Weekend Update - 12/16/2007

[Chris333]

Messed with this Railino etched kit from overseas. It's about Nn20" fragile and has to be the best etchings I've ever seen.




Trying to make up an "Americanized" version of this:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Nn3/photo#5119087725741574866
http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Nn3/photo#5119087798756018914
http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Nn3/photo#5132421077034773122

Started with a RC car servo for power, but scrapped that when I found a 2 RPM motor from a disco ball 

[Chris333]

And now a tiny dump car to go with it:


This car is made up of 16 pieces 

[tom mann]

Chris, those are great, they will look awesome on code 25 rail.

[Mark5]

I worked most of the weekend ... :

The only thing I did model train related was to score a recent Atlas RS3 on the cheap - this will be to see if it can be used to easily repower my vintage 1983 Atlas Alco RS3 (which until now was one of my few completed projects that I still own - did it back in the 80s):

[DKS]

The only thing I did model train related was to score a recent Atlas RS3 on the cheap - this will be to see if it can be used to easily repower my vintage 1983 Atlas Alco RS3 (which until now was one of my few completed projects that I still own - did it back in the 80s):

I have tried to do this very thing. It's a real challenge. The old walkway/railing casting will need to be chopped quite a bit to fit around the new frame. Likewise, the shell and frame will need a fair bit of grinding, as the clearances are very tight. I have not yet finished my repowering project as, once I realized it was not a relatively simple thing, I set it aside after only getting as far as modifying the walkway/railing casting.

[Frank Amato]

Hey, look at that.  They really are rendered crisply under all that paint.  Nice.

Sweet -- I have a few of these in "the stash" to do.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dude, Chris, you need help.

[Mark5]

The only thing I did model train related was to score a recent Atlas RS3 on the cheap - this will be to see if it can be used to easily repower my vintage 1983 Atlas Alco RS3 (which until now was one of my few completed projects that I still own - did it back in the 80s):

I have tried to do this very thing. It's a real challenge. The old walkway/railing casting will need to be chopped quite a bit to fit around the new frame. Likewise, the shell and frame will need a fair bit of grinding, as the clearances are very tight. I have not yet finished my repowering project as, once I realized it was not a relatively simple thing, I set it aside after only getting as far as modifying the walkway/railing casting.

Hmmm - is it possible to use the new walkway with the old shell? I thought Atlas simply used the shell tooling from the Atlas/Kato release, with new walkways/chassis/fuel tank etc.

Crap!

[Iain]

Dude, Chris, you need help.

I agree.

Chris, where did you get that?  I think I'll help by doing one as well.

[cv_acr]

And now a tiny dump car to go with it:


This car is made up of 16 pieces 

Holy crap.

I still don't know how you guys can actually do anything, much less anything this fantastic, in such a small size!

Simply amazing.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wait a minute, look at the pizza cutters on that.

Pfffttt... and here I thought Chris was the man...

[Mark5]

I don't know - check out the edges of that penny - looks like a pretty crappy casting - Bachmann?

[asciibaron]

i started a wire tree armature for my N-Trak module - i hope to have the tree completed in time for the post Christmas rush and installed on the module.  i'll get a few pictures of it tonight if i have time...

-steve

[John]

Steve .. It's good to see that you are not over commiting yourself here

[DKS]

The only thing I did model train related was to score a recent Atlas RS3 on the cheap - this will be to see if it can be used to easily repower my vintage 1983 Atlas Alco RS3 (which until now was one of my few completed projects that I still own - did it back in the 80s):

I have tried to do this very thing. It's a real challenge. The old walkway/railing casting will need to be chopped quite a bit to fit around the new frame. Likewise, the shell and frame will need a fair bit of grinding, as the clearances are very tight. I have not yet finished my repowering project as, once I realized it was not a relatively simple thing, I set it aside after only getting as far as modifying the walkway/railing casting.

Hmmm - is it possible to use the new walkway with the old shell? I thought Atlas simply used the shell tooling from the Atlas/Kato release, with new walkways/chassis/fuel tank etc.

I tried that too. It's worse than trying to get the walkway to fit the chassis, because the shells are quite different in design.

Of course, I am assuming we're talking about the same vintage chassis. It has no wiper pickups along the sides, right? That's what I've been wrestling with, and while I think it's do-able, it's not trivial.