Against all good advice - bought a junker Jamco

[Cajonpassfan]

  wow, that's gorgeous! The proportions are right on, and all that extra piping gives the thing scale and mass.
Very impressive work, Randy, nicely done.
Otto

[mmagliaro]

It looks really nice, Randy. 

And this emphasizes something about he "greatness" of brass locos.  When you examine them closely, they really ain't all that great, especially the older ones.   The engines were prototypically correct, but the detailing was chunky.   Toward the end of the N Scale steam brass era, in the early 2000's when the last few were made, the detailing was much improved, but still wasn't
as good as what we have now in the better injection molded plastic shells.

All this is to say that I think Randy's engine looks better than most outta-the-box brass N Scale.

[randgust]

Came across this on YouTube, one of the 4-6-4's in a Santa Fe training film for crews - vintage footage from the 40's.  Not a 3400-class 4-6-2 but close enough....

If the camerawork seems a little jerky, go ahead to about 9:51 where they freeze on the speedometer - at 93MPH!!!

/>
There's lots of video out there of 3415; moving at 15mph, which is good.....but......

[Dirk Jan Blikkendaal]

Nice work Randy! And not only good looking but also good running.... Worth all the troubles!

[Dirk Jan Blikkendaal]

Randy,

forgot to tell......reading a previous post from you..... I am almost ready to make N scale ATSF steam engine numberboards and decals available for those who want to upgrade their steam engines  ........
the decals are on the way to my place right now ........
stencil gothic letter type, almost like the real thing.
included is number 3412....... unfortunately not 3415.
attached a picture of the proof sheet and a picture of the word document showing the available numbers.
one sheet (decals only) with all numbers will be $4 plus postage which is €1,45 or about $1.70....
number boards will be $1 each (2 numberboards for 1 engine).

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[strummer]

Came across this on YouTube, one of the 4-6-4's in a Santa Fe training film for crews - vintage footage from the 40's.  Not a 3400-class 4-6-2 but close enough....

If the camerawork seems a little jerky, go ahead to about 9:51 where they freeze on the speedometer - at 93MPH!!!

/>
There's lots of video out there of 3415; moving at 15mph, which is good.....but......

Fascinating video: thanks for posting it.

Mark in Oregon

[Cajonpassfan]

Randy,

forgot to tell......reading a previous post from you..... I am almost ready to make N scale ATSF steam engine numberboards and decals available for those who want to upgrade their steam engines  ........
the decals are on the way to my place right now ........
stencil gothic letter type, almost like the real thing.
included is number 3412....... unfortunately not 3415.
attached a picture of the proof sheet and a picture of the word document showing the available numbers.
one sheet (decals only) with all numbers will be $4 plus postage which is €1,45 or about $1.70....
number boards will be $1 each (2 numberboards for 1 engine).

That's great news Dirk, I'll be first in line! Thank you doing that, a very much needed item for us Santa Fe fiends.
Still, even with the numbers available, it looks like I'll be splicing numerals, perhaps two + two?, to get the engine numbers I need.
Kind regards,
Otto

[randgust]

The problem I'm having with the Microscale sets is that on the small lettering (like the number boards) the white doesn't contrast enough against the backing to even see it.  I literally have to resort to using the magnifier on their website image to try to find what I want.   Had to do that for the lettering on the back of the tender.   And I'm going to have to do it four times for the numberboards, with three decal applications; 12 tiny decals.

Oh, and Dirk, did you know that Microscale doesn't put the dimensional data on their set for ATSF steam?  Want some real fun?  Try to come up with "12000" in the exact same tiny font and size as "G.S.W." for the back of the tender.    I can't believe they came up with everything you need on the set EXCEPT for the gallon sizes and digits.   Oddball heralds and lettering for the 3460?  Check.   Gallons on the back of the tender?  What for?

[Doug G.]

OMG! That engineer was smoking! How could they have allowed him on a locomotive when he was a smoker?!



Doug

[CRL]

No deadman switch is needed to keep the engineer awake on that locomotive.

[randgust]

Putting those number board decals on one digit at a time turned out to be a real nightmare.

I gave up trying to put on more than one number at a time.  The previous decal digit would just shift and move, or fall off.   And these were Microscale, good ones.  The final process turned out to be put on one digit per space (on four boards), let it dry overnight, then VERY GENTLY feed in some solvaset with a 00 brush, just on the edges, and let it settle in.  Let that completely set another night.    Lather, rinse, repeat.

Permanently mounted the cab, touched up some more paint, and did some more test running.  It successfully handled my 7-car heavyweight train up a 2% grade, which is really all I ever wanted out of it.   FWIW I changed all the Rivarossi cars over to MT wheels and end-mounted couplers, very little drag and no derailments.    That's the final running tests, I'll finish the clearcoating, headlight lens, a couple other issues and she's done.

The 1940's and 1950's shots of these locomotives very much show maintenance, no heavy weathering.   This was front-end power of the secondary passenger trains after WWII, and they really look well maintained.   So the semi-gloss finish, instead of the Dullcote, seems appropriate although I hardly ever do that on my models.  I may chalk dust up the cab roof, boiler top, etc. where the oil exhaust would settle, but anyplace that would be 'seen' seems surprisingly clean. 

[mmagliaro]

Putting those number board decals on one digit at a time turned out to be a real nightmare.

I gave up trying to put on more than one number at a time.  The previous decal digit would just shift and move, or fall off.   And these were Microscale, good ones.  The final process turned out to be put on one digit per space (on four boards), let it dry overnight, then VERY GENTLY feed in some solvaset with a 00 brush, just on the edges, and let it settle in.  Let that completely set another night.    Lather, rinse, repeat.
...

Randy, That's about what I do when I have to piece together a number one digit at a time.  In fact, I usually spray Dullcote on a scrap of cardboard, dip a small brush in it and coat the first digit in Dullcote, allowing that to dry before I go on to the second digit.  Although I don't think you have to wait more than 30 minutes before you put on the next digit.

It's a real pain chasing those 1-digit decal squares all around the number board, ain't it?   

[randgust]

OK, I think I'm finally done here.....   She's a runner.

[mmagliaro]

Looks great, Randy!  (And the music was a superb choice)

[strummer]

Beautiful layout, too...

Mark in Oregon