I was IMing Trainfreak409 and I decided to build the Lazy Llama. It is a Mercedes Sprinter delivery van welded to a 40-foot boxcar, powered by an old truck from a F7. Anyone have suggestions?
Good luck CSXGuy! Just remember, take your time. If something doesn’t work the first time, tinker and tweek it until it does. Lay your parts out, and think of a plan before making that first cut. I layed out all my stuff the day before I started and thought for over an hour on how to do it. Just staring, and looking at everything, determining what I could and couldn’t use.
And overall, HAVE FUN WITH IT!
~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~
Good Luck csxguuy. I have started a chain reaction.
I just found out that my truck from the F7 is no good!!! Where can I buy a replacemnt truck?
Me i’m fairly sure i have a F7 truck around here.
What brand is the F7 truck? Is it an Athearn truck? Is it a Bachmann 4-wheel-drive truck?
I have no clue, as it is older than I am. I could not find an identification stamp on it either. All I am looking for is who makes powered trucks I can buy. My dad says I can’t buy it from someone I don’t know, I must buy it from the LHS. Please don’t go into great detail in this matter, as it was already discussed in the Coffee Shop.
I can see two possible solutions here - one is to get hold of either a cheap Bachmann loco (the type with a power truck) or a similar Lifelike one. The other is to buy a SPUD or Black Beetle power truck - these are pricey though (SPUDs cost the equivelent of $60 each here!). Of the two, I’d say hunting down a used Bachmann or Lifelike would be the easier option - if you can find a battered but running loco you can adapt the frame to fit your kitbash (bear in mind that powered trucks in locos like this are designed to work with their frames - there’s often no pivot point as on a normal truck, so grafting the mounting from the original loco in will be your best bet). It might be worth asking Bachmann if they can supply spare trucks/frames, or alternatively consider buying one of their cheap train sets (with the chromed SF F7A) - you can probably kitba***he cars into something usable and the power pack might be handy to power building/street lighting. Hope this is of help!
Thanks, Matt! I think I might look at the loco graft thing. What does it take to get it to pivot?
Looking at the locos I have with power trucks, there’s usually a moulded semicircular “track” on the frame that the truck sideframe/mainframe mouldings run against - you’d basically need to chop the loco frame in half and keep the end with the power truck mountings, trimming it to fit into the boxcar shell. You might also want to use the trailing truck at the other end of the model to keep the pickups - if not, consider fitting some springy phosphor-bronze strips that bear on the wheel backs to pick up from all wheels, as a short 4-wheel chassis (which is effectively what the power truck is) is vulnerable to stalling. Hope this is of help!
The boxcar vis painted!!! I got some overspray on the sprinter, so i had to strip it. I used Polly-S Easy off. It works great!
I see some progress has occured while I was vacationing.
Come on CSXGuy, where are the pictures?
~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~
you keep talking about it. lets see some pictures