Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby E7 » Fri Aug 28, 2020 10:39 am

Actually, I was thinking more on a reference for the actual 12 inch to the foot stuff. A sort of encyclopedic reference that covers a lot of different entities.

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 28, 2020 11:45 am

There is a Brill book, and I believe a St. Louis Car Co. Book.

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Fri Aug 28, 2020 12:05 pm

bob turner wrote:There is a Brill book, and I believe a St. Louis Car Co. Book.


Yes, there are individual books but even those are not encyclopedic in content.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:40 pm

Start here:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Louis-Co ... 0831071141

$35 to $315. Not an encyclopedia, but I submit that the entire field of doodlebuggery is not worthy of an encyclopedia. Several well-worn books under $40 will make you an expert.

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:57 pm

bob turner wrote:Start here:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Louis-Co ... 0831071141

$35 to $315. Not an encyclopedia, but I submit that the entire field of doodlebuggery is not worthy of an encyclopedia. Several well-worn books under $40 will make you an expert.


Good grief! There's a copy on eBay for $16. Think I paid less than that for my copy there.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:58 pm

I did try Brill - mentioned in trolley and interurban books, but no dedicated book.

Caution, though - I hit one Brill reference that sort of overwhelmed my computer, and insisted that I had become corrupted, and to call an 888 number to escape certain death of all my loved ones. My computer expert hit "escape" and did a scan. Apparently those 888 numbers want to sell you stuff you really don't need - or worse, want you to give them access to your computer to "fix" it.

No , my interest in doodlebugs starts and stops with the Tombstone train - I missed riding it behind steam, but did ride behind 5115, a GE 70-tonner. I also rode the Ma & Pa - that one was St Louis Car Co. Rather go to Chama for train rides.

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Fri Aug 28, 2020 2:02 pm

bob turner wrote:I did try Brill - mentioned in trolley and interurban books, but no dedicated book.


https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... y&_sacat=0
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Fri Aug 28, 2020 2:05 pm

For Doodlebugs, the 3 books by Keilty should suffice.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby De Bruin » Fri Aug 28, 2020 6:21 pm

If I wanted a general overview of prototype North American electric traction, I would refer to Middleton's triumvirate "Time of the Trolley," "The Interurban Era" and "When the Steam Roads Electrified."
In my opinion, as a whole or individually, masterful well-illustrated pictorial histories.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby E7 » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:57 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! That last one of Pete's sounds like it may be the ticket, particularly the pictorial part!

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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby De Bruin » Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:22 am

J. S. Bach wrote:It could be an early Wagner…... A photo of the underside might help. TIA

Thanks Dave, my apologies, I should have included. Agree it might be early Wagner. Here’s the underbody on the left compared to a DC-70 Wagner I dropped out of one my NS cars. This is a low geared pulling little dude too, it does have similarities to this truck in question but doesn’t match entirely in screw location, screw-head sloted vs phillips etc.and has a silver casting covering the worm/axle gear. Still pretty similar otherwise
Image
Thinking about this now I wanna say Wagner offered these “heavy” MU truck side frames in the catalog amongst all the others. I may have to dig out my old Trolley Talks and illustrated price list etc.

E7 wrote:....last one .....may be the ticket, particularly the pictorial part!

They’re all three very good, albeit kind of dated format-wise, conversely somewhat easy and inexpensive to find second hand now, and at least the “Steam Road” volume was reprinted with updated information in the late eighties AIR by Kalmbach.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:06 am

De Bruin wrote:.......... Middleton's triumvirate "Time of the Trolley," "The Interurban Era" and "When the Steam Roads Electrified."


Classics......that will get you a broad overview.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:08 am

De Bruin wrote:...........it does have similarities to this truck in question but doesn’t match entirely in screw location, screw-head sloted vs phillips etc.and has a silver casting covering the worm/axle gear. Still pretty similar otherwise.......


Entirely possible that Wagner made some custom versions for paying customers. I have some trucks to install from Quentin in my other Armstrong cars that are not "standard" to Q-Car.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby De Bruin » Sun Sep 06, 2020 9:42 pm

Rufus T. Firefly wrote: Entirely possible that Wagner made some custom versions for paying customers. I have some trucks to install from Quentin in my other Armstrong cars that are not "standard" to Q-Car.


I think that’s right, I recall he built trucks using other manufacturers side-frames for a surcharge if requested. That said, a cursory check in my 1970' Walthers catalog and the side-frames are there, listed as #11 PRR MU.

As mentioned previously the combine in this three-car set (a facsimile of an MPB-54) was missing its car end on the baggage side. Likely dropped or worse, as both sides were also bent-in 30 degrees midway down the side at the ends, likewise a broken floor end (likely still attached to the end casting in a land fill somewhere) a not uncommon injury with traction cars or doodlebugs with these tall truck drives as most folks install them after cutting an oversize hole in the floor to accommodate the motor, often leaving the car floor structurally weak around the cavity, note the original builder added a modest strip of bass-wood reinforcement on both sides of the cut-out with the floor end snapping 1/8" in from both edges .
Image
The injured car end after splicing a new floor cross member and straightened the sides
The cars themselves were exceptionally detailed, albeit looking a little odd with headlights not incorporating the integral roof mounted box that is one of the MP-54’s signature characteristics, fortunately the damage did not extend to the headlight, and both the drive and bulb fired right up prior to the repair. I found a matching end casting and elected to detail it to match as best I could as opposed to completely rebuilding the car.
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The drill press came in handy as the original builder put every possible detail into these he could think of, save interior seating and lighting. Note the builder also employed the reinforced stirrup step technique often associated with Joe Fisher cars. Alas the casting was uber-soft and the coupler bolster pad fractured off the end.
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Here's the repaired and painted end installed, the square in the upper right hand corner of the door hides a screw used to align the end with the sides which are attached with the dreaded escutcheon pins, likewise a plate across the bottom.
Image
The fit is far from optimum, but again I didn’t want to completely redo the car as it’s very difficult to get a match to the original coat, even using the matching brand and number, which I’ve no idea what this is.
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There is one unpowered trailer, note with generator having a belt. All the non-powered trucks had gauge-in issues from wheel slide on the axle.
Note all three cars had their letter board's redone previously and likely had to be spot re-painted and not very well either, apropos the difficulty in matching Tuscan shades in particular.
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The other coach is set up power-wise like the combine, with another Wagner, and a working headlight. Originally both powered cars had these roof markers on both ends, however the set only showed up with two still intact, the other snapped off even with the roof. Maybe Scale City sells replacements?
Image
This what the original build ends looked like, pretty damn impressive if you ask me.
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Re: Obscure Walthers MU "parade-o-weirdness" continues at Trainz......

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Sep 07, 2020 7:13 am

Looks great and neatly done to me!
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