Projects you 'should have known better' but did anyway....

[randgust]

I'll start this so that more people can add to it.  And I'll throw myself on my own spear first.

Many know I'm modeling ATSF in '72, early Amtrak, and specifically the train I rode on, the 1972 Amtrak Chief.   I recorded every car, and I've pretty much built the train now in N.   It was an odd and possibly ugly duck, with baggage, two hi-levels, a Budd dome, diner, two Pullmans, and a coach and Pullman put on from the National Limited at Kansas City.   Modeling it has got a LOT easier since Kato came to making the cars.

Not the exact train but close:  http://www.railpictures.net/photo/72195/

So I bought an El Cap Kato set just for two hilevel cars, sold the rest.   And I kept the tail car.   It's only lately that I'm going back into night operations, and suddenly realized that the slick El Cap drumhead and end marker are nicely lit up from track power - right in the middle of my train.   Huh.  "Free drumhead and marker" I'm thinking.   And, I can still get an Amtrak drumhead insert from Kato.  Even if it didn't have a drumhead, well, mine is going to have one.   At the end, where it belongs.  With that red marker on the door.

So it SHOULD be possible to just move that drumhead door and tail lighting unit to another passenger car, right?  How hard can that be?   Yeah.

Took the hi-level apart, and yeah, quite the engineering job.  Amazing.  LED circuit board, a colored fiber-optic for the marker, a translucent drumhead insert, clips into the pickup wipers.   Huh.   All I have to do is remove all this good stuff and move it into the rear of my Kato Budd coach!

Three days later I'm still cutting, fitting, testing.. hacking two perfectly good Kato cars before I "fixed" them.  what was I thinking.....    It's going to work, but talk about walking into a pit of my own digging...   Photos to come, when I ever get myself out of this one.  I'd make this into a construction thread, but I don't think anybody else is this crazy - you'd just throw a Tomar and a red LED on there and call it done.

[atsf_arizona]

The one that I "should have known better" but did anyway....

Was having Hans Starmans create a kit for me to put a Swiss Maxon motor in a Minitrix H12-44 switcher.  (great quality on the kit and motor, quality deservedly wasn't inexpensive).

The Maxon motor is great and runs smooth and slow.

The standard Minitrix trucks and metal gears were used, are a bit 'coggy', geared much too high.

This one I just had to try (stubborn).  Hans warned me this will be like putting a Ferrari engine in a Chevy/Ford/Dodge truck transmission.  He was right.  Despite the great motor.... the rest of the Minitrix drivetrain isn't friction-free enough, the loco "cogs" slightly at low speed.  It's not bad but's certainly not Swiss Maxon motor smooth, and the drivetrain is bit noisy at higher speed (metal gears on metal worms....).   In the end, a LifeLike SW9/1200 mechanism underneath would probably have been the wiser/better choice, certainly, would run better.   But hey, you only go around once in life.   

Here's picture and website of the loco  (yes, thx to the Wayback Machine, my old website is still out there at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20151002184727/home.comcast.net/~j.sing/   )

https://web.archive.org/web/20151002184855/http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing/Richmond_Controls_EZ26_Install_Minitrix_FM_H12-44_page1.html




 
Here you can see the motor from the other side.  There's scotch tape covering the opening, it's there to keep the Rapido coupler springs in place that I put in the truck/frame mounting slots, to assure maintaining electrical contact.  You can faintly see those two-coupler-springs-per-slot behind the scotch tape:

[craigolio1]

I've got one.

About 12 years ago I decided I was going to build a GMD-1. I researched like crazy and found that the closest starting point was a Kato RSC-2. I also needed the hoods and cabs from a Life-Like SW900. Parts procured I got to work. Huge amounts of modifications were needed to build the body but I got it done and was very pleased with the results. The Kato mechanism needed to be altered conciderably and all remnants of the power pick ups had to be removed. To get the shell to sit low enough. I broke one of the trucks during the repeated assembly and dissassembly. Kato had those at spare parts at the time. Then later I broke a frame half because I ground so much away. No luck in the spare parts so I bought another loco. Now I have more extra trucks. I finally got it put together and had to figure power pick up. I got that working, sort of, and on the first run it turns out there is a buzz. A new frame crack I didn't see. Frustrated it sits on shelf, unfinished, not to far away from the Rapido model I bought with DCC and sound. I still want to finish it on principle, but really I wish I'd put that time and money into something else.

My handrails look better though.



Craig

[jnevis]

Just about any of the projects I've started 

[Sokramiketes]

So it SHOULD be possible to just move that drumhead door and tail lighting unit to another passenger car, right?  How hard can that be?   Yeah.

Took the hi-level apart, and yeah, quite the engineering job.  Amazing.  LED circuit board, a colored fiber-optic for the marker, a translucent drumhead insert, clips into the pickup wipers.   Huh.   All I have to do is remove all this good stuff and move it into the rear of my Kato Budd coach!

Three days later I'm still cutting, fitting, testing.. hacking two perfectly good Kato cars before I "fixed" them.  what was I thinking.....    It's going to work, but talk about walking into a pit of my own digging...   Photos to come, when I ever get myself out of this one.  I'd make this into a construction thread, but I don't think anybody else is this crazy - you'd just throw a Tomar and a red LED on there and call it done.

Hmm, I moved the Kato assembly to the rear door of a Kato Budd 10-6 Sleeper and don't remember it being that complicated?  But that was back when the El Cap was released so I'm not remembering what all had to be done.  I guess I'll look forward to your thread to refresh my memory!

I think it's a cleaner, better presentation to use the Kato parts instead of Tomar.  So it's worth the effort. 

[JMaurer1]

I HAD to have a AS-S616. Started with several Atlas VO-1000 shells and cut them up to get all the correct louvers and doors. Got the body done and then realized I needed to scratch the side frames. Shell still sits on shelf...next to the 3 truck shay that I cut up two 2 truck shays to build. That one is almost done but it needs a drawbar and a decoder (but I kept thinking 'can I make that 3rd truck powered...'). They are both next to the SW-1 that I built from a Concor SW-1500. It's done less decoder, but runs so bad that I just never bothered with the decoder. Just got an Arnold SW-1 that needs decals and then the Concor SW-1 becomes parts... 

[randgust]

Part of my self-induced problem was doing this in the Budd coach - where I didn't really want the carnage all that visible as it is an illuminated interior.  I thought I could get all this in the coach lounge area.   Well, I did...sorta.

First step was to hack the door off the low-level coach and to use it to fill the hole where I took the hi-level door out of.  Easy enough.   Fit hilevel end door into hole...well, close...keep tinkering.

I cut out the entire hilevel light box - which involved cutting around the seats on the upper deck to get the top clip assembly and then cutting out the light box on the lower deck - as the door clips onto it in the back.  The entire lounge area got cut out and leveled flat to the floor, not completely unexpected and the circuit board fit inside.   I 'thought' the circuit board fit in front of the blue tab on the light box but when I tested it the red marker didn't light up at all - the LED board had to be almost all the way to the back of the blue box to illuminate both.

That put the circuit board well into the coach section, shortened it, dremeled out some more coach seats... a plain LED would have probably been easier.   Then discovered that with the Rapido overhead board in there the door, the blue box, everything, was an extremely close vertical fit, so I shaved all I could from the top of everything to get the entire car back together and interlocked.   And, ran feeder wires on the aisle  floor to connect it to the pickup jumper tabs up front.  Vertically it's a tight fit too.  It's tight enough that I left the rear door (which clips to the blue box) loose/press fit over the relocated LED board.  The Rapido board is pressed right down on it, but just made it.

So if you look at the El Cap car there's a huge open pit where the top clip used to be but it's where the steps were to the bottom level door anyway.   And the Budd coach interior, well, it still needs work.  Or more window blinds.  But from the back.... yeah, worth it.

[thomasjmdavis]

Got the body done and then realized I needed to scratch the side frames.

I am not an expert on Baldwin diesels, but...

Would these work (made to fit an Atlas C-628 or 630 truck)?-
https://www.shapeways.com/product/9SV6TMPBY/baldwin-rt-624-side-frames-x2-n-scale-1-160?optionId=40625221
or these-
https://www.shapeways.com/product/RMVQJDQGB/baldwin-dt6-6-2000-side-frames-x2-n-scale-1-160?optionId=41842513

I have some of the second set (along with James' DT6-6-2000 shell, and they are well rendered, although I haven't tried fitting them to the C-628 trucks yet.

Tom D

[btrain]

I've been trying to kit bash a New York Central 19000 series caboose from an Athearn three window wooden one. So far it's taken me two cabooses to shrink the cupola to the right size, and now the evergreen plastic for the side walk ways melts into the beams when I apply plastic weld. 

[SP-Wolf]

Well, you guys can thank me for Kato's SP Daylight train. I have known better.... No sooner did I gather up all of the car sides core kits and even the Key 5 car Daylight set -- Kato made the announcement that were releasing the train --- DOH!! Now I have all if this stuff --- in my opinion - it's useless and worthless.

Now -- I do have all of the fixings for a 1955 SP Lark. I'm sure Kato is waiting for me to complete that train, for them to announce it. LOL!!

Go figure,
Wolf

[Tom Todd]

I believe that the next train, after the MILW Hiawatha Olympian, will be something that uses the new FP7. Did the Lark use FP7s?

Tom Todd

[Mike Madonna]

I believe that the next train, after the MILW Hiawatha Olympian, will be something that uses the new FP7. Did the Lark use FP7s?

Tom Todd

Todd,
The Lark was powered initially by a GS class 4-8-4. Then EMD E units. This is NOT to say that an FP-7 "never" pulled this train.

[Angus Shops]

The Canadian? It must be, 'cause I'm working on my resin version.

As for "I should have known better" projects, it might just end up being The Canadian.

Geoff

[GhengisKong]

I believe that the next train, after the MILW Hiawatha Olympian, will be something that uses the new FP7. Did the Lark use FP7s?

Tom Todd

I have seen photos of the Golden State and the Shasta Daylight with FP7s on the front end. I'm sure the Lark had them as well.

[JMaurer1]

I've seen the Baldwin trucks (but thanks for pointing them out). Maybe one day once the bad taste gets out of my mouth.

I'd take a SP Lark as well...start building it!