ttriggIRB Souther Engineeryou sure seem to like those Macks. Yep, he thrives on the "Mack". Only two axles, and the tight curves he pulls pretty well limit what he can drive. Vic has mastered the "kitbash" of the Mack and produces many "one of a kind" treasures.
IRB Souther Engineeryou sure seem to like those Macks.
Yep, he thrives on the "Mack". Only two axles, and the tight curves he pulls pretty well limit what he can drive. Vic has mastered the "kitbash" of the Mack and produces many "one of a kind" treasures.
The curves on my RR can accommodate SD-45's (they don't look that good going around my curves but they can do it-but hey, my RR is more narrow gauge anyway) I almost like two axle loco's more than other larger one's, though. I'm big on the LGB Porter and other small critter-type loco's.
Time for an update, well the fold downs turn out to be a real hastle in actual operations, way too much fiddling around with took too long just to get one side set up, so I just left them up, then the misses started fussing about how much room the layout took up and it did take up quite a bit of room so I did some pondering and reevaluation and eventually came up with this reworking
Revised right side with fold downs removed, back to original configuration:
Reworked front
Revised left side, fold down reduced in size and fixed in place:
Revised left side new tunnel face
Still have a nice outside loop to run bigger equipment on but now have a fixed platform without the hastles of the folddowns or the space problems of the former layout. Plus I can use the outside track as a point to point for the LGB Auto reverser I have and have been trying to intigrate for a while now. This will be getting scenery very soon now.
Have fun with your trains
IRB Souther Engineer Vic, when you bash a Mack do you buy the Mack "whole" or is there somewhere you buy just the parts you need?
Vic, when you bash a Mack do you buy the Mack "whole" or is there somewhere you buy just the parts you need?
Buy em whole always have, leaves me with lots of "Bits" left over, they eventually find their way into other projects
Had a bit of a disaster the other day, was testing the (badly) rewired track power with HLW Whadahellizit #3 on point pulling the drovers caboose, with the HLW Sparky pulling a short string behind, well the Whada stalled on the switch on the left side and the Sparky rammed it from behind and before I could cut the power the Drovers fell off the side and dragged the Whada over with it, like I said, those link/pins NEVER uncouple....welll after I picked up all the pieces I assessed the damage, overall not too bad, the Whada broke into 3 large chunks plus the bell on the roof and was soon glued back togther with no ill effects, in fact I have to look hard to where it came apart (tough bugger), the drovers was a bit rougher, nothing that cant be ACed back together but the worst part was the the handrails on one of the end platforms broke off completely and will need complete replacement, luckily I have an unused coach kit but I might try sbending some brass ones together instead.Lesson learned? I have to rework the track power with two 2-pole switches to allow me to switch between one powerpack to control the loop portion and one to control the auto reverser section, currently there is an overlap in power track control, which the switches will allow me to isolate each into specific control areas , got all the switches, just need to find the extra wire now.
The link/pins might not uncouple, but at some point they might break. Have you ever done a link/pin installation on an un-bashed Mack?
Do you have a picture of HLW Whadahellizit #3 (before the crash)?
IRB Souther Engineer Do you have a picture of HLW Whadahellizit #3 (before the crash)?
here it is, you can see how the coupler is mounted, its just a 1/2" square block od wood glued just above the coupler hole on the inside, the Ozark coupler is just screwed into the block, a Bachmann knuckle can be screw mounted into the same block.
Vic, do you mind if I save some of the pics from your projects to my computer? That way I will have them if you delete them from the forums, etc. They provide a lot of inspiration!
IRB Souther Engineer Vic, do you mind if I save some of the pics from your projects to my computer? That way I will have them if you delete them from the forums, etc. They provide a lot of inspiration!
Help yourself
Well I tore up the layout today, no wait, that should be I tore everything OFF the layout, and then knocked it over, well tipped it on its side.
The reason for this wonton destructive behavior was so I could remove the 2” wheel castors and replace them with great big honking 4” castors. This was necessary as I have fairly large control joints in my garage slab that the contractor provided with ½” rounded edges, so whenever I rolled the layout around with the 2” castors (price effective at the time) when they hit those joints it was like they dropped into the Grand Canyon! And everything on the layout got a nasty jolt. Well I just got plain sick and tired of it so after a pricey trip to Home Despot, it was off with everything! It took more time to remove everything than it took to knock it over, replace the castors, and tip back upright. But the upshot is that that now not only does the layout roll over the joints with just the slightest of blips, it now turns and rolls with far less resistance, and the deck gained 2 inches in height!
BTW 99% of the stuff is back on the layout
Substantial foundations provide for substantial superstructures.
Tom Trigg
Its been a while since I posted anything on this but I have been working on it
Some progress pics:
The mine completed:
Water tank finally painted and weathered
Gas station begun:
Beginning to get the scenery finished:
More pics as I work around the layout.
Some more progress pics:
Cut out a section to add a trestle, its the last major Item the layout really called for.
I ran out of blue foam so I thought I'd try an experiment, using spray foam insulation mixed with what few blue foam peices I had left. The initial results were, we'll, quite scary!
After some, alot, of cutting, tweeking and using caulking in an almost sculptural way, its getting better. Paint will cover most of the odd looking connections
More pics as I progress.
So now you’re into bridge building. Rather than build a magnificent timber trestle, how about building an old one, couple of the longitudinal braces just hanging in mid air where they fell off from one end. While you’re at it, how about planting a real tree and entering it into Rene’s contest? Just putzing with you, I anxiously await further progress reports.
The Borracho Steel Works in action:
The new steel high bridge over Borracho Gulch mocked up in the shops
In place, with additional plate girder deck sections on each side (cut up Lionel O gauge bridge)
More pics:
Track inspection:
The piers are 1x3 lumber w/ basswood sheets added to create a widening effect near the base
Installation complete:
This is probably the last major piece of construction I had wanted on my layout, now just to finish scenicing the rest of it.
You better fire the foreman for Borracho Steel Works for being drunk on duty. He built your bridge upside down. He’s not from Australia, is he? Such a shame, bright new shiny bridge for such an old branch line, OH Wait a second, you didn’t "age" it yet. OK, (seriously Vic, it looks good.) The piers have a very definite European look to them, that "form" of pier was widely used in Germany during the late 60’s to mid 80’s on the Autobahn.
Please send me a bridge 46 inch's long and 2 track's wide in 1/20 scale so I can add a second loop. I have provied a Postage paid 3x 5 envelope
Thank You
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
Dave: Vic is good at "making small" (very good actually) but I doubt even he can pack nine pounds in a half pound bag.
Mick
Chief Operating Officer
Northern Timber Company - Mt Beenak
Finally ballasted the track last week, using my patented "kitty litter" staining technic with consists of simply dipping the litter in a strainer into a small bath of water/acrylic paint mix, then setting that onto a plywood sheet to dry in the sun.
Main town area:
High Bridge area:
Fiddle yard area:
Mine spur area:
Cleaning the glue residue off the track after was a pain but so far everything is running well again.
Looks great! Can you show a close up shot of the critter in the 3rd photo?- Peter
Modeling the Bellefonte Central Railroad
Fan of the PRR
Garden Railway Enthusiast
Check out my Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PennsyModeler
Peter, this one? its a "slightly" rework HLW Mack, my poor mans Plymouth
That's the one, it looks to be a good bash for me if I ever got to it. This is a poor man's plymouth-
From rypn.org - Peter
Scenery substantially completed at the town and spur area, this is time consuming stuff:
Gas station installed, still need to add the station sign, its coming:
This is actually behind the station but then the best beleivability lies in what you only see from askew:
This is just one corner of one side, 3 more sides to go!
Mate I've been away for a while and have returned to find this good looking little big layout of yours; geez it looks good. Nothing small ever really stays that way.
Good one mate.
Cameron
He who has the most trains wins!!
Been trying to load pics for the last 30 min, this stupid stupid format program has been fighting me every inch of the way GRRRR!
Got alot more scenery done, at least to what I consider the "base level" of scenery
(I can only post 2 pics at a time or the forum format program goes wacky, so read on)
OK I'm down to loading ONE stupid pic at a time GRRR!
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