Model Train Journal

This an an example of a few of the color attempts.Take your pick. Left to right: Lionel E7, 3rd Rail Dreyfuss, 3rd Rail E7 https://www.modeltrainforum.com/attachments/c88389bd-301c-4e06-8529-121d8c986b03-jpeg.563738/?auto=webp&fit=bounds&format=pjgp&height=1920&optimize=high&widt...

FWIW I have five Dreyfuss Hudsons and two EMD E7s painted in the Beauty Queen scheme meant to match the 1940 passenger cars. None of the engines match each other, even those made by the same manufacturer at different times. I have no idea what the correct color is nor, I expect, anyone walking the e...

Sorry, Pete. For my tastes, and quite a few guys I know/knew and respect, the Fine Arts version is dark and warm. "The consensus says..."? There is no "consensus" (except perhaps between the brothers Kohs. GRIN!) Anyone who has repainted a classic car or part of a car knows the ...

A friend who is both a professional auto restorer and painter and lifelong train guy contracted his Dupont supplier who found the original paint formulas for the NYC grays in Dupont paint NLA (DUCO????). They were able to recreate it using modern paints. The consensus Is the Lionel Smithsonian Dreyf...

Actually there is a Henri Dreyfus. He was a chemist and among other things invented cellulose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Dreyfus I only became aware of him a few years ago when a faculty member at the University I used to work at received the Dreyfus Prize and I couldn’t understand the con...

Nicely done. The shade of gray is always up for debate as there are few if any color photographs of the Drefusses. The New York Central Historical Society has an extensive collection of photographs of nearly every NYC Locomotive. I believe you can order full size prints of the ones posted there. htt...

When bought our 19th century house 40 years ago, the agent drove us into the driveway and I see a small barn. My wife heads to the house and I go directly to the barn. Finally a place for my tools out of the house. I used to work in a hospital and they were tossing incubators for premature babies. T...

I have used Birchwood Casey Super Blue to blacken brass. Its nowhere as effective as doing ferrous metals but it will darken it. It takes successive soakings and then rub off the scale. I am guessing KTM used some sort of hot process. I just checked Caswell plating and they show nothing for brass bu...

Its a way to create items not produced before by any manufacturer. I can’t imagine scratch build a diesel in brass or even styrene. How do you create all those grills and vents if the details can’t be had. Scratch building steam would be easier than a diesel. Hardest part of 3D printing is becoming ...

Everyone has their preferences and techniques, not just tools but solders and fluxes. Lots of guys like pastes; I'm not a fan and swear by TIX liquid myself. I still use good ol' 60/40 solder in a roll, metered by how much I can hold on the tip of the iron. Then there is soldering white-metal, whic...

Really helps to have a resistance soldering tools for projects like this. Focuses the heat at the spot you are trying join. You can build them for a fraction of what the commercial ones cost. Just google resistive soldering tools. Youtube videos as well. The key is finding a transformer that goes 12...

healey36 wrote:Yup, but don't give up on MTJ; there's work to be done here. OGF's okay, but there's a lot of fluff.

Unfortunately, very true. This where the real modelers are.

Pete

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

Norton wrote:...........I have used ferric chloride to get the last traces of solder off brass.

What do you use to clean up and neutralize the ferric chloride?

Just soap and water. Any discoloration of the brass can be cleaned up a dremel and wire brush.

Pete

Fine soldering work on the caboose Sarge. Doesn’t look like you need it but I have used ferric chloride to get the last traces of solder off brass. Apply with a Q Tip and the solder comes off faster than than the brass. Used a lot of that stuff making PC boards back in the day. As for brass detailin...

Rich Yoder announced some trucks a few years ago including T Section Bettenforfs. He was showing coil spring trucks and I asked him if he would do leaf spring versions and he implied he wasn’t aware they even existed so I sent him some photos. Crickets. I used San Juan Car Co. trucks with PSC leaf s...