A Rented Mule on Borrowed Time (3rd Rail 5011 Class way out east) - video is now up

Looks great, excellent weathering as always and I love seeing that turntable track extension modelled!

Norm, that is absolutely stunning.  I thought the first photo was actually  a real train!

What did you use please as the crushed ballast all around the turntable?  It looks remarkably real.  I would like to put that  around the edges of my diagonal cross road and turnouts. 

Mannyrock

Norm another fantastic job

Absolutely beautiful!

Outstanding job

That turntable extension is a cool detail! I didn't know that was a thing.

Beautiful engine though! Seeing an engine done up like that makes me want to start weathering all my fleet.

@BillYo414 posted:

That turntable extension is a cool detail! I didn't know that was a thing.

I know for a fact (photographic documentation) that both the UP and the PRR had to use those "extensions" at the tender for those locomotives longer than the turntable.

Beautiful engine though! Seeing an engine done up like that makes me want to start weathering all my fleet.

That is part of what 3RS modeling is all about! Norm does it better than most.

Please post a photo(s) showing the turntable extension and how it is mounted to the table. TIA

@PRRMP54 posted:

Please post a photo(s) showing the turntable extension and how it is mounted to the table. TIA

Did you look carefully at photos #2 & #3 above?

The tender in the way hides most of the details.

@PRRMP54 posted:

The tender in the way hides most of the details.

Well, photos of the prototype are pretty much the same way. I have not seen any photos from the "good old days" of the table extension in place without a locomotive. Guess you might have to use a Google search.

Here’s a couple more shots of 5022 living out its last days hauling coal for PRR:

Here’s my crude TT extensions. They only had to look semi-OK and be functional. The real ones looked to be made of a couple sections of rail, or maybe they bent them somehow as they seem to have a bit of a compound angle. I dunno.

This engine was quite a bit different from most of my 3rd Rail projects. One nasty little surprise it had for me right at the bitter end was the insulation of the center blind driver tires from the wheels. It threw me for a loop. Cleaning the overspray from my weathering on the outer driver sets improved things very much.

Video is now up:

Norm,

Simply incredible!   Top notch workmanship.

Looking at your extensions a bit closer, it seems you are propping them up underneath with something.

I'd like to see just how they fit on there - as I found this to be an interesting solution to a short turntable.  Very interesting modeling. 

Thank you for posting.

I basically ground some Atlas rails on my belt sander and soldered some chunks of brass channel to the bottom of them to clamp the rail head. It took a few tries. Not the most elegant things but they worked. The piece of rod wasn’t really necessary after I got the clamps figured out. The trick was to keep them from sliding off the rail or tipping as the tender backed onto them.

Great looking & running engine! Awesome video, of a unique prototypical TT extension in action!

Norm, watching the first video of the engine popping on the TT is excellent. When I first saw this post I didn't see that there was a video at the bottom and I was trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at.

After seeing what Hot Water said about who used it and watching the video it just makes sense. Flawless job on this and extremely cool.

@Hot Water, how did the railroad pop the extensions onto the turntables? Did they weld them on?

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Norm, watching the first video of the engine popping on the TT is excellent. When I first saw this post I didn't see that there was a video at the bottom and I was trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at.

After seeing what Hot Water said about who used it and watching the video it just makes sense. Flawless job on this and extremely cool.

@Hot Water, how did the railroad pop the extensions onto the turntables? Did they weld them on?

No, they could not be welded on, as then no other locomotives would be able to effectively use the turntable. They had to be portable, and only used when required. At the UP North Platte, Neb roundhouse, the turntable extensions were only needed when a 4000 class 4-8-8-4 locomotive ventured east from Cheyenne, Wy. (I think the extension components were kept inside, on a cart of some sort, and then rolled out to the turntable when needed). Sometimes a fork-lift was used, otherwise they were just man-handled by a bunch of men.

There’s some info on the TT extensions here:

http://www.columbusrailroads.c...%20Fe%20Class%205011

Godfather Rails also has some shots in color that show the extensions in decent detail:

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=515

@Norm Charbonneau posted:

Here’s my crude TT extensions. They only had to look semi-OK and be functional. The real ones looked to be made of a couple sections of rail, or maybe they bent them somehow as they seem to have a bit of a compound angle. I dunno.

Thank you. I have saved those photos for future reference.