Jerry B44

UP#844 stopped in Lex for a maintenance check. UP6936 was with her.

I like your layout, Hope you post some still shots of it. Thinking of that for my next one, if we ever move.

VIdeo of the night run.

http://youtu.be/kPgVdsClgEg

Dome car is not quite done, but wanted to see it lit up. Have to fix a couple of lights and a few things yet. But had a good time running the train at night.

Ray is good at getting MTH parts, has done it several times for me.

I had this one I modified, found 3 more, so don't need anymore. I painted it flat black and added new trucks and metal wheels. Kadee 820 coupler.

I made this carrier for my Challenger, so I can leave it plugged in and not handle it so much. I stole most of the design from David Leech. It uses 2" aluminum angle held together by 3 plastic blocks, they are notched to fit over the rails. I did put the wires and alligator cllps on to try driving it off, but have not tried that, just push it off. The two handles are good for old guys.

Where is the new catalog?

Well, where Ray?

I've finally made more progress on my dome car. Took some figuring and getting other projects done.

The one shows the piece, checking on fitting on the cut(gulp!) roof. It fit fine.

The passenger tub has a bracket to fit onto the holes for the clear plastic of the dome car. I plan to use some window tint on it, since it was rather scratched up.

The single picture shows the windows in and the roof glued together. Still some fitting/filing/finishing to do.

Derrill has been talking to Accucraft about a short run of 50 Pioneer Zephyer sets. Here is his info:

I'm looking for a few New Bright brand tank cars. No trucks needed, I put my own on them. Let me know.

Jerry

Mike's hobby shop in Texas has some passenger and other MTH cars. Monte Pence is the guy to deal with:  mpence1@hotmail.com

Jerry

I got a couple of 1/32 reefers from Accucraft on their recent sale. These had some blemishes, as noted on the site. Look fine to me.

I did not like that my MTH passenger cars were the same color on the inside as the UP color on the outside. So I took them apart and found the interior was a separate piece. WOndery why they didn't mold them a different color?  Anyway I sprayed one gray, one two colors of green to give a material look and the observation car a burgundy color. In it I painted the table tops and some of the seats different colors, since that's how they look in old pictures. SOme were pretty wild colors/textures. I used some figres I got from ebay. I had to mostly repaint them, since ALL had black hair and the skin tones were awful. Two cars to go!

I thought I'd post some of my buiilds here. First up is a Shark I made from the kit Rob Fern put out in the UK. It runs ona a Aristo FA chassis. I've made engines in the past and thought getting the body would make it easier, but alas, seems not!

 The silver D&H cars I got at a restaurant auction. They were made of wood as decorations by a skilled model maker. Even had wood wheels. I used some Great Trains passenger trucks on them and Stan did the decals.

  I made UP 844 from a Pacific a couple of years ago. Got some Boxpox wheel castings from Bob Thon(Robert's Lines). It's using  a centipede tender I made for my Challenger I made a few years back.  It is two Pacifics, front drive does pivot.

I recently bought a used Hudson, then later a used Challenger and 5 passenger cars. Ray has helped me a lot to get the DCS figured out(I have old brains!) and ordered some parts for me. I really liked the smoke deflectors for my gray Challenger!  MTH seems to have well designed  equuipment and I love the sound. I had not been a big fan of sound. I was about out of using  track power, being mostly battery and live steam, but now find myself running my MTH units mostly.  I have quite a few MDC cars and they look good behind the Hudson.

I wish Accucraft would make Union Pacific's 844. I see Aster is planning to make it, but will probably be $7-8000. Plus probably be alcohol fired. I like gas firing better, you get good stack talk, seems the alcohol ones don't do that, or have much of a plume.

I got a USA dome from a buddy and cut it down to fit a MTH car. Still working on it and puzzling out how to handle the light bar and which car to put it on. Leaning towards the observation car.

Video of my Challenger pulling 5 MTH passenger cars. Like the sound on this, but did order a better speaker from Ray.

I ordered one of these Ray, one I got from Amazon did not work well at all, hope this one is better!  Found a good buy on them at Smarthome.com. $16, Amazon wanted $25 for the same thing.