Jerome's Switcher Roster


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FINALLY
I finished a switcher. Started life as a Sakura 0-4-0. The previous owner shaved off all the cast on details, and had installed a few brass pieces. When I got it half the parts were not installed, and even though it has a NWSL gearbox and can motor, it ran poorly. I enlisted the aide of a friend to requarter the wheels. The added the rest of the parts (a few had to be made), then came Tsunami sound and paint & weathering.
This is the end result!
b&o97a.JPG


Think I'm kidding about the Tsunami in a loco that is only 4 inches from coupler face to coupler face?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvOl...st=HL1315697915&lf=mh_lolz&index=2&playnext=1
 
Rico said:
Great work Karl!
would love to see the rest of the layout too...
Click to expand...

I wish there was more layout to show!!
Since the move last year, all I've got up are my FCSME modules. 20 st of straight modules and 1 corner module. I've got a layout planned for the basement that will be 21x26. Just havn't had time to build yet. Hopefully we'll start this winter!
 
That's a nice little loco Karl. It sounds like a lot of effort was needed for the rebuild. I like the look of saddle tanks which have the tank extending to the front of the smokebox.

Say, I noticed that Bachmann has saddle tank tops for their 0-6-0 tank as a spare part. I wonder if it would be possible to use that spare tank as material to extend the bachmann loco's tank to it's smoke box front?

Hopefully such a conversion will look a bit like this prototype (see attachment).

PaulB
 
kbkchooch said:
FINALLY
I finished a switcher. Started life as a Sakura 0-4-0. The previous owner shaved off all the cast on details, and had installed a few brass pieces. When I got it half the parts were not installed, and even though it has a NWSL gearbox and can motor, it ran poorly. I enlisted the aide of a friend to requarter the wheels. The added the rest of the parts (a few had to be made), then came Tsunami sound and paint & weathering.
This is the end result!
b&o97a.JPG


Think I'm kidding about the Tsunami in a loco that is only 4 inches from coupler face to coupler face?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvOl...st=HL1315697915&lf=mh_lolz&index=2&playnext=1
Click to expand...

Karl, how do you go about painting the wheels and connecting rods without gumming them up?? I want to do some work on my 0-4-0 Dockside now.
 
wheeler1963 said:
Karl, how do you go about painting the wheels and connecting rods without gumming them up?? I want to do some work on my 0-4-0 Dockside now.
Click to expand...

Jerome
I coat all the electricly conductive surfaces with a light oil prior to painting. The chassis,wheels, and siderods are then airbrushed with Poly Scale steam power black. It really helps on steamers if you power the chassis (a 6-9 volt battery is good for this) while you are airbrushing it. It helps alleviate "missed" spots.:eek:
Then all the contacts are cleaned with alcohol and relubed. I then let the powered chassis run on a test loop for about an hour in each direction. It cleans off any missed paint, and limbers up the chassis. Then I add decoders, sound, details and the seperately finished superstructure. A little chalk weathering and we're done!:D
You got a steamer?? :eek: Wow, I thought you were all diseasels!!:D
 
Karl, I've got 4 steamers. 0-4-0, 2 X GS4 Northerns and a J class Genesis. I'm really gonna have to look into this painting thing. Sounds pretty complicated to me.
 
wheeler1963 said:
Karl, I've got 4 steamers. 0-4-0, 2 X GS4 Northerns and a J class Genesis. I'm really gonna have to look into this painting thing. Sounds pretty complicated to me.
Click to expand...

Complicated? Naaaah! Chinese algebra, thats complicated. Truly, sometimes I'd rather paint a brass steamer than a plastic diseasel!;)

This one was almost fun!
horsepower2_resize.jpg
 
It even has a little rerailer on the curve. Neat!

I guess the next step is the get a LH switch and RH switch so you can set up an 'Inglenook' yard on the table. This would be a great help for checking engines run well under switching conditions, mechanism and couplers.

Here's a primer for Inglenooks:

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html


BTW, I've been fiddling with my switchers. I'll prived an update shortly.


PaulB
 
Ok, here's some pics of my progress so far. Actually, it looks like I'm going backwards.

The chassie is now stripped on one model. I will attach a few parts (fillers and the plastic tank end parts) before priming. At this stage there is nothing to stop me going ahead with the truck side cleaning and detailing. I'll have the chassie painted and weathered before I get to the body.

I forgot to order some crucial details for the bodies. Doh! For some reason I only ordered one set of Canon & co walk way treads. That is an early part of body detailing, so I'll need the second set soon. I have also found some details not in the box for one model. These are cab details, so I'll have to pester Athearn to see if I can get the missing spures.

Note the use of stamp collector's bags to hold small parts. I use chinese take away boxes to keep all the plastic bags together for a model. This really helps to avoid losing things.

And finally, a question. Look at the pair of trucks in the photos. One has a worm gear which is white, the other yellow. The reason is the yellow one has the factory lubricant for the universal joint on it. Does anyone know what type of lubricant Athearn's chinese factory is using? There is also a clear oil lubricant on the lower drive train.

Paul B
 
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Hi Jerome,

just letting you know the spark arrestors and light, umm, thingies arrived today. Thankyou very much for your help. It might be a little while before I get to the stage of putting them on the model though.

I bought some paints yesterday. And I noticed, after close study of the prototpye photos, that I need to source some rectangular sand boxes for the ex-RF&P loco. Atlas has them as spares for their MP15DC. I might get some and modify them to fit on the Athearn model.

Regards, Paul B
 
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