High Iron K4

Norm looks perfect on your layout. Thumbs up!

 

Signals look great too!

Thanks Charlie! I'll have to get you guys back out here, maybe after York. I've gotten a bit more done on the layout, but haven't gotten around to posting all of it.

That would be great.  By then I should have my custom painted LS&I Alco.  Would love to run that on your layout with an ore drag.

 I've always admired your work Norm and now I get to see your layout with my favorite loco! Awesome job!

Norm,

 

I think that K4's detail beats Lionel's model by a long mile.

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

Fred

I can't complain about the detailing, just the way some of it's attached (with lots of screws). I need to tighten up that rear brake hanger come to think of it.

I installed ERRCo cruise, pulled the smoke, sound, LEDs, and replaced the electrocoupler with a Kadee.

Pulled the smoke-yes

Pulled the sound? No sound or ERR RS4 sound?

Pulled the LED's-the excess classification lights? Yes.

Pulled the electrocoupler for a KD-cool. Haven't worked up the courage for that yet.

Rex, there aren't too many good sound options anymore and I have too many engines that sound the same. The last decent aftermarket RS4 sound I used was from Digital Dynamics. They had a nice clean amplifier and a package that fit in a lot of the smaller PRR tenders.

Minimalist; getting more attractive. I just did one on a brass 20-year-old Weaver century
Hudson that I bought new - and had been a shelf queen. I put ERR Cruise Commander
in it - and nothing else. Not even an Electrocoupler. I miss a whistle a bit, but otherwise,
I like it. I wish that the ERR Commanders came with a default whistle/horn; you could
hook up a speaker if you chose to use it - or, ignore it. But I imagine that could affect
a few Sound Commander sales. How many, I don't know.

The Samhongsa/Weaver Century Dreyfuss is a class act all the way (mine has a pedestal tender).

If we had gone to proper gear ratios in the expensive, scale-sized equipment 20 years
ago - like my Weaver or the High Iron K4 - cruise control would be far less an issue.
Trains are supposed to slow down and speed up on curves and up/down grades;
they are NOT supposed to bog down going up and go like the wind on the way down.

I really like the Weaver PRR engines from the 90s. Bob Bartizek was kind enough to help me find one or two a while ago. He had a nice article on remotoring and regearing them but I find the ERRCo cruise is good enough for looping around the layout.

 

I am currently trying to take delivery of a nice little A5 I won off eBay but the seller seems to have 'lost' it.

Slightly off topic, but what kind of lighting are you using on your layout?  My first impression was that your pictures were on a diorama under natural lighting.

Norm: You did a great job on that engine and you have one real good lookin layout there.

Norm:  High Iron????  Was that a manufacture?   I'm familiar with the Weaver K4 and I believe 3rd rail had also done a K4.  It looks very nice.

Mike

High Iron was (apparently) a short-lived subsidiary of 3rd Rail, to manufacture lower-priced locos in China, but made to a high standard-as the K-4 is.

Thanks Rex.  I have several of the Weaver (Samhogsa) Pennsy models and one of the early Third Rail I1, decapods. As Norm mentioned, I find it well done interesting stuff that can be ungraded.    

Wowak, I am using a combination of halogen spots and CFLs to light my layout. Just Home Depot stuff, nothing fancy.

 

Mike, Rex pretty much summed it up. From what I remember, these Chinese brass K4s were about $750-800 street price.

 

I posted some Yootoobz of it in action:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...re=player_detailpage

First of all,  EXCELLENT job Norm on the weathering. 

 

Back when I was in three rail I went through three of these High Iron K4s.  None of them ran right.  Among other things, the builder had figured out how to make a metal spring that would not conduct electricity (so the ground for the TMCC was intermittent).  Not one of them made a lap around my modest layout with out something falling off. And that something was not always a trivial item....in one case it was the pilot truck.

 

Scott "cheerfully"  kept sending me a replacement, and after three of them we both threw in the towel and gave up.   That was my first 3rd Rail experience, and because of Scott's commitment towards customer service, it was not my last by a long shot.  Among other things I have four of his GG1s.

 

At any rate, about four years ago I had the opportunity to buy the 2 rail version for $500.  As Norm points out these are very highly detailed and look great. Unlike a lot of other manufacturers offerings, including those that are more expensive, they have the correct boiler taper, driver diameter, driver spacing, firebox proportions, etc. So I took a chance and got it.  The High Iron K4 is an equal opportunity offender:  The 2 rail version runs just as poorly as the3 rail version.  With the added bonus that the 2 rail version won't pull anything beyond two passenger cars.  I replaced the motor with a better Pittmann, polished the bearings and axles, and tightened up the drive train.  I also enhanced the electrical pickups and added a lot of weight using tungsten crankshaft weights.  It now runs great and pulls a proper consist.

 

I added DCS with an MTHsmoke unit (yeah, I am still an occasional sucker for smoke), and disconnected all the marker lights.  And now its a regular runner.

 

And now I am inspired by Norm, to weather it a bit more.

John-

I rise in defense of the High Iron K-4.

When I first ran mine (3-rail) it didn't pull very well (only 5 cars on the grades at AGHR) and had a slow top speed. But, it was a lovely model, so I kept running it and, over time, its pulling capability increased, as did its top speed. I surmise that it had some internal friction issues that reduced with running. It's interesting to see that after you reworked the mechanism and motor of your K-4 that its performance also improved. Since mine has the dread traction tires I don't need (yet) to upweight it.

Given the price of one versus its fidelity to prototype I consider it a very worthwhile acquisition.

Thanks John!

 

Luckily I didn't have motor/driveline issues with mine, but the EOB didn't seem to want to run well. For some reason I tend to like EOB better for my engines that have larger drivers and/or steeper gear ratios. My 3rd Rail M1a seems to run quite nicely with EOB even though I don't like the built-in speed wind-up (not to mention the switching noise). The ERRCo Cruise is awesome though, and this engine crawls very nicely, even though I didn't film it doing so. I am having better luck running this with the Legacy remote in 'TMCC' mode so I can use the RR Speeds and the nice momentum features. It makes me wonder if ERR changed their code to work better with the RR Speeds.

 

The front sprung drivers seem a little tight. I thought a spring collapsed but they were fine when I took it apart. It still tracks well. I heard there were some issues with the flange size (.060" vs. the 'standard' .095-.100") but I've had no issues with them.

 

This engine will eventually get another pickup roller on the tender. My 3rd Rail E6 could use the same treatment. I've had to do this to a few of these older brass engines.

 

Mike, looks like I got hosed on my A5 after all. I was planning on just putting cruise in with Kadees front and rear. As for DD, it's a shame they're not making their little RS board anymore. I have those in my Weavers and my 3rd Rail N1. They had the best sounds and the cleanest sounding amp.

Norm, i just purchased one of these used and do not like the EOB either, how detailed is the conversion for an ERR cruise commander?

Thanks for any help you could provide.

 

Looks perfectly weathered. Just the right amount. The Kadee's can be a lot of effort on some tenders but worth doing for that scale look. Have all but one of mine done and never missed the electro coupler. I finally caught up on my rolling stock and now no cars  see the layout until the are converted and weathered. Layout is looking good Norm. I've been following your posts on the planning forum.

Paulie, I just pulled the whole EOB motherboard setup and used the existing tether. From what I remember I just used five of the pins, two for power, two for the motor and one for the headlight. I think I left the tach and reader in the engine. It was pretty straightforward for a no-sound setup. I'm actually running it on the layout now. I may have a hand drawn diagram laying around, I'll see if I can find it.

 

Thanks Dave, I hope to get a bit more scenery done so I can get caught up on engine projects. I have to finish my Q1 project and I have a T1 to work on too.

Norm, where can I find that article?  OR would you mind e-mailing it to me? Really interested in the gearing part.  I could really use the help.

 

The locomotive looks great, like all your trains !

 

John, 

Could you e-mail me on how you did all of this?  I have a project that I need to do this too also.  It'd help me get one of my Weaver engines to operate like I want.

 

I don't want to hi-jack Norm's thread.