Diesel Locomotives of the GSL

[De Bruin]

Bumping this up too as I will be posting some more of the RMCA club's diesels here as they've passed through the shop.

This time though I have an addition to the roster; stock Weaver RS-11 new via Dan Mason.

Nothing prototypical but just some fun with some custom decals Terry Weldon commissioned for the club; good quality printing and stock made this easy as opposed to severely tedious.

The yellow-jacket is actually an RAF squadron insignia care of an old 1:72 Airfix Canberra kit, which I finished with MS Argentine markings instead (aka another Sea Harrier victim)

I was thinking "Yellow-Jacket Freight" with salesmen dressed as NFL "Hall-o-Famers" or perhaps a fast daytime coach run train name(note steam generator), but really about a third of the MRCA are Ga Tech grads so this was a no-brainer. I normally razor off the cast-on grabs and replace with P&D goodies but the club is a tough place for that kind of detail; we regularly have to surgically remove grabs etc from gearing so I'm going "commando" here and leaving the shell as made except for the roof SG details.

[Chris Webster]

It looks great.... but I suggest adding the name "Hedgetrimmer" in small lettering under the numbers on the cab sides.

How does it run? I assume it's a china drive.

[De Bruin]

Well it is brand spanking new so for now it runs great; it's got that same "Ultra-Line" china drive so it has a high starting speed, could probably benefit from rewiring the motor harness to series which cuts the starting speed roughly in half on these. It'll likely get MU'd on the club layout so I left the harness alone, as none of the other Atlas or Weavers there have been re-wired to series. My main beef with these Weaver's is the stamped wheel pick-up strip that is mounted on the bottom and contacts the inside of the wheel, directly over the gears. Our experience is they reliably get beat up and bent over the course of operations, specifically from derailments at switches and diamonds where the get crushed on top of points and cross rails etc.
This eventually culminates with the strip getting eaten by the gears and locking up the drive accordingly.

Perhaps in light of that potentiality I should label the unit "leaf-mulcher" instead?
8^)

[bob turner]

I replace those leafy pickups with coil spring-loaded plungers. Problem more or less solved (requires minimal maintenance, including lubrication now and then).

[De Bruin]

Chris I neglected to thank you for your post, I appreciated it.

Bob; familiar with Weaver's plunger-pickups "nubs" and agree they're better than the stock plated-leaves, do you use those or something else ? I would like to see what that retro-fit entails labor-wise as well, you know we have a LOT of these PRC's obviously and problematically wandering the MRCA planet.

[bob turner]

Don't remember how we did Weaver and Atlas, but most of the time there was space under the truck for a rectangular piece of aluminum with two plunger holes bored for brass dowels. Under each we would put a Kadee coupler spring, but often the spring would go bad. I think I wound up with steel springs of not very much stiffness. Recommend graphite for lubrication to preserve conductivity, and we used paper for insulation from the truck.

These are locomotives that are used eight hours a day six days a week. We changed to plungers at the six month point, new axle gears every three years, and new worms and axle bearings at the ten year point. Wore the crap out of them. They must have found a more convenient mechanic; I have not heard from them for a couple years. They had to deliver and pick up, and that may be why I am not doing the maintenance any more. I hate the traffic and parking at the museum; refuse to deal with it.

[De Bruin]

Thanks Bob, good insight there I've taken notes; the MRCA does not have that service frequency ( here tops- 1 hour svc per month) load but do have an awful lot of temp and severe humidity variation issues (think 2nd floor storage shed in the very humid south) which aggravate a lot of disparate things with the rail surface face, staged door-stops with open face motors, old school Marnold components etc.
I would think your former club would miss your talents.