markoles

I had a friend pick up the Centerville station kit. I think it will be perfect for the newly expanded section of my railroad. I don't have a lot of space over there, so it is really like a flag stop. http://shop.korbermodels.com/Korber-Models-573-G-Scale-Centerville-Passenger-Station-w-platf-573.htm

OK, I found an old LGB headlight bulb assembly in my parts drawer, and cut and ground the new headlight visor to fit. Put it on the track, and everything is working great!! Actually, the light is so good, I think my son has a new favorite engine again!

I saw that. I wonder if it will be a lot of talking and piano over the sounds and action of the 765. Luke would like it more if it was just the engines doing the talking, if you know what I mean!

Charles, The LGB 2085 is (probably) and approximation of the South East German railway #104. It appears to still be in service. Here's a link to a flickr page with a lot of photos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/trains-travel/sets/72157644888350059/detail/ As to what you should pull? Well, you could pretend it was visiting the HSB in East Germany, and get some of those HSB cars from Train Li. They're not that cheap, but they appear to be better detailed than the LGB approximations, and are likely in the same ballpark, price wise with he LGB. Also, this will give you a reason to seek out the 2080S or 21802 LGB HSB model of a 2-6-2T used on the HSB. The SER 104 is stored and supposedly operational in Switzerland. You could pull some of the older RhB train cars with it, and not be too far off.

Raymond, Thanks. I haven't really looked that hard, yet. I was holding out hope that a solution would be simpler. Obtaining blank hex head screws and cutting the threads might be the best. Kevin, Yes, that USATC 610 has been one of our favorites since it arrived a couple of years ago! BTW, if those 2k2 boards fail, Phoenix will upgrade them to P8s for $80 each. That's also a good idea to put two 12v bulbs in series.

The Mechanical department completed a major maintenance project on the locomotives over the past weekend. Here's a brief list: - PRR Pacific 838 AKA "Speedy" has been performing intermittantly for the first time since mechanical acceptance, Dec 25, 2013. No major work has been done to her, so we brought her in and checked her out. First thing we noticed was a disctint bind when the loco was jacked up and the drivers allowed to run free. Removal of the side rod on the engineer's side revealed a minor slip of the driver resulting in slight out of quarter binding. This was remedied by carefully pushing down on the wheel and rotating it back in to position. I did not attempt to loosen the screw. With the wheel back in position, I also took a moment to make the side rod holes slotted using a dremel tool. When I reinstalled the side rod, I noted a slight bind still. So I checked the fireman's side and sure enough, that driver was also out of quarter. I expect this was a result of Luke and I pushing Speedy maybe a little to hard and got that rear driver set out of quarter. I also slotted the side rod on the engineer side. Finally, I cleaned the wheels using alcohol and a q tip. Bench testing showed the loco motor would spin starting at about 5-6 / 100% on the REVO. Ran nice and smooth, no discernable bind. Will keep an eye out for futher wheel slips. - ATSF 1966 aka Strasburg 90: This connie has been a workhorse for us, and I needed to clean her wheels. Man, she runs good. - USATC 610 aka Army 610: This connie used to run great, but somehow, it doesn't run as well anymore. I cleaned the wheels really good, but they weren't dirty. Placed on the test track, poor performance. Back on the bench (aligator clips to tender wheels for power pick up), no problem. Light bulb! Checked the motor board where the ribbon cable from the tender connects. Sure enough, the farthest two wires were disconnected. Also noted a crack in the fireman's side step on the tender. I suspect a major wreck caused both the wire to come off and the step to crack. Repaired the wires by soldering them, check it out on Sunday, worked like a champ again. It is worth noting that both connies run silky smooth. Great locomotives! - Millersvillanova mallet 3177: I have been unsuccessful in securing a new crankpin for the mallet #2 driver, fireman side, so I borrowed a crankpin out of the out of service New Haven mikado. I have been thinking about how to address the loss of supply of these pins, not that you ever really need them until they fall out. I wonder if it would be better to get a threaded hex head screw to match the screws and the machine a nut down to fit in the siderod? Or to have hex head screws cut to length. Either way, it does not strike me as a cheap solution. Stay tuned. 3177's 2k2 sound board died, and I need to send that to Phoenix for a new P8. - Luke #5: This Kalamazoo engine I repainted for Luke was running great one day, then it picked a switch when no one was looking. It must have sat for a little while before Luke got her shut down. By then, I feared we'd stripped the gears (since the engine couldn't pull anything other than the tender after that). I called up Phil Jenson at Hartland, and he sent me a couple of new axles with gears on them. I also bought a new Hartland headlight assembly and bracket. Now, this is an old school G scale motor block. It's split lengthwise, and the motor gets power direct from two brass strips. I have isolated these so that the motor is controlled by the REVO in the tender. But, there's no room for wires for the headlight coming from the output (in the tender). SO, I just wired the headlight direct to the power pick ups. (Darn it. I just checked with Phil, and he said it is a 12v light bulb. Darn it!) So, now I have to figure out if I want to try and find a 24 v light bulb that will fit or can I put in a 12V resistor in parallel with the light? I wonder if a LGB 18v smoke unit in series would work? Anyone have any experience? Next up is FA-1 0401, New Haven DER-1, which has some sort of weird short when it runs forward. Once I fix that engine, all locomotives will be mechanically acceptable.

Anyone ever get the Korber building kits? I saw there are some small G scale station kits out there.

I would not buy that one on ebay! It states the sound doesn't work. It also said there is a bind in one of the driver sets.

Well, it took all summer, but I finally have an update! I was chatting with a friend who said he had a lot of bricks to get rid of and asked me if I wanted them. I took him up on his offer and raised my outer retaining wall by about 5-6". Now, I need to get dirt to fill in between the retaining wall and the track bed. I will post some photos later.

I should find a way to secure the New Haven Alco PA-PA....

What happened to the hudson? I tried looking up that link again,but the pictures are gone now.

I'm curious why folks try to remove paint. I used some super fine sand paper to remove lettering and high ridge paint lines, and then put on new primer and had at it. Actually, I don;t even use primer, I use aluminum spray paint. Sticks to everything and dries fast. New paint sticks to it well. Just my experience.

Chuck, Clearly, you've been following this closer than I have! When you put all of those things down, it does seem like things are going in the wrong direction. Here's hoping....

Chuck, that guy sounds like a grade A Asshole! I wonder if he has any nick names?

Updating work space is going to make future work while maintaining 3 steam locomtoives and historic diesels a lot safer and faster (theoretically). They may not need to separate the boiler from the frame at this exact moment, but that doesn't mean they should plan for that eventuality. Plus, with bigger overhead cranes, it will make other maintenance projects easier, too. The other consideration is budget. Management maintains these locomotives non revenue producing cost centers for the public. It could be that management was convinced to move ahead with securing and operating a big boy and also had the foresight to know they need to update their shop to maintain it. They could be updating the shop using Capital projects to fund. Or perhaps they are using Maitenance money to update the facility. Just because it is possible to do things the old, hard way, doesn't mean that's the best way. One thing I noted right away was the big ass fan. Love that company. Look em' up: http://www.bigassfans.com/

Jim, Great job on the lettering of the 10! Also, that LGB bobber caboose is going to be perfect for the Cornwall Railroad.

All, Just a heads up: The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is having another Garden Railroad tour on October 5 from 1-5. We will be a stop, once again, on that tour.

I was so tempted over the years to pick up the uncataloged Pittsburgh Steelers version of this.

Jens, I remember when the Marklin Maxi F7 (if you really want to call them that) were brought to market. Carachiature is the right word to describe the modeling effort. At the same time, the LGB F7, going the other way, was hiitting the market. The Marklin was more expensive, as I recall, and less detailed. Also, didn't Marklin run on AC power and required a separate kind of controller? That was in the old days, when we relied on shop owners for information.

Chris, Welcome back to large scale! A friend of mine (who exited large scale), modified one of these E8s to resemble CR 4020, and made lots of detail parts, including ditch lights, and the air hoses. Pretty cool when it was all done. I almost bought a 1977 Porsche 911 Targa at our neighborhood yardsale in '09. At the time, my wife said "you can buy it, but no trains until it is all paid for". It would have been a fun car, but.....

I like the direction MTH is going with making their controllers in to phone apps. That's good news to me. Ray, a rumor of an 0-8-0? I had been hoping for big steam! Oh well. Life goes on.

You know what's funny? When I disassemble my mallet, and pull the front truck off, I use an old arch bar freight truck to support the boiler, too!

I'd expect my 3 and 6 year olds would be able to run anything with a remote! They're working with iPads and iPhones and Revo remotes all the time as it is. What's one more remote control?

Looks pretty cool! Certainly not the 'Danish' I'm used to seeing (an american pastry!)