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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Fleet Review: Bachmann MDT Plymouth Industrial


The first versions of this little industrial critter were released by Bachmann way back in the 70's. There have apparently been at least 3 other versions of it since then, but this one is a gen 4 if you will, the latest 2015 release. Cant say much on the other versions since I ain't got em.

 The packaging is quite attractive...even if the locomotive isnt!


I picked this little guy up at my LHS. Was an impulse buy really, thought it was an ugly little bugger and decided I needed right then a switcher for my layout. I honestly wasn't expecting much from it. It was cheap as dirt ($32.00), wasn't a particularly pretty loco, and it was a Bachmann(QC could very likely be off). but hell, it was yellow, and I like yellow! 


 this picture actually turned our pretty ok

Turns out, she was an ugly little gem of an engine. Popping the shell off is an easy affair, and reveals a pretty standard split metal chassis. The motor is some kind of can(can't count the poles) hidden in the 'cab' section and drives a worm gear on a short little axle. All 6 wheels are geared and all six pick up juice from the track. oh, and there's a non-directional headlight in there too. Just a standard grain of wheat bulb, no led.

 'with the outer shell removed, the soft innards are exposed to waiting predators...'

There were two surprises with this thing, one: it came with magnetic knuckles. The Bachmann variety I believe(I am not an expert on N scale knuckles), and two: it runs really well! The heft of the all metal chassis plus the all wheel pickup probably helps this thing to keep contact and push through even uninsulated switches. not to mention that the slow speed creep on this baby is not bad at all.
Now I've found that while it does run well, if you don't mess with it for a bit it will need a bit of 'warming up' before it starts to run smoothly. I run this thing for hours at my club running on a mine with a reversing switch, and have had no problems so far with it.
So sure, its not pretty, and its a Bachmann, but its respectable, good even. perhaps a bit of weathering would help it look a little more, gooderer...but that's just a nit pick. If your ever in a bind for a cheap switcher, check this guy out.

pose for the camera

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Mountian Momma



Progress on the mountain is, well, progressing. Albeit slowly. I have been working on the ship to get it ready for mounting. so I can call this dumb mountain done and go do something else.
So I started by stripping the paint and priming it with krylon gray primer, then drilled out the portholes(which took forever). masking and painting the hull and super structure was pretty straight forward.

Front boat is done, butt boat still needs work

I also stopped at the Great Scale Train Show in Timonum MD and picked up a little laser cut shed from Northeastern Scale Models Inc. The Purpose for this little shed is going to be a substation that will provide power to the 2 halves of the ship via "power" lines that connect to the masts on either end. The building is finished, as well as a little power pole that I scratch built using some spare bits I had just plotzing around.

 its a substation!


All that's left to do is slap on some paint and its good to go. Connecting up the power lines should be a piece of cake.
And speaking of power lines, here is a close up of what I have been dubbing "front boat" with all the rigging finished. Still needs a touch of weathering, but I'll do that once I get the other end(butt boat) done

Still not sure how it got in the mountain in the first place...


Here is the mountain in all its glory, I cleaned up the area around it a bit, but I think the next thing I'm going to work on is the sub dock. But we shall see, still a lot to do for the hotel and mountain. 
stay tuned!

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Mountain building cont.


Well, Its coming along. I've decided to use an old model of the Titanic I got from a friend a while ago. was never really gonna finish the half built thing, but this I think is a better idea then just tossing it. I'm thinking a mountain top resort, or casino? I'm not to sure yet, but I am planing on drilling out the portholes and adding lights and signage eventually

T
It even came with a bow!

The ship was missing a lot of parts and was basically just the hull glued together and painted. It  seemed that this was a decent route to take. I couldn't think of anything else to do with it. (On a side note, I calculated the length of the Titanic in N scale, and it would come out to a nicely reasonable 8ish feet!)
But anyways, I put together what I could with the parts I had and got to chopping this puppy in half. If I'm gonna put a ship in a mountain, might as well see both ends right?

 Its a start right?

Cutting was a pain, I initially started with my dremel and a cutting head, but realize that even with the outer parts of the hull cut, there still were decks holding it together(shoulda realized the first time!).
I ended up using a little jewelers saw to cut it the rest of the way. Wasn't pretty, but, since the cut ends are gonna be hidden, it don't matter none.

 bet you've never seen a mountian like that before!

I stared to layer up the foam around the ship, using the piece before as a template for the next. I mentioned in a prior installment that I wanted an elevated trolley line to go from the city deck to the other end of the layout, but didn't really have a plan. Well now, I've got a plan, and the EL line is gonna end here, as a small(but exclusive) trolley line that will soon service the casino/hotel/resort.

 now I just gotta figure out the middle...

This last picture is a view of the whole thing(well most of it at least). I just dry fit all the funnels and masts to the ship to see what it will look like, and so far, I''m liking it. I'm thinking that the rigging would lead to a small electrical substation with a big ole' sign on the top of the mountain. but first I need to finish the ship, carve the mountain so its nice and smooth, and then toss on the plaster cloth.
theirs still a bunch to do!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Back at it


Eh, its been a while, been dealing with a lot of personal stuff lately that kept trains out of the picture for a bit, but things are slowly going back to normal, so I've decided to get back in the game.
I've had an idea floating around in my head for a while now, but I couldn't really figure out the best way to go about doing it. At first I thought it would be cool to build an N-trak module but I've since found a way to incorporate it into my own layout. I am of course talking about a big ole mountain. who doesn't want a nice mountain on their layout with trains running through it? I do, so the first step of course is cleaning the table.
 It was harder than it looks

I decided that it was best to make the mountain cover only a quarter of the curve, I was thinking at first to do the entire turnaround but thought that between the city deck and the soon to be mountain, the trains would spend too much time being covered, and were all here to see the trains so that would be lame.

that looks like a mountain right?

After some rightfully painful thinking(it hurts to use my brain that much sometimes) I decided to try my hand with foam. Hell, the layout is mostly foam so far, so why not? having never made a mountain before, I'm kinda doing this as I go. been using Elmer's glue to put it all together. should be using my adhesive caulk, but I'm lazy and this actually seems to be working quite well so far. We will have to wait and see if it holds together once theirs more mountain up. Hoping it wont collapse!

Oh! and I've got a new toy!! Very excited about this beastie!

CHOO CHOO MOTHERFLUFFER



Monday, May 16, 2016

Fleet Review: MicroAce C56 2-6-0 Mogul


What the dickens!? A new post? No were not dead yet. My computer needed to be rebuilt after catching a nasty virus, but its back online, and the blog is back on track(pun intended).
    What we have here today is a cute little engine produced by MicroAce. A Japanese N scale producer that I guess is analogous to Atlas here in the states. I dunno. Either way, what an engine!
    MicroAce makes a lot of high quality stuff from my research on them, and can sometimes be compared with Kato in quality standards(just like Atlas). But I never really had a sample to test that until now. Any ways, I picked this bad boy up at the scale show in Timonium MD. Nabbed it for $50 brand spanking new.

 New train smell,  mhmmmm...

Right out of the box the detail on this thing is amazing. I have a thing for Japanese locomotives now. My thinking being; since Japan modeled the way they run their railroads initially on the US, but based much their engineering on more European engines, they look to me like a perfect cross breed of Euro-American styles. Its got the boiler and cab shape of an American loco(and Japan uses knuckle couplers too) but the tender and smoke deflectors arguably give it that European vibe. I love it, you should love it, trains.

 "I cant decide if I like french fries or freedom fries" - Train probably

At first glance I was very impressed with the ornate detailing and paint on the boiler and running gear. It initial y came with a rapido on the back(the more popular coupler in Japan) but I replaced this with an MT knuckle(which was NOT easy). The motor is a tiny 5 poler squeezed into the cab with a brass worm that drives the center axle the rest being turned by the cranks. The main running gear on the wheels is metal but everything that connects to the pistons is plastic. This worried me at first, but after a few hours of run time they seem to be fairly reliable.

Got me a pair of goods wagons too, courtesy of Kato Trains

The engine is actually slightly larger than what it would be compared to everything else on the layout since Japanese N scale is 1:150(American is 1:160). but since there is nothing else like it that I own, I think I can get away with this one.  
    Running of this beast is simply sublime. It creeps along at a good slow pace and the top speed is not too bad. pulling power isn't great, there are no traction tires, but since its a small loco I don't really expect to be pulling the earths axis out of alignment with it, so I think were ok. I did notice that right out of the box the whole thing, and I mean everything, was very dry. There was a lot of binding and sticking, but once I basically gave it an oil bath, she ran like a watch. I don't know if this is common with MicroAce stuff since I only have one, but I plan on getting some more steam from the Orient so I will find out!
   Over all beautifully detailed and amazing running little engine. Its a real head turner on the club layout. I hope to get more Japanese steam because I'm really digging the look.

A resounding A for MicroAce on this one!


Sayōnara!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

City Planing


Well Its been a few days/weeks/month, but I've done some work on the city deck. One of the main things holding me back right now is a lack of buildings. Because of the urban nature of this here layout, I need buildings in place so I can more easily plan out the roads (at least thats what I keep telling myself!). So what I've done is look around at some building I fancy and copied out the foundations (width/length) of the buildings on to some paper and placed them out to help visualize were to road and where to sidewalk.
This be what I got so far:

 N scale birds eye view

So you can see kinda what I'm looking at hopefully. Some of the buildings are actually paper buildings from Hawk Wargames which fit(roughly) the size of the buildings I'm interested in.
The little paper ant trail is actually what will hopefully be a future street car line that goes off the city deck and becomes an EL that runs through the other half of the layout. Using an engine shed as a stand in trolley barn.
 you might not be able to tell, but thats supposed to be a city...

Also, I was looking at the station, and was thinking of moving it back a little bit. I know I wanted the front facing out so I you can see the pillars, but I don't want it to look like a modeling "mistake" so to speak. I was thinking that if I pushed the station back a bit, that it would have more of a natural look to it.
I duno...I gotta sleep on that one before I start cutting.
 I duno man

 Also, stopped at The Timonium Trains Show this past weekend and picked up a few goodies. Expect a fleet review on one or more of the following:
 Atlas 4-4-0 American/2-6-0 Mogul
MicroAce C56 2-6-0 Mogul

Until next post <3

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Fleet Review: Bachmann 2-6-6-2 USRA mallet

 This locomotive gives me all kinds of feelings. I wanna love it, but Bachmann just makes it so hard for this particular model. I bought this brand new from a show having really caught my eye. partly because of the big ole steamer factor and because it is of the same type of mallet that is currently under restoration not too far from me, Western Maryland's newly acquired  #1309.

At first sight this is truly a pretty model, and having messed with Bachmann stuff (the american stuff atleast) I was surprised at the level of detail they managed to squeeze into this little beast.  Its got a lot of nice separately applied parts and the white walls on the wheels are pretty cool to boot. Its got a dummy knuckle on front, and initially came with a rapido coupler on the back(which I replaced). The head light is low mounted on the pilot and when in operation can be disappointingly dim at the lower end speeds. There is also no back up light as per the prototype.

 It pronounced 'mal-ay' its a french thing

Under the hood its got what I though was a 5-pole motor, but is according to the internet is a 3-poler. All the tender wheels and all 12 drivers pickup power so there's no problems with stalling. the middle 2 drivers on each engine are geared, and the rest is turned by the cranks. Operation is over all, ok. Definitely not amazing, but it looks good with all the drivers pumping and the little 3-pole motor its got is surprisingly responsive. But there lies a dark side to this model, a secret so dark that...well ok, its not that bad, but its not great either.

the soft unprotected underbelly

This is the bottom. At first glance its nothing too noticeable, and it wouldn't be a problem if the engine itself wasn't a feather weight. not having traction tires is a big problem for this thing. If you like to run long trains, then this isn't for you. I can pull at most on my flat layout maybe 14-15 assorted freight cars. That and what ever Bachmann used for the boiler long weight isn't particularly...weighty. 
Perhaps slathering on some Bull Frog Snot to the geared drivers or somehow figuring out how to add more weight to the boiler you could get more out of it. But for me pulling a 15 car train with a mighty mallet that isn't so mighty, well, just doesn't do it. 
Like I said in the beginning of this review, I wanna love it, Its a beautiful model, and as long as you don't mind short trains, its a respectable one at that, but until I figure out how to make it heavier or get some traction tires on it, she'll be a shelf queen until then.

It really is pretty though...

A Small Update


Ah! its been a few days hasn't it? been keeping busy with a new job, but I've still made time for some N scale shenanigans. 
As you can tell from the nice picture I've added a small  'island' at deck level with a currently stand in light house. At some time in the future this will become the "port" section of New Port, but until then it will be a nice visual break in the otherwise flat track plan. I have ordered another building from Lunde studios, so when ever that comes I will be posting some build progress on that. also got a new Loco for my B-day so I should be putting up a fleet review on that as well as one later today! whoop whoop!

 Its a light house! Yes, there is a light in said house...


Also stopped at Ye Old Hobby Shope. and found these two jems: a 1:144 scale U boat and Aichi E13A. Since 1:144 Is close enough to N scale to get away with, (1:150-1:160) I decided to nab these babies. I'm thinking to keep the U-boat a U boat, and bash the Aichi into some kind of cargo plane. But we'll see.

Sideways picture is sideways



Friday, February 26, 2016

Fleet Review: Life-Like EMD SD 7/9

Life-Like in my minimal experience makes some respectable, and affordable locomotives. Their SD 7/9's are no exception, and while they are no longer made, can often be found for a bargain at various train shows and auction sites (aka the e-bay).
I got my pair for a hefty $20 per engine at a local show. I just couldn't say no to that price.


A dynamic duo

On first inspection, they are well detailed,with nice paint(I got the EMD demonstrator versions), and the plastic hand rails are not ugly and over sized. Initially they come with rapido couplers, but the 2 I got were modified with some nice MT knuckles. While not super hefty, they are not light either(that said an extra ounce may help them pull more). 


paint me like one of you French women...

Inside you get a nice 5 pole motor with 2 fly wheels. the whole chassis is plastic with weights on top of the gear towers. Underneath, all 12 wheels suck up juice from the track with the 2 outer axles on each truck actually being driven. No traction tires on these puppies, though if you wanted to add one on one of the driven wheels, it probably wont hurt pickup too much.

Powering through the inner loop

Thanks to the nice 5 pole motor, these are pretty sweet runners and together a pair can pull roughly 25-30 cars on level track.  Their not quite the retro-art deco feel I want for my layout, but I've always had a soft spot for high hoods. And I've run these babies for hours at my club layout with no problems. If you ever run into one at a good price why not check it out!

[side note] - These sometimes apparently can have pickup issues with the contacts that direct current from the trucks to the motor. they can sometimes be moved out of place or squished down and make for some pretty poop running. An easy fix for this is to simply bend the wires back into shape so they make contact again. Though soldering some extra metal or a small spring may be a better more permanent solution(if there is a problem that is).

another picture for good luck


Thursday, February 25, 2016

Some progress on the station and a steam shovel












 Well I finally decided to do something so I began work on the station and the surrounding area. I used walthers union station. I really dug its art deco lines and its size. Was a fairly straight forward kit. It is well molded and there is little flash. some of the walls needed some extra fiddling however
to fit right, but nothing too serious. It technically comes "pre-colored" as in the plastic has its color molded in, but I decided to just go a head and paint it. I wanted a more marble building look as opposed to the concrete color they provide.

Here it is with the basic paint I applied. I use Tamiya Color acrylics, the roof and window sills are German Field Grey, and the walls are Flat white with a touch of light blue and flat black mixed in to make a cut marble color

 
Trains for scale

I decided to leave a wing off the building to give it the look of being part of the city deck. I also decided to put the pillars(aka, the front) facing the track. Now I know that this is technically not how its normally done, but,since the deck is a good 2 inches off the table, facing the station the 'right way' just doesn't look as good, and the pillars are one of the main points of the building. I want them seen, so I made the new entrance at road level behind the building and made the front the back. 

all aboard!

I then weathered it all with a simple black wash all over and a tiny bit of earth brown dry brushing on the bottom. I've also went ahead and began to build the platforms. they are just basic styrene and balsa wood for now, but I've got the materials to start work on the butterfly roofs as well. access from the station to platforms 2 and 3 the fancy checker board ones will be through underground tunnel so I gotta build that too. platform 1 is where the little switcher is  and just needs some paint.

 Is that a steam shovel?

I've also ballasted a good portion of the layout too, pretty much half actually. not bad for my first time. Though, I think I may have effed up one of my switches...oops


 why yes, yes it is
Also iI made a steam shovel, I've dubbed it Mary Anne and she loves the smell of industry in the morning. (the kit is by REM, and its very nice)

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Fleet Review: Kato E5A and Silver Streak Zephyr

Ah, the CB&Q Silver Streak. A gleaming silver testament to luxury and speed. A 2000hp stainless steel work of art. The Silver Streak began operation on April 15, 1940 on a daily Lincoln-Omaha-St. Joseph-Kansas City round trip. The trains name came from the Silver Streak Zephyr, The train portrayed in the Paramount Motion Picture. The real life train currently lives at the Illinois Railway Museum
        Kato released its version as a 5 car set in 2012, complete in a nice bookshelf case. The E5A units used the same chassis and mechanism as Kato's E8's, but had vastly different shells representing the Unique body of CB&Q units. 


 Classy

When you first open the case you get the standard info and warranty, along with some extra padding to protect your sweet new train. Initially only the top 6 slots are used, but since Kato also produced 2 other E5's (each with a unique name and number), they have very generously added 2 extra engine slots for them should you acquire more. 

 I couldn't help it, I acquired more....



 The engines themselves in true Kato fashion run like clockwork. They are fairly quiet, but there is some noticeable hum from the motors. The E5A included with the set(The Silver Bullet) has sexy streamlined skirting on the trucks, whereas the add on units, to represent more general use, do not. Both use the same mechanism, include 2 flywheels, and you are able to remove the pilot on both should you wish to double up.   MRC offers a drop in sound decoder if you want sound as well. Though I run DC for now.
Oh, and both units have no traction tires, so there is all wheel pickup, and all 3 axles on each truck are driven. I wouldn't worry about pulling power, they are quite hefty and they easily make it up the steep 2% grade on my clubs layout, and a pair have no problems pulling 30+(probably more) assorted freight cars around my home layout.

The cars have great, crisp details. and include a baggage, RPO, a pair of coaches, and an observation car. when you first get the set, only the drum head, tail lights, and marker lights are lit. Which given the small size, especially of the markers is pretty dang cool. If you wanna light these puppies up all you need is one box of kato's V2 lighting kits. there's 6 in a box, you get 5 cars, so there's no problem!


and then he said,"let there be light!"


All in all, this is a great set. It looks sharp, glides along effortlessly, and gleams in the sun like...oh forget it, just buy one. you wont be disappointed! 
Another A+ for Kato!

And so there was, and all was good...

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Track down, buildings up

its like a city grew here over night...

No, I didn't do all that in one night. I've actually been working on this door sized space waster for some time now. My first 2 posts may be somewhat misleading in that fact but whatever. So basically whats going on here is that at this point I've got all the basics down. all the track is layed, the city deck is up, and I've bought the first real building, Walthers Union Station. All the other buildings come from Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander and are all just temporary card stock dealies (Dropzone will definitely show up more than once here, as they are 10mm scale which is roughly N).
      At this point only the outermost track is wired with power. I just put trains up cuz they look nice!


 You spin me right round baby


If what I described earlier about how I was thinking to do the turn table was confusing, well, now there's a picture to the words! Instead of a roundhouse like what normal people would use, I've decided to do this...yea, I know, but I like it so what the hell.


A glorified  table


This third picture is supposed to be showing off that sweet drawer in the middle I so expertly fabricated(I'm surprised it even worked actually). This is where all the electronic goodies will go, and hopefully some useful storage too. Its just made from a few bits of scrap wood I had lying around the house, and a small sheet of lauan and sliders I picked up at the hardware store. its held in with about 8 hollow core/drywall mollies. I probably went a tad overboard with em' but I really don't want that falling off on me. now that would be a bad day!

Next stop, New Port City

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Getting Started


I've recently learned about the wonders of the mystical door layout. So, dats what I did. One of my friends was throwing out an old closet door, so I nabbed it from the trash and started from there.
I bought some pink insulation foam from Ye Olde' Hardware Store along with a few tubes of adhesive caulk.
I'm the kind of dude who likes to watch trains run, so this layout will be mostly a double track roundy rounder. I've got 2 sidings for storage and (very) light operations. Here's the plan.

So pretty!


Don't mind my amazing MS Paint plan. The basic idea, 2 trains some switches, a turntable, a few bridges, and some tunnel bits. A very basic plan for a beginner. I'm hoping that it will be sufficiently interesting with bridges and tunnels to break line of sight while also being able to run 2 trains. We shall see.
     The red area indicates the main "commercial sector" of the city. we'll call it the city deck. It will serve two purposes here. Break line of sight so trains temporarily disappear, and to act as a foreground for eventual skyscrapers. The other feature here is the turntable. I've decided to build it into the city deck, 1. cuz it looks cool, and 2. roundhouses are too damn expensive!
     The blue bits are a recess cut through both layers of foam straight to the bare door.  This area will be a highway. the yellow boxes will be eventual bridges.

Makin' tracks.....




What started it all

This :


Its like a nest of very tasteful rats

Sure its a little ratty, but this sad, sad little oval(along with my grandfathers massive Lionel collection) is what got me into this fine hobby. My father, during a time of monetary instability(aka: temporarily out of work) decided to purchase a train set to keep him busy. His choice of poison then, sometime in the 90's, was Bachmann's Empire Builder. A set that is still made to this day. We even still have that rickety old Northern that came with the set.


ugh, gross man 

My father grew up with O gauge like many other people, and while I being quite young at the time, never really cared as long as what ever it was, was a train. But living in a town house space was limited, leaving N scale a very appealing option, so that's what we went with. This little loop is all we ever really had for a long time. My father finding work not long after, abandoning our small layout. But it was far too late for me. I had been bitten. Infected. It really hasn't been until recent. that I have been able to acquire my own stuff. and as such, a layout needs to be built. and built it shall. Having grown up with N scale it only seems logical that that is what I went with(with a little O thrown in for good measure). 

I've always been a fan of skyscrapers and architecture, so I will try to base this new layout on a more urban setting. preferably in the mid 30's to early 50's. So hopefully I can keep the ball rolling and see where this N-venture takes me!