I saw them do that on Mythbusters once. So there, your load is for an upcoming mythbusters reboot Seriously though, they look great!
So redoing them to a 2 high is probably doable. As far as weight is the thought here that each one of those aluminum rods would weigh in at more than 10,000 pounds?
Looks like I have myself a second do over on this load build. Guess I know what one of the things is I will be working on this weekend. Thanks for keeping me in line George
Just to clarify what a load of aluminum ingots or castings could look like, here's a 1969 image of a GN car loaded with aluminum ingots: Photo in https://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Freight-Passenger-Equipment/dp/1878887416
Well, when we last visited the dungeon, it was decided the aluminum rod loads needed to be redone. That is now a work in progress. Check out the mess I know it will be worth it when done I posted in the layout party about making progress on this black panel. Edges need to be sanded and a coat of paint applied. I think it will stay black instead of so called OD Green. There's some other touch up and clean up to do around this as well but I'm thinking it's turning out as I expected. Since it was the last day of the layout party, I didn't include some new projects I started yesterday in that post. I started work on making a dummy unit out of this fella. It's an old Model Power SD45 that hasn't run in years. There was a time in my earlier N Scale days that I really didn't care that much about if it was like a prototype or not and this is a good example. When Micro Scale first came out with NS decals sometime in the early to mid 80's this unit got a brush coat of Floquil engine black and those decals slapped on it. Will not be the last of my careless "art" that we will see being reworked this year. I popped the shell, pulled the worm gears out and set it on the track. While that dis=d work, since the motor was still in it, the DCC caused it to make a buzzing noise. I sort of expected that to happen. So, i pulled the shell back off and removed the motor but left the light wired which worked Next the shell when into the dunk tank that is too small. I will source a more appropriate shape container this week. but at least half of it was done bu the end of the day. The plan is to paint and letter this unit in one of the G&W roads. It should look plausible as an in transit between locations shipment. Next up, I tackled a DCC install in this beast. These are indeed really nice engines and the DC test run was excellent. Here's what it looks like under the hood with the factory light board. And with the new DCC board and the Kato 11-211 light kit installed. Then on to the rails. Yeah if only it was just that easy. I spent more time working on this than anything else the whole day. In the end though, I beat it and I'll settle for that and walk away happy. Now then, since I'm redoing the aluminum rod loads, I figured it's time to revisit the pipe loads I did previously. I mixed the green that I used from some craft paints I had on hand and while they looked good, I have never been really happy with the color. So, Saturday afternoon, i picked up a jar of Tru Color Penn Central Green and though why not give it a try. I painted up enough straws to make a new pipe load. I think when these are dry, it's going to look a lot more like what I was hoping for the first go round. We'll see how these turn out and go from there I guess Even though I only had some of Sunday to work on the layout and didn't feel well, I really got more done than I thought now that I am looking back at yesterday. Upcoming things to either look forward to or help you know to avoid me for a bit are continued work on the rod and pile loads, a possible closer looks at a couple of selected pieces of rolling stock, the assembly of a M/T ArroWedge, and who knows what else.
Thanks Joe. I still have a couple of repairs I will have to make to it at some point as I did a little damage while taking the shell off several times even though I was really trying to be careful and gentle with it. I watched several YouTube videos about these. While i did a non sound decoder in mine, every video that was for a decoder install was for sound and every one did something different but they almost all made the shell removal look easy. I'd disagree. It did come off the way they showed but it was a lot tighter and less forgiving than they all made it sound. One thing I will say is once I got her back running with the DCC, she is the typical solid runner you would expect from Kato. Also, while I do intend to pair this unit with a P42, it would have no problem pulling a long string of Superliner cars all by itself.
Back in the day, N Scale locomotive shells were a cinch to remove, but through the decades they've become much more difficult, requiring toothpicks, cardstock and whatever else to be carefully insert in specific places, all while holding the chassis and wiggling the shell and trying to not break off precious details. Would it kill manufacturers to employ a few screws on the underside?
It's rare that I get down to the train room on a week night but had to locate a couple of things for the wife last night and of course I drug it out a bit by stopping at the work bench for a little while. Made some progress on the aluminum rod loads. I think at 6 they may still be pretty close to maxing out the 100 ton weight limit of the car. Here is the first set reworked. I also got a jump on making a replacement pipe load for one of the two I previously did. I know there will be a little touch up to do but I like the color a little better. That's it. Going to crawl back under my rock for now
You can paint the ends in a contrasting color, simulating covers to keep contaminants out during transit/storage.
Hey Richard... Don't know if you have ever seen the color codes for plastic pipe. It's a good reference in case anyone asks. "What's that green pipe for?" https://blog.unitedpolysystems.com/blog/hdpe-color-code-guide
