My Layout

[Irbricksceo]

Since Sharing seem the thing to do, I thought I'd post some pictures of my layout thus far. Scenery has not been done since I ran out of funding but The track is there. the buildings may or may not be moved, however for the most part things are how I like em. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I'd love to hear em.



Overview



Another Overview



My Only Passenger Equipment, an IHC Pacific and some old Athearn Cars. The Pacific is one of the few locos I have that can pull the cars since they roll REALLY poorly. The 2-8-4 can pull em, as can the f-40. the 2-8-0s can barely move them while the 2-10-0, 2-8-2, and 4-4-0 cannot move them at all. I actually have a fourth, an observation car, but I do not use it since I can't fit it and I don't have a way to turn it around.



The Yard



The Engine House

[Ken G Price]

WHOOPS!
No pictures.

[Desertdweller]

Ken,

Your railroad looks like you are off to a great start.  You may want to explore why your Athearn cars are not rolling freely.  It has been many years since I worked in HO, but I remember my Athearn passengers cars as being free-rollong.

In the top photo, it looks like you might have a reverse loop at least mostly there.  That could solve your train turning problem.  I use a reverse loop to turn trains on my N-scale railroad.

Les

[Ken G Price]

I still do not see any pictures.
All other pictures on post show up.

Any suggestions?

[Irbricksceo]

odd that you don't see any pictures. They show up fine on my end. I used the imgur host, does anybody else have issues there?

[Len]

I see the pictures fine.

All of my Athearn passenger cars roll just fine. You might want to pop the wheelsets out and check for dust or animal hair build up in the journals, and clean them out if necessary. A heavy duty toothpick is handy for this. It probably wouldn't hurt to use a 'truck tuning tool', available from Micro-Mark, to clean out any burrs while your at it.

I've also found using powdered graphite in the journals helps a lot. Don't use oil, as it just attracts and hold dirt, just making the problem worse.

Len

[Irbricksceo]

I actually have two ideas, one of which I know to be true, and the other is possible. these cars had lighting kits installed by the previous owner and I think it possible that the contact is applying too much pressure. The lights almost never work anyway. that said, that hardly acconts for the fact that they have NO free rolling ability. try to move the wheel by dragging a finger across and the moment you let go it stops. I also know that, on the baggage car, the wires inside are causing the truck to turn outward, pushing on the rails

[Len]

Sounds like the light kit wasn't installed properly. I prefer the one by Mini-a-tronics over the Athearn system. Crud build up in the journals could also be a factor on top of the light kit.

Len

[Irbricksceo]

Got around to looking at the cars. I didnt see anything in the journals but I cleaned em out anyway. I put a tiny tiny drop if lube in each of the journals before replacing the wheels. They do run better than before (the 2-8-2 can move them now, though there is some wheel slippage) however it isnt nearly as smooth as my other stuff. I donno. I'd like to open them up to work on that botched lighing job but the previous owner glued em shut, prolly with hobby cement. no way to get them open. As for why the lighting is so on and off, the contacts seem heavily oxidized, that may be why.

I got the 4 cars for about 35 bucks including shipping so I cant complain too much

[on30gn15]

Aw man, a bit if a bummer about the passenger cars. If you are willing to sacrifice the lighting pickups, replacing stock wheels with wheels by someone such as Kadee might improve the rolling quality. Does make an attractive train.

As for the layout, sounds like it is working for ya!

And that engine house kit goes way back in the decades. Pretty sure that several companies have offered it during that time, but I can't remember which one originally created it.

[James in FL]

...but the previous owner glued em shut, prolly with hobby cement no way to get them open....

I have used the freezing technic to break glue bonds with success.
This works for many super glues, and also I have used it successfully on a structure kit glued with Testors.

[Irbricksceo]

Never heard of the freezing method, may need to attempt it. Getting them open is less about saving the lights (though that would be a nice bonus) and more about fixing the baggage car issue I mentioned, that the trucks have torque applied pushing the wheels against the rail sides. This is no doubt contributing. I may look into new wheels whenever I have money again (whenever that will be) so thats an idea. I'm going to try to clean some of the contacts oxidation. One thing about these cars that I like is that they can go around my inner curve which is just 18 inch radius (though I usually use em on the outer curve), and they can still do that even after I replaced the couplers with shorter ones so the space between cars is reduced to about 5/16", looking FAR better than they did with their stock couplers.

Edit: About the engine house. I got it along with several other buildings (everything you see on there except the model power station and freight platform) as well as some unseen ones for about 15 bucks on ebay. They were in bad shape but I fixed most of them up enough to use them. you'l notice the engine house missing both front doors and a window. still, great price.

[Len]

If you can you reach the wire on the obsv car, you could just clip it with a fine tip sprue cutter and shove it up inside the car.

Len

[Trainman203]

That looks like a fun layout.

[Irbricksceo]

The observation car goes unused as i cannot turn it around, I have no room, and it has no read coupler. it also is the only one of the four w/o lights. I assume this was done because the rear truck on the car can swivel 360 so the prior owner didnt want to risk shorts. I assume you are instead referring to the issue Im having on the baggage car. you cannot reach any wires. in these models, the light was done by soldering a wire to the knut atop the screw that held the truck in (inside the car body) which contacted pickups below that brushed the axles. Since I cannot get into the car body, I cannot remedy what I assume is a matter of wire length.