Calling Mad Max.... GHQ L1s Article?

[Dave V]

@mmagliaro ,

I saw something online that I can't find now suggesting you'd done an article on building the GHQ L1s 2-8-2 kit for Jerry Britton's old website. I don't remember it myself. I do recall your 2-part series in RMC about building the I1sa 2-10-0 from the kit. Did you do one just on the stock GHQ kit? Is there an extant copy somewhere?

I'm about to do it again, and it's been more than 20 years since my first one. There are instructions in the kit, but I'd rather follow the master.

Hopefully this is a thing that exists and I'm not just imagining things...

[randgust]

Yes, I remember it and still have the hard copy and a scan of if someplace.

It's a wonderful one.   I had the GHQ kit for over a year and was baffled by the GHQ instructions.   Max's article got me off dead center.  Inspired me for my directions.

Let me look at my old emails.   I might still have the scan attached and I 'think' I have your email.   

Yes, I found an email with the scan and forwarded it to your weather email, if that's still valid

[Dave V]

Got it, thanks man!

[Dave V]

The article talks about extending the drawbar. I don't recall having done that when I built my first L1s (I do remember having to mess with sanding down the front of the tender to get it to negotiate tighter turns). With the 11" radius curves standard on T-TRAK I think I want to go ahead and extend the drawbar.

The Kato drawbar has a pair of phosphor bronze contact wires. I would clearly have to fashion new ones for a longer drawbar. What's a good diameter to use for this? I don't have calipers to measure the extant ones on my Kato engine. I'm flying blind...

[peteski]

The article talks about extending the drawbar. I don't recall having done that when I built my first L1s (I do remember having to mess with sanding down the front of the tender to get it to negotiate tighter turns). With the 11" radius curves standard on T-TRAK I think I want to go ahead and extend the drawbar.

The Kato drawbar has a pair of phosphor bronze contact wires. I would clearly have to fashion new ones for a longer drawbar. What's a good diameter to use for this? I don't have calipers to measure the extant ones on my Kato engine. I'm flying blind...

Dave, a modeler of your caliber doesn't own a caliper?   I'm really surprised.  It is one of indispensable modeler's tools.  You can have one (even digital) for less than a typical non-sound  DCC decoder.  Please get one and I have a feeling that you will find many uses for it.  I've owned one of those inexpensive digital calipers for probably more than 30 years and I couldn't model without it.
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-digital-caliper-63711.html
This one also does fractional measurements if you want
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-digital-caliper-with-sae-and-metric-fractional-readings-63731.html

[randgust]

You really might want to look at a TCS 2-pin connector if you're staying DC, or a 6-pin TCS 1477 if you're going DCC and putting stuff in the tender eventually, instead of relying on those existing phosphor wires.  I hot-wired my tenders long before I ever discovered these, but every recent project is using those.

The split frame casting pin does oxidize, and contact does get sketchy.  The electrical contact area is microscopic.

[Dave V]

You really might want to look at a TCS 2-pin connector if you're staying DC, or a 6-pin TCS 1477 if you're going DCC and putting stuff in the tender eventually, instead of relying on those existing phosphor wires.  I hot-wired my tenders long before I ever discovered these, but every recent project is using those.

The split frame casting pin does oxidize, and contact does get sketchy.  The electrical contact area is microscopic.

I'm planning to use an ESU LOk5 with a Soundtraxx Next18 harness. And yeah, duh, no reason I can't hotwire the tender pickup to the locomotive pickup on each side. Thanks!

Dave, a modeler of your caliber doesn't own a caliper?   I'm really surprised.  It is one of indispensable modeler's tools.  You can have one (even digital) for less than a typical non-sound  DCC decoder.  Please get one and I have a feeling that you will find many uses for it.  I've owned one of those inexpensive digital calipers for probably more than 30 years and I couldn't model without it.
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-digital-caliper-63711.html
This one also does fractional measurements if you want
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-digital-caliper-with-sae-and-metric-fractional-readings-63731.html

I have one from Amazon inboud today. Allegedly accurate to 0.0001".

[PiperguyUMD]

For what it's worth, If you're going DCC, you may not even need pick up from the loco at all. When I built my Russian decapod, I added home-brew Kato style pick up into a Bachmann short haul tender. I only had room to add the 220uf capacitor that came with the decoder for keep-alive, and it runs flawlessly. So much so that I'm completely reconsidering if I even need loco pickup on future projects, especially ones with big-@$$ tenders that can haul a large capacitor. If you're starting with a Kato tender, I'm sure that will work way better than what I cobbled together. That said - I suck at electronics and I completely dread figuring out how to connect the gear in the loco and tender. Anything to make it less complicated.

Hope you'll post about the build, I love a good steam project!!

[Dave V]

For what it's worth, If you're going DCC, you may not even need pick up from the loco at all. When I built my Russian decapod, I added home-brew Kato style pick up into a Bachmann short haul tender. I only had room to add the 220uf capacitor that came with the decoder for keep-alive, and it runs flawlessly. So much so that I'm completely reconsidering if I even need loco pickup on future projects, especially ones with big-@$$ tenders that can haul a large capacitor. If you're starting with a Kato tender, I'm sure that will work way better than what I cobbled together. That said - I suck at electronics and I completely dread figuring out how to connect the gear in the loco and tender. Anything to make it less complicated.

Hope you'll post about the build, I love a good steam project!!

I thought about that, but the pewter casting for the 90F75 tender doesn't leave a lot of room. Was thinking about leaving the option open for sound at a later date, but we'll see.

[randgust]

OK, so I'll chime in.   I did the whole works on my Trix decapod project - including converting the tender to 8x8 by using a Kato caboose frame and trucks, and the Trix short plastic tender body.  Same style as the GHQ.

I decided on a Tsunami 1100 decoder, as I could order it 'steam' and it had the PRR banshee whistle option.  Which is accurate enough I got complaints at Altoona Ttrak that it sounded "like somebody stepped on a cat..."    I got the decoder, a sugar cube speaker (sawed out the coal pile, put it up there, put on a black foam 'coal pile').   Put a 2-pin connector on the speaker so I could still get the tender body off.   And a keep alive in there, the capacitor just was too big and too ineffective, the Iowa Scaled Engineering bitty keep alive worked very well.  Not saying it was easy, but the end result was worth the fight.

So the TCS 6-pin was rigged for 2 wires for locomotive frame pickup back to the tender, 2 wires from the tender to the motor for motor control, and 2 wires for the front LED headlight off the decoder.

That all worked so well I did a second tender with the same 6-pin plug setup so that I can swap tenders and instantly run it on plain old DC.  Also worked great for testing, as getting it running mechanically perfect was kind of a struggle.   Harder than the Kato mechanism to tune for sure.  My GHQ L1 is still DC.

The only thing I'll comment on is watch your current draw.  With the pewter boiler, that thing set a record for single-locomotive drawbar pull (with the traction tire addition).  At full load - around 30 cars on my layout - it begins to get warm, it's pulling some current.   So the decoder should probably be rated accordingly.   On the DCC decapod, it has nowhere near that draw, and I have an old Sekisku (Con-Cor) five-pole in there instead of the 3-pole trix motor, no current draw problems.

You might get away without loco pickup.  I did that on my PRR D16 and it worked just fine with 8x8 tender pickup but the motor was in the tender, too.  But I'd still plan on the 6-pin 'just in case' as I really think you can jam all that stuff in there, if not now, in the future, and more pickup is always better.

[Dave V]

The only thing I'll comment on is watch your current draw.  With the pewter boiler, that thing set a record for single-locomotive drawbar pull (with the traction tire addition).  At full load - around 30 cars on my layout - it begins to get warm, it's pulling some current.   So the decoder should probably be rated accordingly.   On the DCC decapod, it has nowhere near that draw, and I have an old Sekisku (Con-Cor) five-pole in there instead of the 3-pole trix motor, no current draw problems.

I recall my old L1s with DCC getting nice and warm as well.

[peteski]

I have one from Amazon inboud today. Allegedly accurate to 0.0001".

LOL, that sounds like a typo. Most calipers (even the pricier ones) are accurate to a thousand of an inch (0.001") and the resolution is 0.0005". Of course they all have free metric to inch conversion with a touch of a button. .   Either way, 0.001" is more than adequate for our hobbies.

As for track power pickup, in N scale there is no such thing as too many pickup points on steam locomotives.  Just ask Victor Miranda (and I agree 100%).

[Dave V]

LOL, that sounds like a typo. Most calipers (even the pricier ones) are accurate to a thousand of an inch (0.001") and the resolution is 0.0005". Of course they all have free metric to inch conversion with a touch of a button. .   Either way, 0.001" is more than adequate for our hobbies.

As for track power pickup, in N scale there is no such thing as too many pickup points on steam locomotives.  Just ask Victor Miranda (and I agree 100%).

Yeah, my fat finger...

And yeah, I don't plan to skip any pickups if I can help it.

[haasmarc]

I have one from Amazon inboud today. Allegedly accurate to 0.0001".

If you're getting into 3D printing, you'll need it for that too.

[haasmarc]

I have a couple of the GHQ kits lying around.  Any chance I could get a copy of Max's article?