Weekend Update 4/20/25

[Scottl]

A second entry for WU due the long weekend (and the inevitable Alberta snow storm).  Got my layout mojo back.  Finished my 3D printed well cars and got them running smoothly with Fox Valley wheel sets.  Here is a little video of them on a test run, the printed cars do not have decals yet. 

[InterurbanModels]

Baldwin-Westinghouse Class B engines are piling up, colorful like Easter Eggs. This are "pre-production" models with detail variants (plate or cast buffers, roof details, handrails). HO models have priority because drives are available (NWSL, Spud). The N scale model waits for a genius idea for motorization.

[altohorn25]

More baggage wagons for my 1947 RBBB circus train:

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[Peavine]

Wow , lucky for you . Are you going to make it glossy ?

Yes I plan to eventually. Buying it and then in a few weeks moving it 450 miles has hurt the wallet quite a bit. The interior is a time capsule as if it was retired yesterday. Working electrical, working stove, working fridge, working lights, working water. It was painted an incorrect interior color but I plan to rectify that. Other than that not a lot of hard-core restoration stuff needs to be done in the interior.

[Peavine]

Oh, you let the factory air out of the jewel case!  ::crying::

Ed

She’s going to be a runner

[Iain]

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i'm building a two foot gauge boxcar in ho

[nkalanaga]

Will it be actual HOn2, or HOn30?

[rodsup9000]

 Got me a new mini drill press off of ebay from China for less than $80.
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/375192347454
  This one is shipped from the states, but the main housing and table looks cast instead of machined
 https://www.ebay.com/itm/365484291040
 That's a N scale GP7 on the table.
  It's DC with variable speed controller.
 The head will move about 3". Zero when the chuck is on the table to chuck is 3" off the table. 
 The quill moves about .600" and will chuck up a #80 bit with ease. Haven't tried anything smaller.

[jwaldo]

I spent all of the last week updating my 3D printer's firmware and slicing software, switching over to a better resin, and printing out a million calibration prints. This weekend I finally got to use it. It took a few tries, but I finally printed a viable adapter to convert an older truck-mounted Rapido Atlas SD9 to MT Z-scale couplers:

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[Olivani]

Finished my 3D printed well cars and got them running smoothly with Fox Valley wheel sets.

Scott, for this to look prototypical, every 3rd or 4th top container needs to have at least one door open   

[learmoia]

Lazyness? or running around a slow speed track scale?

[nkalanaga]

Olivani:  Depends on location modeled.  I've never seen an open door on NS trains in West Virginia.

[up1950s]

Got me a new mini drill press off of ebay from China for less than $80.
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/375192347454
  This one is shipped from the states, but the main housing and table looks cast instead of machined
 https://www.ebay.com/itm/365484291040
 That's a N scale GP7 on the table.
  It's DC with variable speed controller.
 The head will move about 3". Zero when the chuck is on the table to chuck is 3" off the table. 
 The quill moves about .600" and will chuck up a #80 bit with ease. Haven't tried anything smaller.

 Thanks for the link , my mini mills were lonely so I just pulled the trigger on the lime sickle Drill Press .
https://www.ebay.com/itm/356367571234?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D284015%2C284137%26meid%3Dfb37660e6a4947e1901716ba52a5f5fa%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D375192347454%26itm%3D356367571234%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV2bAndUBSourceDemotionWithUltimatelyBoughtOfCoviewV1%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2332490.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A356367571234fb37660e6a4947e1901716ba52a5f5fa%7Cenc%3AAQAKAAABQKf%252BZDynwIBzPFOUXzsYfl6V00AKQ%252B%252B7P%252BQrUe%252FaNcA%252F6g5%252BKJDCW80yl3sDyiOtDc%252Bwp382udDvnYxF7ZDSjYqJm5GyOUkm75MegRvdMcZOp66%252FyDudCANRlWAoDDDX9ZlpwlAPkEY6wG7bY5sVgJIeq41nf9XENtWwT%252Btd6SGDjB6MHuwdADwRF2SZ4e0HGHiMOjXPa8ldF8juCfkbAGEYqgytJ1HRS2W9VmW3bjSx0jj59kkDqI7srungDfnqiG%252BJC7AjzT4afGwGumacq9ehfvvenHm%252Fa2SVohQpclvqoyHjAtY2lRybHN5KdI9nLHvkkp6g7Hyg%252BCh0vhLFZEaJIfVcjl1oUWINuizDZwOA8O0aesC2%252BfkwFNLb%252F7H6Avf61R35lZ5fUYQH1D%252BkOPa4WvXees73wfv6pZJAoJTU%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01JSE0J9B774EGMRCN97RK7X4Z

[SD452XR]

This is most likely. I’ve done this a couple of times in my 25 years on the railroad so far. Each time was a broken rail. You do have to take it easy though there, specially with the size and weight of today’s trains.

Lazyness? or running around a slow speed track scale?

[bbunge]

The B&O 0-6-0 got a proper "shorty" tender.  B&O's USRA 0-6-0's had large tenders because they used them for locals on the main.  Added the tender light and a 1015 on the tender.  The 2nd tender truck is a pickup truck so it is almost all wheel pick up.  I put thicker traction tires on the center drivers.  It nicely improved it's pulling power, but I'm not sure I like the way it wobbles and bounces down the track.  I wish there was an easy way to put the traction tire on the front driver.  It currently has a DZ126 decoder it in.  Played around with some weathering. GMM round number plate on the front.  I'd love to find some builder plate decals.  Please ignore some of the weird artifacts from the free focus stacking software.







Sweet Toot got a TSC KA-N1 keep alive.  It is enough to get it over Peco #6 and #10 frogs at a pretty slow speed.  Over time, I've managed to tweak the decoder to nicely improve it's slow speed performance.  The keep alive makes a huge difference as well, especially on starts, as I suspect the little boost from the keepalive is enough to get the juice from the track flowing.  Originally, this chassis depended on contact between the axles and the frame.  Inspired by Toma's chassis, I added wire wipers that are between the frame and wheels.  This is a bit of a balancing game, as to make room for the wire required increasing the gauge.  Finally, I spent some time folding and then pressing tennis racket lead strips to fill in various spots to replace the weight lost with the install of the keep alive.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  It pulls almost as well as the Bachmann 0-6-0.

Bob