du-bousquetaire

Yes earlier I was tempted by those Hyde out models diesels but finally I kept them as straight electrics because of all the things that can attack the paint and even the plastic that are in those fuels. A good friend of mine went battery electric with a B unit hauling the batteries speed controle and radio control from Peter Spoerer, for the same reason although he actually baught the Hyde out mountain diesel kit! Sorryfor the late answer, but I was away for a few weeks.

Thanks for the feedback every body. Although what I feel is the best bond for plastic is that which melts superficially the plastic welding it in sorts. It seems that Altuglass glue is good for this or at least I read that somewhere recently. I tried some on one of those roof antenas that my Pennsy diesels feature (For the train phone antena system used by PRR for many years after the war) they are very vulnerable in the outdoor environment. Iit seems to hold well and there is very little contact surface, which is a good point. Great looking Erie RS3 Nick.

Yes and the higher the price the worst it gets usually. I have more problems with my high end stuff than with the regular ones. The only solution in sight is to dismantle the loco (I know how to remove the chains) and rebuild the drive system correctly! All the while solving the stiff point in the motion. I have done that many times in HO and even in gauge one, on my scratch built NORD Mikado tank chassis. Which has run on air (its live steam). there is a post in myLargescale.com on it. Or convert it to live steam which would be the better proposition.

Since my last post I have been taking most of the gremlins out of my Fine Art Models M1a mountain. New pick up shoes to replace the tiny HO scale size pick up pistons and getting rid of nearly all the short circuit problems as it is fine scale. However to my utter surprise it has a stiff point in the mechanism, meaning that for a quarter of a turn of the drivers there is some resistance which creates a nasty noise. This shouldn't happen on a loco with that kind of price tag! Try as hard as I can I have not been able to situate what does this. As the mechanism is very badly designed with the motors in the boiler, the superstructure cannot be removed from the chassis making it nearly impossible to trouble shoot. Also the chain drive broke on three instances, I was able to locate identical chain links to repair, but this is both a noisy and a fragile solution. So my newer judgement is if you want these locos to run you better not get into these. You are much better off with an MTH, Märklin or similar loco. Or again live steam. I am very disapointed with this loco. And I thought that it would be good for others to know and be warned. These are ment for collectors and shelve queens they are. Alas.

Another great engine to hope see running again. Especially since there are no surviving NYC hudsons, besides I like the AT&SF ones .

Good to hear that you are getting interested in the real thing Ray. Within a few years you will be in a good spot to see the real Big Boy in action. You should give live steam a good try you won't regret it. Best, Simon

That is great news Chuck, as although the K4 doesn't compare with the giants of steam's Finest hours as Morgan would say, it was an iconic engine in its own days. Who could tell me where I can join in to help Mr. Levin? This to a Pennsy fan is tremendous news. Best to all.

Hi, has anyone found the miracle glue which will disolve the polycarbonate which MTH uses and welds it together like styrene cement or MEK does with styrene or ABS? It is an essential for repairing fragile elements of an MTH loco or car and is indispensible if one wants to kitbash one. I have a few Pennsy locos with radio telephone antenas and it is difficult to repair. I have had to make a few new post from brass stock to replace broken ones on my lathe. Plus many othger applications. This is a crucial issue a manufacturer should use a material that people can repair.

Yes steam oil has a viscosity reminiscent of Molasses at room temperature, and many live steamers spray it around the track. My solution to this is to run steam just when a rainstorm is coming, as steam oil is water soluble, and that most often gets rid of most of it. Now concerning getting it all over electric locos that must be because they were next to the loco just when it was started and the steam engeneer had put too much oil in the oiler. You should not top up but have the oil level in the lubricator about a mm or two under the level of the cap screw pipe. Otherwise when starting from cold a steam locomotive will have a considerable amount of condensed steam inside the cylinders (thus cylinder drain valves) and this will make the locomotive work hydraulicly for a few feet. This water in turn will pump out all the oil in the oiler in one gulp, spraying it all over the nearby equipment! Other inconvenience is that since the oil in the lubricator will have been flushed out you wont lubricate your cylinders... I have been running steam and electric for years its perfectly feasable, even with DCS. Most of my friends who are into collecting, use WD 40 on their locos after shutting down since a few minutes. I prefer to rub it down when hot with a cloth (paper will scratch the paint) as this won't carry dirt into the bearings which a solvent could. When you rub off with the engine still warm the viscosity of the steam oil is like regular oil. Leaving an oily film on a steam loco gives it good protection from rust. One should carefully perform this around the stack as this is where a lot of oil stagnates, around the front truck and under the cylinders also. At worst you may have a bit of dust sticking onto the oil next year, easely cleaned off as the loco warms up. I rarely clean the oil off the motion as that is where it is most useful; would you remove all the lubricant from a gear box, I will pick out with tweasers any grain or twig that gets caught up in there though.

I thought that it could be useful as there are some on the second hand market. By the way the loco is really pulling those 37 cars although the photo seems posed.

Progress report since then: I have fixed the gauge problem as this was on handlaid track so I made the corrections in the gauge where it was necessary and it now runs every where. Then other problems came up as after all this engine was released in 1992 and is now some 26 years old. First I dealt with the most obvious shorts because everything is brass and that means the brake gear and would often short out the engine. Little by little these problems were solved, not perfect yet, but it seems that I am finding solutions. One of them is to coat the inner side of the brake hangers with epoxy so that it insulates them. Better results came from carfull adjustments of these. Then appeared another problem: The pick up shoes are about right for HO scale but couldn't handle the volt amperes used to haul heavy trains (although the motors & drive train could). First I lengtened them so they would always contact the back of the wheels then after I realised that the amps needed made these overheat and melt the nylon bush that they are inserted in, I made new ones from phosphor bronze bands about 3 mm wide, soldered to PC board supports screwed to the chassis with the original pick up system's screws. These seem to handle the current quite well. Not being interested in sound units I dismantled this and am using a battery for the lighting system. Taking out the electronic board resulted in about a 45% increase in performance of the locomotive. The engine now has beautiful slow speed for switching and yet reaches a good 70 mph track speed even with a heavy train on 24 volts. If things stay as they are, it will continue in this state; if the shorts become a problem once more I might switch to battery power, this would eliminate both the pick up and the shorts problem, and added bonus would permit me to run this with live steam locos. One last thing I felt I should mention as a tribute to the high standards of construction in this locomotive and to reassure those who might be interested in exploring these high end locomotives on their garden layouts, is the fact that after three months of very heavy manipulating of this fine locomotive I have suffered very few breakage of parts and the soldering seems indestructible, leading me to think that the builder has used brazing. The only part broken is aouple of 1/32" diameter wires soldered tot the tender top representing a fire tool rack, which broke when I tried to restraighten it after having worked on the tender upside down. Incredible after hours of work with the engine upside down and removing the cab and back head three times. However to answer this forums original queery, I would only recomend this to model railroaders who have fine track and point work of large radius (over 10' radius and N° 8 pointwork) and who are experienced modelers. when you start to dismantle such a high end locomotive, you need steel nerves and to have some experience. A lot of it by the way, comes from modeling in HO for forty years.

Thanks Joe, I aint too good with computers!

If you intend to operate live steam standard gauge locos the minimum safe radius is a bit over Ten feet, with fourteen being coinsidered much better. Usually outdoor there is n't the same accute space problem as indoors. Samre with pointwork on any main line points I use N°8 points at least. I only have two shorter ones on very small sidings not much used and on the engine runaround track at the end of my indoor terminus. It works better and looks much better.

Hi Chuck:. How did it work out? That double slip looks real good. I use code 200 myself because it was available in France. Its probably still available froim Weber métaux in Paris. Best, Simon

By the way don't use meth on rubber it will soften it and disolve it. I found out with live steam as once (a long long time ago), i used a rubber tube for the meth! It is possible that steam oil has a bad effect on the rubber on traction tyres. but all my other MTH engines don't have any issue with the rubber tyres.

I disconnected the panthograph motors and mechanism as I have three tunnel going out from my inner shed, and there was no sure way to pull them down before hitting the tunnels. Its just as nice to have them hand operated., besides with the MTH system they dont actually fold down all the way as they should and it looks awful. I spent a considerable amount of time filing down the pantographs so they at least have scale size struts, they should be tubular, but I find the sturdyness of these very usefull. About the traction tires, I found that these started to come off after four or five years because the rubber was shot. So far no problems with my replacement from bicycle inner tubes. But they probably will eventually. Its just that here, there is absolutley no supplier of MTH gauge one. Much less spare parts. There is a pretty good photo of it on page 9 in show us your engines section. Lowering the body was a sinch by the way I just dremeled out a few mm of the fixing tabs inside the body redrilled slightly the screw holes and presto. But be careful to leave enough clearance for the flywheel and the roof.Actually the body on mine is about 2mm too high because of this still but it sure looks a lot better this way, I can do it because of the broad curves on my line.

Very nice scoop Nick. I am not sure that all G5 had scoops although this may be PRR Policy, to be standard. But many operated on branches that did not provide water pans in particular around Pittsburgh and also on the Reading and Potsville lines as well as on the Long Island. I do wish someone would turn out a P70 coach. I can make one but life is short and having a ready built one is simpler. Especially the particular trucks.

I thank you for the compliment but want to reassure you as I am 68 and feeel quite the same; I try to do details that seem to me to be caracteristic, and necessary but I stay away from much super detailing as it only leads to looking for fallen parts in the ballast (A nice bonus when you do trackwork). And out in the garden I feel that life is too short for a lot of that glasscase modeling, myself. As a retired stage designer, I have often been in contact with people who are competent with mold making and I must say that I admire your mastery of this often difficult technique (especially with such long molds). It takes a lot of thinking in advancer to get it right and to obtain such wonderful results. Best from France, Simon

I have found by chance last month, a Fine Art Models PRR M1 a in passenger livery in a Paris Hobby shop with the glass case at an affordable price. So I bought it. I am amazed at the sturdiness of its construction contrarily to what I thought. after a good running in and as soon as the weather got better I tried it outdoors: To my great deception it derails on my inner circuit as this has homebuilt track which was set with an alowance for sideplay on curves it was therefore at 46mm gauge (Early Asters such as the PLM pacific were built with a wide back to back measure and needed 45 mm. track to run on). As this track has been out in the great outdoors since 1982 (and some portions since 1978) it has stretched to 47mm gauge in places and as the wheels are finescale width (about 1mm less width on the tread) and measure overall 47mm it will slip between the rails at places. On the outer circuit made of Tenmille track (Tenmille of Britain made the first gauge one track with the plastic treated UV resistant for outdoor use), the engine sailed around the pike magestically for about an hour with a long freight in tow. However I use N° 8 pointwork throughout on the main line. So that's how Fine Art Models run on our track. scale flanges has nothing to do with this issue its the narrow wheel tread that created this problem. On the other hand a friend who has an SP Cab forward from Accucraft could only run on the inner track as on the outer track it was too stiff and popped out of the rails at ereas on the curves of the Tenmille track. So this should give you an answer about that. The creator of Fine Art Models did not intend these engines for running. But I have a long practice of running brass in HO so I think I can do it.

Hi Bob, as the period I model stops with the end of steam in 1957 on the PRR, I didn't follow this thread which is fascinating. Congratulations for finding such sometimes complex, yet efficient solutions to the various problems encountered during the build.Although they are beyond my period, I rode on these a few times on US trips and am familiar withthese cars. On the last trip on the Southwest Cheif, I notoiced at various station stops that there were quite a variety of these cars and makers who built them over time. (things like some had trucks closely patterned after the German Minden Deutz trucks and some had more American looking trucks. I am not sure but I think that I even saw variety in the siding used by various manufacturers. On one of my French models which I hope to build one day, I had the same problem locating good erecting drawings, and these cars had just been retired shortly before.So I guess the problems are the same all over. Keep up the great work and detailed progress reports!

Good looking tug there Nick!

Hi I would like to try to help out: First no Accucraft live steamers and very few Asters introduced in the late 80s and early 90 s have insulated wheel sets. It was quite problematic so they stopped doing it. So if the loco is live steam it's an either or proposition. What do you call "easy/wide curves" Most Accucraft are designed to operate over 10' radius curves. Not under. Although a 4-6-2 like Flying scotsman could perhaps negociate a bit less but it would still be around the 7' to 8' radius. Do check the that the suspension is in good condition (IE that there isn't one catch plate on the journal box come unloose, making one driver pop out under.) Also check the gauge of your track I have seen a Cab Forward by the same maker derail on my 11'radius Tenmille track just because the gauge is too tight. worked fine on my inner track which is homemade although slightly smaller radius. Small flanges are no obstacle for good tracking as the NMRA comitee proved about thirty years ago; what makes a wheelset stay on the track is the fillet the flange being just a gard rail often unnecessary on good track, especially as Accucraft engines are quite heavy and this also prevents derailments. I really doubt that this could be the cause. Nearly all my rolling stock has fine flanges and rarely derails. As a matter of fact I intend to run a finescale loco soon just to see how it does. On very bad track with silly curves, flange may be necessary but it shouldn't be that way for a standard gauge modeler. Most standard gauge locomotives were designed to negociate about 100 meter curves at reduced speeds, (330' radius) which comes out to ten foot radius in gauge one. Because they often found curves that sharp in loco sheds, wyes, junctions and industrial spurs. Don't forget folks in the great outdoor we are free to make some really comfortable curves usually. (And as some funny British author put it: "You don't have to negociate with the domestic authorities to do it"!

Yes I think that this could be useful, if he gets enough feed back from modelers he might give it a try again.

Yes we were running on the Aster Europa stand at Rail expo in Chartres, the biggest rail hobby show in France and one of the biggest in Europe I went to see Mike and told him how great the Railking one gauge stuff was. I asked him to drop by and see us run in live steam with some of his stuff. And I asked him please to make some new stuff. He seemed happy to hear that, gave me a nice polite answer. The only thing he seemed interested in was selling is very nice French O scale stuff. He never dropped by in three days of show! He is running after too many things: HO scale, O scale coarse, O scale fine, S scale , Gauge one and standard scale replicas, that's a lot of inventory... Its amazing he does do it all though.

I wrote that article on folded paper diaphragms for Steam in the Garden, but they wouldnt do for those full width difragms. The oine who used to make that kind of diaphragms was David Leech his are made of smoth thin rubber and would look perfect for a T1. Alas I can't install one on mine because thats where the regulator and blower levers are...