In the Northeast

[P5se Camelback]

What happened to the awesome photographs?

:needpics:

:mrgreen:

[Gary S]

Reinhard, here are a couple of pages from a friend's web site that might help make the Athearns run better. His old Athearn blue box locomotives run almost as well as Kato & Atlas. The Athearn motors still draw a bit more power than can motors, but I did the mods he recommended and found that the amp draw on my Athearn motors dropped to less than 1/2 of what they were before I tuned them up. I also take the Athearn trucks apart, clean the gears, and put in a bit of tooth paste for brak in. I run them for about 15 minutes in both directions with the tooth paste, and then disassemble the trucks and clean out the tooth paste thoroughly and reassemble and relube the trucks.

Russ, something I wonder about is the Athearn - P2K connection. The trucks, gearing, drivetrain and motors look identical to the Athearns, yet rthey run smoother. Any ideas on that?

I have a couple of P2K GP30s that can be cannabilized, I am considering using those parts in the CF7s. But I still need to do the toothpaste run as you mention.

Awhile back, someone mentioned using rubber tubing between the motor and the worm gear insytead of the universal joints. Heard of that before?

[Gary S]

What happened to the awesome photographs?

I think they are now being posted in Reinhard's new thread "In The South"...

Edit: I did not realize all the photos were gone :oops:

[faraway]

My web space provider has a longer outage due to scheduled hardware upgrade that did not run as well as planned. It may take some time until service is restored and all pics will be back. Because the service is for (the advertisement pays the bill) I wonder if they work during the weekend.
I might get another fee provider and upload the pics but that would not help all the fixed links in my threads in the forum to point to the new locations.
Lets be patient and wait...

Russ, I knew that pages of Athearn tuning and did my bestin the past. The CF-7 are all running very fine after applying all that service. It is just the sound I can not stand. I assume I am part of the problem because I have at my age of 58 the hearing capabilities of a 10 year old boy (no kidding, my doc did test is several times and is always astound). That makes me extreme sensitive to average, and below average, drive mechanics. The best tuning I found is a A-Line motor glued in with flexible silicone glue. That adds about $50 per unit. However it is not a perfect tuning because A-Line has the silly idea to sell the flywheels not attached and fully balanced to the motor. You have to glue the flywheels to the motor by yourself and hope the flexible glue will soften the vibrations of the unbalanced motor assembly to the entire engine. Not a real good solution.

However, if I would have fixed the CF-7 problem and they would run perfect smooth it would not solve the problem of Santa Fe CF-7 do not match high cube and all door box cars by time. I would have to get LAJ CF-7 to do that match and focus on Vernon. My current layout is not build after the Vernon prototype. It would be just "funny" to call it Vernon. The next problem are the other locomotives of LAJ. I have no idea how and where to get models of MK1200G.

You mention the rebuild GP7/9. I tried to bypass that point as it is even more dark. The are no RTR models of rebuild Geeps on the market as far as I know. I do not have the skill the chop a nose and repaint and engine by myself. There are a lot RR that had rebuild Geeps. I would like to see lots of RTR rebuild Geeps in the stores but there is only a large black hole...

I have currently SP on the layout. Atlas GP40, Genesis MP15AC and P2K GP38... and waiting for Atlas SP shells of RS-11 and SD35. That is very generic in the south between TX and CA I think I trapped my self building a very generic layout with generic of the shelf locomotives and cars and than start searching for an prototypical correct location it fits in. May be it is wise to stay with this layout and set of engines in the generic corner. It is likely I will do my next layout very different or call it from the very beginning "generic/fiction" and do not mention any precise location like Vernon or a relative small RR like LAJ.

I am very thankful for your comments. It helps me very much to make up my mind for the next layout and understand the influence of fiction and prototype better.