Well I wonder why 3985 has been sitting for the last 2 years instead of being out on mainline steam where it should have been? Maybe it's because of a certain ego that doesn't want to use the Steve Lee Challenger and/ or there is nobody left to do the repairs that it needs?? I think that it's both but I hope that I'm wrong.
I know of folks in the inner circle with regards to steam and they're betting on whether or not the blinged out (sic) 844 steams this year.
I seen one MDC Lackawanna hopper and that was it. Smooth side offset style that was painted grey and he had the later style Roundhouse box for it. Was at our local monthly trainshow running on a display layout. I asked the young guy that was running the display about it and he said it was his dad's and he was somewhere at the show. Kid wouldn't put a price on it and said his dad would be upset if he sold it. I should have offered the kid $100.00 for it as I've never seen one since.
Jerry, You have his email addy handy as I lost it last year when my hard drive crashed?
Jerry, Right as I've meet the owner at the local monthly trainshow. I sold him some of the ribbed hopper bodies as he was in short supply a few years back but now it seems that they're out of business? My bookmark for mainlineamerica.com is dead and a Google search brings up nothing. He is selling some MDC parts under the highrail_engineer1 name on eBay and I've sent him emails but I never get a reply.
Now 2 years ago he claimed to have gotten the old MDC molds out of Hungary and that they were in Indiana but I think that was just wishful thinking. It's too bad if he did go under as he had some 1:32 locomotive molds he was working on as he had a machine shop that did the tool & die work. Last year I was speaking with him about possibly making a extrusion mold for 1:32 bi-level passenger cars out of aluminum...the cars that Amtrak and some commuter lines use. Would have been all USA Made cars.
Oh I know and Trainland has some good prices on them right now but I'm looking for the older Made in America MDC as I'm putting together a long all USA Made train.
Joe, You got lucky catching where the Allegheny was shorting esp. with it being a O Scale die-cast metal locomotive. I mean the O Gauge manufacturers like using the body itself for the negative/ ground return. All it would have taken to blow the PS2 boards was the engine shorting on the positive rail unless of course all the wiring had been isolated from the body.
That's what I don't like about all metal loco's being made of brass or die-cast...the potential for unseen shorts such as a swinging lead or trailing truck where a wheel can touch something or a brake shoe too close to a wheel that will rub when conditions are right like a high spot on the rail or bouncing thru a switch. I'll take a plastic loco any day.
Nice work Chuck! The quality of workmanship on your work and modifications is always second to none. :-) What dremel bit/head did you use to smooth out the surfaces do you recall?
Look at the size of the gear on the third axle... man that is huge. Just like the USA Hudson, massive, you will never wear that out.
Thanks Ray as I do try and make things look like factory...sometimes I get way too anal though!
The bit I used is one of those Dremel burrs...this one I like as it has "teeth" on the end so you can come straight down and use it like a end mill/
I sometimes think that AML is acting like Aristo-Craft did, That is announce something and build anticipation then a year or so later cancel the idea with some bogus claim like we couldn't figure out how to package the thing for safe cost effective shipping to our customers.
From what I've seen anything MTH catalogs in One Gauge does get produced...They may drop some paint schemes but the thing is made. Hey, 2014 is the MTH One Gauge Big Boy birthday as it was originally cataloged in 2004
I think we should start a letter writing campaign to MTH asking them to make a 1:32 Dreyfuss Hudson in the 2-tone grey paint scheme w/ the thin blue lines...and the matching passenger cars!
Oh, the cam/ microswitch is what tells the prime mover sounds to ramp up or down as the RailSounds are pre-TMCC era. The later engines are TMCC ready as they're setup to plug in all components...but I've never seen one of those.
The GP20 uses a 2 motor drive but the GP9 uses a single motor with a o-ring going from the powered axle to the dead one. Why they did that is beyond me as they're both basically the same engine
Few years back I could find Lionel Large Scale parts esp. for the engines conveniently enough on the Lionel website, But when they updated their site I can't find the parts anymore...and they used to have a real good supply of them
Lionel does have the parts lists still available online which is nice!
Brassuer Electric Trains located in Michigan is showing some stock..which is a good thing
When I sell MTH One-Gauge stuff on eBay it's amazing the emails I receive that state MTH is out of the One-Gauge business. So many folks out there just don't have a clue as to what's really going on.
Okay as here's the new brushes installed on the bottom covers...even though they're mounted with a screw I used some hot glue to help keep them positioned, even though it won't really help as the glue doesn't really stick to die-cast.
More pics...
And here I'm testing the rear engine with it's new power pickups
I also have completely isolated any electrical boards & speakers from the chassis by using plastic washers under them. I also installed plastic tophat bushings in the drawbar to electrically isolate the tender from the engine.
Another modification I did was to remove the stock 6 wire electrical tether from the tender to the engine and install a custom Molex 12 wire tether..but that's a whole 'nother topic!
I never had any problems with those breaking but if the engine is rolled over and once up-righted the front square driveshaft will slip apart because the front engine assembly swung on way or another too far. I always remove the boiler top before working on it as makes it easier to handle esp. when it's upside down.
Joe, That's very interesting that a O Scale Allegheny has the same problem..and that we came up with the same fix! Those kind of electrical shorts will drive you crazy trying to locate them because they're so intermittent.
Not really as the lower the resistance the greater the load. See with only a 4 ohm load the QSI board must be sensing it as a short. If I remember correctly USA smoke unit heaters are in the 16 ohm range and that would be less of a load on the circuit that's driving it. QSI documentation is bad..real bad as they should state what the heater driving circuit will handle in ohms.
So what I did to correct this very serious problem was to start over and remove all of the stock USA Trains brushes and associated holders & wiring and then mount MTH passenger car power pickup brushes to the bottom of the frames...but I could only make this modification fit/ work on 6 axles instead of 8 because of the lower gearcase covers. But with the tender picking power from 2 axles/ 4 wheels and the engine picking from 6 axles/ 12 wheels that gives it 16 power pickup points...more than enough.
To start this complicated modification I completely disassembled the locomotive to make it easier to work on.
Then I removed all the stock power pickup brushes, holders & wiring and then make my own wiring harnesses that will plug into the MTH power pickup assemblies.
After that it was time to modify the bottom covers so the new brush assemblies would have a place to sit nice & safe...thank goodness for the Dremel w/ the flex-shaft drive
Here's the MTH brush assemblies that I'm using..of course I buy all my parts thru Raymond
Oh, I made some plastic bottom covers for the brush assemblies so the bare wires stay safely tucked away.
Okay, I'm not bashing the excellent finely detailed USA Trains Big Boy at all...Well it is too heavy but that's another topic. What I am bringing to attention here is a major manufacturing flaw that I discovered after running it for a few days. What it would do is short itself out electrically for no real reason. Sometimes it would short itself out when changing direction. The dang problem drove me crazy trying to figure it out.
Every drive wheel has a carbon brush rubbing against the backside to pickup power from the rails. Problem is the brushes are located in the frame incorrectly. The stainless steel drive wheel tires are insulated from the black wheel centers/ discs by some kind of insulating material that's applied to the drive wheel before the tire/ rim is pressed on. But the power pickup brushes are positioned so once they start wearing/ or shift in their holder and rub on the driver center they bridge the insulated section then they energize the whole damn engine & tender as it's all die-cast metal. If both sides happen to do it the engine shorts out and blows the fuses I have at the power supply. If there's any bare wires touching the inside of the boiler then either the lighting voltage boards or in my case the ProtoSound 2 boards will get fried at the same time.
Here's a pic of the problem...the red arrows show where the red electrical insulating material is between the tire/ rim and the driver center and clearly shows how the power pickup brushes are incorrectly positioned..major manufacturing flaw!
Yes USA Trains is aware of the problem but they offer no support other than to change the brushes when they start wearing
Off course this is no problem for the battery power crowd.
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UP Challenger News
in General Discussion
Posted
Well I wonder why 3985 has been sitting for the last 2 years instead of being out on mainline steam where it should have been? Maybe it's because of a certain ego that doesn't want to use the Steve Lee Challenger and/ or there is nobody left to do the repairs that it needs?? I think that it's both but I hope that I'm wrong.
I know of folks in the inner circle with regards to steam and they're betting on whether or not the blinged out (sic) 844 steams this year.
As of today there is no 2014 schedule posted for 844 http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/details.shtml