Workshop Wednesday

Great stuff every one this Wednesday!! Don, tell us how you really feel about Dong Jin LOL.
I made some progress in the last couple days on the drop deck SL-SF 3900, used decals from many different sources, Model Masters Insignia Yellow, some gloss coat before and after the decals were added then a dullcoat was applied. Gonna let this sit for a few days before weathering.
Another post for the load
Thanks for looking!

 

The load for SL-SF 3900 was painted a random grey, and a generous amount of decals applied, maybe a bit too many, but I like it them, kinda breaks it up a bit, and adds to the diversity of colors.




Thanks again for looking!

 

Wow! That’s looking really nice. Nice paint jobs and decal work.

 

Thanks Guys for all the welcomed comments! Sherrel you are touched, my friend.

 

I think I'm done with the 185 except for maybe a touch up here or there. I will never do another one. I did one when they first came out and I guess I forgot the pain and agony of it. I've added as much weight as there is room in there and it should pull 2-3 Walthers plastic HW cars. If I had some "Bullfrog Snot", I would put it on the insulated drivers to give it some tractive effort. Motor was shot, gearbox was junk, cylinders looked like something from Six Flags and tender trucks were poor copies of Cal Scale and wouldn't even roll. The thing was a bucket of junk. Back in the day, someone should have dropped Dong Jin into N. Korea.
I spent more time trying to rescue this thing than anything I've done in a long time.
I've drilled out the headlight and smokebox front for a headlight bulb. The one I did years ago was done the same way and I put a Digitrax DCC decoder in it. Lettering is Dulux Gold. It would be a job to do DCC/sound.

 

Yep, They were iffy at best, and we were not encouraged to use them, to the point where we were told to set out another car with good hand brakes, to hold these old stem winders in place. If you want a good hand brake on these type brakes you need a brake club to apply and release it, I dont know of any trainmen carrying brake clubs any more, or they would tell us to skate the car. One of the issues is that the chain is winding over itself at the bottom of the staff, and as any of you have wound a chain over itself you know it is subject to binding, popping and carrying on, just not a good situation when your leaning over the brake to apply it. Like Andre and William said, they were almost always bent and just were where they were unless you have a carman with a big hammer.

Skate.




A drawing of same.



A modern version, note the gear reduction to apply more tension

 

Hi John,
Really no reason for one over the other to be taller or in the up position, other than what is written in the above post. The one thing I forgot to do is cut the staff off under that taller winder staff, Those buggers are always bent.
We have several different hand brakes available for boxcars flat cars gondolas, but painfully few for flat cars, especially the staff type brakes.