Mike Memorial Challenge 2015 - E10Bm, JonathanJ

[Jonathan_J]

Hi All,

 

Haven't done one of the annual challenges before, so I guess I'm a rookie.

 

I also got around to it rather late, and I'm outside the US, so I'll be building my own 16ft car as a base rather than waiting for a kit to travel.  Dave Taylor kindly emailed a copy of the instructions, so I'll stick as close to the kit method as the materials to hand allow (mine'll be stryene).

 

Felt like doing some motive power, so the plan (see attached napkin) is a super-short narrow gauge version of the GE E60C electric. 

Just about the only truck that'll fit is the 2.5" HLW one, and I've got one in the bits box, so that's providing propulsion.  I've also got a damaged Piko pantograph lying around somewhere, so I'm planning to use that if it dosn't turn out to be too big.

 

The scribble on the napkin no one can read says :

* Single cab like mining units

* Upper sides slope in like NdM units

* Number boards like Amtrak version

* 16ft Long

 

First up, I need to make myself up a 16ft chassis (sorry, flat car) and cut some holes in it to allow the block to fit in and swivel a bit on curves.  'Scale' is 1:22.5.

 

Jonathan

 

[Devon_Sinsley]

Johnathan you are on the rookie list. Interesting design are you using track power or is it really powered overhead?

[Jonathan_J]

Devon Sinsley said:

Johnathan you are on the rookie list. Interesting design are you using track power or is it really powered overhead?

Thanks. Plain or’nary track power I’m afraid. DC even, though I’ll leave scope for future rewiring to suit DCC or equivalent. I don’t even have any cosmetic catenary, so that must be the whimsy element. Or I could claim it was also third rail fitted for the tunnels in NY… J.

[John_Caughey]

I think the One Wire power system is the whimsy you’re looking for…

[Jonathan_J]

John Caughey said:

I think the One Wire power system is the whimsy you’re looking for…

The one true wire, Shirley? Perhaps even Nikola Tesla’s mythical wireless system… I used to work for an industrial power and transmission distributor, and I still mentally shudder at a conversation with a customer who bought a fixed speed electric motor and rang in asking how you controlled it. “It’s simple,” says I, “when the power’s on it’ll rotate at the advertised speed plus or minus a bit depending on the load, and when you turn it off it’ll stop.” Reply? “You mean it needs an electric connection? That’s not ***** good enough. There’s no electricity where this machine’s being installed, so you’d better think again.” Cue complaint. J.

[John_Caughey]

There was a fellow that came to our shores and proclaimed he had a single wire system, not to be corn fused with a common ground…

Consternations were poked… like Fizzies in cola; stuff boiled over. In the end we all had a good laff and the wire shorted out.

Shirley is not a jester hereabouts…

Thus the Perfect Whimsy

There you go… no charge.

[David_Maynard1 (David Maynard)]

We had a member here who pondered a single wire system, mounting generators on rolling sock axles and mounting solar cells on rolling stock so as to power his trains.

This same member also talked about having a vast railroad with several dash nines and loong trains, cost was no object. Then he posted about getting some Amtrak cars cheap, real cheap. So whimsy is all around us, we just have to look for it.

I like where you are going with your design.

[Jonathan_J]

Lookin’ at the the other build threads, the car shops here seem to be some ways behind. Hopefully we’ll catch up.

Anyway, I now have a wagon/chassis to build on.

As planned it’s in plasticard, and because my build is a bit more technologic and a bit less hill-billy than some, I’ve set the side rails in and put a bottom plate on so they look more like welded girders. The top is just plain sheet, I didn’t see much point in planking when it was all going to be covered anyway.

There are no bolsters as such, the height of the trucks means their pivots just poke through holes in the floor. Truck centres are a scale 8ft (ie 4ft from each end), it’s about the only place they can be with ones this large.

The ‘8’ shaped thing in front is a flat mating plate to build the body on, and the little plasticard cairns on top of it hold captive nuts. Matching bolts can then go through plain holes in the chassis to attach the two together, and I should be able to assemble/disassemble it as much as I like without stripping threads. The centre bar of the 8 is eventually got to get in the way of the wiring, so once the body had a bit more shape to it I plan to cut it out.

At the moment the loco has just the one power truck. This’ll go under the non-cab end, because I figure that’ll make it easier to add ballast. At the cab end, I wanted to have the option of adding another power truck later without getting out the saw, so the truck mounting is exactly the same as for the powered one.

I’ve mocked up a trailing truck that matches the basic dimensions of the powered one in terms of how it plugs into the chassis and how the side frames will bolt to it. I reckoned pick-ups were essential, and matching the HLW block meant inside frames, so it uses some USA trains motorblock wheelsets from the junk box. These had both suffered from the split centre gear syndrome, and the wheels themselves were too worn and pitted to be worth the trouble of cobbling the gear back together, I just swapped them out for new ones. Now they get their second lease of life…

It runs up and down under its own power when you apply juice top the track, ot even goes in the right direction, so we’ll call that a win and start on the bodywork.

j.

[John_Caughey]

Great start.

I’m still stuck on the wheels…

John

[Jonathan_J]

John Caughey said:

Great start.

I’m still stuck on the wheels…

John

Thanks. I’d offer to help on the wheel front, but the challenge would probably be over by the time you got them, posting from here… J.

[Jonathan_J]

Been a while since there were any updates, but there has been a little progress. Just forgot to photograph it in Daylight…

Should probably have started with the body, but I got sidetracked by the truck frames. I knew already pretty much exactly what I wanted for the body, but these took a bit of working out to get the proportions.

I wanted them to look like minature cut and shut versions of the E60c trucks, and not like any of the small metre gauge trucks GE have actually used. I don’t think they had anything as small as 4’8-1/2" wheelbase anyway.

Assembly is pretty simple - four layers of 1mm styrene, the back two for the whole truck profile and the front two for just the cast frame along the top. Another plate represents the square part of the axlebox assembly.

A bracket to match up to the block mounting points plugs into the back two laminations and is hidden by the front two. Axle boxes are held in ain a similar way - the small square but has an 8.5mm hole in it that acts as mount for a chunk of evergreen tube (#230, 312thou, 7.9mm). A thin band of #232 is pushed down over the main tube to represent the flange and hide the joint being a right mess, and a previously capped bit of #228 is pushed into the main tube, but not quite home, to give the face a bit of profile.

There are also a couple of smaller holes in the back two laminations that line up with the wheel centres to allow for the USA trains axle ends. The cosmetic outside axle boxes are deliberately a couple of mm about these to make the wheels seem a big bigger than they really are.

Still needs brake cylinders and a representation of some rigging, that’ll be more tube and rod from the cupboard.

Given there’s about two weeks left, I probably ought to have a real look at the body, or there’ll never be time to paint it.

J.

[Devon_Sinsley]

Those are outstanding improvised trucks. Love it.

[Choochoo_Chaboogie (John Le Forestier)]

I agree with Devon’s assessment here. I am ceaselessly amazed at the resourcefulness and creativity shown in the challenge this year, this build being no exception. Carry on Jonathan. It’ll do me good to learn more about cardstock modeling, Brit style! Cheers!

[Devon_Sinsley]

I love the build so far. I like where your going. Will be a very cool loco. The pic on the other thread is neat. Coming together well.

[Randy_Lehrian_Jr]

Jonathan, Incredible! I was thinking wow he’s going into detail as I read this. Then since Devon mentioned it, I checked the 2 week thread and double wow! Really great work. I hope you have time to get it all done. You may have to call in sick to work.

[Jonathan_J]

Thank you kindly gents.

Update picture is the same one as in the 2-weeks-to-go thread, nothing’s happened in the last 24 hours, but I might get something done tonight.

The brake cylinders and rigging are made up from strip, rod and tube much as planned - I’ve now managed to use every even numbered evergreen tube from 222 to 232 on these truck frames. Is there a prize for that? How it goes together is pretty obvious I think, but I can do a step-by-step with the bits for the other side if people want.

To properly ‘copy’ the arrangement at the ends of the original E60c truck (essentially the same trucks as a dash7 diesel??), the rigging at the bottom ‘should’ continue outside the frames as well as between the axles, but I found there simply isn’t room to have it and allow the trucks to turn for corners.

I’m also really stuck for space to mount couplers without them sticking out a country mile (pet hate, particularly on short vehicles), and I’m starting to think the best option may be to mount loops only flush to the headstocks. That way I save the length of the mount and springing for the hook etc. If I wasn’t aiming for the 14th it’d be neat to do them in something transparent so as to be as invisible as possible.

The body side in the pic is just propped up on the shell for now for a look see. Dimensionally it’s about right, but I made it in a bit too much of a hurry and I’m not completely happy with it - the cut and fold lines could be neater and there are a couple of solvent sink holes. It could be cleaned up, but if taking more time on the other side means it comes out better to start with, I’ll probably replace the original rather than patch it up.

I’ve also found the Piko pantograph and held it roughly in place - can’t really tell till I’ve got a roof on, but I think it’ll be too wide which would mean a rethink there.

Dunno if I’m going to to make the 14th, we’ll have to see. Might be in authentic delivery primer only…

J.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

Keep up the good work. The details on the trucks is clever.

It will be fine in primer on the 14th . I thought we had until the 15th?

[Jonathan_J]

Todd Haskins said:

… I thought we had until the 15th?

We probably do, but I’m definitely playing catch-up here, and my thinking was in terms of a week and a bit left… And likely not being finished even if given a week of Sundays.

So…

I’ve scrapped the side I showed last time. As I said I wasn’t 100% happy with it, but more importantly (while I was looking for something else) I happened to find a good front view shot of the ex-NdM units which showed the profile better than anything I’d seen before…

(it’s here - https://ironcompass.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/electric-freight-railroads-in-the-us/ )

And it shows that my original two stage body taper is wrong - for some reason I’d thought that the very top of the side was canted in at approaching 45degrees, almost as though the thing had a mansard roof. It isn’t, and after I’d seen the picture, no way did mine look right (for a given definition of ‘right’, given that it’s 16ft long and in general terms a total caricature).

So it’s headed for the bin and I’m making a couple more.

For some reason I’ve put the assembled one on the left, and the two layers on the right. Dunno why.

Each side is made up of two layers - I’ve turned the inner one into a mock framework as much as possible, but had to leave panels where it’s needed to support vents, grilles, etc. The inner side is scored horizontally where I want the cant to start and them some overlength body frames are fitted so I can get the angle right in the crease. The whole thing is left to properly set, and the the frames are cut down.

The crease is lined up with its twin on the outer side, and the two are stuck together. After the solvent sinkholes on the first side, I’ve gone much more gently with the solvent - tack weld it down in a few spots, let it set, expand the weld area a bit, let it set, expand the…

Seems to have worked so far. Apart from that, nothing much - the inner side is shorter so that it can sit on the floor while the outer one overhangs the chassis girders, and things like windows are larger cutouts on the inner side to provide a pocket for the glazing.

I already know exactly how big the door pieces need to be so I’ve made them in the same exercise. They won’t get fitted until I’ve been over the sides of the aperture with a spot of filler and sanded them smooth.

Next stage will be mostly more of the same - I’ll finish assembling the second side and add cosmetic stuff like grilles that is easiest done flat, and then make up some bulkheads with the same two layer technique.

J.

[Devon_Sinsley]

this is yet another cool build in this challange

[Jonathan_J]

Still some detailing work to do on the sides while they’re in flatpack form, but here’s a teaser of the completed rear bulkhead.

Given I’m planning to paint the loco basically white with some stripes, I should probably have invested in a tube of white filler, but the green was to hand. Hopefully the priner will cover it without having to be clagged on.

J.