Weekend Update 3/15/15

[Pomperaugrr]

I had a chance to do a few small projects over the weekend on Specialty Minerals.  I am beginning to build conveyors, crushed limestome loading bins, and a truck scale.  Covers on the conveyor are just placed and not glued.  I will paint, weather and place limestone on the belts before attaching the curved covers.




Truck scale.  Needs paint and weathering.


Weathered the bridge shoes on the three span crossing of the Housatonic River, in New Milford.


That was it for this weekend.

Eric

[Dave V]

The key is body-mounting, metal wheels, and adjusting ride height if necessary as the cars are acquired. And then eventually, you tackle the existing fleet by breaking them up into categories and upgrading them in batches (such as, all the Bowser GLa hoppers in one session, then the Bowser H21 hoppers in the next session, etcetera). The nice thing about the Biwser hoppers is that they have existing properly-positioned screw holes for MTL 1015s. It doesn't take long at all to convert them over. I even pull the slope weights out of my GLa hoppers and they run fine, since the operating load is sent through the centerbeam rather than the trucks.

My older H21s are body-mount.

I appreciate the thought, but I've said my piece with respect to my priorities on coupling distances.  I have an operating layout with another under construction...life's pretty good in the model railroading department.

[ai5629]

I finished these Atlas 60' SD boxcars, Conrail class BE60C, about a month ago.  There is a lot of decal work (about six hours per car) but I am very happy with the end results.  Thanks.

Jeff

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Those are really hot Jeff!

Have you lowered and body mounted them too? I have a few of those cars that have been, and a few that haven't, and the difference is pretty stark.

[garethashenden]

Installing N scale joint bars after weathering some track and ties.   A bit obsessive maybe, but at least I will know they are there.





Joint bars are from Precision Design Co.

http://www.pdc.ca/rr/

I did something similar in HO on a club layout. The other thing we did was to simulate the rail joint with a small grove from a triangular file. I'm not sure the effect would be worth it in N thought.

[ai5629]

I have a lot of these Atlas 60' cars.  They do ride a little high.  My solution is to switch the Atlas trucks with BLMA 70 ton trucks.  This drops the ride height to an acceptable level without filing the bolsters (something I am loath to do).  I then body mount MTL 1015's in a 2001 box.  The 2001 box is thinner than the 1015 box, and it keeps the coupler at the correct height.  If you have tight radius curves, I would put 1016's in the longer 2001 box (the boxes MTL uses with the 89' flatcars).  I will send you some photos later this evening.  Thanks.

Jeff

[randgust]

It's an interesting process on those tanks.  I had to thin down the tank supports at the bolsters by about .030 to get the end walkways where they belonged, and then I did file the bolsters down so that the coupler boxes had about .010 clearance against the etched brass walkway.   She's right down as far as she can go, now.    That's one thing I do now across the board is see if I can lower ride height on a project car.    It could use separate brake line piping if I was going to put any more work into it, but this is an operating, not display, car.