Rapido H16-44

After placing my order 4 years ago, Rapido has finally delivered the H16-44 units. These units truly were worth the wait, the look good, sound great and run well. I purchased 3 units, two with DCC and sound and one straight DC. I have since added a non-sound chip to that unit and all three look great together. In the mid to late 1950's, these units where used a lot in service over the Norwich and Worcester line, passenger and fright. As time went on, the other 1956 road switchers (GP-9 and RS-11) locomotives would be typically mixed in as well. All lasted into Penn Central and were shipped out to Chicago area until scrapped. 

Three new H16-44 units from Fairbanks Morse on
 the Norwich and Worcester. 

Engineer's side

 

Cooling fans and exhaust stacks

Front end of the NH's class unit

Fireman's Side

Four screws around the fuel tank.

On both ends of the using the steam tine for passenger
service goes right over the coupler screws. You can
carefully bend it out of the way, but be very careful.
I did end up breaking one in the end.

The fuel tank screw are very long. 

Here is the mechanism. I replaced the DC board with the 21 pin board recommended by Rapido. This unit will not have sound. 

I do recommend these locomotives. They seem to be a the lower end of cost of the most recent Rapido locomotives, but they are top of the line in detail and operations. 

Digging out the old stuff

I have been seriously modeling the New Haven Railroad for over 40 years.  The excitement of the E&B Valley Osgood Bradly, then the 8600 stainless steel coaches and county cars made the possibility of making New Haven passenger trains for a high school / collage student a possibility.  Brass cars were way out of my price range. E&B Valley (later Eastern Car Works) also made a series of Pullman Standard smooth side lightweight passenger cars, a 4-4-2, 6-6-4, coach diner and obs.  Why am I rambling on about this?  I came a cross four of these cars I built years ago, but do not plan on keeping.  I dawned on me I have a bunch of Concord Jct and NKP Company brass car sides. I also have a stash of Train Starion Products 41-BNO trucks that work great on these cars. 

Here is the underframe. I added .030 thick styrene strips to each side to
compensate for the thinner brass sides from the original plastic. 
 The floor drilled and tapped for 2-56 screws for trucks and couplers.

Here is the roof before I added the .030 styrene to the taps on the side.

When adding the .030 strips, make sure to lave a blank area
for the vestibule window. 

Here is the roof with the styrene

I glued one end to each side making sure to
 maintain a 90 degree angle.

Here I am clamping the two sides to the floor. 

Here are two cars with the roofs temporally added.

Here are the diaphragms I use for the cars, I would
 recommend the ones molded in black.  

Here are the partially built diaphragms.

Here are the TSP truck kit.

Here is Allens Point.  It is one of the very few cars that got the

 revered logo, a black NH on a red field.

Here are three cars. I built two per what I just wrote up, the third I
 did a while ago using a TSP core kit.

This was a fun way to clean up stuff that is sitting around the train room, not going out and buying Walthers PS cars saved a lot of money (and time). These may no be sate of the art cars form Rapido or Walthers, but the look good on the layout and I am not waiting for somebody to bring them out in HO scale.  If you don't have or can not find the brass sides, Union Starion Products makes the sides in styrene.  

Conrail N8A Finishing up

I have decaled and added the various grab irons and railings to the N8A.  I did cut off all of the rungs on the ladder except the one that is near the top railing.  I used Model Flex Paint from Badger to paint the model.  I have found I can order individual two ounce bottles from them via Amazon for $6.95 each, with not shipping costs. Mt Vernon car shops makes a nice decal set for Conrail Cabooses and should have everything you need to do it correctly.  I decided to cobble together all of the lettering from carious sets I had on hand.  I used an Old Accu-Cal Multi set, Microscale Conrail diesel set, Microscale Penn Central caboose set and Penn Central Historical Society caboose set. 

Here is the Conrail N8A next to an as delivered New Haven NE-6 in it
delivery paint scheme.

You can see the new smaller windows, I simply masked the supplied
window material to create new smaller window.  The added side vents
around the window are also visible.

Quick Fix

Everybody makes mistakes, even historical groups.  The NHRHTA had a custom run of Intermountain box cars done in two paint schemes, delivery and the final NH paint scheme. Unfortunately an extra serif somehow ended up being added the the N in the logo.  I simply used a #17 chisel blade to scrape off the offending serif.  I did ding up the box brown paint a bit, but I will be able to cover it up when I weather the car.  the fix took less then 5 minutes.

Before

After

Out of the Paint Shop

Know that I have a dedicated painting spot, I find it very easy to go down to the basement and paint. With out having to set up and tear down an area I can paint very quickly and be done.  Here are a few of my on going projects.

This shows the RS-11 with the modified cab window and fuel tank. I added the train
control box, extended the elevated walkway and added the steam generator details.

This photo shows the steam generator parts better.

This is a Walthers caboose from years ago, not 100% accurate for the PC or Conrail, but a decent stand-in.
I dd not make any changes to the model other than pant.

Here is the Conrail N8A showing the new bay window and the other windows filled.

Here is the RS-3m

Here is the Amtrak RS-3.  It is a former NH unit and still has the train control box.

You can see the roof vent and antenna on the cab as well as the old steam generator vent.

My friend Paul will be happy to see that his locomotives are finally painted!

Masking Monday

I finally was able to spray the Red/Orange on the FA's for my friend and have now have masked them for the black paint.  I use Frog brand masking tape and it seems to work well.

Conrail N8A Caboose

For a change of pace I have decide to build a caboose to go along with the RS-3m that I am building. Penn Central converted a group of New Haven RR NE-5 and NE-6 cabooses into bay window cabooses.  Both rebuilds were lumped together into the N8A class. I choose to use an Atlas NE-6 for the conversion.  They are very easy to disassemble as nothing is glued.  I had an undecorated one so it is an easy start.

Former NH NE-5 Caboose, both side windows sealed and no roof walk.

Another former NH NE-5, one window sealed.

Former NH NE-6.  The side with out the smoke jack has an access door along the
bottom of the car body side near the bay window.  It uses EMD style door latches.

Here is the smoke jack side of the caboose. Note the vents added to the sides. 

The window to the left of the door on each end is also sealed.

Here is the Atlas NE-6.  I have removed the awning over the window on the right as
well as the sill that goes around the window.  I do need to clean up the bay opening.

Here is the end with the one window sealed.