Little update on goings on.
Back from Telford with a few bits and pieces, two from the bring and buy and one from a trader.
Both the B&B were bargains, especially the diesel but lets not get ahead of ourselves.
First up a six bay covered hopper, it won't stay as Great Northern though, mind I'm worried why it would be labelled as Great Northern as by the time this was built GN was a distant fallen flag RR?
Next up a lovely corn syrup car, I didn't know that at the time and in full automatic car boot style grabbed it whilst with my spare hand flipping out the wallet and credit card in one smooth combined motion....MINE. I'd of taken a molten sulphur or oil tank as well but corn syrup fits very nicely with the planned industrial layout and bottling plant I've got planned. I may convert the above grain car to plastic pellet operation to compliment the tank car, I do of course now need another couple or three of each mind.
The best bargain was however the Weaver U25B, it sat in the £15 and under section
Once again in full car boot mode and fighting the army of rucksacks that thwarted my advance I made steady pace to the bench, a last minute duck under and left side shift feint to thwart the flailing rucksack menace and my hand was on the box.....MINE. I've only opened it today to examine it.
All the internals appear to be there, clearly no trucks or tanks and pilots, pish...no problem. There is a QSI MoBo so I'm guessing it'll be DCC controlled with no sound card added on top. It's not a problem either way as I'll probably pull it all and stick an ESU unit in there......more below
What is very interesting though is that the Weaver motor and mounts look identical to that used by Atlas
If they are then that will be very handy as I've a spare 3 rail GP35 chassis I bought years ago just to get some Blombergs. Now I know a lot of early U Boats were bought against trade in's a lot of them ran on Blomberg trucks, SAL and SCL being two of the biggest collectors of U Boats on Blombergs. Whether any were U25B's I've not researched yet or if other railroads out West followed suit.
The body is nice and clean but will not stay as N&W, depending on Railroad usage it'll hopefully be something out west, SP, WP, UP or ATSF.
I also picked up a GP30 in Union Pacific colours by MTH, the trucks are.......mmmm......table top scale is the politest way to describe them so if the spare GP35 trucks do not fit the U25B then it'll be Atlas/Roco side frames on the GP30.
Like the U25B I'm not sure where the GP30 will be headed and I'm at the point where I am going to have to make a decision and merge several interests and focus on one or two Railroads rather than the current meanderings I'm doing. I'm also going to have to try and pick an era too, modern on heritage traction. The GP30 will probably go to UP to compliment the DD35B I want at some point.
Staying with UP, y'all remember this little sexy kitten.
I'd been following Daves SSW build and at Telford was invited over to hear the sound package he'd fitted in....err wow. I've heard some good sound, especially UK stuff and I'd found the box set MP15DC pretty dismal but this is in another league. All weekend I was like the child that kept running back to the shop window to peer in at a favourite toy.
There is no point waxing lyrically to anyone who has never heard a lumpy GE at tick over, Dave's set up is a time machine to the US and standing beside a huge 250t + GE thumping great lump. Needless to say I had to have it and on Sunday afternoon, when it was clear there was going to be no more bargains on the B&B I accosted Dave and told him to spend my money. Walking away with a jewellery sized box with a jewellery sized price tag I wonder if I'd done the right thing. None the less Dave worked his magic and loaded the sound files and his config onto the chip and I was all set to go
Anyway, once home I re-read Daves thread and decided that I'd try and get the big speaker in the tank rather than in the body as Dave had done.
Clearly it's a big unit, once the tank is removed there is actually room for a bigger one but not in depth, the extended cone is already a smidge too close to the track, I can pull that side up a bit as it's only fixed on the right, even then the cone is almost exactly the same height as the tank floor above the track. It's also clear that the original tank is not going back on!
A new tank is not a problem at all, it's a simple shape and won't take more than a few hours to scratch build one in brass, unlike the cast one which has sound holes in the bottom mine'll have nothing except maybe a fine mesh to protect the speaker cones. Mine will also be extended downward by 1.0 mm so that side on the cone will not be visible. The alternative is to mill out the few small sections that stop the speaker sitting flush with the engine room floor above by 2-3 mm. I don't have a mill so that'll a long winded job with drilled holes opened out with a Dremel and all made flush.
The next step was the front motor removal, I wanted a daylight cap, it was high on my list and being as I'm not intending to pull scale mile long pig racks at 75mph then the loss of one motor won't be an issue.
With the motor removed it leaves a clear space for a fully detailed cab, I'm not overly happy at the WW1 battle ship cab wall construction so may well work up an etched nickel silver replacement cab. The other tasks are to daylight the dynamic brake intake vanes and roof grills as well as the electrical cubicle filters. This is important as that will be where the smaller of the two speakers will go and the openings will let the sound out.
Internally all of the Atlas wiring and circuit boards were removed, there's a nice NCE (that's what it says on the label) decoder in there which will be saved for another soundless project or perhaps even sold on the bay of 'e' to fund a new ESU unit at some point. Also removed were all the light packages and smoke unit.
This significantly reduces the wiring nest and allows the ESU unit to be fitted up front in the electrical cubicle area, the second speaker is temporarily placed down near the back as I've been running tests with the radiator roof section removed to see and hear if it makes a difference to audio levels and clarity etc.
Another view showing the set up from the other side, I made a small clip from some scrap etch to stop the wiring flailing around inside at the rear end and will work out some way to stack the smaller speaker above the chip and expansion boards.
I still have to carry out the same work Dave did with the truck side frames and make new truck mounting plates so that false cill beams can be fitted. I'm also tempted to daylight the radiator section and all of the engine room doors, up close the fit could be described as.......loose..
I'd also love to do a Lee Turner RS-3 job on this or a similar GE unit, I'm in two minds on the layout choice, an industrial shunting or modern image depot style.
Back to the sound, when I fired it up first time yesterday most of the family thought I'd bought a trawler home when it dropped into low idle, the wife said "little boys with little toys", the two eldest kids said "WTF is that" and the youngest said, daddy that sounds like that big blue engine we saw on holiday.....that's my girl
Enjoy.
you're such a scoundrel 
not jealous of the tanker in any way whatsoever 
