Well, between cleaning house and smelling/ breathing cleaning fluids in the bathroom and kitchen, I took a break and did some work on the hobbie bench today.
It is rainy and cold outside here today in the upper midwest so I am indoors today!
So, I went through three locomotives.
If they are currently DC, I am leaving them DC.
Once all the DC locomotives are ready to run, then I will take the best of those and convert them to DCC.
Out of the three, one needs new round carbon brushes as the motor had power ar the motor springs holding the brushes in place.
The unit below did not have ANY identifying manifacture marks and found the copper buss bar from the front and back axle feeder brush was missing.....
So I soldered a wire in place and added LED lights on both sides of the engine to illuminate the headlights depending on which way the loco is moving. I used liquid wrench to hose down any conjealed gear grease and then applied some PTFE grease on the gears and sprayed doen the motor with CRC contact cleaner.
The loco was also missing the coupler boxes and couplers so I added some Kadee couplers on the loco. Unit ran very well in DC mode.
Another locomotive was of the exact same design, with no manifactures markings and that one had it's motor buss bar.
It only needed a good cleaning and relube...I also added LED lights for both directions.
Some of these locomotives are old, 80's stuff....I am sure I am going to have a few parts loco's in this collection of gifted locomotives....
On another front, I am starting to collect more parts for a fuel depot. When I was at the store, I seen a Lifelike refueling depot made out of derlict tank cars.....
So instead of buying the $15 model, I am going to kitbash something similar. I also have some tanks from perfume spray bottles and a cardboard roll that needs a roof....
so I will see what I can come up with.
I also saw a sanding station I can kitbash. I already have a sand bin....
I found a good deal for 6 of these silver electrical box enclosures for $2 as they were in a previous owned area of a local hobby store that buys whole layouts and repackages everything... (dont mind the exposed and cracked plaster...the area isn't finished, this side of the tracks)
And I still have over 100 figures to place around the layout and a few horses too...
I am working on a farm on the back corner of the layout and the horses will go there...somewhere.
Does anyone know how to kitbash haybales? Can't be that hard to make them look realistic.
I lot of the layout is just build and place without weathering or adding major details. I did find some more fire hydrants, another phone booth, 2 more soda machines, and 3 more garbage cans in another antique find, now I have 2 packages!
But alias, my continuing efforts are majorly on going through all the gifted DC locomotives.
That's my update for the rest of the week and possibly the month, depending on the weather.
Just can stay indoors when the weather is nice , here, in the upper midwest.
...A Work in Progress!....Stay tuned!...