While making a purchase at Drew Patrick Beverages, the staff allowed me to grab this shot of Shore River getting ready to switch a car into their facility.

Bruce

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I haven't be getting e-mail notifications for posts to threads to which I've subscribed. Is anybody else experiencing this?

Wayne

Is anyone going to watch any of the Olympics??

I always try to watch the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
My plan is to watch at least some of the swimming, archery, fencing, shooting and weightlifting.

What is the mark up on sound decoders ?? 100% ??? Scale trains is offering a sd40-2 operator model with a loksoud sound decoder for $119.99 shipped !!!! I can't even buy the ESU decoder for that price !!!!! hock: :evil: :cry:

I have never been happy with the various noises produced by the Genesis drives. Some are better some are worse but they never reach Atlas's level of silence.

My solution is to put the wonderful GP38-2 Genesis shell on a Atlas Trainman drive. The same applies to the Genesis GP40-2 shell.

The solution is quite simple. You must mill the chassis complete flat. That is a lot of hand milling and a lot of dirt. It is better if you have a garage or workshop to do so! The Atlas weights do not fit into the shell. They are to wide. You may omit them as I do (my short trains need little pulling power only) or do another milling session with even more dirt.

IMG_5024 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_5023 by faraway52, on Flickr

The shell need minor modifications only. The rear truck support can not be milled off (of course) but the shell must be modified to slip over the truck support. Furthermore must the bottom of the shell with all it's detail leveled too. No bottom details. You need as flat bottom shell to fit on the flat drive. The bell is the only detail to survive. The cab interior is reduced to the rear wall only.

Kadee coupler boxes and a strips of styrene are used to mount the shell.
IMG_5026 by faraway52, on Flickr

The Genesis tank opening needs to be extended to fix under the Trainman chassis. It is a very tight fit and I glued the tank with small drops of CA to the bottom of the chassis. A double sided sticky tape is to think and the tank would be to low.
The air tanks are glued on top of the tank at both sides. That is easier to glue (styrene to styrene) and the fuel and air tank assembly is not interfering when the shell must be removed.

Inside is plenty of room for a Tsunami drop in sound decoder. Four tiny sugar cubes on a styrene strip lay freely on the rear truck. The bulbs are replaced with LEDs.

I am happy. This beautiful Genesis shell moves virtually in silence over the tracks!

IMG_5027 by faraway52, on Flickr
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I had a plan to save the intensive drive milling and modify the shell only. That does NOT work. Do not try to fit the shell over the drive. I had to give up at this stage of shell modification and useed a a lot of glue to stabilize the shell after so much support had been removed and the shell was still far away from fitting. The left side of the chassis is far to high to fit under any circumstanced.

** Warning ** DO NOT fit the shell to the drive but fit the drive to the shell **

IMG_5025 by faraway52, on Flickr

Chestnut Neck is turning out to be a great spot for railfanning. A CP Rail intermodal train was waiting to pull into RailPort, while WPMA-19 was doing some switching on the Industrial Track. Just as I was preparing to leave heard horns blowing and WPMA-40 made a showing as it must have finished up early at the piers.

Bruce

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Anyone happen to know the height of Atlas True Track, from the base of the roadbed to the top of the rails? I'm having difficulty finding that dimension online

Way back at the dawn of time, Model Railroder suggested Strathmore board as a better quality cardboard (compared to Bristol board?) . I used to get sheets of it, in 3 and 5 ply versions.
The local art store does not have this now, although they have a range of Strathmore products. Any ideas for a modern replacement, or whatever they sell it as now?

I've had an old HOn3 reefer sitting in my parts bin and I thought it would be a good candidate for a rebuild. I'm not sure of it's lineage it came with printed basswood sides and cast metal details.



I peeled off all the metal castings. It was missing enough of them to make them unusable except for spare parts on other projects.


I ordered a set of decals off ebay for White pass and Yukon. The original set was for a boxcar and in yellow but the seller was able to print me a set in black, for a reefer.

From Grandt Line I got:
D&RGW HOn3 reefer hardware set
D&RGW Bolster and end beam set
and a set of 6" queen posts

Now this isn't going to be an entirely prototypical WP&Y reefer. Their's has a metal frame where I plan to build a truss-rod frame for mine. It's more of a freelance deal.