Project Track Maintenance Originally posted May 17, 2009 I first would like to thank everyone for thier ideas on what the best track maintenance car to buy was, unfortunately most were out of reach as far as my pocket goes. There was mention of one that actually used real grinding stones, besides not liking the price, I didn't like the fact of grinding away at my track. I was shopping on ebay as usual and there was a Brite Block track cleaner that caught my eye that was real cheap. I put a bid in for it and got it for only $20 plus 4 extra scotch brite pads. You can choose to get one for a Bachman train car or Aristocraft 20ft train car. Since my little one has temporary lost interest in the train set which has nothing but 20ft freight cars, I didn't have to buy a extra freight car for the Brite block. The ad on ebay shows the Brite Block installed on a Aristocraft bobber caboose, I decided to use a 20ft gondolla instead for a couple of reasons. Since all Aristocraft 20ft freight cars have individual spring loaded axle points, you can actually load the gondolla up with weights to put more drag as needed for the brite block. The Brite Block was easy to install and took a matter of seconds. I loaded up the Gondolla car with a 2lb aluminum weight and within 2 laps of each track you could see a difference and wow what time I saved from hand cleaning. I really didn't think it would work as well as it did. As each train I coupled it to went around the track, you could actually hear the locomotives pick up more power as they speed up a little when the track got clean. There was no problem using this over switches either. I changed the Aristocraft 20ft gondolla over to USA couplers and metal wheels. If my little one regains interest in the other train, then I will buy another gondolla, right Nintendo DS is on the brain. Picture #1 is the mounting side of the Brite Block, notice the tabs Picture #2 is the Sctch Brite side of the Brite Block Picture #3 the mountin tabs of the Brite Block fit right into the Aristocraft 20ft freight trucks Picture #4 Is the 20ft gondolla loaded with the 2lb aluminum weight and ready to go Picture #5 You can see the 2lb weight pushes down on the car making more force on the scotch brite pad, see how the springs are collasped over the wheels with the weight. I plan on custom painting this as a Rio Grande track cleaner car. I will probably paint it like most Rio Grande "X" prefix numbered track maintenance cars in silver and number it X-001.
Current threads start here I have now put all of my EMD Trainman 2009 threads here from the original post which will now only contain my 2008 threads and will remain open for future reference. All posts and thread from this point foward will be current. Again, I thank all of you for your support and comments
New arrivals for train #6 With many complaints that 10 rail cars was just not enough to have my massive Aristocraft Mallet 2-8-8-2 pull, I have added 3 more wood side USA train cars. This takes this train up to 13 wood side rail cars, once I find the 3 other woodside rail cars I'm looking for there will be a total of 16 woodside freight cars being pulled by my Mallet, what a impressive train it will be. Now to show off my 3 new arrivals. Picture #1 is a USA Trains Rio Grande #3130 woodside box car with the herald logo Picture #2 is a USA Trains Philadelphia Cream Cheese woodside reefer car bought used from ebay Picture #3 is a USA Trains Union Ice Transport reefer car, I liked the color scheme
USA Trains alert wanted list reminder I just wanted to remind thos that I'm still looking for 3 USA / Charles Ro reefer cars to complete my colection. Picture #1 is a Charles Ro Rio Grande #R1603, road #78 woodside reefer car Picture #2 is a Charles Ro Rio Grande #R1624, road #50 woodside reefer car Picture #3 is a USA Trains Rio Grande #R16253, raod #119 woodside reefer car Any info leading me to a purchase of a good used or new old stock of any above rail cars appreciated
Mo Pics - Mo Pics I have added pictures to some of my older posts in this EMD Trainman G scale section 2009. I must have been slcking, because there isn't as many photos like I usually post, I guess I recognized this after splitting everything up. Anyway, be sure to revist some of the older posts in this thread, I have added quite a few pictures to articles that didn't have any at all. In the future I'll be sure to add pictures when ever I can when making new posts.
Unwanted furniture makes great basement use There was a guy at work who had a freind which had a grand parent that died. That pretty much sold off the entire estate as which usually happens because some people rather sell off items that you would fight over who gets or sell everything for cash and split everything evenly therefore no fights. Anyway there was one piece of furniture that didn't sell and was put in storage in the guy at work garage. Well he wanted the garage space back and his friend didn't want just to toss this piece of furniture out. I found out this piece of furniture was a old antique buffet curio and it is HUGE. It is 8ft long by 7ft high when the lower and upper pieces are put together. As a lover of old furniture plus needing storage space, this would be a perfect piece for me and storing train books, tracks, switches, manuals, tools, etc. This piece did need a sand and refinish, but good enough for my basement. I made a trade, I traded a 1/2hp bench grinder for this piece and was on my way. As you will see in the pictures, it worked out perfectly for what I wanted to use it for. I was a sure joy getting this huge thing in the basement, I gave my old dresser which the transformers were sitting on originally to the neighbors. Pictures #1 & #2 is suppose to be the top piece of the HUGE buffet curio, but it would be 7ft tall and the basement is only 6.5ft tall, so I decided to use the tp piece as a seperate piece which worked out well. Plus it fit right next to the stairwell perfectly out of the way. This is where I will keep a few locomotives, my NW-2 is stored away on shelf #2 and will be temporary be put on retirement since I now have 6 trains to run again. I also have my car show picture albums here, tools are kept in drawers and I even have my Garden Railway magazines in the side cabinets. Picture #3 & #4 is the massive lower piece where I have my transformers on top along with my portable phone, the huge cabinets open up a huge strorage area from one end to the other with no dividers allowing me to store up to 5ft track lengths. I'm glad I got this piece, once both pieces are restored it would be definately a great piece, but you do need a big house for this one. It came from a old farm house which had high celings and big open kitchen. It would have been ashame to throw this away just because of a couple of scratches, you just don't see furniture built like this any more.
Aristocraft Mallet update 5-31-09 part 1 Well I have to say I'm very impressed so far. My Aristocraft Mallet has been very great and has been way better than the 1st generation Aristocraft Mikado by a long shot. Even at low speeds the locomotive runs pretty smooth and pulls the 13 woodside freight cars I now have on it with no problems. Even in the double 8ft diameter S curve that is in track #3, the Mallet does not struggle. What a very strong locomotive this one is, so far, so good. Picture #1 The Mallet has entered what I nick named "Rattle Snake" curve due to it's many S curves in the track to get where it has to go. Just like a real rattle snake, this main big curve is winds from left to right a few times while the train is traveling thru it. Picture #2 Is the Mallet taken from the opposite direction, you can see it already had to go thru 1 S curve and is heading into another. Picture #3 The rest of train #6 follows from the tunnel and starts into Rattle Snake curve. Picture #4 Gives you a better view of why this long wavy curve full of S curves is called Rattle Snake curve. Picture #5 The Mallet heads train #6 on track #3 along the main basement wall
Aristocraft Mallet update 5-31-09 part 2 Here are some more action pictures with my Rio Grande Mallet. Picture #1 The Mallet heads train #6 into the laundry room Picture #2 Even in 1:24 scale ratio, having 13 USA Trains woodside freight cars is a long string. Picture #3 Rio Grande wodside caboose #0505 brings up the rear. Picture #4 The Malet enters thru the now widened walk thru area from the main basement into the laundry room. The main walk thru area use to have a bi-fold door and had to be widen by 6 inches to make swing room to safely pass other trains. The Mallet will have a short trip thru the laundry room, then enter my work shop and go thru a tunnel taking it back to the main Yards Room to enter Ratte Snake curve all over again. Picture #5 The Mallet enters back into the main Yards Room thru the tunnel from the work shop and gets ready to head into Rattle Snake curve again. The Malet handles Rattle Snake curve very well I must say.
Aristocraft auction ends in success I put all of my Aristocraft railroad G scale trains up for auction with the exception of my Mallet and a long caboose in the orange Rio Grande paint scheme. This ended up being only 7 pieces up for auction, but the sale ended well with everything selling. I will just concentrate on collecting USA Trains only pieces. Even after the sale, I'm at 96 pieces of rolling stock and they are all USA Trains now. Those who bought my auction items will be pleased in the condition they are in since they never made it outside. PIctured below is the last 2 Aristocraft items I own Picture #1 is the long caboose in the more modern or last paint scheme Rio Grande used. The USA train Rio Grande cabooses are nice, but they use a earlier paint scheme which was used during the EMD F unit days. Picture #2 is my massive Mallet, perhaps if I saved enough money and found a nice used USA Trains Rio Grande Hudson, this one may go up for sale later, but don't see this happening for a while since how the Hudson locomotives originally went for around $1,300 vs the $540.00 price tag I paid for the Mallet
Lubing up the Mallet - What is best lube to use? When deciding to use lubricants of any type there is a ton of choices out there. Today I'm going to lube up the drive arms on my Mallet and have to decide what to use. Lets take a look at grease, grease is only good if using it to lubricate something that is sealed, such as a gear box. Grease should never be used to lubricate moving parts exposed to the elements as sand, dirt etc will blow onto the grease which will actaully contain the dirt until the grease breaks down evetually and the dirt finally ends up where you didn't want it in the first place. Some people love to use graphite and I cringe when I hear that name. Graphite was designed back in the 80's and work well when first applied, but as time went on, graphite eventually broke down making it like concrete pebbles on what ever you applied it on. This brings me to the oil subject, Mobil 1 made the mistake of using Graphite additibes back in the day, what a horrible mistake, now they are just synthetic. I don't recommend the use of synthetic oils on your train due to it is too thin and would never stay on what you out it on, synthetic oil is designed to have a constant smooth flow to it so everything is getting lubricated in your engine at a fast rate due to it's thin viscousity and was also designed for engines with close tolerances suchs as a engine with dual over cams. Just for notations, you should also never use synthetic oils in a car you don't drive much and sits alot, the thin film runs into the oil pan and now you have a dangerous dry start condtion. Then we have our favorite Slick 50 with teflon, again not a good idea, teflon also breaks down to a abrasive, not only that it closes the tolerances in your engine that is needed to lube it with due to the teflon coaing, one of those good ideas - bad ideas thing. So what do you use??? Good old fashion regular oil just like they did on the real thing back in the day. There is NO substitute for real motor oil and that is a proven fact. My Dad was a firm believer in a product called 3 in 1 oil and let me tell, I see why it really works well and has just the right viscousity to apply on something and the drops stay there, there is no additives in it what so ever. I found by applying 1 drop to each pivot point on my Mallets drive rods has improved it's performance by quite a bit. It also works on things around the house such as door locks, squeaky door hinges, etc. For those who don't know me, I have been a big truck mechanic and diesel engine rebuilder for 21 years, so I know what I'm talking about when it comes to oils and why a engine fails, sometimes it's due to incorrect grade or type oils.
Another new arrival for train #6 After the sale of my Aristocraft trains, I had some money and room to buy 1 more train car for train #6 which is my Aristocraft Mallet that pulls a all USA Trains woodside freight car type train. There was a New Jersey Cranberry reefer car I could not helpo but to buy and what a perfect addition to train #6 it does make, especially sine I live in New Jersey. Picture #1 and #2 USA woodside reefer New Jersey Cranbury car newest addition to train #6.
SB Rail Lines August 2008 update Picture #1: I found another deal to good to refuse on ebay, this time another Rio Grande box car from USA Trains which was a older original new old stock piece. This brings up the total number of trains car to 14 for the Aristocraft Mallet and so far doesn't even struggle to pull them all. Picture #2: I found a great replacement from the same vendor on ebay for my USA Trains Philadelphia Cream Cheese reefer which I bought from another previous ebay vendor earlier this year which ended up being basiclly a junk piece. The replacemet was also in new old stock condition and in great shape. This made me happy to find a new old stock piece. USA Trains old new stock pieces are still out there to find it seems like. Picture #3: At SB Rail Lines I decided to only run brown wood side box cars with the Rio Grande Flying logo, so this Rio Grande box car #3031 with the Rio Grande heraldlogo will be sold off on ebay. I don't want m collection getting out of hand, especially since I like to run what I have. Picture #4: The only LGB rail car I have left in my collection, I decided to keep this one since USA Trains version Rail Box is a American Series 1:24 scale ratio simulated steel box car and would look to out of place coupled to my USA Ultimate Series 1:29 scale ratio 50ft box cars. This LGB Rail Box looks right at home coupled to my USA Trains 50ft box cars and seems to be the same length as those cars also. Hopefully USA Trains makes a railbox road name when they finally come out with their new 60ft box cars. Picture #5: My triple heade USA Trains SD40-2 rounding the bend coming from the laundry room wih it's 16 car pull. All of these train cars on this one have been converted to Roll EZ ball bearing wheels which was well worth the money. Since the conversion, the rubber traction tire failures have all disappeared. I wish these had the SD-70MAC motors in them. These 3 locomotives which only have 2 motors each draw alot more amperage than my 2 SD-70MAC locomotives with 4 engine each.
The 3 brown boxes I now have 3 USA Trains Rio Grande woodside box cars in brown with the flying herald for Train #6 headed by my Aristocraft Mallet. Picture #1: Rio Grande #3393 Picture #2: Rio Grande #3271 Picture #3: Rio Grande #3256
SB Rail Lines update August 2008 part #2 Picture #1: My Rio Grande MOW train has been retired to a spur that I no longer use since how I finally got train #6 up and running. Picture #2: My USA NW-2 Cow and Calf get retired on my new to me but used buffet curio and what a perfect place for them. I had these two since 2000 Picture #3: The Mikado gets ready to head out with it's 14 freight car load Picture #4: The Mikado gets the go ahead to pull out, the brake is realesed and the train eases out of the tunnel. Picture #5: The SD-70MAC locomotives sits idle waiting to move out with it's load of 55ft Center Flow hopper cars and 55ft Tank cars, there are 9 of each making this the longest train I own at 18 freight cars.
SB Raiul Lines update late Aug 2009 Picture #1 and Picture #2 is USA American series woodside reefer cars in the Pacific Fruit Express road name. I always liked these Pacific fruit Express paint scheme versions better with the PFE being in white. These have been long discontiued by USA Trains and I happen to find them on ebay. Picture #3 Is the newest USA Trai Pacific Fruit Express, I decided to sell this one off on ebay since there was getting to be too many freight cars on train #6, I still have to leave room for the 2 discontinued reefer Rio Grande reefers that I have been looking for. Picture #4 Not all of my decisions I make are always good ones. You may remember my Aristocraft blow out where I sold off every Aristocraft freight car I had. Well I forgot one thing, since how I'm getting my little one involved in my train operations, this makes her basiclly a co-owner. Well lets just say she had a big attachment to this Aristocraft stock car. So I had to buy this one back and my punishment for selling it without asking her approval? I must buy at least 2 1:24 tp 1:29 scale ratio horses as she wants this to be a horse transporter stock car. She gets to pick them out at the ECLS train show in York in September. Picture #5 Another buy back, I also sold off all of my LGB freight cars, but I thought not having a Railbox box car on a railroad was like not owning socks to wear as you see railbox box cars everywhere. So basiclly it was something I missed myself not having on my railroad. I chose to by the LGB version back over the Aristoraft due to the LGB one has opening doors and looks more realistic. USA trains makes railbox box cars also, but they are in the 1:24 American series which willl not look good coupled up to my fleet of 1:29 sale ratio 50ft freight cars. So I also purchased another one and returned it to service, it looks right at home and is basiclly the same size as my USA 50ft freight cars. Moral of the story? Make sure you think things thru before making a rash decision, yeah it sounded good going only USA Trains and selling everything else off, but there were a couple of things they me and my little one were just too attached to. Luckly I didn't loose out on too much money between selling the ones I had and then buying new ones back later.
MOW AX01 update Everyone may remember I decided to take one of my little ones 20ft Aristocraft 20ft gondolla car and convert it to a MOW track cleaning car. Of course I had to replace it and she picked out the Pennsylvania Railroad road name. I wanted to make a cheap but reliable track cleaning car for under $100 budget. Picture #1 Is the Aristocraft 20ft gondolla which cost me $20 with a brite block istalled on it that I bought from ebay for $15. At this time there is only $35 invested. Picture #2 A fresh coat of grey primer has been applied which looks pretty close to a gray MOW paint color that would be used. I allowed a little over spray to simulate a freight car being converted to MOW service bbut usually these cars don't have the best paint jobs and sometimes had hand painted numbering. Picture #3 Is the beginning stage, I will go behind and paint all of the hand rails and hand brake wheels black. Picture #4 I also painted the aluminum weight in gray primer Picture #5 semi finished product, I'm still going to buy decals for this and some small detail parts for more realism.
MOW AX01 update 2 I purposely hand marked this unit #AX01 with a black marker giving the look of a freight car being converted and being rushed to MOW service. Why did I pick the road number AX01? Most of the time when Rio Grande converted a freight car or passenger car over to MOW service they started out with the road numbers AX, if it was originally a MOW piece of equipment to begin with they started out with the road number X. Picture #1 Rio Grande decals and other small details will be added later Picture #2 Project now sitting on hold waiting for moe stuff to arrive Picture #3 I will be painting hand rails and brake wheels later. I was thinking of painting the rivets, but in a MOW conversion these would be painted anyway. With the $5 can of primer, this brings the project price to $40
