

They were within a dollar of each other in price but the BLI is already painted, has lights and better detail. 

New delivery:       

My 8" trees came in from Menards.  Will be making aspin trees out of them (fall colors).  The canisters that the trees came in are very nice: have to keep them for some future use.  

The bases are just 'hot glued' in so easily removable. 

A little tree making:                 

Some 'fiber fur' added.  I added very little so the branches would show.  

Hair spray and ground foam added.  The tree is heavily saturated with the spray so the foam 'sticks'.

Since it's fall colors, I tried to leave some bare along the tops of the trees.

Material used for 'bulking up' the tree. 

Some cheap hairspray.  The cheaper, the better.  

Aspen yellow was used for the full coverage of the tree with some autumn gold added on the under sides and crevices. 

Not a big forest but adds some color to the area.   

Engineers painted.

About 2-3 decades ago, I picked up some unpainted cast metal engineers (wish I would have bought more than 7).

I followed a procedure from a video on the NMRA web site.

First coat of paint is black.

Nothing fancy: some beige for face, blue for overalls, brown gloves and shoes, red bandanna and black hair.

Some matte medium from Krylon to seal the paint and 'dull' them up.

Dollar paints at Michaels and an airplane heat gun to 'speed the process'.

New delivery.

Got 180 sitting people for the passenger cars that I need to paint and add interiors.  With the present 100 people, hopefully, that's enough to populate the cars.

Also, some black and blue wire: go through these colors, the most. 

Monthly NMRA MCR Div 7 meeting.

Cincinnati area got about 6" of snow last night but the 'snow crews' did an excellent job of clearing the roads.  The 'general' crowd stayed home so there were very few vehicles on the road plus the church parking lot (where we had our meeting) was all cleared.  I went out to our Div 7 web site and they announced the meeting was 'still on'.

Sam did a clinic on making deciduous trees and we visited Tom's HOn3 layout.

John is going to upload Sam's presentation onto out Div 7's web site.

Tom's HOn3 layout.  Very large HOn3 layout with lots of 'walk in' isles to get close to all scenes. 

Tom used to model UP.

Winter wonderland!

Well, not everyone's street got cleared.  This was the only exception in my neighborhood. 

samparfitt posted:

Monthly NMRA MCR Div 7 meeting.

Cincinnati area got about 6" of snow last night but the 'snow crews' did an excellent job of clearing the roads.  The 'general' crowd stayed home so there were very few vehicles on the road plus the church parking lot (where we had our meeting) was all cleared.  I went out to our Div 7 web site and they announced the meeting was 'still on'.

Sam did a clinic on making deciduous trees and we visited Tom's HOn3 layout.

John is going to upload Sam's presentation onto out Div 7's web site.

Tom's HOn3 layout.  Very large HOn3 layout with lots of 'walk in' isles to get close to all scenes. 

 

Looks like a great day! Nice layout, gonna look for the clinic.

Wow Sam, your luck to visit that layout! What a great looking layout indeed! I am sorry about you getting so much snow, but like I have told others here on the forum. BETTER AT YOUR PLACE THEN HERE! LOL

New delivery:

Another two boxes of Intermountain wheel sets (I think I've bought at least 8 boxes of them, so far)!

Some Weston steam crew figures. 

Need a brakeman in the yard!

Estate planning:

A lot of us should be doing this:

I have separate lists for  Lionel, HO, cars, wood working shop, etc; I update each year and send the updates to my daughter (the executor). 

The attached is from one of our NMRA members.

Population explosion:

Populated the passenger station that I picked up last fall at a flea market.

Used canopy glue: dries clear and fairly fast and easy to remove.  Used some small pieces of foam rubber to hold up the 'people' while the glue set. 

This is in the interchange/staging yard so details are minimal but it 'dresses up' the staging yard a little 'bit'.

Extra critter in the logging railroad.

A new pen needs new critters.

I model 1938 so these vehicles are a little too new (40's) but they remind me of when I was young.    That Sear's truck may soon be a 'thing of the past'!  I also picked up these trucks last year so I, finally, put them on the layout. 

Lots of people and critters to keep me busy populating the layout!

Looks great Sam! I sure hope that station has more then one bathroom! LOL

Just returned from an operating session at a fellow modeler's Santa Fe layout.

New delivery:

Train world had a sale so I bought 13 that are from the 1940's.

Semi's.

Buses and delivery truck.

Gasoline trucks.

They even had some GN 'pick ups'.

100 of the warm micro 0402 LED's with leads and resistor attached.

Sam that sure is a great looking layout! I bet you had some fun there!

Also, nice buy from Train World! They will look great on your layout!