I Called This One Three Years Ago

Via the Trains.com website,

Last week, the model railway community was surprised to learn of the closure of Hattons Model Railways, a renowned United Kingdom-based model railways manufacturer and distributor. In the ensuing days, questions have arisen regarding the future of M.B. Klein, also known as Model Train Stuff. It was announced in September of 2023 that M.B. Klein had been acquired by Hattons. A representative from Hattons has issued the following statement to Model Railroader regarding the future of Model Train Stuff:

“At this present time, the company is undergoing reorganization and we will share further news as to the outcome of this in due course. Hattons does own M.B. Klein; However, the two companies are operated as separate entities.”

Since the announcement of Hattons closure, the status of Model Train Stuff’s website changed to reflect the current status of the company.

A lot of people were taken by surprise at the Hatton's announcement, as well as M B Klein's closure, but in February of 2021, I posted this: My Bet Is That Modeltrainstuff.com Is Heading The Way Of Caboose Hobbies. I talked about Caboose Hobbies and the increasing problems I had ordering from them before they closed their Denver store in 2016.

I concluded that I was seeing the same symptoms from M B Klein, and it looks like I was right. In the mid-2000s, M B Klein had been a brick-and-mortar train store in downtown Baltimore, but its owner, Ted Klein, saw the opportunity to expand into internet discount sales. M B Klein as Modeltrainstuff.com became a major online retailer, and I was a frequent customer, especially aftter Caboose Hobbies went under. However, Klein died in 2020, and service began to deteriorate soon after.

The staff blamed it on COVID, but I have a feeling the real problem was the loss of Ted Klein. But I'm also intrigued that whoever was the owner after Klein's death sold out to Hatton's just last fall, and only a few months later, Hatton's went under. Was there a problem with Klein's that took Hatton's with it? But as I said in 2021, hobby stores come and hobby stores go.

Chinese Plastic Palm Trees

Last August I posted about progress with scenery around my junk yard area. I did some thinking about trees that might establish the area is in California, and I watch a YouTube channel, SoCal Scale Models, where in one episode Rick, the host, explained how he orders ready-made Chinese plastic palm trees off Amazon. He shows what he does in this YouTube:

While I generally prefer eBay to Amazon for stuff like that, I went looking on eBay and found this 18-piece set. What set it apart from many other palm tree models, including the ones Rick used, was that they look like a very common local California type, fan palms, that have fan-shaped fronds and a "beard" of old fronds hanging down from the live ones at the top. These arrived quickly at a very reasonable price. I touched them up with paint I had on hand from rattle cans and brushed acrylics to make them look a little less plastic.

Here's a prototype photo of Washingtonia filifera. The size of the "beards" seems to depend on how often the trees are trimmed and how old they are.

And here's a grove of fan palms along the BNSF at a location called Stoil in the San Joaquin Valley. I'll probably use the smaller trees in the set that are closer to N scale on a T-TRAK module.

There are little swaths of white on the bases of my model trees, because I had just planted them with some Hobby Tac that hasn't dried yet.

Broadway Limited Union Pacific SD40

I recently found a Broadway Limited HO Union Pacific SD40 at a very reasonable price. What impressed me was that in the past, Broadway Limited diesels have tended to be "generic" models with minimal road-specific details other than paint schemes. This model, which is a recent Paragon 4, is a major exception, more comparable to ScaleTrains or Athearn Genesis, with both road name and unit-specific details.

In part, this threw me off. Previous models of UP SD40s, like the Kato 1990s HO version, have taken the easy way out, being based on the UP's first two orders of SD40s from 1966, numbered 3000-3039 and 3048-3082. These were plain vanilla with the exception of strobe lights on the cab roofs of at least some units. But when I got this model out of the box, the first thing that hit me was the trucks, which had a third brake cylinder and clasp brakes, unlike the 1966 locos. The number also bothered me, 3117, which made me think intuitively that this must have been an SD40-2 number.

So I went looking for more info. The Don Strack Utah Rails roster clarified the number: the UP had a third order of SD40s in 1971, just before the switchover to SD40-2s, numbered 3083-3122, and 3117 would be in this series. This third order was completely new to me, and I thought I was pretty familiar with the UP roster.

I went looking for prototype photos on the web, and the 3083-3122 also had trucks with the extra brake cylinder in the center. The one big difference between the prototype photos and the model is that at least one photo shows that 3117 didn't have a plow, at least at the time of the photo. On the other hand, photos do show other units in the series with the large SD40-2 style plow on the model, and 3117 may have had a plow at other times.

Based on the Don Strack page on UP diesel paint schemes, the paint acheme on this model would date it between February 1984, when the UP changed the color of trucks from aluminum to gray, and June 1986, when classification lights were painted over. However, according to Strack, rhe UP had stopped using class lights some time earlier.

BLI Paragon 4 models have capacitors to improve the sound decoders' performance on dirty track. This loco continued engine sound and lights for about one second after I turned off the DCC track power. The headlights, class lights, number board lights, and cab lights are all separately controllable via function keys on the DCC control station. UPDATE: To control the individual features, you need to set CV 128=1 for "pro mode lighting". Unlike the highest-end recent models, the BLI SD40 doesn't have step lights or ground lights.

My biggest problem with the model was couplers. Both ends of the model come with long-shank Kadee compatible couplers in a proprietary coupler box. While I like long shank couplers when they're used with a plow, on this model, as with the UP prototype, only the front has a plow, so I wanted to replace the rear coupler with a standard-length Kadee 148. The openings for the couplers in the pilot plates on the model will fit a 148-size box, but the mount for the proprietary BLI coupler box is too short for a full 148-size Kadee box. Thus I had to spend a fair amount of time trimming the 148 box to fit, but once I had removed material from both the front and rear of the 148 box, I waa able to install the new assembly with the BLI screw.

New Decoder In A Bachmann SD40-2

The Bachmann HO DCC-equipped MKT SD40-2 has good paint and decoration, at least for a moderately priced layout-quality model. However, the factory DCC decoder doesn't support the standard CVs for speed matching, so I pulled it and replaced it with a Digitrax DH165A0.

I had initially replaced Bachmann HO factory decoders with the NCE BACH-DSL decoder, which is a drop-in replacement, but I've had frequent problems with all types of NCE decoders where the LED drivers seem to have problems. So far, the DH165A0 seems like a more reliable alternative, although it isn't set up for being attached to the frame using the Bachmann screws. However, Scotch Magic Tape holds it on just fine.

Because the Bachmann factory decoder isn't set up for speed matching, and this version of the model also lacks flywheels, the model straight from the box isn't a good candidate for running in multiple with diesel models by other manufacturers. Replacing the decoder is a fairly low-cost step toward fixing this. (For whatever reason, the Bachmann SD40-2s with sound have flywheels, and the factory sound decoders I think probably also support all the standard CVs.)

I set CV2=15, CV3=2,and CV4=2. The momentum CVs will let it run compatibly with flywheel equipped locos. For whatever reason, the new LEDs that I used with the new Digitrax board are also brighter than the ones with the old decoder, which I like -- always the brighter the headlights, the better.

Another Atlas Kato GP7

Looking for a bargain that added a mild challenge, I got another Atlas Kato GP7 from the early 1990s on eBay. The price on these can vary from around $60 to over $100, and at the lower end of the range, even with the added price of a DCC decoder, they're less expensive than current equivalents like the Walthers Mainline GP9 or the Bachmann GP7 in DC. Adding the decoder is a little more difficult than just plug-and-play, but it's still an easy intermediate project. Here's New York Central 5690 with Kadees, a Digitrax DH165K0 decoder and LED headlights, and Shell Scale numberboard decals.

The loco apopeared never to have been run when I got it, although it looks like it was outside its box long enough at some point to get some white spray paint droplets on the roof from being nearby when somebody was using a rattle can. I still need to touch some of these up. It also needs to get a winterization hatch.

New York Central 5686-5708 were built in 1952, originally clasa DRS-4H, reclassified ERS-15 in 1966. The class was equipped with dynamic brakes, unlike most other New York Central diesels, including the rest of the NYC GP7s.

Like all Atlas Kato HO diesels, it runs beautifully. Unfortunately, as I get older, it's harder and harder for me to apply the number board decals, and this may be the last Atlas Kato diesel I do.

Micro Trains Horse Cars

I recently found these Micro Trains horse cars in special at TrainWorld:

I was able to ride old-style passenger trains as a young railfan for about the last dozen years before Amtrak. Horse cars were still around and being used in secondary passenger and mail-and-express trains up to 1971 -- one of my last rides wes on the Santa Fe Super Chief in late 1970, and I saw Santa Fe horse cars in the Chicago coach yard then. If any are still around, they're in museums or work train service.

I also think that by the 1960s, race horses were mostly being flown or towed in highway trailers, so although so-called "horse cars" had stalls for horses, they could be folded away and used in ordinary express service, which was mostly what they were in during the last years of pre-Amtrak passenger service. However, they do turn up in videos of trains in that final era.

I like the Micro Trains models, because they're a different take on baggage and express type cars and will fill in a mail-and-express consist nicely.

SP Krauss-Maffei Diesel Hydraulics

I've occasionally added brass models to my collection, but I'm happy at this point that there haven't been that many. In general, while it's possible to convert them to DCC, the combination of one-side pickup for steam locos and tenders, or one-side-only pickup for diesel trucks, makes them less suitable for reliable current pickup, and the quality of their mechanisms varies widely among manufacturers. On top of that, we're used to very smooth and quiet operation from later-generation plastic and hybrid models made in Korea, Japan, and China, something brass models have seldom ever achieved.

I have at least one model in my collection that's made me go "hmm", an Overland model of the second, road-switcher style SP Krauss-Maffei diesel hydraulics. I may have gotten this because I thought I remembered seeing these in the San Joaquin Valley, but after studying them further, this was a false memory: according to this site, they were

an order for 15 identical units. They were an experiment in high horsepower diesel hydraulic locomotives that had rather short careers on the SP, being retired by November, 1968.

However, the trip down the San Joaquin Valley where I might have seen them took place in June 1969, so I was a little too late. I probably confused seeing SD45s. Here's a photo of my model, which I believe is one of Overland's last run of their K-M:

So far, it's spent its life in a display cabinet. I took it out for the first time not long ago and tested it on DC. Although earlier Overland K-Ms had the older style zamac gearboxes, this has their later style drive with individual worm and gear drives to individual axles, but even so, it's pretty noisy, much noisier than an equivalent Chinese or Japanese plastic and metal diesel. It also has the disadvantage of right rail pickup from the front truck and left rail pickup from the rear, which means it will be less reliable for contemporary layout running than a mass produced Chinese or Japanese loco.

Most brass models were never made with window glass. This model at least has glass, but while there are headlight lenses in the nose, there's no provision for lighting them. So it looks like beyond adding a decoder, I'd have to add a capacitor plus figure out a way to light the headlights and SP warning lights that wouldn't be a wiring nightmare.

The SP 9010 restoration site also makes additional points about the Overland K-M models: in their short lives of a little over four years, the units underwent a great deal of modification. It looks like they were never quite right, but SP persisted as long as they could to make them run before they gave up. The version in this Overland model is basically the appearance of four final units following a last full shopping they received in 1966-67. These units were 9107, 9113, 9116, and 9120.

The most visible change after this shopping was square shoulders on the radiators that were added to extend the capacity of the cooling system. You can see these on the roof of the model at the mid-point and rear of the long hood. Only 9107, 9113, 9116, and 9120 had these, so Overland's number 9117 on the model is incorrect (as far as I can tell, Overland gave these models random numbers in the K-M renumber series when they were painted at the factory).

However, there were numerous other variations on every unit for features like cab windows, sun visor, horns, lettering, and so forth, so that no two were alike, and no Overland model was ever quite correct for any individual prototype unit. So I'm just on the fence over converting this loco to DCC, especially since if I were to operate it on the layout, it would be subject to general wear and tear, and the model itself is just a little too nice to let that happen. So for now, I think it goes back in the display case.

On the other hand, Piko has announced an HO version of the original, cab-unit style SP K-M diesel hydraulics. I may well go for this, as it eliminates all the problems to trying to convert a brass model for DCC, with sound to boot.