“ROUTE OF THE SHORTYS”

[F-UnitMad]

ha ha!! "Beep Beep" is the phrase to use, I believe!!

[Northroader]

Well, it's one use for an atlas chassis I picked up at a Bristol GOG bring and buy do a couple of years back (£40) with a body shell off the web, ($8, but postage knocked it up no end.) The ballast weight needed grinding away on the corners at one end to clear the corners of the cab, and the plastic 'footplate' area needed a good trim all round. Now I need to fit kadees and a dummy outside frame. It will probably end up as a sort of CNR switcher filling in a motive power gap cheaply and not too seriously?

[F-UnitMad]

From a Company called "RMT", usually 3-rail *pauses to wash mouth out* - your chassis 'conversion' (brilliant idea, I think!! ) threw me at first, but a "Beep Geep" is what Sir has aquired:-

 

http://www.readymadetoys.com/o-gauge-diesel.html

 

& a good bit of fun it looks, too. Just the thing to run out at an Exhibition & get the Purists spluttering although we don't tend to get those so much on The Dark Side.

 

Edit - just found the very Item on T'bay; so apologies for stating the obvious...

Edited September 30, 2016 by F-UnitMad

[Northroader]

RMT stands for "ready made toys"- (toys, ouch!!!) still, glad you like it!

Edit: on the box it says "toys" but looking at the website you've linked to, it says "trains", so we're halfway respectable. Ooh, look, they got a "shortliner" kind of RDC????

Edited October 1, 2016 by Northroader

[shortliner]

RMT stands for "ready made toys"- (toys, ouch!!!) still, glad you like it!

Edit: on the box it says "toys" but looking at the website you've linked to, it says "trains", so we're halfway respectable. Ooh, look, they got a "shortliner" kind of RDC????

Couldn't see the RDC, but I do like the "Peeps" - very Oscar and Piker-like

[Northroader]

That's the "BUDDY". They're quite dear, and 3rail, which is why an Atlas mod is my preferred route, but I'd be more inclined to some kind of doodlebug lash-up.

[Northroader]

Here's a report on Beep Bashing, just in case there's anyone out there who's daft enough to try it, more likely it's just me?

 

The photo shows the two components, an Atlas switcher chassis, and a RMT beep bodyshell. Looking at the chassis first, you can see where I've been busy with a grindstone on the corners of the ballast weight which will fit up into the cab. Emphasise that it has to "fit like a turd in a sock" as the circle I used to mix with would put it, i.e. loosely. I use a small grindstone fitted on a drill, which saves a lot of filing. However you can't get right down to the bottom of the block level with the deck. The other thing is you'll spot how much trimming the deck of the chassis needs.

Turning to the body shell, I'm used to working on Atlas diesel shells, which you can carve and file willy nilly. This one, however, is an acrylic type resin casting, so it is very brittle, and crack if you just look at it, and laugh at you as it does so. I wanted to do a repaint, and found if you put the point of a craft knife close to where each handrail stanchion goes in, and tweak gently, the handrail assemblies will come away, which leaves the body easier to strip and paint.

The next job I intend to do is build up blocks from laminations of plastic sheet cemented together, and glue inside the body between the steps, extending up to the chassis ballast weight. With this, it will:

A) give me some meat to screw the kadee box to,

B) ditto for screws to attach the body to the chassis,

C) get the bottom of the cab clear from where the ballast widens because the grinder wouldn't get in,

D) lift the body a bit higher off the chassis, because it does look a bit low slung.

Now most of the paint and the handrails are off it, looking at it, it reminds me of an "iron lung" (B.R. Class 14, spotters "teddy bear") so it could be almost believable?

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

This model will be a nice switcher for one of my grain elevators.

[chilgarth]

This model will be a nice switcher for one of my grain elevators.

this may not be so far fetched... Take a look in Traiñs Locomotive Annual 2016, pages 26-27. The Tractive Power Corp. TP56 and TP70 are riding the rails. ... coh

[JAMO]

this may not be so far fetched... Take a look in Traiñs Locomotive Annual 2016, pages 26-27. The Tractive Power Corp. TP56 and TP70 are riding the rails. ... coh

Thank you Chilgarth. I know these nice loco/truck engines. They are nice looking too.

 

However, they are too modern for my 60's project. I go to use a Atlas 3 axle diesel and an old upgraded Lima/Rivarossi engines.

[Northroader]

Well, the Winchester show for this year has come and gone, and I was lucky enough to make it there. It's an enjoyable drive over the Downs and down the Test valley getting there, with the trees changing colour. I'm comfortable with the show format, as it says on the tin, "gauge O" "American" "Continental". What more could you want? Thanks to the organisers for putting it on as ever.

JasonD found me some horns to finish off the RSD5 out of his treasure trove, and, just back from the states, travellers tales of NS freights in the middle of the night to make a stay at home Wiltshire yokels eyes round in wonder. Also bogies, sorry, trucks, for another project, more of this when its in the shops. There was some really luscious stuff needing a good home to go to, but I'm having a reality check in how much needs to be completed before I get anything else.

It was the last Winchester show a year ago I saw Gordy's "Georgetown" http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98410-georgetown-ct-o-scale-2-rail-layout/and decided that was something to aspire to, rebuilding Englefield. I'm very pleased how it's shaped, both the line, and starting this thread, as I feel I'm a better modeller from the help and encouragement form the folks who've come on the thread, so thanks for that, too.

Right, talking of better modelling, here's the bit you've been waiting for, the next instalment of the "Beep Bashers Fortnightly Digest":

I've got most of the paint off, and then araldited all the cracked parts - at one stage half the short nose dropped off! It really is a brittle casting, and it's supposed to be for Junior to play with? Then make pads from a double layer .060" plastikard to fit inside as explained in the last post, also packing for support at each side, more aralditing, but the casting is much stronger as a result. Then more bits at the ends, and mount the couplers. You'll see two holes for screwing through for attachment to the chassis. Here it is making friends (and checking coupler heights)

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Your SP-7 looks good.

 

GP for General Purpose

SP for Special Purpose

[Northroader]

I think it's a BP-7, as in BEEP. Can't wait for the "Show us your EMDs" thread to start!

BP for B*ggerall Purpose

Edited October 15, 2016 by Northroader

[Mike Boucher]

I think it's a BP-7, as in BEEP. Can't wait for the "Show us your EMDs" thread to start!

BP for B*ggerall Purpose

Yeah, but GPs are 2 axle trucks, that sucker got a single 3 axle truck.  I vote for SP as a better designation

[Northroader]

As Mike says, it's got a three axle truck;

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

The "truck" is just built up from layers of .060" plastikard, trying to look like a flexicoil introduced by EMD with the SD7. Finished painting and putting the handrails back. Then some weathering with pastel chalk, I hope I didn't make it too scruffy.

I like it, but as Mandy Rice Davies said "he would say that, wouldn't he?" For comparison, I've put it alongside an Atlas switcher I picked up cheap at the Winchester show, and I prefer the beep.

 

That leaves me with another donor chassis- "come into my laboratory, little diesel, heh, heh, heh!" but next time I think I'll skip the RMT shell, which have become dearer to find, then there's the postage. Instead I'll try the same proportions for a scratchbuilt body in plastikard. That's off in the future, however, I must buckle down to work around Englefield, and there's still the mogul and the combine to do. Mind you, I haven't told you about the other passenger option that's come up, have I??....

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Your green with yellow stripes and a red plate looks like a SNCF engine. 

 

A WDT chassis with a styrene body: good idea! I stay tuned!

[Northroader]

One half of a "yah-yah"??? (Baldwin "AIA-AIA",the secrets in the pronounciation!)

Edited November 10, 2016 by Northroader

[JAMO]

Ya-Ya is easier to tell than A1A-A1A

 

[Northroader]

I haven't forgotten Englefield, honest, it's just most of my effort is going into getting Washbourne mk. 2 into a run run situation. The one job that's going on is a feed mill is going up in the corner by the front siding. There's a 12mm ply base with a couple of dowels to locate it on the baseboard, then a 1mm ply shell to form the structure. This has stripwood pieces glued along the joins for reinforcement.

[Northroader]

The feed mill is slowly taking shape, although I've just realised I used up all my 1mm. ply, so another trip to the aircraft modelling shop is necessary. Here's an overall view of the line with the new building adding some balance and masking the entrance to the end cassette.

This brings me to a time when I want to thank all the folks who have supported the thread in the last year, particularly those contributors with their thoughts and comments. Have a very merry Christmas with family and friends, and I hope you're able to prosper in the New Year, with plenty of good modelling.

[Northroader]

I've only just managed a trip into town for some thin ply for the feed mill, so in the meantime I've been working on the fiddle yard end. A while back I said the handles needed checking for clearances, so I've done that, and also got some short cassettes made. Here's what the yard looks like now:

There are now four 48" cassettes, and two 21" matching the three at the other end of the layout. I find they're useful for parking the odd loco or coach on. You'll see the CNR fleet are all in port, three diesels now, one steamer, (the mogul, needing to be finished) one combine coach (likewise), one hopper, one gondola, one reefer, four boxes, two cabeese. So there's still plenty to keep me occupied.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader

[Northroader]

I haven't fallen down the bog, just slowly progressing with the feed mill, and also working on another job to get the line up to scratch, encapsulated in the phrase, "magnets and kadees". I'm resetting all the magnets and gauging them up to try and get them exactly central, level and at the right height. Being tight, I got some some small block magnets years back, rather than the larger tombstone sort, and it's clear that the area of sideways pull from the track centre is reduced in consequence. I can raise a click on the one I've started with, but then most of the kadees also need their prongs resetting, high, low, sideways, and I'm finding some aren't particularly tight. All a slow patient plod, with not much in the way of entertaining photos. Talk amongst yourselves.

[Robatron86]

Ah magnet fun. I am currently experimenting with neodymium magnets for the next layout.

[Northroader]

Here's some progress with the feed mill, which I'm beginning to like:

Edited July 3, 2023 by Northroader