The first of the CLLX lease fleet arrives on the Andersley Western. Here seen at the locomotive servicing facility Ready for the first revenue assignment No details yet added, needs all the pilot details, cab sunshades, etc.
Nice loco(s) Alan. I see in your picture that you have some Walthers cryogenic reefer cars. Have you experienced problems operating them? I have 7 that I stripped and then painted orange with the Tropicana Orange Juice logos, that I wanted to incorporate into my "CSX Juice Train". They gave me fits derailing and uncoupling. I tried using Micro-Trains trucks with the Walthers coupler bar and Micro-Trains couplers, shimming each swivel bar to the correct height. It didn't work much better. Finally I ended up eliminating the whole Walthers truck/coupler set-up. I trimmed the truck swivel point on the body to lower the car to a more prototypical height. I had to cut out several cross members to make clearance for the wheels. I used Micro-Trains low profile wheels, added a sheet of .030" brass across the whole length of the chassis for added weight and lastly installed Micro-Trains body mounted couplers. This resulted in a vast improvement in performance and after adding wire stirrups they really look and run great in my "Juice Train". You could probably make a conversion chassis similar to your auto rack one but I doubt if it would sell very well as these cars weren't very popular sellers for Walthers. I found mine in a hobby shop in Cleveland for $3.99 ea. on a close out table. I bought all 7 he had. now I'm glad I did.
Herman, on my reefers, I fitted MT trucks and 1019 pivoting couplers, and shimmed the support bar, and have had no running problems whatever. I always add weight to all rolling stock, and more than the recommended NMRA weight, as I do not think they are heavy enough. CNW, thanks, I made the decals on my inkjet printer. I am not very happy with them, as the film is too thick, and not very adhesive, so they will not conform to the shape of the shell. I am thinking of having some custom decals made, unless I can find some better decal paper for inkjets. (I have tried two so far). Quite pleased with the look of the locomotive, though
Very easy masking, the shell was painted white, then the white stripe was masked using low-tack tape, and the shell pinted red. The blue decal stripes hide the join, anyway The whole white stripe with blue stripes and lettering is all one decal.
