Hello,


The hassles and perniciousnesses to squeeze a Ford Ranger (smaller than a F-150) into European parking lots.





This is the point where she give up wisely.



Lutz

Hello,

in the spring of this year i was able to pick up my long ago pre-ordered Rapido Trains ALCO RS-11 on my favorite dealer. This was contained in the very last shipment across the big pond my dealer received, before Covid-19 lockdown and the following drying-out of air traffic.
For me it was the first model from Rapido Trains und my first ALCO RS-11. As far as i am knewing, the RS-11 never before was done in a high end design.
To avoid hassle with ESU and their politics, i ordered the DC - DCC ready version. Too i have my own view of sound in H0 locos. Here in this thread i will describe what in have done with a brand new loco until it meets my utter satisfaction. Allowedly I have rather sophisticated standards concerning reliable running of H0 rolling stock.


First read the manual which is in the package. Do it!
For mounting a decoder and sound the shell has to be taken off the running gear. Begin with loosening the handrails on the cab as described in the manual. Then prying (and praying) until the cab can be lifted off.






This should be visible when the cab is lifted off. I presume the cab floor is in the right height, so here no personnel with amputated legs is necessary. The inner front and rear panels are mounted onto the inner cab walls.





Next task is to remove the short hood. The photo shows were the snap-fits are placed. You have to pry the sides outward to release the rear snap-fits. There is a further one on the middle of the front of the hood which can be freed by tilting the short hood.





Then you are able of loosening further snap-fits which were hidden under the short hood. Here also tilting of the long hood will free more snap-fits.





A closer look onto the running gear. In front there is the clavilux, fully acessible only with "their" special decoders. But fortunately not so devout as Scale Trains used to be with their "Special-Scaletrains-ESU-Loksound-Decoder".
So here it is possible to remove the analog buddy and plug in a decoder of your own choice.
A original i-phone speaker is already mounted. It was said to me these are very excellent outstanding speakers, so why not give this speaker a try?





So i simply plugged in my favorite decoder. Then testing with still not mounted shell. The decoder is readable, there are no shorts and I remounted the shell parts. Taking the loco to my programming track, started the laptop and the SPROG3 and then started Decoder Pro.
The next hours i was busy with decoder adjustments until the sound sounds right for me.

The thread could be finished here now, but I discovered some bugs.


Lutz

....well, more like one of many, but this one's the one on which I'm currently working.

Some years ago (September, 2002 to be exact), I read an interesting article in RMC, showing how to convert an Accurail 2-bay USRA hopper into a reasonable representation of the TH&B's channel-side hoppers.  It was written by a fellow Hamiltonian whom I knew by-name, but had never met.
I thought his starting point using the USRA hopper to be rather unusual, as Stewart (now Bowser) already offered a channel-side hopper, so I promptly bought a pair of them. 
I mostly followed the article (nine pages, and lots of photos of the real ones and of the models, too) and when they were done, I took one to a hobbyshop which I frequented (as did the author), and left it for his assessment of my work.
A week-or-so later, I returned to the store, and learned that he had pronounced it to be "nicely done"....but noted that the grabiron-style ladders at the car's corners were incorrect - on the real cars, the corner ladders were done as grabirons, with the side one comprised of a drop-type grabiron on the bottom, and 4 straight ones above that.  On the adjacent end, the counterpart of the drop-grab on the side was the car's endsill, while the next two steps were drop-style grabs, and then two straight ones at the top.
I had used the proper corresponding styles on my version, but had installed them with the mounting points level with those on the side of the car, whereas, to be correct, the step portions of the grabirons were to be at the same level as those on the side.
Half-embarrassed by my mistake, and half-pleased that it otherwise was "nicely done", I rushed home to correct the errors.
A couple or three weeks ago, I happened onto the same issue of RMC, and as I read and re-read the how-to and pored over the photos, I realised that there were still other mistakes which needed to be addressed...well, they bugged me enough that I decided that they should be corrected.

Here's one of the two originals after its initial update...

   

   

I first went to work correcting further mistakes on the two originals, but neglected to take in-progress photos.  In the meantime, I purchased another six cars, two of them r-t-r in TH&B paint and lettering (albeit both with the same car number), and four undecorated ones.
Furthermore, on re-reading the write-up in RMC, I learned that the original real cars were built in 1914 (at National Steel Car, a Hamilton, Ontario company), and extensively re-built in in the early 1930s with new sides (a prototype photo shows one with slope sheets and hoppers intact, but no sides or ends).
Then, in 1943, the railroad started a project to convert all 150 cars to AB brakes.  That program finished in August of 1945.
When I built the first two cars all those years ago, I wasn't too concerned with the re-weigh dates, which were in the '40s, but when I backdated my layout to the "late '30s-era", the dates became more of an issue.
That resulted in the rebuilt cars being somewhat out-of-whack with the rest of the layout. 

I don't really want to move the layout into the '40s, but I am re-building the hoppers as if they represent the real ones in the period between 1943-45.  Therefore, some will have AB-type brakes (the two re-done originals, plus the two r-t-r ones lettered for TH&B - one with its number changed, along with one of the undecorated cars.

The remaining three undecorated cars are being modified to represent cars not-yet with AB brakes, so they'll have the original K-type brakes (split, somewhat similar to Westinghouse K-D type brakes...but basically created using regular K-C brakes, which had the cylinder, reservoir, and AB valve all in a single unit) and older style grabiron ladders, along with stem-winder brake gear. 

There are another four undecorated cars to be done, too, but they're currently trapped south of the border, where a good friend has them for safekeeping.  As I make the parts for the ones on-hand, I also set aside copies for those other four cars, lest I forget how I made the parts when I finally have those cars here.  They'll be re-done to represent cars not yet updated with AB brakes.

Here are some in-progress photos, showing one of the two r-t-r cars -

   

   

   

...the porcupine-look, with the styrene rod sticking out all over the place, was used to plug holes where grabirons had been removed or where I had drilled holes in the wrong places - the rod is .020" in diameter, so I drilled-out the smaller holes to about .016", then dipped the end of the rod material into MEK for a few seconds, to soften the plastic, then forced it into the smaller hole.  I had to do a lot of such plugging, as lots of holes were in the wrong places originally.

The photos below are of one of the two original cars (the end sill is mounted slightly higher than on the newer cars, as Bowser modified the newer ones slightly)- the two originals were the most difficult to correct, and will have to remain somewhat different from the other 10, although they're at least closer to "correct" than they've ever been...


Here's the A-end...

   

...B-end...

   

...and a side view...

   

This is the A-end of one of the two r-t-r cars, with the end sill more like it should be...

   

...and the B-end...

   

...and a side view...

   

Here's the A-end of the undecorated car that will have the AB-type brakes, too...

   

...the B-end...

   

...and a side view...

   

I'm guessing that I'm about to exceed the attachment limit, so will continue in the next post...

After getting back into modeling I found that I had forgotten how I did some of my weathering. The last few months I have been experimenting with different methods. I have given up on airbrushing as a method. I was growing dissatisfied with it back in the old days.

In the past and now I have used a combination of washes and dry brushing for weathering. I have used craft paints exclusively. I have had in my opinion varying degrees of success with these methods. For washes I used blue windshield washer fluid with great success. However, recently I have not been happy with it. They must have changed the formulation and I believe lowered the alcohol content. I can’t prove this, but I had an old bottle and things were better than the bottle I bought earlier this year.

I was also a big fan of Folk Art paint but their color selection has been reduced in the stores around here. Gone are many of my favorites. I have tried other brands but they are usually too watery for my purposes.

I have searched YouTube and found several videos which at first seemed helpful. After trying the methods, I was left frustrated with my level of success. The videos always seem to be missing some important pre-starting step or just became boring ramblings.

I purchased a couple of books. I tend to like printed instructions. For me, the videos can be great to show something, but it is hard to repeat the instructions or in some cases find the particular technique I am looking for in a 30-minute video.

One thing that caught my eye was weathering chalks. I have tried them in the past with no luck. The car would look great until I sealed it. All the work I did would disappear. I would do multiple applications but, in the end, it looked like I did nothing.

I started to read and see examples using the newer weathering chalks. The more I researched the more I liked what I found. A couple of months ago I purchased some Pan Pastel chalks. My first attempts were to add the chalks to cars that had been previously weathered using washes.

This question is mostly for DoctorWayne -

What do you use for headlight lenses, considering you don't actually put bulbs in yours?  

I agree with your reasoning - 1) my era did not use headlights during the day 2) I don't have any interest in modeling "night operations" in an era/location when electricity was in its infancy.  

So what to do with my headlights?  The little jewel that comes with the MDC locos looks quite brilliant, but doesn't look quite right to me.  

Thanks,
Kevin

Well guys, the test chat worked so well, I think we're ready to go full up. I would like to host another session this coming Saturday at the same time, 4:00 Eastern, 3:00 Central, 2:00 Mountain, 1:00 Arizona time. Anyone that wants to join in sign up in this thread. We will use Zoom and it's recommended that you download and install the app. If you don't have the app installed, you can get it at Zoom.com. Hit the "sign up for free" button, download, then install. When you get an invite to join sometime before the meeting starts, the email will have a link. Click on the link when we're ready to start, and Zoom will open and take you to the meeting. The host will then let you in.

We are limiting the chat to eight participants including the host. Beyond that it'll be difficult to keep track of what's going on. We are using the free version of Zoom and are limited to 40 minutes and that starts when the first person gets there.

Anyway, sign up in this thread, and send me your preferred email address if I don't already have it.

WPMA-61, the daily transfer from Mannheim to Camden yards, makes it's way thru Chestnut Neck on it's return trip.

Bruce

   

I have a small N scale layout that is about 3’ wide by 6’ long. It consists basically of two loops with sidings. However, I have only one set of wires going to one of its loops from my transformer and two sets going to the other loop. As a result, the layout often has problems with not enough current reaching all of its sections. To get around this, I keep having to re-solder track joints.
To solve this, can anyone point me to a book or website where I can get clear instructions & diagrams of how to connect several bus wires to the various loops? I've seen a few online but some look complicated. 
Wiring is not my specialty so I want to keep it simple, plus, it’s only a small layout. Do I need, for example, a small wiring hub that various bus wires from the track would connect into?

Thanks in advance, Rob

A few weeks ago someone came up with the thought that it would be great if we could get together for a video chat using Zoom. Well, we tried it and it was a blast. We had five members in the test run, everyone downloaded the Zoom app to their PC or smart phones and agreed to meet at a certain time. It worked fine, I hosted to meeting and sent invitations to everyone else. They clicked on a link in the email and there they were, waiting at the door to be let in. It was great putting faces to people we've been talking to for years, and we're thinking that we're ready to do this full scale with anyone that wants to do it.

The process is simple, one person hosts the meeting and sets the day and time. They can copy the invite and paste it into an email that goes out to all the invitees. The host then opens the meeting on time, the invitees click on a link in the email, and they appear at the door of the meeting waiting to be let in by the host. We had five windows with each participant one, and when one spoke, the frame around that person would light to let you know who said that. Really cool, but best of all, it put a face on people that you've been talking to for years. Most of the discussions were not train related, but everyone is free to talk about anything they want to discuss.

So, the plan is to use this sub-forum to arrange meetings, you can use Zoom, Skype or any of the popular meeting apps, just that everyone that participates will have to use the same app. When someone decides to host a meeting, they can open a new thread here and those that want to attend can answer. Everyone agrees on when to meet and the host then sends an email to each attendee with the meeting info and a link to it. That's all there is to it. It is recommended that no more than eight be in the meeting at the same time, too many there and it'll get confusing. Also, if you haven't installed the app, both Zoom and Skype will ask you to download it. It's best you do, since during the testing, I found a five-second delay on Zoom without the app, plus it's a lot easier to join a meeting if you have the app.

Good luck, let's put some of these meetings together. Any questions, feel free to ask here, I'll do my best from what we've learned so far.

Hello,

as i wrote in my layout thread, i had need for modern rolling stock.

The seed was laid here:

2016 photographed in Jasper/AB

So i decided when there are modern era is estimated at the Fremo meetings of the SWD, then i go Canadian.
Meanwhile some modern Diesel locos of CN prototype had accumulated at home:


A pair of GP40-2W with the so called map scheme painting.
My questions:
When this scheme appeared the first time?
Was it very common?




The same questions for the zebra stripes painting.
When this scheme appeared the first time?
Was it very common?





And for the www.cn.ca scheme painting.
When this scheme appeared the first time?
Was it very common?





Fished a cheap ALCO out of the bay with an old CN scheme painting.
When this scheme appeared the first time?
Was it very common?


Thank you in advance.


Lutz

Edit: Rechtschreibefehler (orthography mistakes)