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Couple steps forward...
Got the LV C628 re-assembled after the track pickup work and reapplication of the front handrails (the short hood railings are out of the new Bowser stock, while the "chunkier" front rails are a vintage Stewart part. I will say that the locomotive does seem to power a lot better with pickups on all six axles, so I think the work on the trucks was worth it.
I assembled the fuel tank for the BCR M630 using the old Stewart fuel tank housing and (I think I reported), cutting out the back slot for securing the fuel tanks sides since the new sides were just a bit longer than the old Stewart parts. Here's a pic of the back ends jutting out the back (subsequently shorn off with a sharp knife after gluing the sides on the housing.
I also got the Dremel and a cutting wheel out and hacked up the old Stewart metal frame to accommodate air tanks, piping, and various other appendages that cause interference in closing the shell. The shell now mates to the frame...
I did contact Bowswer to try to get a wiring guide for the Executive Line version 1 circuit board that I picked up on ebay - they said it was told old and they didn't have records of it. So, I got out a multimeter and traced each wire connection between the DCC plug and the 6 pins on the lighting plug. Pin 2 is F0R, Pin 3 is F0F, Pin 5 is + (Blue wire) The rest can be accessory lighting functions, so I'm thinking of using 1 and 6 for F2 and F3 (probably Ditch lights and Class lights if I can figure out the correct wiring implementation in the shell).
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Nirvana...
Got the pinout from Bowser for the three connectors furnished with the BCR shell, so now I know where to break in and attempt to combine lighting functions... The connectors are built for at least a 6-function decoder for lighting. I have 4... I plan on headlight + numberboards/taillight for 2, ditch lights as the 3rd, and the class lights for the 4th... Each connector has it's own + supply voltage line for the lights, so I'm going to combine all three into the 6-pin connector that plugs into my circuit board, pin #5. The headlight line (pin 2) will have to be broken into to add in the number board lights, the taillight (pin 3) should already be correct, and then I'll add the ditch light line to pin 1, and the class light line(s?) into pin 6.
I dug into each available lighting wire after combining all of the + supply lines (which were all wired with red wire). The front and rear headlights, ditch lights and the white classification light were already wired into the 6-pin lighting connector, so most of the work was already done. After a little trial and error, I found the appropriate lines for the front number board lights (a black wire), and joined that to the front headlight. The ditch lights are wired to F2, which on my Prodigy Express DCC system is NEVER a latch and hold function (sound decoders apparently leave this one as the default horn) - I would have to hold F2 as long as I want ditch lights on, which isn't too annoying. I did look into changing the function map to change the violet wire to look to F3 for a command, and even though I think I mapped the changes, the ditch lights continue to respond only to F2. If it continues to annoy me, I'll dig into it further. I was hoping that the class lights were all on the same circuit and that additional pushes of F1 would change from white to green to red, but nope - separate line for each color. I'm good with white, which generally denoted and "extra" train. Red was typically for the rear end of the train in pusher mode, green for an additional section of a train. So, I'll just leave the green and red disconnected.
Still haven't seen the new trucks arrive in my mailbox, so I still haven't battened down the shell for good. We're getting close to bringing this effort to a conclusion. I'm looking forward to seeing this unit pull some freight...
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Acme update....
Yeah... that project! I installed my floor to ceiling pillars by building rows of 3 of them - joining to cardstock top and bottom and then gluing to the floor before putting the ceiling in.
The front section of the store is going to have a vaulted ceiling. I cut some holes in the ceiling for lighting - I plan on some LED's between the roof and ceiling to provide some lighting for the store and added a few shoppers and staff. I still need to develop the roof supports and print out enough roofing material for the whole structure.
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It's been hot this week and other than cutting the grass and hiking with the dog, there wasn't much sense in doing a lot outdoors.
Built the roof supports above the ceiling tonight for the Acme and wired up a set of 4 LEDs in series to function as the store lighting and installed that between the roof stringers and ran the main wire through the meat department and through the floor, added a 1K Ohm resistor and attached the leads to a section of track. Threw a temporary roof on to reflect some more light back into the building and took some pix.
I don't think I need to add more LEDs, but maybe some reflective tape on the interior surface of the roof might push more light into the store. Next major step will be the roof and finishing the rear exterior wall.
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That brings back some memories. Spent many Saturdays as a kid going shopping at Acme. Looks great.
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Me too, Tom. My parents only had one car, so on weekends we often spent some time in the supermarket with Mom in Stroudsburg.
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Thanks, Hillyard...
Executed the roof build (two sheets of "Modern Green Steel Siding" - a texture from Clever printed in Grayscale) but haven't yet glued it on. Used Aluminum tape on the interior of the roof to add a little reflectivity. My inkjet printer died for no apparent reason last month, so I've been going up and down to my wife's office on the 2nd floor every time I print. I'll have to design a roof cap for the peak, but I think it'll be pretty straightforward.
I may also add some reflective tape on the roof supports, but I'm not sure it's really going to be necessary. Regardless, I'm going to literally be wrapping up the internals on this beast in the next few days.
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I was just thinking you could base a good portion of a layout to Acme and its operations.
My memory is a little fuzzy but I can remember they had a huge warehouse/distribution center in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia. I remeber passing it when I was riding the Paoli Local. It was between Overbrook Station and the 52nd Street Yard. Acme had thier own fleet of trucks with blue cabs and grey trailers. They were so big they had there own tow trucks.
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Everything is looking great.
Matt
Conrail's Blairsville Cutoff - A Fictitious Alternative Route Over The Allegheny Mountains From Blairsville, Pa to Cresson, Pa
Milepost 296.0 to Milepost 250.0
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Thanks Matt! I never got to the Acme tonight. It was a beautiful night to work outside, and I put down some grass seed on my hill and did some weeding, caught up with email, etc.
I ALSO looked into function remapping, watched a couple YouTube videos which were instructive, and armed with a little more knowledge tried to change my F2 ditch lights call to an empty function (I picked F5). Remapped and changed values of both F5 and F2 and yet.... the ditch light still responded only to F2 (non-latching). Dug a little more into some archived Digitrax instructions and found out... Wa...... Wa...... Wahhhhh.... the DH142 series lists CV33 through CV49 as "Function Reprogramming CVs", however in the Notes column is says..... "Unavailable". I think I'll be fine with holding the button when I need ditch lights displayed... Only other option would be to install a decoder which supports Function Reprogramming. You live, you learn...
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Finally got my replacement Hi-Ad trucks for the BCR M630 via UPS yesterday - they were in a package on my kitchen island when I got home from playing golf with my son - an early Father's Day gift.
My previous delivered set of 2 trucks (front and rear) lacked about half of the brake air chambers (looks like the glue failed to adhere and they weren't in the package), and one of the brass pickups had been bent to the point that the truck wouldn't ride on the rail (I showed the correction for that little problem a few weeks ago), and lacked the plugs on the end of each wire (I soldered on some spares I had on hand). Bowser had said they'd send me replacements, and here they were in the box - a total of FOUR Hi Ad trucks - enough for 2 locomotives. After installing 2 sets on the BCR locomotive, I declared victory and went to bed. On further review, one of those replacement trucks lacked one of the 4 brake chambers - again, looks like the glue failed or they were never installed in the factory and they were not in the delivered packaging. You can see the white spot on the trucks on the front axle of the picture below where the chamber SHOULD reside...
Popped off the sideframe and replaced it with one of the other sideframes delivered on the extra trucks. I blundered there. That would have been a really good opportunity to rust up the wheelset vertical surfaces, and the weathering was what I was going to start on today! Removed the shell one more time to make the weathering process a little easier.
If this unit was on lease to Conrail in '76-'77, it would have been 3-6 years old. I'm going with some road dust, exhaust stack refuse, a bit of rust on the plow and lower portions of the frame and walkways, but not my usual CR bankrupt railroad look, which was exactly what I was going for on this unit with the CR patchout of an old Penn Central/PRR C628. First order of business is to paint the cut portions of the cast frame where I had to dig in with my Dremel tool to make the shell fit as well as dosing the new trucks and fuel tank with dirty dark, dark gray to de-plasticify the factory finish. I brushed that acrylic paint on with a fairly compliant brush.
After that dried, I highlighted the truck components and the fuel tank with several lighter gray paints (adding more and more white to my paint) applied with a soft brush. Before finishing up the gray, I got the black paint back out and added some black highlights with a very dry brush. I like to paint to be the main component of underside weathering because that's usually where I'm handling the loco the most and powders won't hold up over time there. Here's a shot of the gray coats drying.
Next comes a little bit of brown - especially on the fuel tank drips (in vertical strokes) since dry diesel has a very brown component to it. That'll probably be a good time to rust up the wheel sets, but I'm going outside to do some weeding after I clean up my brushes.
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Thanks, Mikey!
Pulled weeds from 4 of my garden beds - good enough for today, so it's back to weathering the M630 and watching the US Open. Rusted up the wheels after popping off each of the truck sideframes. I think the frame, trucks and fuel tank are about done with the brush.
Then I got the fine point brush out with some black paint to blacken all of the air intakes, grills, exhaust port on the shell. Then some delicate darkening of hinges, steps, plows, walkway edging, handrails, etc. with a very dry brush and a lot of patience making small changes.
Next I got the black wash out (a little bit of black paint mixed with a lot of rubbing alcohol) to try to get the crevasses in the shell to stand out and dull up the colors.
I'm pretty much good with that look, and it emulates the ArtStation look I wanted: krys-halamic-m630-bcr-early-2-pack.jpg (1918×1024). I'll just throw on a little bit of black PanPastel, and I think we're done. The back of the shell is sticking up a little bit - I'll have to look into that at some point. In the end, it's a lot better than seeing a melted shell rolling down the tracks.
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