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Author Previous Topic: R.W.P. Lumber Co. Topic Next Topic: 3D passenger chassis/interior for the Aerotrain!  

scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - November 03 2020 :  4:30:24 PM Link directly to this topic  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
With the local swap meets cancelled for the COVID-19 lockdown, I didn’t have new projects coming from new purchases, but had a hankering to tinker with a project. In the various parts boxes were bits and pieces of incomplete locomotives. Why not cobble them together into something.


An old Marx power truck became the heart of a boxcab diesel whose shell came from old caboose bodies. I had ignored that power truck because the gears didn’t mesh properly. One of them was a bit cracked, and I blamed that, but it turned out to work okay with a little shim under the motor.

I had bought the broken hulk of an MDC Old Timer Consolidation to scavenge the motor from it, but then I took it as a challenge to see if I could get it to run. A little fitting and filing made a stiff mechanism move more or less freely. The old motor I replaced with the one from this engine could be coaxed back to life. The broken cab could be patched up and a variety of missing and broken detail parts were replaced. I had an engine, but not a tender. Pending something better, an old slope back tender was borrowed. It looks odd on what is basically a mainline engine, but it’s been done in real 12 inch to the foot railroading. When swap meets resume, I’ll have an eye out for something more normal looking.

Left over from another project was the chassis of an 0-4-0T. I also had bits and pieces of various locomotive shells, one from a saddle tanker and another with the smoke box I needed to lengthen the tank engine shell. Some cutting and pasting with some added detail parts gave me a complete locomotive.

Who knows what hobby fun can hide in the junk boxes of a model railroad packrat?

Carpe Manana!
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wks
Big Boy



parrot2015

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 Posted - November 03 2020 :  4:36:51 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add wks to Buddylist

Very nice Don. Sometimes you can turn negative events into positive results.

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BlaxlandAlex3
Big Boy


Jupiterpfp2

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 Posted - November 03 2020 :  5:05:45 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add BlaxlandAlex3 to Buddylist
Nice! I love your work shaggy!
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Erik The Train Nerd
Hudson

Tyco/Mantua Rio Grande 4-8-0

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 Posted - November 03 2020 :  5:08:51 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Erik The Train Nerd to Buddylist
That is great I love them!
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RP model railroads
Big Boy



DOUBLE NICKEL55

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 Posted - November 03 2020 :  8:50:13 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add RP model railroads to Buddylist
Incredible work, as always!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16

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Chops124
Big Boy





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 Posted - November 04 2020 :  07:29:48 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Chops124 to Buddylist
Lemonade from lemons.
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Dr. John
Switcher

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 Posted - November 04 2020 :  8:34:22 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Dr. John to Buddylist
Really nice and unique locomotives! Excellent work.
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Srenchin
Big Boy


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 Posted - November 20 2020 :  12:13:31 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Srenchin to Buddylist
Your consolidation model with sloped back tender reminds me of how prototype railroads would turn obsolete mainline power into switch engines. Consolidation locomotives were often times turned into 0-8-0 switch locomotives by simply removing the pilot truck and replacing the cowcatcher with a foot-board switcher pilot.




Proudly keeping Tyco Pluggers out of landfills since 2016
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - November 20 2020 :  09:25:30 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
quote:
Your consolidation model with sloped back tender reminds me of how prototype railroads would turn obsolete mainline power into switch engines.
Originally posted by Srenchin - November 20 2020 :  12:13:31 AM



The converse was also sometimes true. The Rio Grande K27 Mikadoes were originally delivered with sloped back tenders, presumably for mainline use. That didn't last long, though. They all eventually got box tenders.

Carpe Manana!
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Erik The Train Nerd
Hudson

Tyco/Mantua Rio Grande 4-8-0

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 Posted - November 20 2020 :  09:33:10 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Erik The Train Nerd to Buddylist
I never knew that! That would be really interesting to see
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - November 20 2020 :  3:37:45 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
quote:
I never knew that! That would be really interesting to see

Originally posted by Erik The Train Nerd - November 20 2020 :  09:33:10 AM


There's a picture in this document:
http://blackstonemodels.com/loco/k27/k27history.php

Carpe Manana!
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - January 12 2021 :  11:05:41 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
Hi-F Salvage

As a kid I got an old Athearn Hi-F GP7 from a friend who was getting out of model railroading. It was missing the motor, the hand rails and one horn. It sat around in a box for decades, while I occasionally thought of powering it. I never had a narrow enough motor with a shaft at both ends, but I did have a narrow motor lying around. That, a bit of steel shaft, some model airplane fuel line and some Goody's hair bands made a cobbled up drive for one truck. There was not enough traction for the drive bands on just one shaft, so I coated it with a little Shoe Goo. Couplers were broken, so I cobbled up the mounting for some Kadees.


Now, with enough traction in the drive, it could slip its wheels. There was a space 3/4" x 3/8" x 3" in the hood above the drive. If I could cast a lead weight, perhaps the engine would have traction enough between wheel and rail to get out of its own way. Odd bits of lead from tire balancing weights, fishing sinkers and whatever else I could find were put in a steel can and melted in a fire. Here, you can see that one weight turned out not to be lead, but there was enough in the pour for the weight, plus a little left over. Tip: The lead will only melt if you fan the fire.


The mold was a wooden form, lined with aluminum foil. The wood scorched a bit, but held up okay.


Leftover lead was poured into flat steel pans to make slabs that could be cut into more weights. Candle soot served as a mold release. Metal that was not lead, but had been mixed in was fished out.


A couple blocks of plastic, glued inside the hood, hold the weight in place.


As a kid, I'd bent some railings out of tinned copper wire which was too soft and the results were not good, so I set about making stanchions for a new set on this jig. The two pins (track nails with heads removed) brace the wire for a tight loop and reversing curve to hold the railing.


The excess wire from the end of the loop is cut off.


The loop is squeezed down to the diameter of the railing around a straight pin.


One finished stanchion serves to measure the bend for the rest, so they're all the same height (more or less).



New railings are bent from piano wire for better stiffness and the railings and stanchions are installed. Seen close up, they kind of reek of home talent, but at a casual look, they give the sense of railings present. Painting them black helps make imperfections less conspicuous.

That gleaming horn sticking out the front of the cab is turned from a brass sprue off of a cast detail part. I don't think that the Great Northern ever mounted horns this way, but it's how they were on the really old Athearns.


It's pulling a short train, but with only one truck powered three cars and a caboose are a real load on the ruling grade of the torture track. Compared to a geared drive, it's not a very smooth or powerful runner, but the tinkering was fun, and just for the sake of doing it, I've sort of wanted to do this for years.



Carpe Manana!
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Chops124
Big Boy





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 Posted - January 12 2021 :  11:26:08 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Chops124 to Buddylist
Great stuff!
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BlaxlandAlex3
Big Boy


Jupiterpfp2

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  07:28:27 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add BlaxlandAlex3 to Buddylist
I always enjoy seeeing what work you do shaggy, awesome restoration. Working with lead must be dangerous, no?
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RP model railroads
Big Boy



DOUBLE NICKEL55

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  08:00:03 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add RP model railroads to Buddylist
Awesome, as always, Shaggy! Nice restoration!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16

Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/rpmodelrailroads

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rp_model_railroads/
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  10:22:23 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
quote:
Working with lead must be dangerous, no?
Originally posted by BlaxlandAlex3 - January 13 2021 :  07:28:27 AM


Like anything hot, it's awfully dangerous if you're not careful.

Carpe Manana!
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Bamos
Big Six

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  5:58:49 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Bamos to Buddylist
Nice save Scshaggy a classic locomotive from my favorite railroad.
most lead now is antimony a lead substitute but even real lead isn't that dangerous if you work it in a ventilated area and don't lick it.

Bill
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Erik The Train Nerd
Hudson

Tyco/Mantua Rio Grande 4-8-0

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  7:21:18 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Erik The Train Nerd to Buddylist
Nice work!
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - January 13 2021 :  9:50:02 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Carpe Manana!
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Dr. John
Switcher

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 Posted - January 20 2021 :  8:29:45 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Dr. John to Buddylist
Reminds me of making lead soldiers when I was a kid. Always had to cover the inside of the molds with candle soot so the soldiers would release properly. I doubt such activity would be considered an appropriate hobby for kids today! Wish I still had the molds and the little electric stove and ladle for the lead ingots, but they were all sold in an estate sale when my Father passed some years ago.

Nice work reviving the old Geep. Never had a Hi-F Athearn, just a couple of old rubber-band drive Athearn Hustlers.
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scsshaggy
Big Boy


scsshaggy

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 Posted - January 20 2021 :  10:44:17 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add scsshaggy to Buddylist
quote:
Reminds me of making lead soldiers when I was a kid. Always had to cover the inside of the molds with candle soot so the soldiers would release properly. I doubt such activity would be considered an appropriate hobby for kids today! Wish I still had the molds and the little electric stove and ladle for the lead ingots, but they were all sold in an estate sale when my Father passed some years ago.
Originally posted by Dr. John - January 20 2021 :  8:29:45 PM


My brother had a set like you describe. That's how I knew about the candle soot.

Carpe Manana!
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Chops124
Big Boy





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 Posted - January 21 2021 :  12:33:02 AM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Chops124 to Buddylist
You guys and your molten lead! Geez!
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Dr. John
Switcher

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 Posted - January 26 2021 :  12:05:48 PM Link directly to this reply  Show Profile  Add Dr. John to Buddylist
quote:
You guys and your molten lead! Geez!

Originally posted by Chops124 - January 21 2021 :  12:33:02 AM



Yep. And walked uphill to school through the snow (both ways) in south Florida!
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