A new Tender for my new Z/Nn3 Mogul

rray Apr 3, 2005

  1. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    I got my new Bumble Bee painted Marklin Mogul, and decided it needed a new tender. There is nothing wrong with the tender provided, however I like the shorty tender that some of the NP moguls had late in their lifetimes.
    Working with a new material, cast acrylic sign plastic, I laser cut the parts, and assembled following a drawing in a 1950's MR book, and this is what I ended up with:

    [​IMG]

    As you can see the sign plastic is 2 layers, a .003" color layer, and .017" white layer, and is designed for name badges, however works and feels just like styrene. It cuts reasonably good, however tends to melt small details, so I plywood is still my medium of choice.

    [​IMG]

    After applying a full coal load, paint, decals, MTL Nn3 trucks, and Z couplers, it looks reasonable behind my Mogul:

    [​IMG]
     
  2. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Rivet detail is always hard to do, and in this extreme close-up you can see that I faked out the rivets by burning small holes. In person or at reasonable magnification the rivets look ok though. I also cut some small triangular parts, and glued them over the coil springs to represent leaf springs on the MTL Nn3 Archbar trucks:

    [​IMG]

    And now if you could please excuse me, I have some trains to run! [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    -Robert :D
     
  3. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    man i need to get one of them laser things! [​IMG] I'm wondering if there's a material that would bubble rather than pit given a lower intensity heat from the laser? - then you could get those rivets. Looks fantastic, Robert!

    Regards,
    -Mike
     
  4. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Great looking loco. Particularly that tender. Always liked the older small steamers and if I had me one of those Laser thingies would probably be the last the world saw of me until they removed me from the workshop to plant me.
     
  5. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Wow! That looks fantastic. Did you make the tender wheels pick up electricity? I tried on my MT mogul a few months ago, but the marklin wheels were too big for my tender and made contact with the tender underside. If you tried, did you notice an improvement?
     
  6. ztrack

    ztrack TrainBoard Supporter Advertiser

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    Robert,

    WOW! Great job. If you ever want to run this as in article in Ztrack, please let me know. I think the readers would love it.

    Rob
     
  7. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Robert, you are a marvel! If you had not mentioned it, and put extreme close-up pictures, I doubt if many would have picked up that the rivets were actually holes! (I have done that myself) ;)

    How do you program your laser - computer input, I presume, but still don't know exactly how :confused:

    Absolutely brilliant job [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  8. Bill_K

    Bill_K In Memoriam

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    Joe:

    Richmond Controls makes power pickups for Marklin trucks. $2 a pair. Cheap. Work great. Visit their website.

    Bill K.
     
  9. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Thanks for the kind words all. I have experimented with different plastics, and most just melt. I tried making rivets on several plastics, and they all made a hole, but styrene made volcanoes with a big hole because it conducts heat too well to the ajacent plastic.

    I want to do electrical pickup but have not worked it out yet, but I keep looking at Russell's post and want to try that. I have also tried to duplicate the special sockets that Marklin molds for their trucks to fit, but they are not easy. And the metal wheels are another source of problems, I need metal wheels but don't have any that fit the MTL trucks. The ideal situation would be if I could shrink Kato N Scale Tender Trucks 73%, then I would be in fat city.

    As far as programming the laser goes... I have taught several of the BAZ BoyZ (our local Z-Bend Track members) how to use Corel Draw to draw out laser kits of their own design. It's really pretty easy with a little practice. The first week I was dying just trying to cut out a ladder with Corel, but now that's baby food. Even making the Tender was simple as nursing formula!

    For the price, I'm going to have to order some of the Richmond Controls pickups to try out. Now if I could just get the Marklin Trucks to fit in regular holes OK. :D

    -Robert
     
  10. Bill_K

    Bill_K In Memoriam

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  11. Bill_K

    Bill_K In Memoriam

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    Robert:

    The Richmond Control's wipers are designed to work with the Marklin trucks.

    Bill K.
     
  12. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Bill, thanks for the info. Unfortuntaley the tender in the micro trains mogul is brass with micro-trains trucks. I am not sure I could get the marklin trucks to fit without cutting into the brass, which I am leary of, and then again, I have the issue of wheel contact with the underside of the tender. (this happend when I put marklin wheels in microtrains frame. A little work made them fit.) Unless, is there metal wheels that are the same size as the micro-trains wheels? So I still sit and ponder wether it is worth it to do it. The gaugemaster I ordered worked so well, I kinda haven't thought about it so much, but boy I get the feeling it would run great with tender pickup. Again, Robert, that is most excellent work.

    [ April 05, 2005, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: JoeS ]
     

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