Great Northern railway

samparfitt posted:

Mine too.

From what I've read, it had the largest tractive effort for any articulated.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o...video_id=elC1LoBU2lk

Nope. Maybe when it was new, but the DM&IR M4 2-8-8-4s and N&W Y6b compounds had higher tractive effort ratings.

Stuff:

Found an old lumber yard kit in a box that I built back was I was a lot younger.

Put it on the interchange track area.  Not any 'master piece' but it reminds me of 'a long time ago'.

I don't even remember who made the kit.

Illusions of grandeur!

I purchased more scalecoat paint and thought I'd get my engines painted this fall.

With 21 steam and 17 passenger that need painting, it's going to take awhile   

Marker/head light drilling.

T&P texan.

#55 drill bit for the marker lights and, after drilling out the headlight, enlarged with a #50 drill bit.  Sometimes, the micro LED's have to be angled to get them into the #55 hole and, since the headlight is a lot larger, the hole is enlarged.  (see last picture for order numbers from home depot)

There was a lot of 'plumbing' going to the smoke box front (ie feed water heater) that some soldering had to be undone to remove the smoke box front from the boiler. 

SF 4-8-4 by United.

The marker lights were very sturdy on the united model and powered drilling worked well.  Depending on location of marker lights, holes for routing the led lights are drilled into the boiler or smoke box front to make it easier for assembly.

This engine had no back head so one was soldered in at 3 contact points with the boiler: center and two sides (no need to solder the entire contact surface).  Only a couple notches were needed at the base corners of the back head to get it to fit in the boiler. 

SF 4-8-4 by key.

The learning curve is improving doing all the marker lights at once.  Depending on the location, most can be held by some needle nose pliers to keep them from twisting off of the boiler mounts but some need to be removed, held in pliers and then re-soldered. 

SF 2-10-10-2.

Liked to have put a back head in but the motor sits in the cab and the way the drive universals are set up, the motor has to stay in the cab.

Quick drilling this model as there are no marker lights (early steam era), just head light on engine and tender.

drill bits:

Marker lights (cont)

For these engines I had to remove the marker lights to be able to drill them out.

Burlington O-5B 4-8-4.  No lights on the tender.

Burlington O-5 4-8-4.

Butchered the marker lights so had to replace with identical cal scale.

Milwaukee S-3 4-8-4.

D&RGW M-68 4-8-4.

Lucked out on this one.  The marker lights are an unusual shape (cylinder) but they were made already drilled out (that's a rarity).

No tender light.

Marker lights: production line drilling (cont)

Did the two PRR S-2 and J-1.

PRR have different kind of marker lights, at least on these two models, as they are rectangular and very narrow. 

For you PRR experts, I need to know if those three bumps on the back of the tender are marker/head lights?  thanks.

Marker lights (production line drilling) cont.

Sunset NYC Hudson.

This is the first engine where the smoke box front didn't come off as it was lightly soldered on.  The front's usually have some brass sheet stock curved and soldered to the back of the front's and snugly fit into the boiler.  Some brass sheet stock was soldered to the back of the smoke box front and a V bend put into the brass to snugly fit into the boiler.   With no name as who made it, I'm guessing that this is an early model by sunset.

N&W J and auxiliary tender.

The marker lights had to be removed to drill them out.  They are tear drop shape.  I butchered one of them and, since no one makes marker lights in this shape, I filled the hole with solder and re-drilled it.

The smoke box front had some extra brass stock to hold it to the boiler but was too loose so it got the same 'treatment' as the Hudson.

Something different.

Another set of lights are going to be added along and under the running boards by the front of the drivers to help the engineer see where he is oiling.

Marker lights prep (cont)

Finished up with the logging engines.  Much easier as there are no marker lights, just head lights on the engine and tender.

The 2-6-6-2 needed the pilot re-soldered.

I made an error on the drill bit sizes: they are 50 and 55's:  55's for the marker lights, 50's for the headlights which I ordered from home depot.  One would think that, drilling into brass, one bit will last a life time: not true.  When using a dremel, it's easy to over heat the bit, which dulls it.  It's best to set the dremel on a pretty low setting.  Like all metals: drilling is best done with cutting oil and low revolutions.

Dayton NMRA train show pictures.

Was hosted in a mall in a vacant JC Penny's store.

Layouts included: N, HO, S, 3 rail, G and leggos.

One of the HO layouts was a huge U shaped set up.

Only thing I bought was more micro lights: white, red and green.

Delivered:

200 painted people, standing and sitting, from China for the passenger cars. 

New arrival:

NYC Mohawk, 4-8-2 by Key.

This completes the three engines of NYC that I was interested in putting on the roster (along with the Hudson and Niagara). 

I was the only bidder on the engine and it went for what it was sold for in 1977 (250).

The description said the motor ran but the drivers didn't so I guess that scared others from bidding.  I had to add two new screws to hold the 'elephant ears' on the running boards and the water injector was broken off but in the plastic bag.

Just basic backhead detail: being from Samhongsa, they are usually very detailed but I guess he only puts in what the importer wants.  Being Key, the engines are usually pretty detailed. 

A can motor provides the power. 

This completes what I consider a good representation of NYC steam.

Getting the Great Northern railway ready for Saturday's operating session.

Neighborhood kids came over to 'help'!

Looks like a couple of great helpers there!

NMRA Div 7/3 meeting.

Yesterday two of our divisions had a group meeting (Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio) and, as usual, we visit layouts after the meeting.

Bob Lawson's layout.  This has to be one of the best, private detailed layout in the country.  Bob's a true artist when it comes to creating scenes with buildings and people.

Here's a quick video of the layout that I took, last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...;feature=em-comments   

Bob Lawson (cont)

I'm speechless.  I have seen some superb layouts in my day but they can't equal this one.

B&O EM-1 improvements.

The engine ran fine when testing it in the yard but was shorting out on the mainline. 

Fortunately, I noticed some sparks coming from the tender wheels. Had to add some kadee insulation washers to each side of one axle to prevent the insulated wheel from contacting the truck frame.

The back engine drivers were also not making contact with the track along all the drivers so:

1) added some RC airplane fuel tubing between the front drivers where they connect to the boiler.

The original spring was too weak.

2) plus, a shim was added where the front drivers sprung plunger makes contact with the front driver 'plate'.

All's better, now!

In the future, plan to strip it and add lighting and re-paint.

Nice fix there Sam! Way to think out of the box.

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 improvements.

The very old black tubing broke going to the front set of drivers and replaced with some RC fuel tubing.

Thanks, Mike,

After working on engines for 45 years, one is bound to figure out a few problems!

Just posted October 20, 2017, walk through on big boy restoration and roundhouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W8N64RVEiA

UP 8500HP turbine.

Start up and leaving Seattle:

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

East of Seattle:

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

 At Tye:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J1jycfnH6U

UP turbine (cont)

At Wilmar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3XYFKw77FI

Over Chumstick canyon trestle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3JhBVrRVo     

At Steven's pass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1grQoKEK9rU

Found another GN fan.

While visiting my son in Michigan, visited Scott's GN layout. 

A very nice, well done layout with lots of homemade trees and scratch built buildings from GN plans/pictures including nice catenary.

The snow scenes use ground up marble.

Did his own impressive back drop painting.

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYhX1VK_8uc

New arrival.

Hollowed out number boards from PSC.

They come with mounting stand and plastic number board inserts.

Will, now, be able to light up the number boards along with the marker (classification) lights.

Wow - That is an amazing layout.

New arrival:

Got some even smaller LED's from China.

The one's that I've been using are 0604's or 1.8MM X 3MM.

The new ones are 0402's.

I got white, red and green.

There are 5 per pack and they have resistors already installed.

Totals: 50 white, 20 green and 10 red.

As seen in the pictures, they are very small (left is the 0604 and right is the 0402).

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

I got the bug to work on the passenger cars.

The trucks on the oriental limited cars have average to bad rolling characteristics.

The bulk of them have 'flat ended'  axles versus a needle point version.  I used a pointed dremel grinder to removed some of the bulk in the 'journals' so less friction.  I also added some light oil which also helped them move more freely.

A few trucks had to have the brake shoes ground down as they were touching the wheels. 

One set of trucks had pointed axle ends so I used a beveled pointed devise with two cutting edges to insure the journals were smooth.

I had several old central valley 6 wheel trucks that are very free rolling and put those on some of the cars. 

Intermountain has some ball bearing axles at 20 bucks per 6 so they aren't cheap but probably would help.

Illusions of grandeur!

I thought I could pull 18 cars but had to double head with an R-2 2-8-8-2 and a S-1 4-8-4 and that was on a level grade coming out of the yard.  I'm going to have to run 9-12 cars are the most.

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

Finished up the last heavy weight passenger car.

This diner was partially painted and 'updated' with extra piping on the bottom frame of the car.  Some air hoses were, previously, soldered on and acid resin must of been used as the kadee coupler screws were rusted into the frame.  Those were ground off and a new hole was drilled and tapped for a center screw for the kadees. 

New bolsters were added as those were missing.  They were drilled and tapped to  the frame. 

Along with eight walthers heavy weight cars, two heavy weight passenger sets were made: one with 12 cars and one with 14 cars.  With 4 light plastic cars in each set, the 0-8-0 could move one set with no trouble and the other with some 'assistance' so they should be a good size for an R-2 to pull them.

There is also one set of modern passenger cars (far left 3 tracks).  Hadn't planned on much passenger traffic and should have put in additional tracks for it in Seattle and there are no facilities in the St. Paul yard.  The 'staging'/interchange track runs off the mainline just before St. Paul's yard so passenger trains can go there.

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 front driver update.

When trying to pull the heavy weight cars, the universal that I fixed with some RC tubing was too flexible and allowed the universal to separate.

Under stress, the front gear box moves which allows the universal to separate.

Some thin, brass sheet stock was cut to secure the gear box via the engine frame.

The sheet stock keeps the gear box from moving.

All's working again.

Some more railroading.

Best way to test the railroad is to run trains

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 videos:

At Steven's pass:

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

At Tumwater canyon trestle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0PSv2pimp4

New circuitry for the new 0402 LED's.

As mentioned, previously, these new LED's are extremely small.

Picture shows them: 0402 LED left in picture and 0604 right.

We're talking about 1/64" wide by 1/32" long!

I got white, green and red from this supplier:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/8V-12...p2057872.m2749.l2649   

They come 5 per package for about $6.70 (counting shipping) and they come pre-wired and have a resistor added.

The pro is they are cheap but a circuit needs to be made (see below) whereas the lights4models are 'ready to go' with all needed circuitry at $15.50 per 5 pack plus shipping.

https://lights4models.com/         

If you don't need many then I'd go with the lights4models but I needed about 70 white, 20 green and 15 red.

These 0402's will fit into the marker lights a lot easier plus I want to light up some number boards.

Circuitry:

It's been since the mid 60's since I got a minor in physics but here's what I came up with. 

I run the circuitry parallel to the motor.

I put 19 volts as input, output is about 9 volts with the 1.5K resistor for white and green and about 11 volts for the 1k resistor for the red LED.  At 19 volts this should also work for DCC.   As mentioned, I don't claim to be an electronic's wiz and there maybe an easier way to set this up.

NOTE: For DCC, I have been informed that all that is needed for LED's is a 1.8K resistor.

With the provided resistor in the shipped LED's, voltage range is only 8-12 so I had to get it down to that level.

If I remember right, the capacitor evens out the voltage flow and prevents 'spikes' which could damage the LED's.

I bought a bunch of bridge rectifiers from digikey (bottom of list in picture).

I used a .47 ohm capacitor to bridge the +/- side (DC) and on the AC side, I put a 1K resistor for the red LED and a 1.5K resistor for the white or green LED.  Simple to make (just use a small soldering iron and do it quickly).

I didn't try 2 red LED's but one works on the circuitry.

A white and green was able to run on the 'W/G(white or green) circuitry.

The red LED needs more 'juice' so that's why I used a lower rated resistor.

The 0402 LED's have a little thicker wires which I'm hoping will help on insulating them while pulling the wires through brass holes as the lights4models have lacquer covered wires and one must be careful not to short them out against the brass boilers as it's easy to scrape the lacquer off the wires.

I ordered these 'window stain' paints from home depot and hope they work nice for colored lenses (in case you don't use other than clear LED's).

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ga...uct_desc__W808851062

For pre war trains that a lot of people say is losing interest, the prices sure don't support it!  There's some pre bid estimates for several thousand dollars.

https://connect.invaluable.com...W160/?displayNum=200

Layout visit.

Went to a fellow NMRA's O gauge layout in my area.

He grew up in Greenville, Ohio and models the 3 railroads that came through town: NYC, PRR and B&O.

He makes all his turnouts and crossings and uses atlas track for the rest of the layout.  Most of the buildings are scratch or kit bashed.  Mainline curves are super elevated.

A multi-level layout with something I haven't seen: each level is independent of each other.

Three turntables are all scratch built.

His shop has tons of boxes but they are all parts and not kits (for the most part).

Those passenger cars on the work bench have multiple pieces all glued together.

He's working on battery powered engines with RC type throttles so no power is need in the track.

Something different:

A pivoting bridge as an escape track for the engines.

GN S-2  4-8-4

Number boards.

The original boards were cut off and the hollowed out ones from PSC were soldered on via resistance soldering.

Before:

The package had some small brackets but the S-2 were sturdier (drilled with pins) so I cut off the old boards and soldered the new boards to the existing bracket.

After:

I also cut a hole in the back of the board before soldering.  I wanted the hole in the bottom of the board but no room with the bracket.

A hole was drilled next to the hand rail stanchion were the wires will pass as on the prototype.

Both sides done.

I used an xacto knife to clean up any leftover solder and a brass brush to remove debris.

Painting.

Used soapy water and vinegar to clean up all the parts, air compressor dry and then put into toaster oven for final drying out.

Wheels taped as well as all electrical contact points, ie: journals, etc.

Wheels, since they have insulation, are air dried.  Left the brake shoes on as there is a plastic tube on the screws so that will also be air dried.

Truck wheels will be hand painted.

Drivers and trailing trucks will be taped and air brushed.

Mechanical parts:

Painted with scale coat #10 black.

Since the engine will be painted glacier park, the sand/pressure dome were removed for painting.

Paint thinned about 50/50 which makes it pretty thin.

Put into toaster over for 2 hours at 200 degrees: again, air dry of all wheels.

Since this is my first time with lighted number boards, I'm going to finish this model up, first,

before doing any other engines with number boards to insure everything goes 'according to Hoyle'!

The marker lights on the engine and tender will also be lighted, along with cab light and,

something else new, glowing firebox and lights over the drivers.

Doing two other engines that don't have number boards.

Except for red cab roofs and silver smoke boxes/fire boxes, these engines are a lot quicker than the multi-colored GN S-2.

Burlington O-5B and O-5 4-8-4's.

Drilled holes in back head for light and also one on each side of boiler for driver lights.

All the engines were, previously, had the headlights and marker lights drilled out on the engine and tender.

Oriental Limited O-5B;

Usual steps of cleaning and masking before painting.

In the toaster oven for 2 hours.

Overland O-5:

The Overland O-5 had a few parts that needed re-soldering.

One tender step was loose and a water injector (?) was in the box and goes under the cab.

The tender brass stock used to hold the under carriage came loose and one hand rail on the front steps also needed soldering.

Presently, the GN S-2 and Burlington O-5B have two coats of black and the O-5 is 'cooking' in the oven.

You sure a master repair guy! I wish I lived close to you I would bring over an engine my Son-in-law and grandson found in the trash. Still haven't got around to fixing it and its been sitting on my shelf for about a year. I played a little trying to fix it but no luck yet! Keep up the great work and I will keep watching!

GN S-2:

Painting (cont)

The hard part:

masking.  Fortunately, the two domes were removable.

The easy part: painting.

The masking is immediately removed after tool cleanup.

Another 2 hours in the oven.

I would recommend a dedicated toaster oven (assuming they still make them!) over using

the kitchen oven for better control of heat as one doesn't want others turning up the oven

not knowing there is (was) an engine in there, plus paint gives off odors.

Looks GREAT! Just wondering do you put the painted engine body in the oven to bake the paint? Just curious cause you have foil under it.

Thanks, Mike.

An expert is one who has already made that mistake.

A master is one who has made the same mistake, twice!

Yep, makes the paint a little more durable (at least in my opinion- which isn't worth much!). 

The foil help keeps the paint on the object and not pulling off on the resting surface.

Also, I can get work done a lot faster just waiting a few hours versus 8 or more, not having to fear that the tape will pull up the paint.

Just wondering how long and at what temp?