WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

@Victor Bertolina posted:

Not a really big project but did save an interesting animated car. The Lionel 6201 . gondola was purchased in a box about 5 years ago. I wanted the K-Line loco and a bunch of freight cars were included. I did clean up the car and purchased the rubber bands that drive the capstans but the mechanism was really worn out with the capstans leaning inward toward each other so much that the film strip kept falling off. I thought I would give "rebushing" the chassis a try using brass washers glued in. It actually worked and the car now operates. I attached a few pictures and a video link.

https://youtu.be/MoSX_0AvSn4

Victor , I'm not sure what the " animated car " is supposed to do but its good to see you are one of the people that are willing to do the work to get it working.   Nice.

Posted elsewhere but I'm upgrading a pair of Lionel SantaFe F3's with ERR and sound. All LED lighting and electro-couplers.

dallas.joseph Hi Dallas

The cop and hobo car was an inexpensive (cheap) follow-up to the 3444 post war car. The cop chases the hobo around the set of packing crates. The figures are attached to a "filmstrip" mounted to two vertical capstans. The capstan shafts extend thru the car body thru the truck mounting rivet. Each metal capstan has a plastic pulley pushed onto the shaft. The pulley lines up close to the plane of axle centerline. The rubber band goes around one of the pulleys and around both axles of one truck. The rotation of the axles drives the pully and the capstan which makes the filmstrip move like the aquarium car. The cop and hobo are attached to lugs mounted to the filmstrip.

@Victor Bertolina posted:

dallas.joseph Hi Dallas

The cop and hobo car was an inexpensive (cheap) follow-up to the 3444 post war car. The cop chases the hobo around the set of packing crates. The figures are attached to a "filmstrip" mounted to two vertical capstans. The capstan shafts extend thru the car body thru the truck mounting rivet. Each metal capstan has a plastic pulley pushed onto the shaft. The pulley lines up close to the plane of axle centerline. The rubber band goes around one of the pulleys and around both axles of one truck. The rotation of the axles drives the pully and the capstan which makes the filmstrip move like the aquarium car. The cop and hobo are attached to lugs mounted to the filmstrip.

Thanks Victor.         This sounds like one fun car when it's operating properly.

I seem to learn something new every once in awhile. 

Some people painting

I've been working on this club car from another forum. I kept a few of the decals, removed a few and added the DT&I decal's. The decal's were for a HO scale GP35. I think the fit is pretty good. I'm thinking about a light weathering on it.

I will be spraying a clear matte on it this weekend.

This might be considered heresy, but just having fun with the hobby.  I had this nice Lionel GP20 chassis, and stumbled onto a Lionel 8808 SD18 shell.  They fit nicely.  But, had to get the correct lamps and holders, the fuel tank since it was missing, and the wire side rails from the Jeff theTraintender.  A little extra bending on the wire railings, drill two holes below the windows for the rail to pass through, odd that the  smaller windows already had an opening for a rail, but the front ones did not.  Two more holes for the front handrails to fit onto the step, put it all together and wallah (Southern for voila'), I have a, well, not sure, a 4 axle SD18 at the least, but it says ACL on the side and works fine and did not cost much to boot.

R J, nice looking redo.

Would like to see the weathering.

@CALNNC posted:

This might be considered heresy, but just having fun with the hobby. 

Can't prove it's heresy by me CAL.    Good looking locomotive .

Just having fun with the hobby ? .........Thats the true spirit of the hobby .

There was a recent post about firebox flicker modifications; GRJ once again posted a gerber file of a tiny pcb he designed using 3mm flicker leds and some 0805 220ohm smt resistors.  Ordered some boards and put one together to see how it works.  Didn’t have an orange led so used 2 yellow and 2 red.  Not bad really, those resistors are dang tiny tho, I have to admit.  Works pretty well powered by 5vdc.  It will also work at 3vdc, just a little dimmer.  Try them out if you have need for the application.

@TedW posted:

There was a recent post about firebox flicker modifications; GRJ once again posted a gerber file of a tiny pcb he designed using 3mm flicker leds and some 0805 220ohm smt resistors.  Ordered some boards and put one together to see how it works.  Didn’t have an orange led so used 2 yellow and 2 red.  Not bad really, those resistors are dang tiny tho, I have to admit.  Works pretty well powered by 5vdc.  Try them out if you have need for the application.

Definitely makes one heck of a good fire glow representtion Ted.

Here's my finished OGF to DTI car.

Bill not sure I like the weathering but it's on there now. Lol

RJ, Very nicely done and not over done.  Perhaps a little more grime and it'd be perfect!

RJ, I know the car you started with.  Excellent job on removing the lettering, new decals and weathering.  I think the rust looks very convincing!

Using a PC Power Supply to build a Power Supply for DC Voltage testing, using fuse protection on each line of -12, +3.3, +5 & +12 to ground, or if you combine those voltage like the -12 and +5 for example you can get 17 Volts. Had an issue with the sheathed panel banana jacks being too deeply recessed for electrical contact for the sheathed banana plugs on the test leads so sent them back for refund. Second time with 2 different electrical suppliers. So this time going old school to what will work, ordered standard panel banana jacks and plugs, when they arrive, I will cut off the sheathed banana plugs on the test leads, and replace them with the standard banana plugs. Unfortunately you can't order test leads with standard banana plugs anymore. Not like I'm testing 120 or 240 Volts AC. Also going to use a CW-80 spare from a Lionel Starter Set for Track and Accessory Power for AC Power jacks on my power supply panel for testing and have a test track on the bench. Both will receive their power from a Switched Duplex Receptacle on the bench protected by a GFIR on wall. I will post pictures when it is done. If interested see my post in the Electrical Forum for pictures:

https://ogrforum.com/...pply-for-dc-voltages

Continued on my F3 ERR upgrade.

https://ogrforum.com/...2#159660139518103252

Another parallel bench project with the other 5 running at the same time, been trying to go inexpensive  on a 6819 helo car with no helo.  There is a repro helo out there at a price I thought might be high, and it is not, when compared to other helos, both toy and models.  It seems  at 1:43 or 1:48 scale if you find a model and run the numbers off the full size helo, just about everything dwarfs the flat car.  I did find one 1:48 German helo that gave its model dimension on the box, and it would fill the flat car, but not extend over the ends.  It appears models in the 1:72 range are the equivalent size to the original helicopter on the 6819.  Except for a couple die cast 1:72 sizes, all the other options make that somewhat high price 6819 helicopter look like a good deal.

This is the repro available:

This would fit if the main rotor was modeled in a shipping mode of all blades folded back, or totally removed and on the car as an extra item, and is 12 bucks cheaper.  A 1970 German helo on a 1950/60's era Lionel flat car might be a bit of a stretch, but maybe an eccentric millionaire bought it and is having it shipped to his mansion.

Right now I'm tinkering with this old MPC diesel switcher that I picked up for $20 at a TCA show a couple weekends ago. I'm tuning it up as a donor chassis for the next 3D printed custom locomotive I develop.

This particular Pullmor is double-wound-- the field has 2 sets of coils. This requires an unusual wiring scheme but also allows for a simplified manual reverse unit with no E-unit beekeeping required. I noticed that it had traction tires, a worm drive and a very heavy diecast power truck so I thought it could make a good runner. I stripped the motor down, cleaned the contact surfaces, replaced the motor brushes, repacked the drivetrain with fresh grease and oil and adjusted the thrust screw just right.

I have to admit that I have in the past given the venerable old Pullmor a bad shake. When properly cleaned, adjusted and lubricated even this cheapo one can crawl along at near-scale speeds. I have PS3 MTH locomotives that don't run as smoothly as this!

This just came today. Now I can finish the area around the welders.

This was, but now it's done.

https://ogrforum.com/...rthwestern-e4-hudson