Mission completed!
Hi Simon:
Thanks for the kind words.
Nice find! The 3 in 1 kits are getting pretty rare.
I have already installed a Loksound Select Micro and it works fine except for the problem of the truck taking off on its own sometimes. There is a gremlin in there somewhere. EDIT: I reset the decoder a couple of times and the gremlin seems to have gone. Time will tell.
I did install power pickups on the front truck and it was actually quite easy. I used Kadee #5 coupler springs. All I did was bend the spring arms out and twist them 90 degrees. I had to drill a small hole where the black dot is (hopefully your hole will be more centered than my dot is) and I used a couple of tiny screws to attach the springs to the truck. I also welded the top and bottom of the truck chassis together with my soldering iron so the screws wouldn’t pop them apart. Positioning the screw holes is a bit tricky because they are so close to the edge of the chassis. I left the 90 degree tab on the bottom of the springs. It sits nicely up against the bottom of the chassis and will stop the pickups from swivelling out of place.
This one will need to be straightened a bit before use. I did it up quickly for the picture:
I painted the truck before taking a picture but I think you can see the pickup in place. I still have to paint the brass rims:
I can’t take credit for the spring idea. Lots of people have done it before with various locomotives.
I made the front hood out of the curved edges of a roof from a Grandt Line boxcab (made my own boxcab roof from brass) and the
[:-^]
Great work all around Fellas,
Ed, I am so impressed with your compressor house. I hope you plan on entering that in a NMRA contest. Great idea with the magnets.
Dave, Your Goose has really come along. You’ll beat those wiring troubles’ we all know you to well.
Peter, That is remarkable brick work on the front of both buildings, how did you get that different coloring on the bricks?
Johnboy out…
Thanks Johnboy:
I’m flattered!
The gremlins seem to have gone. I reset the decoder a couple of times and now it runs quite nicely. The decoder was really messed up when I first got it even though it was brand new out of the box (or so it appeared). Maybe I gave it a dose of static electricity or something.
All the best.
Dave
Thanks for the detailled pics Dave. My Goose project is not on top of the pile right now, but I will post it when it does.
Simon
George, Yes, DTD hydrocal kits. The castings require careful clean-up, fitting and squaring. Some ingenuity helps in dealing with casting imperfections, gaps and exposed seams.
John “in the Great White North”, The different colors on the brick work was randomly applied with a 10/0 round tip brush and slightly thinned craft paints. And in my case a pair of magnifiers and some classical background music.
I rather like the unique character the DTD kits present and how they take to additions, customizing and bash ups.
Thanks and regards, Peter
Peter in a different section of town, you could call it the Fallen Angels Hotel
I got a call late Sunday afternoon that my new machines for the loco shop arrived and needed to get off the main…I had to hightail over to the basement and assist in spotting the heavy flat in the yard.
Rich
Rich:
Nice loads! Love the tie downs too.
Did you make those?
Dave
My Dad made those back in the 90’s. I wish I could get him to do more but he is in bad health these days and doesn’t get around that well. He’s done some pretty cool stuff in his days going back to the 50’s when his dad owned a hobby shop in phila. I wish I had half the talent he has/had…
Rich
BigDaddy, Yeah, the DTD kit do exhibit some “other side of the tracks” flavor.
Regards, Peter
Rich:
Please tell your dad that I admire his work.
Dave