Great Northern railway

Larry,

Thanks for the kind words.  I only spend half a day working on my hobbies: 12 hours!  Since I've shut down the TV appliances about 2 months ago, I spend all my time on my hobbies.  Don't miss the TV at all.  There's so much garbage on the idiot box, now, that I have no interest in it.  And, more than one person has expressed their view that there's a lot of fake news on TV as well as the papers.  Pretty disgusting what the news media has 'turned into'!  All I had was an antenna for reception but still got around 60 free channels. 

Well back to the good stuff!

===============

PRR S-2 6-8-6 painting.

Before painting.

Table saw is my work area in the detached shop.

After. Dark green boiler and tender with other parts black.

I, finally, realized that I can paint the draw bar and tender stud since they don't need to conduct electricity using DCC. 

PRR J-1 2-10-4 and S-2 6-8-6 secondary paint.

Saves some time by painting the 2ndary paint on the two engines, at once. 

Oxide red tender decks and smoke box grey on the engines.  Next will be touch up, decals, clear coat, assembly with LED's and decoder.

Two hours to mask...

60 seconds to paint!

PRR J-1 2-10-4 and S-2 6-8-6 touch up, decals and clear coat.

Microscale decals used: one sheet easily did the two engines.

Tender sides are welded so no rivets and the decals 'laid down' very easily on the surface.  Glad I did some research on location of tender markings as the J-1 got the lettering in the center of the tender and the S-2 got the lettering near the top of the tender.  Piping around smoke box and fire box painted black.

Cab detail where none, previously, existed.  The removable cab was masked and painted whereas the sides of the back head were hand painted. 

PRR S-2 6-8-6 and J-1 2-10-4 LED and decoder install and assembly.

S-2 6-8-6.  After installing all the LED's: headlight (engine, tender), marker lights (engine, tender), running board lights, cab light and fire box glow; some weight was made from 1/16" thick lead stock.

A 4" width piece was rolled until the  desired diameter was obtained. The stock used was about 4"X9".

Found these in the engine box: pretty sure I can pitch them!

One 8 pin connector from engine to tender and one 4 pint connector from boiler to frame and engine was ready for checking and loading into decoderpro.

One tiny spider has decided my workbench makes a good home!

All's functioning.

Marker lights gets the green wire, running board lights gets the pink wire.

MMM; time to clean the lens, again!

Headlight gets the yellow wire.

Tender marker lights gets the brown wire. All LED's are on functions keys so they can be turned off.

Hard to tell that there is green in the black paint!

Had a short, sometimes, on the curve in the Seattle's yard.  Some appliances would touch the insulated side of the driver.  A slight bending fixed that.  While assembling the engine, I noticed it was very close to the driver so the diagnostics was quick.

Almost forgot the elephant ears!  Still needs to be tested on the mainline.   I went into decoderpro and shut off the chuffing sound since this is a turbine.  Initially, I tried maxing and, also, minimizing the chuff sound, hoping to get a constant 'swish' but that failed.  I turned on the blower (fn 14); that sounded good for a turbine but it seems to shut off when moving the engine a few feet.  Any ideas for a steam turbine sound would be welcomed.

J-1 2-10-4: As with the S-2, LED's installed; still have to organize them.  Open frame motor replaced with a can motor.  Some silicone caulk secured the motor to the frame.

A piece of rod was inserted between gear and motor to keep the tubing from 'flopping' or twisting.

Finding engineers and firemen have become a useless endeavor so I'm painted some cheap China sitting people with blue paint to make 'engineers'.   I need about 100 of each so this is the only economical way to do it.

I inserted some PSC seats in the cab and glued in my 'engineer' and 'fireman'.

Lots of wires to organize, yet!

I forgot to drill holes for the speaker!

All my engines that I paint and install DCC gets this decoder.

New delivery.  I did manage to find some Weston figures on ebay getting the whole lot for only about 30 bucks.  Weston has none in stock and most sellers want an 'arm and leg' for them.  I like the Weston figures.

I've got, probably, a thousand figures but, unfortunately, very few engineers.

Also, just arrived.

WOW Sam, you sure do some outstanding work! I just read your post and dream that one day I will get to a higher level. I am getting  better as time goes on! Thanks for sharing your amazing work!~

Sam, Excellent work once again!

Thanks, Mike and Mark. Every once in awhile I get lucky and things turn out well!

==========================

PRR J-1 Decoder install and assembly.

After checking the decoder and loading in the address via decoderpro, I looked through the menu for dimming the lights and found a 'LIGHT' page.

On the right of the screen was 'wire effect 0' for each colored wire.  The engine's green marker lights are on the green wire and the tender's red marker lights are on the brown wire so I changed them to option 'Constant dim'.  The red seems to be a lower intensity but the green didn't seem to change.  Will have to keep 'digging around'.

Assembled:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

During assembly, I knocked the crew and their seats off so they will have to be re-attached before putting the cab onto the engine.

Tender has two headlights.

Decals 'laid down' real nice.

One more engine to 'road' test.

Wow!  What a difference between before and after!!!

PRR J-1 2-10-4 and S-2 6-8-6 road tests.

J-1: One crank pin cam loose but no derailments, engine or cars, and she ran fine.  Only put 21 cars behind the engine for initial test.

Unusual 8 wheel tender trucks.  The side frames make it look like two sets of trucks versus one.

S-2 6-8-6.  Again, ran fine with 21 freight cars with the exception, again, of a crank pin coming loose.  These are the pins that don't have hex heads so I had to use a small screw driver and tighten it with the two small slots 180 degrees apart on the top of the crank pin.   Being a turbine, I've got the chuff off but still need to figure out how to create the 'swish' sound in the decoder.  With sound off, engine is very quiet running.

Comparing the two engines, surprised the S-2 6-8-6 is longer than the J-1 2-10-4.

Coal loads.  Usually, I use styrofoam for coal loads but I thought I'd try the soft foam especially since the sides of the tender curve inward, making any removable coal load impossible.  After trimming to look like a coal load, some black paint was used and then carpenter's glue and some 'coal' on top.  After it all dries, will see how it 'turns out'.

With an ops session coming up this Saturday, also a good time to test the railroad.  Mainline is working great plus the dispatcher's panel is functioning as it should.   After testing 16 passenger trains a few weeks ago that, also, was a good test.

PRR J-1 2-10-4 test run video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtk7rC794z4

C&O K-4 2-8-4 Kanawha; disassembly, prep, paint, LED's and decoder install.

This is a PFM United model made in 1972 that I purchased recently.  This is an engine I consider iconic (historical) as Lima was the first with their 'super power' steam engine commonly called the Berkshire.

A very nice model which, appears, that it was a 'shelf' model and, at most, test run.  48 years old has given it a nice patina.  In model train years, that's older than me but the engine still looks better and runs better, also!

Cut out a slot in the tender for the decoder wires.

Must of got it a little hot with the cut off disk as the front deck on the tender was loose and had to resistance solder it.

Holes drilled in tender bottom.

Open frame motor being replaced.

Drilled out marker lights.

Had to drill out a back plate behing marker lights to route LED wires into side of boiler.

While cutting the back shaft off the can motor, could only engage the shaft for a second or two so the heat build up doesn't damage internal wiring as that's what happened on an earlier can motor.

Trailing truck has washers on each axle: probably to keep the insulated wheels from touching the side frames as I've had that in the past.

Painting.

Before

After.  The 'usual': Scalecoat #10 black thinned 50% and 'cooked' for 2 hours for 200 degrees while the wheels air dry.

New deliveries.

Got low on 'warm white' LED's and red so ordered 50 white and 20 red. More 30 gauge wire and another decoder.  Need to order some more decoders.

Will try the 'bullfrog snot' to give some of my steam engines some more traction.  Also, got some 'sugar cube' speakers.  Usually, I use the old PFM speakers but, may run out, so ordered these. Usually, one has to purchase the speaker and sound chambers separately and the combo, usually, runs around 12-14 bucks.  Found these on Yankee Dabbler that supply both for $8.73.   These will go in steam tenders so I don't need any special size sound chambers.

Awesome layout samparfitt !

I live in North Carolina; where are you at?

Also, do you have videos of your layout and/or a track plan layout?

Really great photos on your rebuilds; thanks for sharing !

EB

Thanks, EB.

I live in West Chester, Ohio but, if you're going through town, you're are always welcome to stop by.

There's a ton of videos in this thread.  To see all of them  you can go to youtube and search 'great northern railway' or 'samparfitt' and that should bring up all 365, or so, videos that I have.   Track plan is, probably, somewhere on this thread.

===============

C&O H-6 2-6-6-2.  Disassembly, prep, paint, LED install and decoder install.

Another old engine made in 1975 by United (PFM).  Back in the 70's (age too!), I always liked the looks of this engine but I was, finally, able to purchase it, recently.

Disassembly.

The open frame motor's shaft was directly connected to the gear box.  Fortunately, I had a can motor with a real long drive shaft.

A set screw secures the gear and motor in place.  Later, some caulk will be used to secure the motor to the frame (after painting).

There were no gear covers so I had a few spares that I used.  Had to drill new holes as they were on the wrong side.

There was no back head detail so I cut and soldered a piece of brass as a back plate.  Next, a back head detail will be added.

Articulated's have a few more parts.  Normally, I paint the driver retaining plate but these are chromed.

Holes were drilled for the LED's and all electrical conducting surfaces were taped 'over'.

First coat of black.

Normally, it's best to disassemble the air brush after using it but, after running some reducer through the paint container and air brush, I then put the front end, including paint input hole, into the reducer and run air through it as it does a good job of cleaning out an left over paint.

This will complete painting of all C&O engines on the roster.  The only other engine is a J-3 4-8-4 that I purchased, already painted.  LED's and decoder still needs to to installed. This is an Overland model made in 1978.

First application of bullfrog snot to one engine.  A brush used to apply it while engine was running at slow speed.  A Q-tip in alcohol used to clean the drivers.  Looks like I'll need multiple applications.

Didn't know any articulateds were operational.

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

Thanks for the video. I tried to log into the web site, but when I go to "1880train.com" I get a web site that refers to PUPPIES!

Did someone hack into their web site or what?

RAY

Ray,

I got a security notification when trying to log onto their website so I cancelled.

C&O K-4 2-8-4 and H-6 2-6-6-2 (cont).

Decaling, paint touch up and coal loads.

Decaling.

Yup, a blank picture!  After placing the decal on the surface, I place a tissue over it and press from the middle out to remove excess water.

If there's rivets, chances are some of the decal will not lay over some of them as seen on the 'OHIO' decal.  I use the tissue and press down over those areas with my finger.  This procedure gets the bulk of the decal to lay over rivets.

After applying the solvaset there can still be some bubbles around the rivets.  A pin or tip of a #2 blade punctures those areas and more solvaset will resolve the area.

Fire box was hand painted smoke box silver.  All decals applied.

Cab back head added to the H-6.

Two seats added for the crew.

Always fun adding numbers to the number boards, especially when each number has to be cut out and applied!

The H-6 (back engine) got a 'complete' smoke box silver painted while the K-4 only got the smoke box front painted.  Research showed just the front was painted plus, when the smoke box stays the same size as the boiler (in addition there's a recess rectangular hole on top) they are, usually, painted black.  Sorry about the fuzzy pictures (it's late).

The running boards and all wheels get 'white walls'.  A paint pen from Michaels works pretty well.  Will take 2-3 coats to get complete coverage.  The paint pen has about an 1/8" diameter tip and I cut the end to make it narrower.

Two more coal loads made for a PRR Q-2 4-4-6-4 (left) and a DM&IR 2-8-8-4.

Tools of the trade for coal loads: foam, black paint, fake coal, alcohol to wet the coal and diluted carpenter's glue to make the coal 'stick'.

C&O K-4 2-8-4 and H-6 2-6-6-2 (cont).

Clear coat, assembly.

White walls: I sanded the sides of the paint pen, first, using some 220 grit to get a fine point for applying the paint to the running boards and all wheels rims.

Sides of frame gets the paint scraped away for electrical conductivity.  Many of the frames have small lugs sticking out to hold the driver springs.

The driver's journals will, usually, have a recess for the other side of the spring. 

It took me about an hour to assemble the valve assembly.  I didn't put the parts in their respective order and had to, logically, figure out where the parts went plus what size screws as I had to remove 4 screws from this side when it was disassembled.  All back together and no binds

New can motor siliconed to frame.  Small piece of metal rod between motor and gear for stability.

Easier to mask than try to clean paint out of those holes!  Same with bolster holes.

All the hard parts are together for both engines.  LED's glued in.

Getting 'down there' with only 11 more engines to paint. Been doing it since the mid 70's so only 45 plus years to complete this project!

Not counting the 7 logging engines yet!  Gives me something to do during the winter!

GNRW ops session.

As usual, lots of mainline train running.

Also, the usual: starting off with pizza     Can't 'work' on an empty stomach!

A GN R-2 freight drag with engineer Paul.  Joe doing some dispatching work.

PRR S-2 6-8-6; freshly painted last week and Bob taking on water at the functioning water tank.

GN R-2 at Skykomish.

PRR S-2 at Mirias Pass.

PRR S-2 taking water at Wilmar.

Alan running the other freshly painted PRR J-1 2-10-4 with freight drag at chumstick canyon trestle.

Bob's S-2 just west of St. Paul.

Joe getting his RDC's ready that he brought to 'run'.

Paul's R-2 at Tye.

Steve with recently painted N&W Y-3 2-8-8-2.

Mainline starting to get busy.  Fortunately, Joe is managing and not me!

Bob's PRR S-2 in the 'hole' waiting for eastbound PRR J-1 train at Waverly while R-2's freight drag is at Chumstick canyon trestle.

I enjoy watching other's having fun operating their trains.

The sceneries not to scale but the upper staging 3 track loop is a necessity!

Paul's GN R-2 leaving Glacier's 'watering hole'.

GN R-2 taking water at Wilmar.

B&O's EM-1 2-8-8-4 passenger train skirting Seattle's freight yard.

I'm sure Paul's taking movies to show them to his girl friend so she'll realize all the fun she is missing!

B&O EM-1 waiting for PRR S-2 to clear the turnout.

Love seeing the C&O M-1 run.

B&O EM-1 taking water at Wilmar while SF 2-10-4 is at Marias Pass.

GN  R-2 at Seattle's engine facilities.

Joe's RDC's.

A real 'hot' box.  Found out why one freight car was derailing!

Finished off the evening with Klondike bars and 'orange creamsicles' plus some railroad yarns and some engine repair.

Our 'junk' food is getting more nutritious: no one was eating the chips so I dropped them. Most of the food is nuts (cashews, pecans, peanuts) and fruit (pine apple, grapes, strawberries).

Sam, Excellent looking work.  Looks like you have a lifetime supply of brass engines to paint and detail!

Thanks, Mark.  It gives me something to do during the winter!

============================

PRR centipedes PM.  Increasing traction.

These are two very long engines by BLI.  Each has 16 driving wheels broken into two sets; each set has an idler wheel set so, only 12 wheels are powered.  These engines are pretty heavy and I thought they would pull just about anything I attached to the back of them but they had trouble pulling a 14 passenger car set up the Cascade tunnel grade.  The passenger cars are pretty heavy with 8 being brass and the others are plastic that were made recently but, still,  I assumed the shear size of the engines would 'do the trick'.

Of the 8 sets of wheels, I removed two to apply some 'traction tires.  The driver retaining plate has two screws at each end plus two 'snap' tabs in the center to remove the plate.  The far left one is the 'idler' wheel set.  One nice thing is it has a gear on the axle to it can be used as a spare in case one of the other drivers goes 'south'.   Both wheels are insulated from the axle so the plate has metal tabs to make contact with the sides of the wheels.  Caution needs to be taken when putting the plate back on to insure all tabs are inside the wheel's sides so they aren't bent.

Idler wheel set and close up of contact tabs.  I removed the wheels for two reasons: 1) I don't have 3 hands, 2 to make electrical contact with the wheels via alligator clips while applying the wheel adhesive and 2) I tried the usual hot side engine and tender on a BLI GN S-2 4-8-4 and blew the decoder ( not sure why but it appears they don't used the 'standard' hot/ground as used on my brass steam engines.)

I used a soft brush to apply the 'bullfrog snot' after cleaning them with alcohol.

It takes a good 8 hours to dry and dries clear.

Engines were able to pull the passenger train through the cascade tunnel grade: mission accomplished using the 'bullfrog snot'.  It's not cheap at about 20 bucks for a small container but, if it works, I'll pay it!  As long as it doesn't dry out, it should be enough to do a lot of engines for a long time.

B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4 yellowstone.

Disassembly, prep, paint, assembly, LED's install and decoder install.

By Samhongsa and imported by Westside.  Made in 1979.  This is the last B&O engine to be painted.  Was no coupler mounted and saw no wear on the wheels so, virtually, sat in the box for the last 41 years.  Purchased it in the last year.

Lots of detail.

Disassembly.  Nothing unusual on this except the smoke box cover is soldered on so routing the LED wires will be more challenging.  Drilled out marker lights and headlights (engine, tender), cab light and 4 holes for running board lights.  This model has a huge can motor.

Non painted parts.

First coat after masking wheels and electrical contact points.

Baked.

Air dry.  The wheels were non removable on the tender trucks as well as the leading and trailing trucks

New delivery.  More decoders and fire box glow LED's.

Three items (make that 4):

1) The present weathered B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4 was having trouble pulling the 14 passenger cars up the Cascade hill so some 'bullfrog snot (BFS)' was added to the the last drivers on both sets of engines.  The results were good in that the engine had no trouble pulling the cars after the 'traction tire' dried for 8 hours.

2) 2nd B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4, painting, etc.

Taped off front of smoke box and top access to smoke box for painting.

After touch ups of cab, fire box, safety valves, bell, whistle, handles and decals applied, satin clear top coat added to all parts.

The front B&O emblem was solid brass so I used a file to scrape off the raised edges to get the emblem to show.

Recessed area of smoke box as rest has lagging covering it.

Some touchups in the cab.

Safety valves, whistle and handles.

Decals added.

Back and front drivers in separate retainers while being painted.

3)  Decoderpro was being used to input data into each engine decoder and saved to a 'roster'.  Panelpro was used to access the dispatcher's panel.  Decoderpro and panelpro have separate rosters so, once I updated the decoderpro, I had to move any new updates to panelpro as I could access the 'roster' on panelpro but not make any updates to it; very frustrating.

My friend Joe came over and we resolved the problem. Under panelpro we couldn't even test the engine.

We 'clicked' on edit and preferences....

That gave us the 3 software accesses, ie, LCB (access to digitrax), Sprog (used to access the roster) and loconet (to access LCC virtual dispatchers panel, signals, turnouts, etc).  We 'clicked' on each one and 'saved' (lower left corner of screen) the Com9 to SPROG and 'disabled the connection' (lower left corner of screen) the LCB and loconet.  The SPROG was then able to access and update the roster.  Weird thing is, we then 'clicked' on 'saved' for the LCB and loconet and everything worked.  Not sure why but I need to follow this procedure to gain access to all three 'systems'.   Having an updated roster also makes it easy to look up an engine number as, sometimes, they are hard to see on the layout.

The LCB and the loconet were disabled.

The Sprog was saved and then, the other two were saved.

Forgot about the 4th item!  The NYC H-10B 2-8-2 was having trouble pulling a string of freight cars up the Cascade grade so more 'BFS' used.  I'll have to wait overnight to test it.

Thought I'd run some trains instead of 'doing things'!

videos:

C&O H-8 2-6-6-6 at Hillyard:

An MTH engine with about 34 vintage wood/metal freight cars.

I enjoy running these trains through scenery and observing each car, closely, as they pass. 

The variety of names on the cars reminds me of when I was a kid alongside the tracks.

This never gets old for me: 'mainline running with scenery'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph4ZdBvn5Ck

NYC H-10B 2-8-2  at Chumstick canyon trestle.

A United (PFM) engine pulling vintage metal/wood freight cars.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YImFw7WHuNU

C&O H-8 at Havre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIIFLL6WZjg

C&O 2-6-6-6 pictures:

All fueled and watered.

At Tye.

Skykomish.

I added some 'bullfrog snot' to the NYC 2-8-2 to improve it's pulling performance.

GN C-1 0-8-0 switcher for the Seattle's freight yard.

Added some 'bullfrog snot' to the back pair of drivers for some extra traction.

Needless to say, the little switcher has a lot of cars to 'shuffle' as some leads can hold 43 cars!

No problem handling 34 cars.

Nice GN layout I found on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heq5eVutaUo

NYC caboose.

A year or so ago, I picked up this NYC caboose on ebay. The paint job was 'shot'.  It didn't have a box so don't know who made it; only markings is 'made in Japan'.  Probably a brass model from the 60's.  Don't remember what I paid for it but, probably, 25-35 bucks.

Letting the parts sit in some lacquer thinner overnight removed the bulk of the paint.    A brass brush and air compressor removed any remaining paint left in 'corners'.

All cleaned and ready to be painted.

Holes drilled for some 'caboose hobbies' marker lights.  Made them a tight fit so just some thin CA used to secure them in place.  No solder needed as it would be difficult to do a 'clean' job on that small of a part plus no stress on them.

Some box car red.  Also painted the roof of another plastic caboose that I hosed up by trying to use a clear coat in a rattle can and it turned 'white' on me.

From my research, the caboose is all red except the roof, which gets some black.

Some touch up with yellow for 'grab irons'.   Couldn't find any NYC caboose decals but a seller in Dayton had some NYC pacemaker box car decals which has appropriate markings for a caboose.  Being only 25 miles from me, I should get them in a day or two.

NYC caboose: lighted and painted.

Before:

During:

Some dividers used to get accurate measurements to cut 'window glass'.

Hole drilled/tapped for screw and wire for contact to wheels.

After:

Research says the oval NYC should be smaller but this was the best I could do as no one makes NYC caboose decals (something's better than nothing!).

Vast improvement on the caboose!!

OUCH!

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

New delivery:

UP Cheyanne coaling tower.

I really didn't need another building was this one was pretty impressive.

I believe this is modeled after the UP large coaling tower.  Don't know if it's from a kit or scratch built.  Appears to be all plastic.  Did a 'google'  and didn't find any kits.  If anyone knows who made this, please post.  thanks.  I put it in the upper interchange loop.

The coaling tower looks really great, Sam!

Had a few railroaders send me info on the coaling tower.

It was made by IHC back in the 80's.

I didn't know IHC made such nice stuff.

I picked this one up for 60 bucks, including shipping, so I'm happy with it!

Checked out ebay and they do show up in kit form.  Surprised they only sell for around 60 bucks. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HO-1-...rksid=p2047675.l2557

C&O H-6 2-6-6-2: reassembly and decoder install.

It's been several days since I worked on this engine.

TCS 1517 decoder installed and setup under decoderpro via SPROG.  Test track used to insure no shorts.

Basin data input.

Instead of changing the chuff rate, which is always too fast, via the hand held throttle, it was changed in decoderpro to '25'.

Green marker lights (green wire) changed to 'constant dim'.

Photo shoot.

As built, engine had no cab detail.

Like the full size, it needs to be 'road tested'.

C&O H-6 2-6-6-2 and K-4 2-8-4 final assembly.

H-6 2-6-6-2:

Had a lot of problems with this engine.

1)  Spring supporting the front boiler over the front set of drivers was too weak so a stronger spring was used.

2)  Burned out a decoder.  Engine ran fine for several minutes and then the motor was unresponsive.  Noticed the 8 pin connector was black for the orange wire (motor lead).  Used another tender (all connectors are 'universal') to see if female or male side, or both, were defective; turns out the female side was bad.  Made new one and sent decoder in for repair.

3) Had trouble getting the front cow catcher assembly to fit on the frame: Turns out I had the assemblies swapped between the H-6 and the K-4!

Spent a good morning fixing all the 'problems'.

K-4 2-8-4.

Got engine decaled, clear coated and decoder installed.

New data inputted into the decoder via decoderpro.

MMM: just noticed that the MTH H-8 and the Key H-8 are not in the 'engine roster'.   With previous problems with decoderpro, must of got loaded in the wrong file.  Will have to put back on the test track and reload them.

Unassembled while on the test track as I usually have the motor wires reversed!  Motor contacts taped over to insure no contact with boiler housing.   Three connectors used: tender to engine, frame to boiler and boiler to front headlight.

All's working after the assembly.  Both still need to be 'road tested'.

No cab detail was added as the motor protrudes into the cab area.   Both engines are by PFM (United) from the early 70's.

This 'finishes up' all the C&O engines.

Before:

After:

The K-4 engine is almost as long as the H-6 articulated.    The metal throttle is DC which is used to test new engines before converting to DCC.  This is the last DC on the layout as all the DC throttles (PFM sound and wireless remote) have been removed and sold. The one toggle to the left of the box switches from DCC to DC in the yard.   Since I converted to DCC I have never used the old DC system so might as well remove it.   The remaining engines that do not have a decoder can still be run via address zero.

B&O EM-1 2-8-8-4: final assembly.

The usual TCS 1517 decoder was used and 12 LED's were installed:

Headlight: engine/tender

Marker lights: engine/tender

Running board lights: 4

cab light

fire box glow

Decoderpro used to load new data into decoder and test all wiring.

Engine marker lights (green wire) and tender marker lights (brown wire) set to dim.

Chuff rate changed from 100 to 20.

Engine address inputted.

Engine roster.

All wiring checked on the test track.  The three wire connectors are home made.

Checked on the main track: as usual the motor wires needed reversed.  Grey is suppose to be plus; think I'll just start connecting it to the negative side!

Normally, can connect back engine to boiler and then the front to the boiler but the universal between the two engines required both to be attached at the same time.

Which made it a little more difficult to insert the 2 screws securing the front of the back engine to the boiler (small brass screw behind piston).  Around the mid 70's, importers started using hex head screws to secure the side rods.

Before:

After.

This completes the painting of all B&O engines that I have, which are the two EM-1's.  The other one (right side) was painted and weathered when I purchased it.  Decoder and LED's were installed after I purchased it.

One more engine that still has to be 'road tested'.

More articulateds, only in California.

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...R1TGahIp&index=3

C&O K-4 2-8-4 road trip test.

Videos:

Skykomish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMO0T1M_Xso

Tumwater Canyon:

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

Making coal loads for the tenders.

Soft foam.

Black paint, carpenter's glue, alcohol and diluted carpenter's glue.

Glacier

Marias pass.

Tye.

New coal load.

New delivery.  Really nice, large hard cover book by well know photographer David P. Morgan.  Amazing how cheap used books are: 10 bucks for it.

C&O H-6 2-6-6-2: road test.

video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ienkgQ3BryI

Like the full size, this engine doesn't run very fast so it took awhile to traverse the mainline. From what I read, this engine picked up coal cars from the mines and worked south of Columbus, Ohio.

Coal load added.

Did some PM on two cabeese as the marker lights were not working.

Been wanting to do this for ages!

Lanyards are made of rope so they should be beige color and not black!

New delivery.

Never have too many decoders!

Sam, Its been a while for me to not read your post, but I do have to say many new things going on here. But one thing is still the same and that's the amazing work you do and that no matter what section of your layout you show it's a piece of art!

I really enjoy reading your post and fallowing your photos and video's. I wish I would keep up to speed more often. I hope to see more as time moves on! Thanks for sharing!