Ahhh Frustration Multiplied X3

First off I'm not going to name any names here but the folks able to read into the thread will probably figure out the offenders. Having gone through a period while my eyes settled out from thier problem and getting a reasonably clean bill of health I decided to tackle a simple kit for the first foray back at the workbench. And I mean simple. just basic walls, windows, doors, roof sections, and glazing included. So last Saturday I sat down with this kit and spent a lot of time cleaning up a horrendus amount of flash, particularly on the windows. Cleaned up the sides some and noticed that the brickwork pattern did not extend around on any of the wall sections to the edges. Okay fine this isn't going to be a front row model and it will do fine for the three foot rule with a little weathering. After painting the brick and the windows once all the flash was removed it was set aside until Sunday. Now the directions for this kit were written at about the kindergarten level but it was so simple who needs directions. Sunday afternoon I decided to install the doors and windows prior to wall assembly and it was rapidly sliding downhill from there. Sort of like a Shay with the brakes set on a 30 car train on a 8% decending and the wheels are sliding. Time to join the birds except the kit joined the birds in flight to circular file #13 in this case. You see after all the time cleaning flash and painting came to find that none of the windows would fit, as in all too big. Not going to try and enlarge window openings so circular file #13 ed everything but a small stone powerhouse. That had the windows cast in so they couldn't mess that up. Looked up the company on the WWW and found a plethora of complaints and the fact that they weren't in N scale anymore.

Decided to tackle the marine fuel depot next and chose a kit that I've had for awhile. One verticle tank and an assortment of horizontal tanks plus a nice little building and some assorted detail parts. Well first off the instructions were written by a PhD in Moronics that probably taught the art of being a complete moron at the local sweathog U. And the designer didn't know much about tank farms since a lot of the obvious was missing. Looking at the tank halves and the other parts at least minimal flash. But the tank castings looked like they had been in a baseball sized hailstorm and the panel seams on the vertical tank were hardly visible. What were supposed to be the manway hatches on the tanks didn't look like anything I've ever seen. I had to guess at where some parts went and some parts were just oversized. Now this kit is supposed to be a rail facilty and has a sandhouse and column. However somebody neglected to provide a way to get the sand into the column and the locomotive. Since a sandhouse is not need for a marine facility I cut the base off intending to use that for a branchline facilty. Just happening to have some knowledge of facilites like this I managed to figure out the piping despite the instructions and managed to finish the kit.

Next decided to tackle the sandhouse since I will need at least two up on the branchlines. Ahh how to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I need to get this to the right hiegth since as designed it wouldn't clear a gondola, and what to use for the missing parts. Ahh yes I have a couple of metal fuel, water, sand column kits in a box. First I extended the legs of the sand column by adding some styrene tube as concrete footers. Then I took out the sand column to see how to adapt that. Danged thing just snapped into two pieces. #$%&^%$ oh well ACC time. Danged metal must be brittle. Then I dropped the main piece onto the carpeted floor and it broke into three pieces. Note I said carpeted floor. Now I've had these kits for quite awhile and had never opened them until now. I'm looking at the cast metal tubular sand hopper and I noticed a small fault line running down the side of it. %&^*($%^ dang nabbit Zmactitus. Don't know if the newer stuff is the same but these old guys are Zmac dang it. Finally got the sandhouse in a semblance of finished with a lot of cutting and modifying.

Next up a coaling tower and sand house combo. So far it is going good with the instructions written by somebody with at least an ounce of of IQ. However it is early into the assembly yet. End of frustrated rant.

 

John, Keep on truckin. Take it from an elder (67), it gets worse! :wideeyes: Jim

 

Well it finally got better in that I managed to cobble together a usable sandhouse for the branchlines out of the poor excuse for a sandhouse in the kit and the Zmactitis infected metal sand column kit. Still have to figure away to get the sand in the house but I'm leaning toward a slightly raised rear track a portable chute and the old armstrong method of two guys with shovels in a gondola.

Had to get the right heigth first at about 16 feet or higher so the steamers would clear, and it is designed for both steam and diesel. Hopefully captured the flavor of a homebuilt shortline RR facility cobbled together out of various items begged borrowed or stolen from the mainline folks.

The complex behind is the kit that it came from now modified to see service as a marine fuel depot and it is mounted on thin masonite, rough side up so it can take a thin plaster surface and adhere. The loco is one of my modified 0-6-0s into a 2-6-2T logger that might get scrapped unless I figure out a way to get this little gal through some switches better without stalling.

And the coaling tower/sandhouse kit I'm now building? Well it is a dream compare to the previous three. Decent instructions, very little flash, fits together nicely, and very decent detail. Even has a below grade pit for unloading the coal cars. And since this is not one of the previous bummers I'll name this one. It is a Bachmann Plus Coaling and Sand Complex. Probably one of the better plastic kits I've seen in a while. So all ends on a happy note, finally.

 

What type switches John? I have a Bachmann Docksider 0-4-0 that will go through any turnout on my layout without stalling.
Al

 

I hope that you will be able to work out your problem with the electricals on that 2-6-2T... it reminds me of some of the tank engines that Carolina Aluminum used back years ago... would hate to hear that you had to give up on it. Have you shared how you built it?

 

I did this one so long ago, may have been before TrainBoard, that I don't remember if it was a Roco or the Atlas import version. I believe the Atlas version. This is a twin to the same chassis that I did the recent cab forward on and that was an Atlas import.

The smokebox was extended and the fuel bunk extended. I made a lead and trailing truck out of brass stock and grafted a MT pilot conversion on the front. Added parts are from Detail Associates and the front bandstand is loaded with N scale shovels, picks, axes, and other assortment of junk found aften on a logger. I have a much larger version made from a Bmann 2-8-2 that will get through a switch frog. If I don't add a supply car or woods crew car equipped with eight wheel pick-up then I may decide to scrap the mechanism and see if one of the new Bmann 2-8-0s will fit under it with a new trailing truck added to it. Spent too much time on the body to scrap that. Little critter runs great up or down hill and pulls a ton with the larger body which has added weights in the extended smoke box and fuel bunk. Or the last possibilty add an auxillary tender/firecar or to turn it around and do another cab forward with tender based on another Kato caboose chasis.

This is the other one built on a 2-8-2.

 

The old layout had a combo of Atlas, Trix, and a few other types. New layout will be all new Atlas, and a lot of Peco Electrofrog on the upperlevel where this will run. When I built this I wasn't aware of the Spookshow site and the performance review or it would not have even made it to my roster.

 

Well for a postscript to the kit rant I finished the coaling tower. Not a bad kit but...... well they forgot some parts. The coal chute lift cables and pulley assembly and counterweights. Didn't pick up they were missing until tonight. Went back over the sprues and instructions and they weren't there on the sprues or shown in the instructions. Yet clearly on one drawing and the photos on the box they are there. Oh well some brass wire, some small styrene tubing, some ACC and some fabricating the supports with styrene in about 30 minutes I had what I needed. Then I looked at the below grade coal pit for hopper unloading. There is no support for the rails which fly off into space over the pit. Now in the N scale world not an issue of the rails bending but in the real world yes with that tonnage on unsupported rails. So tomorrow I'll get out my styrene steel beams chose a good size and install same and finally be done other than mounting on a base, weathering, and installing some real coal in the pit and around. And as a last thing I'll dig in my parts boxs and come up with some lights. Coal docks got used at night too, so that is something else that was left out. However this last kit was the best of the bunch as far as quality and fairly good instructions. Some of the wood laser cut kits now out put all of the kits I just messed with to shame I hate to say. Nice clean lines and a nice bag of detail parts. And unless I'm scatchbuilding something I'm pretty much going to stay with the wood kits for the rest of my structures I'll need.