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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Jun 25, 2012 7:32:58 GMT -8
Nice work John.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Jun 26, 2012 6:40:20 GMT -8
In regards to the sandbox issue, sanding the rails is at times done while braking. Not every time, but sometimes it's needed with wet, icy, or leaf-covered rail.
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Post by onequiknova on Jun 26, 2012 11:07:55 GMT -8
In regards to the sandbox issue, sanding the rails is at times done while braking. Not every time, but sometimes it's needed with wet, icy, or leaf-covered rail. Good point. I never even thought of that. |
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Post by Donnell Wells on Jun 26, 2012 13:05:17 GMT -8
Hi John,
Have you thought about what you're going to do for the center vestible door windows?
Donnell
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Post by onequiknova on Jun 26, 2012 13:20:15 GMT -8
My plan was to drill out the center and file them to size. I'll then cut some clear plastic to fit flush inside the opening to hide the thickness of the doors. I'll either make the window gaskets out of brass wire, or draw them on with a sharpy. Problem is, I made the window openings too big. I should have paid more attention when laying them out. I figured they should be square, but I now think they're wider than they are tall. That's the problem with modeling without a scale drawing. If you look at the prototype picture I posted, the bottom of the vestibule door windows are about even with the top of the fluting. Mine dip slightly below. I may make another. Maybe I'm being too anal.   Luckily the door wasn't glued to the car yet. It's a press fit behind the frame.  I also decided to sacrifice a Walthers Pullman car for it's underframe, trucks and interior.  |
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Post by onequiknova on Jun 27, 2012 11:14:01 GMT -8
I received my missing marker lights from IMW in the mail today. The sprue also also contains cast 6 rung ladders and correctly shaped diaphragm buffers.
The ladders are resin instead of etched, so the rungs are a bit on the heavy side. If I had them from the start I would have drilled them for wire rungs. I think I'll just stick with the ladders I made.
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 2, 2012 20:24:43 GMT -8
Not much of an update, but I did decide to make a new vestibule door. It needs a little finish work now that I see it in pictures, but I'm happy with the overall size this time.  |
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bsklarski
New Member
Engineer at the New England Central RR
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Post by bsklarski on Jul 2, 2012 21:42:17 GMT -8
In regards to the sandbox issue, sanding the rails is at times done while braking. Not every time, but sometimes it's needed with wet, icy, or leaf-covered rail. Exactly. When you either put the train in emergency, or just plain go in the hole, the sanders come on as a result of the PCS tripping open. Helps the train stop faster I guess |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 3, 2012 15:07:49 GMT -8
The kit provides four identical marker lights, even though only two will be needed. They are just a solid cube with the lenses molded in. I decided to try and reshape them to better match the prototype. I also cored them to accept some nano LEDs. My point and shoot has a hard time focusing this close, but you get the idea.  I assume these markers only lit red, and only when being pulled. Does anyone know for sure? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2012 15:21:13 GMT -8
If I remember correctly from my Metra riding days.
Red in the rearward lense when being pulled.
Green in the side lense
Green in the forward lense when being pulled.
Off when in the lead
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 3, 2012 16:30:01 GMT -8
Thanks.
That complicates things a bit.
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 3, 2012 19:12:59 GMT -8
This door is basically done now.  I'm considering modeling the door open on the other side. The jungle gym of hand rails is just begging to be modeled. Only problem is it's not really prototypical to be running with the doors open. I considered making the doors slide open and closed, but the shell is too thick.   |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2012 4:09:01 GMT -8
Only problem is it's not really prototypical to be running with the doors open. I considered making the doors slide open and closed, but the shell is too thick. On the South Shore, back in the mid-80's, we used to ride with the doors open on the former Milwaukee Road cars. Why? Because the air conditioning had QUIT and it was hot as he*@ inside! I'd sit on the floor of the car and hang on to the handrail and watch the scenery go by at track speed. Very interesting ride......I'd not have done it, if I hadn't been an active operating member at the Illinois Railway Museum and was experienced in riding caboose platforms and open vestibules on passenger cars. Ahhhhhhhhhh the good old days on the South Shore......  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2012 4:16:54 GMT -8
Speaking of the South Shore.....now you know why I'm modeling this particular Regional Transportation Authority or RTA ex-CNW E8A....  Notice something above the unit in the photos?  ?  |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 4, 2012 7:49:33 GMT -8
I didn't know they ran diesels under the catenary. How long did that last?
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Post by fr8kar on Jul 4, 2012 8:31:36 GMT -8
Only problem is it's not really prototypical to be running with the doors open. I considered making the doors slide open and closed, but the shell is too thick. On the South Shore, back in the mid-80's, we used to ride with the doors open on the former Milwaukee Road cars. Why? Because the air conditioning had QUIT and it was hot as he*@ inside! I'd sit on the floor of the car and hang on to the handrail and watch the scenery go by at track speed. Very interesting ride......I'd not have done it, if I hadn't been an active operating member at the Illinois Railway Museum and was experienced in riding caboose platforms and open vestibules on passenger cars. Ahhhhhhhhhh the good old days on the South Shore...... A couple weeks ago, I had to move a privately owned dome car from the yard to the Amtrak depot. Since we're on a line that doesn't have direct access to the depot, we had to shove the car a couple miles north to "the transfer," a sweeping curve at the interlocker that provides access to the main where we could drag the car to the depot. Riding a shove movement is not a problem on a freight car, but with only one vertical grab, it just wasn't practical on this passenger car for such a long distance. Fortunately for me, the owner's agent wanted to be with the car when it was moved, so he unlocked it which allowed me to ride in the end. I'm in Texas, so I expected it to be hot, but wow! That thing was overwhelmingly hot. With the ends open you could get a cool breeze as the car moved, but if I wasn't positioned directly in front of the open door I could feel the heat. I don't expect many more opportunities to operate passenger equipment, but if I get to do it again, I sure hope the car has power and good AC. |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 4, 2012 14:42:04 GMT -8
Got in a couple hours of work before the festivities start. Everything is just mocked up here, but I thought it looked too cool not to share. It still needs some gaps filled and more handrails added, among other things.   |
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Post by fr8kar on Jul 4, 2012 15:54:14 GMT -8
Wow, the nice work continues! I look forward to the next update.
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Post by drolsen on Jul 5, 2012 1:06:41 GMT -8
John - Really fantastic modeling! I can't believe how quickly you're coming along with this project. This should make the other half dozen a breeze to fill out your train!
Seriously, this may convince me to give one of the IMW MARC cars a try, although they seem to be sold out of the cab car that I really need.
Dave
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2012 5:10:30 GMT -8
I didn't know they ran diesels under the catenary. How long did that last? First I'm unsure of the exact dates as its nearly 30 years ago. I want to say that about 1983, the winter had taken its toll on the South Shore's 1920's electric MU's. Since the Hegewisch station is in Chicago, it falls under the RTA subsidy. NICTD subsidizes the Indiana portion. So the South Shore, which was at this time still privately owned, asked RTA for help. But with a special request. The special request was that the diesel train be powered by an E8 and cars still painted in CNW. The then current owners of the South Shore were railfans......really!!!! They got the E8 and the CNW painted bi-levels. The first problem was there was a reason why these ex-CNW cars were not yet painted in RTA colors......they were some of the oldest CNW bi-levels on the roster. Second problem with the diesel train occurred on the first run out of Michigan City to Chicago on a late winter morning.......they ran out of fuel at Burnham, Illinois.......Seems they forgot to fill the unit before departing. I assume the South Shore was so used to just raising a pantograph and the freight side of the operation didn't think of telling the passenger side to fuel up.....the merry-go-round drifted to a stop in Illinois.......and waited to be rescued by a South Shore freight GP38-2! When riding the South Shore you can't make this stuff up!!!! It was a thrill ride five days a week! To make a long story short. The first E8 was flat wore out, later replaced by a second E8. The CNW cars stuck around until the train set was returned. The South Shore soldered on with the E8 and CNW cars until the South Shore had repaired some of the 1920's MU's and the first of the Nippon- Sharyo MU's began to arrive on the property. Lets just say the repairs of the 1920's MU's was a short lived band-aid and there were not enough of the "Sushi-liners" on the roster yet to cover the schedule. The old 1920's cars continued to drop like flies and service was a mess. There was a brief period where the South Shore had returned the diesel set to RTA, because the South Shore thought it had sufficient equipment. But ridership was growing FAST, especially out of Hegewish and you can only cram so many people in an electric MU. There were days when the train left Hegewisch, that you felt like the college kids trying to get 20 people in a phone booth! So again, the South Shore turned to the RTA for help. The new diesel set consisted of an F40PH and six Budd stainless steel bi-levels of either Rock Island or Milwaukee heritage. The cars were a mess in the summer. The air conditioning failed on the cars about two to three times a week, earning the train the nickname "Silver Sauna"....... Eventually things got a little better. The South Shore ran this second set, who's second nickname was the "Silver Snail" by crews and passengers, because it was usually behind schedule...... The "Silver Snail" stuck around until the next new batch of "Sushi-liners" arrived in the 1992. |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 5, 2012 9:08:04 GMT -8
John - Really fantastic modeling! I can't believe how quickly you're coming along with this project. This should make the other half dozen a breeze to fill out your train! Dave Thanks. When your laid off in the middle of a heat wave, there's not much else to do except go down stairs and model. I may do a single coach one day. I'm going to be pulling them with the RI AB6 I built a few years ago, and by the early 70's I don't think they trusted them with more than a few cars For now my two Walthers Pullmans will do just fine. The Rock mismatched the two all the time. And Thanks Jim for your accounts on the South Shore. It sounds like it was an interesting time, for sure. I could imagine with the RI's lack of maintenance toward the end, things weren't much better there either. |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 5, 2012 20:48:00 GMT -8
All aboard!   I pretty much finished up the vestibule today. I may still add a strip of .040 half round to represent the weatherstrip on the edges of the open doors, which will be decaled black after paint. I'd also like to add some archer tread plate decals, but I'll have to order those.  If you can't tell, the steps and vestibule walls are from the Walthers car I sacrificed. The walls had to be cut down in height, have numerous holes plugged, and widened .040" on the open door side. Everything is just tacked together to make sure everything fits nice inside the shell. I'll have to blow it apart to paint it.   Here's a shot of the bottom.  The Walthers floor fits with very little trimming. The car rides a bit low on it's trucks though, so I'll either need to shim the floor down a hair, or figure out how to raise the floor from the trucks. The four 00-90 screws are to suck the shell up tight to the separate vestibule interior. The shell still has a bit of a bow to it. |
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Post by fr8kar on Jul 5, 2012 21:14:57 GMT -8
John, you don't disappoint! Very cool.
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Post by rhpd42002 on Jul 6, 2012 17:07:23 GMT -8
John, that is some fantastic modeling your doing. Lots of tedious, but nicely done work.
Jim, I, too appreciate the story of your days riding the commuter trains.
Though I lived in Joliet Ill. for 5 years in my childhood, most of it was spent in Kankakee, Ill. I only rode the IC to/from Chicago once and took a few rides on the EL that same day, so we could get to see a White Sox game one summer day, so long ago.
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Post by Donnell Wells on Jul 7, 2012 8:55:11 GMT -8
Hi John,
I think modeling the interior of the vestibule was an excellent move! (And neatly done!)
Passenger car interiors are one aspect of passenger modeling that is often overlooked. Many times people don't have the time or inclination to diassemble an entire car to detail the inside. However, this is what really brings the car to life, not to mention that a well-detailed interior beautifully complements those custom SS exterior finishes!
Donnell
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Post by rockfan on Jul 8, 2012 8:22:25 GMT -8
Love to see pictures of that AB6! Please show us.
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 8, 2012 8:56:15 GMT -8
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Post by edwardsutorik on Jul 8, 2012 16:01:52 GMT -8
Oh, my,my! VERY nice.
Ed
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Post by Christian on Jul 8, 2012 17:38:55 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2012 4:21:01 GMT -8
Hey John, I know you documented the AB6 build on another forum, but why not res-erect the build on this forum? I'd like to see the build photos, for I learn from your efforts and I think others would benefit too. |
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