Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

Fall is on the way. About time to dust off the trains.
I've had this receiver and ESC for 3 decades now. The ESC was part of a fixed pitch helicopter that came over on the slow boat from China. Took about 6 weeks to get here and started an obsession with helicopters that far surpassed anything else hobby wise I have ever spent hard earned money on.
And the receiver, came from a POS Duratrax Thunderquake that was better left unpurchased.
Anyhow, I was able to mate them together and used a Park Zone park flyer TX to operate it.
Old AM radio shit from way back when.

and stuck it in a Kalamazoo G scale locomotive.

I was unable to hide this one like the last due to space constraints and not wanting to drill any holes that would show.

This one is simple, headlight and throttle. No smoke or sound and it's super easy to handle off the track. More toy like than hobby grade, but it looks nice and is built solid like a toy should be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XqNeE2AM2g
I paid $60 for the set years ago, not including the red gondola. The company closed it's doors in the 80's.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2351930330...Mu9xBNml2JxQPh6N2hQu5zjyE6YCUPicaAh7BEALw_wcB

 

Must be a hill climb on that back end.. engine started roaring like a chainsaw

 

The old transmitter for the park flyer receivers that were powering the trains stopped working. So I upgraded. Had a couple of aircraft receivers that I mated to an old DX6i I had laying around. I seem to have a lot of transmitters and odd receivers.

The AUX channel is being used to power the "chuff chuff" sound board. Works great with the BEC set at 7.5volts.
I have a servo relay coming in so I can turn it on and off with the DX6.
A couple of Radiolink Cool 9030 esc's. Nothing special about them, run of the mill 90amp crawler, boat, race esc. They fit the specs I needed and were next day delivery from Amazon.
Coolest thing is I now have reverse!

Tucked in the tender. It really is way overkill, but the price was right.

The old 9v battery compartment for the sound board. Not pictured are the servo power wires soldered to the contacts inside..7.5 volts off the BEC was enough to power it.

Unpacked a caboose that was purchased at a train show 25 some years ago and has rarely seen the light of day. I disabled the wiper contacts on the wheels and wired in a 3 cell lipo to power the lights.



Highly detailed on the inside with bunks, potbelly stove, benches, galley, hinged doors that are spring loaded. Too bad you can't see any of it.
paid more for that than the entire set combined. but it looks nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyibYOV9khw

 

That spine log car serves a purpose, I made it years ago, should have been shorter.
It connects the caboose to the rest of the train, The couplers on the caboose sit higher than the rest and cannot be moved down. They barely catch and any slight deviation in the track causes it to come off. Then it gets corn holed when the engine loops back around, causing a derailment, loss of life and revenue.
I picked up a set of off brand trucks years ago, that have the ability to adjust the coupler down slightly. So one end is lowered and goes to any of the Bachmann stock.
The other is raised to line up with the caboose.
But it's heavy since I used oak. Adding logs to it makes it really heavy.
So I printed a stubby flat car, cause that's as big as the printer would allow. 4 wheels trucks means it can haul a heavy load.



Need to print up a load, like a steam donkey, for it to haul around, give it a job.

 

Cheapest I can find a pair of these trucks is about $65 plus shipping. Bachmann wants $100 for a pair. So not sure if I'll pursue many more of these unless I get a deal on some at a train show, maybe score some bashed up cars with intact trucks. I don't necessarily need the wheels, just the trucks with attached couplers.
My version of a steam donkey, on it's way to a logging operation in a remote forest, waiting to be set on a pair of skids and put to work.
Also had some spare plastic wheels, so made a thing to hold them. They'll find a home in the gondola.

 

Had a catastrophic failure on the locomotive. The drive gear split. I was able to "repair" it, no pics of this, consisted of zip ties and super glue. More on that later. I did not reinstall it.
Almost 30 years of service. I think it was my fault, I had added quite a bit of weight to help it pull better, and I think it needed to have wheel slip now and then. I won't be doing that again.

I really want this one functional as it is from a rare set. I have two, but the other one has much more metal detail and lives in a box on a shelf.

I have a third that is Christmas themed, it was given to me.
It runs but has quite a bit of broken plastic. Plus the theme is seasonal. Also Has two coach cars that need to be sold.
So It's gonna be a doner. As a plus, it has all the upgraded metal features.

Mostly swapped in the pic. Took the entire under frame as it's an open design and looks better.
Swapped out the "hubcaps" to keep the colors. The green piston assembly was painted and installed later. . This has a set of metal side rods instead of the plastic ones.

 

Some of the new detail, the air reservoirs, piping, valves, side rods.
It added a small amount of weight.

A bit more brass on the sides and front. It's legit brass, not plastic.

Still a few farkles left on the doner, but I may have other plans for it so as not to waste it.

My original frame and wheels with the "repaired" gear. It seems to run fine.
Since I had three of the 4-6-0 engines, I want to kitbash this one into a different wheel configuration. Either cut and fit the old body or print something up. Might end up being a simple 0-6-0 side tank locomotive.

 

I feel like I'm in a race to get this complete and able to run before the snow falls.
Gear "repair"


Printed a front bogie support. 1st attempt was to merely cut the end of the existing bogie, but the pivot wasn't far enough back for it to track right. So cut the pivot off and made this extension/mount.



2-6-0 Mogul.


Will attempt to dissect a section and mate the pieces back together. I have visions of a tight, seamless fit. But who am I kidding. There might be a "patch" printed up and "welded" over the seam.

 

Not as bad as I was expecting. I think a piece of leftover brass piping can be bent to fill that groove and look like it does something.

 

Now to cut the frame up a bit more to fit it all together.

 

Now to get the cylinders mounted and the connecting rods shortened.
I am able to use 2 of the original 7 mounting screws. Both in the rear.
Hoping for a total of 3 when it's done.

 

Some of the railing is back, the bell and the generator. I'll move the cowcatcher back a bit, hoping to make the old brass fit that again. And maybe pull the front bogie back if it doesn't clear. Still need to cut down and fit the running boards, re-install the smoke unit and finish the inside wiring/light. Turned out better than I thought it would. Also printing it's own tender, making it more RC battery friendly. If there is room, I'll move the sound card as well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=N-nLL65uBbM13oFZ&v=6ddTnhkTGBY&feature=youtu.be

 

Got the front end shortened, brass applied and a cover piece to make it look good.
Had to shorten the bogie 3mm. It clears everything by just a few millimeters, but it does clear.

I'll eventually get around to painting the blue part black.
Thinking of painting the whole thing black with white accents. The headlight and silver nose/stack would be left as is.

Time to focus on the tender.

 

i like the red and green, reminds of me Christmas

 

Bah Hum Bug.
I already have a Christmas trolley and a couple coaches. What I don't have is a traditional black locomotive.
I also don't have a steady hand for the accent painting, so it may never happen.

 

Printing a tender for the shorty locomotive. The pieces interlock.

The tinder basket for the tender will be printed tomorrow.


Designed a caboose and an adapter to make the car body from 4 wheels to 2 wheels.

 

Plenty of room for the sound card and speaker. So that's gonna happen.

The connection to the engine. A little magic marker magic.

I really like the finish and look of the brown. So the caboose is slated for that material. Unless I change my mind.

Stubby. Cute as fuck.

Pansies are starting to sprout. Wonder how far they will get before the snow...

 

The caboose is too short for a pair of double bogies. This was originally the base for the tender, printed a different one so the shell would lock to it.
So this is now the caboose base. I made a pair of adapters for single bogies. which I already had.

They just slip over the existing pivot mount and snap in to the brace that runs along the bottom. Easy peasy.