Freelance 2016-2

[SSWUPinSA]

Hey Reinhard,

Sold my layout some time back, never got to finish it! 2 kids and a business under pressure determined that I had to focus on other things, never the less I will build another one as soon as life settles a little...maybe when the kids are a little older and they can appreciate it I'll do it "for" them. hehe

Please send me a reference to a post with the views of the track plan, Im sure you have a similar size space to the room i now have spare that I would one day consider building an ISL in... Cant remember the name of the thread you had where you showed the entire "circle" around the room, seem to remember a desk on the opposite side or something??

[faraway]

US ebay offered a custom painted Atlas B&M S2 at a reasonable price. It arrived today and the shell is really nice done. The Atlas drive (made in Austria) was a very old one (no rear light, not DCC ready, rough drive) and got replaced with a new one. While the old and new shells look the same are the dimension slightly different. It needed some effort to get the old hood and cab on the new drive with DCC decoder and functioning front and rear LEDs.
IMG_4871 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4870 by faraway52, on Flickr

[torikoos]

She looks good, I've bought an S3 in a moment of weakness a few months ago. It's also based on the Roco drive like yours, but I'm going to do some work on it, it was stripped of it's original paint, and will get detailed (I want to replace the cast on grabs for wire grabs etc), and build in a decoder (tempted on a sound decoder, to get that Alco Burble).

Koos

[faraway]

While the S2 is the oldest engine run on my layout arrived the most modern engines fitting my layout yesterday. They are not at the same time on the layout but the 70s and 80s are the time frame I try to cover.
An Atlas C424 and an Atlas U23B in early Guilford paint scheme.
I installed Tsunami sound decoders in both engines (C424 827106, U23B 828046). Yes I am still in the sound business

IMG_4873 by faraway52, on Flickr

IMG_4872 by faraway52, on Flickr

Google found an U18B in early Guilford paint at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://store.sbs4dcc.com">http://store.sbs4dcc.com</a><!-- m -->. It is an old model from the first Intermountain series. The model pauses currently at USPS Chicago O'Hare airport. Should be here in about 2-3 weeks. I will try to install a Tsunami sound decoder too.

[alcanman]

Hi Reinhard. Great work on your latest incarnation of Freelance.

I've been following with great interest as you have introduced B&M power and now Guilford

Looks like you and I have the same loco - Alco C424 #70. Mine has factory fitted ESU Loksound and has the best sound I've heard in a US diesel and very smooth motor control.

Could be worth looking at ESU sound for your U18B.

   

Mal

[faraway]

Hi Mal, I saw your postings in RMweb and had a smile in my face due to the coincident.
I installed about 20 Loksound decoders some years ago when Loksound 3.5 (100 Ohm speakers!) was the current one. I was on Windows at that time and programming was fine for me. Since I moved to iMac is only a small and extreme slow Netbook left under Windows 7. It is no fun to use it at all. I discovered by accident the Tsunami in Bachmann engines. They are easy to program and I got used to them. I have one for the U18B on order (from UK).
I may try an old Loksound 3.5 and do the frustrating programming with the old Netbook in case the Tsunami fails due to size problems

How did you weather your engine? I am unsure what to do. Black wash to get the dark gray even darker or a light wash to get some bleaching? The prototype is mostly quite clean. No heavy weathering needed but spotless plastic is to good to be good. May be black wash and light gray dry brush is a nice compromise.

ps. I looked at the Loksound web page today and discovered their programmer is still designed for the serial interface (with an USB adapter). It is unbelievable they did not do a new state of the art interface.

[faraway]

The new engines collected some dirt after three days of hard switching on my layout.
They got an overall black wash, a brown wash at the trucks, front and end of tank and at the pilots. And finally a light gray dry brush.
The dark gray color soaks all light on the layout. I had to do the photos on my workplace immediate under the lamp. That kind of light emphasized the dry brush and suppressed the brown (mud) wash at the trucks.

IMG_4874 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4875 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4876 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4877 by faraway52, on Flickr

On the layout other light other color... and still not what I see. There is a good reason why so many good photos are taken outside with natural light.

IMG_4878 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4879 by faraway52, on Flickr

[alcanman]

Very nice weathering, Reinhard.

For my loco, I first painted the trucks/fuel tanks/underframe dark brown/gray and added a little rust colored weathering powder followed by light gray dry brushing.

The loco roof was given a dark grey wash with smoke colored weathering powder brushed on. The loco body was mainly rust colored weathering powder and light gray dry brushing.


   

The only modifications I made to the sound was to reduce the volume and change the bell from fast to slow. This was easy using my NCE Powercab.

[faraway]

The freight shed from the 1930s theme suffered seriously and is barely used 40-50 years later.

IMG_4886 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4885 by faraway52, on Flickr

and scaled down the background buildings in the rear left corner.
IMG_4887 by faraway52, on Flickr

[faraway]

Worked on the second reused building.

IMG_4889 by faraway52, on Flickr
IMG_4888 by faraway52, on Flickr

ps. I removed the two misplaced vents at the wall.

[faraway]

The third building is only light reworked. I stumbled over the city of Holyoke, MA. There are an unusual amount of brick buildings with only a few modern buildings in between. Some of the brick buildings are abandoned, most are still in use and some look like in use but the windows are plated over with some kind of plastic sheet. It does not look like the usual quick and dirty if a building is abandoned. They are carefully closed.
Example all closed: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.google.de/maps/place/Holyoke,+MA,+USA/@42.2076842,-72.6023906,3a,75y,47.24h,87.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSTmjuRZf02wSg9pwru8JKA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x650750c4f311939b!6m1!1e1">https://www.google.de/maps/place/Holyok ... 9b!6m1!1e1</a><!-- m -->

Do you know something about those buildings in Holyoke, MA?

IMG_4891 by faraway52, on Flickr

[HustleMuscle6430]

Hi Reinhard, I live about 20 miles away from Holyoke. The main trackage was B&M early on, and the branch from Westfield was New Haven. The main then became Guilford, and the branch PC/Conrail. Now Panam has the main line through town along the river, with Pioneer Valley RR having the branch from Westfield. There is some neat street trackage on the PVRR, and they operate with Pinsley CF-7s.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8Y3a_58Bk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8Y3a_58Bk</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://photos.greatrails.net/search/searchresults.modperl?SEARCHTYPE=ADVANCED&PAGE=1&SEARCHSTRING=holyoke&BOOL=ANY&RAILROAD=660&POSTER=ANY&PHMS=&PHDS=&PHYS=&PHME=&PHDE=&PHYE=&POMS=&PODS=&POYS=&POME=&PODE=&POYE=">http://photos.greatrails.net/search/sea ... ODE=&POYE=</a><!-- m -->

Here some older photos of B&M/New haven in Holyoke in the yard and downtown.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=896196">http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=896196</a><!-- m -->

As for the nature of the buildings currently, I'm not sure. As with most of New England there was a heavy textile presence at one point. Now there is a scrap metal processor in Holyoke, an industry that takes tanks, and I've seen centerbeam flats down there too. If you look at satellite, you'll see several bridges across the canals, where spurs went across them into another factory.

[faraway]

Thanks a lot for the background information. Textile industry is the key to understand the amount of brick buildings. Spinning and weaving mills are / have been a perfect fit for that kind of buildings.
I noticed the CF7 operation I had CF7 on my Florida theme lately. I am currently attracted by the slick paint scheme of Guilford and the short short hoods of GE road switchers (U18B and U23B).

[Tyson Rayles]

Good looking build.

[faraway]

I discovered an Intermountain U18B in Guilford/MEC paint scheme with sound decoder at a shop (Streamlined Backshop) in the US about two and a half weeks ago. I was prepared to replace a QSI sound decoder with a Tsunami I bought in advance. The model arrived today with a "Loksound select" decoder
What a nice coincided I installed VMWare and Windows on my iMac last weekend to run the hard and software of my Zimo and ESU programmers

The decoder is adjusted to my needs and the engine runs and sounds great!

IMG_4892 by faraway52, on Flickr

ps. Intermountain announced and slipped a new run of U18B but I understood there as been a first series around 2011 at the market. I was very surprised such an "old" model had already a Loksound select installed.