The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 4

[ACL1504]

Tom, those are some good looking cabeese.
I'll follow along as you make them even better.

Rick,

Thanks for following along on this adventure. I've been putting these off for several years.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Howdy Tom,

What a covey of cabooses.  I'll be following along this fun thread. 

Have fun,
mike

Mike, Howdy,

I bought these when you could buy an Overland brass caboose for $125.00. A few I got from a friend for $75.00. Last time I looked these were selling for around $400.00 each. Happy to have you along for the ride.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Hello Tom, I have a weak spot in my heart for cabooses and am really enjoying your thread on them. They look great. It was a sad day for railroading when they went away.

Jeff,

Thanks Jeff. I do as well and I agree. I still look for the caboose on the end of local freights. I hate the end of train light.

Tom

[ACL1504]

The internet is great for swallowing up important data. Nice pieces!

Philip,

Yes, it does. In this case Jimmy D.(old forum owner) had a crash and lost many threads. Thank the Lord, and Jim Donavan (new forum owner) for keeping this forum alive.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom this will really be interesting!

Jerry

Jerry,

I sure hope so and thanks for jumping on the bandwagon.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom, somehow I missed this. I know when you're done the cabeese will look outstanding.

Curt,

With all going on this forum it is easy to miss a few threads. Happy to have you here.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

Yesterday I spent many hours getting up to speed on the three cabeese.

I taped off both cabooses that needed to be touched up paint wise. When I got out the compressor and spray hose, I found a leak in the air hose. It was loosing enough air so I couldn't use that one spray gun.

A friend gave me a Badger spray gun with a compressor and air hose. So, I decided to use that one.

Let me just save some time and say that the Badger spray gun was nasty with lots of dried paint on the outside and inside.

I completely unassembled the gun, removed all the dried paint and after three hours, reassembled it. I didn't think to take any before photos, but here is the spray gun after a complete cleaning.



I used it to spray the touch up Signal Red on the two cabooses. I won't use this on e again but will keep it as a back up.

I've used a Binks spray  gun for the past 50+ years. I'll get a new hose and move on.

Now I can add the A&S to the #1 caboose and decals for the one on top.

[ACL1504]

As I mentioned, these have been on the work bench for at least prior to my heart surgery back in 2021.

I have no idea what happened to the screws that hold the bottom on two of the cabeese. Nor could I find the coupler pocket screws.

When I was professionally painting brass back in the late 70 - 80's, there were times I had to removed brass plates, make new ones in order to install PFM Analog sound. To do this I had to drill and tap new screw holes.

This is what I did to the two cabeese here.

The small hole shown in the next photo is a 1.2 mm hole.



I used a 1.4mm tap a made a new hole for the 1.4mm screw.

[ACL1504]

When tapping new holes in brass, patience and carefully use of the tap is required.

The next photo shows the three tools used for tapping a new 1.4mm hole.

The small drill on the right is a 1.1mm drill bit. It wasn't necessary for me to use the bit.

The 1.4mm tap is in the center and the hand held drill is on the left.



I inserted the tap in the hand held vise and carefully tapped a new 1.4mm hole in the caboose bottom plate. When tapping a new hole the tap is twisted right and when finished you just can't pull it out. You need to slowly and carefully back it out by twisting it left as it backs out.

[ACL1504]

Now I have new 1.4mm screws for the two caboose bottom plates.

[deemery]

A good, cheap way to get itty-bitty metric screws in multiple sizes is to look for eyeglass repair sets.

dave

[ACL1504]

I also tapped new holes for the coupler pocket screws.





Done for today.

[ACL1504]

A good, cheap way to get itty-bitty metric screws in multiple sizes is to look for eyeglass repair sets.

dave

Dave,

Yes, you are correct and I have used eyeglass repair tiny screws on brass locos.

Great comment.

Tom

[PRR Modeler]

Great problem solving Tom. Thanks for the how to on the tapping.

[Rick]

Great problem solving Tom. Thanks for the how to on the tapping.

I agree.