Extended Height Santa Fe car closes on completion

Well, about a month ago I painted the car with the TruColor paint for Santa Fe red in the late 1940's. Now I have to paint the roof black representing a tar finish over metal. First, I have to mask the car. Sides are relatively easy.

My Tamiya tape closely follows the overhang of the roof panels

Ends are a bit of a problem, especially where the brake is. Also, I have to be careful about those delicate ladders I mentioned back in the January posting. 

The tight trimming is now done.

Next, I cut down a paper towel and using broader Tamiya tape, tape that onto the base tape.

First the sides and then I have to seal off the ends. 

We are getting closer to the painting part which is the quickest. 

Now we have sprayed the roof and will take off the tape before anything sets up.

We got a nice even coat.

Side looks good

Tape is all off and it did its job. No apparent damage to the brake platform or wheel. 

The car needs a day to dry and then we can get on to lettering. After the lettering and all handling is almost done, I will put the Morton Roof Walk on. The paint is very dark so I will add some lightening weathering to highlight some details. 
 

More Engine Work - Cab numbers and Road name

So, I have two engines that are waiting for their cabs to be completed. The problem is that they need canvas side shades over their side windows. So, here is a cab for an Oriental GP9 with a canvas roller system over the side window. I have put the first silver coat on the windows and drilled the holes for the shade supports. I also added the wind deflectors.

Here is the window on the other side which I have modeled as open. 

Just a view of the third workbench with backed up projects!

Now I have added the engine numbers using Champ numbers

The other side of the cab. I still have to do more touch up to the silver window trim. 

Here I have put the numbers on the RS1. Also painted the stack a silver that I will weather later. This is the other engine that needs a cab shade in canvas. This one will have open shades, rather than rolled up ones. 

I also use rub-ons from Clover House for my road names. I set the backing paper in place, carefully measuring for level and placement. Then I use two different tools to rub them on. A board tip fr large spaces and a small tip to get closer in corners. 

This is how it looks after the rub on. 

The other side window. You can also see the fuel lettering above the fill. I have to paint that red. 

 Here is the lettering done on one the side. The smaller lettering are Microscale decals. 

Now, on to the cap shades!

Pressing to Finish Some Engines - Shop Switcher

Well, I was looking for a shop switcher for my future Milton Tank Car Company in Milton, PA. A friend of mine, John Roberts, had lettered this Yoder GE 45 Tonner for the Newport News Shipyard and Dry Dock Company. I plan to leave this lettering as John has passed. I will say they are evaluating it as a potential replacement for a steam engine (It is 1956 after all). 

So, when I got the model, it was all flat black, including the interior, with the yellow railings.  John has done a very nice job weathering it as well. 

So, when I figured out how to disassemble it, I learned it had a cab interior. So, I set about glazing hte windows and adding a crew. 

This engine has separate motors for each truck. It also has a rectifying circuit under the tanks. There was next to no space to work but I got the interior out, painted it and then added a crewman. He has white hair as I modeled for him. 

So, here is the completed engine, ready to go to work at the tank car building plant.

Here is shot that shows me in the cab. you can see that the interior is now grey with a black control power. There are white painted dials on the panel. 
 

Trying to Finish Up Some Projects

Well, I am trying to wrap up several diesel projects. This is a Car Works RS1 that I have added some details to, reworked the drive including a new tower gear and chain set up that I purchased from Des Plaines, and added four-wheel picks So, here are the parts in the project box. I have already painted the chassis, fuel tank and trucks. I have added decals, yellow handrails and etched builder's and trust plates. 

Now I have assembled the drive line. I had some problems as I did not recall the drive line layout exactly, but we worked through it. The mechanism works very smoothly. I had found that the earlier tower gear was not very smooth, and the new set up ran very well. I substituted NWSL Code 145 wheels in the trucks and they enhanced the overall appearance and operation. 

I am using tacked on wires to determine the polarity of the wiring that I will use so that red wires go to the red brush and black wires, the black brush on the motor. 

I coupled it up to another model that is awaiting painting, just to see it pull something. 

Next project is an Overland Alco S2 switcher that has been painted and had the lighting and crew added. It took me over two hours just to do the glass in the cab! When this model was produced, in 1985, Overland was adding simulated Prime movers. I painted it grey. It is an early end tower design and things are getting pretty tight under the hood!

 You can see I also added some lead weight in the battery boxes that are under the frame. 

Here we are, all assembled now and on the layout. It really looks good. I added a little weathering including some dust from the sanding around the trucks.

That extra weight really tells in the pulling capability of the engine. Gosh, I like how it looks!

So, with this and the RS1, I now have two early Alcos coming onto the layout. I like their looks a lot.

 

A Project Completed! The Lathe is back in Service

Well, after the assembly was completed, I had to mount everything back on the lathe. So, first was the apron. You can see how it sits with the cross-feed gear sitting up above the apron to engage the cross gear. The lead screw has been re-attached so it is holding the apron in place.

Now, the saddle is in place and attached both front and back. The tail stock is mounted as is the collet holder. I have tested the various feeds and they work really well. I am very pleased with the lack of lag in the cross feed power assembly and the overall feel of the tool holder. 

Here is another view from behind the tail of the lathe. I am now debating opening up the head stock to see if I need to replace the lubrication wicks in that area. Maybe during the heat of summer when the basement is a great spot to be.
 

Maintenance problems - A Lathe cross feed failure.

Well, a critical piece of equipment for me is my South Bend lathe. It was built in 1945 and delivered to a company in Boston. It had a relatively hard life and I found it in the backyard of a house in Falls Church, VA in about 1989. It was under a tarp and came with a small amount of tooling. I took the lathe home and then rebuilt much of it, adding some new used parts. In those days, I worked with a used equipment fellow up in New Jersey to get parts. Well, the lathe gave me good service until about 3 months ago when the cross feed drive clutch froze. Fortunately, I found a new used drive, in good shape, for a great price on eBay.  So, the next step was disassembly, which began with removing the saddle, tailstock and collet holder that mounted to the back of the lathe. So, here we see the lathe minus the saddle and apron, useless until I fix the drive. 

For an old machine, It still looks good. The ways have some nicks but it still maintains good accuracy when I use it with my 3C collets. 

Here is the apron in the process of being disassembled. The cause of my problem was a failure of the reservoir gasket which led to a loss of lubrication on the clutch and then a seizure of the shaft. It is amazing how many tools accumulate as you do some work on something!

Here is the saddle which is pretty clean after 10 years since the last cleaning. I had put in a new cross feed screw and nut coupled with a larger dial.

This is the tail stock which is set up for a quick closer and drill. It is a heritage of its harder working days. 

So, the lack of lubrication also led to accelerated wear of the worm drive gear. The old gear on the right shows that, in comparison the replacement gear, A significant loss of metal in the teeth of the old gear has occurred.  

I have almost gotten all the components off the chassis of the saddle now. I have also cleaned up the interior of it. You can see that someone in the past had added a new sleeve for the shaft that used the far right hole.

 Fortunately, the damage was confined the clutch assembly, and the worm gear,

Parts are accumulating but being cleaned as I go. 

This is the final array. The culprit of my problems was the large metal shield in the foreground that formed the back of the reservoir. The gasket failed. I hope I do not have any screws or other parts left over when I am finished with reassembly!

The bottom of the chassis casting, which looks like a big cavity, was where the half-moon metal shield mounted. If you look carefully, you can see the gasket outline. 

So, here we see everything cleaned up, new parts add, lubricated with a surface coat of oil, and back in place. All that is missing are the handwheel that mounts to the far right and the reservoir back.

Handwheel now in place

A cleaned up front view. 

A final back view with the reservoir in place as the back shield is mounted. Next step is to mount this on the lathe by threading it on lead screw, attach it to the saddle and see if it works!