2012 NMRA Cincinnnati - Division 7 Train Show

This past weekend was the 45th annual train show sponsored by the NMRA Cincinnati Division 7 folks. Held at Lakota West High School in West Chester, Ohio this is a good sized local show featuring a number of vendors and traders as well as a number of model train layouts on display in a variety of scales.

For the first time, the club of which I am a member - the Miami Valley S Gaugers - set up their small portable layout at the show.

The show kicked off on Friday evening with initial vendor and layout set up. Jon Goins, President of the MVSG delivered the layout and unloaded his boxes.

Saturday

On Saturday morning. Jon commenced with the set up. I joined Jon just after 8:00 am. Together we finished the set up and tested the track configuration by running my American Models GP-35 around the tracks. Good thing too! We found a few minor rough spots that were causing derailments. A little judicious pushing and pulling got the track into alighment for operations. Jon set up his table adjacent to the layout, conveniently keeping the S layout next to the only dedicated S vendor at the show.

Jon Goins mans his table at the Lakota show.

Turnout from the Cincinnati contingent of our club  was excellent. Jay Reese, Mike Mitter, Bob Davis and Rich Boehm were in attendance throughout the day. Jay's American Flyer work train performed well for several hours and was followed by a great performance by Mike Mitter's American Flyer steamer pulling a mix of American Models tank cars with some classic American flyer rolling stock

I picked up a Plasticville factory kit from Jim Jaehnen for which he'd been searching for me over the past year. I promptly turned around and placed it on the layout.

John Gaffney (another S Gauger from Central Ohio!) was at the show to showcase his business - Lights 4 Models. John specializes in lighting for your models (duh) and has a great selection of LED and neon lights for all your modeling needs. I picked up several sets of lights to use as Flashing Rear End Devices (known as "FRED"). These model the flashing red light and sensor boom that replaced the caboose on most modern trains by the 1980's.  John will be at the upcoming Dayton show if you missed him at Lakota.

Saturday's other purchase was two American Flyer by Lionel (or Flyonel) freight cars from the 80's - a Wabash 3 bay hopper and a BAR plug door boxcar. Nice cars!

The highlight of the day on Saturday would be the fire alarm being tripped just after 3:00pm and the entire building evacuated for about 30-45 minutes. As luck would have it, Rich and I had just sat down for lunch when the alarm sounded, forcing us to take our food outside to finish lunch (and shiver a little bit in the cool fall air). Turns out the cause was a popcorn popper that had caught on fire. From what I could see, most of the visitors to the show left at that point and traffic for the rest of the day was very light.

Sunday

On Sunday the show opened at 11:00am. Allen Smith led off the day running his American Flyer trains, including his pair of custom modified double headed Pacific locomotives. Later in the day, Bob Davis displayed his custom AF Pacific pulling a string of Pennsy heavyweight passenger cars. I want to give thanks to Bob - he pulled double duty supporting both the MVSG and the Pennsy trains club at this show.

Rich Boehm (left) and Bob Davis watch their trains run on the portable layout,  on Sunday.

Bob Davis loaned us the use of this station for the day. Its a great laser cut kit.

Sunday's "deal of the day" were a pair of American Flyer Atlantics purchased for a total of $30. One was a 303 that Jon gave a good home, the other was a 21160 that came home with me. The 21160 was dirty as all get out, but when I put it on the tracks and fed it power, the old girl stumbled around the layout at a good pace, even if she did shudder pretty badly.

The 21160 right after purchase looking pretty dirty - but mechanically sound!

Nothing that a good cleaning and a little time in the workshop won't fix. At some point this locomotive got a bit of a customized paint scheme.

The 21160 straight from the selling floor.

The front of the boiler is actually silver rather than the gray you see in the picture.

No fire drills Sunday, so the rest of the day was pretty peaceful. Ran into Bob Knecht and had an opportunity to catch up as I'd not seen him since Cincycon back in March.

A few more photo's from the show...

The Plasticville factory, with my Flyer running behind it on the inside loop.

Turn out at the show on Sunday was a bit on the light side. Things were slow later in the day.

Jay Reese and Allen Smith watch the layout as Sunday winds down.

And now its over. Well, the good news is that the fall train season is ramping up with Dayton just two weeks away and Springfield a month after that. For those that could not make it to the show, here's a short snippet of what its all about - S gauge model trains!

326 Pictures

A few pictures from our recent Spree that capture the refurbished 326 in action. Pulling a long string of freight cars around the MVSG layout.


A nice black and white that really captures the smoke put out by the locomotive.

The same picture in color.

And rounding the corner of the layout

326 Hudson

I'd sent the 326 off to one of our club's members - Richard - who did an amazing job of cleaning and maintenance to the locomotive. It both runs and smokes like it was brand new.

When I find a little more time I'll post some pictures of the engine running at the Spring "S" Spree held in Dayton back in May.

Project 326 - Tear down and cleaning

First step was to disassemble the locomotive and clean off all the grime. The pilot removes with a single screw.

 You can see the accumulated dirt and grime. The rest of the locomotive was as dirty.

The running gear was dirty and had a bit of rust and discoloration.Nothing too bad, or unusual in a locomotive that's been sitting around for a few decades.

The underside of the smoke unit had a bit of corrosion. I had to remove the plate and take the dremel to it, but it cleaned up.

 The tender was just dirty, a good scrubbing with a toothbrush and soapy water cleaned up the dirt.

Here's a shot of one of the tender trucks. You can really see the dirt and corrosion on the truck.

I cleaned off the corrosion and dirt, cleaned the electrical contacts and reassembled everything. I fixed the binding issue. I think it was as simple as one of the running gear rods was not installed properly. After a few cycles of trial and error, I have the wheels turning with out binding.

Set the locomotive on the track and fired up the transformer...and it still does not run. The rectifier in the tender hums, but the motor does not turn and the headlight does not light. Time for some additional research and testing..

Project 326 - The American Flyer 4-6-4 Hudson

At the recent World's Greatest Hobby show in Cincinnati, I chanced the opportunity to acquire a model of an American Flyer 326 Hudson steam locomotive. It wasn't much to look at, the shell of both the locomotive and tender were extremely dirty, the wheels were filthy, the locomotive didn't run and there was binding in the drivers.. Still, there was potential there, and the price wasn't bad, so I took the plunge.

Currently, the locomotive is being cleaned. I've disassembled it down to its base components. The shell and major assemblies have been cleaned with soap and water. Next up is the clean and oil the running gear. At some point, I'll need to overhaul the tender as well.

Here's my initial assessment;

- The binding problem appears to be due to how the running gear was installed in the steam cylinders. Once I'd removed the steam chest, the wheels turned easily.
- The smoke unit needs work. There was no smoke stack present with the smoke unit. Does not appear to have wick either. Bottom plate of unit has a fair amount of corrosion (i.e. rust).
- What grease there was on the main gears was old and waxy.
- The brushes are dirty and worn. Might need to replace.
- Brush springs might need replacement.
- Some of the wires between the tender and the locomotive are badly frayed.
- Wheels are in fair condition. Whitewalls are dirty and a bit worn.

I'll get some pictures posted soon.

World's Greatest Hobby on Tour

Spent today manning the NASG booth at World's Greatest Hobby show in Cincinnati today. The show had great turnout with easily over 200 people lined up to get in when the doors opened at 10:00am.

The NASG booth was manned with a contingent from the Miami Valley S Gaugers  - Jon, Mike, Rich, Jack and Ray rotated duties answering questions about S Gauge and keeping two trains running on the MVSG layout. Rich's AF 300 performed yeoman service and ran most of the day pulling a consist of old AF cars and some new custom built flat cars that Rich constructed.  Mike and Ray split time on the outer loop with a mix of modern equipment. Mike's Trainmaster and Ray's GP-35 (both American Model) ran like champs, but Ray's Lionel U-33C kept stalling on the outer loop (It ran like gangbusters on the inner figure 8).

As you might expect the WGH show is a major regional event with advertised on television in the days leading up to the show. Several vendors with their S wares were present including Lionel, Pikeville Models and several hobby shops.

Big news of the show was Lionel's release of the new stand alone American Flyer catalog - not only new, but packed with surprises! New 2-8-8-2 steam locomotives and new road names for the U-33C and a bevy of NEW SD-70ACe in a broad cross section of road names. AND MORE! Lionel appears to be committing to American Flyer in a big way. 

The final day of the 2012 World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show Sunday from 10-5

Grades....nemesis of the railroad (both real and model)

I've been running trains around the new loop and I find that the transition between the grade and the flat plateau is too abrupt for the larger locomotives. The U33C and the 4-8-4 Northern both are having issues transitioning between these sections. This may requires some creative engineering and a redesign of the planning coal flood loader facility.