Weekend Update 3/22/20

[up1950s]

http://www.westkentuckynrhs.org/2017/10/

[altohorn25]

Finished painting the tender this afternoon and applied the decals to the loco and the tender.  Other than some small detail work and adding DCC, this should be close to done.

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[PiperguyUMD]

Getting there. Added the engineer side handrails and ordered drill bits that will hopefully allow me to address the crankpin issue. The weather looks good next week, so I might get to paint next week. No I just have to figure out how to order a Tsunami 2 without my wife noticing!

[narrowminded]

I REALLY like the two posts above this one.   Nice work, guys.

I've been making progress on the gripping/ positioning fixtures for machining the rails for my highly detailed, precision turnouts.  What I've gotten done before to be interrupted by real paying work is all of the clamp bodies machined for 56 matched sets of rail clamping fixtures, all held to extremely tight tolerance (.0002" in key dimensions and no worse than .0005" anywhere), and now ready for the final clamping groove details.  The line will include #4 thru #14, code 40 and code 55, skipping #11 and #13.  N, Nn3, Z, and probably HOn30 will be built.  I had hoped to be further along at this point but this is still huge progress.  For those who care, there is much more information in this thread as well as the track options that are all part of this effort. https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=48446.msg642319#msg642319

Meanwhile, here's the box with just the rail clamp fixture bodies, sitting on the shop floor, with 56 perfectly executed and matched sets of fixture bodies (plus some spares?), ready for the final steps that make them actually useful for the intended purpose.   These are used for accurately machining the assortment of angles and features for all frogs and point rails.  There are more fixtures to be made for other details but not of this type.  This picture evokes a mixed emotional swing between thrilled with the results and frustrated with the delays.

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[ednadolski]

Very nice work there Mark! 

(No need to be frustrated over delays, such simply are par for the course for anything worth doing.)

Ed

[DKS]

Ramping up work on the Very Last White River & Northern. Preparing to cut up and assemble the roadbed:



Meanwhile, I'm also kitbashing a brewery...



...a service station...



...and an abandoned resort hotel:



More detail in the spanky-new layout engineering thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=49183.0

[Jesse6669]

I'm currently working on more 1:300 scale narrow gauge equipment and track as "proof of concept" models.  This effort was started after a 2-foot gauge 1:220 scale car was done, and a test 3-foot gauge 30' boxcar.   Both of the tests came out well enough for me to feel confident proceeding;  There is commercial T-gauge flextrack available with "wider sleepers" available--I received some to test.  It's pretty convincing as narrow gauge track.  Here it is out of the box, and painted/ballasted:

I'm planning to make some dummy turnouts to fit the flextrack (dummy turnouts with a single live route permanently lined, the other route just 3D printed rail.)

Well, it had to be done.. so I started a week or so ago on a K-36. Here's the current design.  It's quite detailed, and while the proof will be in the pudding, many of the parts will probably be separate prints (on a sprue) to be added.  We'll see...

Here's a wire bending jig made for piping (0.15mm and 0.20mm
wire.)

The model is designed to at least be free-rolling, but potentially powered.  I think it may be more realistic to power a couple of coaches which are big enough to house a standard T-Gauge mechanism.. hence a mixed train could conceivably be run.   Couplers are CCE knuckle couplers (more to scale in 1:300 actually).  We'll see how it all turns out but I'm optimistic. 

[altohorn25]

Quick video of the goose pulling the 1937 Super Chief.  This is a six car brass set by Oriental Limited with two stand in cars (that are prototypically correct for the time period).  Still looking for another 6 car set or the 2 extra cars.......

[hegstad1]

Needed a break room/office for the yard.

[brokemoto]

Here it is when it looked a little better.  According to the description, it was originally built for ATSF, sold to Atlanta and St. Andrew's Bay, which chopped its nose.






Here is another oneCORRECTION:  the same one when owned by Chatahoochee Industrial Railroad:






I have seen photographs of chop nose RS-2s and RS-3s, but never an RS-1 until Richie posted his opening photograph.  If I recall correctly, SL-SF even had some chop nose RS-2s that EMD re-engined.

[robert3985]

Quick video of the goose pulling the 1937 Super Chief.  This is a six car brass set by Oriental Limited with two stand in cars (that are prototypically correct for the time period).  Still looking for another 6 car set or the 2 extra cars.......

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Nice lookin'!   However, looks like the lead wheelset on the tender is too narrow, since it's hopping at the check-gauge on your turnout frogs.  Might want to get out the NMRA gauge and see.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[altohorn25]

Nice lookin'!   However, looks like the lead wheelset on the tender is too narrow, since it's hopping at the check-gauge on your turnout frogs.  Might want to get out the NMRA gauge and see.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

I'll check that; thanks.

[Dave V]

Rico, Colorado, September 1940:



Also, been building one of those first-edition late 1970s Model Die Casting HOn3 2-8-0 outside-frame kits.  I'm adding Tsunami2 sound and an LED headlight to bring it up to modern standards...but I'm loving keeping the "MDC" builder's plate and otherwise the obvious MDC lines.  She'll be a pretty close--but not exact--model of the D&RGW's only class C-25, #375.





I've added a lot of brass castings and piping so she won't look so naked next to the rest of my Blackstone fleet.

[coldriver]

Needed a break room/office for the yard.

Very cool - was thinking about doing that myself because NP had one in my hometown of Hoquiam.  Question is, did they really sit flat on the ground like that or were they elevated somewhat with maybe some sort of skirting around the bottom.  I found plans for the foundation of Hoquiam's version on the NP-GN joint archives, but it wasn't clear to me exactly how the car fits on the foundation. 

[Erik W]

Dave,

That first photo is absolute gold!  You set the bar high brother.  Also, #375 looks great.  How smooth is the mechanism?  Is it something you had to tweak to get rolling smoothly?  That's my big fear of taking on a locomotive kit.  It seems if you're starting with a smoothly operating mechanism, than 90% of your potential problems are avoided.

Erik