Coffee Shop XXXVI-2/4/2013

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Sunday, April 14, 2013

TIPTON IN

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 58° with 87% humidity. There's a slight chance of rain. The high will be 80°.

Layout cleanup is going well. I can actually see the layout through the clutter. I should be able to get more of it put away or disposed of today depending on what it is. Some of it is tools that need to be sorted into their particular places. I may get started on the repainting of some of the FP7's today.

 

[kbkchooch]

[BTW Karl, you'll never guess what the mailman brought me today? ]

I'm gonna take a wild guess here,,,,but a #6 Fasttracks jig for code 83 rail? And the starter kit too?

Might have to borrow that at some point!

 

[Boris]

Good Morning!

46°, Sunny with Calm wind. A picture perfect Sunday morning. Going up to the low 60s.

I found the documentation for the H15-44 on the Atlas site I'm going to change some of the CV settings but I believe the problem is that I'm trying to run it with 128 speed steps, but it's designed for 28 speed steps. So I will spend some time experimenting.

Have a great day.

Joe

 

[IronBeltKen]

I'm gonna take a wild guess here,,,,but a #6 Fasttracks jig for code 83 rail? And the starter kit too?

Yes & yes!

Might have to borrow that at some point!

I'm sure we could work something out

BTW, what I got came with ME rail; apparently that is all they offer now, I don't see any kind of choice on their web site between ME and Atlas. That's ok with me anyway, after seeing that start-to-finish demo yesterday. I wonder if Tim was getting too many complaints about the Atlas rail not bending easily enough for making frogs..?

 

[blackz28]

Good Morning!

46°, Sunny with Calm wind. A picture perfect Sunday morning. Going up to the low 60s.

I found the documentation for the H15-44 on the Atlas site I'm going to change some of the CV settings but I believe the problem is that I'm trying to run it with 128 speed steps, but it's designed for 28 speed steps. So I will spend some time experimenting.

Have a great day.

Joe

funny u have an H15-44 i love my union pacific version

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well I had dinner with my father today. Chili dogs with pepper-jack cheese and Vidalia onion. I got the layout cleaned up a bit more and three of the FP7's are now in gray and black paint. The units were primer gray, BN and UP. There's two to go, a PRR and a UP. The Rock Island unit is staying as it is.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Today was what I'd call a productive day. I got part of the layout cleaned up and three FP7's are now wearing gray and black paint. I also had a small pile of different types of couplers. I got them all sorted out.

Time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[Boris]

That was a productive day, Jeffrey. I did pretty well, my self. I resolved the program issues with the H15-44, by changing the starting voltage, and acceleration/deceleration rates. I also confirmed that the proprietory Atlas 345 decoder, runs at its best using 28 speed steps. All that remains is to change the couplers from Accumate to Kadee 148.

I put a TCS DP2x into a Stewart/Bowser Reading AS16, and a Digitrax DN 135 into my CNJ Atlas SD35. Both respond well. All that remains is to install the hand rails, grabs and railings. Both of these received Kadee 148s also.

It's time to call it a night. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

joe

 

[Boris]

funny u have an H15-44 i love my union pacific version

When Conrail sent me to Jersey, back in the late '80s, my territory consisted primarily of former PRR/PC and CNJ branches, as well as freight operation along the Northeast Corridor. I became fascinated with the CNJ, and started to collect available power from the pre-Conrail era. That included H15-44s, H24-66s from FM; RS3s and RSD4s from Alco, as well as EMD GP7s, SD35s and SD40s. as well as former B&O Fs and leased N&W Fs, RDCs and passenger cars.

More recently, I refocused on the late PRR, and concentrated on that era. As I started to inventory my stuff, I rediscovered my Reading and CNJ stuff, and brought it out. All but the H15-44, and two Reading Genesis FP7s was still DC, so Ive been buying and installing decoders of late.

I do like the H15-44, and once I resolved the decoder issues, ran it on a commuter passenger train. It looks good, like it belongs.

Joe

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Monday, April 15, 2013

TIPTON IN

 

[Boris]

Good Morning:

It's 46° and overcast this morning, going up to 56° with mostly cloudy skies.
Not exactly what they said a couple of days ago, but it's not snow.

Need new sneakers so it's off to the outlets with discount coupons in hand.

Maybe some railroading later.

Joe

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I put a TCS DP2x into a Stewart/Bowser Reading AS16, and a Digitrax DN 135 into my CNJ Atlas SD35. Both respond well. All that remains is to install the hand rails, grabs and railings. Both of these received Kadee 148s also.

I had a Stewart AS16 (Athearn drive) that I wasn't happy with. It ran like a crippled pig! The motor was shot and one of the trucks was cracked. I put in a new Athearn motor with hex flywheels and refitted it with Proto 2000 FA1 AAR trucks and spline shaft Athearn worms. I had hex shafts and worms but the shafts were way too long so I performed a shotgun wedding of parts from two eras by cutting down the hex shafts and gluing them into Athearn blue box U joints. I put in a Digitrax DZ125 decoder and topped off the whole mess with a Lima Alco C420 shell. Later I fixed the broken Stewart truck and fitted that pair of trucks into an Athearn clone F7 chassis.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 66° with 97% humidity. It'll be cloudy with a high of 85°.

More layout cleanup today. I also plan to get gray and black paint on the other two FP7's (PRR and UP) before the day is out.

 

[blackz28]

jeffery what glue do you use when gluing stress areas like drivelines & such ??

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

jeffery what glue do you use when gluing stress areas like drivelines & such ??

I used hot glue.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well I got the remaining UP FP7 painted black and gray. I was starting on the PRR FP7 but the gray paint (rattlecan primer) went on looking like powder, in other words, crap. Guess I didn't shake it up enough. So it's in the alcohol bath. I hope I can get it done today.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I finally got the Pennsy FP7 stripped and repainted. I got it back together about 8:20pm. That's five units out of six done. I'm not touching #6. It looks too good. The photo below is what used to be the Pennsy unit. It's distinctive in that the gray paint stops at the front of the cab doors instead of at the rear of the cab doors like the other units. Maybe the shop was running low on gray paint.

I didn't get much done layout wise. I passed the time earlier while waiting for the botched paint job to get stripped by tearing apart a laser assembly from an old DVD drive. Boy that thing was well built! It took me nearly an hour to rip it apart. It makes a nice scrap load.

Well that's it for today. Time to call it a night. I'll see y'all tomorrow.

 

[IronBeltKen]

I finally got the Pennsy FP7 stripped and repainted... The photo below is what used to be the Pennsy unit. It's distinctive in that the gray paint stops at the front of the cab doors instead of at the rear of the cab doors like the other units. Maybe the shop was running low on gray paint. ...

Gotta love those 1st generation locos! Like the F units on the B&O in their final years, they each acquired a "personality" of their own!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Tuesday, April 16, 2013

TIPTON IN