Catching Up

Several things in the hopper today:

The rebuilding of the DPM kits goes well, so far I have four of them rebuilt, plus a new one, plus an old Bachmann (I think) kit and a Woodland Scenics building. I have already shown the theater, the next three are a bank, a donut shop and a yarn store. The new building is a hotel and the Bachmann building is a cafe.

 The lastest of the rebuilds to be completed is the First National Bank of Midland, which is not really the name of the town but of the region. It comes complete with a guard and two glass enclosed offices. It's a busy day today, the workers in the offices are both tending to clients at the moment.

 Next door to the bank is the Dunkin' Donuts, its appearance is mostly due to my wifes addiction to their coffee.

 As with the bank it is lighted with a full interior, although when I looked again at the placement on the layout I wondered if it was worth all the work. More on that later.

The knitting club meets at Sahady's tonight (see below), in fact they are there right now. And of course the knitting group must have a place to buy their supplies, although the store's owner behind the register is a knitter, too, and just hates to give up all that yarn. The room upstairs is a classroom where you can go to learn to knit, the stairs are to the left. This is my best paint job so far.



The theater was the first of the DPM buildings to be redone and I have written about it before. Since then it has also gotten a lighted interior. I put some moviegoers inside after I took this picture, but it has been installed on the layout behind the hotel so it is kind of difficult to get good pictures of the interior now. For some reason the lighting in the theater is more blue than any of the other lights.
 

The Bachmann building is on the other side of the Dunkin' from the bank. Those familiar with the kit can see that it has been removed from its base, this was necessary to make it fit on the layout since the large corner on the kits base didn't fit in at all. It has been decorated as Sahady's Mediterranean Cafe, once again with a lighted interior. The windows are a bit fogged so you can't really see the knitting group meeting in the far back corner, nor can you see the chef in the kitchen, but they are all there. The lighting in here is kind of blue also, but not as bad as the theater.

 The new DPM kit was originally a department store, but when I saw it I knew just what it had to be.

The building was the second one (the theater was the first) that really insisted on it's identity. The original Coachman Hotel was on the northwest corner of the square in Clarinda, nowhere near the train station. The original is long gone, torn down over forty years ago, but on my layout it lives again. As a side note, it is right in front of the theater; on the prototype the theater was a couple of buildings down but they were on the same block until the theater caught fire one night.

Weary travelers can find a place to lay their heads and the hotel bar caters to the upscale crowd. One suited man is looking into the fireplace while another junior exec has removed his coat on his way in the door. The bartender is trying to take the confused patrons order while another waves on her way in.

Check in time has commenced, one tired guest rounds the corner on his way to the elevator while another takes his place at the desk. Some earlier check-ins have decided to relax in front of the fireplace in the lobby. I meant to put a TV on the wall for the folks in the corner to watch, but I forgot it. I don't think it would be visible on the layout anyway.

Speaking of, its placement on the layout is on the corner with the theater across the alley behind it and the Yarn Vault across the alley to the left; across the street to the right is the Greyhound bus terminal and the passenger station is cross-cornered. The fourth corner of the intersection is taken up by a large manufacturing facility, on the prototype (which has no hotel or bus station but is in fact next to the old passenger station) it is Lisle Corporation's main manufactory but since the building looks nothing like the prototype, and since by now the only thing the layout has in common with its prototype inspiration is the track arrangement, I haven't decided what is manufactured there yet. I will, give me time.

And speaking of placement, this horrible picture shows the bank, the Dunkin' and Sahady's as they sit on the layout. The buildings at the bottom of the page are not yet finished but are in their respective positions. With everything situated in the final arrangement it is somewhat impossible to see the interior of the donut shop with the awning although if you look around either side of the foreground buildings you can sort of see inside.

The last building to be completed was a Woodland Scenics kit of Davenport's Department Store. The top of this building is actually visible in the above picture to the far right in the foreground although the pictures below (taken on the construction table) have it next to the hotel.

After I put all the work into the building I realized that the only thing you are really going to see of it is the back, so the man looking out of the turret window won't be seen.

This is the only building so far to get outside lighting, but the only two lights you will really be able to see are the gooseneck lights on the long side and over the back door. That's a shame because the carriage lamp beside the apartment stair door is really neat.

All of the lighted buildings have been put in place on the layout with their light cords dangling underneath to be connected. I have decided to go with Woodland Scenics Just Plug lighting system because it really is just that easy, just plug them in and adjust the intensities and there you go.

A word about Just Plug, I first saw them in action when one of the club members was showing off the interiors he makes for his buildings. He uses the same Just Plug lights, as do several of the other club members (although one of our number builds his own lights).

The club has a diorama they built several years ago for the town of Apex NC, and they have decided to turn it into a T-TRAK module. This meant an interchange had to be built to incorporate it into the T-TRAK layouts. Thus Apex Junction was born.

Apex Junction was nothing but a blank board, which just will not do. Therefore plans were made for several of the club members to scenic the junction. Among the structures to be included on the junction was a train station, which I volunteered to do. Inspired by what I had seen so far I decided to do the station up right with an interior and full lighting (I'll have to get pictures of it when I can).

The station I built was an Atlas kit and it got lighting underneath the canopy (Just Play nano lights) plus gooseneck lights at each end over the station ID boards and one over each of the entrance doors. It also got a printed picture of the Selma NC passenger station ticket counter as its interior along with an interior light. I was surprised by how easy the lights went in, so I decided to use them on my layout.

The components are a bit expensive and I must say I am somewhat disappointed in the light hubs. I have three of those and so far only one of them was not broken out of the box. I have some trim pots on their way that should solve the issues, I could send them back to Woodland Scenics I suppose but I can fix them myself so it just isn't worth it to me. The gooseneck lights and the carriage lights are wonderful things, and since it is beyond my modeling capabilities at present to make such things they are welcome additions. There are also street lights available although I probably won't use any of them.

Moving right along then, the scenery is coming along nicely but it is taking far too long and I have had the layout apart all this time. I finally got to the point where I just couldn't stand it any longer, so I put it back together so I could just run some trains. I'm happy to say that operations on the Path Valley Railroad re-commenced last night. The tracks needed a thorough cleaning of course, but within an hour of squeezing the halves back together the Burlington SD9 redbird was once again making deliveries on its scheduled route.

Passenger service took a bit longer however, the Minitrix suffered a terminal drawbar failure and had to be sidelined to the RIP track. Its duties were taken over by the new Bachmann K4, but it, too, had issues while traversing turnouts. A new brass drawbar was made for the Minitrix and it resumed its role while the Bachmann took its place on the RIP track. Fortunately the issues with the Bachmann were quickly tracked to a bent contact on the tender trailing truck and just as quickly corrected. The Minitrix has once again been placed on the backup motive roster and the Bachmann is now heading up the passenger trains.

But wait, you say, Bachmann K4? When did this come about? I see that I am remiss. Allow me to correct this failure.

As I have previously stated I have wanted one of the new K4 locos since they were introduced but didn't want to pay the price. A member of one of the online groups I belong to had one at a great price so I snapped it up. I wanted one with the pre-war pilot and the one I got was post-war, but it was a minor thing that I was more than willing to overlook. And besides, it looks great so no complaints.

So how does it stack up to the Minitrix?

 First the tender is more closely coupled and the cab is smaller, so closer to the prototype. The drivers are also more correctly sized and as can be expected the details are much better.

 What is particularly noticeable though is the Minitrix is a really really well done locomotive for its age, especially given that it is put on a European chassis. The firebox is squared off a bit more but all the details are correctly positioned.

 The Bachmann comes complete with a functioning front coupler so the locomotive can be double-headed if there are two of them. However, as can be expected the running characteristics of these two are so wildly different that they can't be run together. The Bachmann also has better details, including the Keystone number plate, but this too is to be expected given the age differences of the locomotives.

 

 The Bachmann has nicely detailed steps leading from its solid post-war pilot to the running boards while the Minitrix had to have its steps carved out from the solid block of plastic that it came with.

The cylinder detail is also much better,  once again understandably so given that the Minitrix uses a European prototype chassis.

The valve and steam pipe detail is also much better for the same reasons. Once again, though, much credit has to be given to Ted Branson who designed the Minitrix shell. It still looks very good given the design constraints and the materials he had to work with forty years ago when the shell was designed. The Bachmann has the post-war arrangement of the steam generator and smokebox step to go along with its post-war pilot.

The tender is likewise more detailed with its underframe water scoop. The Bachmann locomotive has been slightly weathered, and due to the improvements of materials and techniques the detail is again much better, but once again the Minitrix has aged pretty darn well. I would like to be able to get some of the trucks to put under the Minitrix shell, they should be easy to swap out with the Bachmann trucks that are already installed on it but so far they haven't showed up as available spares on the Bachmann website. Until they do I am still pretty pleased with the Minitrix.

One thing that the Bachmann does that the Minitrix does not, however, is sound. The K4 is my very first locomotive with sound, and now I am just crazy to get some sound decoders for my J class locomotives. Although Bachmann will be happy to sell me some sound READY tender frames for those locomotives they are not sound EQUIPPED, so either way I'll have to install my own decoders and speakers. But until then the K4 merrily huffs and chuffs its way around the layout, blowing its whistle and ringing its bell.

Last but not least, I wrote before about building an Nn3 East Broad Top locomotive number 11 in a previous post, and to that end I had acquired a Marklin 4-6-4 chassis. There were some significant hurdles to overcome with that chassis however, and one day as I was skimming the popular online auction site I came upon another possible donor in the form of a brand-new Marklin BR64 series of Z scale locomotives. They are pricy, about twice what I pay for the Mikado chassis when I can find them, but I did locate one at a price I was willing to pay.

 The box is much different these days than the vintage Marklin boxes of old, it consists of a sleeve and insert rather than an attached lid.

 The detail is much better on these new runs, as can be expected. Since AZL entered the Z scale market, followed quickly by Rokuhan, Marklin has had to up their game to stay current with the scale that they pioneered.

 The most impressive feature of this chassis was the working valve gear. This presents its own problems for modeling EBT 11, however, since the steam chests, cylinders and valve gear are way different from the prototype.

 The first thing that is immediately obvious during the comparison is the main drive rod on the prototype is attached to the last driver and the model is on the middle driver. I have some brass etchings from RLW that was designed for converting the Marklin 0-6-0 chassis to a Consolidation so they might have something that works, but the valve gear is going to be another story.

The valve gear on the prototype had all its fiddly bits behind the first driver instead of in front of it. I would love to have the operating valve gear on this loco but I'm not quite sure if I will be able to pull it off. I will have to re-arrange what is on the model to match it, and even though I'm sure some other modelers would be able to do it without breaking a sweat I am not one of them. I may end up taking all of it off and faking it, but at least I'll be able to used the spoked wheels from the lead and trailing trucks.

 With the lid removed more changes are glaringly obvious. The 4-6-4 chassis also had directional LED lighting, but the motor on this new chassis is extremely different.

Lo and behold, instead of the open frame motors that tend to cog there is a brand-new enclosed can motor that I believe is coreless. When it was put on the track the locomotive ran extremely smoothly, especially at lower speeds, and started at a lower voltage (and ran slower than both the 4-6-4 and the Mikado).

The best thing about this new motor is that, unlike the 4-6-4 chassis, I shouldn't have any problems getting it to fit under the cab in the RLW kit. Some of the details of the bottom cover will have to be sacrificed (the brake detail between the wheels, for instance) but I think this chassis is going to be a much better starting place. The drivers are the right size and the wheel arrangement is correct, although the trailing truck wheels will have to be brought in closer to match the prototype.

So the 4-6-4 chassis has been reassembled except for the front light lense that has gotten lost somewhere. The bad thing is I remember finding it but I can't remember what I did with it. Lucky for me they are still available through the Marklin website. I don't know what I will do with it now, but it is complete (once I get the light lense) and runs well so maybe I can sell it to fund other projects. Or maybe I'll keep it and run it as a curiosity...but if I do that I'll have to get some cars for it...German passenger cars maybe...

 And I think that catches us up.

Movie Night

The first building on the layout that has been rebuilt from the reclaimed DPM kits is actually 100% complete.

The kit is DPM 51400, Eric's Emporium. I downloaded and shrunk some movie posters for the front windows and built the marquee and awning from styrene. Some signs created in Paint finished the marquee off.

I chose some railroad-appropriate movies, although they would probably not appear on the same marquee due to their release dates.

I finished this one off first because it was really the first building that "spoke" to me and told me what it was. I really like the way it ended up.

Now I need to get cracking on the rest of them.

Resurrection

You may recall that I had this locomotive painted.

You may also recall that when I put it back together it ran horribly, and then not at all.

Well today I got it running again, although it is once again a DC only locomotive.

First I checked the locomotive with the decoder installed on DC power. It didn't work. Then I took the decoder out and wired it back up as a straight DC locomotive, and the motor did run but the gears slipped badly. So then I took the locomotive apart and carefully inspected each and every gear.

It turns out that any grit at all in the gears will cause them to decouple, and anything that keeps the frame from firmly contacting the boiler only exacerbates the problem. Additionally, when the grit causes the gears to push the frame outwards the cast on brakes that are there purely for show actually start to work, further binding the drivers and throwing them out of quarter.

Once the gears were cleaned of all debris, the wires were tucked firmly into their channels to keep them from interfering in the frame to boiler fit, the brakes disengaged and the drivers requartered the locomotive ran smoothly again. I have hooked up a train full of cars to it and had it running laps on a temporary track setup on the kitchen table all afternoon.

The next step will be to install another decoder and program it for the new number, but for now I am just enjoying seeing it run.

Work Progresses

on the layout.

After several false starts I've finally nailed down where I want all of the downtown buildings to go. I had to buy a couple more corner buildings but now it looks like everything is in place as it should be.

Now I'm cleaning and painting the buildings before detailing their interiors and finally placing them on the layout. I'm also looking at interior lights for them, but that is a project that may have to wait for a while.

I also have to get some of the DPM Modular Building System walls to finish out the tool making factory (although in the final take it's probably going to be some other kind of manufactory). I have the DPM planning package that I've used to mock it up and I like the way it looks like it's going to turn out.

I also have to scratch-build a scrap metal baler and some sort of loading system to take the place of the scrap yard. The plan is for the manufactory to wrap around the "scrapyard" with the scrap from the manufacturing processes being fed into the baler and then the bales loaded into the waiting gondolas. I'm thinking about some sort of chute, something like you find on the coal mine kits to load the boney (rock that has had the ore processed out of it). It's going to have to be on an angle, which makes things interesting.

Pics when complete.

More Projects

I finally ordered a PowerMAX unit for use on my Shapeways East Broad Top M1, and it arrived yesterday, so this is finally on my build list.

I also received several Kato Mikado boiler shells to see if they can be used on the Erie K5A project. Perhaps with some modifications (and a lot of cutting) it would be possible, but they look kind of small so I'm not so sure they will work.

What I really need to do is learn to cast so I can reproduce that Arnold Pacific shell. I did get a book from BHI Publications about white metal casting, so maybe I'll educate myself enough to try it.

Another Locomotive Project

One of the problems in modeling Nn3 is the lack of RTR equipment. There are a few mostly Colorado prototype locomotives but for the East Broad Top everything has to be built.

Building an Nn3 locomotive usually involves starting with a Marklin chassis. In the case of the surviving EBT Mikados the 8827 Class 41 Marklin Mikado is a good starting spot, the drivers are a touch too small but with the oversize flanges the dimensions are about right. The same chassis is used for all the Mikados, and a kit is available for them through Republic Locomotive Works.

Since some of their earlier 2-8-0 locomotives were standard designs also shared by the western roads there are kits available to build them as well, and with the new PowerMax chassis you can find kits for Brill Motorcar M1 and the dinky locomotives also owned by the road. Some of the existing Marklin chassis can also be used to create the road's Mogul and ten-wheeler locomotives as well. There is one, however, that is a bit more difficult.

This is East Broad Top locomotive 11. It is a Prairie 2-6-2 locomotive and was the road's first wide firebox loco. The design was so successful that the railroad used it as the pattern for their six existing Mikado locomotives, essentially just adding another set of drivers and extending the trailing truck a bit. I have long wanted to build this locomotive but have been unable to decide how to go about it. The choices seemed to be shortening a Mikado chassis, something that I didn't feel my modeling skills to be equal to, or modifying a Marklin 8803 Mogul chassis to accept a different motor, also beyond my skills. However, there did seem to be an alternative...

This is the Marklin 8806 chassis. I first saw this locomotive on the popular online auction site but didn't have any dimensional information for it. At first glance it looked to be a promising start, the drivers appeared to be the same as the 8827 chassis and the motor is horizontal rather than vertical as it is on the 8803 chassis. However, I had problems finding one that was in a price range I felt comfortable about taking apart for a donor chassis.

And then...one came up. No box so collectors weren't interested in it, so it was had for a bit over a C note, which is about what an 8827 chassis goes for. A few clicks of the mouse and it was on its way.

When it arrived the disassembly began apace:

Once the lid was off the mechanism looked even more promising. The motor is a bit long, but the large cab of the EBT prototype should cover it adequately. There was a light board at the back of the locomotive and the frame extended back to support it, but it looks as if the chassis can be cut off aft of the rear motor mount without too many problems. The solid bottom of the motor mount platform can be filed flat as well to get rid of the arches, and the whole thing should be covered by the bottom of the cab.

With the light boards and leading and trailing trucks removed the chassis looks even more promising. The front of the locomotive is actually going to be more problematic than the back. The cylinders are going to have to go right in front of the drivers and they are mounted on a solid bar. The two options are to cut the top of the chassis flush with the front driver edge or file the bottom of the chassis in front of the drivers up to mount the bar underneath. Either way the front of the chassis is going to have to be cut away more than the rear.

The only other issue I can see is the front motor mount. It stretches the width of the locomotive and it looks like its going to hit the bottom of the boiler just forward of the cab. I am hopeful that it can be disguised behind air piping and whatnot under the running boards. At any rate I don't think it will be an insurmountable obstacle.

So all in all it looks like my prospects of having this locomotive on my roster one day is promising.

Scenery

It's about time I finally posted some of the scenery that has been done already.

The train room is in a state of flux right now as I am rearranging things. This necessitated the separation of the two halves of the layout, so while they were apart and more or less moveable I decided to do some scenicing using some of the items salvaged off of the layout mentioned in the previous post.

Most of the structures that I salvaged are going to have to be disassembled (they were glued together with what looks like rubber cement) and cleaned before being reassembled, but they were good for place markers. Other items I was able to transplant without too much trouble, and some of the scenes I was able to lift completely off with their underlaying turf intact and use as-is.

So, without further ado, here are some of the results:

Trucks in the gravel parking lot of the trackside transfer. This was the building I chose to stand in for the meat packing plant on the prototype, it looks nothing like the building in question but then again the only thing that is following the prototype at this point is the basic track layout...mostly.

A covered hopper takes a load of grain from the elevator while a couple of farmers get things they need at the feed store.

Today at the church we have a burying...

and a marrying.

Thankfully no one has been agitating for the removal of this statue at the Jamestown Memorial Park.

The cabin here serves as the park offices.

Some of the locals have put on a play in the open air theater at the park.

The milk man and the ice cream man are both doing well as one resident gets ready to go to work and another mows his lawn.

Meanwhile, under the old shade tree, there's some snuggling going on!

The neighborhood kids take a chance to enjoy the pool while school is out across the street.

Some fruit on the trees and some veggies in the hothouse contribute to a well balanced dinner table.

As it stands the scenery is about half done. I'm having some troubles deciding how the downtown is going to look, not helped by the prototype since "downtown" was several miles away from the railroad stations. Also, since I've been in the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club I've been exposed to some bad influences, so to speak, so now my empty buildings just don't look right...which means I am having to do some interior building and maybe even some lighting before I'm all done. It may make me a better modeler, but it sure does add some complications.

The worst part about all of this is my layout is non-operational for the time being. Good thing I have a collection of Unitrack to fall back on when the urge to run trains overtakes me.

In other news...I really do have too much junk in my train room. I'm probably going to have to go on an extensive downsizing spree soon.