DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

After multiple "light engine" test runs with the Mogul to check how it performs before detailing, I brought back the details it had before the current design and added a few extra ones. The new handrails are half strips from metal zip ties, giving them a metallic texture the old ones didn't have (being made of wood). My usual liquid glue makes them adhere better than I expected; same with the metal wires for the smaller tubes, which I don't really know what they're for but are present on many different classes. Even with the sloppiness of the boiler bands, the spacing isn't too bad thanks to the domes already being there. Since I had trouble centring the light button properly, the whistle valves had to be glued next to it (in a crude attempt to "distract" from the offset).



For the tender, I remade the fake bogies pretty much the same way they were originally made but spaced the wheels further apart, mounted them closer to the ends and gave them more detailed frames. While they don't do a good job at hiding the real wheelbase unlike before, it's still an improvement and they look better than nothing. Too bad it's still obvious the tender is pushing the loco and not being pulled by it. New traction tyres were added in the form of "rubber bands" cut from an old balloon, this time on both sides.



Of the new details I've given it, my favourite has to be the pile of firewood on the battery cover replacing the coal. Ironically, some of it was made of matchsticks in addition to two types of skewers. I won't have to paint it a darker brown/weather it since the natural shades already look good enough. I've since made the pile higher and it can come off more easily to access the batteries and motor. For reference, I looked at Lionel's "1862" numbered version of the General. A bit weird how the firewood takes up the whole tender; it's unclear where the water would go and there seem to be no tail lamp or rear ladder. A black trim was added around the bottom to make the top thinner. The on/off switch was also glued into position with its base repainted black.



This knuckle coupler wouldn't actually work due to its incorrect shape, so it eventually wasn't fitted. I only made it to get an idea of what size the final one(s) should be. Lionel's toy grade Ready to Play trains have a design that "looks" like a knuckle coupler, without the moving parts. They only slot into each other from the top/bottom, but are still perfectly functional and don't cause stalling/derailments. Even a few other scratchbuilders like BumBin Creative have figured out how to make them for Indonesian/Indian rolling stock and other countries that use them in real life.



I then made a placeholder coupling for it to pull the Union Express coach. It has four wheels, no floor and weighs only 67 grams, so I knew the tender would have no trouble pulling it while also pushing the loco (which weighs 79 by itself). My own coaches are planned to have actual bogies and thus more friction, so I'm hoping the same could be said for them.



Having examined the Ready to Play coupler by following manual illustrations, I ended up drawing a G shape on cardboard and gluing a flexible strip over it. I then repeated the process and made another one to try the design, and they actually stay together very well; the only way to separate them is by lifting/pushing one out of the other. Both heads were glued to arms made of four sticks each with a plastic tube ring at the other end, and one was temporarily fitted to the tender.



Sometime last year, I found remains of a vintage ('80s) microwave oven that was being thrown out and wanted to see whatever I could salvage from it. Among the metal components were two interesting brackets that looked very much like side frames of a bogie. Since then, I've been looking forward to the day I might use them for a bogie with proper outside frames. An opportunity came when I wanted to test my new couplers without building another whole chassis, or modding one of my UK style models to fit an oversized US coupler (even if just temporarily). In a highly convenient manner, they also have a third hole in the middle which makes it real easy to build a frame at any gauge that's proportionate to the wheel spacing. I joined them using a skewer in the perfect size and made the wheelsets a bit wider than usual, with the axles protruding to reach the "bearings". Now that I've seen how good it looks, I could trace the brackets onto sheets including the holes and make however many frames I would need for each vehicle in a consist. The coupler was then mounted at the correct height for the one on the tender. Unlike my previous idea with the clothespins, they have a slight range of motion when coupled since they have no spring to press them together. Now I'll just have to find how to cut them out in a smaller scale, mount them higher and make them as consistent as possible. It may not be how they work in real life, but I'm glad to have found a solution after all that time.