Coffee Shop XXXVI-2/4/2013


I went down to my fathers place to look at how much the grass has grown since the last mowing. It's not high enough yet but it won't be long, probably before the end of the week. Something I noticed right was that my mothers old doll house had been unceremoniously set out on the front porch and the supplies to complete it just tossed out around it. Lately anything and everything set there makes one last stop before it disappears forever. The curb. Most likely the reason it's not there already is it's weight. It's made of plywood and cabinet board and is quite heavy. The electrics for it had never been installed and I wasn't going to let them go without a fight. We're talking a 12vac 40va wall wart, 100' of tape wire, eleven miniature light switches, eighteen miniature wall outlets, seven plugs, twelve sub-midget plugs with leads and lots of miniature electric wire. I thought there was a box of light bulbs but I couldn't find any. I also snatched a Wal-Mart bag full of classical cedar shingles. Don't know what I'll use them for but I'll find something.

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I got some of the stuff on the layout put away. Not much but it's progress. A little while later the space was taken up by the electrical stuff from the doll house as I was inventorying my gains. Said house by the way is gone. My father took it to Wal-Mart and gave it away. He said he would have been happier if the electric stuff was in it and I told him the stuff is in better hands right where it is. I'll actually use it instead of give it to a kid to destroy or lose. It seems to me that very few take proper care of something that's given to them. Got a doctor appointment to go to tomorrow morning. General checkup and lab work. More needles. Oh joy!

Y'all reckon Slim there can pick up that thar wrench?
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Well, time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

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Good luck with the Doc tomorrow, Jeffrey.

I spent the better part of today, rebuilding a never run Athearn RTR GP35. Typical of contemporary Athearn, there was oil over everything when I opened the packaging. When I removed the body to install the decoder there was more oil about. In addition, the engine let out a odd sound that sounded like a frozen bearing or something.

I ended up disassembling the whole thing cleaning and re-lubing the trucks and gear tower, and replacing the brush springs on the motor. I ran the motor at top speed without it being connected to the gear assembly and what ever was causing the noise either seated itself or wore itself down. Once reassembled, I programed the cv settings and and it ran like a charm until the end hung up of a PECO switch frog. I used the Dremel to remedy that problem and after break in, it runs effortlessly.

So much for Ready to Roll, eh? Next on the list is a SW7 re-motoring/re-gearing operation. Should be fun, for sure.

Good Evening.

Joe
 
WJLI26 said:
Good luck with the Doc tomorrow, Jeffrey.

I spent the better part of today, rebuilding a never run Athearn RTR GP35. Typical of contemporary Athearn, there was oil over everything when I opened the packaging. When I removed the body to install the decoder there was more oil about.
I ended up disassembling the whole thing cleaning and re-lubing the trucks and gear tower, and replacing the brush springs on the motor. I ran the motor at top speed without it being connected to the gear assembly and what ever was causing the noise either seated itself or wore itself down.
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I had a couple of GP38's like that. Somebody figured a lube job was a bath! They were sold as RTR and they had great looking detail but the great things stopped at the shell. On both the mechanism was standard blue box. Those two locos started me on a slippery slope that turned into a land slide of bad motors, bad light boards, faulty trucks, etc. I stopped buying Athearn RTR locos over three years ago. All I buy now is blue box. I had bought I guess seven RTR locos from Athearn and over half of them ran like 80's era Bachmann diesels IF they ran at all. One caught fire on it's break-in run. I don't mean smoking, I mean burning! I have only one Athearn loco that's all Athearn, an SW1500. All my others are Frankenstein rebuilds using parts from Stewart, Bowser, Kato, Atlas, Life-Like and others. You name the company and one of them likely has a part from them. I have eleven locos on my layout right now. Of those only one is recognizable as an Athearn. A GP35. Look closer and you'll see Proto 2000 AAR trucks. The motor is from a Proto 2000 loco. Most of what's on the layout right now is Atlas and a lot of them are rebuilds. In fact, the only two locos on the layout that are NOT rebuilds are a pair of Bachmann GP7's. Apart from some cosmetic changes they're the same as they when they left the factory. How's that for a turnabout? Bachmann diesels used to be something well worth avoiding. And now these two are among the best running locos I have. They run like a couple of top end Rolex watches and even put the best of my Atlas locos to shame.
 
Good morning folks.

We are in a winter storm warning with forecasts of 4 to 8 inches of the white crap!:eek: Supposedly we are to warm into the 60's by the weekend so this should be the last snow of the year. It's darn near May so hopefully we are close enough to the sun that winter has to go away for a while.:)

We managed to pack half of the house yesterday. Since we don't actually move until the middle of May, it's hard to pack things like clothing and the kitchen stuff. We sign the papers for the new house next Wednesday so I want to have most of the packing done by then. I have to try to paint most of the house in two weeks so I won't have time to pack once that project begins. I'm going to be busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest!:D

Time to get ready for work.
Have a good day everyone.
 
jeffrey-wimberly said:
I had a couple of GP38's like that. Somebody figured a lube job was a bath! They were sold as RTR and they had great looking detail but the great things stopped at the shell. On both the mechanism was standard blue box. Those two locos started me on a slippery slope that turned into a land slide of bad motors, bad light boards, faulty trucks, etc. I stopped buying Athearn RTR locos over three years ago. All I buy now is blue box. I had bought I guess seven RTR locos from Athearn and over half of them ran like 80's era Bachmann diesels IF they ran at all. One caught fire on it's break-in run. I don't mean smoking, I mean burning! I have only one Athearn loco that's all Athearn, an SW1500. All my others are Frankenstein rebuilds using parts from Stewart, Bowser, Kato, Atlas, Life-Like and others. You name the company and one of them likely has a part from them. I have eleven locos on my layout right now. Of those only one is recognizable as an Athearn. A GP35. Look closer and you'll see Proto 2000 AAR trucks. The motor is from a Proto 2000 loco. Most of what's on the layout right now is Atlas and a lot of them are rebuilds. In fact, the only two locos on the layout that are NOT rebuilds are a pair of Bachmann GP7's. Apart from some cosmetic changes they're the same as they when they left the factory. How's that for a turnabout? Bachmann diesels used to be something well worth avoiding. And now these two are among the best running locos I have. They run like a couple of top end Rolex watches and even put the best of my Atlas locos to shame.
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You are quite right about Bachmann's turnaround. I swap out the Bachmann decoder, with a Digitrax DN135, change to Kadee 148s and they run nice, without further work.

Used to be I bought mostly Athearn BB in undecorated kits, or dealer choice from NY/NJ area mail order houses of the past. Now, I never consider Athearn, as even my Genesis purchases were disappointments.

Funny part of yesterday's project was that I broke the bottom retainer/cover of the GP35's rear truck. I went over to my cache of unbuilt BB kits, found an undecorated BB GP35 wide body, opened up the box, and lo and behold, the domestically produced partially assembled (as BB loco kits were produced), model was swimming in lubricating oil.:(:(

In any event I have another set of replacement gears to install in a P2k, and some other useful parts.

Joe
 
Good Morning:

45° and mostly sunny in South Central Monmouth County, this morning. Going up to the mid 50s.

Not sure how I'm going to spend my day, I'll pick something out of the jar :).

Have a great Day!

joe
 
Good morning folks

My daughter finished her last club volleyball tournament of the season. She cannot make the team’s last tournament since it conflicts with her Junior Prom. She has a few more practices that she will attend. Starting in June her high school team will be playing in a summer league.

My son on the other hand is slow at the moment. Things will be pick up in a month when his Boy Scouts troop will be gearing up for the Jamboree. They have a couple of camping trips coming up in May.

I am hoping that once summer rolls around I will have some more time for modeling.

I hope everybody has a good day.
 
WJLI26 said:
Funny part of yesterday's project was that I broke the bottom retainer/cover of the GP35's rear truck. I went over to my cache of unbuilt BB kits, found an undecorated BB GP35 wide body, opened up the box, and lo and behold, the domestically produced partially assembled (as BB loco kits were produced), model was swimming in lubricating oil.:(:(
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Yeah. I've seen quite a bit of that. Some to the point that the paint was peeling off. No choice on them but to either send them back or pull the shells and give them a good bath in alcohol to finish stripping the paint. Ever pull one from the packaging and have part of the paint job stay in the packaging? Or have the entire length of long hood handrail peel off because it was stuck to the package? Those are just a few of the reasons I stopped buying the new Athearn locos. The biggest reason was because the motors were disasters. I can't see paying $100+ for a brand new loco and have it be dead as a brick right out of the box! Give me a break. Even the worst of the old Tyco's I had ran a few yards before they died. Looks like when Uncle Irv died his concept of quality died with him. Has it occurred to anybody at Athearn that people might want a good looking loco that runs as good as it looks?
 
Last time I saw big thunder snow (lightning in snow storm) was in Alaska back in 1980. It was multiple colors, sorta like a rainbow on fire. Beautiful but nasty!
 
RexHea said:
Yeah? Well, so was Social Security with the "Gov" and you know about that!:eek::D:D
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Rex, believe me I know how that sometimes works out - that's exactly why whenever a larger-than-usual amount of mrr money falls into my hands, I spend it as quickly as possible! The use-it-or-lose-it principle definitely applies here, to hell with "saving for a rainy day"; If I fail to act quickly, the "rain" comes and washes me clean.:mad:
 
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