N Scale of Nevada Retro Frame For Atlas 4-6-2 (RF20)

[spookshow]

Somebody contacted me looking for the instructions that came with said retro frame. Anybody out there have them?

Thanks!
-Mark

[Rasputen]

I'll do some digging...

[Rasputen]

The RF18, RF19, and RF20 all used the same instructions.

[spookshow]

Whoa, that was fast. Thank you! 

-Mark

[randgust]

Wow, that is written just like John Coots was standing right there in front of you.

John was instrumental in getting Randgust started, got my head on straight for making kits.   I got out to Reno to visit him twice at his home, once on my 50th birthday, and his love of life and incredible story still stay with me today.

He could do some amazing things with soft spin-cast lead.  I had the conversion frame for the ORIGINAL Atlas GP7, the one with the wrong wheelbase, and that mechanism lived under a Rapido GP30 for a couple decades.  Man, could that thing pull.   

I'll never forget one lesson.  He opened up a closet to show me something.   It was floor to ceiling pile of stacked kits of the Ntrak width 3-track signal bridges.  A whole lot of them.   "Here, pay attention.   Never build inventory if you can build to order!"

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I love this place.

[wm3798]

I'm going to have look for a couple of those...  I've got a box of zinc pest victims that are otherwise functional drive trains!  It would be fun to functionally drive trains with them!

I imagine the lead casting provides for all the pulling power one could ever need...  If only Max was still making magic with magnets...

Lee

[peteski]

He could do some amazing things with soft spin-cast lead.   

I thought NSN frames were made of pewter. Usually there is no lead in pewter.

[nickelplate759]

I thought NSN frames were made of pewter. Usually there is no lead in pewter.

Whatever alloy he used, they were pretty soft.   I had one of their frame kits designed to repower an Atlas/Roco GP30 from parts from an Atlas/Kato GP7 mechanism.  It worked, but I had to put a lot of effort into getting the frame halves straight and keeping them that way.

[randgust]

Well, they were advertised as pewter, so I'll concede that, but man, they were just as soft as lead.  Not the same stuff as GHQ, that's for sure.

Now, setting the wayback to 2011, apparently all the molds etc. ended up here, and he was begging for old N Scale of Nevada instruction sheets so he could rerun some kits:

Keith Wiseman
Wiseman Model Services
kwiseman@pqisp.com
859-484-9573

That was a long time ago, but if you want a cold trail, get a good bloodhound.  Or update that.

A good friend of mine in HO, who was a master model railroader in his own right and owned a hobby shop, cuttingly referred to Scale Structures Ltd as "Little Lumps of Lead"...   

I just remember John showing the the platter-sized centrifugal spin molds used to make the parts.   Said he bought the casting rig secondhand for next to nothing.

Those retro-frames are still out on Ebay, you could get lucky.

[peteski]

Well, they were advertised as pewter, so I'll concede that, but man, they were just as soft as lead.  Not the same stuff as GHQ, that's for sure.

Oh, I know. Back in the day I used the ones made for Atlas' "stretched" Geeps. I still have at least one in unopened package, but I think it might be for one of the U-boats.  I also have the Piggy Packer kits.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewter some earlier pewter did contain lead.  Speaking of lead, Kato GP38-2 and GP50s has really heavy metal  frame which seemed to be some sort of lead alloy. They were heavy and could pull long trains.  Too bad they did not keep using that alloy when they moved to their split-frame mechanism.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wiseman Model Services is a really cool thing. He seems to be the orphanage for stuff who's original owners have moved on.

He's got a ton of cool O scale stuff too.