GSL Steam Roster

[bob turner]

Yes. With difficulty. A little heat helps. I believe Goo is just expensive Pliobond - Martin can help here. I have never seen a decent nail job - they just make the car look like junk. Removing nailed sides just makes it worse.

[DeBruin]

I typically use an inexpensive, clear non-permanent adhesive on metal Walthers sides that I get dirt cheap at Michael's, if I have to disassemble the car afterward, which I'll do if I want to light them or put more interior detail in, I can do it without bending the sides.
Otherwise its very good. Sometimes, since I soldier the ends to the sides I have to use a small tack to set a fitting bow at the roof line, but I'll remove afterward once the seam has cured.

Bob, tell us more about Plio-bond.

[bob turner]

It is MEK- based, and a contact cement. I believe there are several versions, but not sure. It can be purchased as Goo, Weldwood contact cement, and probably DAP at your auto store. It is a lot like weatherstripping cement, and probably the same as "top and landau" cement.

You are up - tell us about the "Michaels" cement?

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

Here's some temporary glue from Michaels, I think my wife used this a few times and it worked well:

https://www.michaels.com/aleene's-tack-it-over-and-over/10550020.html

BobD

[DeBruin]

E6000, handles like a drier more vaporous version of silicon sealer.
Its described as a permanent adhesive, but its flexible, can be pulled apart or razored once dry. Its not so reactive that it dissolves paint on contact either which is important if it beads out from your seam- quick wipe with a paper towel or tooth pick and it "balls" up and off; I use the clear version for this characteristic as the white or black versions are harder to clean off. Its great for wood to metal joints; surfaces must be clean of oils. No heat curing required either. I find it good for composite kits like Walthers, AN or BC-M with metal sides, and for white metal parts on wood under floor/underbody. I also use it to set all plastic roofs on ICC and ALC cars in place of styrene cement as it can be separated and reapplied repeatedly.

http://www.michaels.com/e6000-craft-adh ... urce=PDPZ1

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

The modernized coach is a re-worked Walthers #9175 ( a lot of these floating around on Ebay, very popular in its day) which is patterned after the P70Far, basically a P70 PRR modernized for commuter service. Working off those same photos in Faulk's book, I discarded the smooth roof and replaced it with an All Nation clerestory with a car length duct installed on one side. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Walthers offered these same sides as a generic "modernized" heavyweight with a clerestory roof as kit #9174 though I think the Walthers roof is a tad flat or too short appearence wise for SAL or (tbd) an L&N's HW

Jack McGarry (Allegheny Scale Models) had the 9175 car, so I'm getting it from him. BobT, forgot to ask if he had more than 1, sorry.

MicroMark sells Clerestory wood roofs:

http://www.micromark.com/passenger-clerestory-roof-o-scale,8824.html, but not sure they'll fit.

BobD

[R.K. Maroon]

There is a 9175 on eBay as a Buy-It-Now if anybody is still looking for one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Walthers-O-Scale-Wood-Metal-Craftsman-Kit-9175-75-Modernized-Coach/381840827632

Price is very reasonable

[bob turner]

But over 40 bucks - not that anxious. Look for them at shows for $25/kit, and stick to the 9000 series. Always examine the sides for ripple-free.

Opinion.

[Erik C Lindgren]

Beautiful stuff guys. Wow what a cool train

[DeBruin]

Next shop job from the Great Southern Lines is #826. I post this reluctantly as I realized this evening there’s another Mi-Loco J string running here concurrently, but I only get my paws on these as they cross the workbench (and I can get ‘em in the light tent) so here you go, sorry. Also, sorry if the idea of converting a J (albeit cast doorstop version ) into a mongrel 4-6-2 makes you blow your beets but I’m past that too.


This one is listed in the club cards as having a #3 K&D w/rectifier reverse, but I can’t get you an open chassis shot yet as the main cap screws (fine thread, looks like 1/8” dia) holding the boiler casting onto the chassis are broken off. So, in a holding pattern until I can visit my local hw store Monday to get a small enough extractor and appropriate bit.
The engine was “Great Southern-ized” by the late Cliff Cole sometime in the early 1950’s, is one of the oldest operating locomotives there and was featured in Jim’s article on the club in OST #83. Despite its rather obvious modification to a Pacific and getting a K-4 tender, the club members not surprisingly refer to it as the “Lionel” and it was only after showing Jim a photo that it was even identified as a Mi-Loco. And though I’m pretty sure it will not fetch 1K either (per Ebay string) especially with the changes made to it; it’s certainly a reliable pulling “dynamo” on the passenger power roster, still able to handle seven and eight car passenger trains. It is also ridiculously heavy, as Rufous suggested could inflict serious damage if used in an alternative role. Recently though it shot one of its pony truck wheels off negotiating a cross over and spectacularly rolled down an embankment off the lead to the passenger terminal, hence the trip to the shop. I really want to see this things guts and restore a working headlight to it as it still carried its original, then long burned out incandescent bulb on the outside of the headlight fixture, a very old tin-plate-ish look.

More photos to come as this moves forward.

[ScaleCraft]

Not surprising it is referred to as the "Lionel". When I got my MiLoco (identified by a young man name JW Matthews) it was four boxes of all sorts of stuff that wouldn't sell at a TCA auction. No bids. I bought the boxes cheap.
I kept pulling parts out...freshly painted boiler, cylinders, frame...then I found drivers, rods, motor. Tender. Trucks.

Somebody spent a lot of time doing it, and never finished it.

I had never seen a Lionel early Hudson apart at that time.....just assembled...and this looked to me like it was Lionel.

Until I started putting it together...replacing lost screws....and no idea 30+ years ago what it was until Woody had a look.
The ONLY thing missing (other than some screws) was the cast booster on the loco trailing truck.

RK Hall actually HAD one...never cleaned or installed...and that made it complete.

REALLY nice engine...smooth and quiet.

[bob turner]

Yeah - with those big gears they ran quite well. Same with Mi-Loco and Scale Craft.

[R.K. Maroon]

Here are a few photos of GSL's J-1 Pacific making the run from Ensley to Danville:







I am sorry Mr. Green's Mi-Loco did not survive very long -- I think this is a nice looking model, and the fact that this has been a regular runner in club service for many decades is a testament to how well designed and built it is.
Jim

[DeBruin]

Indeed, it’s a nice runner, picked switches and wheel-axle failures notwithstanding but hey it’s a good fifteen years older than me soooo no complaints…… was able to work the broken screw off the saddle and boiler with vice grips, which while slow at least left the tapped threads intact/undamaged so- yeah voila.

Note the trailing truck has a booster. I’ll post some pictures of this pulling something on track-world once I get it back together and the paint touched up, new headlight etc.

[John Webster]

Looks nice and solid. Is that a two tooth worm?