N&W A Class 2-6-6-4 finally running!

Well, I was working on three HO CNR Northerns this evening and had to look in the gearbox/coupling drawer to get some parts to get their mechanisms running. These are conversions from Central Vermont T-4-a 2-10-4's. Same boiler and overall appearance, different running gear and details. Then I had a great idea. My OMI S Scale Norfolk and Western A class 2-6-6-4 had a split coupling and I thought I could replace it with something in the drawer. I quickly got the basic mechanisms of the HO stuff done and tested. Then I cleared the workbench to get at the A. Nothing in the box came close but then I had an idea. Put a brass sleeve around the split coupling and when it is tightened with the set screws on the worm gear shaft, it won't come apart. I got some 1/8" brass tubing and drilled two 1/16" holes in it to accomodate the set screws. Then I reamed it out on the lathe until it would fit snugly on the cracked coupling. It worked like a charm or something like that. I put the A back together. Boy are articulateds ever a pain to put back together. Then I decided to try it out on my modules. I moved all the DCC locos to a remote location and disconnected the feeders and bridge rails. Then I attached my DC contoller to the feeders. I put the A on the track and wow. It worked really well. I attached the auxilliary water car. Now I know why a certain other member of our group likes articulateds. It was very impressive. After going through my number 6 turnouts only derailing in reverse a couple of times, I ran it around the green fuzzy corner. It still looks out of place on a 50" radius but it was still really neat to watch. Now all I need is about 100 N&W hopper cars and a caboose! Pictures will follow soon, I guess.

Fun with a Grassmaster

I've been adding grass to the tracks in Port Rowan on my home layout:

For more of the story, follow this link.

Superior / Creco seven-panel doors

I've been looking at boxcar doors a lot lately because I'm working on a CNR boxcar that has paired Superior six-panel doors. Here's a prototype photo of the series I'm modelling.

I recently came across a newsgroup posting from Smoky Mountain Model Works that they now offer a Superior/Creco seven-panel door in their S scale detail parts line.

Here's a link to SMMW's S scale parts.

It's nice to see such basic parts being made available, to help us add variety to some of the older kits and RTR out there. I hope SMMW follows up on this with more parts - although in the meantime, I'll be working on my own six-panel doors.

- Trevor

Port Rowan whoopsie

I had a bit of whoopsie on my Port Rowan blog - which resulted in all content disappearing. (Okay, so it was a bit more than a bit of a whoopsie...)

Fortunately, a reader was able to send me an XML file of all of my content (scary how that works), and fellow Workshop member Chris Abbott is putting his considerable computer skills (more considerable than mine) to work on getting the content back into my blog.

Stay tuned... and thanks to Gordon and Chris for saving my bacon!

- Trevor

0-6-0's are here

Oliver and I had to make a business trip to Michigan this weekend. We took the opportunity to stop by at River Raisin Models and pick up our 0-6-0's. We inspected the 2 models, test ran them, and had a great visit with Dan Navarre. It was great to see Dan and admire his collection of S scale brass.

Upon returning home I took my 0-6-0 apart to survey the installation of a Soundtraxx Tsunami. The loco is equipped with a DC shorting plug. Initially it looked like a plug and play installation, but it has become evident that the Tsunami will have to be moved to the tender. The DCC plug is mounted above the motor in the boiler, but there just isn't enough room to fit everything in.

I am hoping to have one done to show next week when some of us get together with Jamie Bothwell from PA, who is in the area for a run from Paris to Ancaster.

David