During a visit to Dallas in the '80s, I purchased SILVER CHARGER and
the three cars of the GP ZEPHYR directly from Bobbye Hall ("HALLmark")
just a few days after she had received delivery from KMT, and right up
front she told me that she had discovered that it would not pull
itself out of a paper bag. Well, I loved the prototype, the set was
very attractive, the price was right, and I purchased it. Today this
set, now significantly enhanced, is a popular regular on my layout,
and it works quite well in all respects.
As has been noted by other listers, the lack of sufficient weight over
the single forward power truck was the Achilles Heel. The weight
issue was solved by the careful fitting of layered tailored pieces of
sheet lead into the nose closely above, below, and in slot-fashion
back of the large cab windows. The new weights extended to the rear to
encase the motor and gear tower. The lead was painted a flat black to
maintain the illusion of a large "empty" cab space windows. This
illusiong was greatly helped along by cementing in appropriate
position a pair of colorful truncated -literally- crew members..
This was and still is a very effective fix, both operationally and
visibly. The total weight providing traction to the power truck was
now 1.253 lbs and the locomotive could and did pull the three brass
cars not only around a number of other layouts, but eventually also on
my own, with one long grade of about 1.7%.
I went on to continue other operational upgrades:
Mechanical:
1) New NWSL worm and drive gears within the power truck.
2) Using the same upgrade gears, the drive was converted from two axle
to three axle (perhaps not as important as one might think).
3) New can motor connected to the gear tower by a new NWSL drive line.
Electrical:
1) Conversion to "all wheel" electrical pickup for power and trailing
trucks.
2) Wiring for both Mars and main headlights.
Electronic:
1) Conversion to DCC and sound with a Soundtraxx DSX decoder. In
part, a Tsunami might be better- particularly the horns- but I have
not yet felt the need to perform this upgrade. Gear noise (from
exposed KMT gear tower) is present but not enough to yet be
distracting. The overall effect of the sound is in a word- terrific.
Detailing:
1) Conversion to close coupling, with added steam and brake hose
detailing on the aft end of the observation.
2) Painting over the plated underbody and truck detailing with flat
silver. Painting over cooling screens high on nose with gloss black.
3) Microscale decals, including the unusual ALTON BURLINGTON herald
that 9908 wore on its nose at least for a awhile.
4) Full detailed interiors and windows.
Yet to be done:
1) Truck upgrades, side frame detailing. The A-1-A side frames are a
reasonable do with a number currently available high quality plastic
possibilities. The rest of the trucks are a problem inasmuch as no one
has yet produced the basic truck model on which these distinctive
trucks were based, i.e. altered side frames for disc brakes -the very
first in production cars.
2) Truck upgrades, rollability: The plain cylindrical bearinged wheel
sets roll like stone sleds in deep sand. The usual Reboxx wheel
upgrades will not work to improve rollability, but the ball bearing
wheel sets might do so (pretty pricey).
3) Conversion of the Walthers working narrow diaphragms to the Coach
Yard full width diaphragms. This holds a lot of promise, and I am
only waiting on opportunity to attempt this attractive upgrade.
All in all, the Hallmark GENERAL PERSHING ZEPHYR can be upgraded into
a thoroughly attractive, reliable and operationally useful scale model
motor train. The upgrades mentioned are fairly simple, straight
forward and do not require more than average modeling skills and
patience.
Denny
Denny S. Anspach MD
Sacramento
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