I agree with several others - we need "good" track / turnouts / rail joiners; with that the locos and freight / passenger cars will follow
Actually I heard the opposite of Jim's thoughts. Lenz has moved its track production from China to Peco in the UK. Track items will be on the Lenz O Scale website - made by Peco exclusively for Lenz. Also Lenz track was made after Atlas track came out and is very similar. I have the Lenz double slip and it works and looks great with my Atlas track although I still prefer the the Roco #6 turnouts over the current Atlas 2 rail turnouts.
@Jim Scorse posted:Lenz (Germany) made an Atlas compatible and look-alike #5 double slip (I have two) and 3 way #5 (I have one) also some relatively smallradius curved turnouts I think I heard that Peco has bought the line from Lenz. I don't see anything on the Peco website yet other than the existing bullhead rail double slip, but nothing in flat bottom rail from the Lenz line.
You just gave me a new eBay search! Thanks! Looking forward to finding a few.
@Jim Scorse posted:The Stanton drives are 'available' in OW5, P48, On3 and more with varying wheelbases.
Thanks for the heads up. That drive would work well with an unpowered Gas-Electric I have in my collection if I can figure out how to work the side frames.
As for my wish list:
- For someone to pick up the production on the MTH 2-rail trucks. They've worked out well in my conversions of MTH rolling stock and some others.
- See Engineer Joe's list regarding MTH scale-wheel production.
- More resurrected Weaver and K-Line scale tooling. I'd love to have an Amtrak SuperLiner set but not at $600/car.
My 3 Wants:-
1. A decent CF7, made in the style of the old Red Caboose GP9. Preferably available undecorated so those of us who freelance a Short Line can go nuts.
2. A decent GP38-2, as per Red Caboose style, but factory painted in Soo Line Red & White would suit me. 
3. Modern ARMN-type reefers, and/or updated versions of the Weaver 57ft mechanical reefer, with the external fridge motor.
As for 36" radius curves, and what can/can't go round them, and does/doesn't look ok doing so, I'll just leave this here.....
My Atlas SD40 taking the 36" curves at one end of my unfinished layout. First car in the train is an MTH Centrebeam Flat with Atlas roller-bearing trucks.
I grant it looks better viewed from inside the curve than outside, but an outside view is impossible in my location anyway!!!
Like this one SundayShunter? If you don’t mind a little soldering and extra bracing here and there the Pecos River Brass version is a good runner, having the guts of the PSC S series switchers!
Peter
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Nice... what an odd looking thing. 😁
Mark in Oregon
I wish a variety of good can motors ( Pittman etc. ) were readily available for reasonable prices. I'm tired of the oddball stuff typically found on Ebay.
Bob
@Strummer posted:Nice... what an odd looking thing. 😁
Mark in Oregon
First time I saw one, I told the CMO I thought you said we didn't have any GE's on the property. He told me what a CF-7 actually was and then commented I guess it does look kinda' like a GE from the road. They are even odder to look at from the inside of the electrical cabinet. As always, Tom Dempsey
@Peter E B posted:Like this one SundayShunter? If you don’t mind a little soldering and extra bracing here and there the Pecos River Brass version is a good runner, having the guts of the PSC S series switchers!
Peter
Yes, just like that one. The one teeny problem being that Pecos River CF7s are as rare as hen's teeth, and very expensive if they do turn up, especially to ship across The Puddle to the U.K. 
It does surprise me how few US railfans/modellers seem to know about them. There is great interest here in Britain, in American Short Lines. We have just nothing like them over here, despite once again having a Privatised rail network, after years of a national "British Rail". Short Lines are an answer to a modeller's prayer - especially modellers short of space, like most of us are in the UK!! As the CF7 cascaded fron Santa Fe to numerous Short Lines & Regionals, to me it's a natural choice for a versatile model engine.
@Peter E B posted:Like this one SundayShunter? If you don’t mind a little soldering and extra bracing here and there the Pecos River Brass version is a good runner, having the guts of the PSC S series switchers!
Peter
Not to sidetrack this thread, but can you elaborate a little bit on the "little soldering and extra bracing here and there"?
Boilermaker, Pecos River Brass has a reputation for lots of cold solder joints so they tend to "self destruct" with little use. My friend had sold this one and it was returned supposedly damaged (self destructed) in shipment. I offered to try to repair it for him. Once I got it, it was obvious it had been dropped as the coupler was flattened. As a result of this both pilots were detached and steps bent as well as other damage. I've fixed dropped engines before but never saw one come apart so completely. See below.
As I started repairs I noticed there was little to solder the pilots to and no angle bracing or anything. I ended up adding a lot of fairly thick brass to get a good solid joint at both ends, see below.
Last I had to re-solder most of the stanchions and straighten the handrails. A heavy weather job took care of the discolored paint from the soldering. That's about it. Thanks for listening.....
Peter
Oh, my friend sold the unit for a good price and the new owner is very happy with it.
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@SundayShunter posted:My 3 Wants:-
1. A decent CF7, made in the style of the old Red Caboose GP9. Preferably available undecorated so those of us who freelance a Short Line can go nuts.
2. A decent GP38-2, as per Red Caboose style, but factory painted in Soo Line Red & White would suit me.
3. Modern ARMN-type reefers, and/or updated versions of the Weaver 57ft mechanical reefer, with the external fridge motor.
As for 36" radius curves, and what can/can't go round them, and does/doesn't look ok doing so, I'll just leave this here.....
My Atlas SD40 taking the 36" curves at one end of my unfinished layout. First car in the train is an MTH Centrebeam Flat with Atlas roller-bearing trucks.
I grant it looks better viewed from inside the curve than outside, but an outside view is impossible in my location anyway!!!
Is that your video? If so, can you E-mail me a photo of the bottom of the converted center beam car. I've converted four of them and would prefer to just modify the MTH trucks with Intermountain wheels rather than fabricate new bolsters and use Weaver trucks. Thanks.
By the way, like your list. I occasionally see the UP/ARMN reefers (BNSF also has some) and at 82 feet, the the largest ones are huge.
In response to queries about the Stanton Drive. The DCC version comes prewired for rail pickup and motor control. NWSL include clear instructions on wiring and suggestions on how to install these drives taking into consideration nearly every locomotive could be different. There is a U shaped slot molded into each side of the casing holding the drive - this doesn't seem to show clearly in available advertising material. You can use this slot to make up an attachment to hold the truck sideframes. How you go about this will depend on the type of sideframes as it will be important to line up the center of the axle boxes with the axles of the drive.
I have successfully used two powered Stanton Drives to repower a Weaver RS3 (or RS2) and used the above slot to make an attachment for the sideframes. I had already reworked the Weaver drive along the lines of an article that appeared in OST and even though there was an improvement in operation I was not happy so decided repower using Stanton Drives. While the locomotive is a little noisy running light it runs a lot quieter when hauling a train. It does not have sound.
I'm now using two drives to repower a Custom Brass S1. Like the RS3 I tried to improve the original drive but it didn't work out very well. An advantage in this case is that after discarding the original motor and fittings I have plenty of room to install a sound decoder. I intend using the U shaped slot to hold an attachment to the sideframes but the Blunt trucks throw up a different set of problems which I will get to after installing the decoder.
I'm using two powered drives because I have a 2.5% grade on my short line.
Trust this helps with some of the queries.
Ian
@Peter E B posted:Boilermaker, Pecos River Brass has a reputation for lots of cold solder joints so they tend to "self destruct" with little use.
Peter
Peter, You might want to aim that comment at the builder, not the Importer. PRB imported MANY models of excellent quality, that did not fall apart. They used MANY different builders. Some were excellent and some as you illustrate, but it's simply not fair to imply everything they imported was poorly built.
Simon
@AGHRMatt posted:Is that your video? If so, can you E-mail me a photo of the bottom of the converted center beam car. I've converted four of them and would prefer to just modify the MTH trucks with Intermountain wheels rather than fabricate new bolsters and use Weaver trucks. Thanks.
By the way, like your list. I occasionally see the UP/ARMN reefers (BNSF also has some) and at 82 feet, the the largest ones are huge.
It is indeed my video, taken on my 17ft x 8ft layout.
There's not much to show on the underside of my MTH centerbeam, to be honest. It's a very rough'n'ready conversion - I chop off the MTH bolster, and open the mounting hole out, to 4mm dia. I think, then use a nut and bolt to fit the Atlas trucks, with a small washer to fill the Atlas mounting hole. As Atlas trucks have a tall center boss removing the car bolster keeps the ride height about right.
That brown one is the later version with trucks in the right location. The green one that brings up the rear in that video is an older one with the trucks right at the ends of the car. It still has MTH 2-rail trucks, but when I finally get round to relocating the trucks to the correct place I also intend to modify the underframe to remove the unprototypical big channel section MTH use.
I use Atlas trucks when I can as I like the rotating bearing caps.
@SundayShunter posted:It is indeed my video, taken on my 17ft x 8ft layout.
There's not much to show on the underside of my MTH centerbeam, to be honest. It's a very rough'n'ready conversion - I chop off the MTH bolster, and open the mounting hole out, to 4mm dia. I think, then use a nut and bolt to fit the Atlas trucks, with a small washer to fill the Atlas mounting hole. As Atlas trucks have a tall center boss removing the car bolster keeps the ride height about right.
That brown one is the later version with trucks in the right location. The green one that brings up the rear in that video is an older one with the trucks right at the ends of the car. It still has MTH 2-rail trucks, but when I finally get round to relocating the trucks to the correct place I also intend to modify the underframe to remove the unprototypical big channel section MTH use.
I use Atlas trucks when I can as I like the rotating bearing caps.
Thanks. I owe you one.
Simon, point well made. Their freight cars in brass ARE excellent models. The CF7 is notorious as are other diesels they imported. Not sure about the steam locomotives. As I don’t know who the builder is and they did import and sell them I’m afraid I might have painted with too wide a brush!
Peter
@Peter E B posted:Simon, point well made. Their freight cars in brass ARE excellent models. The CF7 is notorious as are other diesels they imported. Not sure about the steam locomotives. As I don’t know who the builder is and they did import and sell them I’m afraid I might have painted with too wide a brush!
Peter
Peter,
PRB had a bunch of different builders! John Smith, the owner, wrote a column titled "Crapola from the Cupola" in early issues of "O Scale Trains" and it gave a pretty decent picture of the Brass business in South Korea, and his experiences over there in general. I highly recommend it. The brass business started in Japan after WWII, and shifted to South Korea when the Japanese economy started to recover after the end of WWII. J.S. looks at not only the nuts and bolts of the business, but the human side of it.
Simon
@PRR Man posted:Jim; most vertical drive motors have 'double lead' worms on them. (which you probably know) Changing to a single lead worm effectively reduces the ratio by doubling it, Some time ago I bought that spec worm and worm gear set from NWSL to experiment with. It works! Toughest part was getting the OEM worm off the motor shaft!
Hi Chris,
Can you supply a link or part number to this NWSL worm gear set? This would be great if I could run my Atlas units back to parallel wiring and get good speed control. What do you believe makes it so tough to get off of the motor shaft, e.g. do you think they used some type of Loctite or is it just some crazy-tight interference press fit?
Thanks.
Scott
