Weekend Update 2/9/25

[Chris333]

I needed a Toma chassis that was longer than he offered. I measured every inch of his and drew it up to stretch. I tore all of his parts out and put them in my new 3D print. Only other new part was a longer 1mm lay shaft. Mine is on the right:


This is it running:

/>This is a stock Toma chassis running:

/>And this:

/>If you flip the motor around and hang it off the back. This is basically the same chassis:

[Jim Starbuck]

Those run nicely Chris.
I used a Narrow Garage 12mm drive on the Heil Davenport 35 tonner that I remotored with a 7mm coreless and basically built the same thing as the Toma but I’m not satisfied at the running characteristics as it’s louder than I would like. A 14 mm axle spacing with side rods would be perfect.

[Chris333]

The Narrow Garage drives seem a little bit cheap. The wheels look like they were tooled with 80 grit sandpaper and are not blackened. Gears are a little more chunky. I've asked Toma for his wheel source, but he won't give it up.   

[milw156]

A project that I've had in mind for too long has finally been completed. I put an ESU Lokpilot5FX in a Kato Metra cab car to allow for PROPERLY functioning ditchlights (Kato, are you listening?!!!) This is the 2nd one I've done with the Lok FX5, but this time, I decided to tackle the Mars light, making it independent of the headlight, and AMAZINGLY, it works pretty well! And not much light bleed. The cab car is consisted to a particular engine, and the Ditch lights flash when horn or bell are activated. The Mars light is on steady until the loco begins to move. I stashed the decoder and resistor bank above the door opening. Only the red reverse running lights utilize the stock LED.

[tehachapifan]

Metra car looks great!!

[Jim Starbuck]

The Narrow Garage drives seem a little bit cheap. The wheels look like they were tooled with 80 grit sandpaper and are not blackened. Gears are a little more chunky. I've asked Toma for his wheel source, but he won't give it up.

I agree about the Narrow Garage drives.
I put Eastern Seaboard 33” wheels on the Davenport. Something that always bugged me about those is the way the intermediate gear is sloppily running on screw threads. I milled the chassis for clearance above the worms because they were rubbing causing excessive noise. I also made brass axle bushings where they run in the chassis to take up slop.
Even with all the rework I’m excited to replace it with a Toma and get side rods too.

Jim

[peteski]

A project that I've had in mind for too long has finally been completed. I put an ESU Lokpilot5FX in a Kato Metra cab car to allow for PROPERLY functioning ditchlights (Kato, are you listening?!!!) This is the 2nd one I've done with the Lok FX5, but this time, I decided to tackle the Mars light, making it independent of the headlight, and AMAZINGLY, it works pretty well! And not much light bleed. The cab car is consisted to a particular engine, and the Ditch lights flash when horn or bell are activated. The Mars light is on steady until the loco begins to move. I stashed the decoder and resistor bank above the door opening. Only the red reverse running lights utilize the stock LED.

Pretty impressive.  It is too bad that there is only a single timer (blinking effects frequency CV112) available on the decoder.  If you have multiple flashing devices on the model it would be nice if multiple timers were available to have each cycle at the appropriate rate.

[milw156]

Pretty impressive.  It is too bad that there is only a single timer (blinking effects frequency CV112) available on the decoder.  If you have multiple flashing devices on the model it would be nice if multiple timers were available to have each cycle at the appropriate rate.

I ran into that with the F40PH, the beacon and the Mars light are in synchrony, frustrating, but still pretty cool for N scale.

[tehachapifan]

At least you can use the "phase shift" function on V5 decoders so that something like a beacon and a gyralite aren't on the same beat (earlier decoders have "opposite phase" capability). That's one thing I like about Zimo decoders. All the effects have their own, separate timer.

[Sokramiketes]

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.

@apudelek - Charlie Vlk (RIP) is making me respond.  He had Kato tool full underbody equipment despite the full skirting, so that you can cut it off and expose the detailed underframes!  Check it out. 

[thomasjmdavis]

@apudelek - Charlie Vlk (RIP) is making me respond.  He had Kato tool full underbody equipment despite the full skirting, so that you can cut it off and expose the detailed underframes!  Check it out.

Kato did their own 'deskirted' cars a few years ago, when they produced ATSF Budd 10-6s with no skirts- modified versions of the cars they had produced since the 1990s, that they packaged with the rebuilt 11 bedroom 'Indian' sleepers.
 

[nkalanaga]

I've deskirted a number of Kato cars, and agree that the underbody details are there.  The only problem is doing that on Budd cars.  The CB&Q cars I've done all had the full skirts, and trucks with the upper sideframes missing.  They had screw-mount trucks, and the only full-sideframe Budd trucks I can find are clip-on.

I think I can make the clip-on trucks work on the screw-mout cars, but haven't tried it yet.

[Sokramiketes]

I've deskirted a number of Kato cars, and agree that the underbody details are there.  The only problem is doing that on Budd cars.  The CB&Q cars I've done all had the full skirts, and trucks with the upper sideframes missing.  They had screw-mount trucks, and the only full-sideframe Budd trucks I can find are clip-on.

I think I can make the clip-on trucks work on the screw-mout cars, but haven't tried it yet.

Yeah, I wish Kato didn't "improve" the truck mount.  But, you can clip the nubs on the clip on trucks and they screw right on. 

[randgust]

I actually cut the tops off of some other scrapped passenger car trucks and Goo'ed them on the Kato trucks when I de-skirted them.  Because the trucks are weathered black, not silver, it's not really noticeable.   Same thing, doing early Amtrak on what was a skirted car from Kato.   And I've posted photos here and nobody spotted it either...

[peteski]

Yeah, I wish Kato didn't "improve" the truck mount.  But, you can clip the nubs on the clip on trucks and they screw right on.

This one seems to me like cost and labor cutting measure.  New design truck just snaps on without needing a screw.  I also preferred the design with a screw, but as you mentioned thankfully it can be easily adapted to the old style mounting method.