Painting A Brass Locomotive for Erieman

[Erieman]

HE'S BACK!!!

Tom ,

I was starting to worry! Only kidding. Glad to see your progress. I just can't stop drooling. The anticipation is too - too much. Keep up the wonderful work, my friend.
Also, too many wifey projects currently keeping me busy.

Frank / Erieman

[GPdemayo]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

[Erieman]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

Greg,

Hell no, I'll keep drooling long after the engine is on my layout. Tom is doing a wonderful job on it. My wife has thought for years that I should be in a padded room. Hmmn what about a padded train room. Imagine the possibilities.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

HE'S BACK!!!

Tom ,

I was starting to worry! Only kidding. Glad to see your progress. I just can't stop drooling. The anticipation is too - too much. Keep up the wonderful work, my friend.
Also, too many wifey projects currently keeping me busy.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

Thanks very much, I appreciate the kind words. I'll have more to show this afternoon.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

Well, if drooling causes us to be in the padded wall room then I say get the room ready. There's room for you too Gregory!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

Greg,

Hell no, I'll keep drooling long after the engine is on my layout. Tom is doing a wonderful job on it. My wife has thought for years that I should be in a padded room. Hmmn what about a padded train room. Imagine the possibilities.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

It appears Greg lives in a glass house. I still have drool stains on the carpet from his drooling over a little $300.00 (worth $750.00) brass loco I sold him.

Tom

[GPdemayo]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

Greg,

Hell no, I'll keep drooling long after the engine is on my layout. Tom is doing a wonderful job on it. My wife has thought for years that I should be in a padded room. Hmmn what about a padded train room. Imagine the possibilities.

Frank / Erieman

Sounds like a good plan to me.....Pegi has been threatening to put me in one for decades.....

[GPdemayo]

Will you quit with the drooling already.....you're wife will put you in a place with padded walls and you won't be able to get to your layout. 

Greg,

Hell no, I'll keep drooling long after the engine is on my layout. Tom is doing a wonderful job on it. My wife has thought for years that I should be in a padded room. Hmmn what about a padded train room. Imagine the possibilities.

Frank / Erieman

Frank,

It appears Greg lives in a glass house. I still have drool stains on the carpet from his drooling over a little $300.00 (worth $750.00) brass loco I sold him.

Tom

You got that right.....I'll bring a big drool towel with me this week when I get to run it with the WOW sound you and Bill put in it for me. 

[donatode]

Masterful work Tom....I hope you will give us a video of the completed engine when done.  Afterall photos are great for structures since they don't move (well most don't) but motive power needs to be shown, well, moving.

[ACL1504]

Donato,

Thanks for the very kind words on the project. I'm nearing the end. A video is what I have in mind also. As soon as I learn to post a video I'll start doing some.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The next project on Frank's loco is the installation of firebox/ballast lights. I use 12 volt ballast lights from PBL. PBL are the folks that sold the PBL Foreground Sound units. They were developed by Bob Longnecker for PBL. Bob Longnecker is the gentleman that invented the first PFM Sound System I for Don Drew of PFM (Pacific Fast Mail).

Anyway, the picture follows as we all love photos. Please note, the $4.00 price is a 15 year old price.



I use the orange and red lights together as it gives a more realistic fire look.

I wire the bulbs in parallel as shown below.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I install the lights on the front end of the motor depending on the depth of the loco firebox.



When lit, the bulbs give a nice orange/red glow.

After test fitting these on the front of the motor, I found they wouldn't fit as the loco boiler wouldn't fit over the motor and the lights. No problem! I moved the lights to the bottom side of the motor. One on one side and the other on the other. Hey, that sounded like a little double speak.



Since I won't be able to use the bulbs side by side, I'll go with either two red or two orange. I'll test the lights and go with what is more natural.

A little information here on the lights being used with DCC. The bulbs are 12 volts and can be soldered directly to the + & - motor poles. This way the bulbs will burn all the time the loco is running.

However, I prefer to wire the bulbs to one of the DCC decoder functions. This way the user, in this case Frank, has the choice to turn them on and off while the loco is running. And, because they are 12 volts a 330 Ohm resister isn't necessary to be wired to one side of the bulb lead.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Time for the coal load so I got my jar of fake coal. I use the fake coal as a bottom layer only. Once the bottom layer is in place and the DCC is installed I'll add the official looking coal to the tender bunker.





I spread some yellow glue on top of the cardboard I previously glued in the coal bunker.




I then added the fake coal and set it aside to dry.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Okay, all is well at this point so it's now time to install the DCC decoder.

I glued the speaker in place and then began the DCC wirding.



Looks like a bowl of spaghetti wiring.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

The sound was installed and I programmed the decoder. It sounded great, nice sharp and clear. All functions worked. However, when placed on the track for a test run, it ran like crap. So I was thinking CRAP, what now! Actually I didn't say or think crap but I can't say it here.

The loco kept stopping and starting and ran in a jerking move. I traced the problem to a brake shoe shorting on the rear driver tire. I spoke to Frank and a decision was made to shave a little brass off the shoe to see if this didn't either solve the problem or at least help. Shaving the brake shoe did help but it didn't solve the jerking movement.

I removed the boiler, motor and gear box. The loco and the side rods then rolled very smooth. It appears the problem is the old gear box. It isn't the original gear box and appears to be an after market one.

I discussed this with Frank and the decision was made to send the loco to North West Shore Line for repairs. I can replace the motor but I won't replace the gear box which includes replacing the gear on the driver axle. Just to many bad things can go wrong. Darryl at NWSL is a professional and does this type of repair for a living.

No need to have a $400.00+ paint job on a loco and not have it run like a swiss watch.

I'll call Darryl tomorrow and this thread will be on hold for at least the next five week.

Thank you to all who have been following.