WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

@Alex M posted:

How about a thread title… what’s NOT on the workbench today!!! LOL 😂 I need a vacation !! 😃

That is quite a bit of work there Alex. I'm glad I didn't contribute to that(yet). I know what you mean by needing a vacation, lol. Hopefully soon, eh?

@Alex M posted:

How about a thread title… what’s NOT on the workbench today!!! LOL 😂 I need a vacation !! 😃

Alex, I'm getting agita just looking at these pictures!! But Alex does such great work..I would love to actually come down and watch once and learn!!!

@Alex M posted:

How about a thread title… what’s NOT on the workbench today!!! LOL 😂 I need a vacation !! 😃

You need to have a turbo mode.

@Cincytrains posted:

Alex, I'm getting agita just looking at these pictures!! But Alex does such great work..I would love to actually come down and watch once and learn!!!

Absolutely, but please read this sign in Alex’s shop ……😁

Pat

In the vein of what’s no longer on the bench are my engines. I went through all of them and…

- Cleaned all wheels/center rollers with a dremel.

- Put in new batteries where appropriate

- Red and Tacky all engine and truck gears

- Light oiled all wheels/center rollers

- Fixed any suspect wiring

- Upgraded suspect speakers

- Installed new tires

- Put in new LEDs where needed

At an hour a day this took months to do. But I’m done and set for quite a while  😅

I’ve been running the same rolling stock for years and the wheel’s really need cleaning. I hate that job. I’ll have to bring out new rolling stock and create a very large workbench.

Here's the process of putting a smoke unit in an MTH dummy E8 B-Unit that was upgraded to Legacy.  I upgraded both powered A-Units to Legacy, so I figured I needed to do the B-Unit as well. I actually had a Legacy B-Unit with smoke that I stripped all the guts from so I could use them here.

Of course, the B-Unit never had smoke or sound, or anything for that matter.  First, I added pickups, easy because the trucks already had provisions for them.  Next I set about actually piping the smoke unit to the holes in the shell.

JB-Weld to the rescue, I rigged a rod through the hole to align the brass tubing that would be my smoke stack connection.  Once the JB-Weld set, I removed the extra tubing.

The holes obviously exactly matched the old Lionel smoke unit, it was also from an E8.  This smoke unit was used as a spacer for the second tube to get the positioning exact.

I also used the RCMC from the Legacy E8, it was handy.

Here's the smoke unit all mounted, works like a champ!

Here's how it was mounted, the two threaded standoffs were screwed to the smoke unit mount, the smoke unit was positioned on the two stacks, then I just reached in and applied JB-Weld to hold the standoffs in place,  This allows the smoke unit to be removed for maintenance.

Not shown is the RS-Lite installation that just connected to the RCMC to give the unit sound as well.

@ScoutingDad posted:

@Berkshire President  The supports are lined up with the studs so I will be fixing them into a solid base.

Regarding the paint. It is similar to trying to paint over an existing high gloss finish or putting oil base over water base. The coating looks great going on, but the surface tension is such that the paint pulls away from the surface leaving gaps in the coating. Second coat does the same thing. I think the water based coating was not compatible with the base.

Looks ok on the photo but not so much close up. Really, with the shelves loaded with cars, only I would know its there.

If I remember right it works better using a oil base primer, letting it dry thoroughly, then using latex paint on top with wood. I think that's how I painted my house and garage back in the day when I could still do it.

Removing incadescent lighting from the new MTH passenger cars and installing LED light strips with the aid of GRJ's modules.I wasn't going to do any decorating in the cars but I decided to throw some paint in them.

Have a fun weekend all.

The paint is a really good idea, makes a big difference.  I may have to get over my lazy streak and paint the interiors of some of my lighting upgrades.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Removing incadescent lighting from the new MTH passenger cars and installing LED light strips with the aid of GRJ's modules.I wasn't going to do any decorating in the cars but I decided to throw some paint in them.

Have a fun weekend all.

These modules are the best thing ever! They're easy to install, provide even lighting throughout the car (when used with LED light strips) and dramatically reduce amperage draw.

I've converted at least 15 passenger cars so far and they all look great!

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Removing incadescent lighting from the new MTH passenger cars and installing LED light strips with the aid of GRJ's modules.I wasn't going to do any decorating in the cars but I decided to throw some paint in them.

Have a fun weekend all.

That’s a good idea Dallas. What was your painting method?

Jay

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The paint is a really good idea, makes a big difference.  I may have to get over my lazy streak and paint the interiors of some of my lighting upgrades.

" getterdone John. "

I agree about the difference .  I only painted the flat green floor and parts of the seats and I used a brush clear coating the original tan colors with a fast drying Krylon matte art fixative to knock down the plastic sheen.  The job went RELATIVELY fast without trying to do an open roof display exercise.

Have fun big J.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

That’s a good idea Dallas. What was your painting method?

Jay

Painted the floors , walls and parts of the seats with Tamiya XF-5  flat green .   The green on the cap was too bright but the pgreen paint was perfect.

The seats were the original tan plastic.   I brushed  Krylon Matte permanent art fixative  on the tan seats ( sprayed into cup to use ) to knock down the plastic sheen.

The sky dome seating area side walls were done with painting a wide pin stripe type tape with the XF-5 green .  When i tried to slide the tape between the wall and seats it was difficult to stop it from sticking in the wrong place.                I brushed water on the wall and the back of the tape and was able to slide it into the position it needed to be in.  Took a Qtip and pressed the tape on the wall.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

That’s a good idea Dallas. What was your painting method?

Jay

Forgot to mention Jay......the interior of these MTH cars is removable for easy access for painting.   

R-O-W brass Alco PA (actually an Alco PITA - because it was). 2 motors, ERR Cruise Commander.

Second shot, the Williams FA dummy "tender" - more AC hot/cold pickups and the TMCC antenna (see "brass" PA above). The two units are tethered.

The GM&O had 2 Alco road units that were painted in a solid red, rather than the more common 2-tone red with stripes. I really like this solid look, and I had a photo of each of them - the only known photos of them in their solid schemes, so far as I know.

The white numerals were correct with this scheme, oddly enough.

These numerals should have been white too, apparently (just one B&W photo to go by), but my number set did not match the GM&O "744" standard as well as it did "291", so I went with the right numerals in the wrong color, rather than the other way around. The Dulux color was typical for GM&O diesel numbers in this era, anyway.

291 and 744 may have never run together - I don't know - but this seemed a good idea. I had the locos and the decals. FA's and PA's both pulled freight and passengers on the GM&O at points in their careers, so this MU'ing would do for either.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Forgot to mention Jay......the interior of these MTH cars is removable for easy access for painting.   

Thank you very much for the insight.

@D500 posted:

R-O-W brass Alco PA (actually an Alco PITA - because it was). 2 motors, ERR Cruise Commander.

Second shot, the Williams FA dummy "tender" - more AC hot/cold pickups and the TMCC antenna (see "brass" PA above). The two units are tethered.

The GM&O had 2 Alco road units that were painted in a solid red, rather than the more common 2-tone red with stripes. I really like this solid look, and I had a photo of each of them - the only known photos of them in their solid schemes, so far as I know.

The white numerals were correct with this scheme, oddly enough.

These numerals should have been white too, apparently (just one B&W photo to go by), but my number set did not match the GM&O "744" standard as well as it did "291", so I went with the right numerals in the wrong color, rather than the other way around. The Dulux color was typical for GM&O diesel numbers in this era, anyway.

291 and 744 may have never run together - I don't know - but this seemed a good idea. I had the locos and the decals. FA's and PA's both pulled freight and passengers on the GM&O at points in their careers, so this MU'ing would do for either.

They look great D!…..nice work, …..as usual!…..

Pat

@D500 posted:

291 and 744 may have never run together - I don't know - but this seemed a good idea. I had the locos and the decals. FA's and PA's both pulled freight and passengers on the GM&O at points in their careers, so this MU'ing would do for either.

Hey ' D '  ......I've always tried to make engines and consists consistant looking together but after watching numerous videos of engines running on specific roads there have been enough mixtures of even different road names pulling freight that I wasn't sure of which road video I was on.

@harmonyards posted:

They look great D!…..nice work, …..as usual!…..

Pat

Thanks a lot, especially in light of the quality of work that you do.