Try posting it in a different section of the forum as a stand alone thread. i bet someone has had or even still has one. I think I recall seeing ads for those back in the old issues of M.R. magazine. this might be the place to post about that unit: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/forumdisplay.php?173-The-Inspection-Pit
Sometimes I feel really stupid. I learned something last night. My little switcher (see post #20 for a pic of it) was always stalling on turnouts, but my F7A doesn't. I realized that the F7A was much heavier, don't know why I hadn't noticed before. Anyway, I put some weight on top of the switcher and, low and behold, it didn't stall on turnouts any more. There isn't much room inside the shell to put weights, but I think I can cram about 1.5 ounces in it. This morning to celebrate my discovery (any excuse will do) I ordered a DPM kit (my first), Carol's Cafe. Will be fun seeing how run down I can make it look. Hopefully it will get here this week and I'll work on it over the weekend. Hoping the rest of my Peco turnouts get here soon too. Then my huge 72" x 30" layout will get most of the track laid.
weight does help with power pickup and tractive effort. I have never seen an athearn SW that didn't pickup on both trucks. One thing you might want to look at is this: http://www.mcor-nmra.org/publications/articles/athearn_tuneup.html really nice site for information on athearn engines.
If I ever got an engine apart like they show, I'd never get it back together again. I'd rather send it to you and pay you to do it.
I've been down that road. I've got a box around here somewhere full of my first "dissections" that I could never get back together. However it becomes really easy once you get the hang of it. See if you can find a hobby shop or a local model railroader who could show you the process.
I live over 50 miles from the nearest hobby shop. Heck, I'm 27 miles from the nearest stop light. I live in a small fairly isolated mountain community of about 300. A bit of a change from living with 15,000,000 of my closest friends in southern Calif.
See if your local hardware store... Yeah 50 miles away that is he he he... has a set of small screwdrivers. Buy a junk engine off ebay for 5 bucks and rip it all apart. Put it back together again. - work slowly - do it over a tray so you don't lose parts. - have fun! It gets easier the more you do it.
Well, at this point I'm stuck until my new turnouts arrive. I'm going to have to build a lot of structures for my empire. So will time on my hands, I decided to build a jig for gluing things up and to make sure they are square. I had a small piece of galvanized sheet metal, some magnetic strips, and a piece of extruded aluminum channel. I glued down the sheet metal to a small piece of ply wood and then attached the aluminum channel at an exact 90 deg angle across the back and up one side. I then made some small pieces of aluminum channel with magnets glued to the bottom to hold things in place without slipping. Seems to work pretty well.
Another day of waiting on the switches. But I've been thinking as to how to ballast the yard. I see lots of picture of nice mostly clean rock ballast in many model railroad yards. But as I look at pictures of real yards, some don't have any rock ballast at all, it's just oily greasy dirt. Look at the picture and tell me how you'd model it.
Was hoping my switches would come today, but they didn't. So I thought I'd take a picture just for fun. No ballast or anything on the tracks yet. At least I can pretend I have a lay out.
Some kind of random ideas about you track issue. I like that kind of track too. Especially for an old sleepy siding. What you do is you get dirt. You sift out all the big stuff. Then you mix it with water stir it up and let it settle. Skim off the finest dirt that is almost like clay and mix that with white glue or matte medium and water. there's your fine mud. I've been thinking of finding an old dried up puddle and collecting the flakes of dried mud off the top. That way nature can make the fine dirt for me. I think some people just use clay. either store bought in a bag or else collected from a deposit of clay. My most recent attempt with dirt was not satisfying because It was still too gritty looking. I may have to collect some finer dirt and smear it over the top of the last attempt to smooth it out.
I'll have to try your suggestion with the dirt and see if it works. Some of the switches came today, finally. Now I can lay some track, and solder the electrical leads to it. That will keep me busy for the weekend. Also my DPM structure came today. I sanded everything smooth and then primed all the parts in flat black. Priming in black is an old theatrical trick. The eye doesn't pick up black very well, so if you miss a small spot painting, you really don't see it like you would do white or grey. I'll let the primer dry for 24 hours and then glue it up and paint it. Just might have it finished by Monday. If I do, I'll take a pic of it. I want it to look like it's needing a bit exterior maintenance. The decals for it wont be here until next week.
Got some track laid. I'm still missing some switches, but I did get the yard and switching lead completed. The mainline, the track to the left, is still unfinished as I need two more switches for it. So I just temporarily laid a few pieces of straight track pieces to make it look somewhat complete. At the far end of the mainline will be the engine service facilities ( coal tower, water tank, sand and diesel fuel). There will be a one stall engine shed that I will probably have to scratch build as I see no kits I like (or can afford). I also need to find or build a passenger station that would plausibly be somewhat SP in construction. It needs to be 6" to 9" wide and 3" or so deep. Well, so much for now, I need to get back to painting my little DPM downtown building.
As soon as I got the mainline laid, the east bound freight came through Piney Creek to pick up a helper unit for the run over Donner Summit.
Been working on my first DPM model. It has wall paper and a hardwood floor. Being that it's Carol's Cafe, one of these day I'll make some tables and seated people next to the big window.
Two more switches came yesterday afternoon as well as another DPM building. I finished the mainline. I'm trying to get some of the "downtown" area built. The model was first sprayed flat black and then redish color sprayed on. It's actually Rustolium metal primer, but the color looks ok. The clap board is some touch up paint for my bed room with a little black added to it to make it a bit darker. The window frames are the same thing with even more black added to give it some contrast. I still need to paint the doors wood brown, weather it, and add glazing and curtains. But right now, I need to let what I did today dry for 24 hours. Weathering will tone it down a tad. I haven't done any model building in 40 years, so it will take some time to develope skills.
Hi, I was reading all the posts and as I am 64 now I keep wanting to say something regarding your description of the layout..You stated it was going to have a duck-under...If you at all can, say, revamp your RR to not have a duck-under, you should...It gets to be a real drag always having to bend down, crawl, or a bit of both every time you go to run your RR..The duck-under is an old school design which is not really neccessary with a bit more planning..You'll be glad down the line ( pun intended ) that you never need to strain yourself to enjoy your hobby..Also, you may want to pick up/order "Model Railroad Benchwork " by (I think ) Lynn Wescott( or maybe is it) John Armstrong..and just go right into designing/constructing your full sized RR instead of building a 'test' layout..You sound astute and wise enough to not have to use up precious weeks and months on something you are eventually going to wind up taring down ..And may as well go right to DCC for same reason, as you say you eventually want..I just went DCC with NCE Power Cab and have one digital engine so far..Boy it's nice...
Mark, you bring up some excellent points. The duck-under is definitely problematical. I'm trying to figure out how to have staging tracks that I can get at. Having 4' loops at either end takes up a lot of room. Maybe having a swing-up section would solve the problem. The test layout is going to be module that will fit into the big layout with only minor modification to expand the yard. That is why I made all the yard, arrival track, and switching lead straight. I'd love to go DCC now, but it's just a matter of finances. Living on under $700 a month SS is a limiting factor. I need to get a good running switcher as the old Athearn switcher I got in my box of junk at the flea market is way too light and there is no room to add weight inside. Before I can even start with benchwork, I have to build bookcases as I have two walls that are floor to ceiling books and they have to find another place in my small house.
