DT&I Boxcar Weathered, Plus Trying Some Speed Matching

You may have noticed the change to the header photo at the top of the blog.  I've updated it again, this time with a photo I took last week.  The JSSX's GP38 #815 is seen beneath the highway overpass as it begins it's return run to the freight yard after completing switching duties.  I really liked the picture, so I thought I'd feature it in the header for a few weeks.  Here it is again...

I also wanted to mention that I'm using the 815 as the standard or "control" engine as I've spent time recently working on slow speed matching of my GP38's. I want to get them all to run similarly and really, really, reliably at slow speeds because the nature of the layout mainly involves short trains and lots of industrial switching.

So far I've only set the low speed voltage, using CV2. I may try CV5 and CV6 for the high and medium speeds some other time.  My understanding is that the Atlas dual-mode decoders, still in some of these engines, only use CV2. Not sure if that is correct, but this seems to be working well so far. I've got them running so that they crawl along 1 meter in about 105 seconds in speed step 2 of 128. That's slow. I wouldn't say it was a particularly difficult exercise to do, but it did take a bit of time to get the speeds matched between the 815 and the others.  I think I'll speed match my SD40's and other engines as they make their way onto the layout


I was about to buy another boxcar at the Ancaster Train Show two weeks ago, when I asked the seller to include this one in to the deal for an extra $5 and he agreed.  I figured that, when coupled with another similar DT&I 86 footer, this one could soon make for one half of a nice looking pair.

And the "after" shot of the same car with the weathering completed.

Here's my finished 86 footer, after about 8 hours total work time at the workbench.

In addition to weathering, I've also replaced the plastic wheels with metal ones, and replaced the stock Athearn swing couplers with the Walthers Swinging Coupler Adapter Kit.  I've used that adapter kit many times on other long boxcars, but now I've run out of them and they've been out of stock at Walthers for a long time.  I hope I can "track down" some more, as I still have other 86 foot cars to be worked on.

The weather-beaten DTI 26035 on it's first revenue trip along the GTW.

And coupled with DT&I 26020, which was already on the roster, the two 86 footers will soon be spotted at the local auto parts plant.