What’s on your Workbench?

[sarge]

That is a regular ol’ St. Louis Car doodlebug that actually lasted until Amtrak. Thankfully, Florida is flat so putting two coaches behind a gascar wasn’t too outrageous. I don’t know if it remained a gascar or got converted to diesel.

Edit to say I cheated and looked it up on the interweb. There were two, both built in the mid-30s as diesel-electric rather than gascars, 600hp Wintons with a SLCCo carbody and EMC internals for SAL. One was done in at a grade-crossing in 1956, the other made it through the merger and ran until Amtrak.

[De Bruin]

Notably Bob Delbridge commissioned a resin casting in three pieces to build one of these.
It was well covered over on OGR, and certainly one of my top favorite home builds posted over the past three years.
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/seaboard-air-line-motorcar-2028
awesome!

[E7]

Thanks guys! I thought maybe they rehabbed an observation! Wonder if he ever got the thing done?

[sarge]

That could be a really fun build. As a musing, I noticed someone wondering if Scott (Sunset) would do it. That got me thinking about all the more mainstream diesels he could test the waters with that no-one has done (recently or at all) other than perhaps in 3-rail. The old argument about, “MTH (or any one of the rest of the cast of makers of clunky hermaphrodites) did it” doesn’t seem to wash in a string of early Geeps, FAs, SD40-2s.

I have one of his recent locos, a Reading Geep, and the drive is nice, much better starting performance than both China-drives and a large number of older brass. I’d love to see a few of the subjects revisited, like the RS-1 but with his drive and the cab overhang Atlas neglected. Then, a lot of Baldwins, switchers and roadswitchers that you could actually switch with, Alco S-classes, an SW1500 just as examples of fertile ground yet untilled or due to be turned again. A C-420 (that Chris and Pete and I admire), but a nice shell like Lionel’s recent just doesn’t count without decent handrails and a good drive.

Pricing is a serious issue, though. Older brass is cheaper; our “needs” are pretty much met by what we have in the used market. Who would be paying north of $700 a unit, then, for an SD40-2 or a GP9? It ain’t us, apparently, but the generation behind us (You know, the guys we think don’t exist?). I have to wonder if reigning in the price with a DCC-ready option or range of models rather than DCC only as is currently imported might open the consumer pool a bit. Pulling out the “as-supplied” sound and DCC was the first thing that Geep endured when it got here, and many a younger guy goes through that exercise or doesn’t buy at all simply because the version on offer isn’t the version they prefer. DCC-ready is a pretty mainstream configuration in UK RTR O, and the rest of the scales on both sides of the Atlantic, so this isn’t unexplored territory.

When an offhand comment about Scott doing an SAL doodlebug gets my brain wandering off on this sort of musing, its obviously time to hit the workbench, so…

[sarge]

I’m building this for a friend of mine:

Evergreen Styrene make these interesting steel trusses, just screaming to be a load for a gon or flat. In this case, the bottom flanges are spot-welded to I-beam laterals and some angle used to secure the tops:


The whole just sits in a Weaver/Atlas composite gon:


Then comes the annoying requirement to lower the dam thing (Why oh why are we cursed with this tinplate baggage? Grin!). Amazingly, when the draught-gear is nestled up in the end-sills instead of hanging way down on those stupid lugs like an old mans scrotum, the trucks tuck up nicely and the car looks about a brazilian times better. You’d have thought Atlas would have fixed that when they bought the dies from Weaver when they shut, but no. They just changed the coupler mount spacing from standard to their bespoke arrangement and near-doubled the price.

Anyway, enough about that. Now that it’s lowered as it should be, a couple more tweaks in mind (like fix that awful brakewheel) and its off to the paintbooth to muddy it up a bit…

[sarge]

Done and dusted (literally)



The flooring is drybrushed grey followed by a gentle blending with the airbrush.


I knocked this guy out at the same time. State of Maine cars are a PITA to knock the garish bits down convincingly.

[Chris Webster]

I’d love to see a few of the subjects revisited, like the RS-1 but with his drive and the cab overhang Atlas neglected. Then, a lot of Baldwins, switchers and roadswitchers that you could actually switch with, Alco S-classes, an SW1500 just as examples of fertile ground yet untilled or due to be turned again.

I really admire what he's done for the 2-Rail/3-Rail Scale market, but I just don't see myself buying many plastic road-switchers because the thick plastic cabs (necessary to survive the 3-rail market) just don't look right to me. I quickly discovered Cannon & Company thin wall cabs when I started seriously modeling in HO thirty years ago and that experience has probably ruined O-scale plastic road switchers for me. The big wall of windows on the ends of EMD SWs and Alco S-series models are especially problematic - put any brass SW next to an Atlas SW7 and you should be able to see what I mean.

I realize that some modelers have done a good job of hiding the thickness of the plastic cab walls, but they still can't model an open cab door without the plastic thickness being apparent. (I do tolerate the thick cab wall look on Weaver RS3s because I've never spent more than $125 for one of those.)

I have to wonder if reigning in the price with a DCC-ready option or range of models rather than DCC only as is currently imported might open the consumer pool a bit. Pulling out the “as-supplied” sound and DCC was the first thing that Geep endured when it got here, and many a younger guy goes through that exercise or doesn’t buy at all simply because the version on offer isn’t the version they prefer. DCC-ready is a pretty mainstream configuration in UK RTR O, and the rest of the scales on both sides of the Atlantic, so this isn’t unexplored territory.

I think it would make a lot more sense to offer a deadrail (battery powered) version before a DC-only version. I assume the same deadrail electronic package could be offered to both the 3 rail and 2 rail markets and the 3 rail market is where I believe he sells most of his product.

[sarge]

Chris, two things. First, you misunderstand me. I’m not talking about the classic DC only version. I’m talking about a platform into which you choose your control system and plug it in. In the UK, they catalog it as “DCC-ready”.

Second, I really can’t see myself buying deadrail units any more than DCC; just a different set of boards I’d be forced to pay for that I don’t care for or want.

I really wonder why the locomotive model isn’t considered a chassis into which one can mount their choice of tech, especially as the tech is changing rapidly while the loco isn’t. One day you’re going to rip out the pre-installed stuff regardless; it will be obsolete.

Why not a standardised electrical interface (defined by, oh, I don’t know, the NMRA actually doing something about standards for a change?) The notion of defining DCC standards was all well and good in its day, but really a standard plug in the gear, then you are free to choose your boards and control type yourself. DCC, deadrail, R/C, whatever, the output is two wires to a motor and some sort of lighting output.

The point is simply, I’d prefer not to have to pay for DCC and (annoying and fake-sounding) sound because that’s my only choice because the experts at Kalmbach say I must have it to be a real model railroader or whatever the reason the marketers are assuming I’d pay for it. Adding a niche system like deadrail as a second bespoke choice only complicates the manufacturing process, and deadrail as an only choice is just as limiting as DCC as an only choice. Making the model with a universal plug that anyone can use to plug up any system of choice just makes sense.

[Chris Webster]

I’m talking about a platform into which you choose your control system and plug it in. In the UK, they catalog it as “DCC-ready”.

AFAIK, nearly all the ready-to-run DC locomotives in the US come factory equipped with a DCC plug. It's been that way for a least a decade if not two. The socket has a factory installed socket that shorts across (bypasses) the pins for DCC. To put a decoder in the locomotive, you pull that factory-installed socket out of the plug, then plug your decoder in. Nowadays it's usually a 21-MTC plug.

I think the plug designs have been adopted by the NMRA as Recommended Practices, but I honestly don't know for sure because I don't really keep with that. I do know that Rapido and some of the other HO manufacturers only sell "DC/Silent" and "Dcc/Sound" versions -- there apparently is no longer a market for factory installed DCC decoders without sound.

Why not a standardised electrical interface (defined by, oh, I don’t know, the NMRA actually doing something about standards for a change?) The notion of defining DCC standards was all well and good in its day, but really a standard plug in the gear, then you are free to choose your boards and control type yourself. DCC, deadrail, R/C, whatever, the output is two wires to a motor and some sort of lighting output.

The negative with the standard plug is that it (and the wiring harness that plugs into it) takes up space that could be better used for weight and/or bigger speakers. That's why the DCC companies sell boards with the decoder and speakers on it intended to replace the factory installed circuit board (with DCC plug on it.)

[sarge]

I’m talking about a platform into which you choose your control system and plug it in. In the UK, they catalog it as “DCC-ready”.

AFAIK, nearly all the ready-to-run DC locomotives in the US come factory equipped with a DCC plug. It's been that way for a least a decade if not two. The socket has a factory installed socket that shorts across (bypasses) the pins for DCC. To put a decoder in the locomotive, you pull that factory-installed socket out of the plug, then plug your decoder in. Nowadays it's usually a 21-MTC plug.

I think the plug designs have been adopted by the NMRA as Recommended Practices, but I honestly don't know for sure because I don't really keep with that. I do know that Rapido and some of the other HO manufacturers only sell "DC/Silent" and "Dcc/Sound" versions -- there apparently is no longer a market for factory installed DCC decoders without sound.

Why not a standardised electrical interface (defined by, oh, I don’t know, the NMRA actually doing something about standards for a change?) The notion of defining DCC standards was all well and good in its day, but really a standard plug in the gear, then you are free to choose your boards and control type yourself. DCC, deadrail, R/C, whatever, the output is two wires to a motor and some sort of lighting output.

The negative with the standard plug is that it (and the wiring harness that plugs into it) takes up space that could be better used for weight and/or bigger speakers. That's why the DCC companies sell boards with the decoder and speakers on it intended to replace the factory installed circuit board (with DCC plug on it.)

We’re talking of two different worlds, I think. Might well be so in the smaller scales; I really don’t know nor have any connection. In O, currently we get stuck with DCC and sound.

I don’t see how a plug takes up room needed for weight or a speaker in O, not when HO and N do DCC-ready as you say.

Anyway, I can build my own, buy on the second-hand market, paint and bash brass, so current imports don’t interest if the market is going to require me to share the cost of tech I don’t use or want. I personally would be much more open to reserving and buying Scott’s offerings at $600 without someone else’s choice of controls installed instead of $700-750 with. Then I, and you for that matter, can install what we actually want on our own dime, in our own time, according to our own preferences.

It was just a thread-drift off-topic musing anyway.

[sarge]

Back to “The Workbench”, I finished up the last of three of these late ice-reefers. This is one of those cases when Lionel did a carbody worth converting. They’re really pretty nice.



One problem is they come in only the one number, and that font is unique. A thumb-full of wire wool, some black enamel, and a bow-pen fixes that issue. Not perfect lettering but good-nuff.

[De Bruin]

Yeah those MDT reefers are classics for your operating scheme, Atlas did a run of them as well in multiple road numbers though they might have been a Bob Thatcher run, I snagged a pair. He came up with a lot of special order stuff from Atlas that has held up well over the years.
I did not know about the Lionel version, Looks Great!

[R.K. Maroon]

I am still getting the new shop in order, so there has not been a lot of time for modeling. However, I needed a photo of my Hawk EMC 600 HP switcher for my next OST article and decided to use that as an excuse to fix it up a bit. Here was the model as arrived:


You will notice the distressed paint and the lack of platform handrails. The model has been chemically stripped (my go-to for this is lacquer thinner) and then bead blasted. Here is a close-up of the new fabricated handrails:



I found it to be a bit tricky to form the wire to the correct width, but a couple of tries and I got the hang of it. Same thing with the solder joints, but with a little experimentation with different solder tips and techniques and I found a method that works for me. One critical item for me was to use only a tiny amount of solder on the tip. As it is, I have a small roll of very thin solder that is used for circuit board work. Using that and a long, thin soldering tip made it easy to get just the right amount of solder to the joint.

Jim

[bob turner]

Nice work, especially the railings. So tell us how this thing is constructed - cast? Sheet brass? Seriously impressed with how realistic our 1939 couplers are. Only way one can compete with that is Protocraft.

Are you trying to compete with Carey?

[R.K. Maroon]

How this thing is constructed - cast? Sheet brass?

Bob, the Hawk switcher is a composite model -- the hood, frame, and truck sideframes are cast bronze. The cab and the tool-boxes are formed and soldered sheet brass. I can't think of another model built this way.

Are you trying to compete with Carey?

I don't think of Carey and I (and I will add Arthur Hayes here) competing against each other. We are all good friends and supportive of each other in our endeavors -- we swap models back and forth somewhat regularly. It helps that have similar interests but different sensibilities. At risk of oversimplifying things, I would say the following: All three of us have a strong interest in O-scale history. Carey and Arthur bring a collectors sensibility to the hobby that I don't have. Carey has a very broad interest in early models. He regular finds one-of-a-kind models from obscure builders, rescues them, and brings them to light with forum posts and videos. Arthur is mostly interested in high-end models -- his collection is like a museum. By comparison, I consider myself a modeler that happens to appreciate craftsman-made models and likes to restore and run them in era and region appropriate trains.

I fight the urge to collect for its own sake and have two rules in this regard. First, if I have an operable model that I never run, then it needs to go to a new home where it might find some love -- I call this my "catch and release" program. Second, if I own a model that is worth more to somebody else as a collectable than it is to me as an operating model, then I sell it or swap it. I make exceptions with models that belonged to good friends, such as those I got from the late Allen Wehrle, Woody Mathews, or Steve Neill. As long as they match my modeling interests and I am running them, then they will be the last ones I let go of.

Jim