What Have You 3-Rail Scaled Lately?? Please Contribute to this Thread!!

MR-150 posted:

CentralFan1976 posted:

 

My first (test) caboose. 

Before...

after...

We’ll see what comes next...

Thanks,

-Mario

What was the Lionel part number on that caboose,thanks

Hi, MR-150!

Its a mid-80s 6-6907. Way back when Lionel numbered their cars the SKU number.  I bought it NIB from my LHS, J.R. Junction (Syracuse), this past Thursday. 

Thanks. 

-Mario

CentralFan1976 posted:

Oh. And the milk cars...

Are those short shanks for such close coupling? Can they make O-72 curves? 

Will Ebbert posted:

CentralFan1976 posted:

Oh. And the milk cars...

Are those short shanks for such close coupling? Can they make O-72 curves? 

They are standard Kadee 740s and they won’t go around O40 FastTrack curves in the “back” position. (I just tried). The buffers are sprung and will apply pressure upon backing.

O72 is no problem at all. 

Plus, the shim design has a second set of holes to mount the box out farther, should you have tighter curves. 

You can see the whole story here: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...adee-conversion-beta

And watch the video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=srz8qs4JhBo

If you have any questions, email or iMessage me, my email is in my profile.

thanks!

-Mario

 Just added another car to my growing fleet of my rendition of the Rutland. Base car is a 40ft. Weaver. Removing the claw and 2 chassis ribs for wheel clearance lowers the car. The deck was gouged up and then painted with Scalecoat Grime #1. Then a light wash of grimy black was applied. Stirrups from Scale City, Atlas grab irons, and a brass brake wheel mounted to a brass rod was added. Lettering is from Protocraft. I looked for a Weaver car that I could use the stock data as far as weights and capacity. The car lettering is actually centered on the car where as by the design of the prototype Rutland it wasn't. The Weaver's stake pockets aren't the same. Car was lightly for me anyways weathered. The tractors I picked up at a recent show with this project in mind.

Here's the finished milk train, Kadees for all!

Just got home for Thanksgiving break. I think I have my work cut out for me. 

Jeff78rr posted:

I just finished this MTH AC6000 into 3RS. MTH doesn't offer this loco in 2-rail with fixed pilots and full length handrails, so I added the finishing touches. The handrails are 0.025 brass wire bent in the correct shapes. Also added the conspicuity striping and Kadee 740's. I previously did 2 other AC6000s that go perfectly with this one.

Jeff, this unit looks awesome!  Great work as usual!

Hey you three rail scale guys. I have two three rail scale MTH steam locos with the scale couplers on the tender. I want to remove them and go to conventional couplers with the remote couplers.

Can anyone help with the couplers???

Geojr posted:

Hey you three rail scale guys. I have two three rail scale MTH steam locos with the scale couplers on the tender. I want to remove them and go to conventional couplers with the remote couplers.

Can anyone help with the couplers???

Good grief man,,,,,,, why would you want to do THAT? Don't you know that the Kadee #805 "O Scale couplers" will actually couple with most of the lobster claws?

Hot Water posted:

Geojr posted:

Hey you three rail scale guys. I have two three rail scale MTH steam locos with the scale couplers on the tender. I want to remove them and go to conventional couplers with the remote couplers.

Can anyone help with the couplers???

Good grief man,,,,,,, why would you want to do THAT? Don't you know that the Kadee #805 "O Scale couplers" will actually couple with most of the lobster claws?

Yes, most scale do, ScaleCraft non-operating with claw:

Didn’t know that. I tried it and it appears to work!!!!

Wala - thank you - I’m in business now!!!

This site is great!!!!

May want to check out Rich Battista's videos as he does a great job showing the considerations for running knuckle couplers with the lobster claws.

Probably my most tedious conversion yet at an hour and a half for one coupler, but now that I have the hang of it the other three shouldn't be too bad. Instead of buying shims I just used some scrap balsa I had lying around. Kadee 745

So I took the 1606 shell off the F3 and made some mods, like putting the Kadee back on and removing some extraneous electronics (the battery harness and the smoke unit, et. al.) and took the shell from the non-powered 1607, swapping the melted number boards for a fresh set from Lionel.  

This will now be the trailing unit with the new 1606 becoming the lead. Of course the coupler cover will be closed on the 1606.

Thanks,

-Mario

All done!

Compare to stock:

Mario, your conversion work never ceases to amaze us.  Thank you for sharing.  BTW, we always look forward to and enjoy seeing your models run on our club layout.

Now we need to restock our Kadee inventory!

Kudos Mario,  nice work!

Looking good Mario! Are the coupler doors a commercial item or did you have them custom printed?

Pete

Norton posted:

Looking good Mario! Are the coupler doors a commercial item or did you have them custom printed?

Pete

Hi Pete!

the pilot and doors are from P&D Hobbies; the pilot cut down and the doors cut in half. 

Thanks!

-Mario

Jeff78rr posted:

I just finished this MTH AC6000 into 3RS. MTH doesn't offer this loco in 2-rail with fixed pilots and full length handrails, so I added the finishing touches. The handrails are 0.025 brass wire bent in the correct shapes. Also added the conspicuity striping and Kadee 740's. I previously did 2 other AC6000s that go perfectly with this one.

Hello jeff, I was just wondering where you get your conspicuity striping for union pacific locomotives. When converting to fixed pilots, do you somehow attach the old trucks to the body or do you make the pilots from scratch or from shapewas. Also, have you ever converted an mth es44ac from 3 rail hovering pilots to 2 rail fixed pilots? If so, could you please help, as I am trying to convert a 3 rail union pacific es44ac to fixed pilots and full length handrails. Thanks for any help!