Weekend Update 2/17/19

[up1950s]

https://west.stanford.edu/news/stanford-historical-society-plans-railroad-sesquicentennial-events

[railnerd]

That loco is at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

[cbroughton67]

I've been playing around with adding details and signage to some of the structures for the switching layout / module. This one in particular is special. My Dad passed away twenty years ago, and his hobby was blacksmithing (on my grandfather's coal-fired forge, no less!) and knife making, in addition to being an 18th Century re-enactor (my "other" hobby is axe / tomahawk throwing, so you can connect those dots pretty easily...). So, it seemed so very appropriate to name a metal products company for him - "Broughton Forge."

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[C855B]

Quasi-golden rail joiner this week on the Gibbon, Cozad and Western. First trains negotiated the entire "Phase 0" layout (of five six project phases). Here's a video of trains negotiating the just completed junction into the "far end" dogbone. Apologies for the video quality - macro telephoto is a lot more challenging than I bargained for:

[Cajonpassfan]

Very cool Chris, love the weeds around the spur. Nice homage to your dad, it's a great kit!

I've added a set of helpers to my fleet: took a BLI Paragon 3 equipped F7A mechanism and a dummy B, put them under a couple of old Kato shells I painted and detailed many years ago in the Santa Fe "Catwhisker" scheme. Kato never did that scheme and the mechanisms are pre DCC-friendly, which is why I never converted them. In helper/pusher service, they have enough power to push only about 8-10 cars in front of them up my 2.2% grade, enough but not enough to derail the train should the head end stall. And, they sound great doing it!

Despite all the BLI "issues" I do like the Paragon 3 decoders very much; fine control, great sound with lots of layers, and pretty good speaker enclosures. Fitting the shells took just a tiny bit of tweaking; the Kato shells are about .015" longer, but the window inserts need trimming for a proper fit. No a big deal.

A couple of pics of the new helper set on a cab hop...
Otto K.

PS: The old Kato mechanisms, like new,  and the leftover BLI shells are for sale in the trading section, if anyone is interested.

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[M.C. Fujiwara]

So it's been awhile since I've posted, but I have dropped by & lurked from time to time.
& every time I do & see all your fab work it makes me want to get back into the garage & get modelin' again.
But life, work, stuff happens, & the only model railroading I've done is to make a client's layout disappear in a day:

So it goes.

However, I do have a new project to share.
(Just not one of my own  )

Fellow soccer-nut & friend Steffan is a professional filmmaker / videographer / artistic badass who creates a series of shorts on interesting passions & people called (a)muse.
& 4 years ago when he started the series, he went with what was lying around: my model railroading.
4 years later, after him completing other episodes first, we actually finished it last weekend.

Personally I hate hate hate being in front of a camera, so I apologize in advance for the talking head parts.
Thankfully Steffan put the piece together less about me & more as a celebration of model railroading in all it's wonderful wackiness & community.
There's a bunch of train show scenes, too, thanks to Silicon Valley Free-moN for letting us shoot at a few shows.

So I'm excited to share the short with you, you who have had a hand in much of my own model railroading learning & enjoyment.
Please enjoy! despite the headlights being out in a few scenes

[It's a lot better on a big screen in Full HD!]
[& with the sound off  ]

[narrowminded]

Sent a dozen sets of 3D printed Arnold S2 Pilots, body mount coupler conversion pieces to the board member @central.vermont .  They were made to his samples from an out of production part.  Samples arrived this afternoon, parts shipped tonight.  Hopefully he will be able to post some assembled pics when he gets them.

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[altohorn25]

The Modutrak Layout will be set up at the Mad City Model Railroad show in Madison, WI this weekend.  Please stop by and say "hi" and have a look at the layout.  Always a few new things to see with every show as each module continues to progress.  The layout is 20'x60' and a full loop at this show.  Show hours are 9-5 today (Saturday) and 9-4 on Sunday.

I'll post some photos as I take them this weekend.

[central.vermont]

Sent a dozen sets of 3D printed Arnold S2 Pilots, body mount coupler conversion pieces to the board member @central.vermont .  They were made to his samples from an out of production part.  Samples arrived this afternoon, parts shipped tonight.  Hopefully he will be able to post some assembled pics when he gets them.

Hopefully I can get it done on my end as quickly as you Mark!!! 
Thank you so much for doing this.

Jon

[Kentuckian]

All the talk about N nostalgia and old brass  and old plastic reminded me to pull out an old project. 35 years ago this was the best geep going; manufacturing has come along way. The smartest thing to do with these is probably to coat the inside of the shell with Liquid Tape and slide it over  an Atlas mechanism. I have seen this on the inter web somewhere. I do like being able to see through the cab windows, though.

But I’m not so smart so I replaced the broken gears, stiff wiring, and old motor. It will now crawl on DC. I have a sister unit that I’m converting to a dummy that will hopefully provide a place for the sound unit. I know, two units and one sound, but I can live with that.

This unit now weighs in at exactly 100 grams and I have not yet started adding weight to the shell, only the chassis so far. And yes, I need to blow some Enchantment Blue on it!

[mark dance]

So I'm excited to share the short with you, you who have had a hand in much of my own model railroading learning & enjoyment.
Please enjoy! despite the headlights being out in a few scenes

What a superb video in all regards!  It gets to the heart of the hobby - for me at least - with eloquence, artistry and humility. Thank you for this MC and thank Steffan as well!

md

[daniel_leavitt2000]

All the talk about N nostalgia and old brass  and old plastic reminded me to pull out an old project. 35 years ago this was the best geep going; manufacturing has come along way. The smartest thing to do with these is probably to coat the inside of the shell with Liquid Tape and slide it over  an Atlas mechanism. I have seen this on the inter web somewhere. I do like being able to see through the cab windows, though.

But I’m not so smart so I replaced the broken gears, stiff wiring, and old motor. It will now crawl on DC. I have a sister unit that I’m converting to a dummy that will hopefully provide a place for the sound unit. I know, two units and one sound, but I can live with that.

This unit now weighs in at exactly 100 grams and I have not yet started adding weight to the shell, only the chassis so far. And yes, I need to blow some Enchantment Blue on it!

When adding weight, start with thick brass strips. It'll reinforce the floppy chassis and really cut down on noise. I also found that adding a lot of grease to the telescoping drive shaft cut down on noise. These can run well if tinkered with. My other suggestions would be to  swap the motor with one of those $2 Atlas slow speed motors we were taking about in the DCC forum and a good keep alive capacitor to the DCC decoder will keep it crawling over switches better than any flywheel could. I do I have a soft spot for Hallmark brass. They were the only game in town for C40-8Ws for years.

I have a U23B that I painted in  P&W long before atlas came out with the model. It has a cracked gear and I can't find a replacement anywhere. So it's bound to the display case, bummer.

[Bob]

M.C. - what an amazing video!  Really well done!

[davefoxx]

@M.C. Fujiwara,

Welcome back, M.C.!  You've been missed.  Thanks for sharing that video.  Very cool.

DFF

[Cajonpassfan]

@M.C. Fujiwara,

Welcome back, M.C.!  You've been missed.  Thanks for sharing that video.  Very cool.

DFF

+1
Yes, same sentiments here! And a very well done video, thanks for doing that.
Otto K.