mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Oct 31, 2014 11:06:58 GMT -5
So I got this MP15 cab set from one of my favorite suppliers on ebay. I didn't know what I was going to do with it until my 5 year old daughter told me that it belonged on this Athearn Blue Box DD40 that I had sitting on the bench.....it wasn't a suggestion and wasn't open for discussion. I talk a little more about it in my blog.... TrainfixxerThings left to do are beefing up the fuel tank to ridiculous size, adding the plasma TV to the cab, putting a 28,000mcd LED for a headlight and creating my super steam punk swinging coupler system. I can't stand truck mounted couplers, but this thing needs a swinging coupler to make 22" radius. SO, since I have to make such an apparatus, it's going to be the most steam punk outrageous thing I can possibly conceive. There's no point trying to hide it, or minimize it, so I going to go big and obvious.... it's going to look like a tow truck or a wrecking crane, but it will work on the tightest radius that this thing can negotiate..... Oh yeah this thing is totally prototype....because it is the prototype!!
|
|
|
Post by iomalley on Oct 31, 2014 11:14:46 GMT -5
Wow, that's....something else...isn't it?! Crews will be happy with the TV, unless its piped-in corporate content. Kinda negates its use on tight industrial trackage!
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Oct 31, 2014 13:54:55 GMT -5
The big plasma TV will be connected to a Military Surplus Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer on the front of the unit.... my super steam punk coupling system will be like a tow truck or wrecking crane... I expect to achieve 18" radius imminently...
|
|
|
Post by icghogger on Oct 31, 2014 14:32:41 GMT -5
That'll pull the paint off the walls!!
|
|
|
Post by rscott417 on Nov 1, 2014 16:47:37 GMT -5
What in the wooorrrlld!?
|
|
milw199
Superintendent
Beaded crossbucks FTW
Posts: 180
|
Post by milw199 on Nov 2, 2014 21:01:20 GMT -5
Must need the extra set of battery boxes for all the extra electronics inside.
|
|
|
Post by CP_8530 on Nov 3, 2014 1:38:12 GMT -5
Looks like something Kennecott Copper would do if they got their hands on a wrecked DD...
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Jan 27, 2015 15:18:19 GMT -5
I have solved the coupler problem which will now be applied to my entire fleet of DD40's..... McHenry MCH52 couplers.
I've modified the coupler by cementing 2 washers where the screw hole is located to give it strength and the fact that it won't work any other way.
I've now achieved 22" radius with no problems...yes it looks a bit strange, but more in the way of "what the hell was that?" strange....
Pictures coming shortly
|
|
|
Post by Milwaukee Road 513 on Feb 28, 2015 4:14:00 GMT -5
What in the name of..... Looking forward to the finished....eeerrrmmmm....it's still a product, isn't it, or?
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Mar 2, 2015 11:06:34 GMT -5
It's almost ready...
|
|
|
Post by UP951Fan on Mar 11, 2015 14:50:04 GMT -5
This should be interesting.....Looking forward to it!!
|
|
|
Post by c420highhood on Mar 15, 2015 9:56:49 GMT -5
i am... intruiged!
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Jun 12, 2015 12:06:40 GMT -5
So here's an update on this project....I'm working out the electrical right now. This unit has 2 of the old Athearn motors, you know the ones that were too wide for prototype. My intention is to use a single decoder for DCC, but I need some help figuring what decoder can handle that much draw.
I'm probably going to do all lights on or all off kind of arrangement. Before I install a decoder, the lighting system will be tested with a bridge rectifier. The front light is a 28,000mcd LED plus I'm think of doing double pairs of ditch lights that are white in the direction of travel and red in reverse.
The rear will have red light cab interior (considering this locomotive was built with a lot of military surplus stuff) and ditch lights and then really bright work lights above the cab, like a military wrecker has.
So any thoughts on decoders? I have no problem using more that 1 if I have to...
|
|
pacbelt
Chairman
Building Layout #11!! ;)
Posts: 682
|
MP40DDAX
Sept 15, 2015 21:15:22 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by pacbelt on Sept 15, 2015 21:15:22 GMT -5
That thing is OUTRAGEOUS!!! I LOVE it!!! I'm no fan of Digitrax, but they do make a large scale decoder that may fit in that beast, and has a 5 AMP capacity.... DYING to see more!
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Nov 3, 2015 12:30:16 GMT -5
Here's an update.... I need to rework the section that holds the cab. I want the cab to be as high as possible so an engineer with a set of binos can see the front end of the unit.
The long shank couplers are a total success. 22" radius is no problem for this thing, but my real vision is hauling something super heavy up a steep grade. I sort of envision a bunch of shorty cars that carry something ridiculously heavy like steel ingots from a low-lying mill to an off-loading facility at a higher elevation.
I've cut off the cab section so I can fabricate a new platform for the MP15 cab and base, but I need some inspiration....
Please help me make this thing super awesome fun time special....so give be the best of your outrageous solutions...
I model the future so I'm never left behind....
|
|
tingoat
Road Foreman
Ignorant Know-It-All
Posts: 55
|
Post by tingoat on Nov 3, 2015 13:26:53 GMT -5
|
|
pacbelt
Chairman
Building Layout #11!! ;)
Posts: 682
|
Post by pacbelt on Nov 3, 2015 15:12:12 GMT -5
I think the idea of that big beast towing many tiny ore cars, filled with ultra heavy "Unobtanium" would be pretty outrageous... ~ Carmine
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Nov 4, 2015 17:51:59 GMT -5
In a summer issue of one of the train magazines was a section devoted to most of the modern freight cars, but one page showed a DODX heavy duty flat carrying possibly a nuclear reactor or something like it. The flat car wasn't real long but used a span bolster over 2 buckeye trucks that looked pretty cool. It's very similar to the old AHM artillery cars. I picked up enough buckeye trucks to build one of these, if it turns out, it could be a possibility.
|
|
pacbelt
Chairman
Building Layout #11!! ;)
Posts: 682
|
Post by pacbelt on Nov 4, 2015 23:39:38 GMT -5
I think that ANY comically large loads would be PERFECT for that beast!! Back when you could get ore cars for $1.95, instead of $18.95+ today.... a loooong string of them would have looked great. ~ Carmine
|
|
mkl194
Trainmaster
accelerating rust on purpose
Posts: 131
|
Post by mkl194 on Nov 10, 2015 13:20:28 GMT -5
I think that ANY comically large loads would be PERFECT for that beast!! Back when you could get ore cars for $1.95, instead of $18.95+ today.... a loooong string of them would have looked great. ~ Carmine So I went to the Train Show in Shakopee MN last weekend and there was a guy selling ore cars for $3 a piece and I didn't buy any. Yes that was stupid, but last year I bought 12 of them from him. If he's at this weekend's show in St. Cloud MN, I'm going to snatch all of them. I also screwed up in not buy the shorty scale test car that was only $15. This has given me an idea..... I'm going to make a "chunk" out of modeling clay, then I'm going to make a mold so I can cast duplicates and just put on a couple trucks, probably 2 buckeyes, throw on some couplers and mark them with some ridiculous weight limit. I'm not even going to invent a rhyme or reason for them, other than they are super heavy. Since I model the future, I don't need to know what purpose they serve....
|
|