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GENERALly acceptable finished project

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  • Member since
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  • 4,368 posts
GENERALly acceptable finished project
Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Monday, June 5, 2017 10:44 PM

A few years back, I found a Tyco Gerenal kit in mint condition at a good price, so I bought it.  I planned to make a whole progress topic, but I got excited and accidentally finished it.


I did my best to make it look as close as possible to the Gerenal's appearance today with the parts provided.


I couldn't easily add a light to the solid piece Tyco headlight. So I just painted it.


The brass dome was polished and coated with gloss lacquer, the same as I've done with my tinplate restorations. It sure does shine!


A wood load wasn't included, and I wasn't about to search all over for the toy-like Tyco piece, so I grabbed a stick from the yard, chopped it up, and glued it on.


The body and details unfortunately aren't perfectly scaled, so I couldn't use the Microscale General nameplate decals. Instead, I very, very carefully used Model Master brass paint with a brush.


Instead of the original motor, I used a Maxon coreless motor with a flywheel, cut a longer shaft, and swapped one of the hex couplings for a piece of drive tubing. It runs incredibly smooth and quiet!Big Smile

I finished this a couple years ago, and just realized I hadn't even posted it! So here it is (finally).Big Smile

_________________________________________________________________

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Bradford, Ontario
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Posted by hon30critter on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 2:38 AM

Darth Santa Fe
I got excited and accidentally finished it.

Accidentally eh?!?

Nice job on the wood pile!

4-4-0 Generals don't do well in my collection. They get sacrificed to provide fodder for other projects. This, plus the tender, is about all that is left of an N scale 4-4-0 that I'm turning into an HOn30 tow motor. Some of you have seen this before:

Even the side rods had to goCrying

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Franconia, NH
  • 3,130 posts
Posted by dstarr on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 9:56 AM

Nice job.  Do  you have any Civil War era cars to go behind it?

 

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  • From: Richmond, VA
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Posted by carl425 on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 11:39 AM

hon30critter
Nice job on the wood pile!

+1

I have the right to remain silent.  By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.

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Posted by 7j43k on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 11:57 AM

Should you wish to use this model for something distinctly after the Civil War, the book "Northern Pacific Pioneer Steam Era" has several photos of a group of steam engines remarkably similar.  They were built starting 1879.  There's even a shot of one with a cross-compound air pump on its right side, along with a very interesting special appliance.  One, anyway, made it to 1905.

Cary made a conversion boiler that was a bit bigger/heavier.  It's on the last page of this document:

http://modelrailroader.net/pdf/cary_body.pdf

 

One was sold on ebay in March for not a lot of money.

 

 

Ed

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Southwest US
  • 12,914 posts
Posted by tomikawaTT on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 11:57 AM

Since you have a really good tender drive, did you fill the boiler and cab roof with weight enough to get some tractive effort out of her?

You might also consider applying some brass paint to the crosshead pump.

Very nice cosmetic job - much nicer than the 1:1 scale replica I saw in Chattanooga.

Chuck (Modleing Central Japan in September, 1964)

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 5:34 PM

It looks great to me. The brass dome is very impressive. I am glad to hear it runs good as well.

.

-Kevin

.

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    June 2005
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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 5:41 PM

Thanks!Big Smile

tomikawaTT, I didn't add any weight, but I may consider it eventually. It does have a traction tire, and already runs very well as is.

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Posted by mlehman on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 7:50 PM

4-4-0s are before my period of interest, but there were a bazillion of them over the roughly half-century when they were as common as dirt. This is a partuiicularly beautiful one.YesThumbs Up

Mike Lehman

Urbana, IL

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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Friday, June 9, 2017 2:34 PM

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Posted by 7j43k on Friday, June 9, 2017 2:58 PM

Darth,

Always a pleasure to see your videos.  That IS a nice running loco.  It's difficult to force myself to really believe that, when the prototype was built, it was pretty much the most technically advance machine in the world.  And quite the behemoth.  At least, on land.

Wood pile looks excellent, too.

Yes, very good!

 

Ed

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