Workshop Wednesday

Thanks Keith. I think it comes with a oil-burner tender insert...hmmm.

-Bob T.

 

Been at it out in my building. Turned a sow's ear into a purse.

The sow's ear:

A couple years ago I purchased a used (assembled) MDC Old Timer w/51" drivers for a song off eBay. When I received it, I saw why it was so cheap. Looked pretty rough. Off it went in the tray of "Projects" for a future time. The other day while taking inventory, and it was that 2-6-0's turn to be evaluated. It was worse than I expected. Almost EVERYTHING had been botched in some way. The frame's axle slots were wallowed out (by filing, or by wear?), the boiler has broken places on it, the cab (I think) is salvageable, but has its issues, too. The model was really, really rough. About the only things I was actually able to salvage for reuse were the drivers, cylinders, rods, and some small parts. The frame, boiler, and other parts were junk.

The purse:

So, armed with the usable set of MDC 51" OT drivers (of which I'm short of), I went through my box of drivers and found an MDC 51" blind driver. That was exactly what I needed to to have enough 51" drivers to make another 2-8-0. So, I pulled out a OEM MDC 2-8-0 frame from my box of "Frames", cleaned it up (file work), and mounted the drivers, et al. Long story shortened, I now have a complete MDC 51" driver 2-8-0 ready for when it comes its turn to be fitted with a boiler/cab/etc.

Ain't I sumpthin???



Andre

 

Come on now go at least 3 ft long. I wana see what some others do for scenery. Great Choice !

 

Hi Tom.

Yes, there were indeed blind drivers on Colorado narrow gauge engines. The D&RG's class 2-8-0's used blind drivers on the second and third drivers. Most of the 2-6-0's had blind center drivers. Just like on the models, blind drivers aided the 1:1 in negotiating the tight curves (and tight stub switches early on) that were used, and continued to be equipped with blind drivers for duration of their service life.

Cold out your way?

Andre

 

Keith:

PM me with what you require, kind sir!

Thanks!

Andre

 

From the newspaper "Ozark Mountain Air - (slogan) It's Always Blowing" circa 1880s...

OZARK & SOUTHERN PASSES AIR

The passenger engines of the Ozark & Southern railroad are now equipped with the latest air pumping devices. This will allow the use of the new "automatic air brake" systems that are beginning to appear on railroads all over this great Nation.


Photograph supplied by the Ozark & Southern's Company Photographer.

Passengers availing themselves of the O&S in order to transport through the O&S's Ozark Subdivision will no longer have to clench the backs of the seats in front of them in wide eyed fear as the train falls perilously down the steep and crooked grades of the Ozark & Southern. We're sure there will be a collective sigh of relief from all concerned upon learning of the installation of air brakes in the passenger engines and passenger cars.

Engineer John "High Ball" Hall was reputed to have said that he preferred the days of hand brakes, for he enjoyed the challenge of getting such trains safely down the multitude of grades and tight curves of the Ozark & Southern. Hall added "when yer engine's a rockin' and rattlin' down those grades, with them cars a'followin' 'ya', and ye round a curve on two wheels... it's just downright excitin'. I'm a'gonna miss that, yes sir, I'm a'gonna miss that. I just may have to go back to freight service... at least until they's equipped with that new air contraption. I ain't piled up too many of 'em, so I don't see the problem."

But progress marches onward. This step is but the first step of the Ozark & Southern to bring itself up with the times. Watch the Ozark Mountain Air for more news of such progress on the O&S.

>>>

So there you have from an old news paper clipping!

What I done did:

Simple. Cut apart the dual single phase air pumps that come with all MDC Old Timer rod locomotives, shave the unwanted portions off with an Xacto, smooth with same, then file a press fit recess into the engine's foot board, press the compressor in place and presto: An air compressor is present to reflect the engine being air equipped. (As it should be in the late 1880s.)

All four of my my DCC/Sound B-mann NT 4-4-0's are now so equipped. Later on when the repaint/detail stage is reached for them, then piping can be run and other niceties, but for now this will do.

All fer now!

Andre

 

To keep with the TOC19 theme, I thought I'd build one of my old Roundhouse Old Time kits. I assumed I'd be filing, but I was wrong:

RUH-ROH

It's too warped to fix, so I pulled out some evergreen styrene, and started to build a frame:



I used novelty siding for the base and shapes I had on hand.



It needs weight and a stiffener before I string any truss rods, but I think I can save it.

 

Ouch! HOWEVER... nice looking sytrene frame 'ya made there!

Roundhouse/MDC "Old Timer" cars...

I love 'em.

That is the line of rolling stock with which I got my start in TOC19 back in the early 1980s. (And TOC19 has been a seductress ever since!) Coming from diesel modeling since the mid-1960s, upon my discovery of TOC19, I ended up succumbing to its siren call. I LOVED the truss rods, the smaller cars, the shorter trains, all of that, as well as the different "looks" that were seen during the span of decades that comprise the TOC19 modeling era's. I was originally going to model the 1920s (which technically isn't TOC19 modeling), but the more I read and saw pictures of early Ozark railroading, the further back I migrated in my time span. I am now back to the late 1880s, where I've pretty much stayed for some time now. (In the 1880s there were even SHORTER cars and trains than the 1900s!) I remember I would batch order Old Timers by the dozen from David McDonald at the "Golden Spike" hobby shop in Fort Smith. I also scooped 'em up at train meets. I sill like them, but even with my massive sell offs over the late 1990s, I have enough left to have all that I need to cover my proposed layout needs in view of the late 1880s. (36' cars were just beginning to gain favor on the railroads during the late 1880s.)

Biggest issue I've faced over the decades was that infernal "diesel or TOC19??" dilemma. THAT has cost me some false starts and dead ends, and significant time and money wasted. With my decision to do dual-era on the same physical layout, that's no longer a dilemma! (Which feels great.)

Typically, I'm "hot or cold" with my interests. Around 2 months is about the maximum and then I'm ready for a change. I've been modeling TOC19 for about 3 weeks now... so there's still some more TOC19 energy in me before I began to burn out and return to my diesel era. And so it will go: 2-3 months of progress on the equipment for TOC19, followed by 2-3 months progress on diesel equipment... and among all of that ought be layout construction pretty soon. In fact, I'm probably going to go to Fort Smith next week and pick up a pair of folding saw horses, and perhaps some L brackets. I reckon when that's done, it will be time to pick up some plywood and start on the lower level stage area!

Wow. Layout construction is arriving.

Andre

 

Tom:

So true. I've heard it said it was a case of "Little Engines and Big Men" (the title of a book that covers a biography of two brothers that railroaded in the Rockies from the early 1880s until retirement), and also read the term "wooden cars and iron men". Both are appropriate.

I readily admit that the rose-colored glasses I wear when I day dream about the "romance" of that era span has optimistically tinted my fullest understanding of just how tough railroading was "back then".

When I really get to thinking about it, there is there is NO WAY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH I would want to "go back" and railroad during the TOC19 era span. Since we're talking railroading in the winter, consider these artist renderings concerning every day tasks of various railroaders "back then", and nope, these aren't overly dramatized... these events happened, just never put on film...






And here's an artist's scene that REALLY drives home some of the perilous conditions they had to deal with:




No, I wouldn't want to do any of the above on a daily basis (for sure not that last picture)... but I must admit that painted scenes of railroading in those days, along with photographed scenes, and my ever present mental images of it, is the reason I've never been able to keep my TOC19 modeling urge at bay. Since the early 1980s, it ALWAYS comes back, no matter how determined I am to stay with diesels ONLY.

All fer now!

Andre

 

I started a couple of projects last night and made good progress today. Project #1 is something I've been wanting to do for a couple months now, and with the nice weather this weekend I finally felt like doing it. From some old junk I have laying around that doesn't run, I put together a Bachmann 4-8-4 engine with a tender from a Rivarasi 2-8-8-2. This combo looks close enough to the 4500 class northerns that I wanted to make it a display piece. I employed a trick I found that Ken posted, using a prismacolor erraser, I was able to remove the lettering from the bachmann engine. The numbers on the tender were painted on with some good enamel paint, because the erraser didn't do anything to them and a 24 hour soak in rubbing alcohol didn't do much either. So I ended up painting over it and it covered up just fine. I also decided to repaint the bright red cab roof to a solid black. This morning I picked up a can of flat black krylon from Hobby Lobby and some matte finish to go over it and I've gotta say I'm really happy with the results. The next step is to order some decals (and look at decal tutorials on youtube.) Before and after pictures posted below.

Project #2 is something I've thought about off and on for a long time, but never felt up to the task. I had a F7 AB set from Athearn laying around so I went to work whittling the excess details off of the roof last night, then dropped them in for a soak in rubbing alcohol. At some point in the past I had repainted them into a Katy red and I couldn't get the red to come off, but the black did. I called it good enough since this is an experiment. While at hobby lobby this morning, I found a good candidate for the yellow striping. It's called bright idea by Krylon. I think it's a great match for the more faded yellow look that the F units had. Side by side pictures posted with a Stewart F3. Next step is to come up with some sort of stencil to put over the yellow and apply a coat of black paint.

 

Looks good, Ethan. Seeing that Athearn F with the yellow on it (waiting for the masking tape and black paint)... brought back some mighty good memories of fun times modeling the Frisco!

Best of luck!

Andre

 

Andre, your MDC Old-Timer Consolidation project reminded me of one I did 3-4 decades ago. It is a great runner. I've yet to put a decoder in it.

 

Hi Doug!

I've liked the MDC Old Timer's since the early 1980s. They're nothing fancy, but like you say, filed and fitted carefully, they can reward you with some really nice performance. In the past I've repowered them with Sagami 16x30 round cans, but that requires cutting the back head part of the boiler and extracting the cast-in weight, then re-gluing it back together. Not for the faint of heart, but big 16x30 gives that extra performance that makes the effort worth while.

Also, they're a kit-basher's dream. I mix n' match, cut n' gouge, whatever... to come up with different looking combinations. Love 'em. I think I have something like 6 or 7 assembled powered mechanisms waiting for their turn to get a boiler and cab combo.

Andre

 

Got this finished up last night, except it needs some longer couplers sometime. It was actually TOO bright outside today which is rare in Ohio anymore. It made the car look toyish but you get the idea. Thanks, Steve