The Union Pacific Soggy Bottoms Subdivision (HO scale)


I wouldn't use it for track but thought, if it gripped as well as it is supposed to, should/might work for cork or foam roadbed.

With the dowel you have used I'd doubt if the hill/tunnel attached to them will go anywhere as well. :)
 
I had hoped to be able to replace the broken window in the train room with a piece of polycarbonate sheet, but the weather is not conducive to that today, so I'm spending the day in the workshop.
I've been working on upgrading some rolling stock with metal wheels and Kadee 148 couplers (they are going to be standard on my layout, but exceptions will be made as required).
I have an IHC 2-6-0 Mogul in Rock Island trim that will pull an excursion train. The layout is Union Pacific based, but that's not a hard and fast rule. I'll run what I like. The Mogul is DC right now. Eventually it will be upgraded to DCC and sound. It has power pickup through the tender wheels, as well as the drivers. The one thing I don't like about it is that the tender is hard-wired to the locomotive, there is no electrical plug to separate the two. That is an issue that will be addressed during the DCC conversion.
Today's project is converting the rear coupler from a truck mounted horn hook to a body mounted Kadee. I forgot to take pics of the first couple of steps, so we join this project in progress. I removed the truck/wiper assemblies, and set them aside. The wheels are metal with metal axles. One wheel on each axle is insulated to prevent short circuits. Take a picture or draw a diagram so you get the insulated wheels back in the proper orientation. The trucks are held on by a metal screw running through the bolster and into the tender. This screw contacts the wiper. Inside the tender on each bolster is a metal ring with a wire soldered to it. This wire carries power to the motor. The screw attaches to a metal inside the tender. As I was unscrewing the front truck the nut dropped into the tender. It will be simple to get it all back together, though.
Once the front truck is removed you will see a plastic tab in a slot. Use a small screwdriver and move the tab to the rear while gently pulling up on the front of the tender. This releases the front of the tender. The rear has tabs and slots, also, but they will come loose as the front of the tender is removed. Study the pic and you can see how it's done.
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I've never had this tender apart before, so I wasn't sure if there was any purpose to the 'pocket' at the rear of the tender. This is the area that the coupler box needs to be screwed to, so it needs to be filled in. The small metal pin you see in the circle of plastic at the very rear edge is a stanchion for the coupler release lever. I filed the end of this down flush so as not to interfere with the coupler box.
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To fill in the pocket I used some .060" by .250" styrene strips. The pocket is a bit less than .250" wide, so I used my bar sander to narrow down the strips. I used 3 strips and glued them into the pocket. The level of the top strip came out almost exactly even with the rear edge of the tender! :)

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I found that a Kadee 148 would bring the coupler box to close to the edge of the tender, and the mounting hole may have been drilled through the rear step. I needed to bring the mounting hole farther from the edge, but that may have caused clearance issues with the coupler. Remember I said earlier that while 148's would be the standard, exceptions would be made as needed? Well, this is one of the needed's! I had a few Kadee #39's, which are long shank overset couplers. They do not have whiskers, but use the metal centering spring. This will allow the box to sit farther from the edge, and should allow the mounting hole to be drilled in a safe spot. I'll start with this coupler, and make adjustments as needed.
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I didn't really like that open area between the styrene strips and the back of the tender, so filled it in with some styrene. As it is now, it's just a hair higher than the styrene strips, so after the glue dries I'll sand it down a bit.
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The coupler box will be glued and screwed to the tender. I have the tools to drill and tap for 2-56 screws, and have plenty of screws, so that's what I'll use. I plan to use a single screw through the center of the box. The rear of the box will be up against the plastic bar in front of the bolster, so the box will not be able to turn sideways.
 
I got the hole drilled and tapped. I used a 2-56 x 3/8" screw. That length goes all the way through the plastic, but doesn't protrude much from the other side.
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It came out in a pretty good spot.
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I put some plastic cement on the top of the box and screwed it on. It's not precisely perfect down to .001", but it looks pretty good to me.
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I'll put some flat black paint on the white areas and let everything dry overnight. Tomorrow afternoon I'll put everything back together and see how it lines up.
 
I finished up the Mogul. It looks good with a Rock Island coach behind it! The coach is an Athearn Roundhouse product. The McHenry couplers will be replaced before it goes on the layout.
Wally approves. He gives it a clips up!
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I seem to have guessed right on the coupler height. An overset coupler comes out just about perfect. I'll probably pick up some medium overset coupler and swap out this long for a medium, but for now it will stay.
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Here's a pic of the inside of the tender. Power is transmitted through the screw and nut to the brass contact below the nut, then on to the locomotive. This tender has no back up light. Yet.
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A pic of the wiper assembly. Pretty simple, really.
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Not the greatest pic, but a pic of the finished coupler conversion.
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Back on the rails.
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The pilot already had a Kadee on it when I bought this locomotive at a local train show.
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I think it needs an overset coupler, though. The height looks a little high to me. It will be quite a while, if ever, before I do this though. This will be a excursion train locomotive, and I don't foresee ever coupling anything to the front of it.
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After putting the Mogul back in its box, and the box back in the storage tote, I cut a new piece of foam for the roof of the tunnel and glued it in place. The front of the hill on the left of the pic is going to need a little shim, though. I want a nice smooth front for the portal to glue to, and that side is a little concave.
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I've been working on the hill. It's stacked layers of 2" foam. In spots where the joints weren't quite as precise as I would prefer them to be I used Liquid Nails for projects in addition to the Glidden Gripper. I also used toothpicks in a few spots to help hold things together. Once the shaping is done, I'll cover it with plaster cloth. This should be a nice strong but lightweight hill.
I have something planned for the open space over the tunnel, but you'll just have to wait to see what it is! :p
(And no, the cans of paint will not be included in the final result.)
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I finished the basic shape of the hill. I decided to go a little higher than I had first planned on. I made a cave entrance in the top piece. I'll have to look for or make an HO scale Grinch! :cool:
I know I have a Surform rasp around here somewhere, but I can't find it. I think it's on the shelves out in the main room. Time to go on an 'expotition' as Winnie the Pooh called it.
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The expotition was a success and the Surform rasp has been located! Yes, it was out on the shelves buried under some other stuff. Gonna have to organize them shelves one a' these days.
I removed the hill, which seems to have become more of a mountain, from the layout and put it on a folding table out in the main room. I put a tarp down on the table, because this is going to create foam dust all over everywhere!
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I used the Surform rasp to knock down the high spots and sharp corners. I'm not trying to perfectly blend one layer into the next. The next step, after using the shop vac and cleaning the foam dust off the hill, will be to use plaster cloth (which I need to buy another roll of) to create the sides and contours of the hill. Then a skim coat of Sculptamold (https://www.joann.com/amaco-sculptamold-modeling-compound-3-pounds/3419389.html) will be used to hide the texture of the plaster cloth.
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A closer look:
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I got two things done today regarding my layout:
1. I put the first layer of plaster cloth on the hill. I will give it another layer of plaster cloth, then a skim coat of Sculptamold. After that it will be ready for paint.
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2. I finally finished editing this build thread back from day one, getting rid of all the broken Photo(bleep)et links and uploading full images from my computer! I had a link to the build of the Walthers Champion Packing Plant in the thread, so I edited that as well.
I still have some threads scattered around I need to edit, but none as long as this one!
 
The Kaydees do seem to have a bit of a "Droop" problem don't they, makes me think they could do with a bit more thickness in the shank to hold them up. I've just gone through the process of replacing the swing arm that Walthers use on their long cars which tend to accentuate this effect, with kadee's coupler boxes on several of their 72' centerbeam flat cars, also taking the opportunity to close up the gaps between slightly too. With these I also used the "SE" shelf couplers to help with uncoupling issues caused by track dips and peaks on the club layout (scale size heads). Seems to have fixed that as well.
 
Looks petty good flyboy.
Thanks, Tony! There are a few spots where the plaster cloth didn't lay down quite like I wanted it to. A bit of surgery with an Exacto knife and a sharp blade will remove the lumps. I still need to give it another layer of plaster cloth, then skim it with Sculptamold.
The Grinch lives at the top, in case anyone was wondering. I have few ideas how to make him.
 
The Kaydees do seem to have a bit of a "Droop" problem don't they, makes me think they could do with a bit more thickness in the shank to hold them up. I've just gone through the process of replacing the swing arm that Walthers use on their long cars which tend to accentuate this effect, with kadee's coupler boxes on several of their 72' centerbeam flat cars, also taking the opportunity to close up the gaps between slightly too. With these I also used the "SE" shelf couplers to help with uncoupling issues caused by track dips and peaks on the club layout (scale size heads). Seems to have fixed that as well.

Glad you got your coupler issues sorted out, Toot! At the Omaha train show last Saturday, I picked up a Rivarossi Union Pacific greyhound scheme observation car, and an Athearn UP rotary plow someone 'converted' to battery power. As you can see, both have horn hook couplers on long arms. The plow should be simple enough, but the observation car is going to require some Kadee #505 coupler conversion bolsters. They call for a #5, but a #148 will probably be substituted.
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Both will have to have some weight added. The plow is UP plow 076. The prototype is silver colored, I'm guessing made from galvanized steel due to the conditions under which it operated. The rotary blades and snow chute were red. These details will be attended to in time.
It seem like I have a half dozen projects going all at once! Anybody else like that? :confused:
 
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, some doofus installed an HO Digitrax decoder in an Athearn blue box Union Pacific EMD TR5A switch engine. It must have been one of his first installs, because it never really ran right. It would actually run fine, as long as the shell was not put on. Install the shell and it didn't run for nothin'!
So the doofus picked up a used Digitrax DZ-121 decoder at a train show and decided to install it, instead. The 'original' decoder had a flat 9 pin harness, which was removed. The decoder found its way into an Athearn DCC ready Milwaukee Road SD45 (see last pic here: http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/...ms-division-ho-scale.26206/page-9#post-433597). I think the HO decoder was just too big and rubbed on the flywheel and truck. This decoder should have plenty of room. I plan to locate it in the cab.
Here's a pic of the switcher disassembled:
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The spring and bottom motor brush are in the plastic dish. The frame and shell are actually pointing the wrong direction in this pic. That screw about halfway in the top of the frame was originally where I put the black pickup wire. In this install it will be soldered to the front headlight bracket, which will not be used for a headlight, but still has track power to it. The lights were replaced with grain of wheat bulbs. The trucks will be disassembled, cleaned, and lubed before reassembly. The wheels will also be cleaned.
This decoder came with a plug attached, which I cut off. This left the gray and black wires a little short. They would not reach where I wanted them to go and still allow the decoder to be in the cab, so extensions were soldered on and 1/16" heat shrink tubing installed to protect and strengthen the joints. The gray wire has been done in this pic. (Wally just had to get in the act. The big ham.)
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Speaking of wires, does anyone know what gauge these wires are? I'm guessing 32. The reason I ask is because the wire cutter/stripper I have (the yellow Stanley tool in the pic) strips down to 26 gauge stranded, but the hole is still too big for these wires. I'd like to get a proper set of wire strippers. This is also an example of why I keep small bits of leftover wire, you never know when you'll need a bit of a certain color.

This is where the install is at right now:
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The gray and orange wires are soldered to the appropriate motor clips, and the black wire has an extension soldered on and heat shrunk. I had a little concern about the gray wire being close to the flywheel, so I tucked it under the head of the screw and tightened the screw down just until it held the wire. I might take it off of there and use a bit of tape to secure it out of the way, though.
I won't install the black or red wires until the trucks are reinstalled, and that won't be done until they are cleaned and lubed.
One thing I do want to stress: Do NOT solder the gray or orange wire to the motor clips with the clips still attached to the motor! The motor mount frame is plastic, and you will most likely end up deforming it. This will throw off the angles and the motor will not run right. I watched a YouTube video of some kid doing an install, and sure enough: he soldered onto the clip with the clip still attached! I don't know what happened, it was a multi part video and I only watched part one. When you do remove the clips, be careful. There is a spring under that clip which holds the motor brush onto the armature. Pop that clip off too fast, and that spring will launch itself into the void of the space/time continuum, never to be seen by human eyes again!
Well, it's time to make my lunch for work tomorrow, and have supper for tonight. I'll continue this later. Thanks for looking!
 
I started disassembling the trucks to clean and re-lube the gears.
Note: These trucks are older than the more recent style of Athearn trucks. These have the side frames riveted on, while the newer trucks have removable side frame details. These wheels transmit track power through the side frames via the ends of the wheels, whereas the newer style uses square copper bushings/bearings, so if you have a newer style truck and it doesn't look just like this one, that's why. This one also has an open frame motor instead of a can motor. I may look into re-motoring this engine in the future.
The first step in disassembly is to remove the plastic clip from the bottom of the truck, It is held on by four tabs. Use a small screwdriver and pop it off. This was my first clue that someone had excessively lubed this engine, and that it has not been cleaned in a while. I know I have not had these trucks apart since I've had it.
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There is also a small clip on the top of the truck. This must be removed as well.
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Once both clips are removed, the two halves of the truck can be separated. Lots of excess grease in there! You can see how power is picked up by the wheels, transferred through the stub ends on the axles to the side frame, and then via a rivet from the side frame to the clip. Athearn uses a long clip across the top of the motor which hooks under the clip on each truck to supply power to the motor from that side of the track. (Who in the world put all that grease in there?)
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I used a brown Sharpie and marked which wheels were on the long clip side. This really isn't needed as the axles are insulated by the plastic axle/gear shaft.
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Here I have temporarily reassembled the truck so you can see how each of the two metal clips pick up power from the rails. Each clip is riveted to a different half of the truck sideframes. The short clip in front transfers power to the locomotive chassis.........
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via contact with the metal tab in the center of this pic. You can see, just to the left, the bottom motor contact strip with the gray wire soldered to it. On an original Athearn locomotive there are two little tabs from that contact strip which protrude downward and make contact with the chassis. To isolate the motor for a DCC install, those two tabs must be cut off. It is a good idea to put some tape across the chassis where those tabs would make contact. This guarantees that the bottom motor contact strip can never make electrical contact with the chassis. When I re-install these trucks I plan to put a tiny dab of dielectric grease on that chassis tab. Dielectric grease is a special electrically conductive grease used in the auto industry. Your car probably has some in each end of the spark plug wires.
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Here is the totally disassembled truck. The gears are in their respective positions from where they were removed from the truck. They just slide over the posts on the right side frame. There is probably at least 5 times as much grease here as their needs to be!
As Ernest P. Worrell would say: Eeeewww!!
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Here's a pic of the axles, truck gears, and the worm gear which is in the top of the truck. Lots of grease all over everywhere! The worm gear is supported in the truck by the two square bushings. I removed the outer bushing and its washer just so the didn't fall off accidentally and get lost. The gear and drive dog are press fit on the shaft, so the inner bushing and washer are in no danger of falling off. The wheels have stub axles which are a press fit into the axle/gear shaft. The wheels can be moved in or out to set proper gauge. They will be checked before reassembly.
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For cleaning I plan to use some denatured alcohol and an old toothbrush. Denatured alcohol is not the same thing as isopropyl or rubbing alcohol. Those are more for first aid/sterilizing purposes, while denatured alcohol is more of a solvent. It will clean the grease off, but it's not as harsh on plastic as mineral spirits or acetone would be.
 
I got the gears and truck halves cleaned off with denatured alcohol. That stuff really does a good job cleaning off grease and oil.
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I got it from Menard's, in their paint department. I have a plastic container dedicated to its use, and the toothbrush you see here.
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I'll let everything dry awhile, then sparingly apply some white grease to the gears, and just a dab of dielectric grease to the inside of the axle bushings.
 
I also got a visit from the postman. He brought me 2 pair of Kadee 505 conversion bolsters. These will go on a Rivarossi UP greyhound observation car I got at a train show a couple of weeks ago. I also got a Micromark truck tuner. Now I can begin replacing plastic wheels in earnest!
But the best thing he brought me is a Soundtraxx Econami ECO-21P decoder! This will go into my Athearn Genesis Big Boy. When I ordered the Big Boy, I thought I ordered the DCC/sound equipped version. When the locomotive came, it was the DC/DCC ready version. At first I thought Factory Direct Trains had sent me the wrong one. I double checked my order paperwork, and sure enough: I had ordered the wrong one! :oops:
I've actually had this for about 3 years now. I just never got around to ordering a 21 pin decoder for it. There was no rush because the layout wasn't (still isn't) able to run a train around the entire circuit. But I had some unexpected cash and decided to go ahead and order the decoder. I wonder what a Big Boy would sound like with a peanut whistle? o_O
In case you're wondering, I got the coal tender with wood deck version. Big Boy, not decoder! ;)
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I got the trucks lubed and reassembled. It takes longer to write about it than it did to do it.
I cleaned all the parts with denatured alcohol and an old toothbrush.
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Step one is to apply just a small amount of white lithium grease to the posts that the gears ride on.
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Install the gears, and put just a bit of grease on the center gear. As the gears turn the grease will be distributed.
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I put just a dab of dielectric grease into the bearings where the axle ends go.
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Reinstall the axles (check the gauge first), the other side frame and the two retaining clips.
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Use a single drop of plastic compatible light oil on each side of the worm gear where the copper bushings ride on the shaft.
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Install the worm gear into place.
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and the worm gear cover. I prefer to install the drive shaft prior to putting the truck back in the frame, but some people prefer to wait until the truck is in place. Whatever works for you!
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The driveshaft snaps into the back of the flywheel. Getting it lined up can be a chore, so I mark the end of the flywheel where the driveshaft tangs go. It makes it a little easier, but still not fun!
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The decoder installed and awaiting testing. I soldered the black wire to the now unused headlight bracket. A red jumper wire was soldered from one large clip to the other, this replaces the metal strap Athearn originally used. The red wire from the decoder was soldered to the rear clip. I won't solder the three light wires until I'm done tweaking this locomotive.
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Here's a pic showing how I clean my locomotive wheels. I use 91% isopropyl alcohol and automotive grade paper shop towels. Do NOT use rubbing alcohol, as that usually contains glycerin ( can you say soap?) and fragrances. Also, do NOT use supermarket paper towels. They are way too thin, and will disintegrate all over the place, making a huge mess! Buy some thick shop towels at an auto parts store.
I cut the towels into thirds. That way I can do 3 cleanings from one towel. The brand I personally like best is Scott.
Apply some alcohol to one end of the towel, and place it over the track. Place the locomotive on the track and give it some power. Holding one truck onto the track, place the other on the shop towel. The spinning wheels will basically clean themselves! After 15-20 seconds, turn the locomotive around and do the other truck.
You can see how much dirt I got off of these wheels! I may need to repeat this process again.
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This locomotive runs quite nicely now! It's a bit noisy, but I don't expect it to be as quiet as the newer can motor locos are. Periodically it will stop until I touch it, then it will go again. I have a suspicion the cause is those clips that are supposed to make contact with the bottom of the frame. Something to tinker with.
 



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