Best Of The Overland/Wiseman brass Western Maryland Shay thread

[Chris333]

Would love to watch you add geared reduction to an Atlas shay. 

[u18b]

Would love to watch you add geared reduction to an Atlas shay. 

Not really my specialty  Sounds like a Max project.
Years ago, Victor Miranda did a gear reduction on a Atlas MP15 trucks.  Not sure he was totally satisfied.  He gave them to me.  I think they run great.

[u18b]

Fair enough.  If you have an older Z2, it has a bug with speed steps which causes it to go slower then  faster on each subsequent step even though you keep increasing the speed on the throttle.

TCS was aware of the bug (I spoke to their reps several years ago at Springfield) and they told me that fix was coming. But I never bought any more of them to see if they actually fixed the problem. With ESU and ZIMO having prices comparable to domestic decoders I'm not longer using TCS or Digitrax decoders, and I never used NCE decoders either.

Yeah, thanks.  I do remember that.
As you can see, it does not seem to be a problem with this loco - though this is an old decoder.

[peteski]

Yeah, thanks.  I do remember that.
As you can see, it does not seem to be a problem with this loco - though this is an old decoder.

The video does not really show a gradual speed ramps up from zero to normal operating speed. Besides, that is something you have to witness in person as you slowly turning the speed knob and watching the model.  The reverse speed changes are very slight but noticeable. Would be hard to observe as a 3rd party in a video.  Anyway, since it works well for you, all is good.

[u18b]

I have not updated in a while, but work goes on.
I'll soon be documenting a couple of things I now do.


But for now, I have a Shay for a customer that I rebuilt and installed sound.
But there are no decals for Western Maryland steam that I know of.
So I'm looking for someone to make them.

We obviously want these to be of a high quality.

I'm looking (customer is looking) at paying someone to make these.
I know a guy who had some made, but he was not a stickler for details.... I am.    I want them to be right.

Any recommendations?

Here is a company selling online:  https://www.cmrproducts.com/
Anybody use them?

I guess MicroScale could do it if they still do, though I would expect they are high.

There is also these guys.
https://circuscitydecals.com/



Who else should I check out?
I can provide photos, but I want someone else to do the drawing.

[Chris333]

CMR made decals for me, but I've heard they made the same way rivet decals are made. So you can sort of read the decals like braille.

[nickelplate759]

CMR made decals for me, but I've heard they made the same way rivet decals are made. So you can sort of read the decals like braille.

CMR decals are visibly thick where the lettering is.  Fusion Scale Graphics (https://fsdecals.com) prints nicer-looking decals, and offers custom work.  I haven't had them do any custom work, but their regular decals are good.

[peteski]

There is also https://www.pdc.ca/rr/custom_decals/ . They earned high praises from one of our forum members.

[chessie system fan]

I've inspected pdc decals before. It's the Chessie oddball set you own. I found them too pixelated/rasterised for my taste.  Fine lines in N scale might be a challenge. 

[peteski]

I've inspected pdc decals before. It's the Chessie oddball set you own. I found them too pixelated/rasterised for my taste.  Fine lines in N scale might be a challenge.

Ah, I did not know that, but I guess it makes sense. Unless the decals are screen-printed using individual inks for every color on the decal sheet, most commercial printers use CYMK W halftone printing to produce a wide range of colors. Even with very fine dpi capability there will be some ink dot patterns in certain colors which is visible under magnification (like closeup photos of our small N scale models).

I had a similar problem achieving certain colors using my Alps printer, but with a wide of color ribbons now available from Elephant Rocket in Japan, I can pretty closely match pretty much any color using spot color printing. And usually close is close enough (especially for small n scale decal images).

We don't even know what colors are involved in those WM decals. They might just be white or solid yellow.

[u18b]

There are two paint variations.

There is the in service scheme.



And the Cass version.

[nkalanaga]

Highball also does very nice custom decals, in full, half, or quarter, 8.5x11 sheets. 

You might also talk to K4 decals https://k4decals.com/.  I don't know that they do custom work, but given the variety of decals they make, they might be willing to design a set for their own line.

[PiperguyUMD]

John Frantz, owner of Mount Vernon Shops did a run of N scale WM passenger decals for me. They are beautiful! I’ve talked to him about a WM steam set a couple of times, as I will need nearly a dozen. K4 might be a good option as well, the printing on their decals is crisp and they are very easy to work with.

Don’t waste your money on the Tichy WM Steam set. Unless they’ve totally revamped their processes, that decal set is a sure fire way to ruin the project.

[u18b]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.   It gets me started.

I think I want to pay the extra money and get decals that are not half-toned/pixelated.

So silkscreen or otherwise will be the way to go.

[u18b]

So, would anyone here like to do the drawings for me?
I really don't feel like doing them.

PM me if interested.  I can put together photos of the decals needed- though you can see most of them in the photos above.