The Wrong Coal Cars?

Have I been drawing the wrong coal cars? This is a question that has been bothering me for some time. Basically, ever since I couldn’t get the side stakes to match the varying spacing on the lone photo I have of Canada Atlantic coal cars. This spacing could indicate the presence of slope sheets, meaning […]

Coal Car Brakes Revisited

“Oh Bother,” Said Pooh, as he examined once again the lone photo of Canada Atlantic coal cars. The photo is barely worth looking at, they’re so distant, but comparing to other cars nearby, Pooh was pretty sure they had brake beams slung from the truck transoms, rather than slung from the underframe outside the trucks. […]

Refining the Coal Car Trucks

When I visited Gary Hinshaw after Christmas, we were commiserating about our 3D printing woes. I’ve been feeling that my printing has gone downhill since I got new resin last year, and hearing that Gary felt the same, I decided to look into it. Well, it turns out that printer calibration is a thing, and […]

N-Possible Couplers

I got my first look at N-Possible couplers, a new scale-size N-scale coupler, at Tim Horton’s place just before Christmas. He had a pair of box cars on a test track, and I was immediately impressed by how well they coupled, and then easily uncoupled with a pick. While I could barely see them without […]

Coal Car Test Truck

I refined the truck design a little over the holidays, and assembled a couple of test prints. The mechanical aspects are fairly good now, and as you can see it equalizes quite nicely. I just have to improve the supports a little so I don’t lose any more brake beams!

Coal Car Trucks

I’m taking a little break from Percy as I wait for some slightly larger, more powerful motors that I ordered earlier this week. I cast about for another project to pick up for a week or two and alighted on the coal cars. They’ve been waiting for a resolution to the weight problem, and they […]

Percy’s Programming Problems

Next time I’ll know. Next time I won’t trust that setting the max and min output voltage CVs will properly govern the max and min output voltages. Next time, I’ll take my meter and check. Yes, another motor has been turned into a molten mess, or maybe a tangle. I don’t know, I’m not going […]

Percy Together Again

After a couple more gear box prints, Percy went back together again. Brimming with anticipation, I put the chassis on the rails to see if it would run on the straight DC available from my ancient power pack. It sort of did, but not even as well as remember it running before I started on […]

Percy’s New Wheels

There is a little progress each evening toward re-wheeling and re-motoring Percy. The old wheels proved remarkably robust when it came time to disassemble them. Assembled with one of the red LocTites, the only way to get them apart was to break the plastic centres. It was a savage evening! I printed new centres, and […]

Gear Spacing

One of the things I love about sharing my modelling progress is the opportunity to learn from my friends. At the North Shore Model Railroaders virtual meeting this Wednesday, I shared the pitiful progress I’ve made on Percy in the last two months, culminating in the photo of the half-assembled gearbox. I commented that I […]