vintage footage looked great. i remember one of the tenders being attached to a rotory snowplow out west
You probably should be using a 15 watt iron for this. Also clip a heat sink to the bottom of the pin. Check out the Ngineering web site. They have a 12 watt soldering iron perfect for this kind of electrical work.
Use a 15-watt pencil tip iron, which you should have for N scale anyway. I think Radio Shack sells one for about $10. Tin the wires and the plug holes before trying to attach the wires. Once the wires and plug are properly tinned, you should only need to hold the wire on the appropriate spot on the plug and then just literally touch the iron to the tinned part of the wire and get a connection. Make sure tip of iron is tinned and cleaned; I use a wet rag to wipe off the tip of my iron after each and every solder joint I do. This, by the way is the same technique one should use for soldering feeder wires to N scale track: tin the wire; tin the track; hold wire against track; touch with clean, hot 15-watt iron. Connection made, no melted ties, everyone happy. John C.
WOW that's a really unique looking train. I like that it looks like nothing out there. It sure was way ahead of its time.
I wonder what these sets are going to fetch on e-bay once they are all gone from suppliers ? It is obvious this is probably the best thing that has happened to N scale Steam ever. If the first run is sold out, will it be a little bit shorter time to see a second run, all just speculative questions. And...yes, the anticipated GP-60s will be masterpieces just like this Hiawatha equipment has turned out to be. Matt, you deserved the N scale Oscar for your work. fatalxsunrider43
Ours arrived at the shop today. I'm very impressed. Heading down to the work bench now to install a decoder. Are there any video's, or more importantly, sound recordings of this loco in action, anywhere? Does Herron or Pentrax have anything on these loco's?
There are some things about this set that nobody has mentioned. I'm surprised Matt didn't list some of these things as features... ** Kinematic coupling between the cars - The couplers extend on corners to allow the cars ends to clear each other but remain close coupled on the straights. This set will go around 9 3/4R but the diaphragms almost touch on the straights. ** There is mention in the car exploded view of a lighting kit for the cars being available in the future. It must be a battery powered system as the trucks have no pickup system. ** The loco has details that are impossible to see when it is on the track. The power reverse is in place, completely covered by the shroud. Those that want to use this as a Kitbash loco may have hope. There is complete valve gear hidden under the skirts. ** The loco design is very European, right down to the coil spring attached to the front pilot arm to maintain tension on the rails and keep the loco from waddling. I managed to get a 905 coupler on the back but it takes some modifications and a 1016 coupler box. I filed a notch in the back of the 905 large enough for the mounting screw to lay in. The 905 fits in the 1016 box. You need to trim some of the screw post off of the 1016 so that the 905 will fit deeper into the coupler box. Once that is all done, you use the 1016 box as a clamp to mount the 905. It seems secure and allows the coupler to still operate and it sticks out just the right amount. I'm off work tomorrow so it should be a day of fiddling with the sound decoder.
Some shots of the disection.... Tender - Plenty of space for the electronics. I'm a glutton for punishment and put another SDN144 in this one. I used and MRC 14x20 speaker that I had handy and it fit will. I think the space is designed for the OEM LOCSound speaker, even down to mounting screw locations. I still need to work on the sound file for this one to remap for the airhorn on F3 but I created a chuff sound and whistle that at least seem right for this one, related to the other Miwaukee loco's I could find. Video later tonight. Loco - There is enough here for possible kitbash fodder, for those willing to pony up for the complete set. Valve gear is mostly complete, the missing parts can be easily modeled as they are stationary. It's heavy for its size and pulls great. The loco uses wipers on the tender axles and drivers instead of bearing pickup but at least so far, pickup is not an issue. The end - The cars have kinematic coupling between them, including the tail on the observation which makes it a little harder to replace the 1016 coupler on the tail with a smaller Z scale coupler. It is shown above with a complete Z 905 inserted in a 1016 coupler box. It takes some filing on the Z coupler box and the 1016 to shorten up the coupling distance so the Z coupler doesn't hang to far out.
Nice work, Tony. I'll probably go with the heavy steam Tsunami, unless there is a LokSound sound file that seems more appropriate; I have only use the LokSound micro once, and wasn't all that impressed, but that was many years ago when they first came out, and I don't think the sound file was loaded properly. Can you measure how much height there is above the speaker cutout to the top of the tender shell? I'll Probably use a 14 X 20 mm speaker inside a lead enclosure, and I wonder how much height I have to work with. I obviously am still waiting on mine. John C.
Wouldn't the medium steam Tsunami be more appropriate for this locomotive? I thought heavy steam was geared more toward large, late steam articulateds.
John, I thought about an enclosure but decided to try it without first. Honestly, using the whole tender shell as the enclosure works pretty well. The speaker seals the hole in the bottom and there are no other holes in the tender shell so it creates it's own sealed enclosure pretty well.
DCC? Question I talked with Matt (FVM) Two days ago and the Hiawatha will take the Digitrax DN163PS Decoder It is a standard 8 pin config. Buy the way mine came in today. PnP Trains PNP Trains
Not sure why you would need a DN163? There is only on function output (Front Headlight). Either a DZ125PS or DN135PS will drop in and save some money.
The basic differences between the light, medium and heavy steam Tsunami models are the selection of whistles. There is a slight difference in the chuff sound among the three, with the heavy steam version having more of a "crack" to the chuff than the other two. You can hear sound samples on Soundtraxx's web site. My reason for selecting the heavy steam is that it has an air horn to go along with the selection of whistles, and the Hiawatha had an air horn. The other two models don't have the air horn. The heavy steam version also has a whistle that sounds something like what I hear in the video of Milwaukee 261 (which is a 4-8-4); since that's the only model I have for a Milwaukee Road steam whistle, I'm going down that road even though I suspect the Hiawatha's Atlantic sounded different. However, it is NOT the case that the heavy steam version is for articulated locos only. The whistle selection does include some from the big articulateds (the N&W; the UP; etc.), but the basic chuff is still set up for a dual-cylinder simple engine, not a quad cylinder articulated. John C.
The Boxpok drivers and main rod onto the lead driver will rule it out for a lot of Atlantics like Santa Fe's and, I think, Pennsy's, but hey, it's a start.
