cascadenorthernrr If you don't mind my asking what would be better than kadees?
If you don't mind my asking what would be better than kadees?
Sergent couplers. Also every great once in a while a Kadee will get broken in some why (it does happen). It is easier to unscrew and replace than to deal with having to break the coupler box.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
The fourth kit I assembled was a Branchline Passenger car, at a train show. I dont recommend this as a fourth kit. Ive done 4 of them now, and have a fifth and sixth on the workbench, waiting for me to have the time/energy/place to run them, and couplers on them. Ive been removing my Kadee's, Ive found something better.
As a side note: Do not ever glue a coupler box shut. Figure out how to use a screw of some sort. I glued about 30 shut before I started using screws, because I though I would never change from Kadees. I now have a 5lb bag of unused Kadees that I have been selling a small handful at a time.
Tichy Train Group also makes kits. They are on the more advanced side. I have a tank car that I started about 2 years ago that has progressed to a stop when I broke one of the banding straps (styrene). I have the replacement evergrene styrene somewhere.
Yes I will.
Well, that's pretty exciting. Now you can spend your probationary time building more kits and learning so that you'll be ready to contribute if and when they vote you into membership.
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Ok thanks. By the by, I have been addmitted to the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders club as a probationary member and in three months I will be a full member!
Now that you've tackled three Accurail kits, you might want to take a look at something that's a little more challenging/involved to help develop your modeling skills even further. Below would be my list of progressively more and more difficult styrene kits:
All of these companies have pretty much ditched kits and gone the RTR route. So, you'll need to find them either at a train show or through eBay. $10-$15/kit would be a good price. <$10 would be even better.
After two Accurail kits I tackled a Proto 2000 tank car; NOT a leap I would recommend for you. As a novice it took me 8 hrs to assemble it and the parts were pretty delicate so you had to be VERY careful how you removed them from the sprue - especially the grabirons. I would recommend two or three of the less difficult kits before taking a crack at a Proto 2000 kit.
My worth...
Tom
Here's kit number 3! It was a little more involved than the others.
I figured out the six foot door thing it's the one on the ATSF boxcar. (I just had to look at the two.) I think I'm going to get a data only car from Accurail.
cascadenorthernrrI hate to tell you this but I'm not too keen on chopping up, stripping down, etcetera the brand new kit I just got. Also the UP being my FIRST KIT EVER!!! it has a lot of sentimental value. (Not that I wouldn't do basic upgrades like metal wheel sets, exact prototype weighting, and such)
For what it's worth, I still have my first kit, an Athearn CB&Q gondola. It's been patched and re-weathered 3 times, but I still have her. There's nothing wrong with keeping your first kit as-is for sentimental value.
Modeling whatever I can make out of that stash of kits that takes up half my apartment's spare bedroom.
If you can't figure out which one is the 6 ft door, how do you think you can build Frankendiesel?
You need to slow down and learn some of the basics before you try something as difficult as the Frankendiesel project. Not trying to be mean, just trying to save you from wasting a bunch of time and money, and getting frustrated with the hobby.
Get a ruler and measure the doors. HO scale is 1/87. 6 ft is 72". 72/87 = 0.827". Find the one with a door about .827" wide.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
As far as the undec car goes, you might want to get Data-only car for starters, vice the full painting/decal project. Those little tiny numbers are a pain to get into place.
cascadenorthernrrSlow down a second, which is the 6ft door?
Measure the car doors and multiply by 87.1. Or pick up a scale ruler, which you will probably want if you are going to scratchbuild scale items.
http://www.micromark.com/Model-Rr-Rule
Your hobby shop probably sells them as well.
cascadenorthernrrI hate to tell you this but I'm not too keen on chopping up, stripping down, etcetera the brand new kit I just got.
Understandable.
cascadenorthernrr(Not that I wouldn't do basic upgrades like metal wheel sets, exact prototype weighting, and such)
Metal Wheel sets good. Prototype weighting no.
http://www.nmra.org/index-nmra-standards-and-recommended-practices
RP 20.1 Car Weight.
If you weigh the cars on a postal scale (available from most office supply stores, and sometimes you can find them cheap), you might find that they are pretty close to the recommended practice. The 34' hopper cars are slightly underweight empty, when live loaded with coal (i think it was woodland scenics brand) they come out to the exact spec.
You could also get a junker from the bargain bin at your LHS and practice on that. Try an old Tyco, AHM, or Life-like car. If you screw up, you're only out $2-3. Then when you're ready, cut up an Accurail car.
One thing I would suggest, as a "homework assignment": Take your 2 accurail cars, and go to one of the photo sites we have suggested:
http://rr-fallenflags.org/
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/
http://www.railcarphotos.com/index.php?
Look up your cars by reporting mark and number. Then tell us what's different between the prototype, and the Accurail car. This will give you an idea of how we go and improve the cars.
Slow down a second, which is the 6ft door? I hate to tell you this but I'm not too keen on chopping up, stripping down, etcetera the brand new kit I just got. Also the UP being my FIRST KIT EVER!!! it has a lot of sentimental value. (Not that I wouldn't do basic upgrades like metal wheel sets, exact prototype weighting, and such) I think I'll get a (Accurail) undecorated boxcar and follow your suggestion.
Now, take the car with the 6 ft door, strip the paint off, change the door to an 8 ft door, scrape off the grab irons, replace them with wire grab irons and replace the plastic roof walk with an etched metal one. Replace the wheelsets with metal ones. Finally paint the car and get some decals to letter the car.
This is a realllllly low end kitbash, about as basic as it gets. The frankengine project is many, many times harder than doing what I have suggested.
Here's my second kit.
Only trouble was getting the shell on because it was bent in in the middle.
Hello all,
Check out Big Daw Originals.
He might have a shell(s) that could suite your needs.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Ok thanks!
http://www.nwsl.com/nwsl-online-catalog.html
Check out part 2 Stanton Drive. They do not make a 4 axel version. For the reasons stated above, this project will likely not feasibly run on the radius curves required for building independently operating 4x8 layouts. I would file this project in the "to do later folder", and concentrate on learning basic skills required to construct this "construct" you have imagined. Accurail kit was a good start. The upgrades mentioned above will be good practice. You might consider purchasing some older rolling stock at train shows and upgrade/repair those. It takes some searching, but I found a few dozen project cars to do repair/upgrade projects with (missing box car doors, missing brake staff/wheel, etc) for $4-10 ea.
Figure out how long your engine will be. Cut a piece of paper about that long and an inch and a half wide. That is roughly the size of the underframe under the shell of the locomotive. Get your 18" radius track, set the underframe on the track. Notice how no matter how you place the underframe on the track it over hangs the track to the inside or the outside? That's how much your mechanism will have to swing from side to side. and it will have to do it inside an even narrower hood. The drive trains of a normal model are NOT designed to swing back and forth inside the shell.
In order to do what you want you willneed to build a drive like the old Hobbytown drive with one gear tower and a drive shaft that runs just above the axles to all the trucks. Unfortunately its been out of production for several decades.
Kind of, but the shell will need to be articulated, like the 3 frames. One long solid shell will not work. Maybe none of this will work! It's up to your "engineering". Many of the monster locos you'll see on an image search of articulated locos didn't last for long, either. Too big, too expensive to operate, and not practicle.
Mike.
My You Tube
The motor is mounted in the middle of the frame, right? The unit consists of two articulated frames to which the trucks are mounted and then the main frame (which the shell is on) is attached via pivot to the two articulated frames.
No, your not getting it. The motor is not mounted on the truck frame, EXCEPT cheap trainset locos such as Tyco, LifeLike, etc. Google HO scale diesel locos, like an Athearn, or Atlas, or Kato, just to name a few, and look at how the drive works. It is all is mounted on the frame, and the trucks.
Make your monster mounted on 3 seperate frames, using 2 axel trucks, but connect them so they articulate. You FIRST learn how a HO scale diesel loco works.
You need to understand the drive set up on a model diesel loco first. Until you understand that, your going no where. Nothing in the drive train is mounted to the body shell. Your monster loco should be able to run without and body shell.
Do some looking and searching.
So instead of the motors being mounted on the truck frame have it inside the shell, run a driveshaft out toward the end make a 45 degree turn then another (90 degrees in all) it comes down into a gearbox where a set of crown gears connect and a central shaft runs along the middle of the trucks. Would that work?
Yes you should. But you don't have a diesel, but you said you have a BLI T-1. Thats a long set up. A 4-4-4-4 wheel arrangement. Be brave, and carefully open it up. See what makes it work. A common drive set up in a diesel is the motor in the middle, with a fly wheel on each end, and a drive shaft on each end, that connects to the trucks, via a worm gear, that turns the gears in the powered truck. I no nothing about steam loco drives, other than what I've seen in the forums, and on searches. It seems steam locos have the motor at the back (cab end), and a single drive shaft that runs the drivers.
Your monster diesel will probably have to be articulated into 3 sections, to have any chance of negotiating the curves you'll have on a 4' x 8'. Maybe each powered frame on each end? and the non-powered truck assembly in the middle as the cab and electrical cabinets? Just trying to imagine.
Just for the heck of it, google articulated locomotives, and see what comes up. Go to images. You'll see a lot of regular locos, but you'll also see some real monsters that have been built. At the end of the scroll, click on more results. You'll see a couple of more. And, a lot of these were steam locos.
By looking at the drive of BLI you have on hand, and seeing the images, you'll get a good idea of what your monster GP30 bash would involve, and how each powered frame would have to be configured.
EDIT: Jeffery Wimberly, aka Dr Frankendiesel, because he did a lot of loco bashing, combining parts and drives to make things work. Nothing like what you want to do, but just your average GP type loco. He liked Atlas F7's. He was also a great "kit basher" when it came to old computers, and games. Diabetes eventually took over. The diner forum was renamed in his remembrance. He probably would have helped you through this idea, as well.
No I have not, but I probably should though.
cascadenorthernrr Suggestions are greatly needed.
Suggestions are greatly needed.
Don't start this project until you have a couple projects COMPLETED. Not just assembling a easy kit, but actually combining kits and working on engine drive trains.
So if I buy the GP30s off eBay I need to build a chassis first. (Length of the body is directly affected by the length of four, two axle trucks and two, four axle trucks) I was thinking I could get two, three axle trucks cut an axle of each then connect the two is that even remotely plausible?
Sure, what drills, taps, miniature screws, brass and plastic shapes do you have. Do the rucks have the same gearing? Do you want the trucks to be powered?
Then the motor rides on a frame atop the four axle truck and the two axle trucks are connected via a swing plate attached to the central frame; I build two of these. I would have to rig the driveshaft to run all three trucks. Then the center frame attaches to the main frame on a pivot allowing each articulated B+D+B set to track the turns better.
It really doesn't matter since the engine won't be able to go through a curve or switch.
The drive trains would hit the inside of the shells. In order to make what you have planned work you will have to completely change the drive trains to run the drives under the shell or make only the interior B trucks powered and the rest dummy. Will still take rearranging the truck suspension and gear towers.
Have you ever actually opened a diesel model to see what the drive train looks like?