Great Northern railway

Vintage metal Athearn/Varney and wood Ambroid/Silver Streak freight cars.

I've rearranged the 60's/70's lighter plastic cars (Athearn, TM, etc) from the heavier vintage freight cars so it will be easier to assign appropriate motive power to that respective string of cars.

I came up with some 'stats' that I wasn't aware of:

There are around 210 vintage freight cars as I thought I only had about 150.  The bulk of the vintage cars have either/both Acurail plastic trucks and Intermountain metal wheel sets.   I tried to keep the original metal, sprung trucks but the Intermountain wheels, sometimes, shorts out when the insulated side touches the metal truck frame.

There are only about 100 plastic freight cars at Seattle's freight yard.  The bulk of the plastic cars have Intermountain metal wheel sets.

Seattle's freight yard:

Each track holds from 36 to 43 freight cars.

The 'icing' platform (far left) has all plastic 'reefers' on both sides of the platform.

Besides the 2 'reefer' tracks, there is only one track with the plastic freight cars.  The rest are all 'vintage'.

The St. Paul freight yard only has 1 track (far left) with vintage freight cars.  The rest are all plastic.

About a year ago, I removed about 100 plastic freight cars from the layout.

The passenger yard was installed about 1.5 years ago.  They have vintage and modern passenger cars.  Vintage being the old AHM plastic cars from the 70's.  The vintage cars needed new wheel sets.  The newer BLI, MTH, Walthers, etc, already have nice 'free wheeling' wheels plus their detail is excellent.

A very nice layout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLGv99vrF-g

That's a lot of cars, Sam!  Very nice!

A fellow railroader came over so we could 'dry run' our presentation on Sunday for our NMRA MCR Div 7 meeting on 'how to paint engines' and he brought over his PRR 2-10-0 by Key that he painted and installed LED's and a decoder.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6l2X0nbPZw

Seattle's freight yard.

Skykomish.

Wilmar.

Chumstick canyon trestle.

Havre.

New delivery.

Have been waiting at least 2 years to find one of these

Full size: only one made in 1954 and scrapped in 1958.

These were made in 1982  and 175 were made.

The 3 unit set comes in the largest box that I have.

Pretty cool: previous owner has an operator's manual for the full size engine.

The original center foam deteriorated so I'll make a new one.

All 24 drivers on the main unit are powered.

Wheel arrangement: C+C-C+C  (6-6-6-6).

Nicely detailed undercarriage, especially the ends.

2nd unit.

3rd unit.

Over 27" long; cool.

see through screens.

Nice 'hose end' detail.

Back end with 'see through' screens with fans.

Coal bunker 'up front'.

More 'see through' screens and fans.

Comparison to my other 'long' engines.  Front to back:

UP 8500 turbine.

N&W Jawn Henry.

C&O M-1 turbine.

PRR S-1 6-4-4-6

GN R-2 2-8-8-2.

Should be an easy 'paint job': it's all black!

The ESU decoder with turbine sounds, also, just arrived today.

This same decoder was used for the C&O M-1 turbine.

That's a great model of the Behemoth, Sam!!!

N&W Jawn Henry bench testing.

Removed 8 screws to remove the super structure.

Two can motors operate each set of trucks.

The 'manual' says the noise is coming from the universal between the two trucks.

The front truck seems to make the most noise.  Initially, I put light oil on the gears; next some white lithium grease was added.  That seemed to help but still noisy.

The trucks are insulated from the frame and two stiff wires are used to made contact with the insulated side of the wheels.

The two trailing 'tenders' are not used for power.

Some weight helped reduce some of the noise.  Also, filling the superstructure with foam rubber should help.

There is no room to insert a universal joint between the 2 sets of trucks.  Alco put a 'gear' on each rod and connected them with a piece of tubing.  The 'gear' keeps the tubing from slipping.

Enclosed in the box are two black universals, two brass 'donuts'. 2 brass rods and  2 spare tubing.  Not sure how they can be used.

The coupler mounting screws are mounted farther than normal for a #5 Kadee so had to use some 'long shank' couplers.

A 'test' run in the yard (only place I have DC power).

The engine was hesitating going over the turnouts.  Without the frame screwed to the superstructure, the frame sags in the middle (something I can relate to!) and contacts the turnout rails.

Cut some foam to hold the engine.

Used an old paper cutter to fit the foam to the box.  Tomorrow, will go to the detached shop and scroll saw the foam for the 3 pieces of the engine.

Video of mine with all the noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNRW0W2uoE

Video of another but quiet:  will have to do more diagnostics to get mine quiet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79sPkq3wfQ

Any suggestions on reducing the noise would be appreciated.

Found this one video of the 'full size' one but only in 'stationary' mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n0VuljeSM0

N&W Jawn Henry; 2nd bench test.

Video of the 2nd bench test.  'Things' seem  to be quieter, now.

The chair I'm sitting on is squeaking (probably me also!) as I turn to video the engine.

It seems pretty quiet in the forward run and with the high pitch turbine, I think it will be OK.

The 'manual' says the rubber tubing universal causes noise.  Some 'fine adjustment' of it seems to help.   Some white lithium grease also seems to help on the gears since all are metal as nylon would be quieter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnsE0VF6Ru0

I inputted a reply on one of the videos where the owner's engine if very quiet inquiring as what he did to improve the model.

Some foam in the superstructure helps as the superstructure, probably, acts like a speaker cabinet.

I had to allow for the gear towers when installing the foam.  Wouldn't hurt to insulate those motors from the frame, also.

More pictures of some of the details on this engine. By the mid 70's to the 80's the importers were bringing in a lot of nice stuff.  This engine was $880 back in 1982; that was a lot of $$ as that's over $2500 in today's dollars!

Looks like I'm going to have to mask off the headlight lens before painting as it doesn't look like it is an easy removal.

The superstructure is only resting on the frame so there's a big gap between the two items.

Noticed the 'rotating' coupler was a different shade of brass;  it doesn't rotate but it snaps on the cow catcher in case you want to add a Kadee coupler.

Used the scroll saw, this morning, to cut holes in the foam for the engine.

N&W Jawn Henry: decoder install and 'road test'.

Figure I'd better install a decoder so I can 'get all the bugs out' before painting the engine.  First time I've ever installed a decoder before painting an engine but, with both 'hot/ground' in one engine unit plus not installing lights for now and no connectors made, it went fairly quickly.

Videos:

Skykomish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvw11e2WIsM

Departing Hillyard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-RlzByR2vI

Still needs some more 'tweaking' and 'road testing'.  Good 'to know' that the decoder can handle the amperage of the 2 motors.

Temporarily installed an LED to insure access to the headlight.

Drilled holes for the marker lights.  Normally, I drill out the marker lights but these are an unusual shape so I'll just glue the LED to the front of the marker light.

Engine kept shorting in the yard over the turnouts.  Initially, thought the driver wheels were shorting but all those hoses on the 'tender' made momentary contact with the engine and caused a short.  Put some heat shrink tubing over the offending brass hose.  Being 'long shank' couplers the metal arm is outside the coupler box and would, occasionally, touch the tender and short.  Some electrical tape fixed that problem.

ESU decoder install.  The dealer installed the sound for me.  Needed a turbine sound so I couldn't use my, usual, TCS 1517 decoder.

Schematic for the decoder install. ECU doesn't use NMRA standard color codes on all wires: ie: brown for speaker wires.

I also installed their 'keep alive'.

I removed the 8 pin connector that came with the decoder.

Quick and dirty for the decoder install for 'road testing' the engine: Hot/ground, motor and speaker.

Programming track.  I like to, first, click on the 'open comprehensive programmer' and then 'basic'.

Saved and uploaded into the roster.

Quick test on the mainline to insure all's 'good' before installing the superstructure.

Cut all the bare wire ends and taped them, for now, to insure no errant contact with other metal parts!

Road test.

A 'scale' overhang in the upper return loop/interchange storage track on the 48" minimum radii.

Wilmar.

Chumstick canyon trestle.

Had to put a piece of thin cardstock in the 'tender' to keep the 'long shank' coupler from drooping and uncoupling at one spot where the sub roadbed transitions from 'one type' to another.   

Nice video on the N&W railroad.

A 10 second view of a Jawn Henry at 22:20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYhDUSd4DY4

Lots of Y6B's and A's.

I collect what I consider iconic or historic steam engines of railroads.  The N&W being a Class A,  Y6B and J.  I also have a Y3.

Very impressive locomotive. Sounds much better today. Looking forward to you painting it.

N&W Jawn Henry; More PM.

3,600 feet: most of the large engines that I have acquired are, usually, 'hanger queens' so I figure the gears may need to be 'broken in' so I have run the engine 4 times from Seattle to St. Paul and back.

More PM:

Air hoses on the 1st 'tender' was too low and shorting at some turnouts.

Last coupler 'hose' was too low and shorting on some turnouts.

Air hoses on last 'tender' was, also, shorting on some turnouts.

One of the universal tubing from the motor to the gear tower came off.

Havre.

Nice underbody detail.

Fellow railroader sent me this picture.

I'm thinking when folks saw the prototype, they wondered, "What was that?!"  Nice run!

Thanks, Mark.

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

N&W Jawn Henry: disassembly and painting.

The engine is running pretty smoothly so any more adjustments should be able to be made without damaging the paint.

Both trucks on the last 'tender' had a screw missing in each truck that were replaced.

The end deck 'popped off' while disassembling the rear 'tender' so it had to be re-soldered via resistance soldering.

Both tenders disassembled.  The truck wheels are already blackened so no need to mask and paint those.  The tenders will go into the toaster oven.

Engine disassembly.

I numbered each truck to insure they go back in the same order as removed.

The truck frames were, also, numbered.

A pizza tray for  the large superstructure which will go into the kitchen oven as it's too large to fit in the toaster oven; besides, there's not enough room for all the parts for the toaster oven.

All engine parts laid 'in order' in the box lid.  Normally, I paint the 'drivers' but, in this case, with running the engine for 3600' to 'break in' the gears, I don't want to 'mix up' the drivers and wheels so none of these will be painted.  The side frame hide most of the wheel, anyway, so the shiny sides will not be noticeable.

I lied: I did drill out the marker lights.  Used a very small drill bit and then a larger one to accept the 0402 LED's.

Hobby drill press works well for such tasks.

My UP 8500 turbine has a light over the back door so I drilled a hole in the engine to do the 'same'.

Usual cleaning of parts; turkey pan, dish washing liquid and vinegar and a tooth brush.

Best to use distilled water to avoid spots but, since I use the air compressor to, immediately, remove the water plus in the toaster over for 15 minutes, I 'cheat' and use tap water (plus my tap water is low in minerals).

Never assume the kitchen oven temperature dial is correct.  I had to dial 'down' the 'reading'.  If you have others in the house and you use the oven, put a LARGE note over the dials 'DO NOT TOUCH".

Toaster oven 'drying out' the water.

Any thing that will transmit electricity is 'masked off'.

You don't even want to try to remove paint out of the journals!

Since a lens was factory installed I had to mask the lens.

Used heat shrink tubing to protect the 'pick up wires'.  Since the center of the truck frame is used to transmit 'juice' those, too, were masked.

Scalecoat enamel paint reduced 50/50.

High gloss finish: good for applying decals.

My 45 year old air brush ready for one more 'job'.

First coat applied.  Cook for 2 hours at 200 degrees before adding the 2nd coat.

Took a couple hours to get my detached shop from 24 to 60 degrees.  Don't paint much when it's that cold as it gets expensive to heat via kerosene.

My air filter 'split open'; fortunately, just as I was cleaning up the air brush.

Sam, that's a dandy 'how-to' on preparing a brass engine for painting.  The Jawn Henry will look great!

Mark, I'm giving a 'how to paint engines' tomorrow at the NMRA MCR DIV 7 meeting.

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

N&W Jawn Henry: decaling.

'shot' a 2nd coat of black and then masked off the cab for light green paint: don't know if the Jawn Henry had a green cabin but mine does!  Will add an LED and crew.

Masked off the outside of the windows when painting the cab.

Microscale decals used. There was an external piece of metal along the middle of one tender side so the decal needed to be cut to get proper location.   The decal on the bottom tender has the water removed but before Solvaset has been applied.  I use a tissue to press down over the rivets to get most of the 'bubbles' removed before applying the Solvaset.

Decal is aligned with a row of rivets to insure it is perfectly straight.

Tissue to remove excess water and to press down over the rivets.

Ta Da!  The engine's decal was cut in 'threes'  to get the proper spacing per photographs.

Always fun putting on 'number board' numbers, especially when the decal sheet has no 'exact' number for the engine!

Next will be clear coating.

Perfect person for the job of giving the clinic!  Have a great time!

NMRA MCR DIV 7 post meeting layout visits:

Ed Swain's PRR.

Patrick Stanley's SP:

Those are two really nice looking layouts!!!

Mark,

DIV 7 has around 65 registered layouts in the Cincinnati area and a lot of them have been published in magazines.

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

N&W Jawn Henry and GN R-2:

The engine was clear coated to protect the decals and paint and 'cooked' for 2 hours.

LED install.

Headlight and marker lights. Some canopy glue over the opening of the marker lights. Also, grounded one of the lead wires to insure no contact with the brass superstructure.

Light over the 'back' door.

Two lights in the cab.

Almost forgot about lighting the steps (can't have the crew getting injured!).  Drilled two new holes for the 0402 LED's.

Tender light.

Combo of microscale decals, Solvaset and clear coat works well to make the decal edges, virtually, disappear.

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 final assembly.

This engine was purchased last Spring and only thing left to do from last Spring was to solder the motor wires and assemble the main components.

This engine was already painted when I purchased it; just installed LED's and a decoder along with gear and motor.

This is the 3rd of four R-2's that I, now, have.

Programming track.

Reduced the 'chuff' rate from 100 to 20.

Reduced all lights from 'bright' to 'dim' although it's not noticeable unless next to another engine.

New gear and motor.

Two small screws hold the front of the back set of drivers to the boiler. Phillips head are much easier to install!

2 pin connector from engine to headlight mounted on 'cow catcher' platform.

Runs well in the yard.  Will need 'road testing'.

New box for engine.

Sam, I've gotten that idea that Cincinnati area is a hotbed for great model railroads.

Both engines are looking great!

There is a list of local layouts available on the Cincinnati Division 7 website (linked below), including publication info & some have links to photos.

Cincinnati area model railroads

Our DIV 7 forum 'keeper' has added my 'painting your models'  on the website:

https://www.cincy-div7.org/modelers-aid.html

That's an excellent article, Sam.  I see they have lots of very useful topics on the list.  Thank you for posting

Mark,

I'm lucky to belong to a NMRA division that has lots of great leadership and membership.

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

N&W Jawn Henry: Assembly and decoder install.

Assembly is a lot easier than a steam engine: no side rods and valve gear, etc.

The side trucks mounted to the drive wheels. Checked 'ease of movement' after each sub assembly.

Back trucks attached to the rear frame.

Front and rear frame attached to the center frame.

Motors mounted.

Connected up so the engine would run on DC to insure all's 'good': Had to remove the paint on the front and back frames for electrical conductivity.

Engine is quiet when I ran with the two end trucks removed.  The manufacturer's manual said the engine's universals make noise until they 'warm up'; what ever that 'means'!

Decoder install.

Routed the red and black (hot/ground) wires to one location.

Since I have lots of LED's in the superstructure, the decoder was placed there and a 6 pin connector was made:

Hot/ground wire, 2 motor wires and 2 wires going to  the lights next to the ladders.

Taped the 'jumble of wires', decoder, 'keep alive' and speaker at the front of the engine.

I stuffed some foam in the superstructure except  where the motor and gear towers are located.

Function 0: headlight,  Function 5 for cab, ladder and rear door lights and Function 6 for marker lights.

Not much room in the cab so only a 'bust' of the crew in the cab.

Some coal needed, yet.

'Road test' is next.

New delivery.

26X10 props: 3 wood and 1 carbon fiber for my RC planes.  Ordered these last summer and they just arrived.  Same on my 2 wood screen doors for the back 'screened in' porch; ordered last summer and they arrived a few weeks ago.

What a great looking job!

Thanks Mark.

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

RF&P 4-8-4.

Model is by Fujiyama made in 1976.

BEFORE:

A few pieces needed 'mending'.

My 'cheat sheet' for installing decoders.  I hate 'reinventing the wheel'!

This model was painted last Spring.  Only needed a few minor adjustments for assembly.

Programming track.

Had to use a 'sugar' cube speaker so I reduced the volume by half.

AFTER:

A very pretty engine.

The decals I had were great as it made it easy to add all the 'ginger bread'.

Note the round brass decals on all the wheels.

Lots of piping detail.

Striping on the sand dome.

Near scale distance between cab and tender. Lighted cab with painted dials and valves.

First time I've used 'double' decals where one lays over another.

The frame of the tender wasn't removable so I had to cut out the tender coal area and make a removeable hatch for inserting the decoder and speaker.

Decals even provided for 'automatic train control'.

Not many HO engines have the detailed 3 dimensional 'oil' pipes on the trailing trucks.

Tender hole if one wants to attached safety chains to the tender trucks.

After painting and decoder install, the box is numbered; that way, when I croak, the kids will know 'which' engine goes in 'which' box!

One more engine to 'road test'.

I feel like the Jawn Henry is such a brutish looking locomotive. I can't believe we never saw a three rail O-scale version!

Your version is stunning! What a beast...

GN R-2 2-8-8-2 final assembly.

Another engine I had, mostly, completed last Spring and needed minor assembly. This is the 4th R-2 on the roster.  I didn't 'need' 4 R-2's but the price was too good to 'pass up'.

The engine had a bad tender decal so, last Spring, the tender was stripped and repainted and both engine and tender was 'clear coated' to give an 'overall same' appearance.  Also, re-geared and re-motored plus LED and decoder install.

Programming track.

The usual TCS 1517 WOW 101 decoder with 'keep alive'.

Weird: Can upload all the 'data' into the engine but the 'throttle' screen doesn't work.  Got a friend bringing his Sprog device to see if mine is bad.

Check to make sure all function keys work for turning all lights on.  Besides the 8 pin connector between the tender and engine, another 4 pin connector from 'drive train' to boiler and a 2  pin connector from boiler to headlight on the 'cow catcher' platform.

I 'bypass' the decoder for the fire box as I use it to indicate that power is available to the engine before inputting the address to the throttle.

Don't need any shorts!

Had to replace one of the damaged brake shoes.

All moving parts oiled.

A 50 year old engine and no wear on the drivers; I find this the 'usual' on purchasing large engines.

Bulky 8 pin connector from engine to tender....

but a rectangular hole in the tender allows the connector to be hidden and the 8 wires are 'bundled' into 2 groups with heat shrink to replicate hoses.

Works in the yard.  Another one to 'road test'.

Tenshodo did nice work back in the 70's.

Always like pictures: lets me see that I need to touch up those LED red wires!

The right two are recent purchases.  The left 2 I have had many decades. All but the far left engine has decoders.

Those 'real' wood ties have weathered nicely after 43 years!

The near one, a previous owner painted the 'glacier' colors.  The back two, I painted.  These engines came painted black from Tenshodo and I only had to mask off the boiler for the green paint.  The domes and all appliances should be painted black.

New box for the engine.

Huge and very nice HO club layout video in Pennsylvania.

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

New delivery:

UP FEF-3 4-8-4 2-tone grey with yellow stripe.

PRR P5A boxcab electric.

Figure I'd get one with a yellow stripe.

The new 'slide out' box versus a 'box lid'.

Usual smoking stack plus smoking whistle.

PRR P5A box cab electric.

Got a 3rd one so we can handle 45 car trains versus 25-30.  All cast metal.

Both very sharp; and they are already painted!!

I've been getting lazy in my old age; buying engines painted and with decoders; plus I like the smoking whistles.

I've got about 7 engines that still need to be painted plus about 6 logging engines.

There are a lot of painted engines that still need decoders but the bulk of them will, probably, never get decoders; got enough engines to 'run'.

@BillYo414 posted:

I feel like the Jawn Henry is such a brutish looking locomotive. I can't believe we never saw a three rail O-scale version!

Your version is stunning! What a beast...

3rd Rail did make the Jawn Henry in O scale in both 2 and 3 rail versions about 10 to 15 years ago.  A friend of mine has the 3-rail version.  It is huge!  It will go around O-72 curves.  I will see if I can get a photograph of it sometime soon.  NH Joe  

Looks like the 3rd rail cost around $3,200.

http://www.3rdrail.com/images/nwte1.pdf

The 3rd Rail flyer says it will take 054 curves!  I wonder what the overhang is like!

Atlantic Coast Line R-1 4-8-4.

Imported by Overland in 1977.

Another engine painted last Spring and needed some assembly.

BEFORE:

Routed all the LED wires to the back of the cab and taped them to the top of the boiler.  Until the last few engines I used to route all the wires through long pieces of 'heat shrink' tubing.  Figure this is 'good enough' and much faster!

4 pin connector made between boiler and frame.

The engine had a can motor but I added a 'low amperage' can motor; kept the original gear drive.  Some silicon caulk secured the motor to the frame.

Couldn't finish the tender until I had the engine reassembled in order align the white stripe.

Top half gets grey paint.

2 hours at 200 degrees.

Used this manufacturer's decals, mainly because they were the only ones that made the ACL decals for a steam engine!

Front truck wheels were not 'rolling'; after cleaning all likely paint problems, noticed that the frame was a little too wide for the wheel sets so cut about a 1/16" out of each brass end and re-soldered it.

AFTER:

All pictures that I have showed everything painted grey above the running boards with no black piping, etc.

Used the SPROG and the 'programming track' to upload the address, change the chuff setting and LED brightness.

A couple of the brass brake shoes were touching the insulated wheels so the brake shoes were 'centered'.

A deck plate was added.

Ran well in the yard.  Another 'road test' to be done.

@samparfitt posted:

I've been getting lazy in my old age; buying engines painted and with decoders; plus I like the smoking whistles.

I've got about 7 engines that still need to be painted plus about 6 logging engines.

There are a lot of painted engines that still need decoders but the bulk of them will, probably, never get decoders; got enough engines to 'run'.

After following your progress on the work on these locomotives I have a hard time putting the word  " lazy " to anything you've done.     Thanks for sharing .

Beautiful work, have always been a fan of Overland brass

Thanks for the kind words Dallas.

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

Great Northern Railway Operating session.

Videos:

New Jawn Henry, painted, decoder and lights installed pulling it's first freight train:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg9NJWxbxWE

Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 freight drag pulling vintage metal Athearn/Varney and wood Ambroid/Silver Streak cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkK-7kJFkD0

D&RGW L-131 Zephyr passenger train:  BLI did a very nice job on the 'patina'  look of stainless steel on the passenger cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wnDDEIPgOE

Pizza first: had some 'no shows' due to health and other 'commitments'.

Bob's Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 freight drag at Skykomish.  A Westside engine made in 1978.

T&P 2-10-4 at Glacier.

Ben running the first 'road test' of the N&W Jawn Henry.

Bill running a NP Z-8 4-6-6-4 freight drag.  Engine made by Sunset in 2013 (one of my 'newer' engines!).

Joe 'dispatching'.

Jawn Henry at Hillyard taking on water, both tenders.

NP Z-8 at Glacier.

T&P 2-10-4 at Havre.

NP Z-8 at Wilmar and T&P 2-10-4 at Marias pass.

T&P 2-10-4 at Tye.

NP Z-8 East of Waverly.

T&P 2-10-4 at Skykomish.

Jawn Henry at Waverly.

Bill's NP Z-8 bypassing St. Paul.

East versus West.

Bob's D&RGW L-131 Zephyr departing the passenger yard.

The Zephyr 'bypassing' the Seattle's freight yard.

D&GRW L-131 at Skykomish.

Ben at Glacier.

Skykomish.

Jawn Henry at Tye.

Jawn Henry at Skykomish.

Zephyr at Waverly.

SF 4-8-4 departing St. Paul.

Bill 'working' the ore dock.

The OLD versus the NEW: left is the OLD way of operating the mainline while the NEW way of operating the mainline plus signals on the right all done via LCC., independent of DCC.

Final with some orange 'creamsicles'.

Joe stayed after others left so we could update the LCC software signals for trains departing St. Paul.