Author Topic: N scale FM H-12-44 experiences (Read 4627 times)

nickelplate759 · « **Reply #30 on:** July 14, 2021, 11:07:17 AM »

The last generation H12-44 were the short ones, and that's the Minitrix model.
The earlier generations were the same length as the H10-44 - and there's a nice shell on Shapeways for that.
NKP had both lengths (and the H10-44).

jdcolombo · « **Reply #31 on:** July 14, 2021, 11:34:58 AM »

FM shortened the carbody of the H-12-44 by about 3' in 1957 (?). No clue why. But about 90% of the H-10's and H-12's purchased by US railroads were the longer body version, purchased before 1957. The NKP (and probably the SP) had a few of the short ones, but most of them went to Canada and Mexico. I have no idea why Trix picked the shortened version for its model, since that clearly was the least popular version.

There are technically three main versions: the Lowry version of the H-10 and H-12 that was produced until 1952; the non-Lowry, squared-off long H-12 version produced from 1952-1956, and the short version produced after 1956. There were other slight variations (I think the side skirt was changed at one point, and they put louvres over the battery box to help prevent exploding batteries), but the main carbody design fits one of those three categories. Since the vast majority of H-10's and H-12's were the long version, a manufacturer could plausibly make a Lowry shell for the H-10 and early H-12's, and a non-Lowry shell for the 1952-1956 H-12's and call it a day.

The Shapeways shell was first offered a few years ago, and at the time I wasn't terribly impressed with Shapeways' print quality, so I stayed away. It's probably much better now, if that shell is still available. But having an actual in-production model from a major manufacturer would be nice, and this isn't an "orphan" model that just one or two railroads had. Atlas could gin up a shell, pop an almost-stock version of the VO-1000 chassis under it, and voila. Given the taller hood of the FM over the Baldwin, there would even be plenty of room for a ESU LokSound board and speaker in the cab.

Paul Graf, are you out there??? (and yes, I know you have to catch up on the backlog of stuff first . . . )

John C.

Missaberoad · « **Reply #32 on:** July 14, 2021, 12:50:52 PM »

Love this thread... I would very much like some early and mid production H-12-44s

@Atlas Paul

CBQ Fan · « **Reply #33 on:** July 14, 2021, 12:54:24 PM »

Quote from: ncbqguy on July 13, 2021, 11:27:05 PM

Brian-
Supposedly the CB&Q had an FM H-10 demo at Western Avenue Chicago yard...and there are surviving copies of the RFE (request for expenditure) covering the cost of fuel and a movie of it working. Goes along withe the rumored rendering of a Trainmaster in passenger livery at the DesPlaines River bridge in Riverside. Neither would ever have a chance to happen because FM was dead to the Q mechanical department ever since they hired away one of their best engineers.
Neat engines nontheless!
Charlie Vlk

That is interesting on several levels. I would have liked to see the Q roster some FM products and I always wondered why they didn’t dabble at least a bit with them at one point or another.

Jim Starbuck · « **Reply #34 on:** July 14, 2021, 01:12:49 PM »

Quote from: jdcolombo on July 14, 2021, 11:34:58 AM

The Shapeways shell was first offered a few years ago, and at the time I wasn't terribly impressed with Shapeways' print quality, so I stayed away. It's probably much better now, if that shell is still available. But having an actual in-production model from a major manufacturer would be nice, and this isn't an "orphan" model that just one or two railroads had. Atlas could gin up a shell, pop an almost-stock version of the VO-1000 chassis under it, and voila. Given the taller hood of the FM over the Baldwin, there would even be plenty of room for a ESU LokSound board and speaker in the cab.

John C.

John,

I used an early Shapeways shell for my H-10-44 and the print quality was poor. I gave up on it on three occasions but kept going back because I really wanted this engine.
I ended up carving off all of the detail except the doors then spray bombing it with high build automotive primer to help surface the print lines. After much sanding then more sanding after that, I replaced the louvers and panel lines with Archer detail decals. The door handles were put back on using .008 phosphor bronze wire.
This will be the first engine to get the new Loksound Nano installed when they arrive.

Jim

nickelplate759 · « **Reply #35 on:** July 14, 2021, 01:15:52 PM »

The Shapeways H10-44 has been tweaked at least once (to remove the railings) and updated to the higher-definition FUD as an option. I'm debating replacing mine (which I never finished because it was pretty rough, as mentioned by @Jim Starbuck ). That cab roof overhang is not a good feature for Shapeways rendering - everything under it was pretty gross.

randgust · « **Reply #36 on:** July 14, 2021, 04:30:32 PM »

Quote from: DKS on July 12, 2021, 12:40:23 AM

Here's mine:

Back in the 70s there were no Shays, so I turned my FM onto one, or tried to. I never finished it--still had the truck sides and the drive shaft to do--but I got far enough for it to be fun. And yeah, it's pretty laughable. But hey, I was a teenager...

Wow, David, brothers separated at birth.... my Atlas GP chassis/Roco 0-6-0 Heisler, circa 1976 (and still running today) "Bigfoot"

It still pulls more than an Atlas Shay and takes tighter curves without thowing parts.

I've already got John Sing's FM that I built in this thread, but I really got a kick out of that Shay build on an FM chassis.

Dirk Jan Blikkendaal · « **Reply #37 on:** July 18, 2021, 04:43:53 PM »

My Shapeways H-10-44, made about 2 years ago..... I do not understand why but Shapeways in The Netherlands never gave me much problems..... see the result.
One thing I always do besides cleaning in GooGone or Bestine/nafta is give the model a thorough alu grit blasting with my AirEraser!
A modified Atlas VO-1000 with ESU sound decoder, front and back LED, some extra lead weights in the nose and cab make for a very reliable/powerful - and in my opinion interesting - model.

Happy N scale ATSF modeling..... Dirk Jan Blikkendaal
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Sumner · « **Reply #38 on:** July 23, 2021, 11:57:42 AM »

'm trying to get most of UP's locos from '40's into the early '70's. I couldn't find any FM H-10-44's but did find some Minitrix FM H-12-44's so bought them as they are suppose to be close to each other in looks. Then I found there is a pretty major difference in the cab's top at the back as has been pointed out. I found the FM H-10-44 shell on Shapeways so bought it and put it on an Atlas VO-1000 chassis with a decoder. You can find that info here... ( http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Decoder-1/page-8.html ).

So what to do with the two non-UP FM H-12-44's I'd bought? I sold one to a person who needed parts and I decided to go ahead and put a $24 decoder in the other just for the heck of it.....

.... The decoder install is here ( http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Decoder-1/page-17.html )

I might see if I can print an extension I could add to the back of the cab to make it more like a FM H-10-44 even though it is shorter than the shell I bought.

I'd be interested in more detail on how one files the wheel flanges down. Thanks,

Sumner

nkalanaga · « **Reply #39 on:** July 24, 2021, 02:22:23 AM »

Sumner: I posted how I did it on the first page of this topic, and there really isn't any more detail. Just take your time, gauge the flanges often so you don't take too much off, and you'll be fine. I did my FM, and quite a few Fs, as those were my main locos for years. My FM now has NWSL wheels and gears, but the filed ones worked fine.

Don't try filing them in the trucks. Mine, at least, has all-metal gears, so you won't damage them, but you will get metal filings in the mechanism, and that can't be good. The trucks are simple enough to take apart, and put back together, that it isn't worth risking the motor and gears to take a shortcut.

Sumner · « **Reply #40 on:** July 29, 2021, 01:00:30 PM »

Quote from: nkalanaga on July 24, 2021, 02:22:23 AM

Sumner: I posted how I did it on the first page of this topic....

I went ahead and took the wheel flanges down on the Minitrix FM H-12-44 as a trial run for doing some others if the need arises. It went pretty good once I quit making dumb mistakes. Here are a few pictures....

... the rest of the pictures and a lot of detailed explanations is on my web site here .....

http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Locos-1/page-6.html

and I also posted a video of the final test run ....

Sumner

nkalanaga · « **Reply #41 on:** July 30, 2021, 01:54:00 AM »

The only difference in the way I did mine was that, instead of a regular drill, I used a Dremel. I pushed the insulated wheel against the gear, and chucked the axle outside the wheel in the Dremel.

The ones I did must have been a little newer, and cheaper, as they didn't have the bushings. If yours does, you can pull the insulated wheel off, and remove the bushing.

Sumner · « **Reply #42 on:** July 30, 2021, 10:47:41 AM »

Quote from: nkalanaga on July 30, 2021, 01:54:00 AM

The only difference in the way I did mine was that, instead of a regular drill, I used a Dremel. I pushed the insulated wheel against the gear, and chucked the axle outside the wheel in the Dremel.

The ones I did must have been a little newer, and cheaper, as they didn't have the bushings. If yours does, you can pull the insulated wheel off, and remove the bushing.

Before when you mentioned pushing the wheel in against the gear I didn't pickup on why but now see it was so you could grab the axle in the Dremel. Not sure the wheels will/would always sit so nice as the did in this or another drill chuck but they did and in my case that worked really well.

When I lost the bearing block I pretty much needed to come up with something since it sounds like the gear towers on this one might be different that what yours's where.

If I didn't put a bearing in there the axle would float around in the bearing opening. Here is what I used....

Thanks again for posting how to do it as I've read about filing the flanges before but never had enough info to try it.

Sumner

nkalanaga · « **Reply #43 on:** July 31, 2021, 02:54:31 AM »

Yours could be different than mine. It's been 40 years since I did mine! It now has NWSL wheels, so I can't tell.

I do know that I found Fs both with and without the separate bearings, so it's possible that the FM also changed at some time. As far as I know they used the same wheels. I do know that the U28C trucks would fit the FM, as someone wrote an article on kitbashing an electric locomotive, starting with just that method of getting 6 axles and very little space between the trucks.