Rebuilding and digitalizing a brass gasoline rail coach

[modelsof1900]

Some times ago I purchased this older brass model at US-Ebay.



The HO-scale model represents a New York, New Haven & Hartford gasoline rail coach where ten coaches with #9014 to #9023 which were built by Brill in 1925.
That what is so fascinating to me is the very long hood overhang far in front to the front truck. I have got a few copies of pictures from a book and all my impressions are confirmed by these pictures.





The underbody has had a very simple detailing however the problem was the rear truck that could not turn or swing to move in curves. Look the primitive fixing of rear truck that is wide far from a correct modeling quality. In result the coach did run but only on straight tracks.





A more problem was typically for the model in original condition. A mounting plate for a coupler on backside was arranged however the rear truck was positioned at most back end of ground plate so that a rear coupler could not added to the model. Why a coupler adds to such a coach? (At end I mounted a small no. 158 whisker coupler.)

My wish list for modifying this model was not a very short one.
- First the model should run without restrictions; I think this is the basic requirement for each model.
- Second the model should have a rear coupler for moving a single car from station to station as an exception but model should be usable for small switching jobs in a small station without an own yard goat. Thereby a working front coupler is the next requirement.
- Third the model should get a more detailed under-floor after that what I can do. In a further step I planned also a completion by interior, a driver for the coach and a few passengers.
- Fourth the model must be digitalized because all my friends own digitalized layouts with the according model equipment. If I would let to run this coach so I must equip it after their requirements – and thus this model should be my digitalizing job. Part of this digitalizing job should be also a lighting of front and back lamps (also inside?) – all things that I never did before.
- Correct or nearby correct coloring and lettering is one of my basic requirements also.



First step was removing most of under-floor details for replacing and a repositioning.





Here two pictures of the new detailed under-floor.
The upper picture shows e lot of holes for the speaker which will be installed with the sound-digitalizing. And the frame did get a new fixing bridge for the rear truck, above at right side, lower picture in above-left position. Most brake parts have got a changed position and they are completed by a lot of small additional parts; a brake as I love to build it.





I modified the front truck so that the one side frame can turn and so I get an all wheel contact to the rails. I think that this is a really needed requirement for a well running motor car avoiding powerless track positions. The second picture shows also my solution for a four wheel power pick-up.
The rear truck is a Tenshodo power truck where all four wheels are equipped with power feeders however the two wheel sets do not swing in the truck frame. Thereby I must not invest additional work.



Here a picture that my friend has shot who colored the coach following my instructions. The rail coach moves from the paint shop back to my home shop, yet without lettering and yet with the need for adding LEDs to front and back lamps. Now I know that this was a mistake in the sequence of work steps. The housing did get a few small marks while adding the LEDs and the wiring.



A view inside: Speaker and decoder are glued in the bow of high roof and all wires are added. You see also that I added a big number of connectors so that I can remove or also add additional wiring. So I have got a free space for adding an interior without seeing all the electronic components through the windows.



One of last steps in the moment was the making of the correct lettering because I would own a model in date of origin of these rail coaches. However not one of the decal makers offer the right lettering so I must draw them by self – not the first time. I have straightened picture of a real coach and did set a cutout to background and then I have drawn the new letters in foreground until I was sure that the proportions of my own letters and digits are close enough for good model lettering. A professional decal maker did print my decals after and so I have got decals exact to real rail coaches of 1925.







A few more details must be added yet; the windows do not have glass in the moment and will try to add safety chains to the trucks.
Especially I will like to change the sound, the bell rings too fast and the chime sound isn’t that what I would like to have. And a friend inspired to me adding a white LED to the roof lamp at back.

Last weekend I was guest at the yearly held FREMO-meeting in Unna, Germany and there I could the model let run on a really big modular layout for a first time. Look three small videos of model and the interest of other guests for it. Click and enjoy!

First run
Shay meets rail coach
rail coach and visitors

Special thanks also to the members of the NYNH&H Yahoo-group for their friendly help and helpful information to my questions.

[doctorwayne]

Nice work (as usual) Bernhard. With the trend to DCC continuing, those Tenshodo PDT power trucks could find a lot more applications now than when they were first released. It's too bad that they're not still in production. I put one in an Athearn RDC and it was a big improvement over the original rubberband drive system. It easily pulled a companion RDC dummy unit - the modeller who purchased it was planning to convert it for DCC operation.

Wayne

[modelsof1900]

Wayne,
thank you very much for your friendly comment.

Today I started the next steps, adding a white real LED and changing the wiring.
And I have given the model a changed sound that should be closer to this old time original.
I hope to find a well locking US-layout for next presentation of model with modified lightning and changed sound. This is one of biggest problem here in my area. However before the model must be finished in all respects.

[Beamish]

Great Job. I like how you used lots of connectors so the wiring can be changed easily.

[Russ Bellinis]

Nice work as usual Bernhard! What sort of minimum radius do you operate on with it? I think with the long front overhang, if the curve is too tight, your coupler will be swung out over the outside rail and probably not work too well. If the curves are broad enough, you should have no problem however.

[modelsof1900]

Thanks, Beamish and Russ.

- Connectors - A friend insired me to use such small connectors becaus I did not have a clear conception for wiring in first phases of my digitalizing project. And his mean was a great help to me. First I startet with a single front lamp, than I added two red rear lamps and now I'm adding a white rear lamp for reversing and now I must realize a new electrinic concept with this step because the white rear LED can't shine while the bus is running forward.
I have also a few more adventage because I can separate the housing with decoder, speacer and all lamps from the frame with power feeders and motor and so I can make a few additional detailing work with these parts only where I would do it. However I know also nobodY will need these connectors after finishing of model. However a special adventure for using these connecter is given by the wide space inside if this model; I don't know if I could do it with the limited space in tender of a small switcher.

- Front coupler - Russ, it is correct that the long front overhang can bring problems while coupling in curves. The models run very vell through sharp curves and I teste it down to radius of 20". And there the front coupler will not couple with other models, That is correct.
However what I would like to do is primarily to run the rail coach together with one or also two additional cars from station to station. And than I would like to do a bit of switching work in order to set the cars to a company with a track connection. I know that there are located often very sharp curves however than I must choice more straight track parts for coupling and decoupling the cars. An additional fact is that I installed (back) and will install (front) the small #158 (or #153) wisker couplers from Kadee for a more reality like impression of the model; no. 5 couplers are too large for this. And I know also that the smaller #153/#158 couplers need a few more requirements for a good coupling process than the larger Kadees. However I love thsi dream with a few switching options than that is this what my friends of the FREMO - US-division and I like to do, running trains after way bills and switching in order to realize a reality-near train concept.
However I will add a last word here. The most time my model will stand in my show case at home.

[Steamtrains]

Bernhard....That model deserves to be in a showcase...It's a real jewel..!!!
Of all the rolling stock and structures I've seen you build through the years, this has to be your best effort..!!!
Thanks for sharing...and let us see what else will keep you busy in the coming months.....

BTW...Love that trackwork...!!!

[modelsof1900]

Gus, thank you very much for your honouring comment.

Sorry, however I would like to answer to your mean that the model should be part of a showcase.
Showcases should contain fine and rare items; that is right. However if items will have technical functions as it do all our railroad models than I think our models should run on a good detailed layout showing these items in an area close to the original.
Look for fine detailed steam loco models. Seeing their fine mechanic like side roads and gearing. Looking it in a showcase will be impressed. However seeing them in move the impressions will be much time greater. However I know also that the minimum speed must be small enough for seeing all these details in movement. However that is now the result of digitalizing, loco models can move very slowly – and than hear the shuff, shuff of a steam loco! However also here - it must be done very well for highest satisfaction in model building.

[Russ Bellinis]

Gus, thank you very much for your honouring comment.

Sorry, however I would like to answer to your mean that the model should be part of a showcase.
Showcases should contain fine and rare items; that is right. However if items will have technical functions as it do all our railroad models than I think our models should run on a good detailed layout showing these items in an area close to the original.
Look for fine detailed steam loco models. Seeing their fine mechanic like side roads and gearing. Looking it in a showcase will be impressed. However seeing them in move the impressions will be much time greater. However I know also that the minimum speed must be small enough for seeing all these details in movement. However that is now the result of digitalizing, loco models can move very slowly – and than hear the shuff, shuff of a steam loco! However also here - it must be done very well for highest satisfaction in model building.

Right on, Bernhard! I always find it funny when I remember an article on early brass in Model Railroader a few years ago. I think the article was written in the late 1980's or early 1990's and was a history of some of the brass manufacturers. One of the manufacturers had made a mistake and installed 1.5 volt motors in some of it's locomotives instead of 12 volt motors. They notified their distributors and the hobby shops of the mistake and advised that they would replace the motors in any locomotive that was returned to the dealer. Less than 10% of the production run was returned. This was back in the days before people were asked to fill out and mail in warranty cards, so the manufacturer had no idea who the customers were. Obviously 90% of the production run were put on a shelf in the original boxes or else display cases and had never been run! They may even have been traded at shows or between various brass dealers as collector's items, too valuable to actually paint or put on a track and run!

[nkp_174]

There was also a brass HOn3 mason bogie which didn't incorporate the design concept of "bogie" into the running gear. It requires something like 60" radius curves...

Bernhard, it looks nice. I also enjoyed the youtube clip of your gondolas. I've been intending to join youtube and upload a few videos for a while...but haven't gotten around to it as of yet.

[toptrain]

I really like the work that was done on your Doodlebug. As they go, yours is a larger one. Supplying passenger service at a reasonably cost to remote branchlines of a railroad is a difficult, not easily solved, problem. This railbuss is a practical answer to this problem.
These early gas powered Whitcome, and Mack powered coaches were low on horsepower and high on down time. Their need for good quality maintenance, and proper operation is what extended they useful life. Their use in areas of high track grades limited there load carrying ability. You can tell by its design that is a light trolley car, or trailing car, modified for use away from its overhead wiring. It is of a early design. A cresatory roof would have been a very early car.
A larger railroad like the New York, New Haven, and Hartford had the ability to make these converted doodlebugs on their own, in house. If you look at early Mack powered trucks of the same era, they would chain drive there drive axels thro a shaft driven gearbox. A very simple mechanical conversion. A package that could be sold separately, for railroad conversions, or factory applied. A small railside business in cities like Hartford, or New Haven, assembling these doodlebugs would add to any layout. Thus giving the NY,NH,&H a valuable line side business to serve.
Imagine a small line side carpentry factory at the turn of the century, out in a remote small town with a good rail connection. Locate it out in a forested area, keeping their main supply, wood, close at hand. There low tech high quality carpentry services are used to building interurban cars for trolley systems and railroads. There product could be loaded onto flat cars, or if of a larger type coupled together and delivered to other locations where the more technical work of installing drive systems, motor or electrical, could be added. Also the interior finishing of quality seating, lighting, and heating systems added to a finished product . All this needs to come from somewhere to this factory, including the people that work there.
Good luck with modeling. frank

[toptrain]

Thanks to a fellow modler named NickelPlate759 I can add this post. At the Greenburgh train show August 8 & 9 2009, on saturday the 8th, I had seen for sale some Bowser trollies that remined me of this gas powered dodlebug. Bowser makes a Indiana Railways trolley that would with the addition off a mack or older style truck front end make a similliar railbus.
frank

[modelsof1900]

After a year of stopping my gasoline rail coach project (it misses only adding windows, inner lighting, interior and safety chains to trucks) I found a part description of the marked part which I not could identify before.



The Car Builders’ Dictionary of 1922 indicates this part as “Back-up lamp” - and I would like to install a diode inside for lighting this lamp.
However what is this for a lamp?
Is this a red light indicating the train end while the rail coach will run backward? Or is this a white lamp – and than I do not know the use. The front lamp is mounted on roof below of the bell. So I do not think that this will be a second forward running lamp.
I good time ago I have seen an other model of this rail coach and there was a white light installed to this lamp – and I was confused for this lighting.
Please can give me anyone of you a short explanation for my understanding problem of this American term “Back-up lamp”? Thank you very much for your help.

[P5se Camelback]

Beautiful, Bernhard.

Yet another shining example of German precision and attention to every little detail!

I love it! Thanks for sharing it with us!

[tetters]

Beautiful. Nice work. Looking forward to the additional lighting and interior details.