Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2013 11:52:45 GMT -5
Brian, About where does your railroad operate here in Arizona? Not many places where its flat.... David Phx David, Phoenix. Phoenix is pretty darn flat. Yes, there are bumps in the ground around it, but the railroad runs over fairly level and flat land. I lived in the Phoenix area for 14 years. I know AZ is mountainous in regions, but not in Phoenix down to Eloy. Now out to Yuma, there are ranges, but the railroad basically cuts through the agricultural districts west of Phoenix almost all the way to Willton and does not see much of a grade. There might be a slight grade, but nothing commanding. Its all on the desert floor. I think the steepest grade on the line would be the 30 miles on the old Magma Arizona line heading to Superior, AZ
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milw199
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Beaded crossbucks FTW
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Post by milw199 on Sept 13, 2013 13:24:18 GMT -5
Most of the CNW H16-66s had GE electrical equipment, only the early ones had Westinghouse.
The MILW H16-66s had Westinghouse, probably getting a discount as Westinghouse was getting out of the business. MILW and CNW pooled power in the ore lines of Upper Michigan.
The early H24-66 and CPA24-5 had Westinghouse main gens, and they weren't quite ready for the 2400 hp in the early 1950s. Something about destructive flashovers, and Westinghouse said that's enough, and got out of the heavy traction business. The GE stuff was better.
Also, the Alco tri-mount truck and the FM truck pulled better than the EMD Flexicoil. Rode worse, but the engine was pulling instead of bouncing around. Same for the Alco 2 axle truck versus the EMD GP swinghanger truck.
The Dash 3 upgrades allow for just the motor that is slipping to slow down and regain footing. Dash 2 and older cuts power to the whole truck. I heard the Soo GP30s were worse, in that when they slipped, they dropped down to just about nothing, and it took a while to get the amperage back up.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 7:55:21 GMT -5
Last night I started the first Greenville 100T hopper. These cars are not going to be super detailed. I have to put together at least 80 to 100 of these cars and if I had to super detail all of them, in my lifetime I might get 5 done. So these will be out of the box models where the detail work will be the paint and weathering. These are not one off RPM models either and when running in a train, you see the train and not all the fine detail. I am debating if I should shave the grab irons down to thin them up a bit. Maybe. Other than that, I'll just put a Hi-Tech rubber air hose on each end and Sergent couplers. These cars are more of a study in paint and weathering.
I want to thank Eric for suggesting these cars as they are used in concentrate operations in AZ now. Anthony gave me a great idea for how to mix the cars up. Some cars need rebuilding and those cars will get a new CSR paint job. Other cars do not need rebuilding and they will be put into service with a stenciled paint out. This first car is just an experiment to see how it turns out. They are going to be Seaboard Coastline Orange over a dark primer. The dark primer will serve as a base coat for shipping paint off and exposing bare metal. The railroad name will be stacked three rows high on a plate that is welded to the side of the car over the ribs. Lettering will be black.
Thanks to Eric, I have a pretty good idea what color the concentrate is. I will need to build loads for these cars.
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Post by MitchGDRMCo on Oct 2, 2013 8:11:03 GMT -5
I'm doing the same with my ore hopper fleet, nothing more than couplers and air hoses and a cheapo paint job, on the whole they look fine and definitely not RPM stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 8:18:36 GMT -5
I am more or less using them as fodder to practice and improve my paint and weathering techniques and to try new techniques.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 19:39:57 GMT -5
I cannot endorse the AK Interactive chipping product. It just did not perform as I had hoped. I am not saying it is a bad product. I have seen plenty examples of its use and they look great. It is possible and very much so that I have not used it right. I know what works for me and am back to just hair spray. BTW, I am not using Aqua Net. It is White Rain in the pump bottle.
As usual, I cannot fight the detailer in me. After the my failure to use the chipping solution properly, I stripped the hopper and could not resist. One thing led to the other and all the grab irons were cut off. It is going into full detail mode. The Greenville 100T hopper is one of my favorite freight cars so I want to do this one up nice and see how it goes. I just can't stay away from it.
This leads to a question/discussion. I want to represent these cars that are painted for my railroad as rebuilt/refurbished cars. I was looking through some online photos of these cars and noticed some had additional hat sections riveted over the existing structural hat sections that give rigid support to the sides of the car. I was looking at how I could do this and building all these hat sections would be a lot of work. I thought maybe I could photo etch them. That would work, but I was thinking of maybe going a different direction. What about adding steel plates riveted or welded in place between the hat sections. I would use 0.005" sheet styrene. If it is riveted, I can use Archer rivets. The rivets would run along the edges of the hat sections and along the top and bottom edges. The plate would run from the bottom sill to about half way up the car sides. About the height of where the cars would be filled with concentrate.
So what do you think of that for the rebuilt cars?
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Post by antlorch on Oct 3, 2013 5:24:32 GMT -5
Weak I see you are young Jedi, LOL! With great planning comes great models. Now ur going to do the etch walkway and cut bars also? What do you mean when you use the word "hat"?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 7:09:38 GMT -5
Yes, I am weak when it comes to detail modeling. I admit it and need to go to therapy. The vertical channel type piece the supports the sides. That is what I mean about "hat section". In the link below, note the doubled up vertical support. It does not go all the way up the side of the car. www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=68110
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 8:47:17 GMT -5
OK, I now understand why there is an additional hat section support over the existing vertical support. Looking at some photos of the car interior, I see plate steel on the inside wall. The hat sections on the outside of the car are riveted to the plate steel on the inside to tie it all together. I also see some other additional support pieces welded in place on the ends to help give support strength to the car. I now have an understanding what the rebuild of these cars is all about. I am going to have to do the external hat sections to make the rebuild cars look right.
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Post by stevef45 on Oct 3, 2013 13:01:55 GMT -5
i say go etched metal but the styrene would be faster right? I mean you'de have to design the etch piece and wait for it to be made?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2013 13:34:14 GMT -5
I have ONLY one issue with getting the part etched. There is no room for error. If I do not make the fold lines in exactly the right place, then the part will not fit correctly over the ribs and possibly either have to much gap around the rib or not be big enough to fit around the rib. Then I would have to adjust the drawing and pay for it all over again. Something I am not keen on right now. Now I could make the part from 0.005" styrene for test. Scribe the lines and bend the part up until it fits and then measure the part and distance between scribe lines and use that for my drawing. Most likely if I were to do the etchings, that is what I would do.
BUT, there is a possible change again for what car I might use. Now that I know I do not need lids, I have been doing some more research on what copper concentrate is. Eric from AZ has had a hand in helping me with this. From photos I have seen of this stuff being dumped in piles from conveyors and Eric explaining what he has seen in and around the yard in Tucson, it dawned on me that this stuff is not "dusty". It has a damp consistency to it like clay, but not compact like clay. It stays loose like heavy dirt without the dust. Eric mentioned even on the hottest and driest days in Tucson, the stuff on the ground appeared damp. So transporting an open load of this stuff will not generate dust as the wind blows across it.
So this brings back the ex SP ore jennies. I really like them a lot. From information I received from the MFCL on yahoo groups, these were all scrapped sometime between 2005 and 2008 or something like that. This is perfect timing for CSR to buy them and they are fair game for CSR since they no longer operate for a class one railroad. Purchase the cars at scrap prices and rebuild them. I like this idea a lot. On my decal sheet, I will have a decal that says "DO NOT HEAP LOAD ABOVE TOP CHORD". That will keep the load below the top of the car.
The more I learn about what I am modeling, the better it all gets. Some of the folks on this list have really contributed and I thank you very much for that. Eric, your experience in the area I am modeling and the information you have sent me is priceless!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2013 20:05:01 GMT -5
I finished detailing one concentrate gondola today. I have made another change in the use of these cars. They will be assembled in two car sets with the two cars being draw bared together. The rotary dump is set up to accept the two cars and dump them both at the same time. Two of these are cars equal about the same length as one standard coal type hopper car. Special pneumatic hold downs will keep the cars in place as they are dumped.
So the cars are as follows.
Ex SP ore gondola's that have been rebuilt to modern standards for operation and safety. All ladders and grabs have been removed except for the side that has the brake wheel. A new larger platform has been constructed for crews to access the brake wheel. The brake wheel mechanism has been lowered so crews can access it from the new platform. Rotary dump hold downs have been welded to each side of the car using channel steel. These cars retained the additional height added by SP back in the 1960's. Car color will be International Orange (Testors acrylic paints). This color was chosen for grade crossing safety because it is so visible. Lettering will be black and it will sport yellow reflective stripes.
I start on the second car tomorrow. When I get them both done and draw bar connected, I will post photos of this first set.
Locomotive construction will resume as soon as I finish processing all the videos I have made. My hard drive choked last week and I am having a new one put in my computer. Thankfully they were able to get everything off of the crashed drive and now I am jut waiting for them to install it all on the new drive and get my system back running again. Once I get that back, I can finish up with the video processing and get back to the three ex QNS&L. in the mean time, I thought it would be fun to build the first set of concentrate gondola's. Also when I get my computer back, I can get the decal artwork off to High Ball Graphics to get a few sets made so I can finish the gons.
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Post by stevef45 on Oct 6, 2013 21:36:09 GMT -5
phewwww, i had wondered why no new videos. Glad everything was saved.
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Post by MitchGDRMCo on Oct 6, 2013 21:45:33 GMT -5
Brian, most rotary dumpers are 2 or 4 cell setups these days so you'd likely just have a standard ore hopper dumper vs anything specialized.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 7:45:53 GMT -5
gdrmco, After reading your post, I went searching on the web for rotary dumpers. My first find is a dual car dumper. The company had a few videos of their product in service and to my surprise, two cars about the same size as the ex SP cars being dumped. So I am good to go on that. Thanks for that post helped me confirm that I am doing the right thing.
Anthony schooled me on some FRA things so I had to make a change to my car setup. All is corrected and FRA compliant. The second car is 80% built. By the end of the week I hope to have the two car set all done and in primer paint. Tonight I will finish the construction part and tomorrow I will build the master for the draw bar so I can cast them. I do not want to have to build a draw bar every time I build a car set.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2013 20:42:34 GMT -5
I finished building the second car tonight. Tomorrow I will build the draw bar. Then I will prime them and get them painted by the end of the weekend. I have a couple decals I can put on them. The bulk of the decals I need to get from High Ball Graphics.
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Post by stevef45 on Oct 8, 2013 16:07:44 GMT -5
any new video uploads coming?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 20:34:58 GMT -5
any new video uploads coming? Not until I get my computer back. For some reason now it does not want to accept any updates or service pack updates. The shop is debugging that. Once I get it back, I have about three or four more on the computer already to upload. Then I will be caught up on the videos and will start building and videoing again. After I finish processing the videos on the computer, the next session will be on weathering the trucks, frame and fuel tank.
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Post by stevef45 on Oct 9, 2013 13:52:43 GMT -5
oh i forgot about the computer issue. Looking forward to the body work on these 3 units.
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Post by 1fatrussian on Oct 9, 2013 21:59:17 GMT -5
Glad to see the info I provided was helpful, anything I can do to help.
Eric
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