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Reworking The Aristo Milw. Rd. Heavyweights


Chuck
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I have 7 Aristo-Craft Milwaukee Road heavyweights that I've been reworking.

1 was a PRR baggage car that has been stripped and painted orange, maroon & black.

That car looks so good it made the original Aristo paint scheme look crappy esp. the brown roofs.

 

So I've been busy reworking the old Aristo paint scheme into something that "pops" better!

 

I have 1 car left to repaint and wire.

All the other cars are finished.

All cars will be daisy chained together via pigtails and plugs running thru the diaphragms....all truck wiring removed and battery located in the baggage car. Battery is just a cheap Tenergy 14,8V 2200mah Li-Ion thing that I bought off eBay for like $30 shipped. That feeds a cheap eBay Buck Converter that reduces voltage down to 10.5V...It's adjustable and rated like 95% efficient.

 

All car lighting has been upgraded to Led's...those cheap LED strips made for under cabinets etc. Mine are soft glow warm white.

 

All axles ride in ball bearings installed into truck sideframes.

 

All car floors were removed and wiring changed out to #24 awg...you wouldn't believe what I mess the original factory wiring was in under there. 2 cars had wires that were too short and just assembled...no way those lights ever worked...well they did but the interconnect between the 2 trucks was never complete which would lead to severe flickering. 

 

So I'm basically repainting the roofs, diaphragms, steps & truck frames black. The "brass" grab irons are also being shot black. Then all black parts are clear coated with a matte finish UV protectant coat....all Duplicolor automotive lacquer bought at Advance auto and sprayed with a HVLP spraygun and a old Wen/ Binks airbrush.

 

Here's the comparison between the 2 paint schemes....prototypical you may ask?? Well yes as I do have some pics of where the Milwaukee did repaint heavyweight roofs from grey to black...and brown to grey....seems back in days of passenger travel the Milw. was constantly changing paint schemes.

 

It's odd how the camera makes the orange color different between the 2 cars...but they are identical.

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Oh and a newbie that just emerged this week :)

 

Was taken thru a window screen as babies are very jittery...can't get near them as they'll bolt at any strange sounds. 

 

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First is to mask all those clerestory windows in the roof...34 of them. Luckily Tamiya makes masking tape that is the exact width needed...just need to cut the length.

 

Pretty easy job once you get going as I can mask out an entire roof in about 1 hour...and that's including the underside.

 

Just apply some Tamiya tape to a clean piece of glass and cut length with a small ruler and a hobby knife. Tamiya clear line masking tape quality is way above plain old masking tape....and it's available in many different widths. Ebay has sellers that have even more widths available...great stuff!

 

On glass cutting down...

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Tweezered for install on window...I also use a blunted toothpick to help guide and seal tape to windows.

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Widows are done...

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All taped up with painting "handle" installed via hot glue.

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Sprayed black before clear coating.

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Small parts such as truck frames, steps, handrails, diaphragms etc. stuck onto masking tape and cardboard painted black...These have been clear coated as can tell by no shine.

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Yeah I even decided to paint those "brass" end railings black.

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Here's the paint that I use and like only $25 per quart at Advance Auto. Cheap and easy to find. I reduce it by about 50% with lacquer thinner before spraying. Being lacquer it helps to "bite" onto existing paint. No recoat window is a huge plus.

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Here's the clearcoat I use...again cheap and easy to find. This combo of paints dries so fast that parts can be handled in a few minutes, turned over and sprayed again...all without having to worry about paint setting up in the spray guns. Or can be masked for 2 tone paint jobs in a matter of hours...if you care to work that hard & fast.

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Here's the lacquer thinner I use...again cheap and easy to obtain. This Duplicolor paint can be cut with about anything from Acetone to Mineral spirits but Acetone sets up way too fast esp. when spraying a large surface such as roofs and mineral spirits is way too slow.

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Here's the guns I use. The blue one is a HVLP gun for doing detail work on cars such as door jambs etc. I use it for large areas like roofs and such where need to spray fast and heavy so have no overspray. After I'm done with that I pour remaining paint into airbrush jar then cleanup the blue gun.

The old Wren/ Binks airbrush is great as the large jar goes a long ways between refills. The newer version of this gun has metal jars that you can't see thru.

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And finally my favorite spraygun cleaner. Cheap old Walmart brake cleaner. After I run some lacquer thinner thru the guns I finish off with this. Spray thru the passages and air caps etc. Messy yes...a PIA...Yes but has to be done as I never use rattle cans. That stuff is way too thick and I've seen the propellant "air" come out with junk in it that clogs nozzles etc.

 

Just ask the live steam guys about contamination in butane cans whether be from can manufacturing, dirty air or butane. 

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Here's the floor pieces removed to change the wiring from that tiny like 32 gauge wire to 24 gauge.

 

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 Some fine wiring done here boys...1 wire is barely in the solder pad.

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Another where the wire isn't even covered with solder...just sort of stuck in.

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All finished and ready to be installed.

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Here's a followup pic showing the floors installed then from underneath the car I solder all 3 floor electrical connections together. After that I test for continuity from one end to the other and should be like .06 ohms or less.

 

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Here's how I mount the lights...I cut FR board into strips 1/2" wide then drill holes so can mount on existing roof protrusions.

 

FR board is some very tough material. FR mean Fire Resistant and or Fiberglass Resin...It's basically printed circuit board that hasn't been copper cladded yet. Cutting this stuff is tough as I found either hacksaw or vertical bandsaw works. If using a bandsaw use a bi-metal blade as a wood blade will immediately wear out. Recommended way to cut is with a press brake/ shear. Razor blades won't even hardly scratch it.

 

  Reason I mount the Led strips to FR board is I had a bad experience in the past using these Led strips. I had a set of 13 Aristo NYC 2-Tone Grey heavyweights that I converted over to this same Led lights. On those cars I mounted the strips directly to the roof. 2 cars had bad factory solder joints where the Led's mounted onto the copper backing. These fizzled and almost melted thru the roofs. So I now mount them on FR board away from the roof. I also left all the cars light on off switches wired so if a car ever "acts" up I can just shot off the lights and fix when I have time.

 

For the light strip wires I used the same wires that were removed from car floors. After soldering all together I again check for continuity and resistance from one end to another. Resistance should be in the .06 ohms area or less. 

 

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Here I'm bench testing to make sure all lights work.

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Here testing the observation marker lights for operation. Painted side & front lenses green, rear lens is red.

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Here I wanted a lighted drumhead but couldn't find any that I liked. Most were too thick. I tried making one but tossed it. So I just mounted a CMSTP&P decal onto a piece of styrene and glued it on. This train isn't a prototypical train so suites me fine. Again I like this stuff being painted black.

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Hot glue in some passengers. I need to order more people. I have like 200 of these I ordered but with only 7 poses I need more variety. So I'll order some USA Trains passengers and some more eBay people that are standing and sitting etc. 

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Install the roof and again bench test all electrical. 

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Looking good.

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Assemble trucks.

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Little grease.

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And mount trucks.

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That's it...I'll make a video next to show the whole train!

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