Yesterday I started working on making a drop in gate to replace the hing gate I had. This morning I had to take a sander to some of the sides of it to make it less of a tighter fit. Don't want to have to force it in. Final got the fit I was happy with. Have to push down a little for a snug fit but it won't wiggle around. This afternoon after making trees, I glued the cork rail bed in place and either later on tonight or tomorrow morning I'll glue the new cross over and track in (having Christmas next week when the kids and grand kids come in). I also want to run some additional power lines to the track. There seems to be a few areas where the locos loose power or if I stop I can't get the loco to start again.
B&M Railroad (Ben & Me)
- Thread starter Warpiper
- Start date
flyboy2610
Loveably weird
Looks like it's coming along nicely! I think your trees turned out pretty well.
Thanks.
They were fun to make. I'm going to start working on putting down some track on the bridge today. Hopefully once everything is done, the rails will line up with the bridge and table. I'll glue the track down first then cut the rails once its set.Ok, quick up date. The kids came in for a week for New Years (delayed Christmas) and I got to play trains with my grandson every day. And to my surprise, my 2 year granddaughter loved the trains too! I got the new track and cross over down and ran some 14 gauge wire under the table and dropped some feeder lines through out. Got the rails cleaned up and cleaned the wheels on the engines. The combination of the new feeds and the clean wheels made a big difference and now there is no longer any flickering or loss of power.
Last weekend I found some LNER Teak coaches on Ebay in England and bought a few for the Flying Scotsman. Oddly enough, both sellers live within an hour from my daughter and her family.
Today, I fixed an area where occasionally some cars from the B&M and the Flying Scotsman would derail. I used the HO Clearance Gauge and found the problem then put a small finishing nail next to the outer rail and tapped it over gently until the rails aligned properly. Don't know if that's a good way to do it or not but I didn't what to pull the track up again. It problem area was where I joined 2 tracks in a curve. Note to self, don't put joints in curves in the future.
Last week I tried using some Great Stuff expandable foam to make a faux coal load for my coal cars. Didn't turn out that great. After I cut the top part of the foam, the foam curled up at both ends instead of just remaining flat. I played with a few of them and kind of got them to fit but I think I'll have to try cutting some loads out of regular pink insulation foam board. The expandable foam ones that I did get to fit, I painted them the other day and today I covered the top with glue and sprinkled some black diamond blasting sand over it. I'll take some pics when they dry.
This morning I spent some time working on the hoppers trying to replace the horn couplers with Kadee couplers. Got 2 done but the rest have talgo trucks and variants. I'll have to do some research and see what I need to do. I also worked on 3 freight cars and a closed hopper to see if I could get them to work properly but their wheels get falling off and shorting the track. All of them have metal sprung trucks. I'm thinking I'm going to have to replace all of them with new plastic trucks.
Here is a truck on my small hopper that looks like the horn coupler has been pined in place. I don't see a way of removing the cover to replace the coupler.
Ok time to do some research.
Last weekend I found some LNER Teak coaches on Ebay in England and bought a few for the Flying Scotsman. Oddly enough, both sellers live within an hour from my daughter and her family.
Today, I fixed an area where occasionally some cars from the B&M and the Flying Scotsman would derail. I used the HO Clearance Gauge and found the problem then put a small finishing nail next to the outer rail and tapped it over gently until the rails aligned properly. Don't know if that's a good way to do it or not but I didn't what to pull the track up again. It problem area was where I joined 2 tracks in a curve. Note to self, don't put joints in curves in the future.
Last week I tried using some Great Stuff expandable foam to make a faux coal load for my coal cars. Didn't turn out that great. After I cut the top part of the foam, the foam curled up at both ends instead of just remaining flat. I played with a few of them and kind of got them to fit but I think I'll have to try cutting some loads out of regular pink insulation foam board. The expandable foam ones that I did get to fit, I painted them the other day and today I covered the top with glue and sprinkled some black diamond blasting sand over it. I'll take some pics when they dry.
This morning I spent some time working on the hoppers trying to replace the horn couplers with Kadee couplers. Got 2 done but the rest have talgo trucks and variants. I'll have to do some research and see what I need to do. I also worked on 3 freight cars and a closed hopper to see if I could get them to work properly but their wheels get falling off and shorting the track. All of them have metal sprung trucks. I'm thinking I'm going to have to replace all of them with new plastic trucks.
Here is a truck on my small hopper that looks like the horn coupler has been pined in place. I don't see a way of removing the cover to replace the coupler.
Ok time to do some research.
Hi Rabman,
Thank, I appreciate it. Its been a slow project but fun. I got a little carried away the other week and then again 2 nights ago. About 10 days ago I found and won 2 eBay auctions for some LNER teak coaches for my Flying Scotsman my grand kids gave me last year for Christmas. They came in yesterday and today. Now I have 7 coaches to put on the track. I need to find some replacement wheels for them though. 3 of them have metal wheels but the flange is to tall and the coaches derail pretty quickly. The 4 that came in today have plastic wheels but the flange is a lot shorter. Tried to run them too but they derailed. I'll have to check the wheel spacing and see if it needs to be adjusted. The Flying Scotsman and coaches are OO scale but run on HO track. A Hornby rep told me that they should run fine on code 100 unfortunately I'm running code 83 track. I'll see if I can find some wheels that will work. If not, I just may have to buy some code 100 track and start a new layout! You all will be invited to my funeral after my wife finds out.
I'll post some pics of the coaches when I get a chance.
flyboy2610
Loveably weird
'If any of you cry at my funeral I'll never speak to you again.' Stan LaurelYou all will be invited to my funeral after my wife finds out.
Ahhh, the wheels....... I've been looking for a while. It appears the only wheels available are from Hornby and they go from any where from $40-80 per pack of 10. A bit on the pricey side. The diameter is 14.1 mm from tread to tread. Haven't found any non Hornby wheels that may work so I may have to bit the bullet. I'll need 3 packs.
My wife noticed the new coaches but when I told her they were for the grand kids she was fine with that. Didn't mention the possibility of a code 100 set up.
