The Railking dummy was pretty much a “Plain Jane” but a great price [new].
So I added the stripes on the frame and a few extra decals which perked it up. Now I was about to attempt to paint the stripes when Tom [Spankybird] told me that automotive pin stripping was the answer. It is!!! Too easy to install and stays [does not chip].
I was not satisfied with that so I went for lighting. A buddy of mine who is a MTH tech was going to send me the pickups, insulators and wires. He had some health problems and it kept slipping. One day I called MTH and talked to a nice lady. We discussed what I needed [two pickups, to bottom plastic insulators, machine screws, nuts, top plastic insulators, black wires and red wires]. She told me she would check with techs and ship them. Well weeks went by. I was about to call her when I had a message on my answering machine that they were shipped and about $21. [the moral of this story is don’t give up, they are just slow]. Picked up some 16V lights and mini switches at a hobby shop. Got some two pole connectors at Radio Shack [so I could disconnect the lights in the shell from the wiring in the frame]. Installed the pickups.
Next I wired the lights in the shell [front headlights, back lighs, interior light behind the engineer and ditch lights. [got stick on conduit from Radio Shack to help route the wires]. The bulbs are held in by black sticky W/S sealing “rope” [very sticky and will hold but removable]. Just pull off a little and it sticks anything clean to a clean surface.
[img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d833b3127cce924aa3e
BRAVISIMO !!!
[bow]
Wow thats a pretty cool thing to do. I have yet and doubt I will tinker with any guts of any engines for now until I go through my electrical engineering degree process.
Thanks for inviting me to the forum.
Dave
Hey Dave. Check out the “Coffee Pot”. Another North Carolinian and southerner. [:D] Even better, NCSU [my old school].
Two thumbs up! Outstanding job, Chief!
Bob, this should be considered for publication in CTT. First of all this is how for very little money, someone made something much better that it arrived from the manufacturer. Although the author eats grits and talks funny, it still deserves consideration.
Chief, from all of us
[:(!][^][:D][B)][:I][:o)][8D][xx(][V][8][}:)][:X][?][:(][:O][8)][|)][:)]
[:P][;)][alien][angel][
][banghead][X-)][bow][4:-)][censored][C=:-)][%-)][C):-)]
[dinner][D)][{(-_-)}][(-D][:-,][oX)][sigh][swg][:-^][zzz]
we say
Job well done.
Thanks Chief, I really like the step by step process with the pic’s. I’m tempted to this this with my F 3’s this fall. You may have just started your own cottage business with this idea.
Good Job[tup][tup][tup]
Jon
What was the total price tag, and what was the total hours it would take now that you know what you are doing?
This is my estimate on cost.
MTH pickups and etc. $21 [includes shipping]
Lights and switches $ 9
Radio Shack $10
Smoke Unit $12 [?, bought some other stuff too that day]
Ace Bracket $ 2 [4 in packet and used only one]
Ace foam Insulation $ 5 [used only 1 inch of ten foot roll]
Ace bolts and nuts $ 1
total $60 [about]
had wire, wire nuts, fiberglass insulation and etc.
Time of actual work if I were doing another one and had all the parts. 1 hour or less. Msot of my time was spent tweaking the number of bridge rectifiers needed for this job. Bob Nelson says there is now true formula and the best way is to test it on the track. This took time and removing shell and unsoldering anf resoldering. Now, Bob has come up with another “twist”. Installing another switch to “cut in or out” the number of bridge rectifiers and thus changing the amout of smoke. ie. heavy train, more smoke; light train, less smoke. All can be reached without taking the train off of the track.
Nice job Chief! Great writeup!
Regards,
Roy