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Teen Model Railroader Place -Summer 2010-

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Posted by Packers#1 on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 7:58 PM

Flashwave

Sawyer: Top left corner: it looks like the RTS program (that is what that is, yes?) didn;t lay out a good long curve, it;s not arched enough. It kinda looks like you said "maximize" and it just grabbed the center point and pulled it out. Someone find me the right words pwease...

 

wouldn't that be top right? the left is planned with sectional track. idk, i used the flextrack tool, that's probably what went wrong.

would it be it jsut goes from curve to straight to curve and kind of pinches down?

Sawyer Berry

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Posted by Flashwave on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 10:17 PM

WCfan

Flashwave

I feel there's a difference there though. If your assembling a GP30 out of GP30 parts, then you are absolutely correct. But if that GP30 is a repower, and one is using an Alco frame (Hmm, I think I need to flip that around, but whatever) then you are technically using two different kits. And likely, they won't marry together nicely anyway. Granted it's a lot less cutting than more traditional kitbashes.

 

Would you be talking about a locomotive somewhere along the lines of this?

http://thomas766.fotopic.net/p2961426.html

If you are, then it's not that complicated. Those are just Alco trade in trucks. As far as I know only the SOO and MILW did that, but who knows what other railroads took part. So really, all you would need to do is replace the truck side frames. (Which is something I'd like to do in the near future whenever Alex gets me that GP30!) I know the Katy (MKT) did some weird Baldwin/EMD re-powers, but I don't recall ever hearing of an EMD re-power with an Alco.

I do get the point that you're making. But that's kit bashing, which defiantly isn't cheaper. To me it seems like to much trouble to do all that, when I could just buy a ready to run locomotive. 

yes, something like that. Though I was just drawing straws, guess there's

cliche
aprotoype for everything

Sawyer: Top left corner: it looks like the RTS program (that is what that is, yes?) didn;t lay out a good long curve, it;s not arched enough. It kinda looks like you said "maximize" and it just grabbed the center point and pulled it out. Someone find me the right words pwease...

-Morgan

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Posted by ns3010 on Tuesday, August 3, 2010 8:22 PM
Hey all, sorry I haven't been here, hectic to say the least. I don't even have time to make a full post right now or catch up, but I'm going to the LHS tomorrow, and I'll post then.

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Posted by Packers#1 on Monday, August 2, 2010 10:14 AM

Guilford Guy

I don't know when or why they came to use those trucks, but most U25s, U28s, U30s had AAR type B trucks, while none of the U18s, and only some of the U23s had them.

 

Ah, interesting.

Well, taking into consideration the point Ulrich brought up in the diner, I may design a modular layout instead. Either 3x6, 6x6, or still 36"x80" I'm thinking about going with the 6x6, since I can store it pretty easily

Sawyer Berry

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Monday, August 2, 2010 1:08 AM

I don't know when or why they came to use those trucks, but most U25s, U28s, U30s had AAR type B trucks, while none of the U18s, and only some of the U23s had them.

Alex

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Posted by Packers#1 on Sunday, August 1, 2010 9:09 PM

Guilford Guy

Most GE's were built with AAR B trucks. The Blombergs on them were only from trade-ins.

 

Ah, did they start with their FB-2 trucks with U23Bs? I think I've seen models that have those kinds of trucks. or were they all AAR trucks?

Here's a snapshot of my work on the hills. sorry for the poor quality, I used the flash on my camera so you could actually SEE the scenery.

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Sunday, August 1, 2010 7:07 PM

Most GE's were built with AAR B trucks. The Blombergs on them were only from trade-ins.

Alex

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Posted by Packers#1 on Sunday, August 1, 2010 3:33 PM

 I just remembered another that I even have a model of; the ATSF had U23Bs that road on AAR type b trucks. however, idk if those were from trade-ins or at the ATSF's request.

Well, I painted the hills and now I'm messin around with poly fiber tuffs, they're looking pretty good for spending about 5 minutes per each.

Sawyer Berry

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Posted by SD60M on Sunday, August 1, 2010 2:40 PM

Hows going guys. I posted this in wpf the hills have been painted and scenery has been placed. There are a few touchups to do but im happy with the results.

" mce_src="">

-Kade

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Posted by Railfan Alex on Sunday, August 1, 2010 1:20 PM

Trade in's are less common today, but CN traded their big M636's to GE for their Dash 8-40CM's. The big GE's ended up riding on the old Dofasco trucks:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2012571

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=319587&nseq=26

BC Rail did the same thing as well.

 

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Sunday, August 1, 2010 11:56 AM

 As did the ICG on their GP30s. MEC also had U18Bs with Blomberg trucks from trade-in F units. Railroads got discounts if they traded in old units which could supply parts to the new ones, and that's just what they did. Why spend more money than necessary when those older units will be getting scrapped eventually anyways.

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Posted by WCfan on Sunday, August 1, 2010 11:48 AM

Packers#1

 Jordan, the Southern used Alco trucks on its GP35s, at least some of them. I remember that from the Wheeling & Lake Erie articles that were in Trains a couple years back.

 

Oh yes, I forgot about that. Now that I think about it the Ann Arbor had Alco trade in trucks on their GP35s. From what I've heard it was a pain to change the brake shoes on those trucks.

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Posted by Packers#1 on Sunday, August 1, 2010 8:42 AM

 Jordan, the Southern used Alco trucks on its GP35s, at least some of them. I remember that from the Wheeling & Lake Erie articles that were in Trains a couple years back.

Sawyer Berry

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Building a protolanced industrial park layout

 

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Posted by WCfan on Saturday, July 31, 2010 4:13 PM

Flashwave

I feel there's a difference there though. If your assembling a GP30 out of GP30 parts, then you are absolutely correct. But if that GP30 is a repower, and one is using an Alco frame (Hmm, I think I need to flip that around, but whatever) then you are technically using two different kits. And likely, they won't marry together nicely anyway. Granted it's a lot less cutting than more traditional kitbashes.

 

Would you be talking about a locomotive somewhere along the lines of this?

http://thomas766.fotopic.net/p2961426.html

If you are, then it's not that complicated. Those are just Alco trade in trucks. As far as I know only the SOO and MILW did that, but who knows what other railroads took part. So really, all you would need to do is replace the truck side frames. (Which is something I'd like to do in the near future whenever Alex gets me that GP30!) I know the Katy (MKT) did some weird Baldwin/EMD re-powers, but I don't recall ever hearing of an EMD re-power with an Alco.

I do get the point that you're making. But that's kit bashing, which defiantly isn't cheaper. To me it seems like to much trouble to do all that, when I could just buy a ready to run locomotive. 

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Friday, July 30, 2010 9:09 PM
Are we still talking about building a locomotive using Atlas parts? It's not any cheaper than buying an already assembled one, which is easier to add ditch lights to anyways, and already has an interior.

Alex

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Posted by Packers#1 on Friday, July 30, 2010 9:09 PM

 All sound like excellent ideas, but idk about the Z scale motor, then you'd have one heck of a time fixing the linkages up between the motor and worm boxes. I think I'd go with a sound decoder (sound only) and lead weight if I did do a dummy loco

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Posted by Quinton Fallon on Friday, July 30, 2010 7:26 PM

great idea if you use the loco as a dummy there is a wide range of aplications you have enouch to put a huce space for sound decoders or you can model the intear of the loco and have a prity dang realistic scean of an engin being scraped of model the engin open up the acess dors and have the loco be serviced on a siding or in a shop.

or  or for HO you might be able fit a smoke unit in a train possiblely even in a train sound decoder and dich lights and an interar but thats a litle optimistic

or a n scale train you can super deatale a dummy use a z scale motor you have enough power to place the train in front with out afecting the powered trains pulling power but you also have enough room fo a sound decoder detailed interor and and operating dichlights

or in anouther area  super deatail mutiple shells of diferent roadnames and just swich them out every month or so and you can model prity much any roadname and if you get board of one swich it out in a minut or if you have a stageing area you have every time you send a loco to the stageing swich the shell with a diferent number you can prity much have a roster of 5 10 or 20 locos even if you only have one

hey if it is worth it keep it ... ...if it is perfict its not yours... but still dont take it for granted
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Posted by Packers#1 on Friday, July 30, 2010 6:44 PM

 Morgan, what do you mean by too much of a kink? do you mean where it comes off of the sectional track?

QF, I think another area where this could potentially work is building dummy locos. one could get the shell, trucks, fuel tank, and loco frame halves etc. Just strip the gears from the trucks and assemble with a lot of lead weight in the frame halves or something. That'd be something to try at least.

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Posted by Quinton Fallon on Friday, July 30, 2010 6:25 PM

.  i never ment to say one day that i want to build a loco. and make it out of atlas parts, its important to practice i just wanted to point it out that if you had skill in kit bashinging of if you practice you can save some money i was never going to start on atlas parts that like a baby making the climbing mount everist i planed to practice i right now have  a 20 year old atlas plymouth diesel( or a five year old bockman its had to tell them apart dont get me started on the SoapBox puts out why do i fall for its productsAshamed). it is an experiment i cant outfit it with a normal decoder  so im going overhuall every thing on the loco but hey if it works sweet if not well there is allways a pitiful loco at the train shows for 5 bucks that might have a second chance at life.

hey if it is worth it keep it ... ...if it is perfict its not yours... but still dont take it for granted
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Posted by Packers#1 on Friday, July 30, 2010 4:40 PM

 BigBlue, nice shot, and nice locos. That sucks about the layout; another nice thing about my HCD layout plans is I can either pass it on to my little bro if he gets interested, or store it until I get an apartment in college.

Sawyer Berry

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Posted by Flashwave on Friday, July 30, 2010 4:39 PM

Guilford Guy
I hardly think buying an Atlas shell, frame, motor, trucks, and circuit board, and screwing them all together counts as scatchbuilding or kitbashing.

I feel there's a difference there though. If your assembling a GP30 out of GP30 parts, then you are absolutely correct. But if that GP30 is a repower, and one is using an Alco frame (Hmm, I think I need to flip that around, but whatever) then you are technically using two different kits. And likely, they won't marry together nicely anyway. Granted it's a lot less cutting than more traditional kitbashes.

And irregardless, I just mean all this as deep-thought conversation, nothing more. In hindsight, I shoulda reworded my previous post a little bit better.

@BigBlue: Love the pic. That'll look great with a little more scenery, and actually, if you felt like cutting out the back wall and replacing it with a digital background, you won't even need to go that far.

@Sawyer: The curve in the top-right corner. I think there's too much of a kink in it. Something to keep an eye on when laying track methinks.

-Morgan

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Posted by BigBlueConrail on Friday, July 30, 2010 12:35 PM

 I also posted this in WPF, my layout has about 3 weeks left until I leave for college so Im just running as many trains as I can on it. Here I finally consisted my Atlas Dash8 and MTH sd70ace for a run.

 

 

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Posted by Packers#1 on Friday, July 30, 2010 12:01 PM

 I've looked at the atlas site and thought about doing that, then determined it would suck if I tried. I'll just stick to internet hunting.

Well, if you saw over in WPF, I'm getting tired of my 4x8, as it's just getting old and it'll be a bear to operate etc. so now I'm going to focus on my freight and loco fleet and trying out scenery techniques.

So anyways, here's my current Hollow Core Door plan. the tracks at left go off to staging. I based it off the MR project layout "The Alkali Central", shown in the Dec 95 and Jan 96 issues

 

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 30, 2010 11:03 AM

Flashwave

Railfan Alex

 

If you want a piece of crap model that doesn't run well or look good, then go and build one yourself. The work and skills involved just ain't worth it. If you want all the terrible qualities of a home built model, save yourself the trouble and go buy a regular line Bachmann... Dead

Again, that kind of thinking gets rather blunt. And it's kinda the arguments that lead to the "Is our hobby dieing?" threads. The facts are right, building from scratch, or even nearly so, can be very expensive, engine or structure. Bu tyou shouldn't be afraid to do it.

 

Here's what I have to add to this: If you go out and try to build your own locomotive with no skills or experience beyond that of most modelers (building Athearn BB or a slightly more difficult car kit like an Accurail) it will turn out exactly as Alex described.

Building your own locomotive from scratch IS possible, and people do it all the time. People who have done it before. And have a bunch of kitbashes of varying difficulty under their belt. Jumping into a major scratchbuild like a locomotive without any previous experience or skills will not turn out well. And an Atlas... Dead At least start out with junk parts from an old Bachmann, Tyco, whatever, and build a decent-looking locomotive from that using parts from the original kit, detail parts, etc. Build a bunch of those, then move up to Athearn, do more of those, and THEN invest in Atlas parts!

That's how I interpret Alex's post.

----------------------

Oh yeah, and I'm still following this thread but with a job and an increasingly busy life, I haven't had the time or anything of note to post. BUT, I just ordered the biggest bag of Supertrees they make, decals for Alex to finish off the WRS power (and hopefully the caboose), and I also finished my papermill kitbash for Enfield, the scenery in which is also mostly completed. So in a few weeks I'll have a bunch of stuff to post.

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Posted by Guilford Guy on Friday, July 30, 2010 1:33 AM

I hardly think buying an Atlas shell, frame, motor, trucks, and circuit board, and screwing them all together counts as scatchbuilding or kitbashing. If an Atlas decorated shell is part of that, then there goes the paint it yourself aspect. Furthermore, that part of the hobby is not going to fade into oblivion, it's just going to have a smaller representation. Different people have different wants and many want to run trains without the time and work of building a kit. Having said that, yes I buy RTR because of the availability and ease, yes I buy kits because I need the model, and yes I scratchbuild/kitbash, but only when I can't get a model commercially. It really goes down to what you model, and if you're modeling present day CSX operations you have it made in terms of engines and rolling stock available to you. Modeling the 1950s on the B&M is a different instance entirely where in G scale there is no B&M specific steam, passenger equipment, or era appropriate cabooses to buy commercially.

Alex

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Posted by Flashwave on Friday, July 30, 2010 12:03 AM

Railfan Alex

 

If you want a piece of crap model that doesn't run well or look good, then go and build one yourself. The work and skills involved just ain't worth it. If you want all the terrible qualities of a home built model, save yourself the trouble and go buy a regular line Bachmann... Dead

Again, that kind of thinking gets rather blunt. And it's kinda the arguments that lead to the "Is our hobby dieing?" threads. The facts are right, building from scratch, or even nearly so, can be very expensive, engine or structure. Bu tyou shouldn't be afraid to do it.

One of the gazillion stalled projects is what to do with a Spectrum 4-8-2. to repair one I bought that was wired wrong, creating a thick smoke from the wring, they sent me a whole NW Heavy Mountain. Now I have shell, and a tender, that are rapidly on their way to becoming a 4-8-2+2-8-0 Duplex Saddletank Cab Forward. It's a kitbash, not a scratchbuild, but the parts for such are totalling 150 so far, and that's for only half a locomotive.  Granted, most of that is drivesets, but can you get drivers, chassis, and a motor with frame/weight for $40

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Posted by Railfan Alex on Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:54 PM

I'd have to agree with GG. Building a locomotive from the ground up to the same level of detail as a nice Atlas or similar locomotive is MUCH MUCH more expensive. Stick with the good quality stuff and add the few details you might need to better represent a prototype. Atlas might be a little overpriced, but it still beats all the work and the cost of the detail parts.

If you want a piece of crap model that doesn't run well or look good, then go and build one yourself. The work and skills involved just ain't worth it. If you want all the terrible qualities of a home built model, save yourself the trouble and go buy a regular line Bachmann... Dead

Kade, if you are covering those hills with trees, then you are all set. Or paint and add a few plaster rocks and you've got a beautiful rock cut.

Alex

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Posted by Packers#1 on Thursday, July 29, 2010 10:16 PM

 It's been a while y'all, but I'm back. I'll have videos of Tweetsie RR's #190 narrow gauge 2-8-2 up when I get around to it.

In other news, the hills dried ok, they aren't the best, but I think I can make them work. and worst case scenario is I tear them out and rebuild them. Hopefully tomorrow I'll ge tthem painted and start carving some rock features.

Kade, nice work on the hills, the second attempt was definitely an improvement. I tried to make mine kind of hilly because they'll be mostly covered with trees.

Justin, good luck on the hard wire decoder, I have a GP9 that's going to need one eventually. 

And I haven't really caught up with everything else, this vacation was one of those that you need a vacation again because of it......

Sawyer Berry

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Posted by teen steam fan on Thursday, July 29, 2010 9:49 PM
Quinton Fallon

hello

its been a long time sience i was here but i had the jmoy full task of redoing my yard after my sister tried to be nice to me by cleaning the tracks. she snaped the wire feeds,riped up the black stuff wich turned out to be subroad and roadbed base,thank god that was the only place i had a plywood base or by by foam.nocked the trackes out of guage, but what are you going to do shes only 9 thank, god that the august issue came out with a transfer yard and that is what im tring to turn my small yard into.  also i finaly rechecked the disstance betweeen the trackes in my soon to be plastered tunnl but of course my trackes are 1/3 of a inch soo wide so now 60 foot cars bump the sides of the portals, not good. so i have to redo it all over again. now when i tried to re do it one of the tracks ties snaped from the rail causing a foot long area  of track needs to now be replaced did i mention i am working with flex track wich im out of at the moment and will be a month before i cane get some more the near ist store that cares flexd track wich is only a mile away got ride of its train department. the nearist one is 50 miles away in a major town and i dont know were it is and i cant seem to fine its adressthis is why i havent been loging on i have been spending all my time looking for a store i know there is websites that i can find but im pennyless sience i got 50 bucks in swickes that are goeing to need anouther twenty to repare.

outher than that i had a great summer

bye

p.s. I'm not over reacting

I know where you are coming from. My sister decided to show my mom's cousin's kid some of my models, she set them down on some scenic material that was not glued down. The models were only the cheap break and throw away kind, but they hold a lot of sentimental value to me. I yelled at her about it and then my parents yelled at me about yelling at her. And don't get me started on lack of space. UGH!!!

If you can read this... thank a teacher. If you are reading this in english... thank a veteran

When in doubt. grab a hammer. 

If it moves and isn't supposed to, get a hammer

If it doesn't move and is supposed to, get a hammer

If it's broken, get a hammer

If it can't be fixed with a hammer... DUCK TAPE!

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Posted by SD60M on Thursday, July 29, 2010 9:39 PM

Quinton Fallon

100% better good job

Thanks! Im new to scenery and this was the first major step to getting the scenery in place.

-Kade

Long Live The Burlington Northern!

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