Workshop Wednesday

While out chasing the HIRS party train, this set of Frisco power blasted by on a time freight. The trio had a fairly long train in tow as they lean into the 1.5% grade up to summit. Working on a video for this too.

 

You've outdone yourself Tom! Glad to see the #20 is willing to handle this new consist. What did you power it with - a Briggs & Stratton, or a "189" from EMD? (189 = 567/3).
K

 

I had been looking for a Toby 1500 for some time and finally got one. Just engine only as I have a brand new tender. My plan is to make 1507. This one was in good shape and Sunday I took it down to take it apart and strip the paint. That's when I discovered that some idiot had melted and poured lead into the boiler for weight. I fought with it for 4-5 hours and it wouldn't budge. By pouring it, it locked itself around screw heads and anything else that was sticking out inside the boiler. Trying to remove it, I broke a couple of solder joints which hold the boiler courses together. By then I had exhausted my vocabulary and traced his family tree back several generations, so I just took a torch and disemboweled it.
So I got the rear course back on straight.(The tapered course) The next course had deformed in the process, so I made a new course and soldered it to the other course and then got the smokebox soldered to that. Today, I made sure the whole boiler is aligned straight and true.
Next will be boiler bands and running boards. I sat the new dome castings on it to see how its looking. This will be fairly involved as I need to change the valve gear to Baker. Whoever the clown was, he sure caused a lot of extra work. Had he used Cerro bend, I could have just melted it out in my paint oven or in boiling water. I'm amazed it didn't unsolder everything when he poured that big turd in the boiler. View attachment 40576 View attachment 40576

 

Hang in there my friend! You and your talents will persevere and another wonderful SLSF 1500 locomotive model will result. SLSF 1507 is on the way!
K
ps - Kurt will receive his book the week after next when they get down to Naples for a vacation stay.

 

That has been a debate for some time, as to what kind of prime mover used. Hhmm, I just hope it makes the hill, would be embarrassing to have to double the hill.

 

Well, here is a project I have been working on and off for almost a year.
First it was the problem of finding enough Evergreen Plastic pipe to make the load, ended up buying from Burbank CA, 10 bags (2 pipes ea) of 1/2" pipe, cut to 12" long. Then I needed a jig to aid the build of these loads, some scale lumber for the wood these loads sit on and separate. The pipe was another thing to paint, first was a coat of white primer, then took a long piece of wood strip glued a small cotton ball to the end, dipped in rust colored paint and painted the insides of the pipes and then painted about 2 scale' of the ends, masked the ends and painted the pipe with Rustoleum safety green that was decanted into a 2oz scalecoat bottle.
The jig has marked lines where to place the strips of lumber, so they line up with the channel plastic installed on the decks of the cars.

You can see the wood strips under the pipe and the center wood pieces are inside the metal nuts used to hold it all together while drying, Used matt gel for glue.

I next used 1/64 graphic tape to simulate metal banding around each set of 2 pipes, repeated this process until I had 6 sets of 2 pipes glued and banded. Then I started gluing 3 sets of 2, to make the load, I then used 1/32 tape to wrap the entire load. That was a challenge. I then placed scale 8x8 into the channels and applied glue to the strips under the loads, placed the loads on the car and let them sit over night, resulting in removable pipe loads on these 2 BLMA 89' flats.
Kinda looks like dis.





Being as these car have shift-able loads, there will be placement restrictions on trains, cant be next to tanks cars or other HAZMAT loads.
Thanks for looking.

 

They’ve never looked better, man! Great structures and photo. I always enjoy seeing your modeling skills displayed so well. You seriously should submit some of your shots to Trackside Photos.

 

Berkshire Models is a new one on me. And they're right here in my area. When did they start up?

 

Wow! I bet there’s a wasp nest in there somewhere. Amazing realism as usual.

 

Here's my latest Fast Tracks creation; A new Diamond Line 90 degree crossing in HO Code 83. All that you see came in a kit; four castings, eight pieces of rail, wood ties, and pc ties. Easy build, awesome product!