markoles

Without being nasty about it, I'm only tangentrally following these developments. One of the reasons this forum exists is a direct result of the way those other forums are operated. What is interesting is the 'ownership'. I had been a gold member of MLS for about 4 years before I allowed that to lapse. I believe I removed all my photos. Interesting, when I do a search for my old username and MLS, a lot of the old pics pop up. Interesting, right?

It would be interesting to see if they adapt this chassis to an american looking boiler. Could do either a large mogul or a prairie.

Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend ride: This is the 11 AM train headed away from me. The smoke actually helped make the photo a little better. It was a great ride in Minersville and fun to ride the double header!

All of these have found new homes!

Hi guys, Not sure how often Chris gets over here. He didn't have much interest from here or elsewhere, and took the loco to the ECLSTS where he traded it to RLD for an ACL E8. Here's the ACL unit pulling some New Haven streamliners, passing our Connie working the yard tracks.

Hi g-scalers, This one is almost under the radar, but there is a double header steam excursion this coming Saturday up in Minersville, PA using the newly restored New Jersey Central 0-6-0 #113 and Reading and Northern's classy blue pacific 425. From the facebook page, they are planning an 8 car train with the two steam engines on the one end and a diesel on the other. The diesel will pull the train down a 1.7% grade to Cressona, and then the steam engines will pull the train back up. I'm planning to ride the train with my kids. The combination of a pacific and a switcher should be interesting. I am not sure I would want to be crewing that switcher when the pacific gets up to about 20-25 mph....

There was an extensive discussion on this over on RYPN.org regarding this fight. Apparently that group showed up out of the woodwork...

Mike, Where are you located? There are still a handful of shops around the country. I personally do not have any Piko products, but I have been watching them since they entered the market a few years ago. Their offerings seem to be getting better, so I'll be interested to hear your thoughts! Does that set come with sound?

Jerry, Polks is closing, and everything associated with Polks is shutting down. Crest was spun off earlier this year as its own entity. We'll find out in a few weeks what will happen next. I've heard rumors of Aristo-craft by Bachmann.

Hey guys, I'm sure you've all heard that NS sold some fine art and donated $1.5m to this project. Who would have thought that possible 3 years ago?

Hey, did you two notice there appears to be a universal driving the third axle? That's how they're getting it around a 2' radius curve. I really like the look of this locomotive. The lighting is interesting, too. Nice lights on the running gear, good for night runs...

Jim, This latest railroad looks like your best yet. I like how you made each loop accesssible and also added the passing siding. What the rest of you don't realize is that Jim takes over his entire living room with trains and the 10^8 lights on his Christmas tree!! We don't have a whole lot of space where we set up the tree, so I will usually run a loop or two around the tree. Sometimes, we let the neighbors do all the train set ups for us. https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/15996_4576112694645_157409365_n.jpg

The motor appears to be OK. It was the housing that melted. I suspect that there was some issue with one of the power pick ups. Might have had a slight gap created when the truck derailed, causing arcing and high temperature. Motor runs fine, does not get hot.

I didn't even realize that Maerklin had made a BR 64! This Piko version is 1/4 the cost, apparently.

That LGB caboose is really a "Drovers Caboose". LGB made it with a standard LGB combine and then added the coupola. I have a yellow one like that, D&RGW with ball bearing wheels and a lighted interior. Technically speaking, your observation car would be the final car on your passenger train. A drover's caboose would be positioned at the end of a stock car train. It was intended for the cowboys (the guys driving the cows, hence drovers?) to have a place to stretch out and be out of the conductor and brakemen's way.

Guys, I've been quietly watching the Piko G scale offerings improve over the last 2-3 years. Granted, their initial starter sets seemed chinsy and I've not been over excited about their apparent re-issue of old MDC stock. The mogul/switcher with sound and improved wheels was a nod in the right direction, while keeping the price point reasonable. (I view the new Piko 2-6-0 / 0-6-0 as a step up from the LGB 2-4-0s of 10 years ago, but targeting that same demographic). In the past year, however, I have to admit that Piko appears to be serious about G-scale. Their huge Crocodile is just a beastly looking machine. The HSB diesel reminds me of an elephant, but it is reasonably like what I saw at the HSB last September. The TEE is an impressive train, too. Despite all of the above, I've not really been overly excited about Piko. Until I saw this: a video of their newest steam engine: Now, besides the fact that Drew Carey has apparently quit his job as a comedian and has moved to Germany to head up a model train company, this looks like a really nicely made, well detailed, and smooth running steam locomotive. There was another video posted showing this engine running with two coaches and a goods wagon. Watch this: When the locomotive is in the tunnel, you can see that there are lights under the running boards at time 2:40. All I can say is 'wow'. Watching the video to the end, it appears our fellow modeler has some full size switch throws in his operating room, or at least some good video editing skills. I also note that the 3 axle passenger cars look to be well done as well. I wonder if they will utilize this chassis to create a similar locomotive for the north american market. While the Prairie type did not see widespread use, there are specific examples who did, ATSF comes to mind. The valve gear and drive rod detail appears to be very well made. In my opinion, that's what makes or breaks a steam engine model. In any case, the initial offering price from any number of our favorite retailers appears to be less than $600. Not bad, considering that altertnative locomotives like this are either Maerklin or Aster or huge $$$. Anyone else excited to see well made steam returning to G-scale?

We were just discussing the potential to use the MTH smoke units in place of the aristo sd-45 smoke unit. I wonder if I could fit an MTH unit in the boiler of an LGB mikado. I belive the LGB board outputs 5v for their smoke unit, but it is a tight fit in there.

I've picked up 4 of the new Aristo 0-4-0 switchers. I heard a bit of a rumble about the wheels slipping on the axles. I've had this happen on my mallet and mikado, and it is not a big deal to fix. I'm giving the 4 switchers away as gifts to my neices and nephews. One goes to VA, the other goes to CA. Not sure my brother or brother-in-law is able to make repairs, and anticipate phone calls on Christmas morning, etc.. So, if possible, I'd like to know how I can fix this now. Or at least review what's in the boxes in the basement. Plus, I have two going to Luke and MK. And I do not want to have them run their new locomotives for 4 minutes and have a failure. Did any of you add a washer under a the lock washer or did you guys go the loctite route? These WILL be run hard, forward-reverse. They are going to kids.

Well, this show is come and gone now. Things ran really well, for the most part. One thing I didn't realize at the time during the show was the pumpkins I loaded on flatcars and gons were really heavy! The FA-FB-FA consist had a hard time, and I suspect it was due in part to the overloaded freight train. Charlie Z and Kevin Y came to help run the trains, and Luke did a great job too. My brother in law VInce helped man the kids railroad. I belive we had about 400 people stopping by overall. Lots of nice people on Sunday. Charlie brought his 4-6-2 pacific, latest run, and it ran great. ALso some Reading FP7's (USAT F3s) and some GP35s (GP-38s). Nice looking paint jobs! The rains have now arrived and it's been raining all week. I had intended to run trains with friends on Sunday, but the forecast doesn't look great, so we'll see what happens. The only failure happened after the show closed. I had an RDC-3 on patrol, and it derailed the lead truck at some point. By the time I noticed it, the smell of burned electronics was strong. Last night (Thursday), I tried to pull the motorblock apart, and the plastic melted to the point where I need to used a razor saw to open it. I am about 90% of the way to getting the block opened, but I sliced my finger with the same razor saw and decided to call it a night. Turning the wheels, I was able to make the motor move, so perhaps it'll be all right once I get it all opened up. At first, it didn't want to move. I suspect that I've melted some of the block, and I'll need to either send it for repair or do some sanding.

I I have a two of these for sale, if anyone's interested. Look like new, probably only ever run once, the wheels do not show much use. I have the original boxes, too. Asking $95 each, plus shipping.

Things are improving quickly. Ran trains last night for a while. Had to fix a trouble spot in the one curve where the RS-3 would derail every time. Then it started to derail the first car behind, so I did a little more ballast work, then changed that car for a different one. Both things solved the problem. I also spoke with aristo and they helped me out with the repair to my mallet, and I expect the repaired motorblock today. That's service!! The bad: I noted a strong smell of hot electric somthing. It appeared to be coming from a heavyweght car, so I took it out of service. During inspection later, I discovered there was some evidence of melted plastic in the floor at one of the solder joints. When looking at the trucks, I noted that on the side of the 3 axle truck where the power gets picked at the center axle, the wire had fallen or melted off. I took the truck apart to see about putting the wire back on, when I noted that it had essentially melted through the insulation. The bearing for the axle had worn so far that I suspect there was major arcing going on here. The side frame had melted a little, pushing the bearing further out, further exaserbating the situation. I cut the wires to the coach and removed the rest of the wiring. I need to replace the side frame, eventually, but believe I can run with the car as-is. This coach is older, probably mid to late 90s production. I'd like to replace the plain bearings with the aristo ball bearings. Has anyone done this on heavyweight cars?

So, the jitters and the gremlin attacks have once again arrived. I over ballasted the railroad about a month ago, and due to work and other commitments, I've been unable to get to run the trains very much. When I have run, it's been a nightmare. Finally, last Sunday, I decided enough was enough and I basically lifted all the track up out of the ballast, shook it, and then settled it back down. Now, I actually need to go dress up the center of the tracks a little bit. But wait! THat's not all! I managed to crud up the wheels on: 2 RS-3's, 2 connies, one mikado and completely destroy one mallet! Yay! The engine that ran best for me was the LGB mikado, which I prefer to use sparingly. The good news is this: I am able to clean the wheels on all the engines pretty quickly. The connies and mikado cleaned up nicely. Once clean, the engines are running a lot better. The black crud that the aristo track cleaning caboose is picking up wipes off quickly, so I believe I'm making progress there. Navin at Aristo is going to fix my mallet for me in time for the show. I may even have a new REVO transmitter in time, too. Fingers crossed. Other news: I only have 2 engineers this year, and one is Luke. The other is Kevin. I expect that means I will be one of the drivers this year for the first time. My suspicion is that I'll simply have two or three trains operating on the mainlines and the P&W. I have a major road race this weekend in Deleware (Dogfish Head Brewery), so my focus is not really on the trains at the moment. I plan to get out and run some more this evening. Might work on the yard tracks, which I have not touched yet. I'm not as concerned about them because I don't expect we'll actually be doing a whole lot of switching during the event, as opposed to other years where we had multiple operators and various equipment.

I think it's kind of weird to announce the product, allow pre-orders, but then take it down from the online shop? Seems strange. Maybe they didn't get any response at all?

Well, the turntable track itself is unpowered. It gets power when I connect the rail joiners (by sliding them) to the apron tracks or turntable lead track, as each of those has power (and polarity the same way, for ease of wiring).

Ray, Thanks for clarifying! I have a turntable and I vary the direction they get spotted on the apron track by pure whim. At the moment, I don't actually have a 'roundhouse', so they're sitting outside. But, if I understand correctly, If the loco is one way vs the other, and using PS2, I'd have to manually flip a switch. So, yeah, the internalization of that function to the locomotive itself is a bonus for me!