North Coast Limited Project

[Mark5]

Only one car away from Kato announcing its NCL!

I'm with ya!

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[Sokramiketes]

So fantastic Mike!

What colors do you use?  You probably said somewhere before.

I'm still using Scalecoat I, only because this project has stretched close to 20 years (yikes!) and I want the cars to match.  Now that I'm impatient and a TruColor fan, it was hard waiting a week for the paint to cure. 

[peteski]

.  . .
  I bend a 90 into the end of wire (.008 NiChr here, as I can't find stainless anymore, RIP Small Parts) drop that into one hole, then line up a flat tweezer to the next hole and pull it off. 

I also bemoaned loss of Small Parts Inc. few years ago, when amazon swallowed them. I still have few of their excellent reference catalogs. Some of their stuff can be found on amazon, but it is not easy.

But I have found a decent substitute for small Parts Inc.  It is http://www.componentsupplycompany.com/  . I wonder if this is a company ran by some of the Small Parts former employees, as even the part numbers seem to be the same as Small Parts.

They have the stainless steel wire you need, hypodermic tubing, and other useful items. Not quite as many as SPI, but better than nothing.  Hopefully amazon will leave them alone.

[Cajonpassfan]

Its the part I like the least, and sometimes it pushes me to Z scale so I don't have to do them.  Guys like Bill Denton, Andrew here, keep pushing me to add them... 

My technique is pretty standard.  I bend a 90 into the end of wire (.008 NiChr here, as I can't find stainless anymore, RIP Small Parts) drop that into one hole, then line up a flat tweezer to the next hole and pull it off.  Bend the second 90, and snip.  Right into the CA glue and into the holes.  On to the next one.

Mike, steel guitar strings (high E) are available in several sizes, including .008. One string goes a loooong way...a lifetime supply in my case.
Otto

[peteski]

Mike, steel guitar strings (high E) are available in several sizes, including .008. One string goes a loooong way...a lifetime supply in my case.
Otto

Unless those are made from stainless steel wire, I would not use them.  Regular steel can (and will) eventually rust.  But I guess it could be considered natural "weathering". 

[Cajonpassfan]

Yes Pete, they are stainless; it’s kind of hard to play rusty strings😬
Otto

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  I agree that the BCS domes are too "flat".  Most of my passenger cars are GN, so I don't need the dome sleepers (I do have one), but I do need the Great Dome Lounge.  I have three, kitbashed from the ancient Bachmann Santa Fe car, following an equally ancient MR article.  The first was done when the cars, and article, were new.

The first two cars I did myself.  Scraping off the Santa Fe fluting, and scribing the letterboard to match the roof-edge fluting, is a major pain.  But adding the slab sides is easy, and the cars look good.

The BCS sides are much easier to use.  But there's no relief, so the sides just don't look right.  If I'd thought of it, I could have added the slabs, but now I'd have to repaint.  Doesn't sound like fun, for a car that seldom gets run.  I model 1974, so it would be Amtrak, and my line has no passenger service, unless it's a detour by the Empire Builder or North Coast Hiawatha.

[CRL]

Mike, steel guitar strings (high E) are available in several sizes, including .008. One string goes a loooong way...a lifetime supply’s in my case.
Otto

Great idea... but how do you tune it when it’s installed? 

[OldEastRR]

Mike:  I agree that the BCS domes are too "flat".  But there's no relief, so the sides just don't look right. 

I used two sets of BCS sides for each car. I cut and fitted them in layers to get the inset look the prototype had. It's easy to solder the back of the sides to each other so they look like one piece. These were used on an old Bachmann full dome. I may have even triple-layered the sections because some features look recessed and others raised from the basic car side. I did these for somebody else a long time ago so I don't remember.





I also cut out the access holes in the skirting to get to the plastic body's hose and electrical fittings.  I didn't make the windows flush, because the guy didn't want to pay for that. But it would be easy to install thin clear plastic behind the brass sides.

[nkalanaga]

It looks good. 

When Amtrak took over, and moved the Empire Builder to the NP between Spokane and Seattle, I got to see these cars every evening I could get to the station.  There were only six of them, and they came in three different paint schemes.  Four in BSB, a GN "BN Experimental" scheme, and one in BN paint.  Amtrak repainted them one at a time, so for a while there were four schemes active.  Throw in an Empire Builder, and one of the post-Amtrak schemes (Illinois Central, maybe?) and someone could do a set of all six in different colors.

[eja]

Great idea... but how do you tune it when it’s installed? 

To an "E", of coarse.