Workshop Wednesday

Here's another F&C project done in honor of Tony Koester two years ago. I took a lot of photos, but I can't find them. Frank Winner and I drove up to NJ one weekend many years ago from Sevena Park and ran during one of Tony's op sessions. Jim Boyd ran my student trip. We also visited Tony's neighbor and helped a little with wiring that huge Erie layout - can't remember the owner's name, but I was written up in RMC.

 

Nice work on your car Doug!!!

Joe

 

I figure everybody was a little busy last week and not much to post. Well, except Doug who looks busier than a Chinese sweat shop these days!
Decals going on Keith's 904 and 914

Also a little more on the MKT Cline. I got the fenders together and the snatch block for the main winch cable. Working on the front bumper tomorrow and about ready for a coat of paint on the body. 6 months til RPM wish me luck. Hopefully some of you got some stuff done.

 

Yup, I got nothing.

 

This one's a few months old. Our club HO op sessions feature a lot of action at a two-industry town named Grain Corner. There was no agent station there. I looked through all the estate donated models but found non small enough. One Walthers station had promise, but it was too big. I ordered another kit from Walthers and took two scale feet off the depth and eight scale feet off the width. It still just barely fit. It was fun to bash this excellent kit.

 

More:

 

Nice work Doug

 

Doug,

Is this for the layout in the Knoxville area? If so could you provide me with a website or information on how to get involved with that club.

Thanks,
Matt

 

Yes - Harold's Erie layout was a basement full.

 

Matt, The Knoxville Area Model Railroaders have nine layouts hosted in (G outside) the Oak Ridge Children's Museum. Our web site is inactive, but the page on Facebook is updated daily. We have open house every third Sunday, 1-4 PM. Stop by. I'm usually in the large room with the HO layout, which we operate every Tuesday morning 9-12, members only.

 

Chris--

Yeah, I'm with you there. I wonder if my problem is I let it sit for a couple of years and the lube has hardened up? Last time tried to run it, it was really sluggish. Maybe I just need to lube it a bit and break it in again. I found this thread, but the pictures are suffering from photobucket-itis.

As far as I can tell, the Bachmann Decapod and Connie both use a cogged drive belt. You can get a belt from Bachmann. The hard part is putting it on...
I was at our regular Thursday night layout work the other day, and in the junk pile my friend had a Bachmann 2-8-0 with problems partially stripped down--he had the boiler shell off, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how it came apart to lubricate or check/change the belt. I could ask if I could borrow it and see if I could figure it out.

EDIT: found this thread: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/185795.aspx

I've been posting a bit on the thread on Depression-era modeling at MRH, and I wanted to recommend modeling the Frisco, using a Bachmann Russian Decapod and Accurail cars, but I'm a little hesitant to recommend it.

 

Don--W'ed still love to see a book (or even a magazine article) of photos of Don Wirth's superb HO Frisco engines!!!

Tom G.

 

It's cold here and my basement isn't really heated, so I snuck upstairs and worked in the kitchen some when my wife and daughter were out of town over the weekend. They're back, so back to the basement for me. I'm not sure what I did, but I got my Bachmann Russian running. I took off the bottom plate and checked the lube. The lube seemed ok, so I tried it on my test track but it just hummed.



I tried nudging it and it looked like some "magic smoke" came out of the cab, so I shut it down. I'd guess it was from the motor but who knows? Maybe it was the belt? I don't think it was the decoder(which is in the tender). I came back to it today and it started to move with some gentle nudging so I ran it around for awhile then coupled some freight cars to it. It can pull 8-10 cars no problem, so I guess it will be all right. The Sound Decoder seems to work ok but the headlights are erratic, so I may reset the decoder and try again.



I worked on my PRR E6 some more, running on DC, then temporarily installing a TCS T1 for DCC. I had to make some minor tweaks, but it seems to be ok. Sounds like grinder, though:



Any guesses what I've got here?



Finally, I took apart that Bachmann Northern, and the gear and 2 axles are split. I'm looking to see if I can find parts, but I'm not having a lot of luck:

 

Finishing Keiths SD45s finally. They got cleared tonight and just need handrails to get stuck in the mail.


Friscoized windshield: