Arroyo Tram gets a Porter

 I recently finished my third 18 ton GrandtLine 0-4-0 porter. This time, I used an On30 conversion kit to make the locomotive On3. The kit basically includes two frame spacers, two helical gears (needed due to the narrower frame) and a new rear frame/ashpan front (the frame inserts into this piece). These gauge conversion kits were also made for On2 and I hope to have another conversion done by 2022 for the On2 module. We'll see. 

GrandtLine porter kits are an amazing box of parts and wonderful kits to build. Once in a while, its good to read ahead in the instructions to know why you are doing something and how important it might be to do at that particular step. They can be really difficult if you don't know what all those pieces are for. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself a bit with what small steam locomotive parts actually do. Cliff Grandt did an amazing job of designing a scale model. Sometimes a little too to scale and you might wish that clearances were a little greater or certain parts a little oversize for strength.

I prefer the look of the saddle tank cut back behind the smokebox, so that was my only modification from the kit. I filled the saddle tank with lead shot for weight, leaving the boiler for a speaker, stay alive capacitor and a soundtrasxx economi. I  picked up two of the economi's before they went out of production. Great sound decoders at a reasonable price. Why not use a TCS WOW decoder? Well, they don't work well with the Faulhaber geared cordless motors. I can't use them in any of my PSC shays with the Faulhaber motor, nor any of my GrandtLine porters. Soundtraxx and ESU decoders do work well with these motors.

Biggest Headache

The porters do not use a gearbox. The motor fits snuggly in the ashpan/firebox but the alignment of  the motor relative to the axle is critical. How do I know? I could NOT get this engine to run well backwards. There always seemed to be a bind in the mechanism. Note: In every GrandtLine porter I have built, there has been a bind. Usually I associate this with the side rods being slightly too short from center hole to center hole. Maybe shrinkage in the plastic? Not sure but I've struggled with binds in all three locomotives. To avoid this, I ovaled out the holes a bit in the rods during construction to assure a bind-free locomotive. You can see the "slop" in the rod in the video. Worked great. After painting and assembly, major issues. Huh?!

So, after disassembly, messing around, I determined that the bind was in the drive and by moving the motor up and down slightly, I could eliminate the issue. So, I glued the motor in and reassembled it. Still a little bind in reverse but great moving forward. A gearbox would definitely eliminate this issue. If someone out there could develop a gearbox for a different motor, I bet San Juan (new owners of the GrandtLine moulds) might be willing to produce these again.....otherwise, I doubt it.

Regardless, a great looking and sounding engine that is fun to build and a pain to get running well. Maybe the next one will go easier?

Vacation Time

While visiting my in-laws recently, I had the chance to visit fellow modeler extraordinar Jeff Kaker, who is modeling the Manns Creek in On3. Jeff has an amazing talent for trying new techniques and succeeding in miraculous ways. He also happened to be a very talented modeler. I'll post his work in the future, some top secret cool stuff awaits.......While visiting, he managed to arrange visits to three amazing layouts. 

The first layout was built by Patrick Thoney. Pat is modeling the Quincy and Torche Lake in On30. Pat was a VERY gracious host, he lined up the other two layout visits, planed our outing, then replanned the outing when I had to modify my plans AND then treated us to lunch. Supper fantastic! While I've had a moderate interest in the Q&TL over the years, I've never seen anyone build a layout representing the line. There have been models, rock cars, engine house, water tank, etc. but this was the first operating layout based on the Quincy that I have seen and what a fine job it is! While I've seen his work on Facebook, I've never been able to grasp how it was set up, i.e. how it ran from one end to the other. Great track plan and I hope to get back someday to operate.

Two overview videos of the layout:

The next layout(s) were done by Gregg Condon. Gregg had both a full HO and a a full HOn3 layout. I want to say he build the Hon3 layout in 16 months? Whew!  His HOn3 layout is based on the RGS and has been featured in the NG&SLG many times. It was a quick visit and I felt that the photo's in the NG&SLG do it much greater justice than my cell phone. Here are Jeff, Gregg and myself in front of this station building, where dispatching occurs.

The final layout we visited was built by Jack Gutsch, and is based on the Chicago and NorthWestern narrow gauge in the Black Hills. The line was originally the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley, a narrow gauge that used 4-8-0's exclusively. The Black Hills was full of cool narrow gauges, three different ones that eventually became two competitors. While there are several good books on the subject, this one is free online : Railroads of the Black Hills While this area has great history, scenery, logging, mining, little and BIG narrow gauge engines and trolleys, I've also never seen it modeled. Jack has done a wonderful job capturing the feel of the line and the surrounding area. I was impressed with the size of the towns that the line passed through and all the structures he had to build. 

                                        Overview of 1/2 the layout room:

Pat, Greg and Jack were all great hosts and each had a unique perspective on modeling. I really hope to get back to the area to operate on these fine layouts. I hope you enjoyed seeing the results of our visit to these fine layouts in Wisconsin.

A Plastic Shay?

 Yes! A plastic On3 Precision Scale Shay! I picked this up for a steal on eBay a few years ago thinking, well, if it doesn't work I at least get a Falhaulber 50:1 motor. I recently completed another GrandtLine Porter, this one for On30 and had such a fun time assembling it that figured it would be a great time to try my hand at this project. The Porter is disassembled in the paint shop, photo's eventually.......

Generally, (note not always) the instructions are excellent. You definitely want to read a few steps ahead to see what else they say before doing anything. The trucks are the first assembly. I found them easy to construct, using plastic model building techniques. Make sure you don't make a mistake with alignment or parts orientation as you don't want to have to take them apart (there's no way to unsolder as with brass). The person I bought the kit from had started the trucks and made a MESS. They used ACC glue instead of a plastic specific glue. Knowing this, I ordered some new side frames from PSC before they changed hands. You'll note in the picture that I started the frame at the same time. One thing about plastic models, you often have to really wait till the glue has dried completely before proceeding, therefore, I had two to three components being assembled at the same time. Glue a part, move to the next assembly, etc.

Here are some of the sub-assemblies moving along nicely. I added a Wisemann Model Services sand dome as most of this sized shay had the more modern domes.

 

 

 Here is what I have ready before painting. The decoder, speaker and headlight bulbs have not yet been added. I figured I would paint it first. Handling this thing difficult as the plastic is very fragile and flexable. In my humble opinion, the frame is too flexible. I added a second screw to hold the boiler on. There was only one, in the front! Yikes!

 

Huston, we have a problem! I've used this style of drive on all my shays, it was designed by GrandtLine and works fairly well. On this model, the gear is already mounted on the axle when you open the kit - DON'T TRUST THE MANUFACTURER! They put mine on backwards! Yup, after assembling the entire model, I found out the gears didn't align!

 

Note the large gap between the gears. The small brass mounting does not have the plastic gear centered, it is slightly off centered and needed to be mounted the OTHER WAY! But wait, this model was GLUED together.......

So, I carefully added some solvent glue to the cross bracing, brake hanger and bottom tie hoping I could remove the drivers without braking the whole thing. Well, all those little hanger broke, but sheared off, which meant I could glue them on again and hope for the best; however, the main bolster and rest of the truck stayed together.  After disassembling, pulling the driver, re-orienting the drive, I put it all back together and IT WORKS! I'm happy that it worked but was I not happy that I trusted the folks who put these together at PSC, maybe they contracted that to someone......

So, plastic shay a good idea? Hmm, easy to build using typical plastic model building skills. Build a model tank or something first. A few problems: plastic breaks easily. The frame is very flexible. There is little weight but lots of room to add weight. I added lead bird shot in the boiler and some small lead strip in the truck bolsters. The hardest parts to build - the fine detail with the eccentrics for the engine was tough. One of my eccentrics had a broken tab, making the fit impossible. I drilled and glued a brass rod on but it wasn't fun. The second hardest part - the universals that attach to the engine. The ones for the trucks were easy but the ones for engine were a bear.........

These originally sold for $275, if you can find one, it's worth the build. I wouldn't pay more unless you are a real fan of this engine. Save up and get a brass one. Once I get this painted, DDC, sound and lights, I'll post on it's running qualities. 

Cheers!

New Gon for the DC&L

I recently finished a Leadville Designs Bill Meyer and Small gondola kit that I received for Christmas a few years back. Bill Meyer and Small made equipment for narrow gauges here in the east as well as the more famous ones out west. I really like the look of these 28 foot cars and built one from plans back in high school. 

Below is the Leadville Designs kit as built. A nice kit with underbody detail. I modified it slightly, adding through bolts on the sides.

Here are the two cars side by side. The Leadville Designs kit was nice, being a laser kit, most of the parts fit well without much work. The exception being the stake sides- that WAS a pain and mounting the couplers. There is a nice slot in the car ends for Kadee couplers or some kind of couplers. However, the instructions did not cover their installation and I had to heavily modify the Kadee's to fit. The kit, priced at $79+ shipping is nice and has more appropriate stake pockets, 3D printed and a pain to clean out. However, I think my scratch built car from 20+ years ago looks pretty good and given I cut all my own strip wood, was  a real bargain! They'll both run on the DC&L. Stop by sometime and compare for yourself.

The Arroyo Shay No. 2

 After sitting in multiple pieces for quite a while, I have finally painted Arroyo Tram No.2. The project started out as a way to make a freelance version of Gilpin Tram No.2 out of a Bachmann 2 cylinder, 2 truck shay and a Wiseman Models backdate kit. So, it's mostly painted. I still have some details to add, like the injector water line that broke off, bell cord, etc. I'll post again when done.

 Modifications - Lengthen the frame, boiler, and tender

I had to figure out if the cylinders could be dismantled and the drive shaft modified from a 2nd engine. Looked like it could be done........

 

 

The moment of truth, cutting the shaft with a razor saw..............

 Lining up the shaft to drill a hole for the portion of the shaft and valve gear for the third cylinder

 

Carefully drill the hole. Yep, that's a big hole in a little rod.

 

Assembled on the lower portion. Use your best adhesive here.....

Test run to see if it works, yes, it does.........

Then take it all apart and paint it a few years later........

Boxcar 312 and Shadow Box for the Arroyo

WW&F On2

I recently finished my version of WW&F boxcar 312. The car was one that had it's roof raised and there were lateral side boards on the top of the car on one side and the other had them only on one side of the door. Interesting kitbash. I started with a TrainTroll WW&F 309 boxcar kit and modified it a little. Why? Well, I thought the kit was great and would make a great Christmas gift. I think it came out quite well.

Arroyo Tram On30

I have also been working on getting the much needed backdrop up on the Arroyo Tram. I've added LED lights and and a "Shadow Box" style valence. Lesson I learned the hard way: I tried to get the same LED's as used on my WW&F module. Oops! I got ALMOST the same thing. Turns out these are 60 LED per meter not 120 per meter! Makes a big difference in the brightness. Too many variables with these things. Type of LED, color, dimming, and how many per meter. Regardless, having something blue in the background really looks much better than cinder block wall and the painted valence makes it look for finished. More backdrop painting to come. Mountains and stuff. Maybe I'll procrastinate a while...........

Learning from Others: More brains the better

I attended an On2 Zoom meeting the other night, hence the turntable post earlier - a little explaining how I did something and comments on how to improve. Got me thinking......uh, oh.

There are very, very few narrow gauge modelers around where I live. None model On2 or On3.With all the moving to online meetings this year, a few friends started Zoom sessions to share information. I've also  I recently joined a group of two foot modelers who Zoom on a frequent schedule. It's been really eye opening to see the flow of information. I'm slowly seeing the appeal that I've heard others talk about regarding the gathering of like minded groups in the hobby.  Zoom and whatever is next, I think, will only help increase the interest in Narrow Gauge Modeling. We'll see what happens....

Thought I'd share an example of how discussion on these groups can lead to layout improvement. While presenting information the Albion modules, I asked about how others deal with car cards? How to keep them off the top of the layout and off the scenery. I've seen some ideas online but wasn't really pleased with them and some would take significant efforts to attached. Lee Rainey, quickly provided the idea of what he did on his layout. Chris Mchesney followed up with the idea to keeping it high enough to be able to easily pick up the tops of the cards. The technique was simple, elegant and quick to build. Took me less than an hour to build these two. I'm happy with the results. One question, an answer and an improvement suggestion. Quick and easy! Thanks to Dave who put the session together, Lee for having a great solution and to Chris for adding an improvement. Pete Leach shared some ideas on backdrop painting, and.........Looking forward to how this can improve my modeling skills.