WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

@RSJB18 posted:

Yes- 2.5 on each side. The larger weights are .5 oz/ smaller .25 oz. I get them at Harbor Freight.

Full disclosure- I first applied the weights on the bump mechanism and had to move them to where the are now.

Thanks Bob.

John

Bob, nice fix for the Bobylon Trolly!  😃

My current project is this MPC, ICG U boat I bought last week. It was in fair condition and needed a lot of TLC. It wouldn't run when I got it. It was missing the brake wheel and the speed nut/spring/dished washer on the rear mount post that wasn't mentioned in the auction. The frame had a lot of rust and the trucks and sideframes had some rust and shiny spots. I cleaned and reblued the frame. I need to decide if I want to add another treatment of bluing or if I want to paint it. I touched up the bluing on the trucks and sideframes. Apparently this was a carpet runner. I removed a lot of hair, fur and carpet fuzz from the powered truck and gears. The motor was disassembled, cleaned and relubed. Two of the trumpets(?) were broken on the horn and had to be glued back on. The reverse unit was not working properly and I tracked that down to a ground issue. I soldered a wire from the reverse unit to the e-clip on the rear truck and that resolved that issue. I am waiting for the parts to mount the truck to come in and I have to finish up the frame, then this one will be ready for service.

I decided to apply some more bluing to the frame on the ICG U boat. After a coat of WD40 I think it looks good and I will leave it as is. The parts for the truck should be in tomorrow, so this loco should be back together tomorrow night.

The Rock Island caboose has been a pain. I clear coated it four times before it came out right. I kept getting white spots in the clear coat. I threw out the old clear and used a new bottle and it came out okay. I upgraded the light to an LED and used some red clear on the marker lights.

The frame and shell on the loco have been clear coated. The shell will get built up and the fuel tank reattached later this evening. I have to paint and clear coat the pilots then this loco will be ready for reassembly and for its first run in its new livery. I decided to leave the sideframes as is since they are natural metal and the prototype photos I found show them as having been gray, so they are close enough as this is just a toy train.

I took the truck parts off of the RI loco truck to get the ICG loco completed. It has had some time going around the track and is running great. I think it came out really good. It looks and runs a lot better now.

I got the RI loco finished up except for some small details and the missing truck mounting hardware I used to get the ICG loco done. As luck would have it, the parts didn't arrive today. Hopefully tomorrow. It has been running around the layout and is running great. I am glad this one is done. I don't enjoy the painting process all that much anymore. The end result is nice and I have a unique loco that wasn't available in this livery from the factory. So in the end it was worth the effort.

This is my last update on these projects. On to the next project. I am not sure what that will be yet. I have lots of stuff to do.

@RSJB18 posted:

I picked up a MTH Babylon Trolley from Trainland this week. These are all plastic and very light so I added 5 oz of weight. It runs much better now and has enough momentum to flip the bumpers at low speeds.

Bob

Thanks for sharing this great tip Bob.

I didn't have the room for the larger weights that you have installed.   I had 4 larger nuts and a round fishing weight on top of each nut on the 4 corners in the white areas.

While the weight wasn't as heavy that you used, it was enough to make positive bump switching at slow speed every time now .

Thanks again sir.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Thanks for sharing this great tip Bob.

I didn't have the room for the larger weights that you have installed.   I had 4 larger nuts and a round fishing weight on top of each nut on the 4 corners in the white areas.

While the weight wasn't as heavy that you used, it was enough to make positive bump switching at slow speed every time now .

Thanks again sir.

Sometimes it's the simple fixes that solve problems Dallas.

Happy to add to the knowledge base...😁

Bob

I’ve worked to do all the minor things I’ve been wanting to do. I’ve cleared the area as you can see. I am putting any new projects on hold until after the New Year because I’ve shifted my efforts to my layout. I’ve moved my small test track from a spare bedroom floor to the larger game room floor as well. This is so I can add some more track, and a couple of inner loops so it can amuse my 1 year old grandson during his upcoming Thanksgiving visit, to be followed in a month with a longer Christmas visit.  While working on projects is very interesting and satisfying for me, this has a much greater upside!

Cleaned out one of my basement storage areas and prepared two freight cars for donation to a used train store.  Preparation involved replacing trucks and wheels.

Here is the almost finished model of the church we were married in 40 years ago.  I still need to but outside lights for the dots, but it is essentially finished.

Here it is on the layout.

Mark, that is a great structure, job well done my friend.

@Jim Teeple posted:

Mark, that is a great structure, job well done my friend.

Thank you very much, Jim!!  That is a great compliment! 😊

Nothing on the workbench for now. I cleaned it all off. The boss of the house has claimed use of it for the next month for doing Christmas arts and crafts. That's fine, I got enough to do with wiring under the layout, a fresh coat of paint on the layout from making multiple changes, weathering Fastrack rails, and roadbed to keep me busy.😁

One of the many things that I love about this hobby is that there are many different aspects to work on. So when you get tired of or frustrated with a certain aspect you can switch over to something else.

With that I had to take a break from working on the layout wiring, so I went back to detailing some rolling stock. 🙃 I went a little heavy on the boxcar to represent it beingcovered by a lot of soot. First is a lionel o-gauge gondola, then a Industrial Rail boxcar.

What did you use for the weathering Tom?