markoles

Chuck, You might be better off with the MTH 1/32 passenger cars. Better odds of them actually seeing the light of day. Plus, since they're plastic, you can repaint them easy.,

Hi guys, In 1989, I went to the old HL Child & son's shop in Northhampton, MA on our annual trip there during Valentines Day Weekend. It used to be a huge hobby shop that had lots of G scale trains, plus all the other scales, and dolls, etc.. That year, I was shocked to see 4 Lionel large scale Atlantics on the wall, and for something like $189 a piece. Great Northern, Chessie Steam Special, NYC, and Santa Fe. After some deliberation, I plunked down all my Christmas and Birthday money for the Great Northern locomotive. I was amazed at the detail (this was 1989), and couldn't wait to run it. At that time, all I had was LGB: Stainz, a 2060 diesel, and the 2017D stainz-american. Those engines would handle about a half dozen of the LGB 2 axle cars I had on hand with the standard 4' dia curves with ease. Never had any issues with them. When I got the Atlantic out, and it dwarfed the other engines, I was super excited. Then, I applied power, and was underwhelmed. This big engine could barely handle the lone 3080 passenger car I had (the LGB 4 axle western car). Forget trying to run up any sort of a grade. And then, to add insult to injury, the locomotive stopped running forward. So, I sent it back to the shop for repair. 6 weeks later, the engine was returned to me, repaired. This time, I was more careful, but still managed to mess something up with regular 12 year old running. After the second failure and only about a week of actual play time with the engine, we took it back and turned that locomotive in to three aristo cars, an LGB combine, and a half circle of 1500 curves. But, after seeing how George Schreyer modified his to be a more consistent runner, I've been tempted to get another engine for short passenger trains. I've been able to resist the ones that show up periodically on eBay. Today, I got another 4-4-2 notice from ebay for one and it rekindled my interest. How may of you have had these engines and did some minor modifications make these in to reliable runners?

Joe, I know what you mean about the lost train time. I have a semi-permanent loop set up in the basement that grew a second loop after we took down the Christmas tree this year. That's how I stayed sane this year. In other years, when I was more adventurous, I would get out the snow plow and clear off the mainlines outside. Too much snow and cold this year. I must be getting old.

Chuck, I was talking with a buddy who was at the show and it appears that AML may be bidding to make the show cars for next year's ECLSTS. That's good news since the AML equipment comes with metal wheels. Just the other day, I was commenting that I'd like to see an F40PH-2 made. I wonder what really happened to the LGB P-42 diesel molds.

I was encouraged to hear the news of the locomotives returning in the near future as well. Having just purchased four 0-4-0s as Christmas gifts (2 were for my kids), it's good to hear that there will be (likely) parts to support them! I love my FA's and am likewise glad to hear more will be made. It is interesting to note that the FA and the 0-4-0 were among the earliest REA/ aristo products made. Both operate on R1 curves (although you'll want to be careful backing the FA through reverse curves). I swapped shells on a modern FA-1 a few years ago to replace a nearly dead New Haven black box FA-1 and that newer style FA sits lower and runs great. I know there are a lot of folks out there who were hoping for the Ore Cars and the Heritage Dash 9s. Maybe those will see the light of day. One thing that should be kept in mind with this new company is it is being done 'on the side'. Meaning it is more like a garage business than what we've become accustomed to from the former Aristo Craft. Luckily, I have so much other work to do on my railroad that buying more stuff right now isn't a problem!

Ray, That's cool. Question: I see your silhouette in your photo. Why are you wearing a SCUBA mask in the middle of Kansas? I end up pulling weeds and spraying round up to control the grass and the weeds that sprout up. Believe it or not, there's already some sort of green growth on the mainline!

Hi guys, Now that the snow is mostly melted, I am starting to look at my railroad to see what I need to do in order to run trains. 1. Ballast. Ballast and more ballast. I find that this winter was particularly hard on the roadbed, washing away a lot of what had been decent roadbed coverage last fall. I also need to obtain some more retaining bricks for the ballast. This was a problem last year, and I intend to remedy that this spring. 2. Turntable damage. I noticed that sections of the turntable bridge (cosmetic) broke off during the past 3 years of service. I believe this spring, I will attempt to repair and improve those details. 3. Engine service area: I would like to construct a crude roundhouse and 'warehouse' that i can lock to store some freight trains. 4. Garden: Every year, I get a dozen or so plants and add them to the garden. Considering this year I don't really foresee huge model train expenditures, I may get more planting done. You guys that run outdoors: What's on your list this Spring?

Hi Tony! Welcome to this board. I look forward to your technical input. Mark

Jens, that BR50 looks great!! Is it live steam or is that a smoke unit?

Welcome to the group!! There's a lot of guys doing DCS for control, and it looks pretty slick.

I have been trying to think of how one could improve the aristo design by utilizing metal gears in that system. I keep coming back to the problem of power pick up. If that's eliminated through battery use, then there's no problem. Except I'm not battery powered. The aristo design uses metal wheels and metal axles, with the heavy plastic for the gears. I actually never had any of the gears strip under NORMAL operating conditions. I did deform one gear when I was plowing 6-8 inches of heavy wet snow for a few hours and got ice built up that prevented the gearbox from sliding on the axle. And that was serviced by me with gears aristo sent me free of charge, despite being a dummy and plowing with a toy locomotive. I never had an actual problem with the 3 small screws either. My perspective on all of these gearboxes is this :consider the age of the designs and what was happening around the time of the introduction. The USA was an improvement over the LGB design, which was very similar (sliders and power pick ups on the wheels with brushes). It was also an improvement of the aristo B truck design, too. Then, the Aristo gearbox got the makeover, and while not going all the way with metal gears, it was a vast improvement on the earlier USA and Aristo designs, and LGB too. MTH was able to see all of those improvements before releasing their hudson in 2003-4. I've not had any first hand experience with the latest Bachmann big hauler metaled gearboxed Annies, but I am tempted. I don't think any of the old USA design, LGB design, Aristo design, etc.. was 'stupid'. They are natural progressions based on available engineering, materials, and resources (money). Look at the history: Narrow gauge = short trains . As things evolved, we, the users, demanded standard gauge models, and then we demanded they haul prototypical length trains. I am as guilty as anyone, but the toy train moved in the direction of model, while still being an electric train, there's a lag. And I believe the manufacturers chose to spend more money on the details of the model than what was going to move the model. Let's forgive them for that motivation and move on.

I never noticed it before, but you see me carrying my daughter at 4:25, and my son is putting a Bachmann catalog on his head.

Chuck, that's even better than what I was going for!! I still can't get outside to the mainline, snow in a lot of places still. Also, where there was once snow, a nice thick ooze of mud has arisen!! I expect it will be Easter before I get trains running. Luckily, there is the basement layout, now with temporary tunnels made from boxes. )

Here's a shot of the train I was able to run yesterday!

Joe, I also did this to the insides of two of my older REA era gondolas. I've been thinking I should paint the floors of some of the 40' boxcars, too. It didn't take hardly any time at all.

Joe, I changed the setting of the photos so you should be able to see them now. What I did was I took a paper plate and squirted some of the brown in one place, and some of the white in another. If you want more texture, you can choose a couple of browns. So, then, you dip the brush in to one of the paints and sort of drag it over to one of the browns, and you sort of allow the colors to intermingle. In order to avoid a uniform color, and therefore the same look as the original red, don't mix it too much. Then, just go along the grain, back and forth with the paint brush. I covered the edges of the car with blue painter tape to keep the brown/white to the wood section. I like the acrylic paint because it is water soluble, making clean up really easy. By mixing it up with lighter and darker browns, you can achieve the look of sun bleached and otherwise stained wood decking. Here's a photo I found online of the New Hope Valley's efforts at replacing decking on a flat car. I'd expect they'd stain or otherwise protect the wood once they are done. However, if you notice the loading steps appear to have that graying that I note with most woods.

I've got an old F3 that is currently in kit-form. I suppose if I really wanted to, I could check it out to see if I have the axle problems. What do I need to do to check?

Hi guys, Just a simple little project on a Saturday afternoon. I painted up my B&O flatcar deck using art store acrylic paints. White and brown sort of mixed on the brush gives a worn and sun drenched look to the wood. The first image is the deck as I was painting it, showing the red deck, standard on the Aristo freight cars. Here's a shot of it when I was done. I may end up going over some of the darker spots to soften the weathering a bit. Maybe not. My New Haven flat car is similarly enhanced.

Chris, so was it electrical or mechanical? "Jerky" usually means somehow you slipped a gear and got the side rods out of synch. I had that happen with LGB moguls once or twice. 10 cars for a little bugger like these would be a lot, I think.

Kevin, Thanks! I am just getting around to replying! I have a couple of those PWC to linear boards hanging around, so it might be possible to use one if I do wind up with a Reading Camelback. What I would possibly do is simply grab the incoming power and use the motor outputs to drive the Piko board. I wonder if the new Crest will drop the PWC from their future offerings, if they get that far...

Hey, I thought you didn't run this thing!! How do you already have grass to mow?

I'm NOT showing these pictures to Luke.