Workshop Wednesday

He also shared some pics of some finished pieces on his layout. No Frisco yet but I'll get him there.

 

I soldered an Arduino Pro Mini to a project board, then wired up resistors, power leads, sensor leads, and one of the streetlights.

With overhead light on:

Overhead light off:



Going to my friend's house tomorrow to work on his layout. He said bring something to run...Hmmmm....

 

Brought an Athearn Genesis Mikado and my Bowser Ten Wheeler. The Mikado runs poorly on my layout--it has trouble with Atlas turnouts--and it ran poorly on my friend's layout. He has Peco track, but it still had problems. I'm gonna have to do some work to this one.

The Bowser ran great, though. A little noisy, but pulled just fine.

 

gna, the Bowser 4-6-0 looks like it would make a nice 1400-class. The domes appear too far apart for a 1100-class, but just right for a 1400. I bet you told us your plans for it, but that is too far up the thread by now !

 

I think I posted about it in HO Steam Locomotives. I wasn't sure what number to give it. The drivers are smallish, in the neighborhood of 62", so 1400-class is not quite right. The dome shape and spacing is off for a 1100-class, so I called it 714 and said close enough, though that's not right, either. Maybe I'll make it a 1400-class. Anyway, I like the way the vandy tender looks, so I'm keeping it. There's a video of it on page 3 of this thread, on a different layout.

I had a plastic Pyle headlight on the plastic coonskin lamp bracket, but I managed to break it off. (where's the "clumsy" emoticon?) I also got the bracket on slightly off center, so I need to redo with brass ones. I finally found some brass pilot ladders, so I can detail my Bowsers and an MDC Roundhouse 2-8-0. These old kits are pretty crude compared to the new plastic steamers, but when you get them tweaked, they sure can pull...

 

Tie strips came in for my FastTracks cross-over...one pretty much done. Gave it a quick shot with the Rustoleum camo, but will paint along with other track once on the layout. Need to order some long tie strips for the one in the middle....for some reason, does not come with the pre-made strips.

 

Here is mine this week. My buddy Terry texted me the proto picture one night after he stumbled on to it. I needed one. I found a cheap old Ramaxx car and got on it. It is almost done,just got to fade the black BN logos and lettering. I figured I wouldn't do anything extra to detail it just paint and decal work so it would be cheap and quick. Enjoy.






Steve

 

I agree, Steve is definitely a master!

 

Thanks guys. The old Ramaxx car was just an eBay find. I was looking for an undecorated one and ended up getting a couple Frisco ones.
Far from a master but I do appreciate the compliment for sure. I just happen to like painting stuff. I have no layout even.
I’d say there is about 8-10 hours in that. With a couple to go fading the logos next. The first set of decals were old an Herald King set and they fell apart in the water. So I had to buy a new set. Frustrating. My fault for not testing them or just clear coating them to start with.
Thanks for the good words guys, I appreciate you checking this out.


Steve

 

I tried to make my own ground foam several years ago--I found an old food processor and I cut the foam up and added craft paint, water, and alcohol. It was still very coarse, but I got a coffee grinder recently, and ground it up much finer:

Grinder got a little warm, so I'd let it cool down before I burned up the motor.

 

Interestingly, MicroTrains released a very similar car as part of thier n-scale weathered releases this month

https://www.micro-trains.com/index....hered-rel-9-18-09244420&tag=sept2018weathered

 

That’s neat. I will have to look for a proto photo of that. Odd coincidence it just came too. Ha. Thanks for sharing that.

 

Great find Paul, I'll add it to the Manufactured Releases Matrix and post the matrix tomorrow.

Joe

 

I just had to do a double take on those Microtrains cars.... It's the same car number that you did.... my guess is the Microtrains car is just that same car before the lower portion was repainted to cover the graffiti.

Paul

 

Paul I think that is exactly right! Funny it came out as I built mine. Trust me coincidence because I would never think of checking an N scale site. Neat before and after that way though.
They have done some great weathered cars I have seen, neat they chose this.

 

Got the logo faded. Here is mine finished up and outside.