Weekend Update 2/9/25

[Jim Starbuck]

I didn't even know EMD made a critter like this.  That's cool!   

A guy in Iowa built one a while back.
I’m sure Wolf’s version will be excellent.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=55929.msg769632#msg769632

[apudelek]

Completed two sleepers this weekend just prior to hosting a Super Bowl Party...

Pennsylvania Railroad 10-6 Sleeper "Elberton"

This is the standard Kato streamlined passenger car model where I cut out the skirts next to the trucks (the real-life Elberton did not have skirts, but I did not want to expose too much of the undercar equipment since this originally had the CZ full skirts) and replaced the trucks with the streamlined passenger trucks with a higher profile.

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Seaboard Air Line 10-6 Sleeper "Portsmouth"

Same as Elberton's skirts, I cut them out and replaced the trucks.  K4 Decals.

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Both cars will run on NY-WAS & Points South consists.  Excited to keep making progress on these foreign cars and full trains running under Pennsy wire.

[ednadolski]

Yes, all originals on Tinkercad.

Nice, do you have a link?  (Seems my searching isn't up to speed lately.)

Ed

[craigolio1]

I love the shot of the housing subdivision under construction. Houses only half-built, bare landscaping all around, barely roads. That would make a great finished scene with the appropriate workers doing their jobs, & their cars and pickups, home building supply trucks, cement mixers and workers pouring driveways, bare house frames erected, piles of building materials, brown bulldozed dirt, etc. all over. How come nobody ever modeled a scene like that? Certainly would be different and an attention-getter. Not everything is the world is finished and complete.

That would make a nice detailed scene. Alas this subdivision was built in the 40’s so I need to finish it at some point.

[craigolio1]

Justin and I look forward to an operating session invite Craig.   

Come over anytime you’re in the mood to run in a circle with a passing siding, haha.

[dandopinski]

More work on the GP38s. Milled the frames to take the proper fuel tanks. Wipers, mu stands, spare knuckles etc....






Just the bell and horn left to do. These are Briggs 3D printed shells.

[randgust]

As part of my original Atlas Forum 'critterfest' I built an operating EMC40 back in 2004.   It has a one-axle Kato 11-105 drive, all styrene.  It was equalized for pickup.   This is the EMC40 that served the AMF (Harley Davidson) plant in York, PA that was memorialized in the EMD issue of the 1972 TRAINS.  It is now in the York, PA agricultural and industrial museum, well done.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/EMC4018.jpg

It looked nice, performance was more than disappointing; it couldn't pull much more than a couple cars.   It ended up being demoted to a flatcar load, but I still have it.

Prototype:  https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/5435306125_66ca0b6f39.jpg

[Chris333]

For the critter builders out there, this is a new chassis available:
https://tramfabriek.co.uk/allrounder.html

[Jim Starbuck]

For the critter builders out there, this is a new chassis available:
https://tramfabriek.co.uk/allrounder.html

Thanks for the link Chris.
I’ve got a project coming up I’d like to try this on.

[BCR 570]

More work on the GP38s. Milled the frames to take the proper fuel tanks. Wipers, mu stands, spare knuckles etc....

Very nice!

Tim

[randgust]

I've tried four different  tiny 'self powered truck' mechanisms out there, and the only one that's really been any good right out of the box is the one that Showcase uses to power their geared steam locomotive kits.

The secret sauce on these is the single spur driving an oversize reduction gear, driving dual worms over the axles.   That gets the motor RPM's down to an acceptable level.  Then the wheel quality, a lot of them have surprisingly lousy wheels with no fillet and a sharp flange, easily derail.

Then there's the pickup.   The Showcase one had tiny phospor wires springing down on the split axles, on the inside, effectively equalizing pickup in a four-wheel suspension.   I made that modification to another powered truck one I had to power up my GE25-ton and that made the difference, it turned a complete turkey into a winner.  I think that pickup is the most important design feature.  So if I'm going to endorse one based on experience, that design is it:
https://www.showcaseminiatures.net/n_scale/n_scale_locomotives/0020.html

I can't tell what kind of gear reduction is between the wheels and the axles on that new one.   But it can be done.

The other significant design glitch is that many of them have the motor transverse, and it won't fit in a conventional N hood.  I actually widened the hood on the 25-tonner to clear.   On my EMC40, I remounted the 11-105 motor on edge to fit, did that on the 44-tonner, 70-tonner, etc. as those were a rather robust little 12V motor.  The one that Chris posted at least looks like it would fit in a narrow hood, perhaps at the expense of torque, hard to say until you try it.  I've put in Faulhaber 6mm too, but most of those have now been replaced by various gearhead drives.

I did vertical 11-105 motor mounts in the cab on my original 25-tonner and a couple custom builds, worked, but a single worm reduction still gives you a rocket sled.   The real kicker on the EMC 40 is that long wheelbase on a 2-axle truck, pretty much nothing out there that long.

[Chris333]

There are some drives by Toma Model Works that have more reduction like the Showcase chassis. I have 8 of the Toma chassis and about 6 or 7 of his locomotives that have the same drive in them. They run nice and slow.

[randgust]

Looking at those Toma drives I get the suspicion that that is where Showcase gets theirs, several signature design elements common to both.  If you look at the photos you'll see those wire fingers pushing down and the dual-screw attachment point, that's the secret sauce to me.

What I didn't realize is that they could do variable wheelbase up to 16mm.  But that EMC40 has a 13' wheelbase, that's 24.75mm.

I used the Tsugawa little four-wheeler on a 25-ton shapeways shell (swapping out the motor), was a rocket sled.  They make a TU-TMC100 that has JUST the right 24.7mm wheelbase, single worm reduction, tiny motor..... just saying, that's tempting as a start point, maybe a 25:1 gearhead to the worm?

[bbunge]

There are some drives by Toma Model Works that have more reduction like the Showcase chassis. I have 8 of the Toma chassis and about 6 or 7 of his locomotives that have the same drive in them. They run nice and slow.

I can 2nd Toma.  I only have one, but it is just about ideal for a two axle street car.  I haven't measured it, but I'm guessing it has a scale 5-10mph at 8-9 volts.  If I had a complaint, it is a bit noisy.

Bob

[Simon D.]

Have you seen this?
https://tramfabriek.co.uk/allrounder.html