RETIRED GUY PROJECTS

[kusojiji]

Had a spare Kato 11-109 chassis, so printed out a boxcab and put a light in it. Soldered the leads to the chassis motor leads, twice since I always forget to run the wires through the chassis cover first, and finally got it together.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/n-scale-boxcab-body-for-kato-11-109

I print two colors so that I don't have to paint it later.

 

Pulling 3 printed coaches on Peco 8 ft chassis. The couplers are a pain as I don't like rapido type. I just shoved the Kato couplers in the box.

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4890607

 

[mp44_tom]

On 4/23/2025 at 10:35 AM, kusojiji said:

 

If you are able to take the DD16 apart, please take pics. From the video, it looks like it is a one piece worm/flywheel and am curious as to how it connects to the motor.

I just bought one on my trip to Berlin 

 

will open it up and see if i can convert it to DCC

 

Tom

www.mp44.nl

 

[kusojiji]

That'll be awesome. What I'll do is restart my old Kato US diesel remotor program and see what it takes to get a coreless into it. If the DD16 is what I think it is, then the method should apply. May take a while though since parts are going to be needed. I believe the motor size will be 0816 due to the original motor being 9.5 wide. That'll provide some room for isolating the motor from the frames. The shafts will need to be lengthened with brass tube adapters since the motor shaft is only 1mm and the Kato motor is 1.5mm.

 

I have ordered the 816 motors already and it will take a while to arrive. Once in, I will start designing a motor mount for it.  I already have the brass tube adapters that I ordered from Tramfabriek (you can get the motors from him as well, he has a lot of neat stuff for this kind of thing).

[kusojiji]

C62 HEADLIGHT INSTALLATION

 

Ok, started a project that I had been pushing off since it requires precision and I ain't got it. At least not the correct tools anyway.

 

So I bought this probably in the early/mid 90's. It only has a dummy headlight and the body is completely filled with metal. This beast weighs in at 128.5 g. Way more than anything else I have. It pulls stumps.

 

Anyway, I bought some D51 headlamps that act like fiber as they transmit light. I ended up taking the entire thing apart and hope I can get it back together, especially the motion. This thing has two geared wheels in #2 and #3 position so that'll be a pain to get back in. My original plan was to run fiber to the headlamp position with the led back near the motor. I have revised that plan as I think it may lose too much light at the transition. I am now going to put the led (1206) in the front and run the wires in the channel that I created in the chassis. I may need to make the hole larger for the led. Since this is a split chassis, power will come from squishing the wires with an insulator in between.

 

The big task at hand now is to drill a 30 degree hole in the front to insert the new headlight. I don't have the capability to drill that straight or precisely and am looking for options. I started a thread under the tools area thinking that I would use a dremel. It seems that the dremel drill press walks all over. It has been suggested to use that but turn the chuck by hand instead for more control. We'll see how the concensus goes. So far not good for dremel.

 

So, to help in that area, I created a 3d print stand to mount the body in place with the 30 degree angle that I need. Test fitting a small piece so far has worked well. It fits with no slop so should hold the body shell firmly enough. printing the final design right now. Added gussets to the intersection point for added strength. Wine colored drill stand haha.

 

Anyway, once this is all staged, will still need to work on the actual tool to do the drilling. I tried pin vice before and that didn't work out so well. My Smokey Joe is a bit cock-eyed...

Edited April 28 by kusojiji

[kusojiji]

Had to modify the mount as I had forgotten about the cab... Final print fits perfectly.

[kusojiji]

What I've been gathering for this type of work, a pin vice was highly recommended, so I made this monstrocity. It locates the pin vice squarely at the drill site. I'll be modifying it a bit to include a ledge on both legs to keep it from being inadvertently mounted incorrectly to the base. these two pieces will be clamped together.

 

The pin vice is the cheap one that I bought from the jungle site. It has knurling so there is a little slop, but not much. It also is not perfectly cylindrical. So, I ordered another set that I hope is more precise in manufacturing. I also ordered another set of drill bits, hoping they too are more precise. Yeah, a lot for this thing.

 

Will finalize the design when the new pin vice arrives.

 

This better work!

[kusojiji]

KATO HO D51 TAIL LAMP

 

Received in the mail after a 6 month wait. Runs awesome and has a lot of detail parts. I'm actually a bit afraid to handle it after I broke my Andrew Barclay and P class locos with their fine details.

 

It comes with only a lighted head light. The tail light is a dummy, but luckily, it had a clear insert that acts as a fiber line. So, took the tender off (same type drawbar design as their N scale stuff), took the chassis out of the body by pushing in on 6 retaining tabs on the left and right edges. The tender chassis is exactly like their N scale stuff with a split chassis. Grabbed the first led on my desk and gave it a try. Worked as expected, so moved forward. Warm white led, 2K resistor and aluminum tape. Got it all together and used the aluminum tape to hold the light and led together. It does a great job at minimizing spill. 

 

Color is very close to the headlight. Both come on at 3volts, so all good. Totally reversible install.

 

Next up is figuring out a DCC install. I will need to wait and hope that somebody documents a disassembly procedure as with typical Kato, no info is provided.

[kusojiji]

HO D51 BOTTOM KEEPER PLATE

 

Took the bottom keeper plate off to check the bearings.

1. Disconnect tender by pulling straight back. Drawbar will remain with the tender.

2. Remove rear bogy by pulling straight back. There is a tension spring on the bogy. Make sure that it goes back on the flat part when reinstalling.

3. Remove the two sets of brake rigging. 4 little tabs keep each set on.

4. 3 screws hold the base keeper on.

5. 2 sets of pipes at the back of the cab need to be pulled straight back to release from the rigging on the base keeper. Grab em with tweezers and pull straight back.

6. Pull the base keeper off from the front.  Don't pull with the bogy. They all come off as one piece.

 

That's all for now. She's currently pulling my goods train around the room.

[kusojiji]

C62 LAMP INSTALL

 

The rig worked great. Bought new bits that were sharper than my old set. Proxxon is the brand. Anyway, freehanded it to start the pilot. Then mounted the pin vice into my rig, made sure the bit was in the same hole, clamped everything down, and started turning. Went with no pressure at first and then got impatient and started pushing a bit. After I hit red, changed to the next size and did the same thing. Got it up to 1.76mm bit and that's all it needed. Actually a bit big, but not by much.

 

A little bit of white glue, stuck the light in and made sure she was square. Angle of 30 degrees was correct. Tested it and it works. 

 

The bottom of the light is right at the level of the inside of the boiler, so no more metal removal is needed. The hole is actually too big now. Wish I had some black tack, but not available here. May try goop. Definitely need to plug the smoke stack as the light will definitely be coming out of that. hmm, maybe just put some cotton and make it look like i have lighted smoke?

 

Will dry over night and start putting the thing back together and wire it up.

[kusojiji]

C62 LIGHT INSTALL

 

After installing the new headlight, I wired a warm white 1206 led and 2K resistor and installed it into the metal body. Used goop to glue it in an provide insulation. Clamped the wires between the two chassis halves and got power to it. Ran a quick test with a 9v battery and all was good to go, so started the reassembly. The lamp was correctly placed and lit up nicely. A 1206 led provides a lot of light, so I figured it would be good to go.

 

This metal chassis is very rough and I am surprised that the plastic parts survived this long. Ran a bead of nano-lube 5 to hopefully keep this stuff going for another 20 years.

 

She's currently running round the room pulling a train of old time CPRR cars and lighting the way!

 

one thing that I forgot to do is install a cap. That'll be next for this thing.

 

[kusojiji]

Rhaetian Railway Bernina Express

 

I recently bought the Bernina Express 4 car set and the GE4/4-II loco. They come with a close coupler that is incompatible with anything else and difficult to couple together. I have been searching for knuckles to replace them with. After searching around, I found that the Z05-0746 (800002 US part number) coupler fits, but is a bit long. I swapped 3 cars over so far and need to figure out how to take the open air car apart to change it. The loco will follow shortly.

 

I do have another set of couplers (for the C11) coming and hope they fit and are shorter.

 

However, I can now pull this awesome set of cars around with anything.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by kusojiji
add us part number

[kusojiji]

Rhaetian Railway Bernina Express close coupling

 

The C11 couplers showed up. Fit better than the other one, but the centering spring will come out of place if the coupler goes to the stops. Then it doesn't come back. But the cars are as close as they used to be.