Hi Bob, Bill;
For coupler springs I use an exacto knife blade
slipped between the spirals of the spring, but truck
springs probably require tweezers. If you do a lot of
this, try working in the open side of a cardboard box.
Line the box with an old towel to limit the bounce of
the spring. That way there are fewer directions the
spring can go if it slips. Place the bottom of the
spring where it belongs on the truck side frame, hold
gently with tweezers and use the tip of the knife
blade to gently compress the spring and prod it in
place.
For rejuvenating old scenery Dave Frary recommends
applying a new layer of ground cover over the old.
Vacuum gently, then soak the old ground cover with
dilute white glue or matt medium, sprinkle another
layer or two of scenery material and then spray with
water to draw up the glue. Protect track and any
buildings during the process. I guess trees could be
handled in a similar fashion, although it might be
best to remove them from the layout first.
Pieter Roos
--- Bob Werre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Bill, Chasing truck springs (or any kind of spring
> for that matter) is
> a pain! Can't help you there except remember to use
> a thread strung
> through the spring to retreive when they go flying.
> I generally use a
> tweezer that you have to hold down--it's very tiny
> so gripping a coupler
> spring isn't a problem. I have not tried Kadee's
> spring holder but it
> might be worth a try.
>
> Cleaning the cars and engines is something I've done
> a lot of. I have
> two solutions and both work quite well. First, I
> use a small room sized
> air cleaner. I get a soft brush, almost like a
> makeup brush, and dust
> the cars near the air cleaner and all the dust will
> get sucked into the
> filter. I will get a switcher with a few cars and
> pull them by the
> unit--not unlike taking a passenger train through
> the car wash!
>
> Second, go to MicroMark and purchase a mini vacuum
> cleaner attachment
> set--about $10. I have a small hand vacuum cleaner
> called a Red Devil,
> that's just barely powerful enough to lift dust--in
> other words it will
> not suck off ladders and other detail items. I do
> the same thing, pull
> the cars in small groups near the vacuum. The
> miniature attachments wll
> work for all kinds of uses. I use the same
> attachments in a Shop Vac
> (more powerful) to lift off excess ballast etc. I
> generally prefer the
> air cleaner method as the sound of a vacuum running
> for a couple of
> hours isn't much fun--the air cleaner is not quite
> so loud.
>
> The problem I'm come up against is the dust on the
> scenery. Some of it
> might be good to dull down the overly bright colors
> that we sometimes
> use. However, combine the dust with the fading of
> colors and we'll
> eventually have a overly gray scene. I have heard
> about using some
> spray cleaners but haven't tried anything yet. Some
> of my scenery is
> approaching 20 years old.
>
> Bob Werre
> BobWphoto.com
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