DRGW476

Got to thinking about painting this loco, as I had it about 3 montsh before I could get the conversion kit. In a fit of apparently justified optimism all would turnout eventually at HOn3, I went ahead and painted it. Now that I'm thinking about it again, I did primer it in grey. What I should have done is take soem extra fine sandpaper and knocking down the edges of the pad-printed logo before priming. Not too big a deal, because you have to see it in the right light, right angle. I may be working on being a pro painter if my goofs look this good...:>)

Thanks, I appreciate your comments! You've discovered it, but if people click thru on the pics, they'll go to my Imageshack account where many more pics of the layout can be seen in no particular order. For a nice tour of the line, I wrote up an illustrated thread on my simplified car card ops scheme here: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/214270.aspx And I painted it with canned spray paint, too, which is what really baffles some. Got to have a light finger, but the paints around now are much better than even 10 years ago. In this case, I probably should've done a coat of primer over the factory paint. If the light is right, you can still see the Z in Zillerthalbahn. Live and learn. I'll probably do at least one more and won't make that mistake next time. Not everyone has big space here, but generally having larger areas to work with is one advanatage of living in the USA in between the coasts. Mine is about 5 m x 8 m, (narrower towards one end with some additional staging on the other side of one wall in a utility room.) I'm about 20 years in and just reached the overall look of completion, so requires some patience and perseverance when looking at plywood for a long time as things developed.

Yes, kept the Liliput shell as is, except for adding proper Rio Grande air horns up top. I did convert to Kadee 714 HOn3 couplers as we use here for this scale/gauge combination. Extract the swinging coupler arrangement, notch a proper hole for the coupler box in the pilot, and had to add just a bit of styene pad to mount at correct height. IIRC, the hole to drill to mount the 714s is drilled into the metal chassis, so plenty strong once tapped for whichever fastener used. We do tend to favor a little "nose" on the prototype here for road locos for safety pruposes as you noted. The Gemeinder is actually more unusual having a cab at either end in contrast to usual North American practice. Not to worry, as Colorado is home to several foreign pieces of equipment. Most famously, the cog railway that ascends Pike's Peak now uses Swiss-made railcars. Here's a peek at how she looks now:

After a months-long quest for the loco (142101) and the HOe>HOm conversion kit (42100-250-9), throwing in a Lenz Silver 21+ decoder, I have converted one of these fine Liliput models to HOn3. The details are in this thread at the Model Railroader forums: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/215880.aspx The crucial issue comes after you have stripped down and reassembled the HOm wheelsets to HOn3 gauge. At this point, the axle ends protrude and will contact the wipers, shorting things out. Can't have that. Carefully take a cut-off wheel and grind off the protruding axle end. It will look like this when done: Once the axle end is flush, it clears the wiper, permitting the loco to operate on HOn3 track. So it is a fairly easy mod to offer a third gauge for this great little loco to run on.

AllScales, How is the D15 running? Happy with it in general? I ask because I'm considering a purchase. You mention that the loco comes with wheelsets for both HOe and HOm. Are the wheelsets constructed so that one could regauge a set to HOn3 (10.5mm)? I'm looking for diesel motive power for my Rio Grande HOn3 layout. I may or may not keep or modify the shell, but really do want to know more about the possibilities for conversion of the chassis itself.