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Posted by Firelock76 on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 6:56 PM

Postwar Paul
 
Penny Trains

 

 
Postwar Paul
It growls as it heads down the track.

 

My 2035 does the same thing.  To call it "distinctive" isn't quite good enough!  Wink

 

 

 

That 2035 is such a great engine. I'm glad I finally lucked onto one !

 

 

Still looking myself.  No luck so far, but one thing I learned collecting guns is the best tool in the belt you can have is patience.

Ever since I saw Becky's video of her 2035 "Blockbuster" I've had to have one too!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 7:31 PM

 

I think the 2035 is one of those Postwar classics ( which is hard to say , because there were so many). Sort of an iconic engine, and look. Like the turbines, and hudsons, it speaks of that era...

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Posted by Penny Trains on Thursday, September 27, 2018 6:40 PM

Yep.  And that's why the 681 is at the top of my want list!  Big Smile

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, September 27, 2018 10:14 PM

The 681 is a great engine. Highly recommend.

Wish list ?

I have slowed down considerably, but I still want a postwar GG1.

And, of course a 773, and a 763e, but I don't have the cash to back that up...

I'm a little thin in Flyer, only 4 engines and a handful of cars. I could grow more in this area. 

Would like one of their 4-8-4's, and a Pennsylvania  pacific.

The " holy grail" would be the 314AW, it would complement what I have nicely...

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Posted by RedfireS197 on Friday, September 28, 2018 9:05 AM

Postwar Paul

The 681 is a great engine. Highly recommend.

Wish list ?

I have slowed down considerably, but I still want a postwar GG1.

And, of course a 773, and a 763e, but I don't have the cash to back that up...

I'm a little thin in Flyer, only 4 engines and a handful of cars. I could grow more in this area. 

Would like one of their 4-8-4's, and a Pennsylvania  pacific.

The " holy grail" would be the 314AW, it would complement what I have nicely...

 

Paul,

Don't forget about the Lionel 783.  All the quality of the 773 with the long stack motor, but much more affordable.  I bought one back in 2011 and love it.  Can't go wrong with a 2332 GG1 either.

 

As for Flyer, I've got a thing for the 312, 314AW, and 316 K5s.  I will say that I feel that the 314AW is overhyped.  I've always done well flipping them though.

My suggestion would be to set your sights on a large motor 336 Northern.

Jim

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Posted by Penny Trains on Friday, September 28, 2018 7:04 PM

I love my 310.  But this photo shows something of a quirk the loco has: it can't tolerate bad track work.

But you can see right where the rear pilot wheel is that there's a bit of a hump in the track.  Consequently it derails there every 4 or 5 trips around the circle.  I stopped running it in favor of my 303 which is much more forgiving.  It won't be long and I'll be taking the summer layout down and I can level the rails then.

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, September 28, 2018 7:34 PM

Well, thank you very much ! It's great to hear from someone in the know on these things, and you keep me from going over budget as well.

RedfireS197

 

 
Postwar Paul

The 681 is a great engine. Highly recommend.

Wish list ?

I have slowed down considerably, but I still want a postwar GG1.

And, of course a 773, and a 763e, but I don't have the cash to back that up...

I'm a little thin in Flyer, only 4 engines and a handful of cars. I could grow more in this area. 

Would like one of their 4-8-4's, and a Pennsylvania  pacific.

The " holy grail" would be the 314AW, it would complement what I have nicely...

 

 

 

Paul,

Don't forget about the Lionel 783.  All the quality of the 773 with the long stack motor, but much more affordable.  I bought one back in 2011 and love it.  Can't go wrong with a 2332 GG1 either.

 

As for Flyer, I've got a thing for the 312, 314AW, and 316 K5s.  I will say that I feel that the 314AW is overhyped.  I've always done well flipping them though.

My suggestion would be to set your sights on a large motor 336 Northern.

 

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, September 28, 2018 7:35 PM

I'll look into the 336, and 783. 

Thanks again!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, September 28, 2018 7:43 PM

My 326 is a stickler for good track work, as well. Sometimes I have a little trouble with the track on the carpet, but no issue on a solid floor, or table top. Of course, I'm using vintage Flyer track sections, which may have seen better days. Doesn't hamper my fun one bit, though !

I like your 310. I believe it is based on a Pennsy K5, of which there were only 2. I have 2 brass K-5's in HO, and I feel a Flyer K-5 would be a great addition !

Penny Trains

I love my 310.  But this photo shows something of a quirk the loco has: it can't tolerate bad track work.

But you can see right where the rear pilot wheel is that there's a bit of a hump in the track.  Consequently it derails there every 4 or 5 trips around the circle.  I stopped running it in favor of my 303 which is much more forgiving.  It won't be long and I'll be taking the summer layout down and I can level the rails then.

 

Paul

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, September 28, 2018 10:46 PM

And then there's my 290:

that ol' girl will go careening around curves on the roughest track work I can muster.

Laughing, joking, singing a song, she don't care...

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, September 29, 2018 12:38 PM

 Rack 'me up !

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, September 29, 2018 12:41 PM

 Some temporary shared storage until I get some shelving up in the Train Room

 

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, September 30, 2018 11:33 AM

 Instead of moving,I am exercising the fine art of goofing off...

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Posted by Firelock76 on Sunday, September 30, 2018 12:40 PM

Wow, a 224E.  Pre-war engine with a post-war tender?  That's cool, it just increases the versatility.  It looks good on the "Hardwood Central!"

My buddy Shotgun Charlie gave me a post-war 224 for Christmas two years ago, they're good runners and pullers.

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, September 30, 2018 12:55 PM

Fire lock, you've got a sharp eye, my friend !

this is a 224e from about '39, near as I can tell

the tender is from a 1655 from '48 or '49, but that whistle screams !

the engine runs great, just had to rebuild the E-unit, and replace the brushes

love the look of this engine !

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, October 11, 2018 2:59 PM

 A couple of ideas just came to me : the " Flyer Flyover"

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, October 11, 2018 3:03 PM

 And  I like the O-27 inside the On30, may make it permanent 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, October 11, 2018 5:29 PM

Thanks for the compliment Paul!  (I lost track of this thread, hence the late response.)

I don't have a 2037, but I do have a 2018.  Let me tell everyone, don't underestimate those 2-6-4's, mine's a great puller, 14 modern era cars, and it won't even break a sweat.  The whistle and smoke unit still work too!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Thursday, October 11, 2018 6:49 PM

2037 is a great engine, and one of the best pullers, which is surprising because it is considered an O-27 engine. My theory is there is less dead weight because it is smallish, as compared to some of the larger engines, which have a very heavy boiler casting to lug around.

I also consider this to be an " every day " engine. I save the 681, and try to not run it too much.

Paul

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Posted by lionelsoni on Friday, October 12, 2018 10:06 AM

The tractive effort of a prototype locomotive is the weight on its driving wheels divided by the "adhesion factor", which is usually taken to be about 4.  The adhesion factor is the same, no matter how heavy the locomotive or how many drivers it has. 

Locomotives are generally built to be as heavy as needed to get the tractive effort to pull the load they are intended to pull.  The number of wheels is then determined as the number needed to support that weight without damaging the track.

The two tricks that model or toy locomotives use to increase tractive effort (not available to prototype locomotives) are magnetraction and traction tires, both of which can greatly increase adhesion.  The 2037 has magnetraction, which makes its weight much less important than it would otherwise be.

Bob Nelson

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, October 12, 2018 11:50 AM

Thank you, Bob. Great comments !

Factor of adhesion was one of the strong suits in the Pennsy k-4. I believe it was around 4.25. They came out with  a K-5, using some of the boiler dimensions of the M-1 mountains. But the K-5 had a factor of adhesion around 3.8 or so, and have a tendency to slip. Too much power, too little weight. Only 2 were built. 

Paul

 

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, October 12, 2018 6:44 PM

I mis spoke. According to " Pennsy Power", the K-4 factor of adhesion was 4.54, the K-5 was 3.80. Factor of adhesion is weight on drivers divided by tractive effort. You want a factor of 4, or higher for best adhesion.

Paul

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Posted by Firelock76 on Friday, October 12, 2018 8:28 PM

No Magne-Traction on my 2018, even if there was it wouldn't do me any good, I run on nickle-silver track.  No matter, that gutsy little engine doesn't need it, it works just fine as is.

I do have modern engines with traction tires but you know what?  When they wear out I just leave 'em off.  With a 4 x 8 layout my consists are only so big, and the engines are so heavy the tires aren't needed.

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, October 12, 2018 11:29 PM

I believe the 2018 is essentially the same engine, without the M.T. Great little engines.I have enjoyed coming across things that have been packed away, some things forgotten. Most equipment was thoroughly serviced a year or two back, then " stored serviceable ". And there's still a lot of stuff packed away I can't get to easily.

I only ran the 2035 one time, and it's packed away, under a pile of boxes. Need to replace the tender pickup wires, and work on the smoke unit.

Paul

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Saturday, October 27, 2018 6:29 PM

The saga continues...

ok, still getting settled in, but found my soldering iron, Lionel and Flyer brushes, spools of wire, and smoke unit rebuild kit, which will go into the 2035.

As for the train room, I'm not a big one for drawing everything out on paper, I just like to let the creative juices flow, and " wing it". That's what I did with the Garden line at the last house. Eventually got up to a " phase 4" track configuration that was awesome! It allowed for 2 independent loops for hours of hands free " kicking back".

 My current thoughts are:

1. Paint the train room walls first, sky blue, with clouds

2. I am leaning heavily towards an 8' x8' "skewed Wedding Cake" design. This would leave room for display shelves on 2 walls

3. a later addition could be the " High Line". An around the walls track above door level

4. I am also discovering that I have boxes of HO "Snap Track". Don't usually use this too much, but have some nice switches, and a double crossover, so I'll try to work something in for the vintage HO to run on.

Got some old Tyco, and such.

It'll be like a Model Train museum.

Paul

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, November 16, 2018 11:40 AM
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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, November 16, 2018 11:43 AM

 Having fun experimenting

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Friday, November 16, 2018 11:45 AM

Also, cleaned and serviced my 2035 yesterday. Rebuilt the smoke unit.

She's running like

Greased Lightning !!!

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, November 18, 2018 10:35 AM

 Offering some insight into my method of track planning

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Posted by Postwar Paul on Sunday, November 18, 2018 10:38 AM

I test fit track sections until I get something exciting in the available space. This is a Tomix Japanese series 100 Shinkansen. It will occupy one level of my new layout.

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