The moment a bunch of people have been waiting for. The horn is mounted!

That is very cool. I've seen similar ones running tracks around El Dorardo County in Northern California. They appear to be some sort of club that runs up and down the tracks.

It's probably either NARCOA or more likely the West Coast Railroaders Group: https://www.westcoastrailroadersgroup.com/

Little bit of an image dump. During and after pics of the fresh yellow paint. I have to touch up the roof since the painters tape ripped the paint off of it. All that's left after will be painting the floors, fenders and wheels. After that is a pic from the rail trail club and then the new sign for the back of my trailer since I get lots of "WTF is that?" questions

Very cool. A NARCOA group out of Iowa will be out riding on our rails in Central KS next weekend.

I've been a little bit lax about posting updates. This past weekend was a mentoring day for NARCOA where they run through all the requirements to qualify you to run on their excursions. The following day was an excursion on the Milford & Bennington RR from Wilton, NH to Bennington NH. About 30 miles or so. All in all it was a great weekend. There was a hiccup at the beginning of the excursion when my car wouldn't start, and guys converged on it and came up with a part to get it fixed and running before the start.

Really looks good...Quite the impressive restoration effort in a very short time! That thing would still be partially (or mostly!) disassembled in my garage! You are to be commended, Sir!

We'd sure love to hear that horn though...

quote:

There was a hiccup at the beginning of the excursion when my car wouldn't start, and guys converged on it and came up with a part to get it fixed and running before the start.

Groups like that make the hobby fun, looks like the car behind yours is a similar make/model?

Does the engine section on yours get a cover like the one behind it with a grill or does it remain open?

Paint looks great and the horns are a nice touch!

I should be able to get a video of the horn tomorrow when I take it for another ride.

quote:

Groups like that make the hobby fun, looks like the car behind yours is a similar make/model?

Does the engine section on yours get a cover like the one behind it with a grill or does it remain open?

If you're referring to the orange one in the photo next to the highway I believe that one is an M9 which is basically the same as my M19 just not as long. If you're referring to the first photo, that one is an MT19 which has a transmission and 4 stroke engine vs my 2 stroke. The MT series have the cover the M series do not. I think it's because of how the radiator is for the M series.


If you guys saw the paint up close you wouldn't be complimenting it haha

I forgot that I do have a quick video of the horn. Since it was vertical youtube uploaded it as a short which prevents me from embedding it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/f-V...?si=VaQs0n_-TGmkbaAU

I also put an old style sealed beam rotating beacon on it as well.

I'm just thinking out loud here. If that railroad speeder was mine, I would want several lengths of rails spiked onto ties in my driveway.
Wouldn't that be better than boards?
That would also reduce the distance from the bed of your trailer to the ground, which should make loading/unloading much easier!

^^^ Trust me if I could get away with it I would


Here is the horn fully working:

^^^THAT.IS.AWESOME!!! ...

Thanks!

Here are a few photos from the other day. Taking it for a spin and enjoying the start of the foliage and testing out the fixed horn setup. I have a bell hopefully coming next week for it.

Small update. Added an electronic bell. I'm hoping to get an actual pneumatic bronze bell for it soonish but we'll see what happens. In the meantime this will do.

That bell is awesome, noticed the oil/dirt/grease stains above the wheels, presume it kicks it up from the rails? Do they have flaps you can install to stop that, don't want it messing up that nice paint!

It's actually from the bearings. It kind of just is what it is. It cleans off fairly easily.

Not sure if it was answered but are the tracks abandoned?
How do you schedule an excursion like that on working tracks?

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
It's actually from the bearings. It kind of just is what it is. It cleans off fairly easily.

Interesting, so no sealed bearings, Thought it might be from schmutz and stuff on tracks like on a wet fall day...

It's a cool project, and you've done a great job with it since buying the car...