Weekend Update 3/17/19

[cbroughton67]

Seriously cool @cbroughton67 - which speaker and enclosure did you use and any keep-alives?

Thanks - James

Thanks, James. I was able to fit two 16v 330uF caps in front of the speaker, which you can see in the photo. I ended up swapping-out the 8x12 speaker and enclosure in the photo for a 9x16 I had from SBS4DCC. It completely fills the cab.


Chris

[altohorn25]

The current run comes with decals that you can buy for these; WOT didn't do that with the previous run.  While I'm waiting for the primer to dry on the 10 new ones, I decaled one of my finished tractors from the previous run.  The decals really make these look good (they looked good before).  I'll have 15 of these total once I'm finished if I include the 5 I did from the previous run.

In response to an earlier post, I went back to my Allis-Chalmers books; I do believe that the tracks were orange from the factory, however, I do like the look of the silver tracks as well

The blocking is prototypical; a buddy of mine found the plans for loading these when he was doing research for another project.

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[SP-Wolf]

I don’t know what AC’s practice was, but Caterpillar paints the tracks yellow in the factory. Every photo I’ve seen of new equipment on flatcars has nice yellow paint all over the treads. I’m sure it wore off quickly once in use, but should these have orange tracks?

I was torn, on which way to go. I have found period adds for these - in the adds the tracks were silver (natural metal) - I searched in vain, for photos of them coming out of the factory - or, as delivered.  Like you, I know that Cat delivered their dozers in all yellow. So, I essentially flipped a coin -- natural metal tracks won. Perhaps I'll repaint the tracks --

Thanks,
Wolf

[Tom L]

Something to pull my Branchline combine through the weeds.

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I recenrly saw a prototype picture on Facebook of such an arrangement and a bonus ribbed side caboose.

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If I remember correctly, this is a Walt Dunlop photo posted by Marty Bernard, from the early 1960s in Southeastern Minnesota.

Tom Latzig
Wellington CO

[freedj]

This weekend i got the benchwork done for the right hand continuous turn back complete and the baseboard foam cut to fit.  The loop will run in a channel between the main layout and the facia and the sharpie line on the foam is the minimum height to hide my tallest rolling stock. The loop will eventually give me one staging track and a roundy round on what started out life as a switching shelf.  I have a few placeholders in place to see how the landforms will work.

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[Jesse6669]

Some T scale projects I've been working on over the last couple weeks; I had some pokes about no handrails so I surrendered and got some etched for the GP38,40 and SW9/1200.. plus some other goodies that I reckon wouldn't 3D print very well (crossbucks).  The CPL is 3D printed on 0.5mm brass mast though.  A powered GG1 is nearly ready also, will have etched pantographs and should be quite interesting.  Now I'll have to work on etched catenary and sub-station bits..

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[Iain]

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I rode the Ballard Terminal SW1 yesterday.

[nkalanaga]

Jesse6669:  Working pantographs?

[jpwisc]

I got the latest Skally engine almost done (I’ll weather it today). ILSX Phase II GP39-2 #1390 is ready for action. It is a new style Atlas GP39-2 with a M4D long hood swapped in.
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[James Costello]

I got the latest Skally engine almost done (I’ll weather it today). ILSX Phase II GP39-2 #1390 is ready for action. It is a new style Atlas GP39-2 with a M4D long hood swapped in.

Karl I really love how subtle those grabs are on the nose - nailed it.

[Ike the BN Freak]

Glad to see those GP39-2 shells finally getting used. I've only had them since 2005...Mark originally shipped them to me while I was still stationed in Okinawa.

[Onizukachan]

This weekend I painted all day and all night but still didn’t get done with all the Daylight interiors. Got enough done and lit to run at the Southern New Mexico NScalers Open house, where I got to meet some fine folks.

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And I weathered some new cabooses and new boxcars,
and de-weathered some overweathered boxcars I bought used so they’d “match” up for my wife’s train
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[BobS]

When I was a kid a builder was using an Allis Chalmers bulldozer to dig foundations. I remember the color to be more of a tangerine orange.

[mclarenf119]

This weekend I painted all day and all night but still didn’t get done with all the Daylight interiors. Got enough done and lit to run at the Southern New Mexico NScalers Open house, where I got to meet some fine folks.

This is exactly what I want to do with my empire builder set. Can I ask what you are using for lighting? I've been going in circles with whether I want to just get the drop-in kato set, try to DIY or drop the cash on the ESU lighting kit with on-board decoders. Would love to have dcc control of them.

Looking go so far!

[Onizukachan]

This is exactly what I want to do with my empire builder set. Can I ask what you are using for lighting? I've been going in circles with whether I want to just get the drop-in kato set, try to DIY or drop the cash on the ESU lighting kit with on-board decoders. Would love to have dcc control of them.

Looking go so far!

Thank you! The ESU sets were very tempting, with that cool flicker on zone effect... until I realized for n scale you have to cut 2-3 of the 5 zones off... for HO it might be absolutely worth the expense, for an 18 car N scale Daylight to spend 22 bucks a car and then throw away 3-4 zones (articulateds are shorter) made no sense. Not when the 3 of the 6 packs of Japanese Kato kits were $84 total? 90 total? Shipped.


I’m using the Kato kit, but the warmer toned 11-213 /11-214 (6 pack) Japan only set. The color of this set is correct, without filter, for older flourescent lighting. It’s only in the last 15 years that flourescent lighting has had that blue tone to it the US 11-211/212 sets have.
I make two small changes:
1: I bend the leads on the light mounts slightly outwards for better contact, picked that tip up from Mike Fifer, he has a video that shows it better. I just don’t bend them as far nor solder them as he does, because I’m not shipping cars all over the world.

2: I canopy glue the diffusers to the mounts and to the edges of the light stands to ensure alignment.
When aligned the lighting is very even. When misaligned, that’s when you get the common complaint of one end being brighter.  I put a little canopy glue inside the open edge of the light holder not covering  the smd LED (if you do it all the way across you get a dimmer incandescent effect) and let it tack up fully, then I install them to the car, add a dab more glue with a toothpick and add a dab to the diffuser stands and put the diffuser in place. Once tacky but not set, I install the car body so that any minor diffuser misalignments are self- corrected as I wiggle the shell into place. Then I don’t take the shell off for an hour or more until I am sure the glue set fully.