Locomotive Breath

This post is Loco

Every model railroad needs a locomotive.  Over the next month or two I'm going to do a four part blog series on creating my railroads first locomotive.  Here's a look at how I'm going to outline the next four blogs.

1. PART I – Acquiring the Loco
  a. Picking a Loco/Prototype
  b. Getting Pictures
  c. Creating a Bill of Material

2. PART II – Assembling the Loco
  a. Paint Shop/Decals
  b. Adding Super Detail Parts
  c. Shell assembly

3. PART III – Doing Decoder Install
  a. Choosing the right decoder
  b. Things to watch out for on a non-dcc loco
  c. Final Install – include lighting

4. PART IV – Weathering the Loco
  a. Fading
  b. Washing
  c. Specific places to weather

PART I – Acquiring the Loco

The first part of this whole process is determining what level of detail you want to go into.  Do you want to buy a model locomotive off the shelf that is ready to put on your layout and run?  Do you want to build a project?  Customize a model?  There is no wrong answer here.  I'm choosing to buy an older locomotive, paint it up myself and do an Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder install.

Next I have to determine if I want to follow a prototype locomotive that my railroad has "acquired" or something that is a little more free style.  I'm going full crazy.  Modeling an actual prototype from pictures I found on the Internet.

Picking a Prototype

I wanted a locomotive that fit my railroad.  Factors I considered was what actually was around central and northern Wisconsin in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  Did my locomotive get bought from another railroad or 3rd party supplier?  New Locomotive or Used?  Since the Mascoutin Valley connected to the Chicago and Northwestern and bought some of its trackage from them, I thought it would be logical to buy an EMD GP7 from them.  Side note: The CNW had an expansive GP7 roster and actually sold some aging units to local short lines in the 1980's.  I chose CNW GP7 4133.

Finding Pictures of CNW 4133.

When in doubt google.  I performed a simple google search and came up with quite a few pictures of CNW 4133.  While looking for pictures of CNW 4133, I found that it had an interesting history.  This locomotive in "real life" was built as for Chicago Rock Island and Pacific (Rock Island) in 1951.  Then it was purchased by the Chicago & Northwestern in 1981 as a GP7R (the R stands for Rebuild).  Sold to the Fox River Valley Railroad (FRVR) in 1988.  Wisconsin Central absorbed the FRVR it also acquired 4133. 4133 lived the rest of its days with the WC before it succumbed to the scrappers torch.

That being said, the Mascoutin Valley bought this engine before the FRVR could get its grimy paws on it and changed history.

I like to use the images that I find on google.  It often redirects me to an archive site or someones personal photo stache that they post online.  **Note: When referencing pictures or documentation that isn't your be sure to make sure you site or give credit to the site/author!**  So with out further ado lets look at some pictures of the ol' gal.

C&NW 4133

Author:  Alan Gaines via http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locopicture.aspx?id=37214

FRVR 4133

Author:  Marc Malnekoff http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1036601

I'm going to try and emulate and model the FRVR version of this locomotive.  The reason is its probably a little closer to what would be lumbering around the Mascoutin Valley.  Notice the neat details that you wouldn't find on every GP7.  Its has Spark Arrestors over the exhaust stacks, a pretty beefy snow plow, square style bearing caps on the trucks/wheels an "all weather window" on the engineer's side and a beacon light on top just to name a few. I analyzed these pictures and tried to come up with a bill of materials that I'm going to need to make a model of this locomotive.  I'm also going to refer back to pictures of CNW/FRVR 4133 for weathering and finish detailing.  I've been given some very good advice recently-  "When all else fails, find a picture of the prototype to use as a guide." Thanks Ralph Renzetti!

Bill of Material

 

Mascoutin Valley GP7 Project
Manufacturer	Part Number	Description	Quantity
Life Like P2K		HO Scale GP7 Ph. II Kit	1
Details West	RB-126	Rotary Beacon Western Cullen Type	1
Details West	J-288	Diesel Loco Truck Journal Square	5
Cannon & Company	TD-2156	EMD Fuel Tank Details	1
Details West	SA-124	Spark Arrestor "Super" Non-Lifting Non Turbo C&NW	1 pr.
Kadee	158	#158 Couplers	1 pr.
Details West	PL-155	Snow Plow C&NW	1

So I'd say we have a pretty good start here on developing a locomotive project.  The Bill of material is not totally finished.  We'll add some finer details like speed recorders and other things as we get into this project but I think we're headed in the right direction.  

The next post we'll look at painting the model and some preliminary assembly. As always thank you for reading. Check out my Facebook page for more frequent updates!

https://m.facebook.com/MascoutinValleyRR/

Till next time, keep 'er in notch 8!

 

Turnout for what?

Hand laid turnouts 

One of the Druthers (Reference the G's & D's Blog Post) I talk about in creating my model railroad is trying to hand lay all of my track.  This means even the turnouts ("Switches" for non-model railroaders).  I knew making the turnouts was going to be a challenge. I have never done this before.  I wasn't sure how to do it.  And I didn't know if I could do it or not.  So what do you do when you don't know the answer to something...use the "Google Machine." I found videos, blogs and even entire websites dedicated to making hand laid turnouts.  As I got into the research there appeared to be one sound, efficient and economical way to hand lay turnouts...Use Fast Tracks!

Using Fast Tracks Tools & Jigs 

 

The tools and jigs are very robust.  They are made of some good stuff.  The instructions and tools are very easy to use.  With a little time and persistence I made the guard rails, the frog points, stock rails, and the switch points.  It should be noted that knowing the anatomy of the turnout is very important when using the Fast Tracks jigs and tools.  The NMRA has nice presentation going over the ins and outs of what a turnout consists of.  Click the the following link to view the presentation: Engineering Analysis and Geometric Design of Model Railroad Turnouts

Here is a picture of the tools

Fast Tracks has a full list of tutorials on their website and detailed explanations of their tools and processes.  When I built my first turnout I had the Fast Tracks videos queued right up on the laptop which was sitting right next to me on the work bench.  As I constructed the turnout I had the video playing at the same time so I could reference and mimic the process they suggested to get the optimal results.

My First Attempt

 

Here's a picture of my first turnout.  I didn't put the gaps in for the frog I do this later after its painted.  I had to perform surgery on this turnout to cut down on the stock rails some more.   My original attempt I cut the foot of the stock rails using a bench vise.   The switch points weren't completely closing properly.  I ordered the Stock Aid tool from fast tracks.  Using the tool I got the stock rails cut properly and the switch points closed perfectly.  Now it was time to paint. 
I used the same camouflage paint that I painted the rails with.

First Attempt at a turnout.

Here's a couple of pictures of me installing it.

That's pretty much it for this post.  Next time we'll look at what I got for my birthday!  And the first locomotive on the Mascoutin Valley.  EMD GP7 #217!

Till Next time keep 'er in notch 8.