Amtrak Oregon Basements

There is a new shift occuring in the U6B project as well as the rest of my life, it seems.  You may have noticed a lack of work reporting on the "project" here and there is a perfectly good reason for that.  It is my fault for not keeping you up to date but I was somewhat busy and I wasn't building models. 

My wife and I were enfolded in the capable hands of Amtrak crews operating #'s 1 and 14 West bound and 2 and 11 East bound in between which we were basement hunting.  At least I was.  She found a wonderful 1922 vintage Craftsman house atop, if not my dream basement, at least a reasonable facsimile thereof.  Oregon is going to be very good for my boat building endeavors as well as my peace of mind (all of those trees!)

The trip was spectacular, snow at Dunsmuir and Cascade Summit and the Coast was its usual self, the food spectacular, the complaints we heard only from guests used to 5 star hotels and the Roomette too small.  Next time a full blown Bedroom for sure. The trains were on time, every time. We were amazed that people did not tip the staff who worked their tails off.

Saw very few freight trains on the Coast but many on the Sunset route. It has changed much since I last worked there and I was surprised to find that Palm Springs had moved to the short siding at Garnet! Must have been a really bad earthquake! This was before the stUPid tore up Walong.  I imagine it is much more difficult to get Amtrak up the Coast on time now.

At any rate this is just a short note to inform the followers that during the process of packing, moving, unpacking etc. there is probably not going to be much modeling occuring.  In fact most of my tools have already been squirreled away. This is not all bad.  When the dust settles there is this 20x36 foot hole in the ground I can't wait to get started filling with layout. On the other hand escrow hasn't closed and anything could happen.

Have aquired a few new Bachmann cars via Ebay. I bid only on The Favoritespot from Texas and have had outstanding results. They have a storefront and have run down stuff for me that UPS failed to deliver. The prices are impossible to beat.

Finally able to do some work on the model.  These are photo's of another "House of cards" assemblage of the cab this time.  Obviously a lot of hours of work to do yet but nice to see things shaping up. The side cab windows slide and much detail is yet to be added of course. Headlights, windshield wipers, heater intakes, door hinges, sand box fillers and clean outs etc. etc.  That is AFTER I get it all cleaned up and smoothed out.
This is a three layer lamination of styrene with brass channel and angle used to mount the window material.  I have tried to use glass for years, even bought some and broke it for this model.  Reverted to acrylic which seems to reflect the light pretty much like glass and is a whole lot easier to work with. I'll try the glass in the yard office when I get to it.
I goofed the frame by laying out and installing the diamond plate running boards before I built the cab. Then I changed my mind and added the Um6B type nose, it reminded me of the U33's which I hated to the bone. (There is no explaining humanity) Now the cab won't sit tight on the frame. No problem, the second frame is far enough along to be ready for this cab.  You nit pickers out there can have a field day with this if you want but I guarantee you I can devise a scenario that will cover everthing you find on this engine including the nose. Besides it looks kinda cute on this little bitty U-boat. And the first frame is going to revert to a project that will drive the nit pickers right out of their minds. Bet you didn't know GE built a U6B "B" unit, did 'ya? *

I asked on the Yahoo list if anyone knew of the performance of the Micro-Mark motor and got no response. So I'll ask again here and see if anyone out there who might read this would have had some experience with their product.  The price seems right and all the drive train components fit it so it would be real handy to deal with. Thanks in advance for any advice.

*Actually I've never seen one, but I'm going to imagineer this one just for fun and it will fit my operating scheme just fine. After having wrestled with the cab of this model I've had it for a while, hoods are much easier to deal with !

U6B Cab Assembly

Cab end and Step Jig

The cab end wall propped in place for reference.This is the MDF jig I made for the corner steps and a soldered up part that has been covered with diamond plate. I am going to use this on some, but not all, of the steps to indicate replacement units.  The rest will be plain brass representing welded steel pieces.  The two center pieces are removeable while the outer two are CA'd to the bottom as well as the wide lower piece.