A new beginning inspired from my old Central Midland Layout


Rico said:
Looks good! Not my favourite part of the hobby.
Is that a Farmrail loco I see?

PS: quit pushing those ground throws down so far! 😝
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I once had 4 Shinohara double crossovers I was going to try and located on my new layout,...decided to see them off and do that track work with two sets of single crossovers with Peko turnouts. (don't know if you remember me, but at one time I had a Central Midland layout like yourself)

.....my new double deck layout
modelrailroadforums.com

Interesting track plan, Tupper Lake & Faust Junction

I think I will be satisfied with normal thin mirrors. Can mirror surfaces be painted,....irregular sky color across the tops?........alternative to cutting irregular curves in mirrors??
modelrailroadforums.com modelrailroadforums.com
 
beiland said:
I once had 4 Shinohara double crossovers I was going to try and located on my new layout,...decided to see them off and do that track work with two sets of single crossovers with Peko turnouts. (don't know if you remember me, but at one time I had a Central Midland layout like yourself)

.....my new double deck layout
modelrailroadforums.com

Interesting track plan, Tupper Lake & Faust Junction

I think I will be satisfied with normal thin mirrors. Can mirror surfaces be painted,....irregular sky color across the tops?........alternative to cutting irregular curves in mirrors??
modelrailroadforums.com modelrailroadforums.com
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Yes, I remember you. Your layout is looking great, there is a lot of switching. If you notice I still have one double crossover that works fine. The other one just gave me fits and enough was enough. I hated to throw a $100 piece of track in the garbage but it is what it is. Everything is working pretty well now.
 
So this is why I do it. Before I posted my Twin Granddaughters watching the trains. This is my grandson who will be 2 years old in March. He is hooked. Every day he comes here the first thing he says is " Papa, downstairs trains". Notice how he keeps his hands on the front panel. They have been taught not to grab any trains or mess with the scenery. Maybe someday this will be his. 💕

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PS: sorry I thought I was replying to this posting of yours,..
https://modelrailroadforums.com/for...tral-midland-layout.27823/page-27#post-525780

Have anyone experienced a problem with cracked axle/gears in their Precision Craft locomotives?

I recently discovered cracked gears in both the F3's and PA's from Precision Craft. Here is a discussion of the F3,..

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/precision-craft-f3s-imported-by-broadway-ltd-12219725?highlight=precision craft f3&pid=1336495734

...and I will soon add the PA's I just discovered cracks in.
 
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I don't know if NWSL has replacement geared axles or not. Had similar problems with Proto2000 diesel locomotives, and Athearn gears solved the problem. The only thing is that the P2K axles are longer than what I think I see on yours, whereas the Athearn replacement gears don't extend out from the gear that far. I also don't know if the gear teeth are the right number to connect with your matching gears.
 
Something I would like to share. I bought this Lionel Ho Southern Pacific Daylight when I was 14 years old in 1976. I thought about selling this numerous times. But I thought “This was the first locomotive steam engine I bought”.Then I decided to convert it to DCC sound.
This conversion was not easy due to the split frame and pancake motor. George from Soundtraxx has been a great help. This is why I buy Soundtraxx only now. I have a few more programming tweaks I want to do. So here it is, almost 48 years later.

 
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Great video!!! Put a smile on my face after a hard nights work 🍻 I was about 8 and came home with my mom one day and there is my dad and older brother on the kitchen floor with a little 4x6 double oval running trains, instantly fell in love with the hobby. Still got the locos and rolling stock, one loco was The Silver Streak, loved the looks of it…
 
Ericsauto said:
Something I would like to share. I bought this Lionel Ho Southern Pacific Daylight when I was 14 years old in 1976. I thought about selling this numerous times. But I thought “This was the first locomotive steam engine I bought”.Then I decided to convert it to DCC sound.
This conversion was not easy due to the split frame and pancake motor. George from Soundtraxx has been a great help.
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So did you keep the pancake motor, or did you re-engineer it to hold a can and worm gear. Or ... did you scrap the whole frame and use one of the Bowser conversion frames? I've seen all three methods done.
 
Iron Horseman said:
So did you keep the pancake motor, or did you re-engineer it to hold a can and worm gear. Or ... did you scrap the whole frame and use one of the Bowser conversion frames? I've seen all three methods done.
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This is the original pain in the rear pancake motor without getting into a long story. I worked on this for almost 2 weeks wondering why the thing was running so slow ( about half-throttle). I had purchased another one for parts off of eBay for next to nothing. It was missing a few little parts. After getting frustrated and talking with George from Soundtraxx numerous times, I tried the other one I bought for parts. It turned out I had a motor issue with my original chassis. Ok, I know it is not 100% my original one but it is still with the shell and tender. Motors go bad. I may try to rebuild that motor when I get a chance.

These have a split frame. You have one side is positive and one is negative. They use a plate over the pancake motor with brushes. The screws that hold the plate on are the connection points. You have to isolate them from the frame. I tap them out with a Kadee 2-56 size tap set. Then I trimmed down some 2-56 nylon screws and that isolated the brush connection from the frame. The frame will always be positive and negative.

The rest is easy ( until you find the motor is about to die) I wish I had taken more pictures. I am going to do my 1977 Atlas GP40, the first real engine I bought myself.

If you have one and need help let me know, I can save you a bunch of time. First thing I would tell you to do. Test it on DC before you convert it. It would have saved me a ton of time, but the learning experience was invaluable.

Soundtraxx technical service FIVE STARS!
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Ericsauto said:
This is the original pain in the rear pancake motor without getting into a long story.
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I had gotten that impression, but had to ask.

I worked on this for almost 2 weeks wondering why the thing was running so slow ... It turned out I had a motor issue with my original chassis. ... Test it on DC before you convert it. It would have saved me a ton of time, but the learning experience was invaluable.
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Been there too, and came up with the same rule that you did. My first rule of converting to command control. Step #1. Make certain the locomotive is running well on DC. That way one knows when there is a problem that it IS the DCC and not something else.

I am going to do my 1977 Atlas GP40, the first real engine I bought myself.
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That will be easy peezy after that GS-4. My first conversion to command control in 1983 (PNP-112 not DCC but same principle), was one of the Atlas SD25s of that same design. I scraped the factory "board" flat and put the a decoder on top. Today they make many drop in decoders that replace the factory strip directly. If you go with sound that will be the hardest part. I obviously didn't at the time, as the sound systems of the day were not DCC compatible.

Unfortunately I can't find a photo.
 
Iron Horseman said:
That will be easy peezy after that GS-4. My first conversion to command control in 1983 (PNP-112 not DCC but same principle), was one of the Atlas SD25s of that same design. I scraped the factory "board" flat and put the a decoder on top. Today they make many drop in decoders that replace the factory strip directly. If you go with sound that will be the hardest part. I obviously didn't at the time, as the sound systems of the day were not DCC compatible.

Unfortunately I can't find a photo.
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I am putting sound in it. On GP's like this, I use an Apple iPhone 5 speaker. Works and sounds great. I will post pictures of this hopefully next week.
 
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