Scenery & Goats

An 0-6-0 goat that is.

Today I continued my work on the scenery between Furnace and Stanley by applying static grass along the aisle side of the track. This static grass is simulating a drainage ditch that has become over grown. To get this effect I first paint the area black to give it some depth and once that dries apply a coat of gloss medium. After the gloss medium dries I apply the static grass. A picture of the progress so far is on http://www.easton-and-potomac.com/ showing a cab view of the curve just west of Furnace.

After applying the static grass it was on to #31 and the cam installation. The wire glue arrived today so I applied that between the cam and the wheel to give the cam electrical contact. A quick check with a meter seems to confirm it is working. I will let it dry until tomorrow when I will give it a test. If all goes well #31 will be placed back on the layout.

Then it was on to the Mantua 0-6-0 yard goat that arrived today. As you can see from the picture below it didn't take long for me to tear it apart (it is the engine sitting on the test track with its boiler askew). I did do a DC test and it seemed to run OK. Not great but OK. However it only has pickups on two tender wheels and this is NOT enough. I will be adding pickups to all tender wheels and to the engine's drivers. A quick measurement of the tender confirmed it will be a tight decoder and speaker installation.


In this picture #31 is at the bottom with the drive train assembly removed for application of the wire glue to the cam. The yard goat is sitting on the test track with its boiler removed. And the tender for #31 is sitting on a piece of track between the two. The yard goat's tender is in the black tray to the right of #31's tender. You can see some of the wire glue that came in the white bottle also seen in this picture on the wood strip in the middle of the picture.