Another ERR upgrade question.

Chris, are you sure it does not have EOB? By the mid 2000s when these came out 3rd Rail had switched from SAW boards to EOB. Is there a tach strip on one of the motors?

Given the minimal space in there you would have take everything out to replace it with ERR stuff. If you had more space you could wire in a Cruise M but it would involve a few custom harnesses and everything there now would have to remain.

Pete

I honestly don't remember seeing any tack strip but I haven't had it opened since I did the lights and finish.  It doesn't act like it has Cruise. I'm not in a hurry I would like to see ERR do a sound board for a budd car. The new doodle bug sound board with the single chime horn just wouldn't sound right to my ear anyway. The sound in it now is nothing to write home about. 

From the connector placement, that appears to be the older SAW board with no cruise.

Chris,

I would like to ask what did you do on this to restore the finish? From the picture it looks great. I have a Gilbert silver flash that has a failed chrome finish, I tried silver paint but it is nowhere near what I would like.

Ray

Nice looking car Chris. One of these days I'd like to get some tips from you on where you're getting your LED lights and how are doing the installation. You're getting pretty good at it.

Joe Gozzo

Rayin"S" posted:

Chris,

I would like to ask what did you do on this to restore the finish? From the picture it looks great. I have a Gilbert silver flash that has a failed chrome finish, I tried silver paint but it is nowhere near what I would like.

Ray

Your Gilbert silver flash and the budd car are two different animals.  The shell of my budd car is brass and the finish is actually plated. The shell from a friend I bought it from had been sprayed with a dull coat when it went out for decals.  They got frustrated  trying to take the Dull finish off by hand so I bought it and took over.  I took it completely apart and used stripper to take off the dull coat which reviled the finish you see. After that I put new window material,LED strip inside and changed out all the incandescent marker light and head lights with new LED's and finally put new decals on.   I wish I could put a  Chrome finish on plastic like your AF flash.  The finish from a rattle can never looks like the cap. 

Trainlover160 posted:

Nice looking car Chris. One of these days I'd like to get some tips from you on where you're getting your LED lights and how are doing the installation. You're getting pretty good at it.

Joe Gozzo

Thanks Joe.  Very simple. I only buy Evan Designs LED"s.  Just hook them up to a hot and ground. Everything else is done for you.  

Chris Lonero posted:

I honestly don't remember seeing any tack strip but I haven't had it opened since I did the lights and finish.  It doesn't act like it has Cruise. I'm not in a hurry I would like to see ERR do a sound board for a budd car. The new doodle bug sound board with the single chime horn just wouldn't sound right to my ear anyway. The sound in it now is nothing to write home about. 

ERR used to have a great dual chime horn for the Budd cars when they offered their NLA Sound Commander line. I have one in a Williams Budd car. I wouldn't think it would take too much to put that file in a new Railsounds chip.

BTW John appears to correct. From your pic it does appear to be a SAW board. Too bad as there is not a cheap or easy replacement for cruise.

Pete

Ray,

in regards to chrome finishes: I'm going to try " chroming" a Flyer 963 Observation car using chrome Bare Metal Foil. I've used it on plastic model airplanes and it looks pretty good. Bare-metal.com...I'll post photos when I finally get it done.

phil

Retired band guy posted:

Ray,

in regards to chrome finishes: I'm going to try " chroming" a Flyer 963 Observation car using chrome Bare Metal Foil. I've used it on plastic model airplanes and it looks pretty good. Bare-metal.com...I'll post photos when I finally get it done.

phil

Have you guys seen this stuff. I have not tried it yet but it looks interesting.

http://alclad2.com/finishes/hi...-chrome-for-plastic/

Pete

Chris, the easiest way to add cruise to that would probably to find a TAS EOB board, the connectors will all plug into the new board and you'd have cruise.  If you go any other way, you'll be doing a lot of hacking and spending a lot more money.  The only addition would be the tach reader on the motor for the speed control.

I may have a TAS EOB board, I'd have to bench test it before I offered it.

That would be great if you have it!  Just let me know how much. Email is in my profile.  Thanks John. 

I'll dig it out and do a bench test, I don't want to sell a bad board.  I have two of them, AFAIK, they're both functional.

Great!  Thanks John.

Rayin"S" posted:

Chris,

I would like to ask what did you do on this to restore the finish? From the picture it looks great. I have a Gilbert silver flash that has a failed chrome finish, I tried silver paint but it is nowhere near what I would like.

Ray

Ray, you may want to check with Doug Peck at Portlines. Here is a link to his chrome plating page.

http://www.portlines.com/portlinesclinic17.htm

I have not tried it yet, but I stopped by his booth once in the purple hall at York and he had a PA shell there that had been re-chromed.  It looked fantastic.

Dean

I had a guy ask me to re-chrome a set for him and install TMCC. The original American Flyer Santa Fe set including the engines and cars were all done by Doug and he did a great job. When I got them back I handled them with cloth cloves as they still needed some drying after about a week before working on them. 

Ed Goldin

www.goldinhand.com

847-727-0857