John's Loco Workbench - More Projects Begin...

[ctclibby]

Tempting but I have earmarked it for my fictional shortline's new branch line which will be opening when I move house in a couple of months time all being well.

Meanwhile, the RS-32 has finished painting, now mostly reassembled and waiting application of transfers:
View attachment 215982

Whilst packing up the hobby shed for the move, I found this hiding:
View attachment 215983
Picked it up on spec years ago and forgot all about it. It will feature at one end of the proposed new branch line plan.

Also I have to work out how I am going to pack up and shift this lot...
View attachment 215984

John: Maybe start laying track? Or do what I did .. loop of track from under the engine over the top back to under the engine. ( like a Caterpillar track ). Solar Cell for power and let them go. Oh, wait - not the 1st of the Month.

 

[jmupton2000]

Busy morning as it turns out, RS-32 4005 is now decaled up:

The red wings aren't quite right but all I could do from the Microscale sheets I had in the drawer.

Meanwhile, the next patient has been dissected....

Seems that a previous owner drove this through a superglue factory at some point! I have scraped off an astonishing amount of slapped on and spilt glue, mostly from the frame. The fuel tank is a write off as for some unfathomable reason, the air tanks had been taken off the top edges and glued - badly - to the lower sides, fortunately I do have a spare GP30 fuel tank in the spare parts archive.

This is one of the worst cases of damage repair and overhaul I have tackled for some time, but the effort will be worth it.

Needless to say, the gears are cracked and need replacing, replacement parts are somewhere between here and Ontario at the moment.

But the chassis is a runner, despite the Heath-Robinson wiring mess which I will leave alone for now.

 

[bnsf971]

Busy morning as it turns out, RS-32 4005 is now decaled up:
View attachment 215999
The red wings aren't quite right but all I could do from the Microscale sheets I had in the drawer.

Meanwhile, the next patient has been dissected....
View attachment 215996

Seems that a previous owner drove this through a superglue factory at some point! I have scraped off an astonishing amount of slapped on and spilt glue, mostly from the frame. The fuel tank is a write off as for some unfathomable reason, the air tanks had been taken off the top edges and glued - badly - to the lower sides, fortunately I do have a spare GP30 fuel tank in the spare parts archive.

This is one of the worst cases of damage repair and overhaul I have tackled for some time, but the effort will be worth it.

Needless to say, the gears are cracked and need replacing, replacement parts are somewhere between here and Ontario at the moment.
View attachment 215997

But the chassis is a runner, despite the Heath-Robinson wiring mess which I will leave alone for now.
View attachment 215998

That wiring does look--interesting.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Also I have to work out how I am going to pack up and shift this lot...
View attachment 215984

I had some recent experience in that department, I moved to where I am now almost three years ago. I don't know if you have any of the boxes they came in, but if you do, it can help a lot, if not, they can still be kept quite safe. I kept the original boxes (or the boxes they came to me in) and the packing in the boxes, so that helped a lot, but I also have a lot that didn't have any packaging. I gently wrapped them all in bubble wrap, taped it so it wouldn't unravel, and put it all in plastic storage tubs with the heaviest engines on the bottom. Every engine and car came out in one piece with absolutely no damage, which is amazing given how rough a couple of areas on I-25 in the Denver, CO. area were at the time.

 

[jmupton2000]

Many thanks for the packing/moving suggestions. I have obtained some sturdy recycled black plastic crate boxes which should do the job (I am only moving half a mile down the road!)

Meanwhile, RS-32 4005 is done:

And work is continuing on the resuscitation of the semi-derelict GP30:

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Many thanks for the packing/moving suggestions. I have obtained some sturdy recycled black plastic crate boxes which should do the job (I am only moving half a mile down the road!)

Those should do quite nicely, especially since you're only moving half a mile. I moved about 300 miles, give or take a few. Your RS-32 looks nice, I look forward to seeing what you do with the GP30.

 

[jmupton2000]

The derelict GP30 has made some progress this morning, and one step back...

The chassis is now a runner despite the interesting wiring:

The cab has now been successfully repainted:

...and the number boards are done:

Unfortunately, I made an absolute mess of the long and short hood paint, the paint I used was rattle can of Humbrol satin black, forgetting that in the last few years, Humbrol's product quality has not so much nosedived as plummeted like a concrete parachute, the result was horrible and into a bath of IPA the hoods duly went:

Fortunately the cab was done with a rattle can of proper Tamiya black which I found after despairing at the Humbrol disaster.

 

[jmupton2000]

Well, work on the GP30 has ground to a halt as I have run out of Tamiya black paint!!! More on the way...
Just the cab is finished and now resting on a wagon:

Whilst I am waiting, I dragged out an old Athearn Blue Box SW series switcher and decided to go to town on it, CP style hood end number boards and lights, full length handrails and a complete repaint.

This is another old second hand purchase that has  interesting wiring, but it works...

 

[jmupton2000]

The derelict GP30 is now back together except for the rails which are going to need some serious attention:

To be honest, it's not that good, the body shell was pretty bad to begin with and the paint went wrong at one point and had to be partly restripped, a process from which the long hood never really recovered.

If I find a Proto GP30 shell going spare somewhere, I may well swap it out as the chassis is fine. All for about £20 plus materials and time, I can't complain really.

 

[bnsf971]

This is another old second hand purchase that has  interesting wiring, but it works...
View attachment 216739

If it's stupid, but it works...

 

[Smudge617]

This is another old second hand purchase that has  interesting wiring, but it works...
View attachment 216739

I've done a lot worse wiring adding a DCC light board and lights to a Class 37.