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Harbledown Railroad Heritage Line (Wisconsin Central)


Chris116
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9 hours ago, Chris116 said:

Just been having another look at information and it appears from one source that it may be a GP18. Can anyone shed more light on this?

 

46 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

The fan arrangement on the roof would suggest GP18, yes. I also found the model itself listed under Mehano.


Agreed - if I search for GP18 models loads of similar pictures come up.  What I haven’t found is a prototype photo of a GP18 in UP livery to suggest a number though?  If they didn’t actually run that particularly model, it could be you have a free choice :) 

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When I want photo's of a specific loco I go to the RRPictureacrchives.net and search by loco type then by Railroad. This search reveals no pictures of UP GP18s which, given the huge nature of this resource, suggests there weren't any. However in terms of US railroading I am very much a beginner so stand to be corrected! It is of course, similar to loco's they did have, such as the GP9 - I don't know what such a conversion would entail, though doing a quick search I can't see any UP examples without dynamic brakes.

 

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Many thanks for all the replies. From reading about AHM it is certain in my mind that they didn't manufacture anything. They bought in and reboxed other manufacturers models. 

 

Now my only problem is to find a number that UP did not use in the 1960 to 1990 timescale. Due to my love of stock car racing I shall check out 68, 212, 235, 379, 381 and 443.

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Looking at various websites I think I am right in saying that UP never had a GP18 short high hood version. 

 

That has led me to look at possible numbers that have not been used on other UP diesels and from a first check it seems that my two favoured numbers, 381 and 443, are both available.

 

Thanks again to those who have given some very useful replies.

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My bank account is not going to be happy but I am!

 

I have won an AHM Chicago and North Western SW600 and an AHM Santa Fe GP35.

 

This means I now have ten four axle diesels to run a layout that will be run with a maximum of three locos needed in an operating session!

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16 hours ago, Chris116 said:

This means I now have ten four axle diesels to run a layout that will be run with a maximum of three locos needed in an operating session!

Ha ha, slippery slope, mate. Slippery slope!!

When I first had a dabble in O Scale, one Atlas Plymouth & one Atlas F-Unit was all I thought I'd need.

Now 12 locomotives later, and that's just the American ones...!! :mosking:

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18 hours ago, Chris116 said:

My bank account is not going to be happy but I am!

 

I have won an AHM Chicago and North Western SW600 and an AHM Santa Fe GP35.

 

This means I now have ten four axle diesels to run a layout that will be run with a maximum of three locos needed in an operating session!

 

1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

Ha ha, slippery slope, mate. Slippery slope!!

When I first had a dabble in O Scale, one Atlas Plymouth & one Atlas F-Unit was all I thought I'd need.

Now 12 locomotives later, and that's just the American ones...!! :mosking:

 

Keep the boxes and look after your locos and they can also sell on well when the time comes too - so you can raise funds to buy...

 

...more locomotives :)

Edited by Keith Addenbrooke
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IMG20211228192416.jpg.f78414b137cee70d8b5147d9db3a9d93.jpgToo many domestic chores over the last couple of months has seen nothing done to the layout. However I was in Brighton last week and found a second hand stamp shop that also does diecast models and a small amount of model railways. The story about 41304 is on my Elmstone layout thread. At the same time as I bought the Ivatt tank, I also got a Santa Fe caboose. This was in much better condition than the Ivatt but as can be seen from the photo it looks rather small, almost as if it is 3mm scale with 16.5mm gauge! The poor conductor would never be able see over any of my other stock. The caboose says Life-like on the underside so I would be interested in comments about whether it is right or a total bin job.

Edited by Chris116
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Its a North Eastern style caboose, originally designed by the Reading RR but used by other roads in the region. Tunnel clearances were lower in the NE as they were built earlier hence to low height of the cupola, bear in mind that boxcars tend to be built out to the full clearance plate (loading gauge) so a brake man in the cupola wouldn’t necessarily be able to see over the roofs. Bay window and wide vision cabooses were attempts to deal with the vision issues. Rapido are making one and have some more details on their website.

https://rapidotrains.com/products/ho-scale/freight-cars/ho-scale-northeastern-design-steel-caboose

 

It’s a good model of a real prototype but I’ll leave you to browse RR picture archive to see if ATSF operated any. http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=ATSF&cid=1

Edited by doctor quinn
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8 minutes ago, doctor quinn said:

Its a North Eastern style caboose, originally designed by the Reading RR but used by other roads in the region. Tunnel clearances were lower in the NE as they were built earlier hence to low height of the cupola, bear in mind that boxcars tend to be built out to the full clearance plate (loading gauge) so a brake man in the cupola wouldn’t necessarily be able to see over the roofs. Bay window and wide vision cabooses were attempts to deal with the vision issues.

Thank you for that information. I learn new things on here all the time.

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NE is the official classification for an eight-wheel (two truck) caboose, as opposed to a four wheel caboose (NM).

NE is, of course, a common abbreviation for “North East(ern)”, as as this type was more common in the northeastern States, the nickname stuck.

Nobody nicknamed the NM “New Mexican”, though - probably because the two-character codes for each State came into use some 40+ years after the AAR code!

 

From the 1932 AAR classification of car codes:

Quote

Class "N"


NE Caboose mounted on eight wheels and longer than four-wheel caboose, but of the same general design.

 

NM Freight train service caboose for convenience of trainmen. This class is mounted on four wheels and has lookout at top over roof. It is fitted with bunks or benches and a stove for cooking and heating purposes; also tank for storage of drinking and washing water, and small tool storage boxes.

Source: https://www.opsig.org/files/resources/AARFreightCarCodes.pdf

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I got three very nice box cars recently via eBay.

IMG_20220108_224721.jpg.bdf8db533bd74c85e94f69684b0ed88c.jpg

 

The well packed parcel appeared to have had a spike pushed into it at some point in its journey to my front door. Clearly it was not the fault of the seller and I have given them good feedback but on one of the box cars one truck had been damaged and I want to replace it. I have a pair of Kadee 50 ton Bettendorf Metal Trucks but they make the box car ride about 2mm higher. Can anyone suggest the correct product to solve the problem?

IMG20220108223841.jpg.457e95e0e943e492d20f62887aa2d55f.jpg

The second photo shows one of the new trucks under the box car with the old undamaged one next door.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Edited by Chris116
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Well, so much for getting on with wiring the layout so I can start operating it and then adding scenery. A case of no get up and go with a positive result for a Covid Test have seen nothing done! I have nothing worse than a mild cold but the test result means I can't go out. 

 

The one bit of good news is that my hunt on eBay for a Norfolk Southern loco has produced brand new Athearn GP 38-2 for under £35 including postage. Just got to sort out the hand rails which is going to be an interesting job!

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I am having a totally frustrating afternoon. I have started to wire the first baseboard so it can be connected to the control panel. Only problem is that everytime I try to solder the wire to the first prong on the 15 way plug the solder either refuses to acknowledge how hot the iron is or it forms into a little ball that drops onto my work table and fails to attach itself to the wire! Even getting the solder to go into a ball takes forever and it steadfastly refuses to silver the end of the soldering iron even with lots of flux applied to everything.

 

I am using an 18 watt iron which is supposed to be ideal for use on wire and other model railway related jobs. Ever since I had to start using lead free solder I seem to have had problems but having run out of the old stuff I have no choice. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can solve this issue as wiring is my least favourite job and this is starting to make me feel I would be better off stamp collecting and I would probably die of boredom if I took that up.

 

The one bit of good news is that two more Wisconsin Central box cars have been obtained which means I now have four box cars and three hopper wagons in Wisconsin Central livery.

Edited by Chris116
Left the good news out!
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30 minutes ago, long island jack said:

Your 18w iron isn't hot enough for normal solder, you need low melt solder or a bigger wattage iron.

Thanks for that information long Island jack. I was beginning to wonder if that was the problem. My old solder must have been low melt so I will have to find another iron or find some low melt solder.

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New soldering iron arrived earlier and I have made some use of it this evening. So nice to have an iron that melts the solder!

 

If anyone reading this would like an 18 watt iron that can only do low melt solder then PM me and it is yours for the price of the postage.

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I got a bit more wiring done yesterday and today decided that I needed to sort out the couplings on four of my locos. They do not have Kadee couplings and since all my other stock now has Kadee couplings the job needs doing. 

 

They are all AHM or Bachmann. I think badge engineering accounts for who claims to have made them!

 

They all have the couplings shown in the photo which was taken on my computer mouse mat!

 

IMG_20220215_180637.jpg.17a5f3af08268b6a20c77ab9b534ad9d.jpg

 

Having studied the way the couplings are attached and having tried to replace them I have totally failed to find a way of attaching the Kadee couplings without a lot of butcherary which I would like to avoid.

 

Any suggestions would be very welcome as at the moment the four locos in the photo below could well be returning to eBay in the near future!

 

IMG_20220215_182536.jpg.46c1caef48b3cb4c88750cfbc17a4d93.jpg

 

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4 hours ago, Chris116 said:

Any suggestions would be very welcome as at the moment the four locos in the photo below could well be returning to eBay in the near future!

To be honest, that would be my suggestion!! The old X2F 'horn hook' coupler is virtually a Dodo these days, and manufacturers long ago replaced it with Kadee or it's clones. It gives an idea of the age of those models. 

Even replacing all four of them with just one Kato or Atlas loco would be well worth it, not least in terms of better looking handrails, not to mention the running qualities.!!

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46 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

To be honest, that would be my suggestion!! The old X2F 'horn hook' coupler is virtually a Dodo these days, and manufacturers long ago replaced it with Kadee or it's clones. It gives an idea of the age of those models. 

Even replacing all four of them with just one Kato or Atlas loco would be well worth it, not least in terms of better looking handrails, not to mention the running qualities.!!

Many thanks for your reply. I feared that might be the answer. All four run well and three are the only representatives of the railroad in my loco stock. The only other thought I have had is to replace the X2F horn hooks on the freight cars I have converted to Kadees. Since the layout only has need of two or three locos at a time I would be able to run a full freight service with X2F fitted stock and the freight locos would not be able to swap with the passenger locos. I will also make sure all new stock comes already fitted with Kadees. I will have to think carefully about which route to take.

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You could always have one freight car with a horn hook at one end & Kadee at the other, as an intermediate compromise. I did that in N, years ago when I decided to convert from the standard coupler to Micro Trains magnetics, an expensive project that took some time - in fact if memory serves, I sold it all & moved up to HO before everything had been converted.

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15 hours ago, Chris116 said:

I got a bit more wiring done yesterday and today decided that I needed to sort out the couplings on four of my locos. They do not have Kadee couplings and since all my other stock now has Kadee couplings the job needs doing. 

 

They are all AHM or Bachmann. I think badge engineering accounts for who claims to have made them!

 

They all have the couplings shown in the photo which was taken on my computer mouse mat!

 

IMG_20220215_180637.jpg.17a5f3af08268b6a20c77ab9b534ad9d.jpg

 

Having studied the way the couplings are attached and having tried to replace them I have totally failed to find a way of attaching the Kadee couplings without a lot of butcherary which I would like to avoid.

 

Any suggestions would be very welcome as at the moment the four locos in the photo below could well be returning to eBay in the near future!

 

IMG_20220215_182536.jpg.46c1caef48b3cb4c88750cfbc17a4d93.jpg

 

 

10 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

To be honest, that would be my suggestion!! The old X2F 'horn hook' coupler is virtually a Dodo these days, and manufacturers long ago replaced it with Kadee or it's clones. It gives an idea of the age of those models. 

Even replacing all four of them with just one Kato or Atlas loco would be well worth it, not least in terms of better looking handrails, not to mention the running qualities.!!

 

10 hours ago, Chris116 said:

Many thanks for your reply. I feared that might be the answer. All four run well and three are the only representatives of the railroad in my loco stock. The only other thought I have had is to replace the X2F horn hooks on the freight cars I have converted to Kadees. Since the layout only has need of two or three locos at a time I would be able to run a full freight service with X2F fitted stock and the freight locos would not be able to swap with the passenger locos. I will also make sure all new stock comes already fitted with Kadees. I will have to think carefully about which route to take.

 

Noting that the locos run well, another option if you wanted would be to keep a fleet of locos and rolling stock with horn hook couplers while you build up a parallel fleet with Kadees, if cash flow / space allows.  Risk is you might not then recover costs as older stock has a lower resale value.

 

My Dad has been modelling HO for so long he finds it easier to retrofit horn hook couplings on any new stock he buys, so it matches all his locos. Gets round the problem that most of his original horn hook stock predates NEM coupler pockets, which makes changing things the other way round more difficult (as you've noticed), but loses the realism and functionality of Kadees.

 

The other thing to bear in mind when mixing models from different manufacturing eras is that a newer model may show up the lower level of detail on older models - it is one area where consistency can become important.

 

Just a thought, Keith.

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1 hour ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

 

 

 

Noting that the locos run well, another option if you wanted would be to keep a fleet of locos and rolling stock with horn hook couplers while you build up a parallel fleet with Kadees, if cash flow / space allows.  Risk is you might not then recover costs as older stock has a lower resale value.

 

My Dad has been modelling HO for so long he finds it easier to retrofit horn hook couplings on any new stock he buys, so it matches all his locos. Gets round the problem that most of his original horn hook stock predates NEM coupler pockets, which makes changing things the other way round more difficult (as you've noticed), but loses the realism and functionality of Kadees.

 

The other thing to bear in mind when mixing models from different manufacturing eras is that a newer model may show up the lower level of detail on older models - it is one area where consistency can become important.

 

Just a thought, Keith.

As I mentioned above I have around 65 freight cars of which only two don't have Kadee couplings. The loco fleet is 12 with Kadees and 4 with X2F horn hooks. Many of the wagons have been changed from X2F to Kadees and would be easy to alter back to X2F.

 

I think in the end I will have all my stock with Kadees but at present I don't want to get rid of locos if there is a way around doing so. 

 

The most expensive loco I own is my original Wisconsin Central Bachmann GP38-2 which was £47 from the Bachmann stand at Warley exhibition in 2015. The fact that I only look at locos under £50 on eBay means I have to accept older versions but so far they are all good runners and I am happy with them except for the ones that changing the couplings is proving difficult. 

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