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Post by fishbelly on Oct 15, 2023 12:14:40 GMT -8
Yesterday in the mail I received a set of P&D Blomberg trucks I purchased from P&D. WOW, these things are hideous! I mean just awful! Nothing is straight on them. The center leaf spring hanger is just a skeleton of what it should be and it is way off from being straight and no way of straightening it without de-soldering it, tweaking it and soldering it back on. I understand that O-Scale is a craftsman scale, but for crying out loud. How these things got touted as the best looking trucks around is mind boggling. Typically I try to go the easy route. Buy what is available instead of reinventing the wheel. The word "Fidelity" and "O-Scale" are just not two words to be put in the same sentence. At least from what I can see. From such a large scale, it would make sense that the fidelity of parts available would be great. So I have set myself out on a mission. I am not giving myself a lot of confidence that I will be able to accomplish this mission, but I am going to give it a go. The only thing that will derail me is not being able to get the appropriate detailed measurement information. I always work from the ground up. So my initial task are Blomberg trucks. I know I can do everything else. So if I can get the trucks properly drawn in a 3D program. The rest is all down hill to the finish line. I finished two parts this week. The brake cylinders and (not truck related) A GP jack pad. I also have two types of journal keepers. Squared and rounded. Every day on my way home from work I will stop at the local yard and measure more truck parts. Next up will be the leaf spring hanger. When this locomotive finally disappears, I will have to resort to traveling to museums to get the info. Here are a few jpg's of the brake cylinders and jack pad.  TRUCK BRAKE
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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on Oct 15, 2023 12:43:12 GMT -8
Looking forward to seeing your progress and hopefully you’ll offer parts for sale.
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Post by big train james on Oct 24, 2023 9:01:59 GMT -8
Brian, Sorry to hear about your experience with the P&D Blomberg sideframes. I have seen some examples where the brake rigging part was distorted, so it may have gotten bent. More concerning to me at the time, the parts looked like they were made from aging molds. I've since seen newer examples that appeared to address this, so I had presumed new molds had been made. As to them being the best looking trucks in O scale, I think it may depend on when the castings were produced. But it's also a relative thing, there are an awful lot of parts or models in O scale that don't take advantage of the larger scale to improve detail or accuracy. In fact one of my main frustations with O scale, at least RTR models, is that they are often very simplified compared to the models that are available in HO these days. I'm pretty EMD late switcher focused, and detail focused, so it's very disappointing to look at an O scale Atlas mp15dc with no fuel tank or radiator detailing while comparing it to something like the Athearn sw1500. The Athearn blows away the O scale model. So while there may be issues with the P&D trucks, they are in fact one of the nicest renderings available in O scale. None of that is an excuse for the P&D trucks. I won't use them myself because I want more than what they can offer, things like full depth sideframes. I'm also not really sold on the practicality or necessity of sprung journals, or the journal suspended axles that go hand in hand with this style of sideframe. Then there's some quirky detailing on them, like the weird upside down "U" thing above the leaf spring. I think I've seen that once on a prototype truck. Anyway, at some point I'll end up drawing my own in the same style as the Flexicoils I've drawn for my sw1500 project. Nice work on the brake cylinders, and especially the jacking pad. It is a tricky part to get right, with the transitions that are inherent in a cast part. It's much easier to take a rasp or some emery cloth to a wood pattern to smooth the curves and faces on the prototype, than making the cad program figure out the same thing. By the way, I'm going to add the additional lettering to the one I drew up. I could never make out anything more than the part number in any of the reference photos I had to work with.   Jim |
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Post by fishbelly on Oct 24, 2023 10:21:00 GMT -8
"But it's also a relative thing, there are an awful lot of parts or models in O scale that don't take advantage of the larger scale to improve detail or accuracy. In fact one of my main frustrations with O scale, at least RTR models, is that they are often very simplified compared to the models that are available in HO these days. I'm pretty EMD late switcher focused, and detail focused, so it's very disappointing to look at an O scale Atlas mp15dc with no fuel tank or radiator detailing while comparing it to something like the Athearn sw1500. The Athearn blows away the O scale model."
I have nothing more to add to this. Your words here are right to the point of how I felt about O-Scale for such a long time and why I stayed away from it. I feel now I have the knowledge, experience, confidence and the tools to enter this scale and make of it what I really want. Design my own model.
Jim, if you need photos of specific items and I have them. Shoot me an email. I am happy to share. I have a crap ton of photos. I have closeups of the jack pads.
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Post by cf7 on Oct 24, 2023 11:25:13 GMT -8
"I'm pretty EMD late switcher focused, and detail focused, so it's very disappointing to look at an O scale Atlas mp15dc with no fuel tank or radiator detailing while comparing it to something like the Athearn sw1500. The Athearn blows away the O scale model." My take on this is they are trying to keep the costs down. O scale locomotives are ridiculously expensive and most O scalers don’t care. I am only adding what I want and don’t really care about the rest. As long as they look good on the layout, that is perfect for me. Chuck |
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Post by hudsonyard on Oct 24, 2023 14:10:25 GMT -8
I' ve found the bulk of 2 railers are obsessive P48 scratchbuilders who can barely build 5 freight cars and a 6' long shelf layout over the course of a decade, or guys who are one shade removed from toy train land.
A friend recently ran on a well known O scale layout for an operations weekend, his main takeaway was "O scalers never finish anything, i've never seen so many unpainted cars on a railroad"
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Post by fishbelly on Oct 24, 2023 16:28:20 GMT -8
I am in in it for the model building aspect. I view it like armor modeling. Focus on one subject at a time. Running the stuff is just a bonus at that. I do not have anywhere here to run them and for the time being it would just be a 17' long straight track on my desk.
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Post by crblue on Oct 27, 2023 5:29:18 GMT -8
I' ve found the bulk of 2 railers are obsessive P48 scratchbuilders who can barely build 5 freight cars and a 6' long shelf layout over the course of a decade, or guys who are one shade removed from toy train land. A friend recently ran on a well known O scale layout for an operations weekend, his main takeaway was "O scalers never finish anything, i've never seen so many unpainted cars on a railroad" That was my dad to a T. He had his basement empire, but his list of engines that needed work was perhaps longer than his list of engines that didn't need work, and anytime it looked like he was going to get more than 75% of his layout finished, he'd rip something or other up, and move track around, and start fresh. |
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Post by hudsonyard on Oct 27, 2023 14:23:47 GMT -8
I' ve found the bulk of 2 railers are obsessive P48 scratchbuilders who can barely build 5 freight cars and a 6' long shelf layout over the course of a decade, or guys who are one shade removed from toy train land. A friend recently ran on a well known O scale layout for an operations weekend, his main takeaway was "O scalers never finish anything, i've never seen so many unpainted cars on a railroad" That was my dad to a T. He had his basement empire, but his list of engines that needed work was perhaps longer than his list of engines that didn't need work, and anytime it looked like he was going to get more than 75% of his layout finished, he'd rip something or other up, and move track around, and start fresh.
it's definitely a cultural thing among O scalers, its a builders and tinkerers scale.
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Post by Donnell Wells on Dec 3, 2023 19:05:49 GMT -8
So, what I am gathering is that O-scale is still somewhat of an untapped, or very lightly tapped market when it comes to detail parts and affordable model kits. Is this a correct inference?
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Post by fishbelly on Dec 4, 2023 3:49:52 GMT -8
So, what I am gathering is that O-scale is still somewhat of an untapped, or very lightly tapped market when it comes to detail parts and affordable model kits. Is this a correct inference? From what I can tell. That is an understatement. It has not even begun to be tapped. Brian |
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Post by hudsonyard on Dec 4, 2023 16:01:09 GMT -8
So, what I am gathering is that O-scale is still somewhat of an untapped, or very lightly tapped market when it comes to detail parts and affordable model kits. Is this a correct inference? From what I can tell. That is an understatement. It has not even begun to be tapped. Brian
it seems like the O scale equivalent of Accurail would be a hit.
it's a weird scale, as i said above it seems like its craftsman who are more about the toil than the end result or toy train brained people.
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Post by wagnersteve on Dec 4, 2023 18:33:38 GMT -8
Dec. 4, 2023, starting about 9:22 p.m.
On the other hand, the detail on the best mass-produced O scale 2-rail locos and rolling stock is really gorgeous. At one point I had about a dozen Atlas O cars and three locos from the same firm, only one of them powered. I've never had a place to run them; for years many were on display in a railroad hobby shop where I worked part time that closed several years ago. They took up a lot of space. I sold them, some of them at VERY low prices to a female MBTA conductor whose husband, an MBTA locomotive engineer, is a member of an O scale club; I also gave some to her. I still have three Atlas O D&H freight cars and a caboose, in storage: a 40' USRA single-sheathed boxcar, a a single-bay Airslide covered hopper, an extended vision cupola caboose, and a 42'6" GSC pulpwood car. The pulpwood car, unlike Atlas's HO and N scale models, has the extensions to its end bulkheads that the D&H added when it bought used cars of that type from the C&O. I'm hoping some day to add them to my HO cars, perhaps after getting a friend to print them in resin.
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Post by fishbelly on Dec 4, 2023 19:07:04 GMT -8
The issue I am having with O-Scale and it is starting to settle in is that ALL my friends are HO. I have nothing to run O-Scale on and nobody to share it with locally or rather get together with. So it is fun for a while, but then the novelty of it wears off and I get bored.
Brian
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Post by cf7 on Dec 16, 2023 14:16:39 GMT -8
The issue I am having with O-Scale and it is starting to settle in is that ALL my friends are HO. I have nothing to run O-Scale on and nobody to share it with locally or rather get together with. So it is fun for a while, but then the novelty of it wears off and I get bored. Brian I get it, Brian. I began my O scale venture earlier this year. I also have zero friends in this scale, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to try for some time. So, I keep on plugging away at it, by myself, and I’m really liking it so far. Since the layout is taking much of an 11x13 room, I am going to finish it before I begin something else. I do still buy HO stuff when the mood strikes, |
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Post by Baikal on Dec 16, 2023 14:30:33 GMT -8
The issue I am having with O-Scale and it is starting to settle in is that ALL my friends are HO. I have nothing to run O-Scale on and nobody to share it with locally or rather get together with. So it is fun for a while, but then the novelty of it wears off and I get bored. Brian I get it, Brian. I began my O scale venture earlier this year. I also have zero friends in this scale, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to try for some time. So, I keep on plugging away at it, by myself, and I’m really liking it so far. Since the layout is taking much of an 11x13 room, I am going to finish it before I begin something else. I do still buy HO stuff when the mood strikes,
The space requirements for a layout (about 3.3x HO) are an issue.
But I'm tempted by O narrow gauge- mining equipment & ops, small detailed wooden structures & interiors, pre-WWII autos, etc. Even using HOn3 or N scale track & mechanisms to represent industrial or similar works.
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Post by lvrr325 on Jan 31, 2024 3:30:36 GMT -8
I have some vintage O pieces that look amazing. But O also has the tinplate market that makes up the majority of it, which is why you get the simple detailing on some things.
If I were building my layout over again today I would add an upper deck with a loop of O and On30 to run that stuff on. It would probably be little more than a shelf wide enough for a couple of tracks, but at least they could run.
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Post by wmcbride on Feb 8, 2024 6:07:18 GMT -8
Don Smith in Maine is an 2-rail artist and his weathering and some detail work has turned many rougher Atlas engines into something better than what came out of the box: www.youtube.com/user/Industrialmodels2I have a few Atlas 2R engines which sit on small dioramas but the realities of the volume of space 2R requires blunted my dreams. I have a 2-rail MP15 and all I have ever done with it so far is add an ESU decoder and better speaker within the shell. This thing cries for detail (or more refined versions of what it has) and that might be a side adventure for me via 3D printing or just scratch-building things. Unfortunately, too many 2-rail engines are afterthoughts from the 3-rail world and it shows. That said, Norm's 3-rail layout is quite impressive. One can almost -- almost -- ignore the third rail: www.youtube.com/@normstrainsBill McBride |
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Post by hudsonyard on Feb 8, 2024 16:44:24 GMT -8
I've watched a lot of Norms videos, hes a brilliant scale-machinist and squeezes a lot out of MTH and lionel stuff.
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Post by lars on Feb 18, 2024 6:15:11 GMT -8
From what I can tell. That is an understatement. It has not even begun to be tapped. Brian
it seems like the O scale equivalent of Accurail would be a hit.
That sounds like the old Weaver products. Not overly expensive and good starting points. |
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