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Re: Closing collection
Long95209
Sorry to hear that Jim . Take care , enjoy what time there is . Henry H.
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--- In yardbirdtrains@..., Jim Heckard <jimheck@...> wrote:
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Closing collection
To all members,
Unless some medical doctors come up with a cure for Levatore Ani Syndrome or I kick the bucket I won't be doing to much with vintage trains. My collection will be shared with my two children at such time I can no longer enjoyed looking at them. NOTHING IS FOR SALE.. I might pop in on sight once one in a while but researching items and building new pieces will be out of the question. Nice knowing everyone. Keep up the good work. Jim H |
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThanks to both Chuck and Dennis. ? The castings made by Don Stromberg always had a very nice finish on them. He used metal molds that featured very smooth surfaces and the alloy he used picked up the finish very well. Plus, for diesel work I found them to be easy to solder as long as one was careful to not use too much heat. ? Don and his wife Dolores were good people and a joy to spend time with. When he passed back in 1988 or there about model railroading lost one of it¡¯s best. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of Dennis Kunkel
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 10:51 PM To: yardbirdtrains@... Subject: Re: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas ? ? I have both the Heavy and Light Cary boilers in zinc alloy. The smokebox fronts are different diameters and a slightly different design. The Light smokebox front is approximately 0.94 inches in diameter, and the Heavy smokebox front is approximately 1.02 in diameter.? The Light smokebox front appears to be Cal-Scale part number 190-243, and the Heavy smokebox front appears to be Cary part number 13-114. ? Dennis K ? From: lnnrr <lnnrr@...> ? ?
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Re: H10 tender work
Another 6 wheel Commonwealth truck option are the ones made by Gilbert/American Flyer for their HO scale NYC Hudson 4-6-4. I happened upon a lot of five pairs of them on Ebay which I picked up for about $12. Only drawback with them is you can't add pickups to both sides like Ray did with the Varney's because the wheels on the insulated side are plastic. The side frame of the Gilbert trucks, although they are Commonwealth, are of a somewhat different design and are slightly smaller overall than the Varney's. In fact, the Gilbert trucks are of the same design as trucks Mantua made for the Franklin Mint Hudson. The Gilbert trucks ride much lower than the Varneys so you need to add washers if you want to use them, as I did, with the Varney frame. I believe they have 33" wheels instead of Varney's 36". ??
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? ? Anyway, nice use of the Hobbyline tender for the project. Has the right rivet pattern and shape for the H-10 tender. enjoying watching this come together! Jeff
jppellas@...
-----Original Message----- From: Long95209 To: yardbirdtrains Sent: Sat, Dec 1, 2012 7:57 am Subject: [yardbirdtrains] H10 tender work
?
Nice work Mr. Ray . I will need to review when I engage my next project . This fix is much better than the old one I did with a HObbyline tender and PSC Buckeyes ! There was , and is a price difference there . THE PSC's as always , nice product , but not ever cheap ! Thanks for sharing with us Ray . Henry H.
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Re: H10 tender work
--- On Sat, 12/1/12, Long95209 wrote:
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H10 tender work
Long95209
Nice work Mr. Ray . I will need to review when I engage my next project . This fix is much better than the old one I did with a HObbyline tender and PSC Buckeyes ! There was , and is a price difference there . THE PSC's as always , nice product , but not ever cheap ! Thanks for sharing with us Ray . Henry H.
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MR index articles
Mike Christian
It was not written in ms-dos.Not to pick nits, because it obviously was not written in DOS as DOS is an operating system not a language, it was written to run under DOS. I have the original program & database around here somewhere. It was named Data TrainIndex, and as I recall, was written by a fella in Texas. He also sold a program called TraInventory, a collection inventory program. Here is the actual Kalmbach news release from 2010: * * * To our readers:? The advancement in Internet browser technology has created an insurmountable problem for the Model Train Index, which has been a fixture on Trains.com for many years.? The information in the Model Train Index and its integrated software originally were written in ___MS-DOS___ language 20 years ago by a train hobbyist on his PC as a personal project. It was not designed for the Internet and the software is unique to the index.? Kalmbach Publishing Co. purchased the index and its software many years ago. We created a website interface for the index and made the index a featured part of the Trains.com website.? Today, the progression of technologies on the Internet and the antiquated software of the Model Train Index have intersected to the point that we can no longer offer the index to our website visitors because we can no longer keep the index free of viruses or other even more significant Internet security risks.? The index software cannot be rewritten to update its security level, nor is there any method of transferring the index text information to a more modern software platform since the design of the index software and the index text information are integral to each other.? Because of these issues, we have reluctantly removed the index from Trains.com. |
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Re: H10 Mantua Mikado
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
I have both the Heavy and Light Cary boilers in zinc alloy. The smokebox fronts are different diameters and a slightly different design. The Light smokebox front is approximately 0.94 inches in diameter, and the Heavy smokebox front is approximately 1.02 in diameter.? The Light smokebox front appears to be Cal-Scale part number 190-243, and the Heavy smokebox front appears to be Cary part number 13-114. Dennis K From: lnnrr To: yardbirdtrains@... Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 7:48 PM Subject: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas
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John, I just checked a lead version with cab, no running boards. Smokebox diameter varied from 1.015 to 1.030. The smokebox front was 1.025/1.035 inch. Boiler was very clean, no flash. Either high quality casting with post-production work or a prior owner made it ready to use. Hope this helps. Chuck Peck > > > > Does anyone have a heavy mike boiler in their possession? I¡¯d like to get the smoke box diameter if possible for a project I¡¯m about to begin as soon as I get one of them ¡°Round-to-its.¡± While I¡¯m not positive I think the loco I¡¯m doing has a bit of a larger dia. Smoke box than a light. I have a few Athearn lights now but I want to know if I have to start searching for a heavy Cary. And I would want one of the lead antimony versions made by Don Stromberg. I actually like working with that alloy. > > > > John Hagen > > |
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
lnnrr
John, I just checked a lead version with cab, no running boards.
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Smokebox diameter varied from 1.015 to 1.030. The smokebox front was 1.025/1.035 inch. Boiler was very clean, no flash. Either high quality casting with post-production work or a prior owner made it ready to use. Hope this helps. Chuck Peck
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
Karen M Miller
I do agree with the fact of not buying $400 "toys" in the fact that the old Mantuas run great on DCC. Just add a printed circuit board cut out and some wipers. It juns almost better than my Bachmann stuff.
Donovan Miller
From: John Hagen To: yardbirdtrains@... Sent: Fri, November 30, 2012 8:04:39 AM Subject: RE: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas ?
Forgot to mention redoing the rear boiler mounts is necessary to keep the stack properly lined up with the steam pipes to the cylinders. That change along with having to cut, grind and file off any unwanted detail on the Mantua boiler would make using a Cary boiler much easier. ? Of course there are production USRA mikes available today that come highly detailed and have dcc and sound BUT with the situation in China nowadays plus I sure as heck can¡¯t be buying much in the way of $400.00 ¡°toys¡± (as described by ¡°shoe who must be obeyed¡±) the idea of finding and old Mantua drive for under $50 and a Pacific boiler for maybe $20.00 is starting to look a lot more appealing again. And the dang thing will run forever. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of John Hagen ? ? Just for general information the September 1977 issue of Model Railroader has an article by Dean Shepherd on building a USRA Mike using Tyco (Mantua) parts. He used a Pacific boiler on a Mikado drive although he note that since he had built it Don Stromberg had introduced his Cary USRA boiler which Shepherd states ¡°will make the conversion easier.¡± He also chose to keep the Tyco long distance tender calling it a replacement for the original USRA tender on his road. The resulting loco certainly does look USRA-ish enough for the most modelers which would also mean it could be used for many subsequent prototype locos built that were based on the USRA design. ? Kinda funny how things make a circle. Using a Pacific boiler on a Mikado chassis was one way of building a convincing USRA or USRA clone until the Cary shell appeared. Now there are no more Cary shells and Alan is back to using a Pacific boiler. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of Alan Kilby ? ? If boiler mounting holes are in back of frame as I suspect they were originally,making a mount further back than original on mike frame would not require as much work(filing)and make for an easy conversion.I look forward to completing this faze and moving on to detailing,the mechanism and valve gear is completed. ?? Alan ? From: Alan <albyrno@...> ? The boiler I got had been modified already,it looks to me going by file marks that the pad where mounting holes I will be using were filed into boiler(not original?)to fit the mike(shorter?)frame,not having a pacific to compare am not sure.Other than milling out some material from inside of pac boiler to accomodate worm,with high speed dremel cutter it took me less than a minute to do,the rear mount is the only thing you may need to change I'm using a 1/4 x 1/16" brass for mine with screws coming up from bottom into tapped holes in boiler support to mount to frame.I am using these holes that line up with frame perfectly but back of boiler sticks up which is why I cut notches in rear of frame and made new boiler mount plate.I do not like the large space between frame and bottom of boiler on these locos so I also lowered the front saddle by filing down frame where cyl.rests and
removing additional material by cutting/lowering cyl.saddle,if lowering you will need to remove the nubs inside top of boiler,this is not neccesary but is more prototypical height.Its not difficult only drawback your arm may get tired from filing for mount. |
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Re: mr index articles
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýOn 12-11-30 5:56 PM, Mike Christian
wrote:
?It was not written in ms-dos. It was a custom database written by someone for his own purposes which eventually became available online.? Kalmbach was hosting it, but the database became a liability due to security problems, which if breached, would compromise the entire Kalmbach network. So they shut it down.? Eventually it became available again. In the meantime a group of volunteers went to work to try and modernize the database and make it available again, the NMRA was involved to a degree, but I am not sure of exactly what became of that effort. Since it was a custom database, it took a lot of work to figure out how it worked and stored its records, so that it could possibly be converted to another database program to make support easier. It could be that all those efforts have been merged into the one database that is under the NMRA banner right now. --
Michael Rozeboom From the MBPro Member, Team AMIGA DCC Wiki Admin |
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Re: mr index articles
Mike Christian
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýI found an index at this url: I remember that the NMRA also had an index of all RR mags, and found this: Then I found this: Which seems to be saying the index went away in 2010, basically because it was written in MS-DOS. Mike in the swamps of Louisiana . |
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Re: mr index articles
Paul
Kalmbach still has theirs up, though I don't think they update it for other magazines like RMC anymore.
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I think there are others out there also. Paul Seattle, WA --- In yardbirdtrains@..., "Alan" <albyrno@...> wrote:
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýYes I see them on eBay ever-so-often. But some people seem to think they¡¯re made out of gold with the prices they ask. Of course that is true of most anything second hand these days. I just got a diecast Petty Plymouth for $29.00 and there are some with starting prices of $200.00 and above. I didn¡¯t get a O.B. but I buy them for enjoyment not for investment, just like I do my trains. ? Does anyone have a heavy mike boiler in their possession? I¡¯d like to get the smoke box diameter if possible for a project I¡¯m about to begin as soon as I get one of them ¡°Round-to-its.¡± While I¡¯m not positive I think the loco I¡¯m doing has a bit of a larger dia. Smoke box than a light. I have a few Athearn lights now but I want to know if I have to start searching for a heavy Cary. And I would want one of the lead antimony versions made by Don Stromberg. I actually like working with that alloy. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of Dennis Kunkel
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 2:08 PM To: yardbirdtrains@... Subject: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas ? ? The Cary USRA boilers haven't disappeared - they are just a little harder to find. They show up on eBay with some regularity. Selling prices are frequently in the $20-$30 range, but some auctions have a much higher starting price. I suggest to wait until a reasonable priced auction comes along. There are four versions of the Cary USRA boiler for Mantua/Tyco Mikes and Pacifics. There are both Heavy and Light versions, in both lead alloy and zinc alloy. The USRA Heavy boiler is larger diameter and gives a more massive look to the loco (but not as massive as the Mantua Mike boiler). The front of the firebox on the Heavy is behind the rear drivers, while the firebox slightly overlaps the rear drivers on the Light boiler. The lead alloy versions of the boiler are significantly heavier, and are the older version produced by Cary Locomotive Works before they were bought by Bowser. After Bowser bought Cary, they changed the material to zinc alloy, like the rest of the Bowser line of steam kits. The zinc alloy is harder, but lighter than the lead alloy. You can distinguish the bolier material from the auction pictures - the lead alloy boilers have a distinct metallic sheen, while the zinc alloy boilers are a dull gray color. Be sure that the cast brass smokebox front is included, although the part is available separately as a Cal-Scale casting. |
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
The Cary USRA boilers haven't disappeared - they are just a little harder to find. They show up on eBay with some regularity. Selling prices are frequently in the $20-$30 range, but some auctions have a much higher starting price. I suggest to wait until a reasonable priced auction comes along. There are four versions of the Cary USRA boiler for Mantua/Tyco Mikes and Pacifics. There are both Heavy and Light versions, in both lead alloy and zinc alloy. The USRA Heavy boiler is larger diameter and gives a more massive look to the loco (but not as massive as the Mantua Mike boiler). The front of the firebox on the Heavy is behind the rear drivers, while the firebox slightly overlaps the rear drivers on the Light boiler. The lead alloy versions of the boiler are significantly heavier, and are the older version produced by Cary Locomotive Works before they were bought by Bowser. After Bowser bought Cary, they changed the material to zinc alloy, like the rest of the Bowser line of steam kits. The zinc alloy is harder, but lighter than the lead alloy. You can distinguish the bolier material from the auction pictures - the lead alloy boilers have a distinct metallic sheen, while the zinc alloy boilers are a dull gray color. Be sure that the cast brass smokebox front is included, although the part is available separately as a Cal-Scale casting.
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I should also mention that the more recent Cary boilers (both the lead and zinc versions) do not have running boards as part of the casting. You need to make these from brass sheet. I believe there were older Cary versions that had cast running boards, as well as some cast on piping details. Dennis K --- In yardbirdtrains@..., "John Hagen" <sprinthag@...> wrote:
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Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
John, ? Thanks for the tip on article am checking with friends to see if they have this issue. ?? I aquired the tyco 2-8-2 kit for $25 unfortunately/fortunately ?it had a bad boiler as in photos,someone on list offered me another mike boiler for $5 shipping costs and I took him up on it.He sent what he thought was mike but turned out to be for the pacific which is preferable to me,liking the wagontop boiler better and already having some detail removed and replaced on replacement boiler,I am
using it to build USRA mike,I'm only into it?$30 total (also suffer from "shoe" syndrome especially after getting a pricey POS bachmann that had to be sent back for an even?worse replacement)this is the first non craftsmen kit I've built in decades and has now become an interesting project,after boiler is complete I will have to see if I have a can motor laying
around to DCC it I have a nwsl 28:1 gearbox that will fit with slight mod. to frame when re-motoring. ?Alan From: John Hagen
To: yardbirdtrains@... Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 6:04 AM Subject: RE: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas
? Of course there are production USRA mikes available today that come highly detailed and have dcc and sound BUT with the situation in China nowadays plus I sure as heck can¡¯t be buying much in the way of $400.00 ¡°toys¡± (as described by ¡°shoe who must be obeyed¡±) the idea of finding and old Mantua drive for under $50 and a Pacific boiler for maybe $20.00 is starting to look a lot more appealing again. And the dang thing will run forever. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of John Hagen Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 7:16 AM To: yardbirdtrains@... Subject: RE: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 Mikado Ideas ? ? Just for general information the September 1977 issue of Model Railroader has an article by Dean Shepherd on building a USRA Mike using Tyco (Mantua) parts. He used a Pacific boiler on a Mikado drive although he note that since he had built it Don Stromberg had introduced his Cary USRA boiler which Shepherd states ¡°will make the conversion easier.¡± He also chose to keep the Tyco long distance tender calling it a replacement for the original USRA tender on his road. The resulting loco certainly does look USRA-ish enough for the most modelers which would also mean it could be used for many subsequent prototype locos built that were based on the USRA design. ? Kinda funny how things make a circle. Using a Pacific boiler on a Mikado chassis was one way of building a convincing USRA or USRA clone until the Cary shell appeared. Now there are no more Cary shells and Alan is back to using a Pacific boiler. ? John Hagen ? From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of Alan Kilby Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 10:00 PM To: yardbirdtrains@... Subject: Re: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas ? ? If boiler mounting holes are
in back of frame as I suspect they were originally,making a mount further back than original on mike frame would not require as much work(filing)and make for an easy conversion.I look forward to completing this faze and moving on to detailing,the mechanism and valve gear is completed. ?? Alan ? From: Alan <albyrno@...> To: yardbirdtrains@... Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 7:48 PM Subject: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas ? The boiler I got had been modified already,it looks to me going by file marks that the pad where mounting holes I will be using were filed into boiler(not original?)to fit the mike(shorter?)frame,not having a pacific to compare am not sure.Other than milling out some material
from inside of pac boiler to accomodate worm,with high speed dremel cutter it took me less
than a minute to do,the rear mount is the only thing you may need to change I'm using a 1/4 x 1/16" brass for mine with screws coming up from bottom into tapped holes in boiler support to mount to frame.I am using these holes that line up with frame perfectly but back of boiler sticks up which is why I cut notches in rear of frame and made new boiler mount plate.I do not like the large space between frame and bottom of boiler on these locos so I also lowered the front saddle by filing down frame where cyl.rests and removing additional material by cutting/lowering cyl.saddle,if lowering you will need to remove the nubs inside top of boiler,this is not neccesary but is more prototypical height.Its not difficult only drawback your arm may get tired from filing for mount. Alan |
Jeff Pellas