NP Lester WA T-Trak Z Module Set Project

rray Feb 11, 2020

  1. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Your skill and attention to detail is astounding. Bravo!
     
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  2. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    And an orange flickering LED in the burn barrel for effect!:D
     
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  3. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

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    Patience! All in good time I am sure.
     
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  4. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Yes, that is a flickering barrel fire LED. What I did was add the burn barrel effect, and a 2 LED grinding wheel effect to the original arc welder / chipping hammer / wire brush animation, because there were still some unused outputs on the Arduino Nano. Hey, might as well use all the features and outputs you can or you are loosing feature money. :D

    I also have an 8GB TF card, so I can add lots more old time radio music, and make the sequence run a whole day.
     
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  5. southernnscale

    southernnscale TrainBoard Supporter

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    all The details look amazing!
     
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  6. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Well, the pontoon was a bust this weekend, the motor would not stay running. Shop time. We did a little shore line action, but only caught a few guppies. Change gears, back to yard work, and in between Garage Time was spent on my roundhouse/depot module.

    I got all the base scenery down:
    5.jpg

    Made a power pole with a gooseneck lamp on it, and just staged the depot and sanding tower for now. Trying to get a feel for the module:
    4.jpg
    Overview so far:
    0.jpg
     
  7. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    Nice loco. What is it? Jim
     
  8. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    That's a Marklin USRA Mikado that I modified to look more like a Northern Pacific W-3 Class Mikado. I scratchbuilt the shorty tender with doghouse. I did this loco about 15-16 years ago, before the AZL Mikes were released. I guess I should get a few AZL mikes as they are a closer starting point than the caricature Marklin Mikado, but that's all I had to work with then.
    1.jpg
     
  9. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    What is doghouse? Jim
     
  10. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I think it's a place for a crewman to ride during back up moves? Looks a bit claustrophobic, but there's windows, so it seems a trainman would ride in it. For what purpose, I'm only guessing.

    The module looks fantastic! Now that scenery is coming in, it really is shaping up nicely.
     
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  11. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

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    That makes sense. I didn't realize it was part of the tender. It looked like part of the background. They are common on European trains. I didn't know US railroads used them. Learn something new. Always good. Jim
     
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  12. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    In the late steam era, the Mikado was the workhorse freight engine, later replaced by the GP7-GP9 diesels. They were the equivalent of the "Road Switcher", meaning instead of switching cars in a rail yard, they picked up and dropped off cars at local businesses, factories, sawmills, etc, then took some cars to rail yard for classification.

    So the 4-6-2 Pacific Class were mainly used for local passenger moves, and the 2-8-2 Mikado Class engines were for local freight moves.

    With the Northern Pacific railroad being a Northern route, winters were cold, and when switching a cut 10-20 miles away from the previous stop, the Brakeman could ride in the "Doghouse" to avoid freezing to death. Doghouses were used on several railroads tenders, and really add interest to a locomotive:
    1.jpg
     
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  13. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

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    Spirit of ‘76! Great discussion considering the book I’m currently trying to digest. image.jpg
     
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  14. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Real nice! That’s what I was waiting to see....your bashed steam in that model. Most excellent!

    So did you get your other bashes up and running? How’d they perform after their hiatus?
     
  15. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    Here is a 10 minute video walkthrough of the module while testing all the microelectronics:
     
  16. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    I think I had about 3 steam bashes completed, but I don't know where the others are yet. Got to go through more boxes.
     
  17. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

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    Quite the video. What struck me was that old time music...for a second I thought...this should be in black and white film! Kinda like backround sound in a Laurel and Hardy clip. Really set the stage.
     
  18. husafreak

    husafreak TrainBoard Member

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    I liked how the buildings are held in place by magnets with the power transfer at the surface, neat!
     
  19. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    What I learned over the years doing train shows is that when you have multiple people cleaning track, they get in a hurry and knock over details, people, break trees, etc. I myself have broke some of Jeff's details. I broke a fire hydrant that I didn't know was there.
    So, by making things that are real close to the rails easily removable, you can just place them aside until the tracks are cleaned, then pop them back in place in time for the show doors to open.
     
  20. rray

    rray Staff Member

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    I have been working on railroad sheds, and finished the first one, a speeder shed that was right behind the Lester Depot:
    01.jpg
    It had a funny diamond shaped window above a regular window on the east side, so I added it.
    02.jpg
    I found a speeder with a trailer in a care package of black Polybak Karin Snyder just sent me, along with hundreds of detail parts I could use:
    03.jpg
    So I painted up the speeder according to photos of an NP Fairmont S2 speeder I found on a museum website, green inside, black wheels, silver engine, MOW yellow outside. I even added front window glazing because it is such a tiny model, smaller than a sugar cube:
    04.jpg

    And lastly I added a couple dudes hanging out in the speeder:
    05.jpg
     

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