DakotaLove39
Always Improvising
I'm sorry guys, I just have to get this off my chest.
As I get more involved with model railroading in HO scale I find myself having more occurrences of other folk being a bit too hard-headed in their way of doing things. This latest one is the perfect example.
I joined an Athearn Blue Box collector's group on Facebook, just because I am a huge Blue Box collector myself at this point. 75% of my rolling stock are Athearn Blue Box or Roundhouse kit cars. I also have three second-hand locomotives which were Blue Box kits.
I am in the middle of a complete rebuild of this Milwaukee F45. I bought it with no motor and no drive axles, so she is the perfect candidate for a modern motor and drive, as well as DCC. Now, I learned a long time ago on this forum that sintered iron wheels are extremely tractive but also very good at grabbing dirt off the track. As I exclusively run on a club layout that sees heavy traffic and light cleaning I want to replace these wheels outright with nickel steel ones. I have also been advised that the old metal sideframes can potentially be a risk for shorting, especially with DCC installed.
So I asked in the Facebook group if anyone would be willing to sell me a pair of Flexicoil trucks for this locomotive, and I even offered to trade my trucks to someone for newer ones if they wanted.
Cue the replies.
"Why can’t you use the metal ones with dcc??? I have several SD9s with the metal side frames and dcc and have never had any issues."
"At my club I've converted many with the metal side frames with no issue or problems "
And so on. One guy suggested I should not worry about it and instead just apply RailZap to the track. When I explained why I can't do this, I got a huffy response about how this man's club has okayed it. That's fine for you, sir, but I don't see that going over well with my club's steep gradient helix.
Basically I got a slew of replies of non-applicable information. Am I being hardheaded myself? Probably, but if you're going to the trouble to reply to my post asking for help, shouldn't you at least provide some kind of help? Replacing the running gear is not unheard of and I don't think I should be chastised or thought less of for doing so, but it seems the armchair or purist types would rather get on me for that than be quiet or offer to sell me what I am actually looking for.
If I were asking for help with the impossible, that's one thing. Something like this job, upgrading a nice model with modern parts is not impossible, and even if you wouldn't do it to your own stuff there is no reason to try to beat down another guy who wants a Blue Box loco to run like a Genesis.
As I get more involved with model railroading in HO scale I find myself having more occurrences of other folk being a bit too hard-headed in their way of doing things. This latest one is the perfect example.
I joined an Athearn Blue Box collector's group on Facebook, just because I am a huge Blue Box collector myself at this point. 75% of my rolling stock are Athearn Blue Box or Roundhouse kit cars. I also have three second-hand locomotives which were Blue Box kits.
I am in the middle of a complete rebuild of this Milwaukee F45. I bought it with no motor and no drive axles, so she is the perfect candidate for a modern motor and drive, as well as DCC. Now, I learned a long time ago on this forum that sintered iron wheels are extremely tractive but also very good at grabbing dirt off the track. As I exclusively run on a club layout that sees heavy traffic and light cleaning I want to replace these wheels outright with nickel steel ones. I have also been advised that the old metal sideframes can potentially be a risk for shorting, especially with DCC installed.
So I asked in the Facebook group if anyone would be willing to sell me a pair of Flexicoil trucks for this locomotive, and I even offered to trade my trucks to someone for newer ones if they wanted.
Cue the replies.
"Why can’t you use the metal ones with dcc??? I have several SD9s with the metal side frames and dcc and have never had any issues."
"At my club I've converted many with the metal side frames with no issue or problems "
And so on. One guy suggested I should not worry about it and instead just apply RailZap to the track. When I explained why I can't do this, I got a huffy response about how this man's club has okayed it. That's fine for you, sir, but I don't see that going over well with my club's steep gradient helix.
Basically I got a slew of replies of non-applicable information. Am I being hardheaded myself? Probably, but if you're going to the trouble to reply to my post asking for help, shouldn't you at least provide some kind of help? Replacing the running gear is not unheard of and I don't think I should be chastised or thought less of for doing so, but it seems the armchair or purist types would rather get on me for that than be quiet or offer to sell me what I am actually looking for.
If I were asking for help with the impossible, that's one thing. Something like this job, upgrading a nice model with modern parts is not impossible, and even if you wouldn't do it to your own stuff there is no reason to try to beat down another guy who wants a Blue Box loco to run like a Genesis.
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