That raggedy SP tunnel motor looks like an Earl Scheib paint job. (kinda telling my age there, eh? ) BTW, great job of proto-freelancing. Of all the black & yellow paint schemes and variations Frisco had, I much prefer the full cat-whisker version.
Thanks Bob, and everyone. There is someone GJ that really doesnt care for this era of SP, so naturally I had to do it. I must admit the Yellow and Black is classic.
Here we have a local headed to Quanah, they will pull and spot at Lazar on the way only 2 units on this as it is light on tonnage and not a thru train. Here were are leaving the "square house" Power on the train On the long lead leaving the yard On the tall iron highball These telephoto lenses make it look like your standing on the tracks Always wave at the kids. Here we arrive at Quanah pulling into track 3. Double to track1 if needed. Power to the house. Now the yard crew goes to work switching "Hootch" the brewery. Thanks for stopping by.
Had an op session yesterday and caught this QA&P train climbing the 1.5% grade. The locos have every once of train they can handle, in the second segment where the filming is done atop a hill you see the train almost stall, then speed up when they reach the summit. Thanks for looking
Thank for posting Tom! I could have swore I heard a couple of flat spots on that second train as it went by!
Your not wrong Dale LMAO. I spent a bit of time chucking that MKT flat bottom gon axles in my mill, making some significant flat spots, it bangs its way around the MRR going in and out of chime with itself, amazing how noticeable it is, but you are the first to comment on it. Great catch Dale.. I have enjoyed your posts so much, keeps me going!!
Tom, So how much do you take off to make a flat spot? I'm going to try it on a couple of cars. Any perticular type of car give better results? Thanks,
Hi Dale, Seeing as the contour of the wheels I prefer are tapered towards the flange you have to take like maybe 1/32 " off to get a good result, I have not tried it on plastic wheels. Being careful not to get into the flange at all as that could bring on some derailments. I used to just hold the wheel assy in my hand and use a dremel to put flat spots but the mill was the way to go. A dremel cut-off tool in a drill press I would think would work as good, prolly many other ways to do it too. It kind of funny to see how long it takes people to pinpoint the car LOL. Please carry on,
Thanks Tom, I use the Intermountain semi scale wheel set. I'll give a couple a try and see how they sound. A couple of questions, I figure they are caused by brake or a bearing lock on an axel. Is this correct. Also if that is the case, do both sides do it? Thanks for the information!
Thanks Dale, Well, the flat spots are made by sliding wheels, this could be because of several different reasons. In your other post you asked what type of cars are subject to this, and for my lack of response I apologize, so lets consider the following. They are usually as a result of hand brakes not being released. You must consider there are many different reasons why this might happen. These cars may be moved around within an industry, and if so, some may not get their hand brakes released only to be tied down again on the same move. Now, this will usually result in the wheels squeaking but not sliding, depending on how hard the hand brake have been applied. A little history. Back when there were cast iron brakes shoes used, "this all depends on the brake valves and shoes assigned to the car" for the sake of argument, lets say Roller bearing cars have "comp shoes" and friction bearing cars had "cast iron shoes", anyways the cast iron brake shoes would heat up quickly and become sticky and they would eventually get hot enough to transfer metal, with the shoe being so much smaller than the wheel, well you can consider the metal transfer problems, slack adjusters are supposed to compensate for some of this, but sometimes MT's wheels would slide for a while. So, it is really not just flat spots, but "build up" to be considered. For the last 25+, maybe even more years, most if not all, brake rigging uses slack adjusters and composition brake shoes are common practice, so you see (2", or 1 1/2" Comp brakes shoes"), on the car sides. These comp shoes take longer to heat up but are better, more consistent brake shoes when they do get warmed up, and have less sticking transfer issues. Problem is you need to set the air quicker for comp shoes to get them to work as good as cast shoes did quicker, LOL. Prolly going on more than you want to know, but these issues apply to about all car types, it really only depends on circumstances. But if I was gonna be a modern modeler, (which I'yam) it may make sense for those old Flat bottom gons, stem winder flats, and tanks are likely candidates. Sometimes mechanical stuff just goes bad and wheels slide into problem. I have seen flat bottom gons loaded so heavy the wheel flanges rubbed against the bottom of the car body and slide, looked like rings of fire under the car, (this is a whole NOTHER story). The most over looked car type for this is private/small grain elevator cars, you know the ones that us'ed, tractors to move the cars around at elevators. I am sure there are a lot of folks that would be appalled of the sheer thought sliding wheels, but not many railroaders and folks that actually handle rail cars would be so surprised. To be honest, a loco can pull a few MT cars sliding wheels as opposed to a couple loads, but it doesnt take long for a load to slow or stop you, even with comp shoes it just takes a bit longer lol. Oh yea, these axles are solid in that both wheels of the same axle are as one, just depends which axle is compromised, as far as where the flat spot is, it is based on where the wheels are sliding on the contour, but they will be in the same general axial location on that axle. A Locked axle or similar "track side defect detector" would give A "defect or similar message" that would mandate the setting out of that particular piece of equipment via axle count. Please carry on my friends,
Tom, Thank you very much for taking time to give a great reply! That gives me an idea to try on the guys at the club soon. I never really thought about the different ways it could happen. I just associated it with emergency stops or something of that nature. So you took time to educate me and I certainly appreciate it! As you can probably tell, I'm partial to covered hopper for grain service, we see quite a few of those around here. I'll have to do up a few and throw them in a train soon. I appreciate your time. Dale
The QA&P has initiated Temp Controlled Express service now. This is an Athearn 57' Mech Reefer car. I want to have a fleet of these but it will be a while before that happens.
Here we have a 40' boxcar that has found a new beginning as an MW materials storage boxcar. Thanks for looking.
While on a trip to Quanah to see family and friends, I ended up at the Quanah RR museum. They had this kind of Hallmark-ish type building, it was all cast and I tried to midify it but it is just to hard and I was afraid it would break, This is actually very close to HO scale and just what I was looking for. So, after I got the QA&P depot home. I decided to modify it to an extent, darken the windows and a few other little things, put some flat gel medium on the cast on Pine trees and then sprinkled some foam on them, dark washed the roof, made another Quanah sign for the front, anyways I think it turned out OK. I then had to decide where it was gonna go, had to remove a couple nice scratch built buildings, lay some more track, but all in all it was worth it. here it is as I brought it home. Here it is installed, with a few extras. Thanks for looking.