Rock Island Model Rosters

Mike,

Congratulations! You've won both showcases!
This is Bob Barker, reminding you to help control the pet population; have your spet spayed or neutered. Bye bye Everybody. We'll see you next time on the Price Is Right!
-This is Johnny Olson speaking for the Price Is Right....a Mark Goodman, Bill Toddman television production-

An electromagnet is the correct answer. The guy in engineering feels that an electromagnet should be strong enough to grab the weight in each car, and slow it down.

At this point, I am willing to try anything. If it doesn't work on my test track, then I am going to invite him over, and see what he can figure out. This thing is going to work IF it kills me. LOL!

Wed is purchasing day! I will have enough saved up for buying at least $800 dollars worth of stuff. And NO, I am NOT going to blow it on just ONE engine. Nice try. Hahaha!

I will keep you guys updated on all things ROCK and MWDLRR.

Have a good morning.
 
My October 1981 Official Railway Equipment Register (OER) arrived today courtesy of an eBay auction. It's in amazing shape.

Of course, what I neglected to remember when I bid for the thing is that there won't be any Rock freight units in there . . . . . . . . . still inordinately helpful for every other railroad, and all the private carriers. Would really like to find a Spring 1980 puppy.
 
Mike,

I looked and looked for a copy of the 1980 issue for you Buddy. I still have struck out, but I did find, along my search, TONS of ROCK and BN books that may be useful. I have an entire list of books from a few sites that I can email you when I get home tonight.

It will be late, because I am doing my purchasing today after work. I figure I would return the favor to you, because you were so generous with helping me on my target rosters. Still trying to come up with a complete listing for you.

Got caught up in a depot project yesterday morning, and spent the entire morning fixing, painting, and weathering it. I used a few tricks to make it look really old, and it is going to sit somewhere on the layout as an old depot relic, to tell the tale of how long the railroad has been in operation. I posted pics of it on RR-line in the photography section. They did not come out as near as good as I had hoped. Maybe get the 35mm out and shoot some.

I DID come across the site that publishes the OER, but they are on the new 2002 version. Still, I wouldn't mind getting that. I can email you their address when I get home as well.

I got some tips to call Walthers on their auto distrib facility, and have them send me some chainlink fencing to replace what wasn't there when I got the kit. Think I will do that too. Their email response time is getting longer.

Anyone know the CHEAPEST place to get flextrack from online? The lowest I have come across is $1.99 but you have to buy at least 10 pieces to get that price.

Talk to you guys later.
 
Ordered the Stewart U25B today. Last one Credit Valley had in ROCK appointment - only $99CDN, an excellent deal, and not to be passed on.

That is probably the only ROCK loco I'll be getting for my b-day besides the Athearn SW1500 my wife got me. Although I'm still gonna check out the GP18 when it arrives at the LHS...........
 
Mike,

You and George must be really busy this week. I haven't seen hardly either of you post anything.

My shopping trip was cancelled till Monday. Grrr!

Did you read my post on RR-line about the Rock being re-built?

Later.
 
Hey Guys,
I'm back, Almost as good as new, Well I'm hopeing to be in the next comming weeks. Surgery was a success, I even impressed a few cute nurses. I was up and walking with-in 5 hours of surgery. the first time I only went about 20 feet and had to stop I think it was couse of the anastisia, then the second time a couple hours later I went for a long walk. I walked for about 15 minutes I wanted to keep going but the nurse had to take care of others. It felt so good to walk. Then I did it again a few hours later. If I didn't have so much baggage I would have walked more but one of the dangelies was attached to my stitches and was putting a lot of pressure on it. I did get one nurse mad at me becuase They set you up with Morphine on a clicker button. You can have 80 clicks in an 8 hr shift. I used it 4 times in 8 hrs. She told me that in the 6 yrs that she'd been there I was the only one who has gotten up and walked so early and so far. and that most people use as much of the Morphine as possible. One nurse told my wife that my tolerance for pain is unbeleiveable.

Ok enough with the small talk. Guess what I'm building??? Give up? I'm in the prosess of building a couple row houses. I got the Idea from an Oct. 201 MR. I'm using the DPM wall kits and then will free hand the back porches and decks. I've got the materials to do most of this out of the material box that dates back to '99 most of the stuff isa still new.

Well I'm off for a walk then I'm going to get back to the house's.
talk to you all later.
 
Wolv,

I saw you delemer at the 2002 Spingfield Mass Train Show, They were sending cars down the hump and into the yard.

Their cars where going rather fast as the hump was huge in height, ( prototyipical humps are not realy all that tall ) They used compressed air to slow them down. The jets were in between the rails and the car had a fin ( a peice of styrene ) decretly mounted under the car body. I think this would have worked better if their hump was more prototypical. The cars were still hitting too hard for my own liking.

About you magnet idea the body height is realy far from the track maybe you could get small ruond magnets ( like the ones they sell at craft stores for like refidgerator magnets) and mount these to the king pin of the wheel sets. thus making them closer to the track. I dont know if it would work but I think it would be a minamul cost to check it out. Good luck
 
Thanks so much, Shane. I hope you get to feeling better. Looks like you are on a good road to recovery. ;)

I am still experimenting with the track retarder idea. I have way too many cars to be attaching magnets to. The engineering guy was awfully confident that the electromagnet would work. I still have to work on that though. He did not tell me to get the shalacked wire, and what I got was bare copper wire. Oops!

Big copper conductor was what I had. Now, I am off to RatShack today to get some better wire.

I have started building a display for my engines, so I can now have roster photos of them added to the website. I will keep you all updated on that too. I am still waiting on my decal film to arrive.

I was surprised that no-one took interest on my posting of the Rock being re-built. Oh well. I was at this guy's hobby shop, and he noticed that I was buying ROCK stuff, and he asked if I had an interest in the line. I told him I did. He said, ohh then this should also interest me...and went on about he is on some kind of a historical society and this group has re-built one diesel locomotive so far, and has started on re-building the line between St Louis and Kansas City.

My jaw could have dropped to the floor. Anyhow, nuff said.

Where is Mike and George this weekend?

Later guys.
 
Mike just got back from a trainshow, and has been working diligently on a diorama for his office at the college (we're having an open house for all the college employees on Tuesday afternoon, and I'd really like to have it ready for that).

Wolv, I picked up an Athearn RTR BN "Pacific Pride" at the train show for $60CDN. Pretty good deal I thought. Got two more locos in the mail yesterday too, my second Walthers MOPAC GP15-1, and an Athearn MOPAC SD40-2.

Glad to see you're up and around too, Shane !!!!!!!!!!

< ps - if you wanna see the loco I'm gonna use for the work display, check out the photo section under 'NorQuest Express' >
 
Wolv,
I've got another idea that might not work. If I'm thinking correctly, which I think I am, This Idea won't cost anything to try.
What if you took a piece of flex track and cut the rail heads off on the inside of the rails and moved one rail over towards the other in a hour glass type figure, with the tightest point between rails just enough to allow the wheelsets to move through them. I would think that the friction in this area wound slow them down. You might have to play with it until you got the right amout of friction to slow trhe car down. Too much would make the car jump the track. And you would also want to start the decrease in rail width over a distance af a few inches so its not an abrupt stop. And you wouldn't want to put a joint anywhere close to this either.

just trowing another idea out at ya.

My row house are going good. I'll post a picture in a little while. The mian structure is done, even put shades in the windows. now I just need the roofs and the foundation, and the backs done. Going to the train store tomrrow if I can last the trip, about 45 minutes. Cheif of managment has given the ok for more purchasing, I have a lot to do in the next couple weeks, to prove that I can get this RR out of the red, LOL

Have a great evening be back soon.
 
Shane,

We think so much alike. That was my first idea, and it failed miserably. The cars when they came up on that section of track, went onto the inner rails and totally derailed.

What I did was add inner rails inside a piece of track and had them set so the cars would slow down, and not derail. But, for some reason the cars kept grabbing the inner rails and then derailed.

Still open to all suggestions. I have not given up by any means.


Mike,

I make another trip to the hobbyshop on Wed, where I pick up my Bachmann sanding rack and platform. I have added a couple new cars to my roster-a couple RF&P cars, as a service to a friend's request. I came across a BN Pacific Pride for $60 US, but I was told I could get a 20% discount for it if I bought it before the end of October. In fact, the guy is willing to give me a 20-30% discount on anything he has in the store till the end of October. Can't beat that!

Later guys.
 
Wolv,

It was worth a shot, I'll think about it some more. Theres got to be away that's inexspencive.

I posted the pictures of the row houses in the Scatching and Bashing section. Let me know what you think they still need some paint and putty, and some other stuff.

If you would like to see my layout as it is being rebiuld you can go into the N/Z section and look under "My new/old lay-out" I dont know if you've seen all the RI threads in here but Mike,George and myself all got together for the first time on a thread in the HO section under the thread "picking on the little guys" That thread got shut down and we moved over to this section under the thread Rock Island. Now we've all regrouped here.
 
Birthday update - no trains from my parents, sigh, just clothes. Blah.

Anyways, I did receive the Athearn SW1500 from my wife, attached handrails et al tonight. I'll do the same and renumber the previous SW1500 I had (to 945, Microscale ever so kindly included that number in their decal sheet so I don't have to cut out three separate numbers) and start weathering them tomorrow.

The only other Rock loco I have inbound therefore is the Stewart U25B, which should arrive Thursday or Friday.

Everyone at work thought my 4" x 50" diorama is totally kewl; might even make some converts out of these people yet !!!!!! I'll probably take ROCK units in periodically; perhaps after I get the pair of SW1500's finished they'll spend a couple of days on the diorama.
 
Update:

Whew! Never thought I would make it back online. Man, the ISP got the payment....err rather the envelope without the check in it. Had to cancel the check yesterday and get another ISP today, since the other would take a couple of weeks to get back. Anyhow, I have this ISP temp till the other gets back online with the primary account. Too many things to do that I cannot be without access to the net.

Now that is all behind me....

I have purchased the following MOPAC power:

GP50, SD40-2, and GP38-2. I am eyeing the Walthers GP15-1, to include 2 of those units (the real MOPAC had 160 of them).

Also, picked up 4 new ROCK rolling stock: 86' 4-door boxcar, 54' PS hopper, 50' boxcar, and new blue ROCK caboose. Now all I need is "DO NOT HUMP" for my caboose. Also picked up an Athearn RTR BN caboose, and a BN executive version caboose, a MOPAC 50' railbox boxcar, and a BN 57' mech reefer-all RTR Athearn. These are really nice! I recommend that you get some of these, Mike, esp the MOPAC boxcar. They also had a Genesis version of the MOPAC boxcar, but they wanted $25 for it, and I could NOT justify spending that kind of money on ONE car.

Maybe pick that one up off the net later.

Still waiting for my decal paper to arrive. I chose an assortment of both the clear stuff and the white film, so I could do white Rs for my ROCK coal unit trains.

Made an online order for 12 black 12-panel coal hoppers with data but no road. In addition, on the same I ordered 12 MDC 3-bay black BN hoppers, 12 black BN bathtub gondolas, 12 black BN thrall gondolas, 4 black BN mill gondolas, and 12 Maxi-III well cars with BN trailers.

Made a second online order for $210 worth of motive power. The only really expensive ones were the P2K GP30 BN, and undec, and GP38 high nose BN model, the rest I picked up for $9.99 each.
They are a mixture of SD40-2, GP50, GP40-2, GP38-2, and SD45 units. I have enough that I can probably swing some AC4400 and DASH-9s too. I was thinking of just getting a couple SD70M units instead, since I found out that these are essentially an SD70MAC with the missing vents near the cab (can be easily modeled with detail parts).

A couple questions now:

One, how easy is it to change numbers on Athearn units?

Two, where do you guys get your detail parts from? I am looking for the proper snowplows, MU hoses and brake hoses, coupler bars, and radio antennas. Ohhh and beacon lights.

Thanks guys. Next up....structure kits to purchase.

Later.
 
Hey Guys,

I went to the train store Sunday, I got some structures for the layout. Mostly DPM parts, I did get some complete kits, a couple of store fronts. I've been to busy doing odds and ends here and there to work on them. Had to help a friend rewire his truck yesteraday. Today in repayment for that he's going to help me get four aluminum rims for my truck.

I also got a new steam engine, I got the Spectrum 2-8-0 consolidation (N-Scale) I got it unlettered for two reasons;

1) I can number it what I want

2) He only had the one, LOL

This brings my steam roster up to 4, not many but a strong few.I haven't lettered it yet. maybe tonight. I'll post a picture if I don't get booted.

Here's an alright picture of it. That black and tan thind above the tender is Tikki a big mean cat.
 

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Wolv,

Details West has a grat selection of detail parts, I think that you'll find every thing you'll looking for. I don't know about the beacon light but you can find in the Walthers catalog.
 
Easy as pie to change Athearn loco #'s. An eraser will almost always work without damaging the paint underneath. The one time it did I just painted over the black streak with (2 parts GN sky blue 1 part Reefer White), it's almost a perfect match for ROCK color. Even if you don't find the perfect match, railroads tended to repaint #'s once in a while and they NEVER matched paint colors exactly.

<< As I noted, I'm renumbering one of my Athearn SW1500 switchers to '945' tonight, after I put on the handrails >>

Wolv, I think you'll like the Walthers GP15-1's. I got two, an unnumbered unit and "1630" (they didn't acquire the other road number, "1694", until 1981 - and since I model 1980 that wouldn't work for me). Anyways, for the price they run and look great, and come ready-to-run, handrails and couplers attached and everything. FWEET!!!!!!!!
 
Mike,

A regular pencil eraser or gum eraser or track eraser? LOL!

I have that GoJo in the orange container. I have not used it yet, but I am told I can use that to fade away logo. I was just going to use it for the intended purpose, but I was thinking should I use that to take out letters?

Mike, does this method work for all Athearn motive power? I have quite a few BN units that have multiple numbers, as well as my rolling stock.

I went ahead and purchased two GP15-1 MOPAC units. As you said, one is numbered the other is not. They will go great with the other three units I picked up yesterday.

Still am trying to figure out how many of MOPAC units to buy. Any ideas? I have 5 already.

I looked at the DPM structures, but could not decide on anything to get, since most of them are way out of my era. There are a few though, but the shop did not have the ones I was looking for.
I might just save the structures for February, when I will have enough saved up to blow $1600... That is when I will purchase my main line.

The only other thing I could get out of that guy on the rebuilding of the RI line in MO, was that the diesel they re-built is a low nose GP9 with Alco trucks.

I FINALLY got the Modern Diesel Guide by Kalmbach. I recommend it to all modelers into diesel eras. I know this book will get opened again and again.

Thanks Mike.

I will check them out, Shane. Thanks again.

Later guys.