It’s time to turn the page on 2023. Enough of that year. Time to clean off the workbench and start the new year off fresh.
The weather guys on TV have been talking all week about SNOW today. Now they are saying just a dusting. Either way it is a good morning to finish cleaning in the train room and clear off the workbench and jump back into a couple of recent projects.
A PSC Bethlehem 65 ft mill gondola for the CRP and the RY Models PRR H21 in the background being done in a late 50’s paint for a friend. Both models have had a lot of cut and piecing together of the lettering. Both had one side lettered on each of the models. Then the workbench got a little cluttered and these two were on hold since the beginning of the Fall. Now the bench is clear and time to work one them again.
So I’ll finish my coffee in my Chicago mug, look forward to thoughts of the March Show and focus on 2024.
I haven’t been up to that much. Mostly working on some of the cars I painted last Summer. In the above image there is a mixture of cars being decorated and in the case of the two PRR H30’s, they were decorated back when I was modeling a PRR branch set in 1956. So I was changing the weight dates on the two cars to be correct for my summer of 1952 period.
I went to work on the trucks, first thing was to polish the treads. Then, I noticed that they did not have the trucks numbered for the cars. So now they do.
Here are a pair of Hallmark B&O class N34 covered hopper cars that were painted last Summer. They are nice cars but they do show their age a little. I found both of these cars unpainted at two different Cleveland O Scale shows at least ten years ago.
They came out nice. I used a combination of both Tichy decals and also K4 decals for the cars. Both set were not totally complete, together they were fine.
This last image shows a little work on the roof walks. Gene Diemling wrote about a product from AK Interactive in his post NEW PRODUCTS: A Few Good Things & Wood! I thought I’d try it out. After a couple of tests on some scrap plastic, I thought I’d try it on the B&O car. Almost there. I think it could use a thin black wash still. But I’ll wait until I get into some of the weathering on the cars.
Well over the last year or two I have mostly worked on simple projects, changing out trucks on a cars, converting 3-rail bolsters or painting/lettering projects. I think that has been because it is hard to focus on a longer term project with all that has been going on with work, life and the world.
This past weekend, I was looking through different scans for a photo and I found this scan of a diagram the Reading Company had prepared comparing the Class LOb the an ACF car built for the LNE. It should be noted that the drawing is dated November 25, 1939 and the RDG Lob builder’s photo shows a date of April 23, 1940.
The drawing clearly shows the two cars are very close in major dimensions and locations of major components. They ocupy mostly the same space.
Reading Company Drawing – Dated November 25, 1939LNE Covered Hopper similar to the car in the drawing Photo Bob Losse collection
Long ago I had thought that the weaver car had a lot of similarities to the Reading car but beyond having to remove ribs it also required a number of other adjustments to the car body. I dismissed that as an option but thought the concept a good approach, I just wanted a better starting point.
This got me thinking, Atlas O made an ACF 70 ton covered hopper that is a later design, more of a late ’40’s early ’50’s car. The idea is to remove the ribs and add a wrapper around the shell.
My drawings for this car appeared in RMC back in the 1980’s. I also had an updated set of drawings that my brother Bob had drawn and plotted in O scale for me. I compared the Atlas car to the drawings. The Atlas car is a more modern car and the car body is about scale 18 inches longer but the height and shape of the car is about right.
I started prepping the shell by removing the details. The grab irons on the side and the hatches on the roof. I did disassemble the car but ended up putting it back together because I felt the weight being inside would help stiffen the plastic car body while sanding the ribs down.
I took my time and slowly removed the ribs. I tried to be careful with the sanding to remove the details at the same rate overall to try to keep from sanding the body out of square.
You can see that different details begin to get sanded as you get down further on the the side.
Some people might ask why I didn’t remove the paint first before working on the shell. I found it was useful to keep me sanding evenly. If you are applying to much pressure in one direction you can see if the detail which are at the same height on the car side come off at the same time. If you are uneven they show.
Car sides here show all the detail removed. It doesn’t take that long to sand down the car sides. You just need go slow and keep the car level as you sand. But it does create a mess of the plastic you sand off.
Next time, I need to mark the shell for where I plan to cut it to remove the 18 inches out of the center of the car. Then I’ll add a wrapper and begin to built up the car sides. Stay tuned that will be the next post.
I would like to wish everybody a Safe & Happy Thanksgiving!
Here is the view of my workbench this morning. You can see an AB pair of CNJ F3’s, a pair of MTH 2-rail conversion trucks that recently came off of an MTH LV Fshbelly Twin, and a pair of spare Weaver AAR Type-B road switcher trucks that I was fitting a set of Protocraft conversion wheelsets into. I need to get these parts/projects back together and off the workbench today.
In the early Fall of 2021, I was sitting with some friends BS’ing about different models that have been released in the past that for whatever reason did not end up on our radar.
I mentioned that I wish I had picked up the Atlas-O CNJ F3’s back when they were released. But that was not in the cards for me when they were released. It was joked that it would be easier to go back in time and buy them, then to find them in today’s secondary market.
I started looking for them online and at the shows, I listed what I’m looking for on my Interchange Track page. They were around in 3-rail but not as 2-rail models. Then to my surprise one showed up at a Strasburg Show. Then a pair online. Over the last year I have been fortunate to find four CNJ units. I’m still looking for one more CNJ F3A, the details of what I’m now looking for are listed on my Interchange Track.
I was working in the basement this morning on the shelves which are making up the benchwork for the back wall. The parts are stained and about to be assembled. I should have some photos to show the progress soon.
This is a slightly different Workbench post for me. We have had some very nice weather this Spring, low humidity and warm days. I do have a paint booth, but I prefer to paint outdoors. During the Summer months the humidity in New Jersey can keep me from painting.
This is my simple set up. An old Kitchen cart, my compressor, a tub that holds supplies before painting, an upside down old cookie sheet and a plastic lazy-susan. I use the cookie-sheet when I’ve used some spray on strippers for models. So now it’s just a part of the set-up.
I wheel this out of the garage and set up along side the house. I had used this set-up in the back of the house before but the side gets sunlight longer. I can paint longer into the day.
I start with the model inverted and paint all the surfaces visible for this angle. You can see this covered hopper car sitting on a 5×7 film box. The film box allows me to move the model from the painting area without any trouble. The model is then set out on the back porch to bake a little in the sun.
After about a half hour of baking in the sun, I add a pair of “shop trucks” (in this case partially built Intermountain trucks without wheelsets) and invert the model on the top side of the box.
Once the visible surfaces of the top of the model are painted, I again move the model onto the back porch to bake in the sun. After another hour of baking, they were dry to the touch. They still had some fumes, so I let them set out there until the porch was in shadows.
Below were some of the cars from earlier in the day. I needed to break up all the red being applied with a couple of gray cars. Next up some black cars.
About twenty years ago I bought this Atlas SW-9. The unit was painted CN&W but I was planning on repainting it. This unit was the first I ever installed a DCC decoder into. I had some track set up in my kitchen in my first house. I used to just like to turn on the locomotive and listen to it idle of the table while I cooked dinner.
The unit was going to be repainted PRR back I first bought it. Never got to that. When the PRR became a secondary modeling focus, I tried to find other uses for this great running locomotive.
You might remember I had posts of it with an MTH SW-1 shell of the drive. Then, I was able to find a brass SW-1 at a Chicago Show. So it started to become an NW-2. I cut up an old All Nation NW-2 shell and fit the hood on the drive.
I finally found an extra old SW-9 shell at another show and put it back together as a SW-9. But it really didn’t fit my model needs for 1952. The Reading did not have SW-9’s until 1956.
The other day it was made ready and moved out onto the modeling interchange track. It shipped out over the weekend on it’s way to a new home. I did enjoy the model, but now I won’t be as tempted to paint it PC and model the early ’70’s.
It wasn’t even on my mind to part with the model. But someone was looking for one, so I thought it be a good reason to stop trying to find something to build it into.
I do want to remind readers that I do put models that no longer fit my modeling focus on my Interchange Track page.
It does create an empty project bin. What will fill that space next?
Original Atlas O axel assembly and the NWSL Conversion Wheelset
“Drop-In Conversion Parts” that is such a nice phrase. It’s not always a reality.
If you read yesterday’s post you know of my troubles installing the NWSL conversion wheelsets into the Atlas O F3B. To recap the back to back of the ridge on the bushings needed to be at least 0.496″.
The NWSL parts had a back to back measurement of 0.488″ – 0.490″.
I know it’s only 0.006″ – 0.008″ difference but that is the difference of them fitting or not.
Time to disassemble the first axel.
This was the before measurement for the bushing.
This is the bushing’s measurement after it went on a diet.
The new back to back measurement. And the most important thing….. They ACTUALLY were a drop-in fit into the grove on the top cover.
After modifying the two axels that didn’t fit, I had to open up the one truck where the axels did fit. I knew they were a very tight fit and just thought they would benefit from also being modified in the same manor.
I am happy to report that this last photo shows all four axels modified and installed. Next time I work on this model, those side frames need to move a lot closer to the wheels, but that is work for another day.
Truth be told, it took about the same amount of time to write this post as it did modify the bushings to make the axels fit properly. So it really wasn’t a big deal at all.
I’m still bothered that the conversion parts did not fit as delivered from NWSL. I’ve been modeling in Proto48 since the early ’90’s, I know there is no instant gratification in Proto48. We have to actually work on our models.
What if I was a newcomer to Proto48, this experience would have been very discouraging. It could have easily made me question if modeling in Proto48 was worth the extra effort. Sometimes the newcomer to Proto48 needs some simple wins to give them the motivation to keep going and try more difficult projects. This type of Proto48 conversion should be one of those simple wins.
Well it’s nasty outside this morning. Here in New Jersey we are experiencing a nor’easter moving past us just off the coast. They have blizzard conditions down at the shore. Just snowing and high winds here. I’m waiting for the snow to stop to go clear the walks later today. A great time to sit down at the workbench.
I had a friends model in to have the trucks repaired. That is his Pecos River Brass PRR G30 gondola sitting there on the bench. The springs came out of one of the trucks. It just needed to have the springs re-installed. Simple enough fix.
My friend wants to put this model out on the table at the Chicago show this year, so if you are looking for one of these fire off an email and I’ll pass it on to my friend.
Behind the PRR G30, you can see what remains of this week’s small project. I picked up an Atlas O CNJ F3B dummy at the last Strasburg Show. I was able to aquire a drive donor (the CB&Q F3A), the swap of the two drives went easy enough. Only little hick-up was the position of the front step. The hole for the B-unit location needed to be tapped to allow me to mount the step into the position under the door.
Since it was on the workbench still, I pulled out the conversion set I had purchased from North West Short Line for the Atlas O F3. The idea is that they are meant to be a direct replacement for the O Scale wheelsets.
Take off four screws and the cover plate on each axel and replace the wheel set. Simple, Right?
Well it started out that way. You can see the replacement wheels installed on this truck. They were a little tight but I was able to get them into the truck. We won’t talk about the language used to help guide them into the truck.
The second truck was not as simple. The wheels didn’t fit.
Here you can see the axel cover removed from the Atlas truck. The two brass bushing are meant to fit into the grooves on the cover and also on the truck center.
The groove has a back-to-back distance of 0.496″.
But the bushings on the NWSL conversion wheels had a 0.488 back to back spacing. Looks like they are not so “drop-in” a replacement. There is no way these could EVER fit into that truck.
I can pull the non-geared wheel off, which will allow me to remove the bushings from the axel. Then I should be able to mill down the thickness of the bushings to give me the needed clearence. Then I’ll have to reassemble the axels again.
BUT this ALL should not be needed on what is supposed to be a drop in replacement part. At $64.95 USD (plus shipping) per conversion set they should work as a conversion set and NOT be a conversion PROJECT. I’m not a happy NWSL customer at this point.
For those that want to know. I have two sets of the NWSL Altas O F unit replacement wheelsets. Only two out of the eight axels I measured will actually fit into the Atlas O trucks.
I have made some progress building the turnout. My biggest issue so far has been remembering at what angle to drive the spike without moving the rail.
But my check gauge has vanished into the dimension of lost socks. Can’t find that thing anywhere. So I ordered another from Right-O-Way today. I think this project is going to be put on hold until it arrives.
I did notice that Jay at Right-O-Way had posted on Facebook that they have Proto48 Code 125 Non-Weathered Flex-track in stock again. That good news.
And I know it’s Friday, so why the WBW post? I’m thinking it’s about to morph into an any day workbench category.
I brought back one of the five projects that were on the workbench at the same time. It is much easier to work on one project without the other projects competing for attention or space to work.
I thought I’d try to remember how to build a turnout. It’s been way too long since I built my last one. It is amazing how much you forget.
Last Fall, I ordered some turnout blocks from Central & Western HomaRoad Supply. They are nice, dust free and a nice smooth surface to work on. I used one of Jim Cantner’s turnout templates to position the ties. Then I started building….. after a few starts and stops, I began to remember how much I’ve forgotten about building a turnout. Thankfully spikes can be pulled up and rail adjusted.
In the photo you can also see three new Trifecta Proto48 track gauges from Fast Tracks. They are a nice clean machined part and fit the Micro-Engineering railhead very well. I’m using American Switch and Signal castings for a number 8 turnout, which are now available through Right-O-Way and Micro Engineering code 125 rail for this build.
Progress has been much slower on this turnout than I would like. But it has been fun.
