# tooter cranks out a little shorty engine...



## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

I got this old #520 engine, but didn't like it's large scale, and was going to sell it. But then got to wondering if I could make a shorty out of it. It's not done yet. The shell is just sitting loose on the frame and isn't glued together yet...










This project posed numerous obstacles, especially because of its asymmetry with only one trailing wheeled coupler while the other is attached directly to the chassis. The trailing coupler was resolved by fabricating a sliding hanger that allows it to slide side to side while staying aligned with the tracks and keeping the coupler head at the proper height. Haven't figured out how to do the front coupler yet, so it might end up with only one. It'll make a nice foundry industrial engine to shunt the metal cars around.

Those are MTH slag cars. I wanted to use real metal so I poured mercury into them. 




















Greg


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Mercury? I"m staying away from that toxic chemical train!


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

That's cool. Cute train, too.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Mercury? I"m staying away from that toxic chemical train!


Just like in real life... if there's an industrial accident, it's a disaster! :laugh: 


Greg


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Lee Willis said:


> That's cool. Cute train, too.


Thanks, Lee. They're toys... so I go for the cute factor. 


Greg


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Greg, will you be able to fit the orig motor back into the 520?

Do be careful with the mercury!!!

TJ


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## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Mercury evaporates. It will make your entire house toxic. The Navy is very careful with mercury. A single drop of mercury in a ship will ruin the ship, particularly submarines.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

tjcruiser said:


> Greg, will you be able to fit the orig motor back into the 520?


The original motor and reversing unit all fit inside and it runs. 










I had to lose the on off switch to make the shell fit and still have enough room so that the wheeled coupler could swivel freely under the reversing unit. It took a lot of grinding, welding, and finagling to make everything fit into such a small package...

...but that's the fun of it. 

It has large diameter spoked steamer loco wheels and the drive unit comes out of a #1130 locomotive because the motor looks exactly the same as this one in every detail.










Greg


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

servoguy said:


> Mercury evaporates. It will make your entire house toxic. The Navy is very careful with mercury. A single drop of mercury in a ship will ruin the ship, particularly submarines.


No problem, I just had it out long enough to take a few pics. 

You *don't *want to know what I used to do with mercury when I was kid! :laugh:
I'm 67 now and haven't had to take so much as one aspirin in over 50 years.


Greg


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## Guest (Aug 7, 2015)

Well done, tooter.


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## Dave Sams (Nov 24, 2010)

tooter said:


> You *don't *want to know what I used to do with mercury when I was kid! :laugh:
> 
> Greg



Oh, we had so much fun with it! Did you ever..........(on second thought, I don't want to give someone an idea)


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I used to screw around with mercury when I was a kit, it was really neat stuff. It wasn't until I was an adult that it was suddenly deadly poison, sure glad it wasn't when I was a kid!


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Mercury made me what I am today. 


Greg


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

When I was a kid we played with Mercury. remember the little vials of it, with just a drop or two? Cool stuff.

I always preferred the name Quicksilver frankly.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

tooter said:


> Mercury made me what I am today.


The mystery is solved!


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

All I ended up with is this strange affinity for heavy metal music. :goofball:


Greg


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Talk about toxic, look at how much LEAD us older guys took in.
We'll never get the lead out. It was everywhere, paint, toothpaste
tubes to start with. It's a wonder we're not all Looney Tunes. 

Now, the Feds make you strip a house of all of it's lead paint if they
are going to be involved in the financing. I see the big dumpsters
show up when a house is for sale in my neighborhood of
homes built in 1958. Out comes all of the dry wall and
wood work.

Don


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> It wasn't until I was an adult that it was suddenly deadly poison, sure glad it wasn't when I was a kid!


I had a teacher in high school who used to say "I used to smoke cigarettes, that was before they put the cancer it them" 

I, also, played with mercury when I was a kid. I had asbestos insulation around the heating pipes in my house too. :lol_hitting:

Greg,
Nice project. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Yep, the gray flaky stuff all encased in a wrap to insulate the pipes, I'm shocked that didn't get me as well!


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Nice Greg, the shortie not the intake of heavy metals are you going to paint it? Take off the print?


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

sjm9911 said:


> Nice Greg, the shortie not the intake of heavy metals are you going to paint it? Take off the print?


The print in the middle that got cut short is definitely going. And I kind of like keeping it "stock" looking even though the color is truly atrocious. I did order a pantograph to complete the shell. I might paint it later on, but still haven't figured how to get that dang second coupler to work. 

Greg


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Shot the shell with some bbq black just to see how it would look...


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## Wood (Jun 9, 2015)

Lookin nice. Will it be a switcher for those hoppers? You have developed an unusual little rail line. Everyone is all over scale and you have turned it all up on end. Nice going!! I certainly like it.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

That is cool, I must admit. Nice looking set of loco and cars. Cute. Nicely done surgery on them, too.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Wood said:


> Lookin nice. Will it be a switcher for those hoppers? You have developed an unusual little rail line. Everyone is all over scale and you have turned it all up on end. Nice going!! I certainly like it.


Thanks, Wood. 
I'm always looking around for stuff that will lend itself to "tooterizing". The engine pulls nicely as the compact shell houses a full sized all wheel drive steamer loco motor with E unit. 











Greg


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Lee Willis said:


> That is cool, I must admit. Nice looking set of loco and cars. Cute. Nicely done surgery on them, too.


I still need to fill in the gaps in the splice which didn't turn out nearly as well as the others which didn't need any filling. Every time I sanded, it ended up being just a little bit mismatched. And as I kept sanding it got to the point where it couldn't get any shorter, so I cut my losses and glued it as is. I was anxious to see how it would look black and like it that way. I hated that red color... :thumbsdown:


Greg


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Well, in similar situations I had similar problems. In my case some boxcars I shortened. I could not get the new seam between ends to meet perfectly. After a lot of fussing I realized: these things aren't molded in perfect shapes! They didn't meet perfectly at a straight, perpendicular-cut seam because they were slightly bent, as made. 

So on to plan B. I did the seam as well as I could, filled it in deep down so i was there bu shallow,** leaving a noticeable line, and then with a needle-punch point, scribbed another, similar line on the plastic shell in a matching place. It's a fantasy locomotive, after all, so if it has an extra seam or two, so what? To my eye, if you went to the other side of the center pound porthole window, and scribbed a seam there down the side, when painted the thing would look like both seams belonged there. 

** To fill seams like this I use white or yellow glue, which holds well enough. I dab it with a sharpened pencil point into the seam (from both sides if possible). Capillary action pulls it into the seam. I wipe any surface excess off. Once dry it leaves only a trace of the seam - just a trace.


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

Hey, thanks for the useful tip, Lee! :smilie_daumenpos:

I tried using paint as a fill, but it just shrinks down into the seam when it dries.


Greg


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

JB Weld.


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## BWA (Jun 16, 2012)

For the seam, I would take some card stock (paper or plastic, doesn't matter), cut it in strips to about 1/8", and, just glue it over the seam.

Once painted, it would look just like part of the molded body paneling.......


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## tooter (Feb 26, 2010)

The seam curves around the roof, so I'll likely not try to draw attention to it. 
JB is an interesting idea in that it does tend to get glossy and self level before it cures.
White glue is likely the easiest to work with because it's easy to wipe off if anything goes wrong.


Greg


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