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!
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?
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.
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. )
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.
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?
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.
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...
Luke and I were playing trains yesterday. I forgot that these might have had a wheel issue. Didn't matter because we didn't have a problem. It is worth noting that I was able to install the revo in the tender so fast that the hardest part of the whole installation was putting the last darn screw in to put the shell back on!
We ran the PRR and UP switchers at Christmas under our tree, and they performed great!
It is based on an earlier version of the Aristo Pacific, but the boiler is now fixed to the frame. The current design I have allows the boiler top to be removed by unscrewing 4 screws.
Joe, I believe the AML GP-60 has been 'announced' for a while now. Couple years at least. I don't know when the hudson was announced, but the prototype sure was pretty and ran well. It was live steam. I rode a GP-60 on a general freight when I worked for NS. Only freight I rode when I was working for them! They still had 4 SD-9's on the roster then, too. I remember getting up in the cab of the one in Chattanooga. Seems like it was a low number, maybe 57 or something?
Chuck, I am sure that someone would pony up the dough for the working prototype. After all, if they cancel the production, you have a one-off collectable that works. And if they make it, well, then that pays for that prototype version, maybe.
Chuck, I think you may be right. Live steam, for sure, the crowd there wants the 1/32 scale. Honestly, I think it is a very iconic and beautiful locomotive. If I had the means, and no kids college or house payments to worry about, I would be ordering one. Just such a beautiful machine! Then again, I wonder if they'll get that fin on the smokebox straight. Ask Ray about the cowling on top of his Accucraft GS-4.
600 hopper cars?! Sweet. I have to run my train around my track about 150 times to see 600 hopper cars!!
Clearly, there are people without real lives online who use the anonymity to their advantage and bully others in to submission. The trouble is when you have a couple or three individuals who take over forums and all the decorum and respect goes right out the window. I decided there were other things to do with my time, and moved on. Seems a lot of others did as well.
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Luckily, there is the basement layout, now with temporary tunnels made from boxes. )
Spring roundup.
in Track & Layout
Posted
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!