Weekend Update 11-8-09

[eric220]

I finally got some modeling done this week!  Other things have been taking up my time recently...

Anyway, I give you the PRR G32DM (GE AC3200BW-DM).  These were part of the PRR's massive power upgrade of the mid 1980's.  With large stretches of electrified territory in three different parts of the country, the PRR wanted a medium-power locomotive capable of moving between catenary and conventional diesel power.  Using the GE Dash-832BW as a starting point, the locomotive was upgraded with AC traction motors, a pantograph, and transformers, creating the AC3200BW-DM!

[up1950s]

Nice fantasy Eric . Looks like spider died on your chooch .

[Jim Starbuck]

Finally got Milwaukee 44 tonner #992 through the paint shop and ready for service.
It has Z scale MTs, a Detail Associates bell mounted on the hood, BLMA trainline hoses and modified BLMA cab shades.
Under the hood there's a TCS Z2 hardwired decoder and SM LEDs.

[tom mann]

great 44 tonner!!

[Zox]

Anyway, I give you the PRR G32DM (GE AC3200BW-DM).  These were part of the PRR's massive power upgrade of the mid 1980's...

Nice work! It reminds me of the late 50's, nuclear-powered GG1 derivative (Project CENTURION) that I hope to build someday...

As for me, I spent a fair chunk of the weekend drawing a manhole cover:



..which I'm adding several times to the road on my bridge module, which is on about its third version (of the road, not the module) as I try to get the details right.

[Iain]

Eric, your site says that GE and Baldwin merged.  Would that not have led to more BLW influence in GE products?

[tom mann]

Anyway, I give you the PRR G32DM (GE AC3200BW-DM).  These were part of the PRR's massive power upgrade of the mid 1980's...

Nice work! It reminds me of the late 50's, nuclear-powered GG1 derivative (Project CENTURION) that I hope to build someday...

Huh?  What?

[Bob Bufkin]

Eric.  Nice job.  I would have used the fairely (Spl) pantographs instead of the one you used.  That way you the read pantograph would always be used and if a wire came down you go to the forware pan.  On corse, being a diesel also, it does not make much of a difference.

[wcfn100]

I almost forgot, I wanted to introduce my new best friend against decorated models.




Much better than any toothbrush I've used as it doesn't smear the paint when brushing. It's also small enough to fit into places like stirrups.  The bristles are firm and will flake off chunks of paint but not firm enough to break most small details.  I did manage to break a small piece of the molded cut lever on the rear of an IM FP-7, but I didn't know it was there and I was not watching for it.  No major loss as it's not much more than a blob.

I went back and used it on an Athearn airslide and it did wonders.  It got paint off in places I'm not even sure I'll be able spray paint back onto. 


Jason

[Dave V]

Did a lot this weekend but didn't have time for pics.  I:

1.  Picked up my MTL 89' TOFC runner pack from my LHS (I pre-ordered).  They look amazing!  Was astounded at how poorly they tracked even after I traded the pizza cutters with FVM wheelsets on 15" radius curves.  I think I have them doing well now but will consider body-mounting later.  

2.  Finished up some 40' trailers for the above TOFC set.  So far I have 3 red Pennsy TrucTrain Z-vans, 1 silver Pennsy TrucTrain Z-van, 2 Penn Central Z-vans, and 1 Wheel Works Conrail Trailvan I finished tonight (the other is still in the kit).  I will likely ditch the red TrucTrain vans with the TOFCs once I get more 40-footers appropriate for the late 70s.

3.  Finished up a strip of weeds along the mains through Enola.  The aisle-side of the scenery is done now.

4.  Bought an Athearn John Deere billboard.  Made a billboard sign for the Summerdale Diner (those of you who know, know!) in PowerPoint to cover it but discovered the printer was out of color.

5.  Painted the exterior walls of the Enola diesel house.  Began painting the concrete sills for the windows.

6.  Poured Woodland Scenics Realistic Water into the drainage ditch between the main and the diesel house tracks.

I know, I know, pics next time.

[Zox]

Anyway, I give you the PRR G32DM (GE AC3200BW-DM).  These were part of the PRR's massive power upgrade of the mid 1980's...

Nice work! It reminds me of the late 50's, nuclear-powered GG1 derivative (Project CENTURION) that I hope to build someday...

Huh?  What?

Our HO guys used to run a GG-1 quite often at train shows, and I got tired of the oh-so-clever spectators asking "how is that thing running without overhead wires?" I started telling them that it was a nuclear-powered GG-1, and resolved that someday I would get a GG-1 model, remove the pantographs, replace them with big cooling fans, and plaster Atomic Energy Commission stickers all over it.

That later evolved into Project CENTURION, a wholly fictitious collaboration between the Pennsy, the US Navy, and Civil Defense to create a nuclear-powered locomotive that could act as a self-transporting emergency power station in case of disaster.

Of course, when Sputnik went up in 1957, funding priorities shifted, and Project CENTURION was put on hold. By the time the concept was revisited in the mid-1960s, the powers-that-be had reconsidered both the feasibility and the desirability of a peripatetic nuclear reactor. The project never got beyond a proof-of-concept chassis, built largely of GG-1 components, with a conventional diesel-electric genset sitting in for the atomic pile.

I haven't gotten around to building the CENTURION prototype yet. But Eric's locomotive, with its pseudo-historical background, reminded me of it.

[C855B]

Did a lot this weekend but didn't have time for pics.  I:

1.  Picked up my MTL 89' TOFC runner pack from my LHS (I pre-ordered).  They look amazing!  Was astounded at how poorly they tracked even after I traded the pizza cutters with FVM wheelsets on 15" radius curves.  I think I have them doing well now but will consider body-mounting later.

Oh, poop... not what I wanted to hear. My two 4-packs arrived yesterday and there hasn't been a chance to test 'em yet. Was this with or without loads?

[Dave V]

Did a lot this weekend but didn't have time for pics.  I:

1.  Picked up my MTL 89' TOFC runner pack from my LHS (I pre-ordered).  They look amazing!  Was astounded at how poorly they tracked even after I traded the pizza cutters with FVM wheelsets on 15" radius curves.  I think I have them doing well now but will consider body-mounting later.

Oh, poop... not what I wanted to hear. My two 4-packs arrived yesterday and there hasn't been a chance to test 'em yet. Was this with or without loads?

Both, although they track better with loads.  I never gave them a chance to run with pizza-cutters because I started the train in Enola Yard which I laid with code 55.  So, before they every felt the pull of a loco they were wearing FVM metal wheels.  Interestingly, the cars did fine coming through a reverse curve within #5 turnouts and a 13.5" radius curve coming off the yard lead.  They seem to have more trouble on code 80!  Strange...

[C855B]

That later evolved into Project CENTURION, a wholly fictitious collaboration between the Pennsy, the US Navy, and Civil Defense to create a nuclear-powered locomotive that could act as a self-transporting emergency power station in case of disaster.

Not as far-fetched as one would think. It was a strange time back then. There was actually, honestly a nuclear-powered loco on somebody's drawing board, or at least the concept was being fielded as a "Futurama"-type of idea. The preliminary publicity art I saw (now in retrospect) looked curiously like a pregnant GTEL8500, which makes me suspect it was a GE fantasization.

[wm3798]

Dave, I find it quite odd that the cars have tracking problems.  I've got a few from the original run, they were the kit form, and I don't have a stitch of trouble with them.

I wonder if they redesigned the way the coupler swings under the sill...

Lee