du-bousquetaire

Me too Jerry but I had the cars taking up space in my shop and all the parts to make something out of them at least now I can run them. Besides it was a small project before our trip to the US we leave in a week. Actually with the circular saw it was a lot quicker than the last time I did this sort of thing with just a hack saw making two UIC standard flats out of three Maerklin ones which are too short; It was more precise too. When you see the super job John Brown does with coaches and diesels, this is a quickie... I wish I could find one of those Garish E 7 or E8. Well happy running to all, we shall be runing on the real things for a few weeks on Amtrak.

I had to post the photos here: The first photo is work in progress but shows where to cut and add. The second shows the cars with an Accucraft reefer. the last one shows a light weathering before the final satin varnish.

I have been running them for 6 years now as I read in old Outdoor Modeler articles that Gary Raymond said they were pretty near 1/32 scale. The hoppers (both ribbed or offset sides) are near scale and a great buy for the money. As Jerry said now you can just screw the Kadee couplers on. I also added somebrake cylinders and air reservoirs and some brake wheels on some of mine. The box cars and the reefers are about one inch too short which is a problem when included in a train with MTH or Accucraft (or brass) scale cars. Furthermore the reefers are box car height that is too high. The length can quite easely be corrected by sacrificing one body and cutting slices to lengthen both the body and the roof, however on the reefers it is quite a more complicated job. Some have spliced reefer sides onto box cars to make them scale length. I hapened to have three reefers one of which I had already cannibalised partly to make a couple of Gondolas (for the dreadnought ends and the trucks and brake gear.) that left me with an incomplete body and enough to make two scale reefers. I wanted some Fruit Growers Express reefers but no one makes any, I was able to locate some decals for it, I decided to attempt a "salami" kit bash, as I call it. There are two slices on each side to make the sides correct length (one 6mm long and one 10 milimeters long), and then I took about 11 millimeters of under the roof. The door was a problem as it had to be lowered too. so I cut two horizontal slices out of them. I used my Proxon circular saw to do this, with a special blade for plastic, be carefull doing this. Once it was all cut I adjusted and glued back the parts using ABS solvent. I then puttied it up and sprayed a grey (white would be better) primer, so as not to see the markings and heralds. As I apreciate the simpicity of the Piko (ex MDC ) cars and their robust construction in comparison to the very well detailed but very fragile Accucraft ones I did not go all out and redo the grab irons. But you can if you want to, it is a bit tedious in the dreadnought ends though.Here are the results:

Great job Jerry. Is that a USA trains dome car that you reduced to 1/32 scale? I am interested in that because they make a super Congressional set of cars and although it would be a lot of work, it is very tempting to take a cm off the width and the height to make 1/32 scale cars out of them. Or is De Hanes the name of a brand I never heard about from here in France?

I have had problems with tires coming off my GG1 which is 7 years old now. One day It slipped so badly up my 1.8% grade that I looked for a quick solution to the problem (ordering from Midge can take a long time for me). I had some old bicycle tubes, that I keep if I need to make some safety valve joints for my steamers.It turns out that by cutting as straight as I can a small slice off the old bicycle tube, I made a good new adhesion tire. And these being good rubber don't come off, too! No problems on the F3, the VO1000 or the PA1 so far.

Sure looks great Bob! Beautiful job and performance. Jens the E units were not true CCs in fact they were A1A+A1A they had two engines so they offered more power than an F unit. An F7 had 1500 HP and an E7 had 2000 hp. In us practice they were mainly used in Passenger service on most US roads. However a few roads prefered the F units in passenger service, notably the Santa Fe, the Northern Pacific, the D&RGW, some like Norfolk Western used GP9 because they skipped dieselification until very late... However the Santa Fe also had E units probably for the more flat divisions. The MY class was a CC with what about amounted to a F7 type power generating plant inside. Probably because of axle load limits in Europe, much less than the US with up to 35 tons per axle on some US roads! On the SNCF we got some Baldwin 750HP switchers that in the US would have been BB units but for Frances rails at 20 tons per axle they were made as A1A +A1A. Yet I find the E units much more appealing than the F units and would really love one to be manufactured in 1/32 scale.

Wow a real nice video Ray. The work that goes into this and the fact that it is backed by a private company without governament money is something that leaves a Frenchie like me breathless.

I just thought that it might interest a lot of the owners of a MTH triplex to see what this incredible model engeneer did in just a few months (started around last summer I think) you can look it up on this forum: http://forums.mylargescale.com/18-live-steam/56690-erie-triplex-build-log-11.html It is really incredible how fast this guy builds these things.... And it is very nicely modeled, last year he built an Algerian Garrat. Check it out, Simon

Hi Jan: It is very good track indeed and if I was living in the south I might try it outdoors, over here I would stick to my 10mm X 8mm ties as after about thirty years the rot goes through that in places. Also the price is enormous. What height rail do they use? They don't say on their site. In Germany there is a huge gauge one market for indoors and electric propulsion although there are a few stalwarts like my good friend Ulli Holtmann who do live steam. I wouldn't be surprised if it is due to the fact that on the whole German houses are wider than French. Many of our houses here are 5 meters wide and that's not enough for a nice curve in gauge one. But I am very happy that you gave us this adress for this track. I don't think I saw their stand at Sinsheim, the ones I saw (probably Hegob) used samba type wood for the ties.This is fine scale German prototype track OK for Belgium and Switzerland also. Ours used wood screws instead of bolts, a slight diference. However I might buy their tie plates as this would make my track more realistic, and perhaps their rail joiners too, much more correct.

Hey folks here is a tip about the pick up shoes. I found that with my GG 1 the shoes were indsipensible (I tried running it without, but quikly put them back on). I also found that they wore out very rapidly (probably because I use scale rail and that the rail head is much narrower than for LGB size rail). I ordered a set from Midge, paid 12 bucks for 4 tiny peices of bent up aluminum + colossal shipping to France + customs and: They wore out again! So this time before they actually wore through I made an experiment: I took some strips of relatively thin brass ( say 5 - 6 tenth of a mm. annealed) cut it into small rectangles the width of the MTH shoes, but a bit longer say 8mm longer. Then I bent both ends vertically the exact length of the shoe and then squished the first over the end of the shoe and then squished the other end over the end of the MTH shoe. Presto I had made a slipper for my pick up shoe. (This by the way seems to be prototype practice on the Paris metro) The shoe held on pretty well by itself but as the MTH shoe is aluminum and so I couldn't solder my shoe to it I put a couple of gobs of cyanoacrylate glue to make sure it couldn't slide out of its clearance zone. I tested it for a couple of days it worked fine. So I did the other four and they have been working for three years now. When one wears out just make a new one (5 minute job) and reshoe your loco. I have since done the same to the F3. I did this because finding spare here in France is a lost cause, and I am not trying to reduce the MTH spare parts market (although 12 bucks for what I think should cost $2 is a bit pulling your leg), but anyways for those of us who don't have a good hobby store near by, try it. This is a tested method it has been running on my GG1 for three years and on the two F 3 two years. I have had shoes come loose once or twice in that period, just put it back in line and put another gob or two of cyanoacrylate glue. The way you can tell a shoe has come of is when the engine starts to short out over a switch, check out and look at the shoes to see if they are all aligned, or not worn out. Its that simple and it takes twenty minutes to equip an engine.

I absolutly agree Jerry. When I started my layout around 1978 there wasn't any question of modeling US prototype then in my mind (and even if it had I didn't have the money to do both). So as I was modeling French railways I tried to look for a scale rail to model the 50 KG per meter rail used here that computes up to around a hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds rail in US practice. I measured some on the real railway found that it was a little under 5 cm. high converted to gauge 1. It just so hapens that a large metal supply shop in Paris was producing since years a nice rail just that size in brass or nickel silver for coarse scale O gauge. I made my own track using that rail. later I bought a batch of French ready made gauge one track( made by a firm that doesn't exist any more called Cofermi), that used the same profile so I standardised on that rail. I made all my pointwork with that rail, also and double tracked my line. Then about five years later it appeared that this very nice French prototype track wasn't standing up to the UVs. So I bought some Tenmille track and replaced the outer main with that. It uses a slightly larger rail profile (Code 215) which ment that I had to make addaptors at every switch. Around 2009 I bought my GG1 and started to get interested in earnest with the PRR. It used the biggest rail in america the famous 150 lbs rail. it turns out that this very heavy rail (I remmeber seeing it when I was studying in New York city in the early '70s) is somewhere between code 215 and code 250. Anything over that size is out of scale or as most G scale track, way out of scale. Now mind you, using small scale size rails has some inconveniences: It needs very good support, in my case I used concrete, because my track is ground level and we live in a very humid climate, but wood will do in drier climate. I find that the slight difference between code 200 my original rail and the code 215 tenmille rail is enough to make a huge difference in track rigidity and that the Tenmille doesnt follow every deformation in my roadbed structure (which is over 30 years old now...) Making for smoother track. So this is a point to consider; but code 332 and larger really just spoils the visual aspect of many garden lines for me.

Great story. Thanks, Simon

Scalextrix makes some reasonably priced figures in 1/32 scale for the bleachers some are typical car racing but most can be used or modified.

A meter is about 3,208 feet. So 15 foot diameter would be about 2,65 meter radius; Most engines were designed to negociate 360' radius curves found in engine terminals, wyes and yards. In real life that scales out to Ten to 11 foot radius curves in 1/32 scale. These curves had to be negociated at crawling speed with the real railroads, but because there is just about as much play in models as in real life and hardly any centrifugal forces at play, our engines generally sail through these radius curves at cruising speed. Which would tip over a real engine. Using largest radius has many advantages: Less drag on your motive power, no problems with doubleheading or pushers, Much more reliable operation in reverse, close coupling alowed, Far superior appearance of engine and cars on the curve. Indoors space is often at a premium, but out of doors it usually is possible to accomodate larger curves. I know of some garden lines for live steam with ten meters radius thats around 34' radius! Make the curves as large as you can. You won't regret it. Also if you run live steam which are often difficult to control without radio control, You must strive for ten foot radius minimum. An engine which accidentally uncouples from it's train turns into a rocket.

Being so far from the US I guess I hadn't followed all this in detail as I couldn't see this from here. I only saw four MTH Gauge one locos in France other than mine in 6 years... However I had info about this from Jeff Strank and had his comunication-Answer about this published in the G1MRA newsletter to rectify things that had been announced by a British importer who had announced that they were shutting down their gauge one productions at the time.Also as I model older steam era first generation diesels I wouldn't know about their more modern diesels. They have made a big inroad in the French O gauge market though. I sure hope they are satisfied by the sales of these new products.

I have used, to renovate my handlaid track some of which was laid in 1979 and is still going, a new technique; as the club that produced the original rail to tie clips folded and I can't get them anymore. Besides this new technique is home brew and is much sturdier than the original one where the clip was pressed into a grove in the tie which tends to slip out after a while. This technique still uses oak 1cm X 1cm section which is drilled in four places along each side of the rail base with a drilling jig. then I make from electic wire (about 1.3 mm. diameter copper) which I strip and bend into two U shaped clips. you then insert the clip into the holes from the underside of the tie, and cut off whatever is 1.6 mm. proud of the tie top.At this point it is good to dip these in creosote for a few days and then let them dry out in a sunny period. A corner of my engine terminal is perfect to lay them out to dry. Just slip it under the rails and with a plier bend the copper wire around the rail base. This will makes for 30 years track, garanteed and tested. I also got from a wood merchant that doesn't exist any more unfortunatly what he called Asian Oak (never figured out the scientific name for the stuff, before he folded...) This is like new thirty three year after being installed! It splits a lot easier though and wasn't good for my earlier clips system of rail fixing but with the new one it should make very strong track. As I now model US prototypes as well as French I took advantage of this renovation to tighten the spacing of the ties to more reproduce american track with very close tie spacing. So I kept all the old ties thatt were still sound and slipped one new tie between every old one this gives me very sturdy track which really looks like the Broad way! The before and after photos show the diference. in the middle is a photo showing the drilling of the ties:

It is fantastic ! Where is that railway situated? I have ridden the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Ry in England (15" gauge) but this is even more spectacular with great scenery too. Thanks for sharing Ray.

Don't forget folks that US roads west of the Mississipi and Chicago had a clearance a good three feet higher than eastern roads. Now, I put a friends Aristo Craft heavyweights behind my MTH GG1 when I bought it and there was a good centemeeter (roughly one scale foot) on every side and two over the top. What may work behind a UP centipede tender may not behind an engine from an eastern road. I then had another friend who lent me his NYC J&M cars for a few weeks and that definitly did look a darn site better. So 1/32 scale is where you want to go behind MTH. I think the origin of 1/29th scale was due to two things: One the Polks wanted it to combine well with the then very popular LGB stuff which was narrow gauge running on gauge one track (1/20, 1/22 or 1/24th depending on the gauge of the prototype narrow gauge loco (2'6", 3' or Meter gauge). Plus to please the collector market it turns out to be the scale ratio for the old US tinplate classic standard gauge. But it is all wrong. And as I observed elsewhere what is really weird is to see in the same consist typical Colorado 3 foot gauge cars mixed in a consist with standard gauge cars. I mean only thirty or so years ago we where talking of scale size rail, fine scale wheel profiles, and Q gauge in the modelers scales , what a downslide! Weird... Or is it a sign of the rise and fall of an empire? I used to teach history of art so don't mind me, old fart. Enjoy yor trains though that's what its all about. But we can all try to improve things a bit.

I use some modified USA Train trucks with the side frames brought closer together with new fabricated stretchers and by returning the axle ends so the side frames are closer to the wheels, and removed the pick ups.They now run very smoothly. But being 1/29 they look a bit big next to the Accucraft ones of which I have one which is the pullman, as I didn't have a 10-6 pullman. Now, I think that I will try to get the Accucraft trucks for appearance sake but the USA ones modified run extremly well and after hundred hours of use show no sign of wear in the bearings. The Accucraft run on ball races and will coast on the slightest dip in the terminal yard trackage.But at the time it was a good deal to get all metal sprung trucks for these cars at 25 bucks a piece.

Very nice shots Sean, it brings back memeories of my childhood living in Lincoln, Mass, We used to see so many trains headed by those Blue Mc Ginnis GP9 that we got bored of it; whenever I went to visit a friend who lived along the Fitchburg division near Lincoln station (by then gone). Now I just got a Lionel GP 9 which I converted into a pretty descent GP7 but it is in PRR colours (see the locos thread) because I have descided to model the PRR. Mind you this is partly due to the fact that PRR and B&M shared a good deal of things like N5 cabooses, Tuscan red diesels with yellow five stripes, the East wind and all those American Flier Osgood Bradley cars that plied the corridor from Maine to Washington as well as a good deal of traffic. Thanks for the nice photos.

My friend who had ordered a pair of SP F7 with the black widow scheme from Raymond just got word from him that they have been just delivered, this is good news to MTH fans and 1/32 scale modelers. It means that they are producing gauge one locos again. As I seem to remember reading somewhere that they had changed factories supplying them a few years ago, when they almost dropped out of the G scale market, So if they are producing locos again we might get some new things from them again. I sure hope this happens.

Sorry about the repeats I tried to edit a couple of times and it made two repeats!

Hi Larry,Yes I sent him photos of it I am in comunication with him off and on since I ordered some of his wheel sets. He also helped me get into contact with Garry Siegel (of Santa Cruz division of the Southern Pacific pike), because when I wrote an article on realistic operation and track planning for it, for the G1MRA newsletter I wanted to put a photo of this quite incredible pike in it and needed to contact Garry Siegel to ask him if he minded if I use a photo of his track in my article. Those articles are real gems for us working in 1/32 scale. The article should come out soon now and alas, without those photos because the editor says photos found on the internet don't print well... So I tell readers to look it up on you tube instead, it's worth it. Anyways thanks for your fantastic help. Simon

Hi Raymond: I just read this today (febuary the10th) and hadn't seen it when you made the last two posts... The fact is, this was a very usual way to cable pointwork in the days of scale rail fans, building their own trackwork, a thing very common in model railroader of the 1960s. So I am surprised that others havn't had this issue also. I guess most in G scale dont make their own track. One important point though should not be overlooked and it explains why I wont change things for now: For one with this type of pointwork it is nearly impossible to insulate them the way commecial pointwork is. I have done it indoors on one of my threeway point using a small and thin piece of styreen inside the frog, but it is too fragile for outdoor use. And my GG1 has skates so wide they short out going over that frog which is why the GG1 on that siding is now Verboten! (Don't forget that I have been running electrics in analog mode on this pike since the 1980's without any prior problems with shorts except when an engine engaged onto a point that wasn't set correctly. It even provided a certain amount of head on colision insurance! - Not useless in gauge one). Two I have given a great deal of clearance between the switch rails and the wing rails so that there should not be any shorts with equipment with a correct back to back. Some of the issues I had with the J & M coaches came from some wheels that were lose on the axles and whose gauge therefore was shorter than correct 40mm. Back to B. As these were six wheel truck, they didn't derail and it took me some time to realise this was happening, because it was the center wheel (Actually it was on a fall evening running session, when the light got so dark, I saw the sparking and then took a closer look at the car in the shop). Three I have installed toggles in the inside (out of sight) yard a long time ago because and right after of the incident which burned out the two motors on my F3. It is now standard procedure. Otherwise your analysis is quite correct and I have descided to try wiring everything in Passive mode before this springs running sessions resumes. How can older engines get a PS3 upgrade? Without changing the boards.

Hi guys: I sure am not an expert in electronics but I do use the Bridgewerk 15 amps and TIU and beleive me the circuit protection works very well as it is, it trips off at every short I have. Last year I bought some faulty 5 amp automotive fuses from Bulgaria because they were cheap. After I discovered that they were faulty I had to resort to using again some ten amp fuses which I had before; these were not faulty, to finnish the running season. And the circuit breaker within the Bridgewerks tripped of every time saving a lot of hastle. The automotive store I have nearby only sells 5 amps fuse by the blister with three fuse in each blister. I can go through that in one afternoon... Because my pointwork is insulated after the point so that if a switch is thrown the wrong way a loco will short out before entering it. its mainly handlaid pointwork. I had one of those power source made for medical instruments (at least that's what was stated in the manual). I had an incredible amount of trouble until in despair I followed Raymonds advice and bought a Bridgewerks. Been having a good time with DCS ever since. And this although my signal is still not perfect. Sure sometimes I will push on the horn and it won't trip off but the operation of the trains is faultless. I was even able to do a lash up with my PA 1 pusshing a long F3 hauled freight, shades of Ed Shaugnessy photos.