Admittedly, I'm a steam guy, but the S-2 is in the right era.  Plus, they are a bargain if there ever was one.  I couldn't help myself... had to pick one up at the train show yesterday.  Ran it on the club layout right away.  It took off smooth and sounded very nice--a bit quieter than the other sounders on the layout perhaps.

Here's mine:


OK, on to the tinkering part.  To remove the shell, just take off the coupler boxes and the shell lifts right off.  Easy:


Here's the innards:




I filed down, and burnished, two whisker spring Kadees, which fit in the Bachmann boxes:


Next, I cut out two windows, in order to add a couple of crew figures.  I don't know if these little switchers were a one-man operation, but mine will have a pair of workers:


That's all I have time for today, folks.  Will post further as I get into weathering, weight, and any other tweaks that seem required.

Regards,

Jonathan

Started with a Red Caboose, undecorated, ARA/X-29 box car body.  Scratchbuilt the roof, greatly modified the underframe, and added B&O details.

Tried to create an M-27f auto box car that was later used in freight service until the end of steam.

The decals came from three different sheets, so some are thicker than others.  Hopefully, a little weathering will make them look a little more friendly with each other.

Stirrup steps are old A-line brass or bronze.  The plastic steps were brittle and kept breaking on me.

Regards,

Jonathan

Well, for the umpteenth time this winter, we are snowed in and I can't get to work, and the kids can't get to school.

Before I commence to break my back with the shovel, thought I'd share my latest project.  This is a '77 Westside U-1, a B&O loco of course.

Took some picture during disassembly for obvious reasons, but this pic also caught the extra weight I was adding.  Through various size lead chunks I was able to find enough hiding places to add two ounces of weight:


Some of the little chunks fit in the frame:


Added lights by drilling #65 holes and using 30 gage magnet wire:


Painted the loco myself.  Here is a primer coat with the firebox and smokebox masked off:


Used the original coreless can motor.  For 38 years old, it still tests strong:


The coal load is made of foam rubber, spray painted gloss black, with a little coal sprinkled on top.  It is removable without causing damage to the painted brass:


The cab detail just slides right out of the locomotive.  Made is easy to paint and detail the interior.  I also added little bits of lead under the seats and in the roof lining:






I used more 30 gage magnet wire for the rope pulls because the magnet wire holds paint much better than brass or copper.

I was having a tough time photographing the final product.  The camera and I weren't getting along. Here they are anyway:












Regards,

Jonathan

This past weekend was the Great Scale Model Train Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

Along with shopping my face off, our local club brings a module-based layout (40' X 40'), and we run trains.  While fun for us, it also seems to be appealing to the show attendees.

I shot a few photos of my EM-1s hauling revenue.  

#7600 leading a 30-car coal train (mostly):




#7627 hauling mixed freight across an unfinished module:


I tend to shoot photos late in the afternoon, after the crowd dwindles.  We had over 7000 visitors at this show.

They still run and sound great after 2 years of steady use. The old-timers sometimes ask if they're brass.

Regards,

Jonathan

Whenever I look at photos from the mid 20th century, concerning railroads, I see a particular type of generic lamppost that seems to pop up in both yards and depots.  I'm pretty sure it's called a Shepherd's Hook lamp, but I could be wrong.

Decided to try my hand at making some lamps for my loco servicing yard and my depot area.

Started with some 1/16" aluminum tubing.  Tried bending them a few different ways with bad results:


Finally put some 22 gage wire in the tube and bent it around one of those tube, bendy, springy things:

That's a bit better.  The wire in the tube prevents collapse.  I can pull it out after bending.

Bent 16 workable tubes in just a couple of minutes:


But what to use for a lampshade?  How about those little pill jackets that come in the Kadee coupler packs?


Because these lamps are small, I'm not too concerned about the detail, but these might just pass as lamps:


Prep for paint:


After a coat of flat black primer, I experimented with some metallic graphite paint.  It looks darker in person:


I'll use magnet wire and 0603 SMDs for the lamps.  Yes, they are tall, but they need to drop through the benchwork for wiring.

Regards,

Jonathan

I am up to 21 Bachmann locos... quite a stable.  It was time for a break to work on a brass project.

I have a Westside Q-4b.  It came with jewels in the headlight and reverse light.  The previous owner bought the loco with jewels in place, so he didn't know how they were glued in.  I am trying to figure out how to remove them without damaging the lamps:





I know some of you have some brass experience and may have some ideas.

I am thinking of drilling a hole through the jewels and injecting some paint thinner to see if things loosen up.  The other thought is to use a low heat (15 watts) soldering iron to melt them out.  However, I don't yet know if the jewels are glass or plastic.  I would greatly appreciate some input on what I might try.

I have been building some 0603 SMD LEDs.  Very tiny.  I'm having about a 75% success rate at the tiny soldering:





These are what I want to use for lighting... perhaps even a cab light and some firebox glow.

The other parts of the project (motor, gearbox, paint) I got a handle on.

Thanks again!

Regards,

Jonathan

It is said if you can imagine it, there's probably a prototype for it.  After two years of searching, I found two examples of short-span, curved, wooden bridges that served as a go-by for a bridge project I've been wanting to complete.

As a temporary fix, I used a piece of 22" radius EZ track to cover the span, while I searched for something more realistic:



To make a more realistic bridge, I used two 22" radius pieces of track.  I disassembled one piece of track and slipped the ties onto the second piece.  The leftover rails were used as guardrails.  Hence, two pieces of track became one:



The guardrail points were made with some 15" radius rail and straight rail:





Wooden abutments:



I scratch built a trestle to support the middle of the bridge, using 3/32" and 1/16" basswood.  The strengthen the trestle, I drilled holes and inserted wire through the joints, leaving just a bit on the ends to represent bolts:











Here are some shots of the progress so far.  I still have to install the trestle and do some touch-up work:









Regards,

Jonathan

I really don't listen to critiques at this point in my life.  "The Lone Ranger" was a great movie... especially for those of us with a penchant for the iron horse. My wife, son, and father-in-law all enjoyed it.

I don't wish to be a spoiler so I won't discuss the scenes in this new release, but I do highly recommend it for the train enthusiast.  The trailers and commercials all show a 4-6-0 as one of the starring roles, so that's no secret, anyway.

I must ask The Bach-Man:  Did your band of brothers and sisters have something to do with this movie?  

As the days pass, I think we will all have some interesting points to discuss.  Perhaps, after opening weekend is done (just a thought)?

Regards,

Jonathan

Folks,

Fixed a problem with a Spectrum Heavy Mountain (4-8-2).  This problem has been reported a few times (rare) with some Bachmann locomotives.  So it may be worth writing about.

Problem:

The Mountain would run OK by itself, but when running on a track with another locomotive, either as separate trains or doubleheaded, it would hesitate every 6 to 10 feet.  The hesitation would last about a second, then the locomotive would continue on as if nothing had happened.  Needless to say this was causing me great frustration.

I poured over every inch of electronics and mechanical parts to look for a reason.  I had given up on this locomotive to an expensive display piece.

Solution:

One of the regular posters, I wish I could remember who, mentioned in some random thread, that sometimes the inside of the motor could get carbon or some other buildup that causes the motor to hesitate or stop working. I had concluded the only thing I hadn't checked was the inside of the motor.  Prior to ordering a new motor, I decided to try to clean it out myself.

I put the loco in a cradle, upsidedown, and ran it at full throttle forward.  After 10 minutes, I ran it in reverse, at full throttle, for 10 minutes.  Afterwards, there was a small ozone smell, the kind that reminded me of how model trains smelled when I was a kid. I was attempting to burn/clean out whatever might be gumming up the works.

I then put the loco back on the track and used it as a pusher in a 20-car train, with another steamer taking up the lead.  It ran just fine for over an hour, running at about 50% throttle.

I can only conclude I had indeed gotten the inside of the motor gunked up, possibly by allowing some lubricant to ooze inside when modifying the said locomotive.  Not sure if this is the case, but either way, it now runs just fine and is back in the regular rotation on my roster. 

Time will tell if the problem is now corrected permanently.  But I'm happy to have it back running well.

Just thought this might be helpful to someone else who has experienced the same mysterious hesitation. Thanks goes to someone who mentioned this in the past few months.

Regards,

Jonathan

Been wanting to add a small roundhouse to my layout, so I can display a couple of brass models, while protecting them from dust and human error.  As luck would have it, we built a large roundhouse on the club layout, with many stalls, nearly a 180 degree arc.  There were a few leftover pieces that I was able to use to frame out a two-stall roundhouse for my home layout.  Most of the exterior structure will have to be scratchbuilt.  This presents some interesting issues to be resolved, so I thought it might be worthy of sharing the progress.  Hopefully, it will help others with space issues.

I had to widen the benchwork about three inches to accomodate the structure.  That's after chopping the structure's length  to 13.5".  This will house medium steam locomotives, which is what I mostly run: Consolidations, 0-8-0 switchers, and the like.  The turntable is small, so I'm at my space limit anyway.

Here's what I've contructed so far:







I left a bit of rail on the ends, to solder the track feeders for the stalls.  These will be hidden by scenery eventually:





One big issue so far:  the stalls are on a 10 degree separation, while the turntable has 15 degree stationary points.  I had to reposition the stalls a few times, and run locomotives back and forth, until everything ran smoothly.  Here you can see one stall in relatively straight and the other has a curve between the stall and the turntable:





From overhead, the curve doesn't look nearly so severe:



Of course, there will be LED lighting mounted in the rafters:





The outdoor stall, behind the roundhouse, is just long enough to hold my Spectrum Heavy Mountain, and it can pull straight through the turntable, onto the mainline.  So that works.

Still have to stractch up some doors and exterior walls.  Will figure that out soon and will post how I solve that problem as soon as possible.

Regards,

Jonathan

The story up front:

I wanted to have a '28 Ford Model A on my layout because my dad had one in college.  I found a kit with 52 of the smallest parts you've ever seen.  I pre-painted it, along with a Glosscoat to make the vehicle look new or restored.  However, as I assembled the parts, the glosscoat peeled off in sheets. Don't know why it didn't take.

I left the body separate in hopes of adding a driver and passenger.

Anyway, to salvage this project, I hope to weather the car to look well-used, not a broken down jalopy.  I'm hoping someone has some experience weathering the extremely small.  Can this be fixed?  Thanks a million.

Regards,

Jonathan

OK.  This is Connie number 6 on my roster.  With each loco project, I try to go a step further in detail/modification.  With this one, I played with the running boards.  Using a razor saw and hobby knife, produced what is shown below.  

Additionally, I added a CTC signal box and a few extra details to the tender rear.

Regards,

Jonathan

Pilot ladders, shortened, moved back, and secured permanently to the tender deck and cylinder pipes:




Back of boards angled down to meet the bottom of the cab, making a more B&O look:






There are no more brass doghouses in the world market.  This is a Blackstone (HOn3) product.








As posted before, by many wise modelers, never trust the color coding.  On my last connie, green was positive.  This time RED is positive.




To connect the down pieces of the running board, I attached some angle styrene, then shaved back the edges to hide the styrene.  Hope I explained that correctly.




Will post some final pics tomorrow, most likely.  v/r, jv

Don't know if anyone's yet mentioned, or if anyone has seen this pic...

"42", the biopic of Jackie Robinson, has made use of some great steamers (or amazing CGI), to add to the sense you are immersed in 1947.  There weren't enough train shots, of course, but there is a particular shot that stuck out in my mind...

A steamer is pulling in past a ball park, and I swear it is a Bachmann, 'er I mean a WM Consolidation, decorated for some Florida railroad (where J.R. played in the minors).

Some other cool shots, mostly period passenger cars.

The movie is really, really good by-the-way.  The trains were the icing on the cake.

Regards,

Jonathan

Folks,

Here's an ongoing project, that's been fun, and frustrating at the same time:

I'm building a Work Train, featuring a wreck crane and how the whole train might have been configured, if sent on a real emergency.

First, the locomotive.  This is yet another modified Consolidation.  Did you know, over 33,000 2-8-0s were built across the US?  Making it the most prolific loco of the steam era.  Is it any wonder we love them so much?  I can't say enough positives that the Bachmann folks built one so well...





Next is the crane.  The crane went behind the locomotive, in order to borrow water, coal or oil, from the loco tender, if necessary.  As a rule the crane never had it's own tender. This is a Rocco (sp), I picked up at an estate sale for $3.  There was an actual prototype for this crane, though the Rocco folks took a few liberties.  All I did was change out the wheels and couplers.  Works for me...

Could use some detailing I suppose...


Now, the real railroads used either a flat car, or gondola, to support the crane boom and carry whatever extra supplies were needed for the job...



Finally, there would have been some sort of support car to carry the work crew, tools, and whatever else was needed.  The B&O, being super efficient, converted a number of retired passenger cars for camp cars, tool cars, etc.  I did the same. This in an old Athearn passenger car.  I cut off the ends and made vestibules, among other little details.  It's based on an a prototype, although, I didn't follow it to the letter...



Now the fantasy, and frustrating, part of the project.

Doesn't matter what scale you model, we've all seen the "crane tender work caboose".  Wonderful looking car, They sell like hotcakes.  They were developed by the post-war Lionel folks, as part of their tinplate/toy collection.  Everybody loved 'em.  The other scales copied 'em.  Marvelous.  Only problem is they never actually existed.  I've been searching and searching for a prototype. There's a website, thortrains or something, that discusses, in length, the model history of this car, and the lack of a prototype.

I didn't care.  I built one, too.  They are so neat. There just had to be a prototype somewhere.  Anyway, here's mine.  Along with the superdetailing, there is added weight inside the tool boxes and cab.  The barrels are metal.  I wanted this to be extra heavy, so it could guide the boom around the layout:













So... what's the other problem with the car?  Always take a few measurements, BEFORE you start building...











Regards,

Jonathan

Specifically, here is what I want to do:

I wish to take advantage of some of the unused 16V AC outputs on my power packs for LED lighting on my layout.

I would like to convert the AC output to DC and run a bus to tap into for scenery lighting.

Running a few searches, I believe I need a 'rectifier' to accomplish this task.  I found some generalities, but not a specific size device (or math formula) to make it happen.

A search of Radio Shack revealed no less than 160 choices of various rectifiers and diodes... All very inexpensive, but no option gave me the specifics for voltage conversion and the like.

So my question is:  Which rectifier and/or diode do I need? 

I can noodle through the LEDs and resistors.  Trying new electrical stuff again.  I'm gonna burn the house down one of these days. 

Regards,

Jonathan

This is for Jerry, who asked how I did the bridge lighting.  Although he wasn't the first.

What follows is a series of pix I took while building the Atlas Bridge.  Luckily, I thought to take some shots at the time.  

The lights are three warm-white LEDs, wired in series with a 560 ohm resistor on the negative end.  Could be a 680 ohm... I forget.   I run all my LED lighting to a bus run by a 9V power supply, leftover from God knows what...

The lampshades are plastic wheels with a 1/8" hole drilled in the middle.  The original axle hole is just a bit too small.

The wires are strung through the backside of the bridge and run behind an abutment, then through the subroadbed to the bus.

Did some bridges have lighting? Yes, but probably didn't look like my finished product.  I'm into the details on my rolling stock, but anything goes with scenery.

Regards,

Jonathan

I've been tinkering with Bachmann Locomotives for about 6 years or so.  On the steam side, about 90% of these locos are made in a similar fashion:  split frame construction, with all the critical working parts sealed within the frame halves, and some t-nut screws holding the frame halves together.

The "replacing-the-headlight" question has come up again, so I thought I would, once again, post a few pics on how I go about replacing bulbs.  BTW, I haven't had to replace a bulb on a diesel, yet, so I can offer no advice about that.

Anyway, here is a first generation Spectrum 2-8-0:


I thought I had a first generation already, but this one has hard foam rubber lining, and WHITE Connector Plugs:


I had only seen orange connector plugs until now.  Amazing how just a decade or so has made this once cutting edge technology now look like a Neanderthal installed the electronics:


This is not part of the headlight issue, but while we're in here, I went ahead and attached an LED and 1K ohm resistor to the old fashioned dummy plug.  This will become a reverse light.  When I finally get around to making my home layout DCC, I can easily wire in the light to the new decoder.  For now, this works great:


OK, on to the headlight... This older model came with a conventional bulb, so I'm going to replace it with an LED... aaaaaaand slightly modify the headlight to help with the brightness.  By putting the loco on the track, and using an LED/resistor as a tester, I was able to determine the Green Wire is Positive (+).  This is important for LEDs.  The positive side of the LED must coincide with the positive side of the track (right when moving forward).  Elsewise   , the light won't light, man.


Notice how I wrote, in pencil, my findings on the top of the motor, right where I cut the headlight wires.  One less thing I have to remember while I work.  

Now, I failed to take a pic when I took the frame halve apart, but MOST of the time, the bulb won't release from the frame halves unless you open them up.  The t-nut screw removal is easy.  Puting all the motor pieces back the way you found 'em can be a little unnerving the first time.  I'll look for a pic I have of the frame open, and post that later.

Here is the headlight itself:


The big, clear cylinder is the light tube that transfers bulb lumens to the headlight.  I throw that away.


Drill a 1/8" hole in the back of the headlight and press fit the 3mm LED into the back.  I usually add a little white glue for good measure:




The original headlight lens will no longer fit into the headlight.  I use to cut the lens in half with a hobby knife.


Now, I make a visor with 1/4" brass tube and add a 14.5" lens from Detail Associates.


That's all I have time for at the moment. In the coming days, as I complete this loco, I'll post more about headlight replacement/installation.

Regards,

Jonathan

Going through the forum history, there are many threads concerning how to light a passenger car.  I've had a car on the back burner that I decided to tinker with a while.  Perhaps this will be helpful.

This in an old Spectrum heavyweight observation car with a non-working light and X2f couplers:



Disassembly is pretty straight forward.  The roof and window glazing is all one piece that is released by a series of tabs on the bottom.  The rest of the parts are held together by small phillips screws.  You can see in the photo I've already drilled some holes in the light "tube" and put in three warm white LEDs:



The LEDs were soldered together, positive to negative (polarity matters).  I added a 680 ohm resistor.  The lights come on at around 6 volts and reached their brightest at around 9 volts.  That should work fine for my DC railroad:





I carefully soldered wire to the pickup tabs inside the car body, in order to easily connect the wiring to the light 'tube':



Now the roof and the body are ready to be connected:



But before we connect, we might as well add a little detail to the car floor.  It's difficult to see inside passenger cars, especially when moving.  So, I wasn't too careful about painting or the passenger figures:







Now put the floor back in and solder the wires together:



The car will only light moving forward (polarity matters to LEDs).  That's OK with a car meant to travel on the end of a train.  It only goes one direction on my railroad.

















Now I need to get the wheels squeaky clean to knock down the flicker and do some exterior detailing and weathering.

Anyway, hope that's helpful to someone who needs to light some cars.

Regards,

Jonathan

Been working on a brass loco recently.  I picked this up at the last train show in Timonium.  To say it was a bargain is a gross understatement.  It needed a little help with missing parts and the like.

It features a can motor, new gearbox, working directional lights, new brass doghouse (finally found some), lots of weathering, removable coal load... etc.  Runs great, little headlight flicker, but I think that's normal for the pick up configuration in a brass loco.

As a comparison, I put my most recent Bachmann Project next to the brass one.  Don't ask me to choose my favorite one.  I like them both:















This is how #213 looked around 1957.  #213 is the brass loco, in case you were wondering.   

Regards,

Jonathan

A little askew from the norm...  Is anyone else having real problems with photobucket?

It's a train related question because this is where I keep all my railroad photography.  However, I can only access my homepage at this time.

Can't contact photobucket.  None of the buttons work.  Is it me, or is it real?

Regards,

Jonathan