3rd Rail RI Rocket a first look

Rocket Video 

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Yeah it’s that good! Or at least it comes close!

 SURE DOES

Another video 

You guys sure like speed! Thanks for sharing, Frank!

Everyone is invited to the "Rockford O Scalers" open house this Saturday (November 2 2019 12:00pm to 6:00pm).   I'm sure the RI Rocket will be running . Please see the "Rockford O Scalers" Facebook page for additional information/pictures/videos. 

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

The wonderful people at Rockford O Scalers shared this outstanding  capture of their Peoria set... I hope it’s ok to post it here!

Absolutely fabulous and a fabulous image also by the Rockford O Scale guys. Scott, and Santiago you knocked it out of the park! HOME RUN  

Here is an image that includes a photoshopped sky that someone sent us.  We think it looks good!

I think it looks good too 

Norm posted:

K-Line did the Golden State as a part of their Collectors Club probably over 10 years ago.  There were two renditions,one being an A-A E8 pulling 18" passenger cars.  There were at least 8 passenger cars,all named correctly and possibly 10.  The other set had shorter cars.  They were extremely well received at that time.  It remains a very good looking set.

Norm

And it was the 18" K-Line stuff that got me hooked on the Golden State and Rock Island Es!  Forgivably, K-Line applied corrugated Rock Island car names to smooth sided Southern Pacific type cars.  Who cares?  Not I.

Having collected all of the K-Line cars, save for the domes which were an unforgivable mistake, I've started adding MTH Rock Island Golden Rocket cars.  Hey, that's what The Rock did.  3RSing the cars is a slow and painful process; Kadeeing K-Line cars is an art form and I'm no Santiago.  Trimmed down K-Line diaphragms make a good foundation for Scale City Design diaphragms, etc, etc, etc.

The Rock's early passenger diesel paint scheme is striking and irresistible.  Piecing together my Poor Man's Rocket is fascinating, as is digging up photos and fun facts about the train and its equipment.  I have also added a basket case MTH Rock Island E6 that will be my first attempt to "fix" a pilot since I can't do much more damage than has already been done.  The frame is bent but at least the carbody is mint.

As an old neighbor once said, "Who has more fun than us?"

Erik C Lindgren posted:

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Yeah it’s that good! Or at least it comes close!

 SURE DOES

 

 

😊😊😊 the TA is the star of the show! The cars are decent! 

Erik C Lindgren posted:

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

The wonderful people at Rockford O Scalers shared this outstanding  capture of their Peoria set... I hope it’s ok to post it here!

Absolutely fabulous and a fabulous image also by the Rockford O Scale guys. Scott, and Santiago you knocked it out of the park! HOME RUN  

❤️❤️❤️

Some people may be wondering about the “missing” builders plate and Front mark in the engineers side. This is absolutely CORRECT for as delivered engines! 

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

You guys sure like speed! Thanks for sharing, Frank!

We were late and trying to make up time!

BTW, the train is running about 70 scale mph per our digital speedometer.

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Some people may be wondering about the “missing” builders plate and Front mark in the engineers side. This is absolutely CORRECT for as delivered engines! 

Yes, everyone should be aware that the TAs were built by “Electromotive Corporation” before it was bought by General Motors. 

Frank, that is a beautiful layout. 

I don't like counting rivets but I very much appreciate those who do count them.  A big thank you to Santiago and to all of the others who have helped 3rd Rail make some very good products.  The TA's are great and so were the E6's.  It is a great time to be in O scale.

Who knew Rockford had a fantastic club and layout?  Not I.  Last year at this time, en route to visit the Greater Chicagoland, I got off the Tollway and followed the IC (route of the incomparable Hawkeye) and CNW through town.  Having grown up in the Elgin area, Rockford was accessible but I went railroading...  Should I pass that way, again, I will schedule my trip to include a visit.

Seeing an exquisite O Scale train doing 70, on track built for it, is a joy to behold!  Rock On!

It’s worth noting the original Full Rocket paint scheme is also known as “Announcement Scheme” 

Here are two photos and two videos of our rendition of Train # 52, the “Choctaw Rocket”.  Thanks to Bill Davis of American Scale Models for bringing in these modernized Rock Island TA locomotives.  Although built in 1937, all six of the TA class locomotives (exclusively built for  the Rock Island) lasted until 1958 and 1960.  They really earned their keep for their owner and are cool looking too, not to mention very unique!

SouthernMike posted:

Frank, that is a beautiful layout. 

Thanks, Mike.  We are lucky to have some very talented modelers in our group!

Frank, I love it! Thanks for sharing!!!

Great looking train and model railroad, Frank. I really enjoyed the photos and videos, thanks for sharing!

John

The inside is typical 3rd Rail...

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

The inside is typical 3rd Rail...

Now that you have the shell off you can replace/improve the crewmen figures to eliminate their “zombie-like” appearance!😆

Beat you to it, Frank!

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Beat you to it, Frank!

If that train was mine,I would add 1/35 scale "guages" to those holes and place a smled inside to backlight it!

But of course those "cab controls" are spartain at best!

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Beat you to it, Frank!

If that train was mine,I would add 1/35 scale "guages" to those holes and place a smled inside to backlight it!

But of course those "cab controls" are spartain at best!

Do you have an example?

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Beat you to it, Frank!

Much better!  Now they look (almost) human! 😀

Almost is right! Lol... at least they are not MTH/LIONEL or 1/45! 

Nothing, nothing like incandescent... I don’t care what you tell me... when it comes to looks and appearance, LEDs simply don’t cut it...

Agreed!

Agreed 

While I totally agree on the incandescent look, I have so many power draw issues with them.  I can only run about 12 K-line cars and a pair of locomotive before exceeding my power budget. 

However, in the building industry, LED technology has come a long way.  There are two ways to get incandescent color temperatures around 2800 K.  One is to coat the LED with phosphorous and the other is to combine colored LEDs to get the color temperature you would want with the use of an LED driver. 

For trains, the first method seems the most efficient as and LED driver takes away some of the power saving benefits.

Just a random thought.  Train looks great!

I get the "incandescent look" by simply spray painting the entire array with off white Krylon.  If one coat doesn't do it, try two.  Its fast, cheap and effective plus it minimizes the industrial appearance though not as well as Santiago did by covering each LED with a lens on his CB&Q dining car.  That was the sine qua non.

Another needed improvement is to turn the roof mounted center tail light on the Rocket Observation Car from white to red.  The Rockford O Scalers use stick-on red automotive tail light repair tape or you can use red transparent paint.  (In person, the red color is more consistent than shown in these photos). However, it should not be white!

Williams' reproduction of the Golden Rocket 15-inch aluminum cars, with striking vermillion red tops contrasting with the silver bottoms, were the first O scale passenger cars I ever bought, after decades out of the hobby entirely.  This hobby has been a major drain on the budget ever since!

Congratulations to 3rd Rail for this stunning set.

I believe that K-Line put out its 18-inch Golden Rocket cars in two sets of four, K-4632A and K-4643B, such as in the carton pictured below.

The dome car was a rare 9th car, which was never a part of any other set, and was only available through the collectors' club:

While there may not have been a scale prototype for this dome car, it is an attractive car, and highly prized due to its scarcity among K-Line collectors.

DAB

Frank, it’s not apparent to me that this was the case... later photographs show the lens being red, but as delivered cars show no lens filter... was the bulb red coated?

The five clear inserts on the observation end show some optical aberration... I wonder if I should replace them with clear lexan sheets... 

SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Frank, it’s not apparent to me that this was the case... later photographs show the lens being red, but as delivered cars show no lens filter... was the bulb red coated?

Hi Santiago,

The pictures of the observation car in earlier days are interesting because, as you point out, it seems as if there is no red lens or bulb.  

This raises a couple of possibilities.  It could be that the intention was to use this as a white backup light but obviously only illuminated when the train was executing a backup move and not when going forward.  Another possibility is that the light came on only with an emergency break application but, if so, it should be capable of red illumination and not white, which doesn’t appear to be the case.

Your last photo shows a rebuilt light fairing on the roof with a larger red lens/bulb arrangement and this could possibly be an oscillating “Mars” type light.  In any case, stationary or moving, this light was quite likely illuminated red all the time or certainly with an emergency brake application.

In my opinion, I believe there should be no roof mounted white light visible on the end car while the train is in forward motion.

Regards,

Frank