How did you improve your rolling stock?

[JR 500系]

Definitely a great upgrade! Really nice train by the way! 

[lighthouse]

Some time for adding some parts 

[Sheffie]

I’m not sure that this counts as an improvement—especially considering the broken amber roof light—but the paint and the gundam marker is removable with alcohol, so. 

 

Before:

 

After:

 

The steps are all black, and parts of those plus various handrails have had the “original paint worn off” to reveal shiny brass metal underneath. Oh, and lots of soot and grime on the roof hardware. 

[railsquid]

Here we see a MicroAce DD13:

 

MicroAce DD13 (DD13-85) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

sold to me cheaply as a non-runner, which turned out to be because it's from the little-known MicroAce "Shorty" range (put it on the tracks, the controller shorts out).

 

After much disassembly (thankfully quite straightforward):

 

MicroAce DD13 (DD13-85) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I finally located the source of the shorting, which was probably not due to the motor contact points contacting the wrong side of the split chassis, but very was certainly due to a design flaw in the bogies, specifically the rod holding the central gear (between the two axles):

 

MicroAce DD13 (DD13-85) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

which is part of the somewhat old-fashioned diecast split bogie, and which is insulated from the other bogie half by an air gap, which is less than the amount of play between the two bogie halves, resulting in frequent shorting.

 

Solution is simple enough - a patch of DIY insulation:

 

MicroAce DD13 (DD13-85) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

and another locomotive restored to service.

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by railsquid

[Martijn Meerts]

Shorty indeed ....

 

[Fenway Park]

Thanks for the info as my MA DD13 has been consigned to its box. Similar problems with a MA C12 which shorted out. 

[railsquid]

I presume the intent was to have the central gear sheath the rod, but either the sheathing has worn down, or by the looks of it just wasn't long enough in the first place.

 

Come to think of it, I should revisit the MA DD16 I bought a long while back which IIRC runs but doesn't like going round corners, it has a similar bogie design so wonder if there's something going on there.

[railsquid]

Meanwhile, among this pile of "junk" acquired in January:

 

Junk, 2020-01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

is a Tomix ED75 (the one with the 1600 yen sticker on it), which unwrapped looks like this:

Tomix ED75 (ED75 1039) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

i.e. basically excellent condition, and appears to be Tomix 2115 , i.e. the newer tooling, which is an excellent find at that price. The only thing actually missing (well apart from the box etc.) are the cab end grab handles, but oh looksie what do we have in the parts drawer:

 

Tomix ED75 (ED75 1039) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(can't remember why exactly I bought them, probably with the intent of doing up an older loco).

 

Tomix ED75 (ED75 1039) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I will however need to replace the number plates at some point as the previous owner was somewhat less than precise when cutting and fitting (but at least didn't fix them in place with gobs of glue).

[Sheffie]

Well, hmm. 

 

I spent quite a long time very carefully applying weathering paint to the EF510. I was terrified of overdoing it, or getting paint on the wrong part and ruining one of my favorite engines. 

 

 

After all that... I’m not sure if you can tell the difference. 

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Sheffie

[gavino200]

I like it. Nice and subtle.

[Kamome]

Looks good Sheffie. The less is more with n gauge. It’s very easy to over do it.

 

I would just add that if it’s enamel based weathering paint, just use a small brush and some enamel thinners to clean up the dab marks where you’ve added paint to the panel lines. It’ll make it look that little bit better.

[cteno4]

Great sheffie. That’s the way to go do it slow and in bits.

 

jeff

[Das Steinkopf]

Given I have a bit of spare time on my hands I decided not to waste it and jumped into weathering the Kato JRF DE10-1500 I received a couple of days ago. I took a slightly different approach this time and used Tamiya acrylics thinned down using thinners instead of water, I also used a 000 brush working on smaller sections at a time, I will be sticking with this technique in the future as I much prefer the results.

[disturbman]

My three-year-old broke the last coupler of her grandfather’s steam locomotive. I had to improvise replacements for this ancient set. A nail was driven through the base of the old coupler before being cut down to size and glued. Just missing a coating of candle wax to smooth out the spikiness.

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by disturbman

[cteno4]

Ha Same fix ive dome with fine sewing pins on Kato diaphragm shinkansen couplers! 
 

jeff

[Kiha66]

I've been working on lighting some kato trains for a friend, and possibly been going overboard with painting the interiors.  I may add working mars lights to the locomotive and tail car too if I can convince him to pony up for the decoders...   The lights aren't nearly as blue as they appear, they actually look quite nice in person.  I plan to do the RPO with SMD LEDs to simulated the incandescent bulbs versus the rest of the train's florescent lighting.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Kiha66

[railsquid]

I have this MicroAce 101-800 series acquired for next-to-nothing which makes an interesting improvement project. I recently found a couple of broken Tomix TN couplings (they had come apart and the tiny springs were stretched beyond repair) which make good replacements for the MicroAce dummy coupler, which is way too low and sticks out too far (though I guess it would be handy as a battering ram in some sort of steampunk train battle).

MicroAce Chuo Line 101-800 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Left: the original dummy coupling

Right: the replacement

 

The replacement is still too low, but overall looks much better, especially from normal viewing distance.

 

The real thing for comparison:

 

P1030282 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[ED75-775]

Not so much an improvement, but preparation to do just that...

 

As some of you may recall, I brought two secondhand Kato DD51s not too long ago, the first of which was purchased at what turned out to be a higher than reasonable price. It was a good runner, but it had mismatched number plates, and the cab holding lugs got snapped off because I dismantled the loco thinking it was missing one of the lighting inserts under one of the hoods (turns out it wasn't, oh well...)

 

Today I plucked up the courage to dismantle the loco and attempt repairs. After scraping away small amounts of Blu-Tack holding the cab down, I used small amounts of Humbrol poly cement to glue the cab to the running boards and the central 'band' which fits over the top of the motor block. Let it dry, clipped it back onto the chassis - it fit snugly, slightly more so than previously but so long as I'm cautious when next dismantling and keep this in mind, it won't be a problem.

 

The next challenge is those number plates! When it arrived, it had two mismatched plates at either end... "am I DD51 1139 or am I DD51 1140"... and on top of that, the seller had inserted two pieces of gold material into the formerly open slots for the cab side number plates. I'm not sure how they're secured, but my bet's on glue. Enough of it that I can't remove them easily! Can anyone suggest how I might be able to remove them without destroying the surrounding body?

[JR 500系]

One thing i dislike about Tomix are their Rapido couplers which looks like... well... not quite to safety standards so.... 

 

 

 

Much better ~

 

While i am at it... 

 

 

Love it when the entire train consist is in one bookcase!

[Cat]

Weathering the trucks and power unit underframes for the Shorty commuter trains.  Since I can't spray Dullcote on these parts (aside from the separate bogie side frames for the power units), I'm using flat enamel paints for both flatness and durability.  The side frames and visible non-action parts of the couplers all painted with layers of black, grey, and chestnut brown.  The center wheel hubs are all chestnut brown.

 

 

[Kamome]

Shiny silver wheels are a real hatred of mine and one niggle of the Tomytec motor units for their HO “NaRo” range and their  Tomix n gauge offerings. I’ve been put off some of their nicer models as they still see fit to add those horrible shiny wheels to them.

 

On another note, I discovered today that the Microace MaYa 34 (A0302) has a minimum radius of R348. Anything tighter and the thing goes up onto its outside edge wheels due to the coupling mount fouling some underfloor detail. I’ve added some Kato buckeyes to it as I don’t like the look of rapidos. The shibata\knuckle twin coupler it comes with is very badly made and constantly uncouples.
 

I did think the buckeye couplers were too short when running it but now know the couplers aren’t the issue.

[katoftw]

I have run it on kato r282 curves without issue.

 

Use the longer rapido coupler pocker arm provided to lengthen by 2mm.

 

I am searching for another longer one so both ends are extended.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by katoftw

[ED75-775]

And the saga of the DD51 continues...

Last time, I mentioned that I had glued the cab down and was contemplating number plates. Well, that just got a whole lot trickier after my grandfather kindly had a look. Turns out the original seller used some kind of resin to fill the number plate recesses on the cab sides. Removing it would be too risky. The same couldn't be said for some gluey residue on the lower cab sides, that's now gone! It's taken a wee bit of original paint with it, but Granddad has a steady hand and is willing to touch up on my behalf if I buy him the paints. For now though the loco is staying put at Granddad's while I consider options.

[cteno4]

You might have a whack at the plate recesses with a dental chisel, I have a few about 1mm wide. Most are like 2-3mm wide but you can also just take a file to these to make a narrower one. Ebay is the usual place to get them. They are very handy to gouge our little bits like this.

 

sounds like you got a great grandpa!

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Not done by me but this is surely cool!!!