Cotton Brute Restoration Part 2

The restoration continues.

I took no photos of the truck removal, disassembly and cleaning but it has been done. The hard-wiring has not been completed, but the coupler has been installed on the rear truck. Micro-Trains has a coupler conversion for the Mini-Trix U30CG locomotive that served as the donor for the original build, so this was not a difficult operation. The front coupler has not been installed since that would take a complete rebuild, and possible removal, of the snowplow, and since the original build did not have one this was not a difficult decision to make. Perhaps a front coupler will be installed at a later date, but for now the rear coupler is all that it needs.

With the trucks and couplers done (but not hard wired, that is a project for another day) I turned my attention to the shell. Over the years the conductors side front step had been broken off, so something had to be done about that.

The first thing I did was file the broken area even with the bottom of the remaining step so that I would have a flat surface to build from. This made a notch from the bottom of the step to the body of the locomotive which required some fitting of the replacement piece.

A notch was cut in the piece of styrene that I was going to use for the replacement rear step support and it was carefully sanded and fitted to the broken surface. I didn't concern myself overly much with getting the width right because that would be taken care of later on.

The new step support was then glued into place and cut to the proper length.

The new bottom step was cut from a thinner piece of styrene and modeled after the engineers side bottom step. Once again I wasn't overly concerned with getting it exactly right since I was going to shape it once it was in place.

With the new pieces roughed in and glued in place, the hardest part of model railroading then began. I refer, of course, to the time it takes for the glue to dry.

Once the glue had dried sanding sticks were used to shape the replacement pieces. The rear step support is tapered from the top to the bottom, so it had to first be sanded flush with the locomotive body side and then the rear was sanded to the correct profile.

The inside of the bottom step and rear step support also had to be shaped with sanding sticks to ensure a proper fit to the chassis. I wasn't overly concerned with getting the inside shape exactly right because no one is going to see it once the shell is installed, but the outside was carefully shaped.

Two steps had to be cut and fit, then glued into place. I was careful to get the outsides right, but the insides are a little long. They will be trimmed off  and the final shaping done when the glue dries.

And now, once again, we wait.

I have ordered a set of Gold Medal Models handrail stanchions, and once they arrive new handrails will be formed from brass wire and installed. After this is done the gray paint will be carefully matched, then the new steps, handrails, and the edge of the snowplow that is showing bare metal can be painted.

But that is a tale for another day.

A Piece of History

 Jim Fitzgerald, the founder of N-TRAK, built three locomotives in the late 70's; Cotton Brute, Cotton Boss and Cotton Beast. Cotton Brute was built from two Minitrix U30CG locomotive shells glued together, and the frame was built from several chunks of lead weight atop a single machined piece of depleted uranium. The finished locomotive weighed in at a pound and a half (remember this is an N scale locomotive) and set a record by pulling over 500 Micro Trains hopper cars.

In other words, it was well named.

After Jim Fitzgerald's death the locomotive was stored and not operated, and during its long storage it started to separate back into its component pieces. The locomotives were recently transferred to the present NRAIL (successor organization to N-TRAK) President, John Wallis, who also happens to be president of my local model railroad club.

With the locomotives in hand he decided it would be a wondrous thing to restore Cotton Brute to operating condition for the NRail 50th anniversary next year, and he put out the request for volunteers to do the work on them.

I tell you that so I can tell you this:

Yes, I now have temporary possession of a piece of N scale history for the purpose of restoring the locomotive to operating condition.

What's more, I have actually accomplished this feat, although the work is not at all completed. The motor on the locomotive did not run for reasons unknown, it was thought to be a bad motor and so a replacement, with a cryptic message on it, was included.

Fortunately the replacement was not needed, because when the lead weights were removed it was discovered that a wire had come loose. It had been soldered to the head of a brass screw, and over the years that solder joint had separated from the screw head.

This is a good thing IMO, since Cotton Boss is also in John's possession. It makes me wonder why the motor is in this box. But I digress.

Rather than attempt to solder the wire back to the screw I opted to make a tab out of brass and solder the wire to that. I also shortened the wires so they would fit better under the shell. Once finished the locomotive actually ran, poorly. A bit of oil on the drive line bearings and a bit of wheel gauge adjustment had it running quietly and smoothly again.

Once the chassis was running I then turned my attention to the shell. It was in three pieces, which were relatively easy to glue back together, and the front pilot with snowplow had come off as well. It, too, turned out to be relatively easy to put back on.

The locomotive still needs a good cleaning and lubrication, there are some wiring issues to address, it needs handrails fore and aft, and there is a front step missing on the conductors side. Future work will include hard-wiring the trucks to eliminate slide contacts, which will be done during the cleaning and lubrication, the addition of at least a rear Micro-Trains coupler (putting a front coupler on is possible, but will require the removal of the snowplow) and the completion of cosmetic work to include cleaning up the glue joints to try to make them a little less obvious.

After all this is done John plans to send the locomotive out to possibly have a sound decoder installed. That will require some milling of the frame, so a shop that specializes in that kind of work will be contracted to do it.

But for now, at least, I have a piece of history roaming the rails of my humble little layout.

Pickup Lines

 Several years ago I obtained a layout complete with trains from a gentleman that was moving out of his house into a retirement community and had to downsize. His focus was more artistic than model railroads, the train served as a component in one of his displays, so he wasn't going to miss it much.

I ended up taking the whole thing apart and using the pieces elsewhere. All told there was a full collection of DPM buildings, quite a few houses of various makes and sizes, a couple of built-up structures and all sorts of little N scale people. And the trains, let us not forget the trains.

The trains consisted of an oval of Bachmann EZ Track and a couple of turnouts and sidings, a Bachmann 0-6-0 in Southern livery, and a handful of  Bachmann freight cars with a Santa Fe caboose, new enough that they were equipped with fake knuckle couplers rather than Rapidos. The loco was one of the newer split-frame designs that actually run pretty well for a train set Bachmann.

The major problem these new run 0-6-0's have is pickups. As in, there aren't nearly enough of them, and the ones that are there aren't the best in the world. Only the front truck has pickups, and they consist of brass wipers that ride inside of the wheels. A better method of pickups is brass plates on the side frames of the trucks that the axle points ride in. All of the newer Bachmann steam locos have pickups of this type...except the 0-6-0 (and the non-J class 4-8-4, that has absolutely no tender pickups at all).

Once upon a time Bachmann carried a line of tenders that had all wheel pickups of the axle point kind in several different shapes and sizes. I managed to snag a slope-back tender for my Pennsy 0-6-0 and the difference is amazing. I picked up a few of these for other locos as well, but unfortunately Bachmann has long since dropped these tenders from their lineup. They do list the axle-point trucks as separate line items, but at this time they are all sold out However, they still have the 0-6-0 trucks with pickups as separate items. Not as good, but adequate.

The Southern 0-6-0 has a short square tender instead of the slope-back tender that came on my Pennsy switcher. I have been told this is more prototypical, but East Broad Top #3, a standard gauge 0-6-0, had the slope back tender so I guess it's a matter of what the road preferred when they ordered the locos. I decided to make this one a Prairie, so I got the leading and trailing trucks for it. While I was at it, I got a set of the not-as-good pickup trucks for it.

The front truck was fine as it was, so I drilled some holes in the bottom of the tender floor, one on either side of the bolster, and soldered wires onto the drawbar. I then drilled another set of holes on either side of the rear truck bolster and soldered the wires onto the pickup tabs of a new truck. It bolts right in, so no modifications were needed, and now the Southern switcher is now a Prairie with full tender pickups.

It runs much better than before as well, so we'll call this one a win.

Republic Locomotive Works

 If you model Nn3 you know Republic Locomotive Works.

A couple of months ago we were greeted with the sad news that Marshall Thompson, owner and operator of RLW, had passed away.

Other than the obvious tragedy of the loss to the family, this was a blow to the Nn3 community as well. Since RLW makes a lot of its own kits instead of just being a source for outside suppliers this put the future of many Nn3 models in jeopardy.

Today we were greeted with the happy news that Republic Locomotive Works has been purchased by Monroe Models. The assets of RLW are being moved to Minnesota and hopefully we will be able to once more purchase RLW kits.

Thank you Bruce Monroe and Monroe Models, may you find much success in your Nn3 venture.

Modern Power

 Last week I purchased one of these.

Normally I wouldn't be interested in such modern motive power since my railroad is set in the late transition era, and normally I wouldn't be interested in Norfolk Southern, either. But we have train shows coming up, and I am always looking for new and interesting trains to run at public shows. So why this loco?

So that I can do this with it. Yeah, it's the wrong number but it is the right type, and numbers can be changed.

Now all I need is some high-side gondolas in NS paint and I'm all ready for a ferry move to Strasburg.

Grrrrrrrr

I'm always on the lookout for new loads for cars to deliver to my team track. For instance, a couple of days ago I made a gravel load for a hopper car out of ballast and a styrene base and it turned out pretty good. I thought I might like a load of cars (as in automobiles), but the auto carriers are just too new for my era.

I did some research and found out before the era of auto racks some railroads, notably the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, delivered cars on truck trailers by way of TOFC loads. They did so by using 85 foot flat cars, which is way too big for my railroad, but one truck trailer will fit on a 40 foot flat car, so that's what I am going to do.

But to unload this flat car requires a ramp that the car can be pushed up against so that a tractor can hook up to the trailer and pull it off the flatcar. I didn't have a ramp...but I had a pile of stripwood.

Two hours later I had a frame for a ramp. All I needed was decking. I had some wooden coffee stirrers somewhere, so I went to try to locate them. When I came back, I found the dog had eaten my newly constructed ramp.

To say I was discombobulated is putting it mildly.

I never did find the coffee stirrers, but when the wife got home I handed the dog watching duties over to her and built another ramp. The decking is sheet basswood that I have scribed decking lines into. It is safely installed on my layout now, far away from chomping doggie jaws, and I think it will look pretty good after some weathering.

Shapeways has truck trailer auto carriers. They also have autos to put on them. Additionally, they have tractors to put on flatcars, and since I now have a ramp to unload them...

 

My team track has never been busier.

Back to the NCE

 I got an email last week saying my NCE PowerCab was in the mail.

This was welcome news, but rather unexpected since I had not received any word at all about it since I sent it in. I checked on the tracking number and the post office said it would be here Saturday. So today I went out to the mailbox and there it was!

I opened the box and the job sheet was the first thing I saw. Reading the job sheet showed that they had indeed found a faulty component that would keep the Cab Bus from operating, and on top of that they replaced a faulty potentiometer for the speed knob and threw in a new book for the 1.65 firmware upgrade.

I plugged the PowerCab into the left socket on the WFD31, turned the power on, and when the PowerCab booted up the light went from red to purple! Success! I connected my cell phone to the WFD31 network and for the first time the PVRR was wireless!

I plugged the Cab06 in and checked it out, and it works as well. So now I have both wireless operation and a throttle for my future yard. For now I have one locomotive programmed into the PowerCab and one programmed into the Cab06 so I can run them both at the same time without having to punch the Recall button.

I was a little put out that I had not gotten any updates while they had my system, I was at least expecting a "We found this wrong and it will cost you this much to fix it" but I can't argue with the results. The Cab Bus is up, the thumbwheel operation is flawless, and it only cost me shipping to Webster NY.

Fun little detail, I had sent it to New York in the original box all wrapped up with brown paper, and to send it back to me they unfolded the box and turned it inside out. I unfolded it and turned it back right side out and I'm using it to store my new manual and the extra cords.

One day soon I'll break out the Dynasis system and do a side by side by side comparison with it, the PowerCab and the Digitrax systems. Until then I have some trains to run.