Another brass loco project - repairs and painting.

[ACL1504]

Tom, You've got some brass ______ !!!!     

Donato,

I think you are saying I have some brass trains!


I was lucky enough to be around when brass was inexpensive and fortunate enough to be able to repair the bad ones.

Tom

[ACL1504]

You're posting right along, Tom, but I'll rewind a bit to point out that Tix solder melts at 275 F where the tin/lead solder the manufacturer probably used melts at 360 F.  So, anyone following along should either stay exactly in your tracks and use Tix, or be extremely careful when soldering near an existing joint made with the same kind of solder.

Back in the day, the serious brass workers who published in MR frequently used three different solders; high-melting-point for basic assemblies like the frame & boiler, eutectic tin/lead for sub-assemblies and Tix to fasten the sub-assemblies together.  Looks like magic if you don't know the trick...

James,

Thank you for following along and for bringing the soldering technique back into focus. I meant to mention just what you did.

Tix solder does in fact melt at around 275 F and has the holding power/strength of around 4,000 lbs. per square inch.

I need to mention that Tix solder can be melted with a soldering gun, iron or the torch. I used the torch cause I had it. As far as melting other parts in close proximity to the repair, it is always an excellent idea to have some source of "heat absorber" like a sponge or the wet paper towel I mentioned.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I'm almost finished with the painting of this brass loco but I want to share a few of the "along the way" photos.

After painting all the wheels, I then sprayed a coat of satin finish on them. When dry, I used a #11 Xacto blade and removed the black paint.



I then painted all the driver, pilot, trailing and tender truck tires in white. I used Scalecoat paint and baked the while on. Incredibly I forgot to take photos for the tires; however, you'll see the "white wall driver tires" later in the thread.

The ACL passenger steam locomotives all, I think all, had fancy pin striping on the side of the steam cylinder chest. Here is a photo of an ACL Pacific I did a few years ago. These are all Champ Decals.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Decaling the steam cylinder chest is a lesson in patience. The outside pin stripe is a scale 2" and the inside is a scale 1". Fortunately, Champ sold these in sets of 1, 2 and 3 scale inches.

I start with the steam chest.



The two outside horizontal stripes are 8mm wide. I cut four 8mm long.



The outside vertical stripes are 12mm long. The inside horizontal stripes are 7mm wide and the outside vertical inner stripes are 9mm long.

Patience and more patience will get you this look on the steam chest. Each side of the steam chest has 8 cut pieces of decal stripes. The photo was taken after the decals were applied but just prior to the decal set solution to seat the decals.

[ACL1504]

Here is a photo of the steam chest  with decals and the driver tires all painted with Scalecoat White. The tires were all hand painted, two coats and each coat baked and then sprayed in the satin finish to give them some protection.



And here is the loco with the side rods and other mechanical parts in place.



You may think the pin stripes were difficult. They were more time consuming. The hardest decals I've ever applied were to the Toby/PFM Frisco #1527 Mountain, 4-8-2. I forgot what the corner pin stripes are called on the Frisco but it took me a long time to get them to look as they should.

These decals were also a Champ Decal set. The corners go on first and then you fill in the other pin stripes. Hopefully you'll get the corners all perfect so the horizontal and vertical stripes match the corners.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

During the past week I also finished the loco shown below. I started this paint job in 2011. My dad passed in July of 2011 and the loco was put in the back shop in August of 2011. Last week it was removed from the back shop and the work resumed.

The loco is a PFM model of the Western Pacific. WP sold to the Florida East Coast. The FEC sold them to the AB&C, the Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, in 1935. In 1947 The ACL merged the AB&C.

600 of the models were made and were imported by PFM, built by Atlas and sold for $130.00 in 1972.





Continued in a few.

[bparrish]

Tom....

Pretty cool stuff..

thanx
Bob

[ACL1504]

I replaced the open frame motor with a NWSL Sagami 20x32mm motor. I had the decals custom made by a firm in Indiana.



I made some cab curtains. You can see the loco has no cab back head detail. The motor is visible as well.





.006 wire was used for the bell and whistle cords.





I still need to weather the loco, cab curtains and install firebox lights and DCC sound.

[jbvb]

When baking the paint on the drivers, do you take special precautions about the insulation between the tire (rim) and the wheel center?  I recall reading about people who had to replace drivers because they'd been damaged or fell apart at the insulated joint.

[ACL1504]

Tom....

Pretty cool stuff..

thanx
Bob

Bob,

Thank you, much appreciated.

Tom

[ACL1504]

When baking the paint on the drivers, do you take special precautions about the insulation between the tire (rim) and the wheel center?  I recall reading about people who had to replace drivers because they'd been damaged or fell apart at the insulated joint.

James,

Great question.


In 350+ paint jobs I've only had it happen to me twice. Once was my fault and the other I'll chalk up to the crappy model.

The key in baking brass is not to bake it at a high temperature and to not expose the brass to a lengthy baking time.

I've found that 150 -170 degrees for about 45 minutes is more than enough heat and time to bake the paint on the model.

I helped a friend that had all the drivers fall apart due to the over baking. The rims all came off the wheel on the side of the insulation. We carefully slipped the wheel back on the insulation and used the NMRA gauge to get the wheel back in alignment, We then used super glue and placed a small amount between the wheel, insulation and the rim. The glue was applied at 12, 3, 6 and 9 positions.

That brass loco is still running after 12+ years.

Tom


The one I messed up on was where I baked at a to high a temperature.

[ACL1504]

Okay, the initial star of this thread is 95% finished. Meet ACL #1405.

ACL Heavy Mountains were used for heavy weight passenger service.

[ACL1504]

I just realized I forgot to paint the front air hose and coupling.

Marker light jewels installed in the front marker lights. Bell and whistle cords installed and painted with Floquil Foundation.






Cab exterior windows painted with Floquil Reading Green, window glass (Gallery Glass) installed along with a waving Fireman.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Tender deck edge hand painted with Scalecoat White. Cab curtains installed and tender decaled with the ACL famous hearld and decal stripes.



20 tons coal and 12,000 gals. water decals installed.



Still to be finished is DCC WOW Sound, coal load in tender, some minor details to be named later and rear marker lights and used but not abused weathering.

I like to install the red marker lights/jewels on the rear but my supply is out. The HO scale marker jewels were sold by Roundhouse but no longer made. I can install white but will wait for some time while the search goes on.

[ACL1504]

Up next will be this PFM/United  USRA 2-8-2 Mikado. I'll paint this one for the Seaboard Air Line. It's a basic paint with the SAL decals.




Many years ago, when I was talking to the folks at Champ Decal Co. they said they were closing shop in a year. I then began a monthly purchase of several sets of decals of the brass locos I had on the roster. I then got more just in case.

This is the first year PFM came out with the highly detailed back head detail for the cab. The model was imported in 1977 by PFM, the builder was Atlas and retailed for $325.00. Only 600 were made in 1977. PFM did import 1075 of the light Mikado from 1958 through 1966.