This thread is, for now, a reader's digest version of the posts made over the course of a few years at the Yardbird Trains Yahoo Group.

I will open with a few pictures of the filing. You will see, as time goes by, the continued filing and filing and filing and sawing and grinding to gradually remove bits of zamac from the boiler and eventually the cab. I don't have a really nice picture of the engine pre-filing...shoulda woulda coulda taken one then, I suppose. Oh well.

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In this image above you can see the engineer's side. The cast-on details removed include the sand lines, injector pipe and check valve from the boiler, the stay bolts and piping from the firebox, as well as the generator, whistle, headlight above the running board and power reverse below.

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On the fireman's side, many of the same details were removed as well as the compressor casting and a big chunk of the running board. Also note the cast on air piping above the cast air tanks has been filed down. Originally I had planned on just adding new piping on top of that flattened area.

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Here you can see the hole drilled through the headlight mount (find the red circle). The hole drilled from above down through the mount was a smaller diameter than the hole drilled from below. It's like one of those tunnel projects where two teams dig, one from each side of the mountain, and meet in the middle. I did all of this drilling with pin vises (one for each diameter bit...saved me from constantly changing bits) by hand with plenty of time, patience, and Singer sewing machine oil for lubricant.

Galen

Hello Gents and Gals!

This is where I will post progress of my layout and other adventures in RR modeling on Big Blue. As indicated by the title my new layout when construction begins will be named the Scarborough Harbor Branch Line. As far as I know no such rail road has ever existed. So it is entirely fictional/freelanced.

The track plan...


The track plan is 16' x 15' x 1' 11" deep, HO scale switching layout. Based loosely in the mid 50's to mid 60's The RR will use a P2K GP7 and SW9/1200 to switch and move rolling stock to and from industries. The GP7 will act as the road switcher to deliver consists of cars to three customers; Obay Pharmaceuticals, Gern Ind. Food Grade Flux Division, and The Morgue Ales & Brews. One stub will be a team track that I can use to products and materials like coal, machinery (e.g. farm tractors) and other items to local industries. The layouts main feature will be a dock side scene that will include a Walther's Car Float, a RR Tug, and small dock which will act as an extension of the small yard along the harbor front. This is where the SW9 will find its home, switching cars on and off the float docked in the harbor, which will act as an interchange point for the RR. I'm still hashing out a car card system to move the rolling stock however I'm done with the track planning. I look at it and see opportunities for a four person session, two people per crew. Possibly a fifth as a yard master. Trains will mostly consist of 30-40 ft rolling stock with the occasional 50 footer thrown in for good measure. I should be able to make trains 8 cars in length, which is essentially what I was shooting for. The industry stubs are also long enough to make it look like customers who actually need to use rail service for delivery and shipment of products.

Anywho...no real progress to speak of. Except I spent the last couple of nights converting the SW9 I picked up on e-Bay from DC to DCC. The first real challenge I spoke of was removing the cab from the shell. I wanted to do this so I could replace the 1.5 volt light with an LED. You can purchase a decoder from NCE called the SW9-SR. This decoder will allow you to use the existing 1.5 bulb for the rear light. However, I wanted to use LEDs in both the front and rear lights.

First off the essentials to any meaningful decoder installation. Of course beer, wine, tea or coffee would suffice. However, its the holidays and my liquor cabinet fills up this time of the year with gifts of colourful bottles from guests and family. So allow me to indulge.


I understand for the experts and the seasoned folks here, this is old hat. However, there are a number of us still wet behind the ears kids who might find this mildly entertaining. For what its worth, I could not find much of any help on line to show me how to do this. So, if you have nothing important to do like watch your finger nails grow enjoy!

The first thing you need to do is remove the couplers. Then by gently squeezing the sides of the shell near the front and towards the back close to the front of the cab you can remove the shell from the frame. Actually, if you never put these together as it come in the box you can avoid this step all together. I put them together because I wanted to see it that way and had it do a few laps around the x-mas tree for fun and kicks.


So with the shell off, turn it over and gently pry off the copper contacts off the plastic stubs inside using a # 11 X-acto blade. The contacts are attached to the 1.5 volt bulb and I never did end up re-using them.


First you need to trim the hand rails to the cab door off the back. To do this I used a brand new #11 X-acto blade for a nice clean and flush cut. The hand rails are affixed to the cab and the battery box behind it. So you need to cut the hand rails off one of the pieces. The beauty of this is if you cut them flush when you place the cab back on, it looks like you never touched them. I did not re-glue mine either just in case I decided to remove the cab again for some reason or another.


Then squeeze the shell towards the back where the front of the cab is. This will allow you to lift the cab off slightly.


With some careful coaxing the cab will eventually pop off. It really binds in there and at first I thought maybe it was bonded in place. It's not.


So remove the guts to get at the housing for the light. The cab interior and window parts come out easy as pie.


Because I'm cheap I used a small decoder I had on hand from another loco. Pictured is NCE's D13SR. Also pictured are the LED's and resistors used for the conversion. I picked them up as a set at a Train Show a couple years ago. I do not know who makes them, however the amber glow they give off is something that has grown on me. Doc Wayne commented awhile back the amber LED's look more realistic in the locos, I have come to agree with him.


Intially I was going to use double sided tape to stick the decoder to the motor. However, the shell fits incredibly tight to the frame, so there is no room. So as seen, I placed a couple of strips of electrical tape on the back of the decoder and ended up just taping the decoder to the motor. Which works just fine. What I didn't take a picture of was the Plasti Dip I use to cover up my wire connections. It's like liquid electrical tape and cures in 30 minutes, 24 hours to harden completely. Just brush it on, go mix another drink and leave it.



So...I don't think I need to go over the basics of decoder installation. Deano and others have provided some excellent tutorials on how to hard wire one up. Here it is all wired up for motor testing sans lights.

Fast forward and here is 7403 with her shell on and all wired ready for action in the yard.


So I hope this wasn't too much. Just felt the need to get going on this. Hopefully this start will keep me honest and motivated.

can anyone please tell me how i can re size a photo so i can put it on here? i tried posting some pics i took on saturday and kinda feel like an idiot that i can figure how to post them on here. thanks very much.



todd

Hello Mighty Admins,

A little request.

Can we have the Thread and Thread Starter displayed under "Last Post"? Not just the Thread Starter...

Thanks.

I haven’t done any model railroading lately, but this was one of the last things I did, probably 18 months ago or so…It was a diorama I built to photograph some of my Hon30 stuff…

I started by gluing some scraps of foam to a piece of plywood…



I laid a piece of flextrack on the foam, to kind of see what it would look like, then I added some more scraps of foam, & didi a little carving…in the first photo, you can see a piece of cardboard I used to give me an idea of what size bridge I would need to span that gap in the scenery…






I did a little more landscaping with this stuff called Sculptamold, & I poured plaster of paris where the “water” would go…

I'm building a small grain elevator for my micro layout.
The silos were built using cardboard tubes glued together and covered with a thin coat of spackling compound.

I noticed at the picture of a prototype elevator that there is a small structure that runs on top the whole length of the silos group.
On the picture it's the small structure with a bunch of small windows.
So the question is : What's the purpose of that structure ? does it cover a conveyor belt or something like that ?
What's the estimated height of that structure, about 7' tall ?
The 2nd picture is the one of my unpainted micro elevator.

Jacques

I was researching on-line for Ro-Ro / Ro-La equipment and I found this Website http://www.vagongyar.hu/en/index.php?pageid=1:

Take a look at the "Products" and "Gallery".

Take a look at the cool / exotic european railway equipment.

Does anyone make a model of these?

10-axle Ro-La wagon (Saadkkms)
Based on the design and engineering licensed by ABB-Henschel we built cars for transporting long-distance lorries. As the floor height is very low, this car is excellent for travelling via tunnels among hills and mountains. Due to the 10-axle running gear, it is capable of carrying a very heavy load; further the maintenance cycle is also longer compared to the 8-axle version designed for the same use.
   

8-axle Ro-La wagon (Saadkms)
Based on the design and engineering provided by the customer we built the 8-axle low-floor cars for transportation of long-distance lorries. Due to the floor height the car is suitable for travelling in the flat area.
   

They ride on these funky low profile trucks / Bogies:
   

The following is meant for discussion and food for thought no more no less.

Let's discuss industries and how we should model them..
First thing first..

Freight cars.
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Many of us buy freight cars that we like,just gotta have or perhaps like in my case a love for boxcars especially the IPD short line cars that was numerous in the 70s and we end up with excess number of the same type of car then we really need.
However,wise modelers will only buy the cars that match their industries..
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Matching cars with industries.
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Matching cars with industries takes a lot of discipline and advance planning.As we design our layouts we should focus on what types of industries we want to serve or will we be focusing on-say-grain or coal? Then of course the bulk of our cars should be covered hoppers or open hopper cars.
However,
On my past ISLs I tried to keep a even balance of cars between boxcars,covered hoppers,coil cars,gons(with removable load) and tanks.To my mind that gives a variety instead of looking at those IPD boxcars.

But Larry,I already have a ton of freight cars.

Lucky you..You get to match the industries to your cars the biggest industry needing your most dominate type of car.
--------------------
Choosing industries..

Choosing industries is a personal thing but,I will share my ideas..

I fully believe the bigger the better..I just like Godzilla size industries that look like they actually need rail service.IMHO even 3 or 4 large industries on a small layout looks better then several small industries that looks like a 53 foot trailer would max out the receiving area..
---------------

A highly debatable subject.
---------------
Should we match industries-elevator to grain mill or grain mill to bakery?

IMHO no..Why? I fully believe off line inbound/outbound loads is superior..Why else would you need that Santa Fe or PRR boxcar?
Also this gives you a opportunity to rotate cars-in other words- no more "gee,there's that rusty B&O gon again".

However,there are exceptions like loads in/empties out between a mine and power plant.

Catch All
---------
The team or distribution (modern speak)track can be a life saver if you have cars with no where to go.A load of John Deeres can be off loaded at a team track as can a tank car,plastic pellets etc..
----------
The industrial siding
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A short word here..What we need to remember is the industry siding is privately own by the company that uses it.The serving railroad track ends at the derail.
For those of you that uses ETTs you can have fun adding operation notes to your ETTs.
Such as: Locomotives larger the the 600 class are forbidden to operate over the A.F.Stephens Corporation industrail track at MP.123.8

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd kick off this thread for my layout dispite not having any photos that I can share with you yet. I do have pictures that I've taken, but my computer is unable to read the new fancy SDHC card in my digital camera and I left my USB cable back in the office; but I should be able to get my hands on it soon and give you a photo update shortly.

For those of you unfamiliar with my project, I cam building a steel mill facility in N scale. This includes major structures like blast furnaces (x2), coke oven, electric arc furnaces, and rolling mills. I will also be including supporting facilities such as the blast air blowing engine house, chemical processing plant, settling tanks, power plant, workshop, etc. to try to make the layout as realistic as possible.

Also, there is a harbor with an ore dock and bridge crane (maybe a hewlit someday) with room for a couple of bulk carrier freighters. At the other far end of the layout is a high grade haematite open cut mine (Western Australian style) and stock piles with a gaint bucket wheel escavator. Needless to day it's a big project, but I'm loving it.

I'm going old-school DC and have two separate "lines." I have a main line whick basically takes iron ore from the stockpiles to the blast furnaces or to the ore dock for export. The other line is for all the switching with the steel mill; for example: carrying hot metal to the BOF or rolling mills, carrying slag, transporting steel to the dock, and carrying coal to the coke ovens.

Only the main line is wired up right now, but neither thr branch to the ore dock nor the branch to the blast furnaces highline are done so the GP38s justt chase each other around the the loop which suitably satifies my 1 year old.

I've got a decent track planning CAD program that I'll have to produce a track plan for you and post it, but I can't be bothered right now, so I'll have to put on my to-do list.

I was a bit torn deciding if I should post this thread in the N Scale section or into Logging/Mining. Obviously I've gone with the later since I am modelling an iron ore mine and the section appears to be underrepresented.

Anyways, again sorry for no photos, and thanks guys for PM'ing me to let me know about the new "the-gauge.net"

-Dr.J