P48 for Cotton Belt: Roster addition SW1200

[mickoo]

N&W never had F units. They dieselized very late compared to most American roads, a product of highly efficient steam locomotives only recently built and an abundance of easily accessible cheap coal. They skipped most of the earliest days of dieselization.

Not strictly true

N&W did have F units but they didn't buy them from new, they acquired them later, notably Wabash.

RailPictures.Net Photo: N&W 3697 Norfolk & Western EMD F7(A) at Brewster, Ohio by Robert Farkas

Don't worry I had to double check as well, I was sure I'd seen one somewhere but couldn't prove it.

So, to conclude my original question, no 'native' F units operated alongside Y6 or A class engines.

As an aside, I've been recently following this gents Flickr site, if you like big steam and early diesels, make sure you get the beer and popcorn before clicking the link...you have been fore warned!

Bill Gordon

MD

 

[mickoo]

Have you seen the work of Gerald Wingrove? He has already expended some grey matter on this subject - albeit in the automotive side.
In his car modeller books he had a press tool for pushing out louvres, I seem to remember this was modified with a pivot arrangement to produce curved louvres.
Last 4 photos in this page 1932 2.3 8C Alfa Romeo Spider by Touring

Subsequent models he has made more use of etching and has developed a method of etched louvres, form tool and a press tool to produce the desired effect.
1938 2.9 8C Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia Spider by Touring

I had but it never registered and the second link wasn't done when I looked last but he's certainly cracked it by the look of things.

My method was the rounded section on the outside as a bump with the slot on the inside, only problem was I was trying to form fill thickness bumps in what was half etched material all around. He's flipped it so you have a half etched recess on the inside which is punched out in full thickness surrounding material.

He's probably working in a much larger scale with larger vents so it's a trite easier than I suspect O gauge is, but the germ of an idea is brewing

I do want to crack it as I would like (not wish ) to do a SD24 which is littered with D vents, link to a detailed photo shoot by Don Strack below.

SD24 - Don Strack

And a Australian DL class Trains in Perth and Western Australia - Pacific National DL class DL49

I've drawings for both but hold back for technical reasons like the D vents, oddly on the DL lass they fit the panels with the raised vent facing inward not outward as on the SD24. The DL is basically a SD70 down under.

Anyway, back to U boats

 

[Brian McKenzie]

Doing decent louvres is hard and almost impossible as an etch option, I did ponder making a half etch indent in the rear and using some sort of punch tool to stamp them out. Might revisit that idea and expend a bit more grey matter on it next week.

MD

Way back in the distant past I made tools for punching louvres in a variety of sizes and patterns. The punches were ground from machine hacksaw blades, which cut then shaped the form in a single rap of the hammer. The tooling was limited in panel size to forming louvred doors as might typically suit hood units etc in the scales of 1:48 and larger to 1:24

I had considered re-working it so louvres can be pressed in much larger sized components - but being a steam loco modeller I've no personal need.

Please excuse the tiny images. I found them on a backup drive from last century. When searching that drive for 'louvre', I also came across an article by Stewart Hine.

Brian McKenzie (from an island in the South Pacific)


Material is 0.007" stainless steel shim

Brass material

 

[Brian McKenzie]

As an aside, I've been recently following this gents Flickr site, if you like big steam and early diesels, make sure you get the beer and popcorn before clicking the link...you have been fore warned!
Bill Gordon
MD

Wow, and WOW all over again. This man's photography is absolutely stunning.
He has a great eye for composition. Exposure and any subsequent processing is spot on.

-Brian McK.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Having the brainwave of using a section of 6mm brass to form the 'flat' on the end of the long hood I removed the filler used to sculpt the top end of the long hood. A section of brass was inserted to create the 'flat' on the end. After much faffing the result was this (holes will be drilled for the headlights between the number boards).


Being pretty pleased with myself I attempted the same thing on the high nose. However, I must have been too cocky and the end result was this pile of bits...


And now it was back to plan A - an ATSF low nose version.

So I made up the low nose and when placed on the loco it sat, well, too low. In fact it was 2mm too short in height. To rectify this I soldered a length of 2mm nickel silver to the base and filed away to match the profile.





And it going to end up in ATSF blue/yellow warbonnet livery.

 

[Steph Dale]

Nice recovery, if a bloody shame after you fixed the original nose. You're sure it's not fixable?

Alternatively a new nose could go on the details etch we were talking about at Easter.

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

You're sure it's not fixable?

Not now as I've used one of the formers in the low nose. It'll be reet as they say up here.

However, I've been messing around with sounds today. I blew the GE 12cyl-7FDL sounds onto a Loksound V4.0 and this has such a rumble it overdrives the Tang Band T1-1925S 1W speaker and you can hear the 'flop flop' of the cones moving up and down. In the larger speaker T1-1828S all sounds excellent as does the GE 16cyl 7FDL for a Dash 8-40B.

Will have to order some T1-1931S's (88 x 36 x 19 mm) 2w speakers to see if they can cope with the GE engine sounds.

 

[Steph Dale]

Dave,

A conventional sealed speaker would help damp out any cone flap. It's going to be pretty unlikely that the sound profiles are configured for any exotic speaker arrangement. Where those speakers will score is in recordings where the mid bass frequencies are under represented.

Going for a speaker with a higher power rating won't help much if at all - you're still going to be hitting it with the same input power.

In general, over - driving a speaker is less destructive than under - driving.

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

It's going to be pretty unlikely that the sound profiles are configured for any exotic speaker arrangement.

Probably right - perhaps I should switch off HiFi mode when dealing with this . Keep forgetting digital recordings are somewhat compressed.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Anyway, some progress has been made on the ATSF U23B.

Namely.....

Filing the corners on the low nose.


Reshaping the rear radiator hood. In order to do this I ripped out the milliput filler used by the original owner (the kit was purchased part built) and used chemical metal instead. The number boards were also filled and a new rear light added to match the ATSF prototype I have chosen to model.



In order to keep the rounded corners consistent I made up a template from scrap brass and used this as a sanding stick with wet and dry emery paper. This was used on all corners of the rear hood and the short nose. On the rear hood I flooded solder in the inner corners and roughly filed the outer corner to shape and finished then off with my bodged sanding stick.


Brass channel was soldered to the cab for the sunshades.


Fuel fillers were made from 2mm brass rod and the lower sight gauge drilled, tube inserted and blanked off from the rear.


Of the whitemetal parts in the kit I'll only be using/have used the short nose roof, coupler pockets (already used) and, below, the air tanks and front number board/light assembly. The latter has been drilled out for lights and lit number boards.


These radiator grilles are incorrect and will be replaced with square mesh.

And the hood doors behind the cab are the incorrect way round for the loco I'm modelling. the wide door should be next to the cab. The vertical etch will be filled and a new line engraved.....

One detail I've yet to work out which way to replicate are the door and hatch hinges - whether to use styrene or brass. And the grilles,they are a different matter and will need replacing.

 

[mickoo]

Dave, looks like there are half etch rebates on the hinges, normally I drop a short length of 0.5 or 0.6 mm wire into that rebate and solder, not too much but not sparingly either, then rub with a softish fibre brush which rounds off the solder to give a hinge type effect.

Bit of a pain but they look ok and looks like you've got a lot of them to do

Couple of soldered wire hinges in etched rebates on the fall plate, could perhaps of used a slightly smaller wire but not much.


I'll copy the sanding stick idea if you don't mind nice idea.

Mick D

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I'll copy the sanding stick idea if you don't mind nice idea.

Plagiarize as you please, that's what it's all about.

I drop a short length of 0.5 or 0.6 mm wire into that rebate and solder

I'll use this for sill hatch hinges. The door and roof hinges will require a different approach as the hinge plates stand proud on the prototype.

 

[Compton castle]

N&W never had F units. They dieselized very late compared to most American roads, a product of highly efficient steam locomotives only recently built and an abundance of easily accessible cheap coal. They skipped most of the earliest days of dieselization.

The N&W did hire in some F units from The Atlantic coast lines and the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac!!
I'm pretty sure the Atlantic coast ones had N&W branding added.
Again not true N&W engines. The N&W had steam heat fitted GP9's painted in passenger red for there passenger operations.

 

[simond]

Yes, I spotted the concave sanding stick too. Nice idea. Thanks

Simon

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

......and if all goes well - this is the speaker I'll be trying to fit into the U23B.

 

[Stoke5D]

Couldn't you have found something bigger...


Andrew

 

[Big Train James]

I'm a complete neophyte regarding sound. I have a question about the speaker orientation. Is there any appreciable impact on sound quality with the speaker facing to one side or the other, as opposed to up or down. I presume not, or you probably wouldn't be installing it that way. But an up or down orientation (or both as on the gp9) would seem to provide a more balanced dispersion with respect to direction of sound travel.

So I'm curious. Perhaps it doesn't matter at the scale of model trains? Or perhaps the loco body sufficiently mitigates any directional effect? Something completely different? It would be ideal if speakers could in fact be set on their sides like this without negative results, as height is typically the most generous dimension to fit the largest and best sounding options.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Cheshire cat time

This brute arrived today....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I have a question about the speaker orientation. Is there any appreciable impact on sound quality with the speaker facing to one side or the other, as opposed to up or down. I presume not, or you probably wouldn't be installing it that way.

I've had the speaker standing on it's side with the U23B body placed over it. There is no difference in sound whether the speaker was facing toward or away from me. I think of it as a speaker in a room, in this case a large speaker in a small room.

On the early BLI and P2K HO sound locos there was only one speaker arranged vertically in the long hood.

 

[mickoo]

........ After checking the kit I found the original gears had split so I ordered a replacement geared wheelset from North West Shortline albeit to O gauge 115 tread (however, there is room on the axle to close this to P48). I wanted the track gauge to be exact for 1/4'' scale and after much umming, erring and trawling through various P48 websites, P48 it is to be........

Just arrived at the same point on the UP GP9 build, I've looked at the NSW catalogue and it's a bit ambiguous or I'm just thick, probably a bit of both I suspect.

Did the wheels you ordered (I'm guessing 2525-6) come with the gears on or did you have to order those separately (2528-6)

Also do you still have the DP part numbers for the grills and steps, despite using their search and trawling the O gauge section neither jump out at me, just curious to see if it's cheaper and easier to order or develop my own through PPD, probably the latter but there will be a cut off point depending on how many sets you cater for...if dealing specifically with GP9 models a the moment.

MD