From teeth to the Alco FA2
I recently went to the dentist to have a broken tooth repaired, the repair would require a crown. I’ve had one done before and it required an impression to be taken, which meant you sat there with a mouth full of cotton wool and clamping your jaw shut while the mould set. Not any more, several passes with a digital probe that looked like an electric toothbrush and an image formed on the screen next to the chair, ‘absolutely accurate’ confirmed the dentist, transmit the file to the Lab. and a perfect 3D printed replica of the original tooth arrives back in a couple of weeks.
So what has this to do with model railroading? It’s the ‘absolutely accurate’ that’s relevant.
I was on the Rapido trains site looking for information about their latest project, the Alco FA2. I found some background information about the process of creating the model, which included an interesting statement, they guarantee that the nose of the model will be absolutely accurate, because they took a digital scanner and scanned a real FA2, if you can find a fault with the model you will get 3 free locos. They also went in search of a ‘good running’ 244 engine for the sound decoder; they found what they wanted here in Australia.
Rapido have now set a precedence and established the standard for future diesel models, after so many years of manufacturers attempting with various degrees of success to get the contours of cab units (and hood units etc.) correct, digital technology has once again made it relatively straight forward, providing of course that an example of the prototype still exists.
Over the years the quality of models have continually been improving, its not until you compare a contemporary model made by manufacturers such as Rapido, Intermountain, PK2 and BLI with ‘historical’ models that you realise how far the manufacturing process has evolved.
Over the past few years I’ve had a policy that when new rolling stock is purchased, older rolling stock would be retired.
However it isn’t always easy to retire older models, strangely there is an attachment; after all they shared a lot of my modelling life.
So it is difficult to retire them, but slowly they are being replaced, not only because of the superior detail of newer models but also because I don’t want the layout over crowded.
I now find that I am applying the same criteria to diesels, the old Athearn diesels and Model Power (freight sharks) are long retired; but now some of the Walthers models are showing their age. This was highlighted by the arrival of BLI’s freight sharks and the Rapido FA2.
Of course there is also the issue of the mechanics of older models, for example the ‘split gear’ problem that plagued earlier Walthers’ diesels, although I’m not sure it has been totally rectified in Walthers’ diesels.
I have a later AB set of PK2 F7s that developed the ‘clunk’, when I removed the retaining plate on the trucks it obviously wasn’t the usual problem, these were a robust re-design, no cracks in the axle gear.
So the problem had to be in the gearbox, the only problem was that the whole unit was sealed and could only be accessed by cutting it apart. I emailed Walthers and received a prompt reply, new trucks were available, but not on line, they could only be ordered by faxing (I didn’t think anyone faxed any more) or calling the customer service centre.
At 5am I called, the part number I quoted was out of stock, I explained that the technical dept. said that they were available. I was transferred to a tech. person and he discovered that only silver trucks were still available, just add an ‘s’ to the end of the part number. The replacement trucks duly arrived and it was a simple matter to install them and change the side frames, once installed no more clunks. However the gearbox appears to be lightly constructed, so now we have a well-designed axle gear with a weak gearbox instead of a weak axle gear with a robust gearbox.
A challenge with modelling the Pennsylvania railroad is the train phone system that was first trialled in 1936 and perfected by 1943 (it never covered the entire system). Many of their diesels, particularly cab units and some hood units had the train phone antennas installed along the roof. Some steam locos. had them installed on the tender, I have also seen a photograph of an experimental installation along the top of the boiler, I’m glad they didn’t proceed with that one! Antennas were also installed on cabooses and some passenger cars.
However the ‘standard railroad of the World’ was for a number of reasons very inconsistent with their installations. Not all diesels in the fleet underwent the installation.
So there is some modelling latitude regarding the antennas, particularly with hood units and switchers. However the majority of cab units had them, but as previously stated there were exceptions, for example some EMD E7s were initially rushed into service sans antennas due to high traffic demand, they were later retrofitted.
For a long time manufactures tended to avoid modelling the antennas, presumably because of the added cost but also the difficulty of reproducing them. However a number of manufactures are now offering a wide range of cab and hood units with antennas installed. I was never a fan of the antennas, however a group of diesels with them installed does reinforce a ‘family’ appearance.
These newer models have also re-invigorated my interest in diesels, because of their outstanding detail, the array of lights and of course improved sound quality.
So I’ve embarked on a replacement programme for a few older members of the diesel fleet and an acquisition programme of new models.
The accompanying photographs of a Model Power freight shark next to the latest BLI release and a Rapido FA2 next to an older Walthers FA highlights my decision to upgrade.
The steam fleet will not be undergoing the same process.
I recently went to the dentist to have a broken tooth repaired, the repair would require a crown. I’ve had one done before and it required an impression to be taken, which meant you sat there with a mouth full of cotton wool and clamping your jaw shut while the mould set. Not any more, several passes with a digital probe that looked like an electric toothbrush and an image formed on the screen next to the chair, ‘absolutely accurate’ confirmed the dentist, transmit the file to the Lab. and a perfect 3D printed replica of the original tooth arrives back in a couple of weeks.
So what has this to do with model railroading? It’s the ‘absolutely accurate’ that’s relevant.
I was on the Rapido trains site looking for information about their latest project, the Alco FA2. I found some background information about the process of creating the model, which included an interesting statement, they guarantee that the nose of the model will be absolutely accurate, because they took a digital scanner and scanned a real FA2, if you can find a fault with the model you will get 3 free locos. They also went in search of a ‘good running’ 244 engine for the sound decoder; they found what they wanted here in Australia.
Rapido have now set a precedence and established the standard for future diesel models, after so many years of manufacturers attempting with various degrees of success to get the contours of cab units (and hood units etc.) correct, digital technology has once again made it relatively straight forward, providing of course that an example of the prototype still exists.
Over the years the quality of models have continually been improving, its not until you compare a contemporary model made by manufacturers such as Rapido, Intermountain, PK2 and BLI with ‘historical’ models that you realise how far the manufacturing process has evolved.
Over the past few years I’ve had a policy that when new rolling stock is purchased, older rolling stock would be retired.
However it isn’t always easy to retire older models, strangely there is an attachment; after all they shared a lot of my modelling life.
So it is difficult to retire them, but slowly they are being replaced, not only because of the superior detail of newer models but also because I don’t want the layout over crowded.
I now find that I am applying the same criteria to diesels, the old Athearn diesels and Model Power (freight sharks) are long retired; but now some of the Walthers models are showing their age. This was highlighted by the arrival of BLI’s freight sharks and the Rapido FA2.
Of course there is also the issue of the mechanics of older models, for example the ‘split gear’ problem that plagued earlier Walthers’ diesels, although I’m not sure it has been totally rectified in Walthers’ diesels.
I have a later AB set of PK2 F7s that developed the ‘clunk’, when I removed the retaining plate on the trucks it obviously wasn’t the usual problem, these were a robust re-design, no cracks in the axle gear.
So the problem had to be in the gearbox, the only problem was that the whole unit was sealed and could only be accessed by cutting it apart. I emailed Walthers and received a prompt reply, new trucks were available, but not on line, they could only be ordered by faxing (I didn’t think anyone faxed any more) or calling the customer service centre.
At 5am I called, the part number I quoted was out of stock, I explained that the technical dept. said that they were available. I was transferred to a tech. person and he discovered that only silver trucks were still available, just add an ‘s’ to the end of the part number. The replacement trucks duly arrived and it was a simple matter to install them and change the side frames, once installed no more clunks. However the gearbox appears to be lightly constructed, so now we have a well-designed axle gear with a weak gearbox instead of a weak axle gear with a robust gearbox.
A challenge with modelling the Pennsylvania railroad is the train phone system that was first trialled in 1936 and perfected by 1943 (it never covered the entire system). Many of their diesels, particularly cab units and some hood units had the train phone antennas installed along the roof. Some steam locos. had them installed on the tender, I have also seen a photograph of an experimental installation along the top of the boiler, I’m glad they didn’t proceed with that one! Antennas were also installed on cabooses and some passenger cars.
However the ‘standard railroad of the World’ was for a number of reasons very inconsistent with their installations. Not all diesels in the fleet underwent the installation.
So there is some modelling latitude regarding the antennas, particularly with hood units and switchers. However the majority of cab units had them, but as previously stated there were exceptions, for example some EMD E7s were initially rushed into service sans antennas due to high traffic demand, they were later retrofitted.
For a long time manufactures tended to avoid modelling the antennas, presumably because of the added cost but also the difficulty of reproducing them. However a number of manufactures are now offering a wide range of cab and hood units with antennas installed. I was never a fan of the antennas, however a group of diesels with them installed does reinforce a ‘family’ appearance.
These newer models have also re-invigorated my interest in diesels, because of their outstanding detail, the array of lights and of course improved sound quality.
So I’ve embarked on a replacement programme for a few older members of the diesel fleet and an acquisition programme of new models.
The accompanying photographs of a Model Power freight shark next to the latest BLI release and a Rapido FA2 next to an older Walthers FA highlights my decision to upgrade.
The steam fleet will not be undergoing the same process.
