The Northern Pacific Lester WA 2 story depot: It's not finished and has a few flaws. After painting I discovered that I installed the stationmaster's residence door upside down. See the doorknob on the upper right side of the door? I'm waiting for some square plastic tube in 2mm and 3mm to arrive so I can make chimney's, and I need to make the heating oil tank for this side: I just finished the shingles last night, so next I need to make the roofwalks, ladders, and water barrels for the roof:
Long time from the past posts !!! I'm adding a FRED to an MTL short caboose. My train show bud Matt run's ~125 car trains at each and there is a periodic loss of cars (general a finger, stroller bump to the legs or the kids anxiously pulling them up to eye level. Matt's consist is virtually all MTL rolling stock so almost all are dark colors. So I thought to change out the brown Santa Fe for a bright yellow one. And some eye candy with the FRED. I don't like axle pickups, unless they are factory and a certainly cannot or do not want to change the running characteristics. I placed a 80 mA/Hr LiPo battery, Ngineering FRED Simulator (https://www.ngineering.com/lghting effects for the railroad.htm), "Details-N scale" Z scale FRED (https://detailsnscale.com/z_lighting_products.htm), Reed Switch and charge cable. The LiPo (lithium polymer) battery will run the FRED for days as the Ngineering board is designed for very low power and the LED 'ping' in near is not enough to drain it. I put a micro JST connector in the front door window, so it won't be seen when running as the FRED in on the opposite trailing end. Before/after shows, the small USB based charge board as a cable to plug in to charge the battery.The FRED has super micro 'magnet' wire that follows the floor and then bent up so I can attach it the rear railings. A Reed switch sits on top of the LiPo battery charge regulator board that points up into the Cupola. An external magnet changes the reed switches internals magnetic properties to close and open it. So no mechanical switches and no battery drain while in storage.
It's the lighting device on back of a train to warn approaching trains. They took the place of a caboose and are attached to the coupler on the last railcar. Don't know what the verbiage is for FRED, one of the other members can answer. Joe
Flashing Rear End Device or F.R.E.D., the name model railroaders first gave to End Of Train devices or E.O.T., which replaced caboose markers.
Great project Jeff! Good to see you back in the game. I'm working on detailing my NP RS-3's. Today I got the fan hole drilled out, and rastered see through fan grilles and blades to see underneath. I also painted the cab insides green, and added an engineer. Still going to add a fireman too, as well as larger steam bell, cab lighting, cab heater, MU hoses, and a few more details to make mine unique. Will post pics when done.
Thank you for posting Ray. I didn't realize FRED was a term made by model railroad guys. Learn something new every day. What time era did EOT devices take place? Joe
So having had the big blitz on Bulleid Pacifics I thought I really ought to get further on with the Fairbanks Morse H10-44. 3D printed by Shapeways https://www.shapeways.com/product/BETYEMMSM/fm-h10-44-z-scale?optionId=60956321&li=shops it is one of Walts really nice designs. Apologies for the state of the bodies but they have both been test beds to get a working chassis. That's why the front chevron stripes are pretty rough as well I got a brass chassis print from the Z maker designed specifically for Walt's FM that uses all the components of a Rokuhan shorty chassis. Quite an easy conversion. Please ignore the state of wiring, this will get tidied up now I have had it running around the testbtrack for an hour First one had to NKP! Both bodyshells have lost some handrails so I'll order a fresh one on my next order Kev
I’m impressed with the H10-44! The orange one looks like it’s been used for years and is some small industrial unit.
Well you must have rerad my mind because both of these are destined to finish up as static models in the scrapyard on Cuyahoga! Kev
Somewhere between 1970 and 1980 the FRED's as they were called appeared. I think sometime in the early 90's a new breed of model railroaders came on the scene who delighted in correcting our naming conventions, and started using terms the real railroads used. These railroaders could often be identified by the radios they carried which were tuned to railroad frequencies, as well as the blobs of FOAM that built up on the sides of their mouths as they were telling you ALL ABOUT IT! And that was when "Foamers" appeared on scene.
So, I posted I was working on detailing my NP RS-3 to look a bit more prototypical, and decided I would give an update. Mainly because I like the fan mod a lot. Here is the prototype for NP 861. Visible just behind the cab is the cab heater, a black box with an exhaust pipe going diagonal towards the body, then bends straight up in the corner of the body and cab, slightly visible at the extreme right top of the cab. Also unique is the large steam bell with a pull chord, a firecracker antenna to justify the "Radio Equipped" logo on the short hood, a Bubble gum light centered on the cab roof, Steam Era marker lights above each corner number board, and a spark arrestor above the diesel exhaust: I drilled out the rear fan hole, and added the correct 3 blade fan for an RS-3: Then I glued the fan grill over the fan opening for a see through effect. I rastered the fan and grill out of .015" white Polybak: And I am assembling together a few details to add, an N Scale steam bell which better matches the size of the prototype, a bubble gum beacon from an old N Scale Detail Associate set, and some BLMA generic diesel details, to be added on the next update:
I finished my conversion of a MoPac sleeper car to a dining car. I wrote an article for Ztrack Magazine complete with pictures of the process.
Today I added more details, modified the paint scheme a bit, and installed MTL couplers on my RS-3. I think it came out a bit closer to the prototype, but I could go further. Here is the progress as of today: Pull Chord for Steam Bell installed: Fan, Horn Relocate, Bubble Gum Light, Firecracker Antenna, Steam Bell, Cab Heater and MTL Couplers installed. Paint modified and Dullcote. Prototype reference:
Hmm... from the Railfan/Hobo perspective, in talking to many engineers in my time ... F.R.E.D. ... the F stood for something else entirely. EOTs came about to replace cabooses. Cost reduction. Train road crews went from 4 engineers per train (2 in the lead locomotive and 2 in the caboose) down to 2 engineers per train, many engineers were not happy ... many lost their jobs as you halved the required number railroadmen to operate a train out on the road. So, imagine you've lost your job to this "E.O.T." ... and then ==== we can then imagine another F word that ends in "ing" in front of "rear end device" - you might come up with this if you were in their shoes. F-ing Rear End Device. Now a 2-man crew can run a 5000-ft freight train slipping in and out of sidings... It's pretty amazing the amount of walking you have to do now to "side-out" ... I did a ride-along once and it was not fun walking on that ballast that far. Hence, even modern "hog-heads" might also all it a FRED.
Hi, Robert. This is one of the best conversions I have ever seen. Great work. I really like the bubble gum light. Jim