Hello,

I keep admiring your Atlas GP7 with fixed pilots. Will these run in a lash up on 072 without any problems or do you need wider turns. Thanks.

Yes.

I'm not Jerry, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.

YEa, PETE's wife saw his train bill! Holiday Inn my foot. he slept in the doghouse!!!!

I'm not Jerry, but I slept in a Doghouse last night.

I'm not jerry either .....I have also slept in a doghouse! Where is Jerry???

quote:

Originally posted by Claus:
Hello,

I keep admiring your Atlas GP7 with fixed pilots. Will these run in a lash up on 072 without any problems or do you need wider turns. Thanks.

As Pete pointed out, these will run on O-72 curves.

The biggest problem is with reverse curves. There are at least two instances where I've seen interference, and my dummy will derail when coupled to a powered locomotive.

The first has a ladder of #4 Ross turnouts, and a curve. The second is when going from an Atlas #5 from the diverging route, and then right into an O-80 curve.

You will need to make sure that you don't have reverse curves in your design, or you will have issues.

Stay away from reverse curves, and you should be OK.

Pete, I am Jerry, but I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn. I am, however, racking up a fair amount of points at Taj hotels.

Regards,
Jerry

Jerry I have two loops running around the walls of my hobby room so it does not sound like a problem for me.

Do you know who I neeed to speak to at Atlas about haing my pilots fixed? Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Claus:
Jerry I have two loops running around the walls of my hobby room so it does not sound like a problem for me.

Do you know who I neeed to speak to at Atlas about haing my pilots fixed? Thanks.

Claus:

Contact Bill Seratelli at Atlas:

bseratelli@atlaso.com

Regards,
Jerry

Jerry,

How'the curry?

quote:

Originally posted by Pete Kruimer:
Jerry,

How'the curry?

After two weeks, pretty darn unappealing, and I like Indian food (every once in a while).

I had enough of goat and chicken to last for a while too. After three days there, I started thinking about going out at night, bonking a cow on the head, field dressing it, and carving some steaks.

Coming back home, I had a religious experience when the United flight attendant brought me a slab of nuked dead cow for lunch. Ate beef and pork every meal for a week once I got home.

The upside was I dropped 10 lbs in the four weeks I was in India and China. The trick is to not gain the weight back now that I am home. Very hard to do.

Regards,
Jerry

They told you it was goat and chicken.

quote:

Originally posted by Pete Kruimer:
They told you it was goat and chicken.

No, they told me the goat was lamb.

regards,
Jerry

Update, got an email from Bill Seratelli today, he says to put fixed pilots on my GP60s would cost $75.00 for parts and $50.00 labor. The trouble is He says even if I have them do the work they will not paint the new parts to match. Now I don't know.

quote:

Originally posted by Claus:
Update, got an email from Bill Seratelli today, he says to put fixed pilots on my GP60s would cost $75.00 for parts and $50.00 labor. The trouble is He says even if I have them do the work they will not paint the new parts to match. Now I don't know.

When I got my GPs back, it was the same story. I painted the handrails and the step edges in the pic I posted. With the SF though, if you have the warbonnets, it is all silver. If they won't match the silver, I'd give it a miss too. For the money these conversions cost, they at least ought to match the paint. I can live with painting handrails.

regards,
Jerry

Two of mine are Norfolk Southern and two of them are Southern Pacific, I love these locos. Fixed pilots would make them better but mismatched parts won't do much for them.

I had wondered about painting with these Atlas upgrades. That's too bad. At least consider painting the parts yourself. With planning and care it can be made to work. The pilots come painted black, so that will not be an issue for your NS units. But steps, and some other parts are unpainted grey plastic. Black is an easy color match. Perhaps you can arrange for Bill to not glue on the steps and other plastic parts. When you get the engines back, remove them, prime them grey and then paint them black. For the safety stripes on my engines, I use a model trim tape I picked in in a hobby shop several years ago, I think made by Pactra. It's much easier than painting. I think a drafting tape or something like that from an office supply store also would work. Cut it to fit and apply to the step edges and it looks as neat and finished as the factory painted stripe. I painted most of my handrails by hand. With a good acrylic model paint, you can get a smooth finish even with a brush. On something like a railing, there is not enough flat surface area to show brush strokes.

Color matching the SP units may be more of a challenge. If you mix paints and use an airbrush, it can be done (or you could send them to someone like Jeff Sohn to do the job). If not, perhaps try Weaver scale coat to see if it matches. Prime a piece of scrap plastic with grey and then spray on SP Grey and check it against the body to see how well it matches. A light mist of dull coat will diminish the scale coat gloss finish. Of course weathering is a good solution to paint mismatches. If you are satisfied with the match, you know that when you get the engines back from Atlas you can paint the pilots and other parts to match the bodies. If your scap test doesn't match to your satisfaction, perhaps don't have the engines converted, and at least you will have tried something. Good luck.

RM

Thanks for the advice, you make some good suggestions.