Love hearing that delivery truck
This is one impressive engine. 32" plus long, coupler to coupler with a ton of detail parts with an excellent paint job.
This was one of the largest engines made with a huge fire box and monster tender.
Scott did an excellent job on this build.
Nice builder plates on each side of the boiler.
Perforated walk boards, huge smoke stack.
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NP Z-5 (cont)
Piping access hatches open as well as the one vent hatch on the cab roof.
Side rods blackened.
Boiler backhead is very well detailed.
Sprung trailer trucks.
I believe the tender holds 25,000 gallons of water.
Brakeman's cabin on the tender.
Wow. That is just exquisite . Enjoy it!
Yes that is a beautiful model...
Now you need one of the Sunset/3rd Rail Northern Pacific Z-8, 4-6-6-4 models.
Now you need one of the Sunset/3rd Rail Northern Pacific Z-8, 4-6-6-4 models.
+1
Love 3rd Rail stuff.
Just a beautiful model in every respect. Nice to have it in your stable.
awesome. would love to see a video of it running. assume its ERR or tmcc equipped
That is one fine model! Thanks for the detail pictures.
A B S O L U T E L Y S T U N N I N G ! ! !
I can almost feel the HEAT.
thanks, guys.
appreciate the comments.
I have to agree with ya': Scott did a great job on this baby.
Yes, it's TMCC.
Hot water: funny you should mention a Z-8: picking a Z-8 and A-4 (grey boiler) up on Saturday
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NP Z-5 (cont)
I actually read the manual and it said to run her dry in the conv. Put her on the track and turned up the juice: lights came on but she just sat there.
MMMM: Old battery, replace that and see what happens.... same thing!!
Well, let's try uploading her to TMCC and voila, all works. Not sure why the conv didn't work, BUT, better working TMCC versus no conv. Probably something I screwed up: check it later.
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Well, after the short dry run to make sure no binding, I picked her up for oiling and a few parts fell off. Getting move all the way from Korea, and then to the original owner and then to me: those boxes aren't always handled with the best of care by the movers. There's also a lot of mass in this engine so it's going to move some in that box.
Thinking about it, the sender used masking tape instead of the original box tape. Masking tape can stretch whereas box tape is like iron.
No big deal, all the parts were an easy fix.
Initially, the pilot was loose. Sticking way out front, I can see that part being vulnerable (those shipping guys just throw those boxes around). The solder joint from the pilot to a plate that screws to the front engine was broken. I didn't want to resister solder as everything is painted so I used thin CA: not sure if this will hold up in the long run with such a small surface area to glue.
I removed the front engine from the boiler. Swivel screw at the back, plus two screws holding the swivel steam pipes going to the front steam chests. The return steam pipe (center of front engine) was broken. The solder joint holding the two pieces of return steam pipe broke. I used JB quik weld on these two parts. Plenty of surface area as one piece of the pipe is solid and the other hollow so slopped the jb weld on both parts and let them dry.
NOTE: I had to do more PM on the front engine and the return steam pipe broke on me. So to fix it right, I drilled a hole in the end of the front solid brass piece, used JB weld again, only put a piece of piano wire in the hole between the two pieces to give it a lot more strength than just the original surface area strength.
Lifting up the engine, that front set of drivers hanging there can put a lot of stress on this part.
While taking the front engine off, it looks like I broke a wire. It's from the boiler and it seemed to be the ground wire for lights so I soldered the wire on to the ground tab. (must of been right as all worked! )
NP Z-5 (cont)
This is pretty cool: there's roller on the boiler that rides on the front engine plate.
There's a universal joint that just slips into each other to connect the front drive to the rear drive wheels.
Last part to be fixed:
A steam pipe running to the back steam chest was broken.
Since the pipe is attached to the boiler side, and the back engine has to be removed, the steam pipe is only attached to the boiler side (again, I used JB quik).
While I had the front engine off, I used a flat blade screw driver and turned the front drivers 180 to the back drivers: that way I get more 'monkey' motion between the two sets of drivers.
The front sand tank goes on last. Two screws hold it on.
Front all back together.
To prevent those top hatches from opening while rotating the engine on it's back, and possibly bending the hinges, I taped them shut during the 'operation'.
I don't envy Scott, Man, there's a lot of parts to these engines, and everything has to work perfectly.
Wow! That is a Fantastic model locomotive. Really impressive.
NP Z-5 (cont)
Put her on the track and she runs great
Man, that whistle is awesome.
I put the MTH GN R-2 2-8-8-2 and GN Z-6 4-6-6-4 next to the Z-5 and she's longer.
Noticed a piece of tape on the front of the boiler and found out the door opens: cool.
NP Z-5 (cont)
All the valve gear is there:
They even have the platform that rotates out for the crew to stand on while the fire box side hatch door can be opened to clean out the fire box.
She definitely smokes well.
Makes the GN M-2 2-6-8-0 look like HO scale!
Terrific looking steamer.
Very nice !
Hello samparfitt....
OUTSTANDING model 
. I have a Sunset 3rd S.F.5011, its been trouble free since 2012 (30 hours run time on Atlas 099 curves)
. The engine was made in 2002 in Korea. Sunset makes great brass models.
Tiffany
Congrats!
Thx for sharing. Beautiful Articulated engine, one of my favorite...
While TMCC is great, I do wish they comes with either DCS or Legacy...Can you imagine a steam and blow down effect with all that Details work? I think we would be in RR heaven if this happened
Parts falling off and broken...now THAT'S the 3rd Rail that I know. Wasn't going to say anything, but I have all too often had to do what you have done.
People excuse them, too. "All the way from Korea" ("Korea"?). Funny, after crossing
the same Pacific Ocean, near 100% (but only near) of my locos from L or M have had nothing "falling off".
I own the 3rd Rail GN 4-6-6-4; I bought it rather than the MTH GN Challenger because
it has TMCC rather than DCS. Bought it lightly used. Overly delicate, but, oddly, it has
been (so far) one 3rd Rail loco from which nothing "fell off" - an exception, in my case.
They always scare me. I don't have many - the prices don't help, either.
near 100% (but only near) of my locos from L or M have had nothing "falling off".
well it happens to all of them... even Lionel and MTH, as even you say "NEAR" 100%
I look at it as one is cast metal and one is hand made, all brass parts.
I've got MTH's S-2 4-8-4. Z-6 4-6-6-4 and R-2 2-8-8-2 and they have no where near the detail parts that the Z-5 has. More parts, means more probability of stuff coming off.
When I got my MTH R-2, one side of the one set of drivers had no side rods and running gear on it.
I thought it was amusing that something that obvious would have been left off. MTH promptly sent me the needed parts.
We're talking about 100's to 1000's of engines being made: they can't be all perfect: sooner or later, the defecation will hit the fan, and the producer normally stands behind their product.
This Saturday, I'm picking up a 3rd scale NP Z-8 4-6-6-4 and A-4 4-8-4 and it will be interesting to compare them to my MTH Z-6 and S-2. Personally, I don't think the MTH will be a match for the 3rd rail.
They both have their strong points though: I'm perfectly happy with my MTH stuff and it's nice to have some super detailed 3rd rail stuff too.
Hell, I'm just glad that someone makes GN engines: The market must not be that strong for them so I buy when they are made.
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