Almost a Super Chief

Thank you very much. I added weight to the B unit, but it still sways side to side slightly and the lead wheels on the rear truck seems to derail easily. I need to keep working on it and figure out why.
 
A little photoshop...

The final piece of the Super Chief arrived today...the extra "A" unit which allows the Chief to run the A+B+A power arrangement. My biggest concern is the dummy B unit between the two powered Kato A units. It was the correct weight per NMRA standard, but I added .5 oz since the unit is sandwiched between two power units. Unfortunately, it still derails. I think I'll need to run the slightly faster A unit at the point and the slightly slower A unit trailing the dummy B unit. I'm guessing the B unit is getting pinched between the two A units and lifting the truck mounted couplers just enough to derail it over turnouts. Plus, the weight difference concerns me...I might add weight to the dummy B to equal the A unit's weight.

Anyway...just a little photoshop to the picture to remove the venetian blinds by the layout's edge. I'm still learning photoshop so bear with my results...it took me a while just to get the sky the same color.
 

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If you have directional lighting in both A units, the back one may always be faster than the front unit. When the lights are not turned on, extra power is available for the motor causing the reverse facing unit to run faster. If that is the problem, you may need to install a resistor in series with the motor on the rear unit to simulate the power draw of the light. The other possibility would be to use dummy couplers glued together to make a draw bar between the units. There is another possibility. I model in ho scale so am not familier with n scale locomotives, but usually ho scale a units use the same frame as a dummy b unit. If that is the case in n scale, you might be able to put the b unit on the second a unit chassis, removing the headlight if necessary, and then put the second a unit shell on the dummy b unit chassis and use it as a trailer behind the powered a-b set.
 
Russ,

Great ideas...I never thought about the slight power change due to lighting. Both A units are Kato and the B unit is Concor, so I'm not sure how compatible they might be to swap out. The drawbar sounds like the best of all worlds and just might be possible.

The interesting thing is that even before adding the extra A unit, the B unit's lead wheel set on the trailing truck would be prone to derailing. Since the other two sets of wheels on that truck would stay on the rails - the whole unit wouldn't derail, just that lead wheelset. The truck attachment point on the bottom of the car body is not centered, but offset, I'm guessing to allow for tighter turning radius track. But I wonder if that doesn't have something to do with it. That would make the derailing-prone wheelset the farthest away from the truck-to-body attachment screw and might allow the truck to "float" a bit at that end and ride up and off the rails. And only the outside wheel derails and always lands on the inside of the tracks, which leads me to think the track radius is too small and the rear truck can't negotiate the turn when being pulled by the short shank coupler Kato PA1. Hmmmm Ah well...it's not exciting if everything runs right all the time.
 
Herc...
I just saw these latest pics.....GREAT GREAT modeling!!!! The trains...The scenery...All the little details....Up to and including the quality of the pictures...Herc, I can't say enough about your work, Very inspiring indeed:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 
Steve -

Thanks for the kind words...and coming from a guy who's made some amazingly detailed mountains and waterfalls...all the more appreciated.

I've been trying to fix all the problems with the scenery of the layout, so much of it is in various stages of "repair". Heck, everytime I visit the-gauge I see something on some's layout I just gotta do to mine.
 
Russ Bellinis said:
Just a quick up date on the Santa Fe diesel history. I just checked the built dates in "Iron Horses Of The Santa Fe Trail" and found the 2 class spot motors were built in 1937-1938, the Alco DLs and PAs were built in 46-48 as were the F3s. The F7s were built in 49-50. I'm not sure when the Santa Fe started using the F units on the Super Chief. I think the wisdom of the day was that high speed passenger power should be with 6 axle A-1-A trucks and 4 axle bb units should be kept to lower speed freight use. Somewhere during the late 40's to early 50's the Santa Fe discoverd that the F's worked as well for passenger power as the six axle power. The newest passenger power was always put on the Super Chief, and older power relegated to lesser trains. When the Pa's were new they went to the Super Chief until the Santa Fe started having reliability problems with the Alco prime mover. The Santa Fe even converted one Pa to EMD power to try to fix reliability problems, but it never seemed to run right. Later when the locomotive was scrapped, the folks at EMD discovered that it had been wired wrong. Once Santa Fe discovered that F units worked for high speed passenger power, they quit buying the A-1-A passenger engines. The only 6 axle passenger power purchased after 1948 were the E8's that were actually the E1 "spot motors" sent back to EMD for rebuild into E8s. They didn't order anymore 6 axle passenger power units until the early 60's when the ordered the FP45's which were basically SD45s with cowl bodies installed instead of freight hoods.
Click to expand...
I know Santa Fe had a few FM Erie-Builts - weren't they used on the Super Chief at some time?
 
hi herc---i really like the shot coming around the bend---the lighting is perfect---very realistic scene
 
Hey, Herc, I liked these pictures when I first saw them and your diesels were brown and silver. :rolleyes: Now that I can see "red", they look even better!!:thumb: :thumb:

Wayne
 
The Erie-builts were numbered 90LAB for Santa Fe. An A-B-A combination that only ran for about 15 or 16 years. They had so much engine problems with them that they kept them on a short leash and only ran them on runs where there were plenty of engine shops, which pretty much assures us that they didn't run on the Chief. In fact, I'm not sure whether they ran on the San Diegan or not although they were in San Diego a lot.

Dick
Texas Chief
 
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