Trail Drive Nearing Completion

 

Next stop, WEATHERING!  The freezers are ready to roll, the cabeese still need window glass but won't get it until the weathering has been applied, and the steamer will receive a bell cord and whistle cord after weathering.  Note the coal load in the tender.  I will be using multiple techniques; brush painting, air brushing, and adhesive powders, as required, to get the look I'm after.  I may also include a few other cars that need weathering, or maybe not.  We'll see.

Gaining Weight

Work on the IHC Mehano 2-6-0 cylinder issue has opened up a new possibility, pun intended.  While searching for reference photos of other locos with the same issue (and perhaps someone who has solved it), I came across a model that someone had customized, including little bits of weight crammed in all sorts of places.  I had already concealed some on this engine by filling out the air tank detail as seen in this image from a couple years ago:

John Allen once said he'd rather have a lighter but well balanced locomotive with the weight over the drivers than a heavy engine with the weight at one end.  This engine has a whacking great slug in the boiler down near the front and originally had more weight in the cab and behind the motor, both of which I've had to reduce in order to accommodate wiring and a crew in the cab.  So any weight I can return to the locomotive, especially toward the rear, is important for good tractive effort.

Here's the latest addition:

Doesn't look like much, but it's lead and it's down low where it counts. (It is the little gray bits on the foam next to the engine, and will go into the frame near the axles.)  I may try to squeeze in a bit more under the cab while I've got this gal in the shop.  By the way, the cylinders are now level, at least as level as they're going to be.  The critical point was where the steam pipes from the cylinders met the side flange on the smokebox - it has never lined up and for some reason I guess I just figured it would correct itself over time, or maybe I was ignoring the problem.  I couldn't any longer.  This seems to be a design flaw on some of these 2-6-0s, but not others.  The frame is also slightly warped at the pilot deck which causes that coupler to sit low.  However, I'm not going to try and correct that, only make sure that the coupler is set at the correct height.

Also, without much fanfare, this is my 100th post on the blog.  Hopefully it won't take me so long to make the next 100.  Thank you to all the readers and commenters. 

Caboose Coupler Conundrum - Solved!

Back when I began converting these Model Power cabeese into more detailed models I ran into a conundrum; how to mount couplers.  In January of 2018 I determined I'd need to hog out the old coupler box entirely and sheath the platform surface with styrene, distressed to resemble wood planks.  Fine.  But that doesn't leave anything for a screw to bite into in order to attach the coupler box.  

Coupler slot modifications from January 2018

Now I know what you're thinking - why not just glue the box in place.  I considered it, but I really prefer to be able to unscrew the box to access the coupler and spring plate in case either or both are damaged, heaven forbid.  To do so if it had been glued in place would mean potentially damaging the platform detail above, then having to glue in the replacement, and I could just imagine that going badly.

The obvious solution was to glue the top plate of the coupler box in place, and attach the lower half by screwing it to the post on the upper half.  The only problem was finding a screw of the right size.  The largest tap I own is for a 2-56 screw, and that slides right through the coupler hole.  I had slightly larger screws but no tap...but perhaps I could just force them to "self-tap" into the soft plastic of the coupler box...

 

NEVER throw away potentially useful screws!

Sure enough, it worked.  The old Atlas switch machine screws tapped themselves easily into the coupler boxes without cracking or distorting the plastic.  Only about 1/16 of an inch needed to be snipped away and my Xurons made quick work of that followed by a few swipes of a needle file.  A couple tiny drops of super glue and voila, couplers installed.