Weekly Photo Fun 11-7/11-14

[jeffrey-wimberl]

My project this last week was to retrofit an Athearn SDP40F chassis from the standard blue box drive to hex drive. It now sports a new motor and flywheels, screwdown motor mounts, hex shafts, delrin worms and nickel silver wheels. It now runs as quite and smooth as any of my Proto 2000 and Atlas locos.

This is before the retrofit:

And after the retrofit:

The contact strip will be removed later when I install a DCC decoder.

 

[UP SD40-2]

WOW!:eeki: , looks like you done a REAL NICE JOB on that Jeffrey:thumb::thumb: .

 

[TruckLover]

Cool Jeffery :thumb:

Deano, thats another BEAUTIFUL unit you have there, i LOVE CNW :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Herc Driver]

Southern Power

Haven't posted a picture in so long...almost forgot how!

(The layout is still a "work in progress" so this is a pretty rough picture.)

Some Southern diesels gather in the afternoon awaiting orders and their turn to leave the yard.

 

[Herc Driver]

Athearn Nscale Santa Fe F45

These Athearn F45's are great! It's a heavy diesel, weighing much more than a similar size InterMountain, or Kato. Smoothest Athearn motor I have, without a doubt and much better than their SD70 series motors. They did a nice job, even modeled the cab interior. My only complait is the blue surrounding the windows looks to be hand painted (but you can only tell that on an extreme macro-photo).

 

[Rusty Spike]

Looks great y'all - love that CNW grime UP. I'll be back in a second or two to post our picture of the week.

Jeffrey - can you really get those Athearn engines to run like a Proto? What do you think it costs in parts dollars to do it?

 

[Ralph]

A quiet moment near the locomotive facilities at Kings Port. That old MOW truck sure looks shiny new considering its age! Time for the weathering brush!

Ralph

 

[Rusty Spike]

The latest from UP and DMandE, oops, that's CP in Mankato - MN

Finishing up the equipment for the scrap yard . . . I had to warn the little people about starting fires.

 

[Ralph]

Rusty, that load of scrap hanging off the big magnet is a brilliant detail!
Ralph

 

[Rusty Spike]

Thanks Ralph. I got it from Lilipucia Mnftng.

 

[jeffrey-wimberl]

Jeffrey - can you really get those Athearn engines to run like a Proto? What do you think it costs in parts dollars to do it?

Once I install the decoders in them getting them to run together won't be a problem. As far as parts dollars, I'm just using what I have at hand, in this case a P2K E6 chassis that was donated by another modeler who wishes to remain anonymous. It's been sitting on the shelf collecting dust so I'm putting it to good use. But as far as cost goes, I can get a P2K E6 for around $60, maybe less. An Athearn RTR chassis of the same size as the SDP40F would probably run around the same price.

 

[TruckLover]

Rusty, that load of scrap hanging off the big magnet is a brilliant detail!
Ralph

Ill second that Rusty, that an awesome pic!!! Who makes that excavator with the magnetic attachment? or did you kitbash it?

 

[shaygetz]

Some shots from last weekend's open house...

 

[shaygetz]

...and a few more...

 

[steamhead]

Great pics everyone..!!! That scrap yard is TERRIFIC..!!
ShayG...What is that monster poking its nose out of the enginehouse..?? AWESOME..!!

 

[Rusty Spike]

Shaygetz - awesome shot of that huge steam engine coming out of the shed!

Trucklover - it's a Siku excavator - drilled out the pins on the bucket, used styrene for the attachments, an old paint cap for the "magnet", glued the attachments to the paint cap, wrapped it in paper from drill bit packaging so it wouldn't look so much like a paint cap, nails for new pins and a black rubber thingy that fell off a load of pipes for the elecrical line. It was a one-evening project with my son. We mixed some water and elmers, mixed in weathering chalks and made it look dirty/rusty. The real one we saw had more scratches that had rusted - working on how to model that.

 

[Herc Driver]

Great pictures everyone!

 

[e-paw]

I did some more work on my semi scratch built K1as. The valve gear is still giving me some trouble. I am up to try # 3. So I decided to take a brake from that and do some lettering.

 

[shaygetz]

Shaygetz - awesome shot of that huge steam engine coming out of the shed!

ShayG...What is that monster poking its nose out of the enginehouse..?? AWESOME..!!

It's a Broadway Limited C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny...alas...not mine...sigh...:mrgreen:

 

[jeffrey-wimberl]

Just working 2 for 1 on the railroad.