Great Northern railway

Trying the Lionel method:

With all the wires needed in the boiler for the LED lights, there is limited room for more weight so I've put some nail polish on the back set of drivers on the B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4 and it seems to work quite well on increasing pulling power.

Since the initial test of just nail polish on the back engine set, I also did the same with the back drivers for the front engine set. I'm only doing 'double' on the articulateds.  The 'straight' one set of driver engines will only get nail polish on the back drivers.

I used a q-tip and some alcohol to, first, clean off the tire.

The engine is run about 5 MPH and the nail polish is applied while the drivers turn.

The brake shoes also had to be removed on this model as they were too close to the drivers and the paint would have rubbed onto the brake shoes.

One loses 'pick up' power on this driver but this procedure doesn't seem to affect total conductivity. 

Will have to see how long the nail polish lasts but initial findings look promising. 

I read about 'frog snot' but some reviews said it wasn't as effective as promised. 

Two items:

PRR S-1 6-4-4-6 PM.

The tender was still shorting so I put the nail polish on the insides of the insulated wheels and that works great plus I can remove the excess tubing that was being used as an insulator. 

I decided to add a contact shoe to the engine side.  Some wire and a 'shoe' made so it rides on the top of the rail. The shoe keeps the wire from falling into rail gaps and through turnouts. 

All seems to work well without the boiler attached.

Layout track.

While testing the PRR S-1 with just the back drivers, the wheels were coming off the track.  I found the one rail rippled.  Had to cut a gap to relieve the pressure and re-spike the rail.  With the boiler attached, the drivers didn't derail, nor any other rolling stock, but might as well fix it.

Tested two 'spurs' for local trains.

Glasgow.

Had to attach some extra lead wires to get this double track with facing turnout spur. 

 

 

Tye:

One rail joint needed soldering.

A few pictures from the OPS, last night.

The nail polish seems to be working. I'll have to check two engines to see how the nail polish 'held up' since they ran 800'.

Before the session, I put some Wahl oil on a few turnouts that didn't, always, have good electrical contact between points and stock rail and the engines slipped a 'little bit' going over them even though I wiped off the rails after application.  I'm guessing the viscosity of that oil is so low that alcohol would probably be needed to remove it from the tops of the rails.  I remember reading that this oil is also suppose to improve electrical continuity between engine and track.

GN Z-1 electrics A-B-B-A decoder install.   

Two wheel leading and trailing trucks and two 4 wheel driving trucks. 

These electrics normally operated in 'pairs' so I have two of them.

TCS 1485 KAM4 with K/A but no sound.  Most of my electrics usually growl, anyway, from the gear mechanism.  

The first decoder went quick.  Some new LED lights and the decoder fits nicely between the motor and 1st gear box.

The second electric, not so quick.

Gears were slipping on one set of trucks.  Nothing comes apart easy as all the sprung axle supports have to be removed because the contacts along the insulated drivers became miss-aligned when the gear box is removed.

 

New Delivery.

(Glad this arrived so I could take a break fixing the GN Z-1)

Milwaukee bi-polar electric by MTH.
All cast metal super structure with stamped frame.
Made in 2010 and I just purchased it.
Directional lighting, working class lights, lot of sound affects and remote operating pantographs and couplers.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

The front end only has lighted classification lights.

The two center sets of drivers are all powered.

Remote operating coupler.

 

Switches on bottom of frame.

 

Lots of electronics in there!

Had to take her apart as one pantograph was not operating.

Some metal rods stick down from the pantograph and a motorized sliding mechanism moves against the rods to lower it.  The springs in the pantograph allow it to raise.

Easy fix.  Dis-assembly is also easy.

 

I have two other bi-polars by custom brass.

One made in 1973 and the other 1983, factory painted.

I painted the yellow one.

Initially, I was only going to have one of these, the 1973 was the first purchase.

The 1983 one went really cheap so I bought it.

Then, a few weeks ago, I found out that MTH made one with all the 'bells and whistles' and, by chance, it came up for auction last week and I had the winning bid.  

 

The MTH has more detail.

 

These engines seem to be hard to disconnect and then get inside. But I was finally able to re-connect everything. PArt of one of the bodies does not want to re-center itself after going thru a curve. I think there are one or more screws missing which is causing this.

Jeff,

There are a total of 6 phillip head screws: two on each of the 3 main bodies; front, rear and center.

Make sure the pantographs are in the down position when putting the engine on its back.

With the six screws removed the stamped undercarriage, easily, come off the three main bodies.  

With only having to work on one pantograph, I'm sure I could have just removed the two screws holding that section to the undercarriage and left the other two bodies, intact. 

The center section has the rubber 'diaphragms' attached so the two outer bodies need to be removed first and also replaced, last.  

CORRECTION: the rubber diaphragms are connected to the two outer bodies.

It's nice that they used lots of connectors so each part can be separated and worked on, individually. 

bummer.

Was running the MTH Milwaukee bi-polar and she just went dead, shorting out the CB's.  A voltmeter shows shorts on all 8 driver axles.  Called MTH and got an RA number.  All packed and ready to send, tomorrow.  They indicated 2-3 weeks repair time: sounds good plus I'm glad they still have electronic parts for a 7 year old engine; of course it's not fixed, yet!

Got some photos before she died.

MMM, should have put the panto's up before taking the picture!

 

GN Z-1 electrics; decoder final install/assembly.

Had to re-align the narrow contacts to the insulated sides of the drivers. That and installing all the bearings with springs back into the side frames while being on the ends of each axle.  Final, was connected the headlight and cab light to the decoder. 

These two electrics are labeled 2007/2006 and will run as a pair so both were given #2007.  The orange/gray wires were switched on #2006 so it runs backwards and the yellow wire (tender) was connected to the headlight so each has it's own headlight coming on when it is the lead engine. 

Parked next to the Y-1 at Skykomish for pulling trains though the 8 mile cascade tunnel. 

GN Y-1 A-D-D-A  decoder install.

TCS 1485 KAM4 with K/A and no sound.

A very heavy electric with a huge open frame motor.

I'll find out if this decoder can handle that open frame motor!

There is barely enough room for the decoder to fit behind the first bulkhead behind the cab.

Made a 4 pin connector from frame to body. 

The brush contacts are grounded from the rest of the motor and body so the orange and gray were connected to the motor.  This is a quick install, so far, as just had to disconnect the two wires from the motor and solder them to the red/black wires.

Didn't worry about direction as both ends are identical.

Four pin connector.

Slow process of waiting for the glue to dry for the headlights.

Next will be the cab lights.

Only three wires needed for this set up: Blue, white and yellow.

I just connect each ends cab light to the headlight wires. 

 

GN Y-1 final details.

Soldered all the connections and taped the wires to the roof.  Had to relocate some on the left, where the resistors are, because they were interfering with the lead weight at that end.

I had a 50/50 chance of getting the LED's to light when traveling in that direction but nada.  A quick change of the white/yellow wires to the LED leads fixed it.

I already have a #5012 Y-1 (did a few weeks ago) in empire builder colors so I had to change the numbers on this Y-1.

Some solvaset and a Q-tip removed the numbers.  A tooth pick also helped remove some stubborn spots.  As can see on the q-tip, very little paint was removed. 

That bottle must be 40 years old and I've done a lot of engines and cars (and I mean a lot!).

I like to bevel the corners as they, sometimes, have a tendency to 'fold over on themselves' and it's a real 'bear' trying to resolve that.  

 

New numbers.  'stats' listed below the numbers are still wet from the solvaset. 

GN Y-1: decals completed.

Did the other side.

I use a super soft brush called a liner brush (LB-100) in art's department to apply the solvaset.

Decals are very thin and delicate so once the solvaset is applied, leave it alone.  Saying that, I used the soft brush to remove any puddles on the decal for a few seconds after applying the solvaset to get a uniform finish.  Like paint, better to apply two thin coats than one thick coat.

Found a fast way to dry glue.  One spot light (sold at walbox).  Need to keep it about 15-18" away as the brass got really hot when I had it about 6" distance.

I would imagine it would melt a plastic model. 

GN Y-1 parked at Tye, east end of the Cascade tunnel.

I keep a paper list next to the throttles as some of the engine numbers are hard to see, plus it gives info on decoder installed, etc.

Future decoder installs to be in a different railroads: probably UP big boy 4-8-8-4, SF cab forward 4-8-8-2, D&RGW L-131 2-8-8-2, UP 4-12-2, C&O H-8 2-6-6-6, DM&IR M-4 2-8-8-4, NP Z-8 4-6-6-4, N&W A 2-6-6-4

DCC ENGINES

GN C-1 0-8-0 Tenshodo 1485 KAM4 #810

GN C-1 0-8-0 Tenshodo 1485 KAM4 #815

GN C-1 0-8-0 Tenshodo 1485 KAM4 #828

GN N-3 2-8-8-0 Tenshodo 1517WOW101 #2006

GN O-8 2-8-2 Sunset 1517WOW101 #3390

GN P-2 4-8-2 Tenshodo 1517WOW101 #2523

GN Q-1 2-10-2 Tenshodo 1517 WOW101 #2127

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 Tenshodo 1517 WOW101 #2049

GN S-2 4-8-4 BLI #2586: BLI: see attached for function keys

GN S-2 4-8-4 BLI #2587: BLI: see attached for function keys

GN W-1 electric Custom Brass, 1485KAM4 #5018

GN Y-1 electric Tenshodo, EB, 1485KAM4 #5012

GN Y-1 electric Tenshodo, green, 1485KAM4 #5015

GN Z-1’s electric, OL, 1485KAM4, #5007/6(both 7)

GN Z-6 4-6-6-4 Tenshodo 1517 WOW101 #4001

B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4, Westside, 1517WOW101, #7620

Milwaukee EP-2 bi-polar electric, MTH,  #3, see att. for fn keys

PRR S-1 6-4-4-6, Gem, 1517WOW101, #6100

PRR T-1 4-4-4-4, Alco, 1517WOW101, #5502

Santa Fe 2-10-4, United, 1517WOW101, #5019

Santa Fe E-1 A/B unit, BLI,  #2: see attached for function keys

UP 8500 turbine scaletrains #4:  See attached for function keys

 

GN RDC-3 decoder install.

A gas/electric by Hallmark.

A very nice model, plated superstructure and black painted underbody.

A TCS 1485 KAM4 with KA decoder installed.

 

Decoder taped to frame.

Interior LED lights.

No interior so windows frosted.

Now have 23 DCC engines.  Presently, I still have 7 steam decoders to install. 

I know I haven't commented in a while Sam! But you  sure have been doing some great work! Sometimes it takes ma awhile to catch up, but all I can say is WOW!

just outstanding!  

My 1,000 mile, three layout visit journey, this past week end.   

I went to my son's house in Ann Arbor, Michigan as my 'base point'.

On Saturday, I went to Joe Berger's GN layout and, on Sunday, I went to Andy Keeney's Tennessee layout and Bob Truax GN layout.

Each will get their own post.

Joe Berger's GN layout.

This is a 4 level layout with about a 600' mainline.  Saturday there were 20 operators there.  Rich and I operated a 'local' and the 'empire builder'.

During the 70's I got a lot of TM 'billboard' reefers but I don't have these two.

Homemade transfer table.

Joe likes building FM kits.

No use leaving wasting space under the steps go 'unused'!

Easy for me to recognize his FM kits as I've got about 5 of these same ones.

 

He's got a cool timber frame house.

Andy Keeney's Tennessee layout.

A freelance layout .

Another 4 layer layout with about a 1,000' mainline.  And I thought my mainline was long with 400'!

Andy also has about 20 operators that attend his layout sessions.

Like Joe, can't leave wasting space go unused!

Joe has several long industrial areas where operators can 'be on their own' to do lots of switching. 

Very nice weathering of roadbed. 

 

Some concrete expansion joints, break in half, add mod podge, wire brush, install and paint.  

 

Bob Truax GN layout.

Very nicely detailed layout.

Bob is on the left.

Most buildings have interiors.

 

Very detailed trucks, also.

 

Night scenes are cool.

Some 'full size' stuff in the garage.

Howard Zane's layout video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6GBoVIC9Sg

Engine pilot couplers.   

If the GN electrics are going to pull the trains through the cascade tunnel then all engines are going to need Kadees added to the pilot.  A lot of the engines already have couplers on the front pilot but those that didn't have Kadees, had dummy couplers.  The dummy couplers were removed.  

Number 00-90 brass screws with tap works well on the couplers and engine pilots.  Looks like #5 Kadees has a long enough shank for most pilots.

After drilling the hole in the Kadee shank, I cut off the 'rounded' back end.

I drilled through the pilot's coupler pocket through to the bottom of the pocket.

I found it best to tap the coupler pocket while the coupler is in the pocket so all threads align. 

A little black paint will hide the screw head.

The bottom of the pilot is, usually, not a scale distance from the rails to allow for our 'unscale' vertical track movements so the coupler height is not always correct.  If it's close, I just leave it 'as is' since only the two engines will be connected and not a long string of cars.  An alternative is to get Kadees off set shank couplers. 

This PFM SF 2-10-4 had no coupler pocket but was just a rectangular hole on a flat surface.  A brass pin was holding the dummy coupler in place, which was removed.  I found it easiest to drill/tap from the bottom into the top front deck to secure the coupler to the front deck.  

The cow catcher on this engine was too long so it prevents proper coupling to the front engine coupler thus, I'll have to get some long shank couplers for it. 

cleaned up the work area: needed it.

Changed the SF E-1 back to having a front coupler for pulling it through the cascade with the electrics.

 

Decoder install in Key Big Boy.

Usual 1517 WOW101 steam with KA.

Previously, I painted and LED lighted this engine.

 

 

Too much detail on the front of the tender so I had to drill a large hole in the bottom plate to route the decoder wires.  Usual 8 pin connector made and most of the wiring done for the tender.

Installed four running LED lights by drilling holes in the boiler and routing the wires through the boiler.  A little glue to hold them in place and a spot light to accelerate the drying time, . 

Previously, I already installed LED's in the marker lights(engine/tender), head lights (engine/tender) and cab.   

 

Springfield, Ohio train show.  

Two large buildings connected by a third smaller building.

The owner of all these pre war trains said they were originals and not restored.

 

Thinking 'outside the box'.

Two friends, Gary, left and Robbin, right that I've known for many decades.

Americana.

Always like taking the 'backroads'.

A very nice late 1800's county court house.

Must have a huge basement.

Don't see many timber frames built, these days.

 

What they look like after 200 years of no 'upkeep'.

 

Booty from the Springfield show.

I hadn't plan on buying anything but, you know how that goes!

Prices were too good to pass up.  Varney cars 6 bucks each with kadees and most buildings 6-12 bucks.

Found some nice buildings, cars, etc.

They had boxes for each building to protect them.

Got some bright yellow and burnt yellow foliage for some aspen trees ($3 each).

A couple DVD's on Nickel plate steam: 5 bucks.

A very nice Ambroid caboose and 4 varney cars.  One from my friend, Gary.

The 'state of Maine' is a TM.  Back in the 70's when TM brought these out, I went to every hobby shop in town to buy them as each LHS only had a couple each.  I now have about 11 of them for a nice 'unit' train'

A couple more ore cars from Gary.

20 bucks for a nice wood freight house and not sure what the tower building is but it's different, all wood and both appear to be scratch built. Got a 'soft spot' for stuff that someone has spent a lot of time building. 

The large passenger station is plastic but, again for 20 bucks, I'll take it.  

 

Kind of looks 'New England'ish'. 

A lot of work putting those Campbell shingles on the roof!

Since it's plastic, it must be somebody's kit but I don't recognize it.

A 'power house': good for my 'electrics'.  I think this was like 6 or 8 bucks.

Not sure if this is Campbell's but another 6 or 8 dollars.

This wood station appeared scratch built.

This warehouse is plastic but nicely weathered with a unique dock.

Extra 'stuff' that came with the warehouse.

New delivery:

Two of the smaller wireless duplex throttles.

These are for the electrics at each end of the cascade tunnel, Skykomish and Tye. 

The throttles will be dedicated only to the electrics so address changing will only involve the present four electrics now in service.

The mainline gets the five full size duplex throttles.

Thinking about it, it seems best to get two more small size duplex throttles and dedicate them to the yards; one for each yard (Seattle and St. Paul); keeping these dedicated to the switchers.  Again, no need for a lot of engine address inputs/dispatching.

The full size throttles can,then, be assigned only to mainline engines.  The roundhouse hogger can input the engine to the throttle, pull the engine out to the ready track and then hand the throttle to the mainline engineer.  That would reduce address inputs to just one time as, once the mainline engineer reaches St. Paul, he can hand the throttle to that roundhouse hogger, who then routes the engine to the roundhouse stall.  This would eliminate all address inputs by the engineer and only each roundhouse hogger needs to input/dispatch engine addresses.

Sounds like a logical plan!

 

Stuff from the train show put on the GNRW.

The large passenger station went in the interchange/storage track area.

Along a road in Seattle.

Power station at Tye.

 

Water tower also at Tye.  A little CA was needed for some of the supports.

The small crane at the swan river logging company.

Freight house and lodging along the mainline with some needed ground upkeep needed ie, road, etc.

Freight house along the mainline.

Small station along the mainline.

 

Cars PM'ed and 'ready to roll'.

One needed new trucks/wheels, old horn hook couplers replaced on another, coupler height adjustments, etc.

 

Only beer reefer on the layout.

Sam, Just been doing a little reading catch up on your thread! You sure have been busy, with your 1000 mile trip to see 3 wonderful layout ! Must have been a great time! I see your still working on engines. I am not sure how you do it, but your work is just amazing! Keep up the great work and make sure your still having fun along the way!

UP big boy decoder install (cont).

Using my schematic I just connect all the wires and all's working.

Still takes awhile to make the 8 pin and 4 pin connectors but the schematic definitely reduces errors and speeds up the job as 'no thinking' is involved on the wires. 

This engine has lights that has small bridge rectifiers on the LED's.  I used to use these but switched to LED's that are 1) smaller and 2) only have a resistor.

I wasn't sure if I was going to have any problems with these old LED's with the decoder but all's working well with the old LED's.

Headlight and marker lights OK. As mentioned, previously, function keys can turn off each set of LED lights. 

Tender lights and marker lights OK.

 

Cab light and fire box glow good.

Also, this engine was done before I started installing running board LED's so I installed the new LED's for the running board lights.

I had to remove two lead weights to gain access for the running board lights.  Four holes were drilled in the boiler above the running gear and the new LED's were glued in place.  As usual, 1/16" diameter heat shrink was put over the wires to protect them from the lead weights.

They light but not very bright so I'm guessing that I either 1) hooked up the wrong resistor or 2) too much 'juice' is being drawn by other LED's with the bridge rectifiers.  I have the running lights drawing current from the decoder parallel to the other engine lights so it seems like that shouldn't be the problem.  

I find it easiest to remove the resistor so I can route the wires through the boiler and then connect the resistor.  Also, only one resistor is needed per color variation LED so it saves space in the boiler having only one resistor versus four for the running lights; ie same with marker lights. 

 

 

UP big boy decoder install (cont)

Final assembly.

The running lights seem to be good on brightness. 

With the 8 wires coming out of the tender bottom's plate, it took a little adjustment of where to put the wires harness/connector between the tender and engine without any binds. 

Two headlights in reverse.

Forward.

Tomorrow, need to road test it.

UP big boy road test;

Problem right out of the yard and right inside a tunnel!

The tunnel is inside a closet.  Had to do some 'crawling' and bring a spot light.

The lead truck on the centipede tender kept derailing: only engine that does it, so far.

The gauge was just a little too wide and one rail was not spiked down all the way.

Crossing over to the other track to pick up some cars left from a previous test.

This siding is about 35' long with a cross over in the middle so it can handle a 3 train meet.

Picking up the other cars totaled 55 cars and, save for maybe 2-3 more, that's about max for the outside interchange/staging track loop with the trains caboose in the background. 

I hear some binding at slow speeds.  When assembling the chassis to the boiler, I had to push a skosh to put the back screws in and I think the motor is pressing against some wires.  Will have to disassemble to fix.  

New delivery.

The overset, long shank, both plastic/metal, couplers arrived for the steam pilot couplers.  Got some plastic in case the two cause a short between engines, although the electrics have plastic coupler pockets so all should be 'good'.  The overset has the coupler mounted lower on the shaft to compensate for the high coupler pockets on steam engine pilots.   The back ends of the shaft will have to be clipped off to fit inside the steam engines front coupler pocket.

Strange: no mail today but my USPS package arrived!

 

I think maybe the US Mail was down for recognizing Bush Sr's passing...?

That's why I thought it was strange that I got the package as no mail being delivered on Wednesday.

Why we save junk for 40 years!

I had two junk freight cars that had some roof walks that were needed.

My RC airplane heating gun and a hex screwdriver removed the walks from the car (I finally pitched the car, although I did remove and keep the doors and door guides).

 

My nice all metal vintage car needed a roof walk.  A little 'rattle can' silver, thick CA and she's good as new!

And what are the chances of that roof walk being exactly the correct length that I needed?

By chance, I had a 2nd same type junk car that sacrificed its roofwalk  for another vintage metal car.  This metal car had a warped roof and, while trying to straighten it, it broke.  The walk was cast metal so it broke a lot! 

The metal roof needed some thick CA to re-attach it.  After the CA dries, the roof walk will be attached.

 

Stuff:

Second vintage metal car with new roof walk. 

A couple 'cabeese' that needed work.

This one was missing a truck screw.

An end step needed resistor soldering plus a couple new screws for coupler pocket and bottom frame.  This one has a battery operated marker lights but I left the battery in there for about a decade, it broke open and the fumes discolored the paint.  For now, I relegated it to the logging company: they always have 'seconds' and dis-repaired rolling stock.  It's just a 'bobber' caboose so it'll handle the sharp curves.

 

Some new junk to keep for 40 years(if I live that long!).

Took motor out of old VCR before discarding the VCR.

About 13/16" wide by 1.25" long.  Nada on googling the info on the side of the motor, being about 12 years old and says made in Malaysia. 

The bulk of my motive power is large so it may be useful, in the future.

New delivery:   

Two more UT4D duplex wireless decoders arrived for the two main yards;  One stationed at Seattle and the other at St. Paul.  These are dedicated just for the switchers.

This is cool.

Decoders for passenger cars, buildings, etc.  Will be able to control the lights inside the passenger cars.  They are only about a dime size so will easily fit inside the passenger cars and at around 80 bucks a pack, they are only about $5.35 each.  They come in 3, 6 and 15 packs.

Like spitting in the ocean!

Added some more details to the layout.

Used some 'rattle can' silver on the ugly green shed and also the junction boxes.

Drilled holes and inserted thin wire in the bottom of the boxes for ease of installation.

Also fixed up a few cars.

Two that my friend gave me.  Didn't take long to assemble. A couple roundhouse kits.  White metal bases had to be painted.  The rest like an old Athearn 'shake a box' kit.  Replaced the wheel sets with Intermountain wheels.

About a 120 of them on the dock.

Found this wood loads in the box of 'stuff'.  Had to drill out the bottoms of the side stake holders to route the 1/32" wide chart tape.  The wood loads were from 'Mcleod rail miniatures' which I've had for decades.

Had to glue a broken scrap load on the 'broken' shelf. Some CA did a quick job.  Don't remember who made these as I've also had them for decades.  

This car is back on the track due to being too lite.  Figured some real lead weight scrap leftovers when weighting engines would work.

A few track side details added.   Don't remember who made the sheds: it was green, plastic with 4 walls, roof and vents to be glued together (wish I had more of them).  The junction boxes are white metal castings.  The GNRW signs I made from brass stock and some printing from my GNRHS.

Better post a few signs over bridges to keep 'idiots' from walking on the bridge.

Back in 1938, it was more a courtesy to the public versus today's litigious society.

Only had 5 to install.  Need to get more.

Got this old car off the 'broken' shelf.  Missing walkway and doors.  By chance, the parts were in the 'people and critter' box.  An old kit I built back when I was very young: not very good but it's mine.  

 

Probably several hundred people/critters in the box.  Will take awhile to install them!

 

Stumbled across this on youtube.

Fantastic mock up passenger car and real F7 diesel in basement plus incredible passenger station with its basement.

I like how he curved the sky at the ceiling level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWGgKcHoPdk

UP big boy 4-8-8-4 final road test.

Made a few more 'tweaks' after reaching the staging/interchange yard.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be     

The engine weight is 40 oz and the tender 15 oz. 

The wires kept dropping and moving to the outside, interfering with the lead trucks so 00-90 brass screws were drilled/tapped into the front of the tender and some thin black plastic holds the wires in place plus it keeps the draw bar from coming off the tender pin.

After moving the wires in the boiler, the electric motor wasn't binding but the running lights stopped working.  Found that I forgot to solder the two pink wires together in the tender.  

Final road test back to Seattle's freight yard pulling 55 cars, counting two 'cabeese'.

Stop for water.

A little overhang on the walthers 130' TT.

Even the huge SF 2-10-4 just makes it on the table.

Getting a short in the Seattle freight yard when pushing cars.  Think it's the engine racking sideways a bit and touching the open side turnout rail.  Some nail polish on the insulated side will find out if I'm correct or if it was the cars.