GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Well, another month, more progress without to many photos to share.

Sound-Car Cab Control Coach-

To be fair, I just finished this one last night, and its been a thing that has irked me for some time.

I love the Walthers Comet II cars. These cars are not super detailed, but they ARE robust, reliable and simple. Properly tuned, they make great trains for public open houses, because I can run them everywhere and in any direction that they are needed.

Really the only thing that was a little upsetting is that the cab cars did not have working headlights (or sound for that matter). However, now those Sound Car Decoders have been out for a while, and so I picked one up Tuesday and wired it up yesterday morning. Other than some pick-up and speaker problems, the car was fantastic!

It was nice to finally have a working headlight, and the horn/bell function is highly desirable. The car just consists in like a locomotive, which is great.

The sounds don't sound quite right (at least the K5LA horn doesn't), but in order to test it all, I haven't properly installed the speaker (its just resting on the carbody floor). the Pick-ups in the Comet cars aren't ultra fantastic either, but I purchased a "Current Keeper" to help with the dead spots. At the very least, the lights won't go out! I plan to test this car later today and hopefully it will be running for this weekend's open house.

Keep-Alive Units in my E44s

It about time my E44 electrics get a maintenance overhaul, and so I took them apart and tightened all the screws. While doing this, I installed brand new MC-2KA decoders with KA-1 Keep Alive modules.

These brass models run great but need perfect track due to there only being 4 wheel pick up (out of all 12 wheels!). I have tried to install wiper shoes and other methods of collecting power from the other wheels, but all of those solutions were not satisfactory. Frustratingly, even minor dead-spots and dirt could cause the locomotives to come to an abrupt halt or hesitated quite a bit, causing derailments. Disastrously, I attempted to swap my SDP45/SD45-2 diesels out from my Trail-van train with a pair of my E44s during last weekend's open house, with nothing but severe problems with a train that was otherwise incredibly smooth and reliable.

However, with the Keep-Alives installed, I could physically disconnect the track power for a few seconds and the locomotive would continue uninterrupted. While it was only a few seconds in reality, it seemed like an eternity for an model train, which rarely costs that far on dead track even at top speed!

I will test the engines tonight at the club to see if they can get through some of the more challenging track sections.

Jersey Arrows

During the show, my Silverliner IV set had an issue, so I wanted to switch to my Jersey Arrow IIIs. This has resulted in me making some progress with those cars.

Firstly, Walthers Stemman Pantographs were used to replace the "kitbashed" pantographs that came with some of the cars, which definite improved their appearance.

Next, some decals were applied, such as the NJ DOT logos, which helped complete the looks of my Arrow II and Arrow III pairs.

I also installed the roof details and conduits to my Arrow III Married pair kits. The only remaining details are the grab irons and ladders. The lights and steps remain an issue with the Arrow II and Arrow III kits however. There is also some question as to how precisely to power them. I may consider ordering a Walthers Metroliner Drive to see how well I can get them to work.

I plan to use only one motor per pair, and to test this, I ran a long consist of Metroliners with Amfleet cars in between, standing in as the "dummy/trailer" cars of the pair. There did not appear to be a significant decrease in performance.

All I need to do now is bite the bullet and buy a Metroliner drive, so I can go about determining a way to install them in my cars.

Here, I do have pictures!

All Jersey Arrow variants (except the single-car Arrow III) are represented in this line up. From Left to Right, an Arrow III Married Pair, and Arrow II Married Pair, and an Arrow I. The Arrow Is only came in single-car units, while the Arrow IIs were only delivered as married pairs.



I didn't do much modification to this car, other than replacing the old clunky pantograph with a Walthers version. It looks MUCH nicer!



I added the NJ DOT decals to my Arrow II pair. These are stuck in limbo (as are the rest of my Silverliner IV, Arrow II and Arrow III kits) since all the lighting and powering needs to be done at around the same time, due to the way the kit goes together. I'm still not sure if LEDs and fiber optics are the best approach, or if SMD LEDs mounted in the markers and headlights wild be better. I may have to try both and see how far I get.







My Arrow III Married pair. Though it is incomplete in this photo, I have finished the Conduit work on the "A" Car (the half of the pair without the Pantograph). I am very satisfied with the Alclad Paint job I did on this model. Many of my earlier attempts weren't so great, so this is a nice change.





Conrail N5K transfer caboose

And so it begins! I chopped down the cupola, though it will need some more filling and sanding I suspect. I also removed the roofwalks and filled in all the holes. The next step will be plugging the windows with styrene, as per the prototype.

I'm still waiting on entire kits (let along parts) from Wright Trak for almost a year now. They have become frustrating (they finally sent me an N7 Caboose kit, only to leave out the Bay window pieces!). However, I'm banking on them sending me the spare bay window parts so I can use them to put the bay-windows on this kitbash. Failing that, I'll have to get creative myself.

At the very least, this project is moving along and the hardest parts are behind me.