Larry's MRR Empire Vol.#5


Larry

Larry

Long Winded Old Fart
Decided to start a whole new Thread to cover all of the new stuff I've been working on.
1st thing I had to move the New Bachmann Turntable. When I put it in the tables were uneven & I had it in the wrong spot. I could only use a few of the outlets & some didn't work because of the uneven spots. So, monday I took out the TT & cut a new hole. Pictures show what I have done already.
 
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Larry, on that Tech II power box thing you got did it come like that or did you custom build that? if it came like that (store bought) what is it called? I want one like that, I seem to have the basic model of it then....
 
Larry said:
I got a good deal from Ebay for the 9 Ath. UP 72ft. pass. cars. They have NS wheels & Kadee couplers. No interiors & one of the cars doesn't have steps. They are in excellent shape & pull real nice. One Obsevation car & 8 reg.cars.
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I have a set of B&O cars like that that I have been trying to get rid of too. LOL They are older Athearn kits and I think I have a 10 car set. LOL
 
MGWSY said:
I have a set of B&O cars like that that I have been trying to get rid of too. LOL They are older Athearn kits and I think I have a 10 car set. LOL
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I recently finished reflagging a 7 car set of the same make/models from Santa Fe markings to Maine Central. I like them. They track well and look equally great behind either Steam or Diesel.
 
Hey Larry, :)

Wow, you're getting train stuff right and left. :D
You must have lots better train shows where you are. The last one I attended was disappointing to say the least, so I still shop ebay for deals.

Greg
 
Must admit this is the first time I've seen an air conditioner on an inside wall with what would normally be outside in your layout space. Hope you keep a drip pan underneath to catch the condensation.
 
Larry said:
Here's 2 pictures of all but 2 of the engines on the bench. Changed a lot of couplers from Mchenry's over to Kadee #148's, added some lighting to 1 engine & took this one apart because the truck on 1 end wasn't pulling. Didn't know Athearn was doing this to their engines until now.:)
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What are you referring to when you say you didn't know Athearn was doing this to their engines now. What is the 'this'?
 
Larry said:
Putting the boards in like they do their Genesis engines. I'm use to the old style engines w/the metal strip running from 1 truck to the other. Is this what is called DCC ready? :rolleyes:
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I believe so; dug this up in a quick Google search: http://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/april/railroad/genesis_sd70m.htm

It's an 11 year old article but should still be relevant. In a couple of pictures down the page you can see this new-style contraption where the metal contact strip used to be. It happens to show a version that has plastic tabs where the one shown in your pics has rivets. So it does seem like a replacement for that old, unlamented, metal strip. In the Athearn diesels that I have with the strip I took it out and soldered in leads from the trucks to the engine contacts (I don't run DCC).

The only HO Genesis engines I have are steamers.

As to the one truck not pulling I'll bet you found the gears not meshing in one of the towers on the truck. Happened to mine because the tower somehow came apart and the gears slipped out of place.
 
Larry said:
Finally finished the last 2 engines.:D

The CP engine I think has the wrong color on the handrails. These were from a SF engine in yellow. The Shell came from Jerome & the powered frame came from Riverrat.
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Here's a couple of pictures I have of CP Rail engines. Depending on the angle and diesel the rails appear to be either all red or all black with the end sill rails in white.
 
Snap-together coupler boxes!?!? How long have those been in production? Those look SO much nicer to assemble than the glue/screw together draft gear boxes.
 
Larry said:
Finally finished up all of the Union Pacific smooth side Passenger & Mail cars.
7 total. All have body mounted couplers. I tried to put all close couplers. That didn't work. Then I tried 1 long on one end & a reg. on the other end. That didn't work, so I had to use whisker longs on both ends before they would stay on the rails. These cars had to be weighted quite heavy. They back up just right. I used automotive type window tinting film for all the glass.
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Larry:
Standard body mounted couplers won't work on long passenger cars. You need to use couplers that track with the trucks; not Talgo but they're connected to the trucks so as the truck follows a curve so do the couplers.
 
Larry said:
All of my other Pass. Cars have truck mounted couplers, but, I didn't have any for these, so, I used kadee 148's w/the snap together boxes. It will have to do until I can make some dorky looking diaphrams(probably around the year 2020).:D:eek:
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The ones I'm talking about LOOK like they're body mounted but the draft gear box is on a swivel mechanism that goes through the floor of the car and connects to the truck so that when the truck swivels the draft gear box also swivels. That way you get the look of body mounted draft gear and the swivel capability of Talgo mounting but without the disadvantage of risking derailment of rolling stock when doing backing maneuvers especially around curves or through switches.
 
Larry said:
Yes sir, I have another set of passenger cars w/those couplers too. I looked them up on line & the cost was prohibited right now. Guess I'll have to wait till I sell some more engines. I had thought about trying to make some of those w/spacers & springs.
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That's where I get/got lucky - my cars already had that in them when I got them. Only tricky part is fitting Kadee draft gear in place. Agreed though that retrofitting a whole fleet won't be cheap.
 
Larry said:
Just added a new YouTube video showing all of the new engines, pass. cars & rolling stock sitting on the rails. Click on the YT link at the bottom in my signature. Thanks:D
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Thanks for the look but I have to say there's massive focus problems going on with this latest video. Whether YouTube did something to it or not I don't know but you might want to look into that.
 
Larry said:
I deleted the Video I put on YouTube yesterday. YouTube said they were going to fix it, but it got worse. I'll do another one tomorrow w/my Sports Video Camera.:D
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So it turns out to be a YouTube problem then. Not unheard of as a fellow that posts videos of his extensive garden layout has had to stop posting in HD and go back to regular definition because YouTube was stripping out the audio.
 
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