1st update from me! I got the major work done on the 4-4-0 and it is now running very reliably! I have several videos which I will upload after I get them edited to a sequence. Here are three pictures to tie you over until then. First up is a shot of the New 4-4-0. Anyone familiar with this item will notice the tender trucks and the nose. The original nose was simply a plastic cap. I decided to replace it with a brass tube, packed with lead. This adds quite a considerable load to the engines tractive effort! Next you'll notice the tender trucks. Those provide a 100% improvement over the worst truck designs I've ever seen, especially for trucks which pick up power. (I should get a shot of the old truck for comparison for everyone). The new trucks sport wheels grounded down from a 33" metal wheelset. I used a drill press to hold the axle while I filed the wheel tread on 8 wheel sets (the insulated wheel removed). I then cut the axles to just less than half and joined two halves inside an evergreen plastic rod which keeps the axle straight, and each side insulated. Best of all, this means I now have pointed axle wheel sets the proper size to fit this tender! Now to build a truck to hold the pointed axle wheels. I used brass sheet and a punch to tap divots for the axle point then soldered them at the necessary spacing on a piece of PC board. I broke the circuit between rails and drilled a hole for the bolster pin. I then had a free rolling truck, with insulated halves and the appropriate size for the 4-4-0 tender! I replaced the stock 3 pole motor with a new 5 pole motor and gave her a test run. At first the new tender trucks tracked terribly, but after some careful tuning to make them free floating (those tiny flanges are picky!) she can now take on anything the rails throw at her, facing point turnouts included! Finally for your viewing pleasure, a shot showing the look improvement of lowering the ride height on Bachmann "Old Timers" Passenger cars. Lowering these just ever so slightly, improves that look many times over!
Here's a quick video tease. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHoiY-gelHM&fmt=18 After re-designing and re-building several features, this N Scale 4-4-0 now performs very reliably! Watch as she glides down the rails. Notice how she even takes on two facing point turnouts with out a hitch! Did I mention she's pulling that load up a 1.5% grade! That lovely motor scream is the product of no decoder running on DCC, but that decoder will soon be installed as well.
I worked a bit on textures and foliage... trying to get the right ratio of dirt to plants in an area that's mainly industrial.
Update#3. (I hope it's okay to post more than once a week?!?) Got the seams in the foam filled,roughed in Bear Creek and the Red Cedar River,laid roadbed and mainline track. And (drum roll) Extra 2267, the Rice Lake Turn, arrives in Rice Lake, Wis.: Bear Creek: Red Cedar: Still need the spurs installed, and extend the main around the end of the peninsula. I'll need more track for that. I had 33', only about 8' left. So my choice is spurs or more main? Keep workin'!! Terry
Terry, You can lay 25 feet of mainline in the time it takes me to glue 10 cardboard strips together! Looking real good. Might I ask what you are using to fill in the foam gaps there along the creek bed? Almost looks like some sort of putty. Jamie
Thanks, Guys! Jaime, I use tile backer tape( looks like a mesh drywall tape ) and drywall mud for the seams. It's sticky as it comes off the roll, so it lays down good. It was left over from a floor job I did. Drywall mud for the blending of the water courses,too. Terry
Burt steel trestle construction starting soon Returned today from visiting family in West Virginia and ready to tackle a bridge job. Here's the site with ballast and ground cover in place. The track spanning the chasm is Micro Engineering code 55 bridge track with the close tie spacing. The bridge will be a steel trestle: I-beam stringers atop H-pile bents. Here is a prototype steel bent: I'll have to build a jig for consistent assembly. These proportions aren't quite right; I was experimenting with the joints and the black spray primer (still wet in the photo). If it's too cold for garage work (new project car), I may get a good chunk of the bridge fabricated tomorrow.
First Update on the GGNM Sorry, still no pics folks, so perhaps it didn't really happen? Yesterday and today, I reduced a 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" maple shop grade plywood to benchwork. I also reduced a 42" x 48" remnant of a sheet of 1/2" Baltic Birch to the components of benchwork, and cut 85% of the joinery for said benchwork. Last, I picked up another 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" mystery ply from the BORG, which should provide me with the remaining pieces parts for my benchwork. I also ordered some hardware I'll be needing, ordered in the track I'll need to replace track I'll be requisitioning from a neighbor, and made a few adjustments to the trackplan. Tomorrow (actually, later today after I get up, since it's "wee hours" right now), I'll be finishing up the benchwork, unless it's too cold outside. The project is portable, so I'm doing a fair amount of gluing, which becomes problematic when working in an unheated garage. Nonetheless, at a minimum, I'll be able to bust down the new ply into components, cut any necessary joinery, etc. IF everything goes to plan, I should be start laying track on Thursday. WHOOHOOOO! Grace and peace, BD
A quick update: I had a set-back with the 4-4-0, a completely mysterious motor malfunction. If I disconnected the engine from the tender (the motor lives in the tender), the motor would idle and rev up perfectly fine. Then some how, when I connected the engine, the motor would only idle sporadically and not rev up at all. In fact when power was applied, the motor went dead all together, not a short because other trains kept on rolling, but simply went dead. I'm baffled on all accounts as the engine is linked by a plastic drive shaft and a plastic draw bar, and applies no irregular pressure/torque to the motor, yet this malfunction would only happen when the engine was connected. So I spent the last few days ripping out what was a new motor, and replacing it with another new 5 pole motor. And wouldn't you know it, everything else went wrong with it. The most aggravating, the draw bar link on the engine snapped. Being cast metal the only remedy I could think of was super glue which is something I'd rather not rely on for what will ultimately hold the entire weight of any train pulled. Does anyone know of a better way to splice cast metal?
I spent the afternoon working with plaster. First, filling in and finishing the roads in the back of the town section. Added some old foundation pieces, to represent old buildings, after some earth and grasses are added. I had some left over, tinted plaster.. so I used it to make a scrap pile of old concrete.
More work with Fiddletown. All turnuts are finished, with manual actuation from both sides. Now I'm waiting for a parcel with tracks. Wolfgang
1st update - The Bridge Pass The terrain has been prepared, rocks moulded, tainted and installed. I made a wide opening in preparation for a cavern I figured would be fun to model. The rocks are now installed for a test fit. It's not too bad. I'm pretty sure I can work out the gaps. Here, they are tainted and permanently installed. I used Raw Umber and Slate Grey taints. And, finally, a close-up-ish on the rocks details to reveal the cavern entrance! That's all for now. A copious NYE dinner is inbound. I'll be back with more updates when I'm done passing out!
Burt trestle construction progress I built a simple jig for fabricating steel pile bents. I wasn't satisfied with my results until the third bent was complete; I'm counting the first two bents as practice runs. The curved superstructure is made of four strips of styrene I-beam. Since the track was already in place, it provided a handy bending and gluing jig for forming the curve. I wish I had taken more pictures - there were lots of temporary styrene braces applied for holding the curve that ultimately were cut away leaving the structure you see here. The bents are spaced 15 feet apart. Thus, I left unpainted surfaces on the bottom of the curves beams at the needed spacing to allow gluing the bents in place. The finished superstructure was useful for laying out the bent spacing and alignment. Eventually, the track got superglued to the superstructure when it was pinned in its final position. This shot above shows how four of the seven bents are parallel though the superstructure is curved. The parallel bents allow passage of not only trains but also an adjacent roadway accessing the village of Burt. More after the jump...
Foam terrain and roadbed simplifies structure installation like this. A utility knife made the substructure exacavation clean and quick. If I dug a hole too deep, a simple filler of scrap styrofoam helped wedge a bent in place. Then, just like in real life, I backfilled the excavated holes with select material. I simply used dried sand to fill the holes. An eye dropper is the best tool for applying isopropyl alcohol for wetting then diluted matte medium for bonding. In this next picture the glue is drying. Next, I need to build the abutments, add edge timbers and lay code 40 inner guardrails. Can anyone recommend a good source for code 40 rail?
Great stuff Todd! I simply used styrene strip for the guard rails on the little timber trestle on my showcase module. Installation was easy as 123 using plastic cement.
