Over the last few days I've had a lot of time to spend on model railroading. It's cold and rainy here so indoors is the place to be. I've also been multitasking, jumping to another project while waiting for paint or glue to dry. I think I have three or four going right now.
While waiting on the Canon motors I started on the boxcab body for the Hustler. It's being fabricated from plastic. I'm going slow. Don't want to rush and create something for the trash can...
Boxcab Hustler
Still got a ways to go. So I jumped over to the viaduct and bridges for Quotidian. I assembled the viaduct parts I already cut out. While the glue dried I started on the trusses for the bridges....
Bridge Trusses
I didn't follow any particular prototype for the truss. The design is also freelance. I decided it's a Web truss, designed and built by the Web Truss Company. There was a real company with that name, and they made trusses. not necessarily for bridges, but trusses nontheless. I need three in all. They are going to be identical.
So now I waiting for the glue to dry on two projects. I move over to another task I've been working on for some time, making decals. I make the original in Microsoft Visio and print it out on transparency in an ink printer. To make the artwork really dark I run it through the printer two or three times. What I end up with is an 8" x 11.5" master for creating stencils...
Master Transparency
The gizmo in the image above is a 100 watt light clamped to a post. The light is for exposing a photo-emusion material called StencilPro. I lay the master over the sheet of StencilPro, turn on the light and wait 4 to 5 minutes. Once the exposure is done I develop the StencilPro by putting it in water for about 10 minutes. I then VERY carefully wash off the excess emulsion and let it dry exposed to the light. When all this is done you get this...
Silk Screen Stencil
It's essentially a screen made out of a high resolution weave of silk. You lay it over some clear decal paper and squeeze some ink over the screen. If all goes well you get a decal you can apply to the side of a railcar or anything else you need decals for. I chose to make a decal for a Gorre & Dephetid boxcar, you know, the ones you see on E-Bay for $40 or so...
Gorre & Dephetid Decal
Had to play with the gamma on the image a bit. Hopefully you can see it. It's still a work in progress. I don't have the development down cold yet.
I made up a bunch of masters, most for northeastern amthracite haulers. There is however one master for railroads that never existed except in minature. You might recognize a few...
Freelance Model Railroads
Some of these model railroads no longer exist. The builders are gone and the layout dismantled or in John Allen's case, destroyed. Two are layouts I've built or planned at one time. I want to create at least one car of each. It's one way to beat the rivet counters.
The glue on the viaduct dried so I positioned it on the layout. The roadbed was cut to make a place for it...
Assembled Viaduct
Not finished by a long shot. Still needs arch liners and stone paper among other things. Still, it will support a train even though the branch line isn't operating yet. It's more of a storage track at this point.
The final project I took on was painting and adding a sound decoder to the new 4-4-0 we found in Louisville. Like the other steamers it's made by Mehano in Slovenia and imported by IHC....
Mehano 4-4-0
I used the same Digitrax SDH166D decoder on all three. It's affordable (less than $50) and comes with a speaker. I'd like a louder whistle, but other than that I'm fine with them.
I have several locomotives that are diesels. They were very inexpensive. Two of them are Athearn "Hustlers" made in the 1950's-60's...
The Infamous Athearn Hustler
My Hustlers are painted exactly the same so they get called the twins. I bought them back when our twin daughters were little..
The Twins
Each girl pickes out a car to go with them. One picked out a tuscan Pennsy passenger car. The other chose a stainless New Haven coach. Obviously, the idea of a Hustler hauling a passenger train wouldn't cut it on the "pro" style layout. Kids...Who'd a thought they would ignore the sacred precepts of model railroading. Anyway, the two Hustlers run like all Hustlers. Their top end is about.400 MPH. The high torque motor coupled with a rubber band drive (what Athearn referred to as High F drive) is a major factor in this outlandish behavior
The other locomotive is an old AHM Electro Motive SW1. It sort of runs. The driven wheels have traction tires. That would be okay, but the wheels also have that groove for the tires. Makes it impossible to run without the tires. The SW1 wobbles down the track. It also runs too fast. Not 400 MPH, but still too fast for a switch engine...
AHM SW1
I found very little info on repowereing thes diesels. What I dfid find was disappointing. Apparently, other model rails think nothing of spending a rediculous amount of money on these little critters. The cheapest alternative was a out of production gear set by Ernst. I remember buying back in the day. Like everyone else I found them EXTREMELYdifficult to set up properly. That Hustler never ran. The other options were a Northwest Short Line PDT or SPUD or whatever. The one for the Hustler is out of production now, but it was way to expensive. The Hustler originally sold for $15. Spending close to $100 to get it running seems ridiculous...
North West Short Lline PDT
Fortunately for me I have hundreds of old Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines in my library. The March 1959 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman has an article called "Unhustling The Hustler" by Cliff Travis. Mr Travis and I think a lot alike in some ways. He's thrifty. In 1959 the Hustler was a new product. It was cheap and popular. Yet. as Mr Travis, states in the article, they were (and still are) crazy fast. Since the repowering kits didn't appear for another few years, Travis made one. Rather than resort to gears he kept the rubber band drive...
RMC March 1959 Page 18
RMC March 1959 Page 19
The Hustler comes out of the box with a 10 mm "axle" and a 1 mm or so drive shaft. Travis added a secondary shaft with a 7/16" diameter pulley, roughly 11 mm. I have no idea what that means in terms of ratio's but I do know that it works. I fabricated my own version of the "Travis Drive". I used readily available parts. The pulley came from a $5 science kit. I replaced the motor with a smaller motor from an N scale Mini-Trix locomotive. The rest of the drive is fashioned from plastic and a length of steel rod in my scrap box..
Widget
The Trix motor worked, but only just long enough to prove Mr. Travis was right. Before it became toast I made a video...
This is how a Hustler normally performs...
Hustler Hustling
As I mentioned above, the other diesel is an AHM SW1. The typical response to 'How do I repower this locomotive" is "Buy a Walthers SW1". Nice thought but said model costs about 80$ on EBay. We are being frugal here. For about $10 I was able to create a decent running locomotive. Not as nice or to scale as the Walthers, but definitlely more affordable. The conversion on this one was much simpler. First I got rid of the truck mount couplers by cutting the mounts off the trucks. I then filled in the ends and added knuckle couplers...
SW1 Modified End
I removed the wheels with the traction tire grooves and replaced them with "normal" wheel sets. You could just replace the grooved wheels with normal wheels. Just pop the old ones off the axle and press the new ones on. This took care of the wobble but the locomotive slipped. To combat that I used my version of "Bullfrog Snot" ($25 oer once). A can of Plasti-Dip is available at Lowes or Home Depot for about $8. Comes in spray can (used here) or quart can....
Plasti-Dip "Traction Aid"
Locomotive was masked off and the wheels were sprayed while turning...
Spray-on Traction Tires
Another video...This one of the Sw1 after the modifications...
Modified AHM SW1
The pulley drive on the Hustler needs some tweaking and something other than an N scale motor. I ordered two Canon motors off EBay. I'm also building a boxcab body for the little critter. I want to give it a kind of pre-'40s "oil electric" look. At one time Cary made a cast metal boxcab body for the Hustler, but they are pretty rare nowadays.
Now that more track is in I thought I'd take a staged photo...Here a 4-4-0 with a mixed freight takes the siding as a 2-6-0 camelback rumbles by with another mixed consist. Meanwhile a 2-6-0 trundles across the viaduct with a short Andyrobertsite ore train...
Meet At Quotidian
No scenery yet and only one turnout, at the far end of the siding, is in place. A second turnout is waiting for installation at the near end of the layout. The second turnout turned out much better, which prompted me to start a repalcement for the first...
Layout
You can see the parts for the viaduct sitting on the branch line at the lower right.
The model viaduct is being built from 1/8" plywood, a material I don't think existed when John Allen built his linoleum version. These new thin plywoods are an awesome addition to hobby supplies. I think the thinnest is only 1/64". Not sure how you make plywood that thin. Anyway, while I originally thought of using plastic, plywood covered in embossed stone paper seemed a better way to go....
Viaduct "Kit"
I cut the arches with a hole saw (very slow and carefully) and a hobby saw. It took a while, but I didn't want to mess it up.
I positioned the parts on the layout to get a better idea where they will go...
Quotidian Viaduct
The two sections will be joine by wood truss bridges patterned after this one...
Wooden "K" Truss Bridge
Another bridge will run from the left end of the viaduct to the "mountain". Haven't decided what type. I think Mr Allen used another truss bridge although I think I saw a picture with some other type. Thought of using this...
Wooden Pratt Truss
Right now I'm working on getting one of the Moguls. The gears are not engaging and I need to tweak the motor mount. Got to repower those twin Hustlers too.
I had mentioned some of the treasures I found in Louisville. The hobby shop is called the Roundhouse. You have to see the place to believe it. Anyway...Some of the hoppers seem to be old Varney products. Things were so simple back then. The cars have the general appearance required to look like hoppers. Seperate brakewheels is the extent of the add-on details, much like Athearn and other manufacturers of that "era". One car has a "sort of" brakewheel cast in...
Cast On Brakewheel
The cars are also heavy. While it limits the length of the train a loco can handle this IS a good thing. They track very well through turnouts...
Cast Metal Frame
Most of the cars in general also have kadee couplers. METAL Kadee couplers from back in the day when cast alloy was the only way to go. The trucks are almost all sprung with those teeny springs that go flying at the first opportunity, never to be seen again. Fortunately this usually occurs at the workbench when you're trying to replace wheels...
Sprung Trucks
All in all they look pretty good, go together fast and perform very well. Works for me.
I'm currently working on a set of Roundhouse ore cars. Three cars come in the kit. Although they are supposed to wood chip cars I left off the wooden extensions and kept them as steel ore haulers. They are short with metal frames and seperate plastic castings for the brake system components. The frames are solid, not open like they might be today on such cars. They are rugged and simple to assemble...
Roundhouse "Three In One" Ore Cars
I've wanted a short train of these little guys ever since I saw them in Gorre & Daphetid photos when I was a lad. That's about five decades ago.
Another EBay purchase was a real surprise. I ordered some embossed brick and stone papers. They are exquisite..
Embossed Paper
They came from a fellow named Dimitris Tastsidis way over in Thessaloniki, Greece. He has a store on EBay. The detail is amazing...
Detail
I'm hoping to use them to build structures. Brick paper is rather old school but these embossed sheets are light years away from the old stuff. They equal or surpass their plastic rivals. One place I can use the stone is the viaduct at Quotidian where the branch passes over the mainline...
Quotidian Viaduct
The colored stone will make great foundations for several buildings in the town, including an enginehouse I'm contemplating.
A few things have happened since the last entry. Here's an update...
A second curved turnout was constructed for the other end of the siding. I did a much better job on this one. So good, in fact, that I'm going to build a replacement for the first turnout...
Right Hand Curved Turnout
I spent some time and care on the points and stock rails. I used the techniques I developed with the first turnout...
Points
Same with the frog. I think I can do better in this area. Had to do a lot of filing to make it right...
Frog
Although it worked well on the workbench the only way to know for sure is put it in place and run trains through it...
Future Location
Which brings us to the rolling stock and motive power. Found a hobby shop in Louisville that took me back a few decades. Athearn blue boxes were everywhere. Old school shake the box kits from Roundhouse, Varney and a bunch of others. Got a good deal on rolling stock...10 cars for $6 each. The roster tripled overnight. Most of the cars came with Kadee knuckle couplers. I've repainted them in preparation for adding my own decals (I hope)....
New Equipment
Also snagged another IHC locomotive, a 4-4-0. Like the Mogul before it, it came lettered for the L&N...
IHC 4-4-0
Just like the Mogul, it will get a new paint job. The 2-6-0 is now in plain black and decoder equipped. Same Digitrax mobile sound as the camelback...
2-6-0
The 2-6-0 came with an oil burning tender. I hacked up the bunker cover and made it a coal hauler. Also replaced the horn hook coupler with an EZ Mate knuckle.
Made progress on ttrack and ballast strip for the branch. At this point the layout looks like something is happening...
Layout: General View
Made a video of the two steamers to show how DCC works. Nothing spectacular, but you may get the idea...
The "mainline" loop is up and running (green on the plan below). I've been using it to test locomotives and freight cars. It also entertains our youngest grandchild. Seems the older ones have outgrown trains for now.
Track Plan
Before I can move on to the branch line (red on plan), I'm gonna need to obtain some turnouts. I've checked and this seems a pretty expensive undertaking, especially if you're using nickle silver code 83 track like I am. I can. They average about $20 each. The two curved turnouts I need cost about $10 or so more. I could settle for code 100 brass track and save a bundle, but I think I'll pass on that.
What I decided to do is create my own turnouts. I tried this before on the N scale layout, but wasn't too successful. Most of the issues I ran into were due to the small size and tolerances at 1:160. HO scale, being about twice as big (1:87) seems like it would be a hell of a lot easier. I gave it a shot and it was.
The first turnout I went for was the curved turrnoiut at the left end of the passing siding. I downloaded and printed a set of templates from the Fast Tracks site. Since this is such a small layout, I chose the tighter turnouts. The two curved turnout at either end of the passing siding are going to be #6. I picked these because the site lists the radii for each "leg" as 18" and 24". Made my life a lot easier than figuring out how a #6 turnout would fit in the track plan.
#6 Curved Turnout
It took a while. First I tried soldering the rails to PC board ties. This didn't go well. The copper kept pulling off of the tie. It doesn't happen right away, but after redoing the solder joint a few times the heat will eventually break whatever bond is securing the copper. I then went with plastic ties and Super Glue gel. Worked pretty well, but the points kept getting glued to the stock rails. I had also made the points in a way that just did not work...
Bad Point Rail
I sharpened the point (the drawing is out of proportion) as per usual practice for handmade turnouts. I also removed the lower flange to clear the toe of the stock rail. Two things went wrong here. One, that lower flange is where you need to solder or glue the points to the throwbar. Second, Since the point never gets razor sharp as shown in the drawing the stock rail needs to be modified to suit...
Stock Rail
The modification to the stock rail bothers me. Since you are actually changing the rail head, you are altering the surface the wheels run on. Some modelers perform this operation and their turnouts work fine. It seemed like there might be a better way.
On the third try I went back to soldering. I also created a new set of points and stock rails. I filed the point down on one side only, the side that rests against the stock rail. I left the toe on the point in place...
Revised Point
To make sure the points nested against the stock rail I simply removed the toe where the points would make contact...
Revised Stock Rail
It may not seem like it would work, but it does. At least in tests. The test car runs over the points with no issues. I still have to gap the copper on the ties. I'm looking into DCC wiring before I cut any gaps in the rails...
Switch Points
The real test will come when the switch is installed on the layout. If things go smoothly I'll start on the second curved turnout.
By the by...I've read somewhere that turnouts are easy. They are not "rocket science" and other such things. I don't think this is entirely correct. You need to develop some expertise with a soldering iron before attempting this at home.
In other news I'm slowly accumulating HO scale rolling stock and motive power. There's an AHM SW1 that's being modified to an SC1. The difference is welded versus cast frames. There are a few other details that also need to be changed. Alledgedly the AHM model is out of scale and runs wonky. It was cheap so I bought it. Right now it's serving duty on the track cleaning train...
Track Cleaning Train
The train had a logging caboose but coupler height needs adjustment. It's temporarily serving as a test car for turnout construction.
The track cleaner itself is made from an old gondola I found at the hobby shop. It cost me $1. It's wood and metal construction with sprung trucks. Not sure who made it but the weight is about 4 ounces, a perfect weight to hold the cleaning pad in place. I think the pad is from Athearn. It's kept in contact with the track by four springs. I modified the gondola frame to accept it...
Sprung Cleaning Pad
Since I'm using DCC I want to keep the track as clean as possible. This is a bunch better than running and abrasive pad over the rails with my hand. As you can see, it does the job...
Rail Grunge
You'll notice the bright metal wheels on the car. I'm equipping all my cars with them. They work and look better than the original plastic wheels. I used Intermountain wheels on my N scale cars. These are from Walthers.
Finally, a new iron horse has been introduced to the stable. It's an IHC / Mehano Mogul (2-6-0) just like the camelback. I paid $20 for it on EBay. Needed some cleanup and a shim to keep the gears engaged. Still have to remove the lettering and repaint it...
Mehano 2-6-0
Just for fun I ran the two steamers double headed on a train. Overkill, considering the train is only two empty hoppers and a caboose. Once the second engine gets a decoder it should be quite a show...
