May already? Seems like the train show was last night for April. Money's here! Middle of the month. My hobby shop friend has ordered my GP40's and is putting them aside with the 2 Bay hoppers. A while ago, I told him to try and sell my GN Custom Run 2 Bay hoppers because I ran out of money by Xmas. He tried, no one wanted them so he's put them on his shop's layout with a sign that says "Heading home to the Wolfcreek & Iron Mountain". I need to upgrade my PC and a few other minor upgrades then I can tackle the rest of phase 4 which will be done as cost effectively as possible. Everything on my list has ended up breaking the 5k mark almost 8k. So I need to think this out and try to get the expensive electronic parts as cheap as possible. Since I'm doing the T.E. Revolution system, I only need to worry about a Bridgewerks power supply. I will have to reduce the detail parts as a few components of the Stainz/Tender are needed: The Coupler for the Stainz and the Power Block Jumper Cables (Going to contact the countries largest owner of Repair Parts for LGB. He has a full page ad in Garden Railways. You know him. He's in Indiana and not that far for me to drive personally.) Speaking of the tender. Tomorrow at the show. I can't wait. I'm excited. my 20 year long journey to find this tender and OWN it has come to and end. The hobby shop I used to go to is no longer in business: DGH. Since they are not in business I can mention them. They carried all my G-Scale equipment I owned up to 2007: My Big Hauler set, my Lionel Thomas Set (Sold to pay for my electric switch Locomotive) E-Lok Switch Unit, LGB Rolling Stock, Big Hauler Rolling Stock, u25B, Caboose 11119 and my FA-1. The stainz set and tank car came from the factory in Germany. But I dreamed of owning that cute little tender in the worst way. And almost did. But them I got into car modding, game console modding, PC Building and worst of all: Girls. Yeesh, who knew they were this expensive right? Okay I'm kidding but still. A 20 year journey is at it's end. It's been long and winding, and times where I tried to sell my stainz but said to myself: "I'll get there." That day is today (It's midnight as I click enter). Worst that can happen is the tender gets left behind at one of their houses. I know where the man whose holding it lives, so then I just pay him a visit heh. The summer is soon here. The adventure begins anew. Climb on board. Your ticket for the Wolfcreek & Iron Mountain is punched. And I'm going to stop typing now before I get anymore "James cameron/Titanicish". Pictures and that video to be posted after then show.
The tender is in my hands. I am on my blackberry and the game plan has changed. The people I bought my tender from are looking in there back room for my coupler for free. I was also given contact to a man in my area with LGB parts hoarded from Germany. He has my jumper cables, footplate walkway. This week I should have the missing parts to my set. Pictures later today. EDIT: Home, and ran into problems. Here's the thing, the tender has a custom mounted loop. The person who owned this before me drilled a new mount and cut the loop off. I'm going to correct that by splicing my Stainz old loop. I'm going to cut the inner back part of the loop and super glue it into place on the mount. Then a proper replacement part will be found/purchased. EDIT EDIT: PHOTOS!
A May update? Have I lost my mind?! Yes. A May update again. It's raining~ It's pouring~ The old conductor's snoooooring~ Heh. Anyways, After my trip to IRM on Mother's day, I got to do something that IRM Heads would have freaked out about, but the engineer was kind enough to take me on a tour of their BN U-Boat. I got to check out the control stands and the engine and walk around on her after they put her away in the Barn (Video is under the videographer's section of her being backed in). It gave me several great ideas for my U25B. I figured a U-Boat is a U-Boat except for the fact that some were 6 axle and others were 4. Stuff like on the pilot, they had the spare knuckle inner part held. I thought 'That'd be a great detail!!!' and I rushed home to disassemble my spare Aristo Knuckles. Then I went to look up reference photos of the U25B to do this right. I noticed something on a BN U-Boat I looked up specifically*. She didn't have it. Her bumper Pilot looked exactly as Aristo had produced her. No spare knuckle slots. I cried. Sort of. I actually only cry when the Cubs lose, but that's a different story all together. But in this failed idea asrose a new one: The prototype I followed didn't have 4 MU Hoses on the pilots. On the front and rear, both #4 Outer hoses were removed. I got out my needle nose pliers, ripped them out of the pilots and used sculpy on the hole, and painted it. Then I pushed my U25B's pilot into place further in to make it look more real. Here's the photos, Front and Rear: EDIT: Attachments are down, linking from Imageshack: If you look at the rear pilot you can clearly see the hoses I'm talking about. Hard to see in the front shot because of A) The lack of using a flash and B) The snowplow Pilot. Now she has no front coupler atm because that pilot as I mentioned last year, requires the Kadee U25B Coupler & Adapter. She will get it this month. Yes her rear handrail rod is broken and the others need to be soldered in place. I will get to that. Now other details to note here: Ozark Miniatures makes a Santa Fe style pilot plow that will fit the rear plow the prototype had. She will be getting a set of Leslie S-3 Horns and her trademark strobe. Etched Metal Grills to come. And brake Hoses. Ozark Miniatures has become my favorite Manufacturer now. But that's not all. I have a photograph of the prototype with the chain brake system, dual Speed Recorders on BOTH sides of the front truck too. This changes my Phase 4 game plan as i'll be dropping close to 300 bucks on detail parts. 2 to 6 bucks adds up very quickly. I do plan to use the Ozark Miniatures brake hose kit to custom make my own MU Hoses for all my units. That's one less USA Trains part I have to worry about. Now I have a project I'll be starting next week. First thing, Our Walmart in town is being rennovated into a super Walmart. But the space around the building is full so instead of Widening the building their building straight back. This means that they trashed their old wire carts. Yeah we didn't get plastic ones until now. So as I was biking (I live very close so I bike to walmart rather then waste gas unless I know I can't carry it all back with me) past their dumpster I hit some metal. I stopped looked down and pieces of the metal wire carts were laying on the ground. I picked up a few pieces and went "I can use this to make coupler cut levers. Their a bit thicker then normal, but most people won't know." So I'm going to straighten them, get my Rotary tool's cutting discs out , and cut them to length. The front cut bar will be modded to look like it's going through the snowplow pilot. The rear will remain full length and both will be black with white tops. People think I'm strange for picking up "Garbage" but to a model railroader, everyone elses "Garbage" can be our treasure. I'll get photos posted when I start the cut levers. *The prototype in question was the same as the only UBoat in BN Green to ever cut through Westmont, IL when I was a kid. I witnessed a U-25B only once, but that memory has stayed with me. She's the prototype to my U-Boat. So unless something else pops up, Til Next Month.
