Minitrains redo for Cuse

[ACL1504]

I'm kinda like Bilbo Baggins as I'm off on another journey.

John Mancuso has asked me to repaint if necessary, redecal and weather his new Mintrain loco and four passenger cars..

I'll remove the old decals on the loco, renumber it and change the tender decal to read C&DR RY. The Carrabasset & Dead River Ry. Obviously the tender will only hold the diamond with C&DR in the center.

We don't have enough decals to redo the passenger cars. Here is the loco and cars.

[tct855]

Tom,
         Never heard of these trains before. Very cool. I'll be tuning in.  Thanx Thom...

[S&S RR]

This is going to be interesting. I will be following along.

[ReadingBob]

Like Sauron, I'll be keeping an eye on this.   

[Oldguy]

Cool.  At least it looks like is has an upgraded motor from the old units.  I had several of the diesels and a couple of the "docksiders" and they didn't know what slow operation meant.  Looks like it's going to be a fun rebuild.

[ACL1504]

Tom,
         Never heard of these trains before. Very cool. I'll be tuning in.  Thanx Thom...

Thom,

Minitrains is, I think made in Germany. I don't even know what gauge this little thing is. Oh, wait, it is Tiny Gauge.


Tom

[ACL1504]

This is going to be interesting. I will be following along.

John,

I agree, I hope I'm up to the task.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Like Sauron, I'll be keeping an eye on this.   

Bob,

Thank you; however, you may need to keep two eyes on this one. It's Tiny Gauge.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Cool.  At least it looks like is has an upgraded motor from the old units.  I had several of the diesels and a couple of the "docksiders" and they didn't know what slow operation meant.  Looks like it's going to be a fun rebuild.

Bob,

Thanks for checking in. The motor is a can motor and apparently it runs very well or Mancuso wouldn't be happy with it.

I'm not going to rebuild it but I will be repainting it and adding a few new details to bring it to life.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Well, this afternoon I tried to take it apart. This thing is small and I used my Opti-Visor to look it over. I tried to get the cab and boiler off the running gear and frame work.

I took the bottom plate off and found 10 very tiny tiny gears.



I though oh "H--l No", I ain't touching the gears. I'd probably loose a few or forget where I put them. There are no instructions on how to get the cab and boiler off. It appears to be snapped on with tabs but I don't know where they are or how they work. I certainly don't want to break anything either.

I plan to tape off the running gears and paint it as is.

Getting the tender apart was no problem.



The photo above was enlarged 100 fold so ya'll can see it. 


More in a few.

[ACL1504]

The first thing I did was remove the decals. I used a Q-tip dipped in Goo Gone and applied the mixture to the decals. After about 40 to 50 minutes the decals softened and were removed.

The number on the cab had to be scratched off where it was between the cab vertical boards. It appears as a 1 in the photo below. It is actually the gray under the current paint.



The number on Rudolph's nose was removed with no problem.

[S&S RR]

The tiny projects are the biggest projects. Good luck - I think your going to have a story to tell.

[Mike Engler]

Tom- Great project, and I hope you get good at it as I have the same set that I bought at the NNGC in Maine a couple of years back. Maybe I can talk you into doing mine unless this thread is so good I think I'll be able to do it myself.

This company completely re-designed the mechanism for these little gems. They run incredibly well. Dave Frary wrote that he test-ran one of these and let it run for a couple of days and it was still going strong.

The scale for these would be HOn30. The Whistle Stop in California (great mail-order service) is a distributor-dealer for all of the MinitrainS products, and PECO track and turnouts- they run on N gauge track. They are ideal for anyone modeling the 2 ft. gauge railroads. Google says that you can even order through Walmart and pick up at their stores.

[jerryrbeach]

Tom,
I attempted to disassemble a newer Bachmann engine and, even with an exploded drawing in hand, could not figure out how to release all the hidden tabs holding it together.  I swear disassembling some of these newer engines is akin to trying to solve a Chinese puzzle box in the dark while wearing mittens. 
I will be following along to see what I can learn.  Never thought to try Goo Gone for decal removal so I've learned something new already!

[ACL1504]

The tiny projects are the biggest projects. Good luck - I think your going to have a story to tell.

John,

I'll be taking my time as I don't want to mess this one up for John. I'll tell the story as I go along on the thread.

Tom