I'm a chalk guy myself, basically because I don't use an airbrush (and I know I should) and I'm not the best at hand-painting weathering on Nscale. I've found chalks the best for my abilities.
The Penn Central certainly chose an interesting shade of green. And I'm not enough of a PC historian to know why the basic black on the engines and green car color. But, I bet the reason for each color choice by the railroad would make an interesting story.
Mark
Citation Latitude Captain
--and--
Lt Colonel, USAF (Retired)
"Mark, there may be a way to dim that bulb using a CV adjustment. You might want to as on the DCC thread if you don't have the instructions."
Charlie
I'm afraid not....There's no CV that controls light brightness.
The only way to dim the light is to put a resistor in series on the white or yellow leads between the decoder and the bulb. I believe I used a 700 (or 70..??) ohm resistor to dim the light a bit on my SD-7.
Herc Driver Wrote:The Penn Central certainly chose an interesting shade of green. And I'm not enough of a PC historian to know why the basic black on the engines and green car color. But, I bet the reason for each color choice by the railroad would make an interesting story.
If I were to hazard a guess... and I'm no PC buff so forgive me if I'm off base (I'm a PRR guy LOL) I would say that the green freight car and cabin color is a hold over from NYC, and the black locomotives from PRR. PRR painted it's locomotives a color called Dark Green Locomotive Enamel, more commonly known as Brunswick Green. The exact formula I am unaware, however the gist of it is straight black paint with copper oxide added for durability (the copper oxidized over time, hence the green tint to the color). My thought is that the copper-oxide added to the PRR locomotive enamel was probably expensive. For a struggling company that expense was probably unwanted, and eliminating the copper oxide gives you plain old black.
No, you can't dim the LED with a CV. You need a larger resistor. A light coat of Tamiya transparent paints may work as an alternative if it's not possible to change the resistor. TCS decoders have a CV to adjust the 'dim brightness' of the headlight but that's for when you have the light dimmed, not in the normal 'on' position. For white LEDs a 1K resistor is a good starting point, usualyl still way too bright so use a bigger one. Many factory installs use only a 680 ohm resistor, which operates the LED within specifications but is REALLY bright.
Matt I can smell a steam post ten blocks away and when I do clear the tracks because the steam express will be hi ballin through http://cambriaindiana.weebly.com/
Time to bring this one up a little. We are waiting for more from Roger, in the meantime here is one from early summer of '77 at East Palestine, Ohio
Charlie
I think you are referring to the F7. I was the parts manager for the counter part of Neil Motors, Neil Ford, in the 70's. Dutch Neil was the most honest man I have ever met and a very successful auto dealer. He died from Cancer and his son that took over the dealership died of cancer a year later at the age of 25. The boy knew what he was doing and was as honest as his dad. The next dealer wrote the book on crooked, and went to prison, and the last one to own it won't show his face anywhere in the county.
Gus, the railfanning started when I was a baby, and the modeling started in 1948 with a Lionel. The car dealersip job was because it was next to the tracks.
Charlie
