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 Posted - December 21 2012 : 2:47:02 PM
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quote:  O.O where is that?? If I didn't know any better I'd say it was a model but it ain't!
Originally posted by microbusss - December 21 2012 : 10:54:54 AM
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pittsburghrailfan/7584331530/in/faves-9977705@N05/
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
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Posted - December 22 2012 : 12:28:26 AM
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I thought that looked like Spencer! About a half hour from home, but somehow I missed that gathering! 
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - December 22 2012 : 12:49:43 AM
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Now thats one hell of a roundhouse! WOW! My layout when done, will look really close to that!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid... 
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - December 22 2012 : 03:55:37 AM
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The Spencer roundhouse is open to the public as part of the North Carolina Transportation Museum.
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - December 22 2012 : 09:53:46 AM
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quote:My favorite of late: an early Consolidated Foods era ALCO 630, fresh from the paint shop.
Originally posted by bkoch - December 19 2012 : 10:55:37 AM
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That one has the prototypical trucks with the Rivarossi drive. How well does it run?
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
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bkoch
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Posted - December 22 2012 : 12:30:30 PM
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quote: [quote]
That one has the prototypical trucks with the Rivarossi drive. How well does it run?
Originally posted by NC shortlines - December 22 2012 : 09:53:46 AM
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Hi NC shortlines. I'd say it's like any Tyco locomotive: plenty of potential, but some effort is required to release it. After an initial clean and lube it was kind of disappointing; no low speed capability and it would bind and click severely in turns. So, here's what I did:
1) I found some sprue and rough spots on the universal joints in the truck drive line, so I chucked them in a drill and polished the running surfaces with some super fine sandpaper.
2) I trimmed some sprue out of the hard rubber worm gears in the trucks
3) I replaced the Rivarossi motor with a modern can motor
4) I replaced the transmission gears (one had split) with some brand new NWSL gears
After the overhaul, the locomotive is extremely smooth and quiet. Whisper-quiet is more like it. It has good low speed performance and pulling power too. If I wanted to really go nuts with it, I might consider replacing the wheel axle gears with NWSL worm gears. It's not a necessity, but it would probably improve overall perfomance by a few percent more.
It's the old familiar story with Tyco, and maybe Rivarossi as well. There's a good design in there somewhere that was almost completely hidden by some bad manufacturing. With good tolerances on the parts, this locomotive could have matched or even out-performed anything from the same time period.
I would offer one word of caution that is unrelated to performance if you're considering one of these early 630's. The parts made of black polystyrene (chassis and truck frame details) have become quite brittle with age. The chassis is often cracked in several places and all of the tabs that hold the car body usually shear off. It might be caused by exposure to oil and grease, or it might just be inferior plastic. Lasting repairs can be made with liquid cement, but still this is something to watch out for.
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Posted - December 23 2012 : 11:20:36 PM
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bkoch,
one more question. How did you duplicate the 1102 on the side of the cab? Looks to me that you got the font exactly right.
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bkoch
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Posted - December 24 2012 : 01:17:27 AM
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quote:bkoch,
one more question. How did you duplicate the 1102 on the side of the cab? Looks to me that you got the font exactly right.
Originally posted by NC shortlines - December 23 2012 : 11:20:36 PM
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Hi NC shortlines. The 1102 is a Microscale decal that came from the gothic condensed sheet (#90022). You're right, it's pretty darn close to the original font, but maybe a little bit thinner. I happened to have those decals laying around, so I didn't check to see if Microscale has anything else that is an even closer match.
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