| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| wvrr |
Posted - 03/06/2012 : 11:14:57 AM
I just thought I would give you an update as to what I have been working on. For years, I have had an MDC Boxcab sitting on the shelf. I have always wanted to build it, since these Boxcabs were a product of a joint venture between Alco, GE, and Ingersoll Rand. And, since I work for Ingersoll Rand, I have always wanted one on the layout.
When I got back into the hobby in 1990, I found one of these models at a train show. But, I wanted to upgrade the details on the model, add lighting, and upgrade the power. I was inspired to do all that after seeing a member of a club I belonged to at the time, do the same to his model.
So, the first thing I did was add a railing on top of the pilot. I also wanted to install a coupler release lever, too, but decided against it. I didn't want to exhaust the four letter word dictionary. I shaved off the molded on grab irons on the sides and next to the doors. Then, I drilled holes for new irons. Oh, and I applied Micro Mark rivet decals to replace the rivets I shaved off when I removed the grab irons.[:-banghead] I also added grab irons to the front and back of the loco.
Yes, there is actually a front and back. What you are looking at is the front. The bell is on the fireman's side of the locomotive, when looking at the front. Plus, there are two stacks (nicknamed squat pots) on the roof. And, they are not spaced symmetrically in the casting in the kit, which is correct. The stacks need to be oriented where they are closer to the front of the engine.
I also removed the tool boxes that were cast into the shell, that drop below the frame. The only value they add is they hold the shell onto the frame when you use the provided gear tower from the kit. Since I am not using the gear tower and tool boxes were not on the prototype, I cut them off. In their place will be an air tank on the fireman's side and a brake cylinder on the engineer's side. There is a second tank, mounted perpendicular to the first one, underneith, that will be added. I found a brake cylinder in my parts box. So, I need to find suitable air tanks or make my own.
I am dumping the motor that came with the kit, completely. I wanted to try a Stanton drive in this one. So, I ordered one from NWSL. A little pricey, but I am using funds from my articles. At least that is how I am justifying it.
This locomotive will find use as an industrial switcher at the Lunde Colliery.
Anyway, I found this wonderful website that contains lots of info on these locos.
http://www.cnwhs.org/ageir/ageir.html
Here is another one, but I found this one to be a poorly designed website. Links are broken and you end up getting completely lost on it. But, I will toss it in the mix in case anyone wants to learn new four letter words.[:-banghead]
http://sbiii.com/boxcabs.html
And, this third website was something I found the other night. It is by someone who also made modifications to his boxcab. Just some ideas besides my own.
http://www.thomasgloger.com/boxcab.htm
So, tonight, I am hoping to paint the shell with Pollyscale Steam Power Black and begin lettering it for my Wyoming Valley. I will wait to paint the frame until after the new power drive is fitted.
Chuck |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| wvrr |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 06:21:35 AM
I've thought about that, Bill. At this point, I don't want to take that step. But, if it gets to the point of really annoying me, I will take another look at it.
Chuck |
| nhguy |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 02:09:10 AM
This may sound like a really dumb question but are the Stanton motors wires together Chuck? If they are fighting each other it might be worth the extra time and effort to separate them on two TCS T1 decoders and consist them together. That way you could tweak each one to run together more smoothly. It's just a suggestion and you wouldn't hurt my feelings if you told me to go jump in a lake. If they fight each other that much it might be worth it. I did that with one of the old Bachmann dual motor 44 tonners for a friend of mine and it works just fine. Consist them the easy way by giving them the same address after tweaking them. |
| wvrr |
Posted - 12/05/2012 : 7:17:37 PM
Thanks, Bill. Yea, I had cleaned the track pretty good prior to running her. She's been running pretty good, now. I recently installed a Keep-Alive in her, which keeps her moving also. I turned on the headlight and lifted the boxcab off the track, and the light stayed lit for a minute and a half! The juice in the Keep-Alive drains faster if the motor is running, as you would expect. But, between cleaning the track, adjusting the settings in the TCS decoder, and the Keep-Alive, I think she is running as good as she can. I think the dual motor Stanton drives fight each other a little, which causes a little bit of bucking. But, I am still happy with how she looks. And, I recently used her in an lone-wolf operating session, and she did the job assigned to her. I can't complain about that. She might not run as beautifully as other locomotives on the layout, but I think she is the one I am most proud of.
BTW, a friend of mine sent me a fantastic historical article on the boxcab. It was from Trains magazine in 1970.
http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?articleId=66687&view=ViewIssue&issueId=5959
Chuck |
| nhguy |
Posted - 12/05/2012 : 2:00:28 PM
quote:
Originally posted by wvrr
Thanks for the idea, Bill. That is what I did and it looks much better. I tried black paper, first, but it was a struggle to get everything back into the shell! The paint was an easy solution!
The other thing I did was clean the wheel treads. For whatever reason, they were very dirty and causing the locomotive to stall...a lot. I didn't think I got any paint on the treads when I painted the faces. But, whatever the reason for the dirt, cleaning the wheels significantly improved the running qualities. During the cleaning process, I was left with a significant amount of dirt on the cleaning cloth. I originally thought it was the track, but after cleaning a section of it, it was still stalling. Now, I am much happier with its performance!
Now, I think I can say I am done!
Thanks for following along, everyone!
Chuck
Your welcome Chuck. I was going to suggest changing the wheel sets but you already have. The originals, like Athearn, had sintered metal wheels.
Maybe your track still needs cleaning. Could it be the flux residue from soldering that is still on the tracks? Alcohol works but its better to get the flux off with lacquer thinner IMHO. I would just keep after it and clean the wheels and track. I run my CMX cleaner around my layout twice a year with Lacquer thinner in it. It really does help. I go over it a couple of times and change the pad after the first time. You can really see the crud on the pad. After the second time it is much less. Just a thought. |
| wvrr |
Posted - 12/03/2012 : 06:11:26 AM
Arthur,
I ended up painting the inside of the windows black. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
Chuck |
| CieloVistaRy |
Posted - 12/02/2012 : 10:33:53 PM
quote:
Go back inside and give them a coat a flat black paint. They won't be so noticeable.
This is what I was thinking.. another thing to do would be to take those "windows" and lightly rub them in one direction on a 600 grit sandpaper and get some streaky effects. That would help to
"fog up" the windows, but the streaky look is more natural. |
| TRAINS1941 |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 7:23:05 PM
Chuck
Very nice, very nice.
Jerry |
| Dutchman |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 6:50:27 PM
Chuck,
That looks pretty good. |
| wvrr |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 5:40:32 PM
A little more work on the boxcab operations. The boxcab didn't have very good running qualities when starting up or stopping. And, I didn't have any experience with TCS decoders. It turns out, they have some DCC functionality called dithering. So, that is what I did....I dithered.
There are separate frequency and amplitude settings for dithering on this A6X decoder by TCS. I set the frequency to 10 and the amplitude to 50. The Accel and Decel rates are 5. I could probably adjust all of these settings some more, but at least I feel I am going in the right direction to improve its operations.
Here it is in a test run. I have the throttle at full and am only changing direction using a switch on the throttle. You can hear the click of the switch. The other sound you hear is the Climax sitting in the staging yard, underneith. But, you can see the locomotive coast a bit when starting and stopping, which is more appealing than the jack-rabbit start I had earlier.
http://youtu.be/YByIHNVz-1U
Chuck
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| andykins |
Posted - 04/21/2012 : 10:30:42 AM
looks great!
my only comment about the dirty wheels is that it seems all the locos that pass my workbentch end up with dirty wheels, no idea how or why. |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 04/21/2012 : 06:51:58 AM
Thanks for taking the time to photograph and document your work, Chuck. It will be very, very helpful when I'm ready to go back to work on the rail-marine layout.
Don |
| wvrr |
Posted - 04/21/2012 : 06:00:28 AM
Thanks for the idea, Bill. That is what I did and it looks much better. I tried black paper, first, but it was a struggle to get everything back into the shell! The paint was an easy solution!
The other thing I did was clean the wheel treads. For whatever reason, they were very dirty and causing the locomotive to stall...a lot. I didn't think I got any paint on the treads when I painted the faces. But, whatever the reason for the dirt, cleaning the wheels significantly improved the running qualities. During the cleaning process, I was left with a significant amount of dirt on the cleaning cloth. I originally thought it was the track, but after cleaning a section of it, it was still stalling. Now, I am much happier with its performance!
Now, I think I can say I am done!
Thanks for following along, everyone!
Chuck |
| nhguy |
Posted - 04/21/2012 : 12:44:25 AM
quote:
Originally posted by wvrr
Thanks for the compliments, Bruce, Chuck, Bill, and Greg!
Greg, I wasn't sure what to do about the wires. Most locomotives don't have windows along the sides like this. And, there is a mess of wires under there. Four wires each from the two drive units. Two wires each from the LED's. And the decoder is a long one, so I had to extend a few of the wires from the drive units. I didn't want to paint the wires black, in case I needed to service the engine. But, the reason it may look better in the last photo is I removed the shell to repaint the weathering. So, when I tucked the wires in before replacing the shell, they must have fallen into a better position.
Chuck
Go back inside and give them a coat a flat black paint. They won't be so noticeable. |
| dnhman |
Posted - 04/20/2012 : 08:27:37 AM
Chuck, nice looking gem, the fixes are spot on,, |
| Neil M |
Posted - 04/19/2012 : 11:06:27 PM
Something else to consider for hiding the wires would be to give the outside of the side windows a coat of matt varnish/Dullcote. Those windows wouldn't get cleaned very often and would pick up as much dirt and grime as the rest of the side of the loco.
To me the sparkling, crystal clear windows look a bit odd along-side the nicely weathered rest of the loco |
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