# from B&O to ET&WNC



## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

I basically finished my first stage of painting and mods to the freebie B&O Royal Blue big hauler I was graciously given over the holidays to convert it to ET&WNC #11.
Not being on my modeling list for this year it becomes yet another example of "project bloat", soooo, I decided for now to do it as cheaply as possible. 

I followed George Schreyer's and other folk's excellent tips found on line and first checked how it runs. As it had practically zero time on it, it was in pretty good shape except for telltale signs of what appears to be the standard issues with a 3rd gen big hauler. After improving the engine mounting and lubricating the gearing, etc. it sounds smooth and reasonably quiet. I don't plan on pulling more than three gondolas full of "acid wood" so that should 'baby' the gearing. I then disassembled the model for paint.
Also, for now, I soldered in the capacitor and resistor Mr. Schreyer gives detailed instructions on for improving the supplied sound board. I found something different on my tender sound board. George states that the original sound upgrade published on Garden Railways article has the capacitor mounted backwards which will produce a constant hiss while sitting still with the battery in the tender. I found the opposite to be true for my sound board which caused a constant hiss and simply reversed the leads as he suggests. As advertised, it does add sustain to the 'chuffing' which, while not amazing, is a definite improvement. He lists other tips on adding bottom end to the sound but I believe he said not to expect much from that. Since I have fooled around building and rebuilding a lot of stereo speakers over the years I decided to try a mechanical alteration and it seemed to be a good addition. To trick a woofer into thinking it's in a bigger enclosure and help re-enforce bottom end stuffing a speaker with fiberglass or polyfill often helps. My attic sacrificed about 3 square inches of owens corning pink which I lifted the coal load off of the tender and stuffed it inside. Not a huge improvement but it did help.

Also, since I'm running this engine indoors for now on my test loop I found the volume too obnoxious and without a volume control like on newer Bachmann tenders I resorted to another 'mechanical' fix and applied electrician's tape over most of the speaker grill slots to pad the volume down. Not phenomenal...but,...I think I have a total of about 2.50 in the sound mods.



Here's some before and after shots for anyone bored enough to check them out. Nothing much left to do now but 'weather' it. 

http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx267/flatrat62/B and O to ET and WNC/?action=organize


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

oops. I pasted the wrong link. try this link or cut and paste it in your url bar 

http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx267/flatrat62/B and O to ET and WNC/


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## cj and m (Feb 6, 2010)

Nice job on the repainting . Can't see the hearald under the cab window but it looks complex , did you make your own decals ? I also enjoy repainting my locomotive fleet . I'm more into modern diesels but can appeciate the time and effort that you invested in this locomotive . So far i've repainted two GP-38's . I plan on repainting a few others in the months to come . HAVE FUN !


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Thanks,

Sweet Geeps you got there!!I think I can smell diesel fumes coming from my monitor.


I bought the decals on eBay from a very nice fellow but the oval graphics were much too large when I got the decals. I paid pretty close to 30 bucks for them and had already decided not to put too much $ into this project so I went with them. The other problem is I wanted to model #11 as I already have a #12 Annie and the #11, from my research, was one of the most used engines on the line. The Big Hauler is otherwise very well modeled to the #11 so I really wanted to model that engine but the decals I bought also did not have enough 1/4" [# 1s] So I used dry transfers that i got at the local hobby shop. Also, of the four ET&WNC decals one of them did not have serifs on the letter E. Of course I didn't realize this until after I had mounted *that one* on the tender so I had to go back with a fine brush and some gold paint and fix the letter" E". *Anyway*. _It's all good_. The remaining issues are I want to shorten the front trucks, add the front steps between the pilot and piston, and I added some piping to the compressor and on each reservoir but I want to add more valves and piping later and prop the roof vent open as they ran it on the Tweetsie. 
It's a work in progress and I'm pleased since I haven't been able to find all the parts to my airbrush since the move so I did this with rattle cans. I used Valspar plastic primer and then their Hunter Green was a great match for the ET&WNC green and the russian boiler was a krylon metallic gray I had left over from another project that actually is a very close match to bolier planish. 
The whole thing needs to get toned down with flat and some weathering once I find the missing piece to my airbrush.


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## cj and m (Feb 6, 2010)

I bought some lazer decal paper on the web and some cheap photo software( RIVERDEEP PRINTMASTER GOLD 18) that I could upload photos to . I was able to crop the photos and print them out real cheap .


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Got another project that I want to try the very same thing. I'll check that out. 

Thanks! Good looking results.


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