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    Any info on this train set please.

    It's an IHC set, one of many they have produced for private label specials... unless it has some great collectible value for the company involved, it's just an IHC SD40 and some cheap freight cars with advertising on them. If it works for ya, have fun with it - but there's much better stuff out...
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    Full Workbench

    Nope... that would warrant a web site update fer shur. The GP40 is finished but doesn't have a direct slot on the models page yet. One of the SD40-2s is a bit farther along - the pilot buffers are on and I put most of the Cannon surface parts in place. The handrails are the holdup there - I...
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    Full Workbench

    Well I guess I'm gonna have to post an "assembly floor" shot of my own. That will take some doing. For fun I'll also have to include four GP35s I started on in 1994, to be relatively quick and dirty projects. I got two painted and lettered, but never weathered or really finished them. The...
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    Beginner Mistakes

    That's one mistake I will not be making on my next layout, although how much is enough? It may be sort of like the old saw from the photography forum, that you can never have too big of a darkroom sink. Even my Kato Karpet route has four staging tracks, and two other places I can park...
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    C420 Progress

    Funny you should ask. When it comes to detail parts, I try to keep everything I think I'm going to need on hand and just go shopping in my own "hobby shop" when I need something. I stock up on these things usually twice a year - once at Original Whistle Stop in Pasadena, and again when I go to...
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    Beginner Mistakes

    So what if I want to borrow Mr. Whipple? Andy
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    C420 Progress

    That's easier said than done. That Superfleet roster shot on my web site took probably an hour to set up and I shot probably 2 dozen frames, different lighting angles and f-stops. I chose what I thought was the best one, but I don't think it's all that great. I just didn't have enough light...
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    C420 Progress

    What did you start with? I have a couple of P2K torpedo geeps new in the box for future projects but I don't remember if they are 7s or 9s, or if I have undecs or what. The N&W torpedo units were mixed in with all the other freight units and otherwise unmodified although some did lose their...
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    Beginner Mistakes

    I have no memory of being a beginner, in a true sense. I grew up with HO trains as a fixture the same as the TV set, the kitchen table, and mom's 51 Ford flathead. I was probably in 1st grade before I realized that not everyone had HO trains in their basement... or a darkroom... or musical...
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    C420 Progress

    What amazes me is how much time it has taken just to do this much. I have never kept track of my time before, and don't really need to - but since I worked on it three nights in a row, I had a pretty good idea how much time was involved. If I stuck the shell together and set it on the drive...
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    C420 Progress

    My N&W 2578 - nee Nickel Plate 578 - is coming along. Doesn't look like much after something like 5 hours work over 3 nights but... there's not a whole lot of hard stuff left. Well. Maybe. http://www.gp30.com/models/nw2578/nw2578-001.jpg - replaced cab headlight with a DA 1024 with visors...
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    It's cutting into my hobby budget!

    I guess I have never had that problem. I had subscriptions for a while but let them lapse especially at the rate the magazines were going under. I just buy them OTC right now and I've never felt compelled to buy one in conflict with buying something else I needed. About the only time I felt...
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    Advise on Proto 2k

    Ixnay on the toothpaste and the sewing machine oil. Toothpaste is abrasive and might make a useful lapping compound for brass gears, but these are delrin/acetal plastic. What they don't need is abrasion. Main thing you want to do is get the gook out and re-lube with some plastic compatible...
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    lubrication for locomotives

    The first thing you need to do with a Proto - especially an older one - is take the whole thing apart and clean out all of the nasty factory lubricant, which is sort of this sticky peanut-butter like stuff. It's sort of a tan-grayish color and very tenacious - it will take some serious...
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    Advise on Proto 2k

    I have a whole bunch of older GP30s from 1999-2000. Most have never been run. In the past few weeks I've pulled several of them out. In addition to the well known cracked gears, all of them so far have what I call "worm chatter syndrome". I am not sure what the problem is, but the worms are...
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    Sd-30?

    I have always wanted to build something like an SD30 but take it in a different direction than the published plans and SD35-based models that have been done. I think Jim Teese did a high nose Southern SD30 some years ago, article in DING I believe. Anyway, I always thought the GP30 roof...
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    N&W SD-35 The Hard Way

    The Cannon roof treatment and long hood end make a huge difference. None of those parts were available when I did my last Roco. I also find it ironic that the radiator on the 30-year old Roco was more accurate than the one they put on the first run new ones. In fact I was seriously...
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    N&W SD-35 The Hard Way

    Well just a suggestion: better to make them dummies than waste the $$ on a PDT. They are noisy, poor-running, weak, grinding, lousy pickup pieces of junk. Not suitable for a locomotive or IMO even a streetcar because their pickup is so poor. And after 10 minutes running they simply lock up...
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    Andy Harman

    Well that's the nice thing about it, I can work on it at my leisure. Same as the fleet I suppose. The big thing right now is getting some foundation work done on the house to stabilize things, and then I can proceed with confidence on finishing the basement for the real layout. Although after...
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    Andy Harman

    Well I guess I go back to Ike as well, although the memory is a little foggy. I don't remember my first contact with model trains, but my parents tell me I was 2 at the time. So that definitely places it in the final year of the Eisenhower administration. So I have been an HO scale model...




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