Super detail Williams cab forward, first video finishing up !

Thanks Doug and Chris. 2nd round new pipe and much sturdier. Think this will be fine for my purposes. Now back over to fireman side.

 

 

This looks nice!!!!!!!

I don't have the talent or patience to do proper pipe hangers.  I carefully drill .064 brass to fit the wires, then pre-form.  Soldering is done by the revered sweat-solder method - a blob on the hangar, a corresponding blob on the attach point, and heat from above or the back side.

 

You can see it by enlarging the second photo of my AC-8 on this thread:

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...e-late-40s-early-50s

Bob2, my hangers are pretty crude, but I'm getting better. It is so much easier in 1/20.3 scale. I think yours are fine.

 

Ron

I used to try to grind them after installation to get a sort of scalloped look, but found that  the flat plate really didn't bother me.  What I wanted was dead-straight, parallel pipes.  Jig-drilling the hangers guarantees that.

New videos showing front end with frames, piping and painting.

 

Oh yeah that looks very very nice.  I agree with LOS, that gap being filled in and the piping makes all the difference...nice job! 

You've already vastly improved this model, I can't wait to see what the future holds for the rest of it.

More coming tomorrow. I hope.

Very inspirational.. 

Ron,

 

This is a great thread and keep us in the loop with pictures!  I like to keep stuff like this for future reference.

 

Thanks,

Mario

Beginning to put all the correct piping lagged and unlagged on the fireman side.

 

Looks kinda ragged until cleaned up.

 

 

Love the lagged piping, it adds so much realism! Totally a 3D effect, and jumps right out.

Great job.

Excellent.  I agree that does add such a "pop" to the appearance.  Nice job.

I need several double pipe flanges for various pipes. I decided to try and make my own from miniature plastistrut single flanges. I drilles holes for bolts in the flange and then chucked it up in the dremel. I used an exacro to cut the double flange groove. Then glued in flatten wire for the nuts,

the pictures are poor, but you get the idea. It can be done. They'll look fine when attached and painted.

 

 

 

Finally finished soldering the fireman side piping. Looks a little rugged. Have two more pics. still rendering. You wouldn't think some stupid piping would take so long. Did have to put it aside for Easter stuff though.

 

 

Having completed the above I'll have to install cruise commander, sound and wait for a bunch of PSC parts to arrive. I'll eventually have to do a major clean up and re-paint.

 

Stay tuned for more later.

Ron,

 

These look amazing! You are an arteest, to be sure. All of my steam engines now look naked to me...

 

Thanks for showing us the way.

Mario

 

PS - is management discussing how to get the lead truck back on the rail? Sorry... couldn't resist. 

Just installed cruise commander and this is a test of the bare chassis. Runs very very smooth. Now to install sound with two engines with 4 chuffs each running in and out of sync.

 

 

Ron,

First, you've done a heck of a job with this locomotive and I'm amazed at how smooth it is with the ERR.  Please keep us updated as you work to alter the articulated sync of the sound. Will use your info for a future project.

 

Second, I'm new to resistance soldering.  I've only done bare brass.  On a painted model, such as this, do you remove the paint prior to soldering?  I realize that the paint will burn during the soldering, but that isn't an issue for me as I plan to repaint anyhow.  My concern is the parts 'sticking' even with flux.  Thoughts?

 

Last, I can't tell you how much I've learned by watching how you did some of this stuff. I've got my own project going and a lot of the great info you provided helped me build parts of it.  Thanks!   

86TA,

Thanks for the kind words. I decided not to get a resistance rig. Instead I ordered a Weller GT7A. It is the best gun available. I just found out they still make it. I had one when I was a sponsored RC car racer and someone stole it. Check it out. You pull the trigger and it goes to 750 degrees in 3 seconds or less. I always remove any paint before soldering and I use a liquid flux.

 

My soldering is not really very good, but I'm getting better.

 

thanks again,

Ron

Well, I wasn't happy with the fireman side piping and tore it out and redid with soldered brackets for longevity. Looking closely at drawings and photos I did not really have the pipes all correctly placed. I added more pipes to the correct appliances. There are a bunch of them and they kind of noodle around and come out further back on the boiler or engines. Still only 35 or 40% done.

 

You are definitely making very nice progress.

Much farther than I am:

 

 

Your CF looks 'fuller' with the reworked piping.  Well worth your time and effort if you ask me.  Can't wait to see what's next for this beast!

What is that, a Williams UP FEF-3 Northern #8444?

HW, 

Close: Weaver.

The injector piping is wrong and the cross compound air intake which ran down the side of the boiler is not represented. Am now trying to duplicate it.

Installed new injector and air pump intake lines

Ron H, edit the title of this thread when you post new information and/or photo, please.

 

FWIW, I bought one of these NIB years ago when Williams and its distributors were blowing them out for $549.00 ea.

Pingman I don't know how to edit the title.

 

Ron

Ron,

 

At the top of each page of your thread, located on the right hand side, above the list of "Recent Posts" are blue boxes that include "Edit Topic."  Click on that button and you can edit the thread's title or text in your initial post.

Pingman. How's that.

You GOT IT!!!

 

If you include the date of the update in the thread's title, along with the description, you will have nailed it for folks like me to follow your progress more easily.

My iPad allows me to go directly to the first unread post.  If you have that feature, it would make it easier for Ron.

My PC and Chromebook do the same.......so who's unable to do this????

The new sounds from a square cam and cherry switch which give the required 8 chuffs for two engines. It's good enough for now. Back to detailing. I've got to order a boat load of parts from PSC. Back soon.

Don't forget to order the exhaust splitter for the twin stacks.

 

Also, your exhaust sound package sounds MUCH better. Next, you need to get that "UP whistle" sound out of there.

 

She is definitely looking good. 

Hot Water, I appreciate the critique. Don't worry, every part you would expect will be on her. It doesn't yet even have the whistle. I'm also going to change reverse links to scale ones and get the linkage right. It's in neutral presently.

 

As for the whistle, the only good one is soundtrax's cab forward chip, which I can't combine with the TMCC. I doubt Lionel is going to give their legacy cab forward card to ERR. At least I've got the horn. I'm going to go to RC on my two rail locos and might convert this one as well so I can use soundtrax.

 

There is always some compromise.

 

Ron H.

Right, Lionel is certainly not going to sell you the "sound chip" from their Legacy cab forward. However, they WILL sell you the RS-5 sound chip from the previous issue SP cab forward, which has a different whistle sound (although not correct either, but at least it isn't that unmistakable UP whistle), not to mention that great cab forward air compressor exhaust sounds.

This is what I'm staring with. It's pretty blank compared to prototype photo.