Weekend Update 2/1/26

[John]

I'll bet that bridge module is a pain to transport.  Quite a bridge, though.  Do you know what the prototype is?

The big bridge is NScale -  Mark Bandy of BANTRAK 3D print over the last year. The real one is over the Ohio River near Portsmouth Oh -

[Slim Rail Mike]

    I’ve acquired yet another Bachmann 0-6-0 off of e-bay. This will represent WP 161, that called San Francisco home, until replaced by diesels. This locomotive had the slope back tender. The model loco is one with a split frame, black gears and an open frame motor.

   I tried the loco with a 9v battery. The drivers would only make a partial rotation. I took the whole thing apart. Then washed all the parts in ipa. Cleaned out lots of grease and fiber. It must have been run on a carpet or something.

  Re assembled the loco, to check how well it runs.

Then took it apart again. Removed the three pole motor, and the contacts from the frame to the motor. I Got another Bachmann 5 pole motor that @mmagliaro had suggested in this thread.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=56678.msg780579#msg780579 .  Pulled the worm from the old motor and pressed it on to a new five pole motor.

Re assembled the loco again, and tested with the 9v battery. Good to proceed.

The plan is to:
1 Replace the motor with a 5 pole.
2 Convert the tender to oil and have all wheel pickup with kato trucks.
3 Replace the cab with one from a B’mann consolidation.
4 Install dcc.
5 Add led headlights

   I’ve been using DZ123 decoders, but something smaller may be desired to more easily fit in the tender.

Stock shell and replacement cab.

[POVC]

I'll bet that bridge module is a pain to transport.  Quite a bridge, though.  Do you know what the prototype is?

CSX (formerly C&O) Sciotoville Bridge across the Ohio river.  Prototype is 1550 feet long (2-750' sections) and was built in 1916.

Bridge is N-scale and is built on 2-6' FreemoN modules.  Bridge comes apart in 3 pieces, plus the center pier, and the two modules nest for transport.

Tim

[bbunge]

I'll bet that bridge module is a pain to transport.  Quite a bridge, though.  Do you know what the prototype is?

Sciotoville Railroad Bridge: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=ohio/sciotoville/

Mark Bandy printed parts and assembled, I think down to the rivet.  He had it taken apart and carried out to his car before I got four 3-foot modules down.  The bridge lifts off in two large pieces with a small connecting piece in the center.  The base units nest.  Even the paddlewheel is a work of art. 

[jpwisc]

Hi Karl:

I would be interested in learning exactly how you have motorized it as you appear to have taken a different approach than Jim.  Do you have both trucks rotating?

Also, did we meet at the RPM meet in Portland last year?


Tim

Tim,

Yup, we met at the RPM. I pulled the gear and mounted it directly to the Kato motor output shaft. Then it clips right to the geared truck. I cut the free truck mount off the Kato chassis and fused it to the Baldylox chassis.

I’ll text you pics, Jim helped me come up with this configuration too. It’s a little beefier motor that he used, but it does take a little more room.

[Iain]

    I’ve acquired yet another Bachmann 0-6-0 off of e-bay. This will represent WP 161, that called San Francisco home, until replaced by diesels. This locomotive had the slope back tender. The model loco is one with a split frame, black gears and an open frame motor.

   I tried the loco with a 9v battery. The drivers would only make a partial rotation. I took the whole thing apart. Then washed all the parts in ipa. Cleaned out lots of grease and fiber. It must have been run on a carpet or something.

  Re assembled the loco, to check how well it runs.

Then took it apart again. Removed the three pole motor, and the contacts from the frame to the motor. I Got another Bachmann 5 pole motor that @mmagliaro had suggested in this thread.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=56678.msg780579#msg780579 .  Pulled the worm from the old motor and pressed it on to a new five pole motor.

Re assembled the loco again, and tested with the 9v battery. Good to proceed.

The plan is to:
1 Replace the motor with a 5 pole.
2 Convert the tender to oil and have all wheel pickup with kato trucks.
3 Replace the cab with one from a B’mann consolidation.
4 Install dcc.
5 Add led headlights

   I’ve been using DZ123 decoders, but something smaller may be desired to more easily fit in the tender.

Stock shell and replacement cab.

I keep thinking about getting one of those to do the Beaufort and Morehead 2-6-2 and I've been stopped by how tall it appears; if the boiler could be lowered some I think that'd be great

[davefoxx]

I got my BLI Atlantic Coast Line E7a (stealth DC). The engine shares the same purple shade as the Life-Like ACL E8a, but LL seems to have the striping wrong, so running them back-to-back is a non-starter.

@InterurbanModels,

There was a difference in the purple and silver scheme as applied to the ACL E8s versus earlier E-units.  I’m not saying that Life-Like unit is correct, but the prototype lines did not lineup perfectly, either, as evidenced by this E8A and E6/7B.



Hope this helps,
DFF

[davefoxx]

Oh, and the striping didn’t line up on the later black and yellow scheme, either.  I believe it has to do where the rivet strips are located on the E8 versus the other E-unit car bodies.



DFF

[btrain]

The absolutely frigid temps that have lasted for weeks up here in the north, have given me great incentive to work on a slew of projects.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The one I’m pretty happy with is the lumber yard for my Lake Shore Central Free-mon modules. The structure is from a Rix kit, with bundled bass wood covered in copy paper graphics. The graphics came from this guy who has a great DIY guide on building these: https://vanderheide.ca/blog/lumber-loads/

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Up until the pandemic there was a chain of grilled cheese restaurant around Cleveland, where if you got a tattoo of their logo, you’d get a meal free or something like that. While unfortunately they have closed, I’m very tempted to have the red and blue stars of Tamiya’s logo on my biceps to get free supplies for life. Obviously their paints are nice, but I was really happy with their putty mixed with mineral spirits. Along with a silicon tipped paint brush, it helped fill the micro air bubbles on this resin cast shell for the NYC Empire State Express.

It’s all primed now and ready for paint. In the foreground you’ll notice some of Rasputin’s Dodge late 70s Dodge vans. Extra points will be awarded to the handyman here who can guess which Canadian these will be painted to honor.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Lastly with cabin fever setting in, sometimes you just got to JFRMT. Installed DCC in these Santa Fe engines which will serve as run through power on my future NYC/CR Toledo Division Free-mon modules. While setting up my modules in my apartment’s spare bedroom is a bit of a task, I’ve gotten good use out of this five foot diameter doughnut layout with trains doing hundreds of laps.

[altohorn25]

I stopped at my parents' house on Sunday morning and picked up the circus tents (RBBB show in the early 50's) they made for my home layout.  They are blue to match the prototypes (Ringling used a dark blue tent during this time so that the spotlights and other lighting was more effective; darker tent equals no light bleed from the sun........but I bet it sure was hot in there).  They tried "air conditioning" for a while; running huge ducts into the tent from air conditioning wagons parked next to the sidewalls.......it didn't work. 

Here's the initial lot layout.  The paper under each tent was just a rough template when I was figuring out how they would fit; the templates will be removed when I install the tents.  Ground cover will be applied as well before the tents are installed.

The largest tent is the big top where the main performances where held.  At this time, RBBB was using a 5 center pole big top.  The length is approximately correct, but the width has been compressed slightly (the model only uses one row of quarter poles instead of two rows like the prototype).

Between the big top and the entrance marquee is the animal menagerie.  Patrons would present their tickets for the main show at the entrance marquee and then proceed through the menagerie tent before taking their seats in the big top.

The smallest of the main tents is the side show.  This will have a banner line out front when completed showing the acts that would be presented inside.  This show was an additional cost outside the cost of the main show ticket.

Tent poles will be cut next and inserted into the underside of each tent.  I finished up the poles for the big top last night.

I will most likely have to mount these on a thin piece of wood since the tent stakes will not hold in the pink foam that is the scenery base of the layout.

The white tents give you an idea of what the new ones will look like once they are up in the air (these are about 25 years old and mounted on an N-Trak module).  The white big top is a bit smaller than the new blue one.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Attacked an old Kadee boxcar older than me this weekend. It's my first weathering job in quite some time. This car has been running around untouched for a while and it's been bothering me, so it was time...

[John]

Ran trains on our BANTRAK freemo-n layout .. MMID GP38 pulling a couple of office cars




Picked up a DCS240+ because my old 20+ year old DCS100 is starting to act up .. much to my surprise, my MAGNAFORCE power supply outputs AC Volts .. the new 240 only works with DC .. That sucks ...

 Guess I will put together a bridge rectifier until the new PS gets here

[rickb773]

The Bridges at Timonium

Bridges always add excitement and interest to a train module and the Timonium show had many, many beautiful examples.

Below I have highlighted a variety of bridge types (and scales) that graced the show.















Legos even got into the act!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It’s all primed now and ready for paint. In the foreground you’ll notice some of Rasputin’s Dodge late 70s Dodge vans. Extra points will be awarded to the handyman here who can guess which Canadian these will be painted to honor.

Will the ladies be finding you handy?

[nkalanaga]

Everybody:  Thank you!  I live not far from the Sciotoville Bridge, and have seen it several times, but never paid much attention to it.