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White Pass & Yukon GE Class 90 Locomotive.
White metal casting from Republic Locomotive Works, chassis from Marklin
electric. It does not have the correct truck side frames, but at this scale
most observers do not spot this. It is not properly sitting on the track
either. I have been working on changing the side frames on these trucks. I purchased a Z-scale PA which has the correct truck side frame which we will copy.
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These engines will pull a very heavy load individually. They will
pull in excess of 50 cars. The limiting factor is getting the couplers
to hold together on longer trains.
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This little switcher looks more like a speeder than an engine.
It was made from an Arnold Rapido 2076 and has been regauged for Nn3. This
involved a bit of filing but not much else. It pulls very well even though
it is only 4 wheel drive. I added a bell and horn to the roof.
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This switcher looks very North American and has no prototype in the real world. Diesels were not common on the North American Narrow Gauge, only two
common carrier lines and a few industrial lines actually survived to be converted
to all diesel operations. The common carrier lines were the WP&YR and Newfoundland Railway later known as Terra Transport under CN. The project uses a Marklin 88691 chassis and a Concor SW1200 body which has been
shortened and the cab lowered. The hood is full height. The WP&YR close down the
the late 1980's and was reborn a few years later as a tourist railroad and is
still very busy in the summer season in 2008. Terra Transport was closed down in
the late 1990's and the tracks pulled up except for a few locations where there
is a tourist short line and a museum operating on the old trackage.
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This is a DL535E diesel built by MLW for the WP&YR sitting ahead of the GE 90 class green and yellow engine. MLW delivered 10 units in total to the WP&YR. This uses a modified C424 shell and
model is originally described in the Nn3 handbook in an article by Dave Freehling. In the original as shown here the chassis is from the C424 with RSD15 trucks however I was never satisfied
with the running of the engine. These early N-scale diesels were powered at one end only and were not well constructed. Recently I purchased a Z-scale PA and will use that
chassis to power this model and will now finish it. After receiving the PA and
checking it out I was not happy with its performance and scrapped the idea of
using the chassis. I did however copy the side frame detail from the trucks to
use to replace the side frames on the trucks of my Class 90's and that worked.
At Christmas 2007 Hallmark in their Lionel Trains series of Ornaments put out
three units of the Liberty Train and the head power was a PA the other two cars
were a sleeper and an observation car. These models were in Z-scale and I
converted them to operating Z-scale models. The PA was powered using a GP35
chassis and replacing the truck side frame on the power trucks with those taken
from the Hallmark model. I then had to add a non-powered axle to the outside end
of each power truck to create the Class C truck. The axle is free to move
vertically up and down within the trucks so that power is not taken away from
the two powered axles while going through dips and peaks on the track.
Construction article on building the DL535 |
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A Z-scale F59ph from American Z Lines and made by Ajin for AZL. It is the first
plastic Z-scale diesel from a North American manufacturer since the F7 from
Micro Trains Lines. It is sitting beside one of my Nn3 GE shovel nose diesels. |
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An Nn3 White Pass and Yukon Railroad Class 90 General Electric diesel sold by
Aspen Models of Colorado. Brass cast body and metal frame make this a heavy
brute with lots of pulling power. It has very tender gears and they are prone to
break in shipping if there is not plastic wrapped around the engine and it is
not cradled completely in foam. If it moves the weight of the unit will cause
the back lash in the gears to
break gear teeth and it has not always been easy to get replacements. On the
last occasion in late 2008 I was able to get replacement gears to repair one set
of broken gears. |
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