I need some advice to help me solve another problem, this one thanks to my own sloppy work.
Before applying the name decals, I gloss coated the surface with Testors Glosscote as per the decal instructions. I made the mistake of using a bristle brush instead of my airbrush. That resulted in a rather heavy and somewhat uneven coat being applied, and that coat remains visible even after applying Testors Dulcote over the decal.
I am worried that applying additional coats will make things worse, and sanding everything off will eliminate the board detail because the lines between the boards will be full of paint and the clear coats.
Here is what it looks like now:
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi folks,
The saga continues.
On the plus side, the epoxy fix for the loose bushing seems to have worked, at least for now. That allowed me to replace the silicone universal joints that had failed with NWSL 'U' joints. That was a huge improvement, that is until I tried to reinstall the engines. The NWSL 'U' joint closest to the electric motor was blocking the engines from fitting into place.
I hummed and hawed for quite some time trying to figure out how to solve the problem. My first idea was to move the engines closer to the front of the plow so they would clear the 'U' joint, so I started to lengthen the steam pipes that run between the boiler and the engines. That proved to be rather more complex that I had hoped mainly because the styrene engine support frames couldn't withstand the forces that I was applying when I was working on the brass steam pipes, so the engines started to fall apart. I also realized that, if I did move the engines further forward, they would be barely visible through the side doors. So, I decided to sit back and rethink the whole process.
After cogitating for a couple more hours, it dawned on me that I could move the offending 'U' joint closer to the motor if I simply cut about 5/16" off of the motor shaft. Moving the 'U' joint back towards the motor would allow the engines to be positioned exactly where I had intended them to be! Why it took me so long to figure out a simple solution like this is beyond me! I had to raise the engines by about 0.040" to clear the drive shaft but that is entirely inconsequential.
So, after a couple of evenings of trying to solve the drive shaft problems, everything is where is should be and the drive system is operating very smoothly once again. Hopefully it will stay that way!
I showed pictures a little while ago of the damage to the pilot on the 4-6-0 that I bought to be the second pusher for the plow. Tonight I decided that I would have a go at fixing the pilot. Before I started I decided to have a close look at what came with the locomotive. There were several packages of grab irons for Bachmann passenger cars which I will probably never use, but I also found a tiny plastic bag with what appeared to be a simple pilot board in it. Lo and behold, it was an optional pilot for the engine. The simple design suits my purposes perfectly since the original 'cow catcher' style probably wasn't appropriate for snow plow service. The new pilot is just a single board mounted on two brackets and it popped right into place.
This is the broken 'cow catcher' style pilot:
This plow continues to throw curve balls at me!
Last night I had the plow running very smoothly. Tonight I decided to run it again and it started to chatter a bit although not as badly as it was in the first video in my previous post. After close examination I could see that the drive shaft was moving from side to side where it enters the gear box. I discovered that the bushing which I thought I had soldered into place securely was in fact loose so it was throwing the gear alignment out of whack.
Resoldering the bushing was a non-starter because it would involve disassembling the entire drive system and I just wasn't prepared to to do that, especially now that I had CA'd the system to the floor of the plow.
My solution was to thoroughly wash the area around the bushing with isopropyl alcohol to remove the gear oil, and then I carefully applied some JB Weld epoxy to fill the small gap between the bushing and the frame. This epoxy sets up rock hard so as long as it stays in place it should do the job. So far it seems to have worked but I haven't applied power to it yet. I'm going to wait until the epoxy has cured for 24 hours before running it. The success of the patch will probably be dependant on how well I cleaned away the oil.
I got the plow running tonight. There was some vibration in the drive system so I decided to let it run for a while. After about 20 minutes I went back and checked things out, and I was disturbed to discover that it was running even rougher. Upon closer examination I discovered that one of the pieces of silicone tubing that I was using as a 'U' joint was almost completely torn through. It had gone out of alignment and was rubbing against one of the steam pipes in the engines.
I decided that using silicone tubing wasn't the best idea given that my scratchbuilt gear box was obviously not perfect. I dug out my supply of NWSL couplings and was able to get the the drive reconnected. As a bonus, I was still able to get the engines to fit around the new drive components.
There was still a lot of vibration but I discovered by accident that if I held the electric motor tight to the frame then most of the vibration and noise went away. I think the problem was caused by the fact that where the motor is screwed to the drive system frame is about 1 1/2" from where the drive system frame is screwed to the plow frame. My as yet untested solution was to use gel CA to glue the drive system frame to the floor of the plow. I hope I never have to take it apart!
Here is the plow running with the silicone U joints. It sounds terrible! (Towards the end of the video you can see the gauge light in action):
Here is the plow running with the NWSL U joints and the motor glued down. Much better:
Sorry for the long pause in posting.
I am still working on assembling the plow. The next step will be to mount the trucks so I can test the decoder. I won't be surprised if the decoder doesn't work. When I was stripping the defective paint I managed to get a lot of the stripper instide the clear plastic sleeve. I left it for a couple of days to see if it would dry out, but it didn't. In order to get the decoder dry I removed the top of the clear sleeve. I'll let you know if the decoder works.
I have also been working on reducing the size of one of the tenders for the pusher locomotives. Everything was going fine until I realized that the Bowser arch bar trucks that I wanted to use didn't fit over the posts on the bolster. The posts were so large that if I drilled the holes in the trucks out enough to fit, there would be nothing left for the 2/56 screw head to catch on to keep the truck from falling off. My solution was to drill out the posts completely and insert a series of progressively smaller styrene tubes in order to get the posts down to the size of the Bowser truck holes.
Water Level RouteLooks good Dave!
Thanks Mike!
This thing is finally coming together!
Now to get the pusher engines in order.
Looks good Dave!
Mike
First decal applied. It hasn't been Dulcoted yet.
The word 'LIMITED' is slightly misaligned but the decal film is so thin that if you play with it, it wants to wrinkle. I decided to leave well enough alone.
I decided tonight that it was time to glue the engines into place. Getting everything to line up properly took a bit of work. I discovered that the return steam pipe was interferring with the drive shaft so I had to grind a part of the pipe down a bit. It doesn't show. I also had to make a few other minor adjustments to the engine piping and the engine mounts.
I used canopy cement to mount the engines so they can be removed if necessary. The boiler is a friction fit over the motor but I'm going to glue it in place nonetheless so that it can't vibrate out of place.
I still have to touch up the paint. If you double click on the photo you will be able to see exactly how messy my work is!
I think the next step will be the decals.
hon30critter BATMAN Someone is selling these on FB marketplace Dave, looks like you have competition.....NOT! Hi Brent, I agree that the model looks pretty crude, but that doesn't mean that a better printer couldn't do a much better job. The 3D printed model also presents an opportunity to detail it as much as you want. For starters, you could sand all the mold lines off of the stationary plow blades and replace the rivets with something closer to scale. Modifying the plow body might be a bit of a challenge because the height is off by about 4'. However, since the plow is so rare, nobody would ever notice the difference. The most important thing that the model lacks IMHO is the sheer pleasure of scratchbuilding it. Despite all the headaches I have been through, I have enjoyed building the plow enormously. Cheers!! Dave
BATMAN Someone is selling these on FB marketplace Dave, looks like you have competition.....NOT!
Hi Brent,
I agree that the model looks pretty crude, but that doesn't mean that a better printer couldn't do a much better job.
The 3D printed model also presents an opportunity to detail it as much as you want. For starters, you could sand all the mold lines off of the stationary plow blades and replace the rivets with something closer to scale. Modifying the plow body might be a bit of a challenge because the height is off by about 4'. However, since the plow is so rare, nobody would ever notice the difference.
The most important thing that the model lacks IMHO is the sheer pleasure of scratchbuilding it. Despite all the headaches I have been through, I have enjoyed building the plow enormously.
BATMAN plus the Canucks have to win the Stanley Cup at least once or I am not going.
Sorry Brent, Toronto first!! I figure that if we can both stay alive long enough for either team to win the Cup, then we will be as old as the tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, and probably just as fast!
When I was a kid, the Maple Leafs had just won the Stanley Cup three years in a row. At the time, the Bee Hive corn syrup company was offering pictures of your favourite Leafs players for free if you sent in a bunch of coupons. My favourite Leaf was coach Punch Imlach so I wanted his picture. Alas, the leader of the whole Stanley Cup effort was not deemed worthy of having his picture included in the offerings. I was very dissappointed! At least I could console myself with spoons full of corn syrup!
I'm afraid that I'm not actually a great pro sports fan. At the last NHL game I attended, Eddie Shack was playing for the LA Kings! I haven't been to a Raptors game in 25 years, and I was so dissappointed with the quality of play that I vowed I would never go again! Watching my 11 year old son play basketball was far more entertaining.
hon30critterThe most important thing that the model lacks IMHO is the sheer pleasure of scratchbuilding it. Despite all the headaches I have been through, I have enjoyed building the plow enormously. Cheers!! Dave
I agree 100% Dave. I have smiled ear to ear with great satisfaction with the furniture I have built and all the bathroom renos we have done. Now if I can only conquer DCC I will die happy, plus the Canucks have to win the Stanley Cup at least once or I am not going.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Attuvian1 Just more eveidence that you et what you pay for. Kinda like eary Bachmann vs. Pacific Fast Mail. Or Schlock vs. Stadivarius. But it is certainly interesting that someone else also took notice of the original photo and decided to produce one, not by the historic modelling process but by the new techno one. The personal, hand-investment approach really shows in the two products (I noted the different in the rivets first off). And my hat's off to Dave - in spades. Attuvian John
Just more eveidence that you et what you pay for. Kinda like eary Bachmann vs. Pacific Fast Mail. Or Schlock vs. Stadivarius.
But it is certainly interesting that someone else also took notice of the original photo and decided to produce one, not by the historic modelling process but by the new techno one. The personal, hand-investment approach really shows in the two products (I noted the different in the rivets first off). And my hat's off to Dave - in spades.
Attuvian John
OvermodWell, Brent, what's the link to the page?
I tried earlier to post a link and it won't let me. Go to marketplace and type this in search, it should get you close.
Dave! Think of the money you could have saved.
Tanner Shearer
Well, Brent, what's the link to the page? I'd be interested in one of these...
I already see the guy has no idea how the thing is supposed to work; he has the stack too far forward...
Incidentally, I can't help thinking that 'weathering' those rotors will be interesting. Seems to me they'd lose paint on the vanes fairly quickly, the leading edge would become battered, and the exposed sheet metal would rust fairly quickly...
Someone is selling these on FB marketplace Dave, looks like you have competition.....NOT!
They are 3-d printed kits and look pretty rough to me.
While I am waiting to get up enough courage to apply the new decals, I decided to take a shot at modifying one of the pusher engine's tenders.
Here is the before shot:
Here it is with about 7/8" removed:
It still looks a bit bulky so I may elect to narrow it a bit.
Thanks to doctorwayne for the suggestions on how to reduce the size of a tender.
The other pusher engine's tender's size is fine. I managed to get a sound decoder and speaker mounted into it without too many hassles. Containing the extra length of all the decoder wires was the biggest challenge but eventually I got them all in place. I used a Loksound 4 ohm speaker but there was no room for the supplied enclosure. I will seal the tender body to the frame so the body can serve as the enclosure.
I got the second pusher engine yesterday. Unfortunately the pilot was damaged so I have asked the seller for an allowance. The eBay listing did not show the damage so I suspect that it was done by someone who was trying to force the locomotive back into the packaging. I know that I didn't cause it because I could see that the pilot was out of place before I removed the locomotive from the packaging.
What the heck! It's only one more nuisance thing to have to deal with.
We had some guests on New Years and I couldn't help myself from telling them how popular my thread has become. I have to say that I am truly honoured that so many people are interested in my project!
I did another trial assembly and everything seems to fit together just fine. My next steps will be to apply the decals and finish the brake system.
I'm also in the process of installing the sound decoder and speakers in the first pusher engine. When I was modifying the tender to accept the decoder and speakers I discovered that there was a rather serious burn mark in the top of the tender that had been caused by a hot soldering iron. Who knows how I managed to do that?!? The repair is fairly straight forward but it is nonetheless another anoyance.
I got the new decals from Bill Brillinger and they are great. He has the font and the size matched perfectly to the prototype.
I haven't tried to apply them yet. Bill's instructions are a bit different from what I am used to doing. For example, he advises that the decals should not be "floated". I believe that means that they should not be immersed in water. Instead, he recommends putting the decal in a small puddle of water on a flat surface and then waiting until the decal comes loose.
Also, he does not recommend using any setting solution to prep the surface. Once the decal is in place, the setting can be applied along one side of the decal and capillary action will draw the solution under the decal.
I have said this before, but it bears repeating. Bill's service is exemplary! Even though this was a tiny project, he took the time to advise me about the proper font and he matched the size of the prototype using a photo that I sent him. To top it all off, it took a total of five days from the time that I asked him for a quote to when the decals went in the mail. Can't get better than that!
Here is the steam dome with the added height:
Here is the before picture:
The difference isn't all that great, but now the steam dome hides the interior structure of the plow, and IMHO it looks much better.
rrebellWhy not ask as many of us have stuff just gathering dust,
Hi rrebell,
I guess I'm a bit strange in that regard in that I'm not comfortable asking for freebies. I'm also extremely reluctant to ask for discounts when making a purchase. I was taught to not try to take advantage of people and I guess that value has become deeply ingrained.
hon30critter rrebell On your next project you should ask for parts donations Hi rrebell, I don't mind getting donations that are volunteered, but I'm quite reluctant to ask for freebies. That's just me. Cheers!! Dave
rrebell On your next project you should ask for parts donations
I don't mind getting donations that are volunteered, but I'm quite reluctant to ask for freebies. That's just me.
I just succeeded in extending the steam dome and it turned out to be a very easy task.
I carefully removed the brass steam dome from the boiler without doing any serious damage to the boiler (Whew!). Then I put the dome in my rubber jawed vise and cut it in half using a very fine toothed blade in my coping saw. Once I had cut the dome into two pieces, I removed any burrs from the cut edges. A long time ago I had bought a selection of various sized brass tubes and it just so happened that one of the tubes was the right size and length to fit inside the two parts of the dome. I used JB Weld epoxy to secure the tube inside the two pieces of the dome leaving the necessary distance between the two dome pieces. Then I used the epoxy to fill in the gap.
I had feared that the dome extension process would be quite involved and very messy but I had it done in about 20 minutes. I still have to file down the epoxy to make the sides of the dome even, but I will give it a day or so to fully harden before doing that.
What do you know?!? Something actually went very smoothly in the plow building process!
I'll show pictures once I have the dome filed down, repainted and installed.
I decided to go back at the brake system but I immediately ran into a problem. I have everything except the proper sized wire to create the air lines. I have ordered some 0.025" phosphor bronze wire from Tichy to do the job. Heck, what's another delay? I know I'm being a bit fussy, but I would never be happy if the air lines don't look right.
I have also been thinking about how to add height to the steam dome so that it sticks out above the roof instead of being flush with it which it currently is. I don't like how it currently looks. The steam dome is made out of brass so cutting it will be a challenge. It occured to me that all I might have to do is raise the boiler by the required amount. The problem with that approach is that the rotary blade drive shaft will no longer fit cleanly through the engine structure. I really do not want to rebuild the engines so I think my only realistic option is to extend the steam dome itself. I will let you know how much of a disaster that turns into.
Cheers and Happy New Year!!
Me two.
No hurry. Been known to dust off a back burner project or two as well, .....eventually.
TF
He speaks for me.