Mister Roger's 'Trolley" in HO scale...

...using two Bachmann San Francisco cable cars and some well placed razor saw cuts. Prototype fidelity was not as important to me as capturing the overall look of his famous trolley...five vertical posts, the overall light and airy look (very hard to handle for awhile there as it was exceptionally fragile).

I've found at least three different variants used over the years, the original having a black body with gold trim, green seats and red roof--even poles. My inherent orneriness would have me paint it that scheme, but most would remember the later one so I'll stick with that. I'm happy with where I'm at at this point...



















The project is at this point waiting for seats and final paint, but will have to sit on a back burner for now as we concentrate on our new home...

UPDATE: I was truly surprised to find out that there were those who did not know of Fred Rogers or of his television program--a medium he despised by the way, feeling it was a greatly wasted resource--. His was one of a very few...and I mean very few...children's programs where I could put down the remote, knowing that there were no untoward surprises awaiting my child that I did not want them to see. A truly remarkable man whose presence is sorely missed today...

Atlas N scale turntable modification...

Freebies are good, but sometimes they come with bugs that have to be surmounted. This one was working fine actually, the bug being built into it by Atlas.

The table's wiring is very simple, each rail has a spring loaded brush that contacts a plate underneath that is divided for track polarity. As the table spins, the polarity is corrected automatically for the roundhouse leads, so that locomotives travel on and off the table without have to worry about direction of travel. A simple and effective device, its one flaw being the location of the dividing point. In this case, the location placed two of my five roundhouse leads with polarity opposed to the track on the table...


Undaunted, I fearlessly drilled the rivets, thinking I will just rotate it 90 degrees and all would be right in the world...thinking being the key word here...sigh...


Alas, those rivets carry current to the contacts, so another plan was devised...by replacing the strip contacts underneath with wires, reattaching one and relocating the other (noted in green), I was able to remount the contact plate...


I then soldered jumpers to the original breaks (in yellow) in the plate, and cut new breaks (in green) in by scoring the metal with a knife. This placed the circuit in a way that powered all my roundhouse leads properly, so that the locomotives could roll onto and off the table with the necessary polarity issues straightened out. I made sure that none of these new connections interfered with the path of the sprung brushes...


Speaking of those brushes...


...the best way I've found to reinstall them was to put them in their respective holes...


...and...while holding them in place with a piece of paper, carefully flip the table right side up, place it into the pit circle and, while pushing down firmly but carefully on the table, slowly slide the paper out. This ensures that the brushes remain assembled and in place when you secure the table to the pit ring...

Fleischmann HO scale 4 wheel "bobber" caboose...

...or..."How to replace missing smoke jacks, using Kadee coupler casting sprues, without using words."

IHC HO scale Fairbanks Morse C-Liner...

The best improvement one can make to low end motive power is to increase power pickup, thus sending pure, unobstructed juice to the already handicapped motors they come with. Fortunately, IHC made it easy to do...they simply were too chintzy to put an extra set of wipers and wire in. They did however, put in all the necessary details to add a set yourself...

Note the bracket holding the stock wiper...


...is present on the sides with no wipers...


...making it simply a matter of fabricating another pair, mounting them like the stock ones, and wiring them in...


...just make sure to clean the excess flux of the soldered joints...


...and that your wiring is properly oriented.



The results are fantastic, it crawls through plastic turnout frogs without stalling and has much better low speed control. Because it now has eight wheel pickup, it is also not as easily affected by dirty track.

Mantua HO scale 4-6-4 Heavy Pacific, circa 1980...

...a nice runner--when you can get juice to the motor--they are plagued with contact issues that come from a combination of zinc castings, steel axles and brass wheels working against each other by their various corrosion and rust abilities. The older ones have a separate bell and hanger that protrudes over the smoke-box and headlight. They are now offered under the Mantua Classics name by Model Power.

One way to improve pickup is to remove as many contact points as possible, bringing the electricity to the motor is as directly as one's abilities and materials on hand are able to muster. I made these pickups with some strip brass, 2 round terminals that fit around the bolster and some wire...








Knowing modelers will immediately see the impending screw-up--since fixed--...unknowing modelers get to find out on their own...

The fix works great, completely bypassing the zinc floor of the tender and the trucks, though the original source points of power remain. Adding 3 ounces of lead helps it stay in contact and track better.

Athearn HO scale Hustler diesel, Yellow #60...

...and then there were three in my stable. This one, a recent online purchase, shows what NOT to do when re-wiring an Athearn locomotive. Like most Athearn owners, the modifier replaced the metal clip contacts with more direct wiring to the motor from the frame...


Unlike most modifiers though, they left the brush clip on the plastic motor frames, essentially melting them into the motor...sigh...


It runs, but maintenance will be a kick...

UPDATE: New upper clip, new wire and terminal, a soldering job that would make my 8th grade shop teacher proud...much better.

Intermountain HO scale 33" replacement wheelsets...

...my product of choice for most of my rolling stock. I try to replace all plastic wheels with metal ones because the metal ones work as they roll to clean the track, just like the real ones.

A short circuit that showed up recently had me momentarily baffled until my alter ego, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS came to the rescue. One of the last cars I converted was an older Athearn 50' reefer with its original metal sprung trucks. When I lifted the car off the track, all my power was back.

NOTE TO SELF: When installing metal wheelsets, get into the habit of checking the insulated side of the axles to make sure they are all on the same side of the car. That way, self is not inadvertently creating a short circuit through the metal truck...duh. Bonus points are gained by making sure both trucks are insulated on the same side in metal framed kits.

NOTE TO NEWCOMERS: The insulated side is the one done in a non-conductive plastic, usually black. --->Can you believe they used paper or varnish not too long ago? The varnish breaking down over the years is the more likely reason Grandpa's old trains aren't working for some right now...that creates a dead short, leaving folks to believe that the motor is toasted.


WRONG WAY


RIGHT WAY

Modeling water...

...in short, I hate it. I'm not too fond of any of the current techniques, each having their own compromises. One simply learns to live with the shortcomings of ones chosen technique, mine being varying shades of acrylic paints coated with many coats of clear gloss medium, interspersed with gloss coats that have been tinted with various shades of brown, green and blue.

The water where I live has a noticeable tea color from the cypress trees along the shore. I simulate this with a couple drops of brown craft paint to tint the gloss coat. Ditto for one coat of green for algae and one coat of blue for reflected sky. The effects are much more subtle than the camera gives justice. A nice touch is the ripple effect in the simulated sand bottom created by the tinted water settling in the styrofoam beads that is very noticeable near the ends of the bridge...




The acrylic, like most products, has an unsightly edge creep that needs dressing up...not as bad as most but foliage patiently applied works very well here.

The girl is Frankensteined together from 3 different Plasticville figures. I made a putty out of styrene sprues dissolved in liquid plastic cement. Once applied and hardened, it carves easily to any shape, in this case, the hair and contouring her body to be more feminine (she started out life as a brakeman, mail carrier and male pedestrian).

The pier is cobbled from scraps in the junk box with some wood dowel for pilings, then aged and weathered.

Scenicking the Procrastenatan River...

...4 1/2 years after I put the shell down...sigh...

My technique is fairly simple...buy lots of cheap half-full bags of Woodland Scenics ground foam at train shows for pennies on the dollar. Paint the shell with a generous coat of equally cheap Wally World craft paint...then coat it liberally with various shades and coarseness of ground foams while the paint is still wet. Over spray it all with a mist of water with a bit of alcohol in it to help drying time, then dribble a 50/50 water and acrylic matte medium solution over it all...touch up as needed.

Con-Cor/Rivarossi N scale 2-8-8-2 N&W Y6b....

...gets an early Kadee Micro-Trains #1048 conversion kit installed. Nicely engineered for a relatively painless install, Kadee is to be commended for its early foray into a fledgling scale, without which N scale probably wouldn't enjoy the following it does, and certainly at a time when what was offered usually did not line up with the quality of the conversion kit Kadee designed for it.

The Con-Cor Mallet was one of the better running locomotives offered in its day, and certainly well worth the extra work to convert...even today. The conversion kits are still relatively easy to find online for these old locos, and usually run between $3-10 apiece.






The original pilot coupler provided in the kit grenaded on me, leaving me to modify one (actually two, one of THOSE grenaded as well...sigh...) from a U-boat conversion kit I had lying around. It does work but serves as a reminder to how fragile they are...

Mehano HO scale 4-6-4 Hudson semi-streamlined in Canadian National paint...

...part of a set offered in a Canadian retail chain. I just love the colors, the whitewalls and elephant ears---a feature added to some passenger engines to lift the smoke higher over the equipment behind for appearance and passenger comfort.




It is an excellent runner but...alas...its bell had gone the way of odd socks and Kadee coupler springs. Since replacements are hard to find, I made my own with a bit of brass wire, an odd rivet in my scrap box and a blob of solder...




After a bit of bending and then a good buff with my Dremel tool, my Canadian Belle had a bell again...

Igarashi 18X33mm flat can motor for a Bachmann U33B...

...hardly an Athearn but, maybe there was something to gain.




The new motor came from an online vendor. Since dual shaft motors can be expensive, I had to take a chance when I found these for around $7.50 each, including shipping. They were a drop in fit for the Bachmann and AHM all wheel drive diesel models, but the shaft is too small for an Athearn...a good thing as I found later.

The only modification required for the Bachmann was a simple bend on each of the posts to clear the frame. Once the leads were soldered on, it was a simple matter to place a small blob of silicone adhesive caulk to the frame, nestle the motor into place...making sure all remains properly aligned while setting.


You can see in this side-by-side that the motor truly is a drop in fit, being about 10% heftier in the field magnet and case but well within tolerances for clearing the body shell...


An honest evaluation would include increased pulling power, it is a beast compared to its former self. It also runs much slower at the top end of the throttle, both great qualities that I figure comes from the new motor's beefier measurements over a stock buzzer.

Sadly, it does not have very good slow running qualities, not even for a road unit, dashing any hopes of mass re-motorings of the fleet on a budget. The original motor runs much quieter and has better low end throttle control---unless it's burnt out like this one was, of course. Because the new motor is also a good bit louder, that leaves it relegated to the holiday tree lapping fleet for the most part...a good thing since these locomotives tend to chew through motors about ever three years under those conditions anyway.

In the end, it's not bad for seven bucks, just save you peanuts up for one of the better can motors when you want a whisper quiet tie crawler. However, this one is more than worth it for rescuing the family Christmas gear grinder, and will last for many holidays into the future.