My Kingdom for a Z scale Re 6/6 - part 5

All 'looking' good, but now, how to actually get a speeding Rokuhan loco to run with a slower Marklin one...

I read on the magic interweb that you can take about .7 volts out of a wire using a diode, so 4 were soldered up in pairs and this did indeed slow the loco down a tad - enough that they run fairly comfortably together.

Experimenting:

As installed:

Then after some track cleaning, run-testing commenced. The first issue was the clearances between raised pantographs vs tunnel portals - this was quickly resolved.

As feared, the next problem was some uncoupling from the Re 6/6 on tight curves due to the long overhang of its body-mounted couplers. This was mitigated somewhat by clipping the wee 'uncoupling' nub from the underside of the coupler - on the sharpest curves this was hitting the outer rail and upsetting things.

But uncoupling remains somewhat of a problem, primarily vs the Marklin Re 4/4, as that loco is running slower and gets pushed in places, with its bogie-mounted coupler following the track line and the 6/6's sticking way out beyond the curve.

As an experiment, I put the 6/6 in front and because the 6/6 is a tad faster, the pair runs very well together with no uncoupling issues detected. Arguably the loco combination looks better too (from a distance!), as the 6/6 is a little taller than it should be. But of course this isn't what had been planned... is the 6/6 a good enough model to lead? I suppose it could be made to look a little better with more filling, painting and detailing of the nose, plus the installation of a pilot to replace the front coupler.

The other issue that has to be dealt with somehow is that my 'raised' pantos need to be lowered further to clear the fairly tight spiral in the south hill above the Wassen church just beyond where the above video stops...!

My Kingdom for a Z scale Re 6/6 - part 4

In February, when we last left the Frankenstein Re 6/6 - which you may recall was bashed out of a Marklin Ae 6/6 shell on top of a Rokuhan chassis -  it had a couple of issues to be resolved.

• The chassis runs too fast to mate up with a Marklin Re 4/4
• The Japanese prototype chassis has shorter wheelbase bogies so the thing looks a little airy underneath
• It has no pantographs (spare Marklin ones were balanced on top for pictures last time)
• The chassis has Rapido-style couplers, and I need to mate this to a Marklin Re 4/4 somehow
• The roof is a tiny bit too long, overhanging the front face slightly (mainly at one end)

Tackling these in reverse order.... The overhanging roof was something that was always going to bug me, so both roof ends were attacked with a Dremel and files to shave a tiny bit of material off, and repainted/weathered.

You can also see panto stands made from plastruct ladder on the roof

The coupling situation was resolved (hopefully!) with the arrival of Rokuhan snap-in Markin-style couplers. None of this Z scale stuff is close coupling, but as the 6/6 couplers are body mounted, it probably helps that the shafts are a little long. Hopefully...!

The original Rapido-style coupler circled in the above pic.

Pantographs were folded up and glued on top, and some boxes added between the bogies to fill the spaces somewhat. The real Re 6/6 has these boxes on one side and air reservoirs on the other, but I put boxes on both sides. As they are 'thin' in depth there is less risk of them getting in the way of the bogies moving about than thick round air tanks.

So that leaves one remaining issue :

• The chassis runs too fast to mate up with a Marklin Re 4/4

But we will leave that for another day.

Two more 4/4s under the fuzzy microscope

Two more Re 4/4 shells have been undergoing a touchup in fits and starts, with a silver roof, painted front step, replacement etched pantos and some weathering on top completed so far.

Reprinted a/c units are yet to be added. These cellphone pictures reveal all the inaccuracies that my naked eye can't detect - must adjust some of the bends on the pantos on those two. Not that these details are so noticeable when viewing trains running around a layout from the federally-mandated viewing distances...

As I have five 4/4s,  I think the next one that crosses my desk will be weathered more heavily, and there are plenty of possibilities for the last shell.

One 4/4 will be paired up with the 6/6, so that leaves either two pairs, or a triple plus a single I guess. Either way that is three sets, so two more chassis need to be worked to eliminate a coupler.