Weekend Update 1/24/21

[central.vermont]

So, would the lengthwise boards be what the trucks drove on or would they act like guardrails?

Sorry Marc for not getting back sooner but yes the lengthwise boards would be driven upon. 

Jon

[bnsfdash8]

I did a SD38, then the SD39, so I figured I might as well go for the SD38-2 next. It is the EJE version with chicken wire radiator grills and dynamic brakes.

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[x600]

I remember when studs were $3 bucks.

And you don't even have to have a long memory for that. 

As I started to add up some of my material receipts in prep for tax time, I noted a few item prices.
In early March of last year, an 8' 2 X 4 was $3.97.  A December receipt showed them $7.79.

It's good that I work on a time and material basis.

Greg O.

[Jbub]

We framed our house about 18 months ago and a sheet of osb was between 8 and 9 bucks, now it's 28.

[EL3632]

I installed ESU Loksound 5 in a Kato Budd RDC-1. This one was custom decaled for Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines by a friend of mine.

More info here: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=51334.0

[PRSL66]

The RDC -1 looks and sounds great!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I finished Milwaukee SW1 #1612 in it’s second paint scheme for around 1948.
Paint is a combination of True Color, Tamiya and Valejo. The cab heralds are from Circus City with the remainder of the decals homemade.

Added details are BLMA wire grabs, windshield wipers, and wind deflectors. Scratchbuilt engine heater, homemade brass exhaust stack, cab shades, arm rests, trainline hoses, 905 Z couplers, bell cord and operational marker lights.
The markers are resin castings from a friend that I drilled out to accept 0402 LEDs which are function controlled.

The switcher is also fitted with a Loksound v4 56899 decoder and a Soberton 8x12 speaker in a styrene enclosure. There’s a pair of 25v 220uf capacitors in the cab as well.

Jim

Jim, respectfully, GTFO with that. You're messing up the curve! 

Seriously awesome man.

[Jim Starbuck]

Jim, respectfully, GTFO with that. You're messing up the curve! 

Seriously awesome man.

Thanks Ed.
I missed the curve and ended up in the ditch. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks Ed.
I missed the curve and ended up in the ditch. 

More like "missed the curve and ended up in outer space"!

[randgust]

Jim - I went back and looked at the interior of the Hornby SW1 on Spookshow, and I've done a bunch of Kato conversions of NW-2's before Hornby came along.

I know what the outside of an SW-1 looks like, and that's a beautiful job for sure, but I'm even more astounded with where and how you put the 'stuff' on the inside, let alone the wires for lighting, etc.  And capacitors?    Obviously you've perfected dark matter/black holes in N scale to condense matter into an infinitely small space.

You sure earned the upvotes on that one.

[Jim Starbuck]

Jim - I went back and looked at the interior of the Hornby SW1 on Spookshow, and I've done a bunch of Kato conversions of NW-2's before Hornby came along.

I know what the outside of an SW-1 looks like, and that's a beautiful job for sure, but I'm even more astounded with where and how you put the 'stuff' on the inside, let alone the wires for lighting, etc.  And capacitors?    Obviously you've perfected dark matter/black holes in N scale to condense matter into an infinitely small space.

You sure earned the upvotes on that one.

Thank you Randy!

Actually there’s ample room for everything under the hood. I did grind off the four small light board locating posts on the top of the chassis to allow the decoder to rest as far forward as possible.
I also built the speaker enclosure like the S4 and NW2 installs where the cab roof is actually serves as the top of the enclosure. You can just see the bottom of the speaker up in the cab in the photo.
The three wire stubs sticking up to the rear of the decoder are surface mount resistors soldered to each of the light function wires. The magnet wires from the LEDs solder to them then the shrink tube is pulled up around the resistor and shrunk.
Keeping the wiring short helps immensely. The speaker wires  were shortened from what’s in the photo then kind of fold up in the space between the decoder and caps as the shell goes on.
I should add this photo and description to the SW1 install thread in the DCC forum.

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[skytop35]

Thank you Randy!

Actually there’s ample room for everything under the hood. I did grind off the four small light board locating posts on the top of the chassis to allow the decoder to rest as far forward as possible.
I also built the speaker enclosure like the S4 and NW2 installs where the cab roof is actually serves as the top of the enclosure. You can just see the bottom of the speaker up in the cab in the photo.
The three wire stubs sticking up to the rear of the decoder are surface mount resistors soldered to each of the light function wires. The magnet wires from the LEDs solder to them then the shrink tube is pulled up around the resistor and shrunk.
Keeping the wiring short helps immensely. The speaker wires  were shortened from what’s in the photo then kind of fold up in the space between the decoder and caps as the shell goes on.
I should add this photo and description to the SW1 install thread in the DCC forum.

One thing Jim forgot to mention is that the SW-1 installs use the old V4 or Select Decoders which have a lower profile than the current ESU V5 decoders. I'm hoping the forthcoming new announcements will bring good news of decoders with smaller footprints and height. Fingers crossed !

[Jim Starbuck]

One thing Jim forgot to mention is that the SW-1 installs use the old V4 or Select Decoders which have a lower profile than the current ESU V5 decoders. I'm hoping the forthcoming new announcements will bring good news of decoders with smaller footprints and height. Fingers crossed !

Ah yes.....thank you Bill

[Drgwspup]

Added details are BLMA wire grabs, windshield wipers, and wind deflectors. Scratchbuilt engine heater, homemade brass exhaust stack, cab shades, arm rests, trainline hoses, 905 Z couplers, bell cord and operational marker lights.
The markers are resin castings from a friend that I drilled out to accept 0402 LEDs which are function controlled.

Jim

Nicely done! Especially liked the bell cord.  Don't see that modeled in N scale very often.

A question: How did you make the sunshades?  Looks like they are meant to represent canvas type.  I need to do several for my RSD4/5s.  Thanks!

Mark

[tehachapifan]

One thing Jim forgot to mention is that the SW-1 installs use the old V4 or Select Decoders which have a lower profile than the current ESU V5 decoders. I'm hoping the forthcoming new announcements will bring good news of decoders with smaller footprints and height. Fingers crossed !

Yes, fingers crossed for sure! If they don't come out with something without that damn bulky connector, it will definitely be a bit of a setback for us (American prototype) N scalers. Also wonder how long the blackout will last regarding the presumed V5 drop-in boards replacing the 73100 and 73199. I may have gotten the last 73100 left on the planet but I still have more Atlas units to do!