Lo! But I see the end of this thread, for Glitchy Gustav’s chassis arrived from TrainLi on Saturday! I put off starting my sugar mill to put my lumbering, ill-starred “buddy” back together. My 1:1 crew being indisposed, my 1:24 crew will help present the final assault on the Eternal Project.
The crew discusses how to proceed:
The fore and aft drivers are new (or at least less used), most of the linkages got rebuilt, as did the crossheads. This had to be done on both sides. The crewman below shows the work in detail:
Hats off to Kristine McNary at TrainLi, not just for the work, but for patiently stepping me through my last round of troubleshooting. I should’ve shipped this off to him years ago. It would’ve saved me money in the long run.
After several years and multiple round of disassembly and reassembly, Gustav’s parts were scattered in my various bins despite my best efforts against entropy. I learned from Rooster and Bill Barnwell that, in this hobby, there is no such thing as “junk,” so all screws, bits, parts, etc. finally made their way to the lanai and reassembly continued.
Did anybody else notice the mistake in the first picture? Neither did I! I had not secured plastic “hanger” that hold all the rods and linkages in place, so I had to take the whole thing apart…Again…Might as well enjoy that one…more…time…
Oh, did I mention an irreplaceable part broke in shipping?
Nothing styrene, contact cement, and black paint couldn’t fix today.
Getting back to Saturday, having decided a snow plow was not that important in Hawaii, at long last, Gustav “magic moved” to the engine service track (near the mill I was supposed to be working on this weekend):
Normally, we test our work near our control station, which is located on the opposite end of the railroad, but we thought Gustav deserved to roll out of the shed after his years in overhaul like a grand old gentleman instead of a frustrating old model. OD agreed to serve as engineer while I worked the switches. OD got the controllers confused, and promptly turned what should’ve been a 30 second movie into a 90 second or so comedy of errors. Do feel free to click through it, but I felt the moment deserved video proof:
Video: Gustav Reenters Revenue Service…Slowly…
We spent about twenty minutes taking him backward and forward, listening and watching, making sure that this time “he” was fixed for good. At some point over the years whatever causes the back-up lights to come on broke / fell-out / turned into a newt / whatever. I am too tired of tinkering with this engine to care, and have resolved to let that lie. OD concurred. By that time, dinner was nearly ready, and it was time to “let ‘him’ go.” We hooked up a short train, opened throttles, and…enjoyed a magnificent old engine pull “his” train against the backdrop of a setting tropical sun. Naturally, i botched that triumphant photo. Please accept the following:
This is the last of my “family heritage” locomotives and, hopefully, the last time in a while we will have to spend time and treasure to preserve what was at the expense of enjoying what is and creating what will be. Thanks to all for suggestion, prompts, prods, and patience over the last three years!
Aloha,
Eric