Model Train Journal

A UP NW2 appears briefly at 25:25. I had never seen the "Road of the Challengers" logo on a black NW2 before. I like it. A UP streamliner appears about a minute later (26:25). The caption says that it is the City of Los Angeles. Am I wrong, or is that an E6 in the lead? If it is the COLA, ...

Thanks for posting the link, Rob. This is GREAT. I have only made it through the first ten minutes and I am blown away. So much to like, but the sight of the H20-44 with the home-built dynamic brake grid (added for braking in helper service over Cajon) is a bonus for me. I knew of these units but ne...

Do the chains make it loud? This project has been going on long enough that whatever happened on page one is long forgotten. Here is a video of the chassis from unit #2, which arrived more-or-less fully functional: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ie4u6h40cdeb5o5p77766/Bay-State-DL-109-2-Chassis-Test...

I am happy to report that the trial assembly of the power truck with the rebuilt bolster revealed no interference or other issues: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ngzslx5io9m0ksyzowbxy/Bay-State-DL-109-1_39.jpg?rlkey=rgcizasa7u24cbyue7gedgsqm&raw=1 The truck is sitting on a jar instead of on a fl...

I have to admit that, at the end of the day yesterday, I was thinking that this bolster restoration would never end. To my delight, things went bang-bang-bang today. I bored out the other motor mount hole, soldered on three more filler pieces, and went to work cutting the excess material off on the ...

Are we safe to assume WP means Western Pacific? If so, I am very interested to see this caboose. I associate the WP with bay window cabooses. Here, for instance, is a Bob Jarvis kit-bash that jumped into my hands at O Scale West last year: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/348shfpocid38959ll586/Jarvis-...

The next step of the truck bolster restoration is to build up and restore the area around the motor mounting holes. I had several false starts, as I tried to add pieces that were pre-cut to the correct shape. That went nowhere, so I finally soldered in a large block of brass, cut from 5/16 square ro...

I have been out of town for a week, but back in Dallas now and back on the DL-109 project. Today I soldered in the fill piece shown in the last post. I used a torch for this. I apply solder liberally to make sure the spaces get filled. It leaves quite a mess of blobs when done: https://www.dropbox.c...

OK, I'll say it -- This is just marvelous work. Yes, most everything Martin posts is of the same level of craftsmanship, but for some reason I find this particularly well done. In my estimation, Martin is to wood freight (and passenger) cars what Malcom Byrd is to cabooses. By this I mean that nobod...

Bob, the post office says that the drawings I sent you are still in Dallas. I guess they got caught in the holiday slow down. I am not a natural fan of steam around the world, but I do find that certain locomotives just have the right look. It's hard to argue with the Chinese QJ. I am also fond of t...

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to fill in the wallowed-out hole in the truck bolster shown above, "just because". I needed a crescent-shaped piece, .17" thick. My first thought was to cut a piece out of plate or bar, but I didn't find anything suitable in the material invento...

Thank you, gentlemen -- as always, I appreciate the kind and encouraging words. Here's a quick update: Sprockets and gears have been pressed onto the axles for all six wheelsets for unit #1. I want to do a clearance and alignment check with the truck bolster and motor-worm before soldering the sproc...

https://hosting.photobucket.com/61a91bb5-3cba-46ff-954e-39317489777d/82a19847-cf07-45b4-ab06-2ed11bcacd11.jpeg?width=640&height=640&fit=bounds&agent-check=true https://hosting.photobucket.com/61a91bb5-3cba-46ff-954e-39317489777d/b9d670fe-70c9-42a7-b214-cc6c7bdf6c4d.jpeg?width=640&he...

The sprockets and the gears were reamed to 5/32", which is the same diameter as the wheelset axles. This gives a light press fit -- not tight enough to hold under load, but generally tight enough to stay in place after pressing while they await soldering. I prefer to press the sprocket or gear ...

Congratulations, Erik. Great pic and nice feather in your cap. I hope other cover shots are in your future
Jim