Good afternoon all,
It's fairly warm here in Central Cal. the local weather station says it's: 92°F, sunny with clear skies dropping to 68°F tonight which is just comfotable. The Humidity is 19% and not too bad.
Say Jeffrey, I'm also glad to hear the surgery went well and your resting comfortably. With the new foot and ankle it will hopefully be easier for you to get around. A speedy recovery, I'm sure you'll spring back like new again.
Say Gary, I Gary, nice to meet you and see your picture. It's always nice to get together with fellow modelers and see what they are doing. The exchange of info really is enjoyable and many new ideas can be learned too!
Dr. John, I've been owing you a picture and description so here it is.
First off let me say, the Turn-Table top boards are actually the brownish color with a driftwood grey stain painted over it. I guess the florescent lighting changed the color as it sure isn't Green looking like this.
As you can see I added the unfinished Gallows type of support which I think adds a lot to the overall appearance. I also felt the smaller size of this TT fit my era much better and didn't take up too much room.
**Now as far as the modification I was talking about.
Notice in front of the shed that covers the motor, I cut the cover plate that came with the TT due to the fact that the de-coupling pins would hit it if a Loco extended too far forward which is poor engineering on Atlas's part.
When the cover plate is cut off it does create a slight but easily remedied problem. At the center edge of the plate, on the under side, not far in from the TT edge is a molded post which holds the positioning drive gear down which rotates the table. So to replace that I determined that a small [L] shaped bracket attached to either side of the TT housing, you can see the black thing I made up from a half round piece of rode [ )- ] with another peace of rod glued to it to from an [ L] which I fastened to the sides of the housing and prevents the gear from rising up. I glued mine but Hobby tack would work just as well and allow repositioning if needed?
I just happened to realize that the top of L brackets make a perfect shelf to attach a cover plate to to keep out too much large junk the gear area.
I should mention that with just engine a Loco of this size or smaller the cover doesn't need to be modified, but when I had a small switch engine and the coach in the back ground on the TT they just fit and there was uncoupler shank overhang.
Both outside unit and air handler are working so I'm hoping it's just low on freon. Thankfully it didn't get too hot in Prattville today with all the cloud cover. Will give our friendly neighborhood AC repair guy a call in the a.m.
It was the capacitor (third one in eight years) so it was a quick and relatively cheap fix. The downside is that we'll probably have to replace it again within two years. 