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.

As many of you know Nguager & Myself have promoted MRR open house schedules for several years now. I have not taken part in the local one for a couple of years now as it is rather difficult for me to do now. Last week I spoke with some local MRR guys and I now have 3 guys that are going to help me get my layout in top shape mechanically and scenically so I can participate this year. Two of them stopped in this evening and we did some minor cleaning and ran some trains for a few hours. Had a blast! Any way I hope I can be on the schedule again for several more years now.

I got to ask everyone for a favor. Stanley tools is running a contest called "Build your America " . My historical society is one of the entries in it, and we need all the votes we can get. If you can go stanley tools Facebook page and vote for us ( the anthracite railroads historical society ) on page 13 of the contest I would be very grateful. This is for a $10,000 prize that will be used in the up keep and repair of our locomotives.

Thanks a bunch. Steve O. ( E-paw)

Here's a find from the "used" section at my LHS (Just Train Crazy, in Beamsville, Ontario). An Accurail car in Pennsy paint, the previous owner apparently had a little difficulty assembling it, and manage to get a fair amount of ca on one end, despite the fact that the end wasn't installed properly. A couple of the sill steps were missing, too, and the build date on the car's sides was too new for my late '30s era layout. The car did have Kadee sprung trucks and Kadee scale couplers, though, and at six bucks, I couldn't pass it up.
I disassembled the car (the floor and weight were installed wrong) and then scraped off as much of the ca as possible, then modified the underside at the ends so that I could install A-Line sill steps. While I had the X-Acto and drill bits out, I also shaved off the cast-on grabirons and replaced them with custom-bent wire ones.
The newly-installed details, along with the remnants of ca on one end, were touched-up using a brush, then it was off to the paint shop for some weathering.
Once the car looked suitably used, the "BLT." date was covered with a patch of painted decal film, as were the last three digits of the "LD. LMT." and "LT. WT.", along with "NEW 8-41". I then re-decalled those areas with more suitable lettering, and, once dry, used a brush to cover those areas with thinned Dulcote.
The next day, the car received a little more weathering to blend in the re-done areas, although the re-weigh data was left cleaner than the back-dated "BLT." date.
A decent-looking car now, I think, and lots of modelling enjoyment....for just six bucks!



Wayne