Afternoon folks! After a nice vacation down south to see family we're all back just in time for some cold weather to hit and fall to announce its presence. I picked up a couple of pounds during the visit as everyone wanted to either cook for us or take us out to diner, or we had restaurants we like to visit, so the whole thing was basically eating until you explode!
So before I get started slinging paint I have a small project. I'm usually on the prowl to upgrade my trains when I can, and I recently came across a really nice RPO Baggage car that will upgrade the existing RPO Baggage for my San Joaquin Daylight. The existing car is an old SOHO, it fills the space, but is rather plain in the detail department. I saw a much nicer Precision Scale car pop up on e-Bay, and got it for just one bid!.
The Old:
The New:
As you can see, it's a much better model. Note the difference especially the doors and windows, and the underbody has full detail. Roof detail and lettering is better as well.
Like many models, this one got bought and stored away in someone's closet. When I opened the box, I saw it had never seen track. No couplers, and the hardware was all still in the little bag. That was a blessing at least! No scrounging for screws! I need to run this one at the club next Saturday at our "Friends and Family" open house. We do that once a year in addition to the Trainfest open house to give the guys a little additional show off time, and to run their stuff without having to worry about visitors. It's much more relaxed! Onward! To get this one ready, a couple of things had to happen:
First, couplers. No draft gear boxes, so Kadee everything. Good old number 5 couplers were installed. I don't bother with scale heads on passenger cars. You can't see them anyway, and the larger head gives you some leeway with vertical curves if you encounter any. I put them in standard Kadee draft gear boxes and glued the boxes together so they would be easier to mount without parts going everywhere. It gets a little interesting with all that detail. The steam and signal lines need to be gently bent out of the way, and you have to tease the coupler assemblies into place. Then you have to play "find the screw holes". With the trucks giving slight interference it's only moderately frustrating!
Then, of course, check with the Kadee gauge. I keep two of these on hand, but one has temporarily disappeared, so needing couplers anyway, I picked up a new one. They're plastic now, which is cheaper, but you can use them on live track without fireworks. Win some lose some!
Both couplers matched up with the gauge on the first try. That's rare, and in the brass car business you need to keep a variety of couplers on hand. Overset and underset couplers are sometimes needed, sometimes both at once! Note that I shorten the trip pins. They are a nuisance as we don't use uncoupling ramps.
Next up are diaphragms. Precision Scale use a crappy (IMHO) design consisting of a sprung framework and Walthers paper bellows.
I removed these as they don't look right, and operate poorly if at all. Fortunately they weren't soldered in and I was able to gently pry them loose without bending anything or damaging paint. Not all is lost here. I'll save the paper bellows and use them with a pair of the six different types of striker plates you get with the Coach Yard diaphragms.
Thise PSC units leave three big ugly holes in teh car ends. Luckily, the Coach Yard parts will cover them nicely.
I painted a pair of Coach Yards yesterday with Scalecoat Daylight Red. I didn't want to bake these. They are mostly metal but I didn't want to take a chance on damaging them, so I let them dry for 30 hours or so. Note they are not black as the factory units are. Company painters got lazy, and nobody paid much attention here, so everything tended to get sprayed one color. I'll eventually touch up the striker plate with some rust. Paint on striker plates didn't last long!
These come with four mounting pins. One of these days I need to fabricate a jig so I can drill for the pins, but this time I'm cutting the two top pins off and leaving the bottom ones as they fit in those holes on the car which helps with centering. To mount them I use Canopy glue. it's forgiving and remarkably strong. It's what Walthers Goo should have been. I use it for reattaching detail, and many other things. It's very versatile. I apply it to the parts, then let it start to cure. After 5 minutes, I mount the parts. You have a little bit of room to move things around if necessary.
Once the glue has begun to set, I attach the parts and let them dry. The glue dries clear, is water soluble, and the joint is surprisingly strong.
Two things left to do. Paint the wheel faces black, and install resistors, and she's ready to go!
I'll start with Scalecoat Detail Black tomorrow. For a preview, here's where we're going:
So I fixed this assembly after blasting. Luckily there was a channel in the toolbox casting where the rail fit right in, so I didn't have to build a jig. I soldered from both sides at three locations. You need to use paste flux, heat the assembly, and let the solder melt and wick into the joint, just like with copper piping. I had to remove a little excess with a file because of the way the floor fits to the body.
I may look for a few more, or I may try cutting and splicing. The first car has 2-4 ft doors per side, the second phot has 1-4 ft door and 1-7 ft door due to the changing needs of the express business. I'll make it work somehow. 
