mikjd

I have a few spare U-boat castings and etched bits somewhere if you're interested - unfortunately I'm just off to Le Mans for the week (bit of a race at the weekend ), but let me know if you're interested.

Looks like a Gilmaur U boat hood ....................

I have just picked up an Atlas SW9 that I need for it's running gear and some body details for an old General Models NW2. It came as B&M #1223 - If anybody would like the body and silver truck frames I would swap them for any other SW9 (twin exhaust) body and truck frames. Let me know otherwise that lovelly livery is going in the paint stripper.....

I got a big box of spares from Atlas a few years ago, & they helpfully described it on the Customs label as "Commercial Samples, no Value". so someone at the Shipping Dept knew what they were doing

Unfortunately their parts availability seems to have been dire more recently, but probably as a knock-on from the problems they had with their Chinese manufacturers. I've no idea what the situation is now.

The situation is good if they have what you want, and dire if they don't ...............        I've managed to pick up GP/SD cabs, high hoods, fans, glazing, those boxes that go behind the cab (EAFB?!), and air tanks, SW pilots and air tanks, and caboose underframes and details for a couple of transfer cabeese. I'm hoping that with the next release of the SD40 there will be some spare long hoods about, at the moment short hood, cab and chassis/sill are available.

Atlas parts used to be the same to the UK as the Domestic rate, $4 I think it was (unless you ordered O scale bodyshells !!), but since the new website has been up and running it has gone up to $10 or $11, still not bad, and it all comes in a nice solid box.

There are parts diagrams for some of the stock, otherwise you have to trawl through each items listing, and not all items are in stock - and ignore the pictures ........

I know you don't want to get from the US if possible, but have you looked at the Atlas parts site. I get a lot of parts from them and the postage isn't bad. So far I havn't had to pay any VAT.

"They are labelled "GP38-2", but they are a bit unusual. They were built as Norfolk and Western GP38ACs and converted to GP38-2s. Because of that, they are missing the oval sight glass on the right side of the long hood, a pretty definitive spotting feature for Dash 2 locomotives."

      Just a shame they didn't retain the high hoods  .........

Mick.

The O scale version of 'Cannonising' .......... Atlasising in this case. A soon to be N&W High Hood SD45 (they had a single low hood, rebuilt after a smash). Still to sort out the correct high/low brake cylinder trucks and the pilots ......................

Mick.

Love the weathering on the #203. What's the 'original' RR company livery?

Lehigh & Hudson River

Mick.

Another current O scale project .......  An Atlas U23B morphing into a PC U33B.

Mick.

I'm not into antiques...

F units ........

Mick.

A new project to produce a model not available 'off the shelf' - This is O scale remember, there are still many EMD locos not available (or only as scale??/non scale 3-rail).

A N&W High Hood GP38AC - Otherwise known as 'A 13Dip Blower Growler' apparently ......

Mick.

Yes, we should be talking about EMDs...

You've got no soul man .....  The next thing you'll be modelling one of those brightly coloured railroads west of the Appalachian's !!

Ahhhhh ….. the smell of Alco’s in the morning, Mingo Junction Ohio, in the early days of Conrail, with six axle Centuries around the old roundhouse, and film crews on main street filming the Deer Hunter (and please don’t tell me it was actually filmed on the set used for the Moon landings in ’69 - I've heard it all before ).

https://railpictures.net/photo/590812/

https://railpictures.net/photo/590663?id=590663&showexif=1

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=271421

There are many more images online, the CRHS etc, and of course the Morning Sun books.

Whats not to like, an old roundhouse, turntable, patched locos, atmosphere and as many Alco's as you want! and the steel industry   

Now just to get on and build that N scale steel mill I've been collecting bits for for years. Just think what I could have done in that space I've now devoted to O scale

Mick.

Damned if I can remember what the first is.

Mick.

A lot of the newer Lionel and MTH scale models have opening cab doors. I did think of using the Lionel S2/4 as a start as the body moulding is very good, but I could never find one at a reasonable price. Unpowered is probably the way to go, as converting Lionel powered trucks to 2R is supposedly very difficult without the right tools (as are early MTH). Just looked on ebay, a non-TMCC loco can be had for £200 plus post/VAT, and a TMCC one is over £400+ !!    I did look at buying a Bodyshell from Lionel, but for all their models it says contact Lionel (despite all other items being listed, with pictures and prices).

Mick.

May I ask how much and where from please

Nick,

     Repatriated from the US last year (ebay), cost approx £130 incl VAT & delivery. I have since discovered thanks to Colin Stewart of this parish (who is helping develop the Gilmaur S scale kits - see various threads in this forum) that Mike Calvert the owner of Gilmaur can still supply some of his O scale kits. I have recently purchased a baby U boat, and the best I can suggest is that you email him at mike dot calvert at bt internet dot com. There is a draft version of a new website online if you do a simple search. The body only kit of the U18B was around £140, the Alco includes Keil Line cab details and Blunt trucks, but no drive components (Weaver/P&D etc), I imagine it could be built as an S4 using AAR trucks (Weaver/Atlas etc).

Mick.

A little project for the winter (or the next ..... or ....)

Mick.

One of my O scale Alco's - The very hard to find Atlas C424/C425. I'm not sure what happened to the handbrake chain ......  It just needs the numbers and letters removing, to enter service with the Cincinnati Belt & Terminal (tag line: We go round the middle - Not the outside). ......Or could it end up in PC black ?!

Mick.

image.jpeg

This is the only other one I've found that might be correct

That's more like it, it looks like some survived unsheathed until the 70's. http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=rs&id=56

Now the question is how many do you need ................

Mick.

I've pre ordered a Walther's Proto F7 in Southern for the Birmingham special today from Model junction and the Broadway limited A is now available in the U.S, should be available in the U.K by Christmas.

I'm hoping that Broadway will upgrade their E units with paragon 3 and do them again in Southern. At least I can consist them and have the extra bass from the Broadway unit!!

Also a little help if you could, Atlas have this caboose that they say is from the 1940's onwards. If I paint out the later burger logo would this be correct or is this one from an absorbed railroad?

image.jpeg

I think you'll find it's from a mid 60's merger, there is no easy answer to that steam era N&W caboose      A link to the N&W Historical Society .....http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/selectdocs.php?index=rs&id=859

Mick.

Alright, hands up everybody who got involved in the "davestoys88" sale on eBay last Saturday night? It wasn't just me, surely? How did you get on?

.... and I thought I had a few unmade kits stashed away.    I noticed the CLW chassis and parts, they still seem to be in demand.

Mick.

The last order of cabless B units were the GP60B model ordered by Santa Fe to go with the wide cab GP60M model - the idea being to use them in A-B-B-A sets on intermodal trains (which they did initially).

 

Eventually that practise was discontinued and the GP60M cab units now eke out an existance on local freights (there is a cluster of them that you can see on the south side of LA when travelling to Fullerton). Not sure of the fate of the B units , but at least one was trialled as a conversion to a proper cabbed A unit and there was a photo circulating showing it fitted with a standard geep cab from a UP loco.

 

Models of these final B units are available from Athearn in HO and Fox Valley in N.

Not forgetting Atlas in O scale - surely the only way to go .......................................

Mick.

Thanks to everybody for some great info and some great pictures, I've learnt a lot from you all!

 

On hostler controls, that sort of reminds me of the auxiliary driving controls originally fitted to Class 90's to allow the drivers to control the locomotives from the door way. I'm not sure how long they lasted (or even if they still have them) but it was a rather novel feature for a UK locomotive.

Class 91's have them, I don't know about 90's.

Mick.

Don't forget that a caboose is called a van in Canada

 

Nick

Or a Cabin in parts of the NE .....

Mick.