Weekeend Update 8-30-2009

[John]

Wow .. August is done already .. what you get done?

[altohorn25]

Ok, here's the finished NW2 project:

I fixed the stack color as well as the headlight enclosures (they should have been black as well).

Got a light coat of weathering on it as well.

I swapped out the kato couplers for MT 1015's.  The kato ones weren't coupling as well as I would like.

I did this caboose and another one similar to it a few weeks ago.  It is a JNJ kit and once you clean up the casting, it turns out to be a good model.

As soon as I get the decoder in the mail, I can play with it on the layout.

For your consideration.......

Nate Pierce

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[Ian MacMillan]

Not too much for me. I did a bunch of wiring down on the layout and started doing some base layers of scenery. I started most of the work around a warehouse district in the are of CP Tomah on the layout. Please excuse how the colors and how uniform the scenery looks as this is just the base layer and weathering and other materials have not been applied.



Shaws Supermarkets Warehouse


Mock up of billboards, cell towers and where the I-493 bridge is going to go.

[Guilford Guy]

That looks really nice, although there seems to be a lack of grass/weeds within the gauge on the industrial siding.

[wazzou]

Looks good Ian.  I'll have to assume that is what Conrail in that area looks like from clear out here in Washington.
You might need to let Ed waste a little Kettle One on those lokies though.

[Puddington]

ALCO...........synonomous with grime; smoke and sound..... regardless of the model; they were dirty; dusty deafening locomotives that many of us love to this day. The Montreal Locomotive Works built 100's under licence for the CNR and CPR - one of the most popular of the "Century" Series diesels were the C 424's....

Life Like did a credible model of the C 424 before they were "absorbed" by the Model RR Borg..... and Hobby Craft Canada slapped some Canadian road paint on a few; but they were not even close to the MLW units...... I didn't care - they were close enough for me.....



The differences to the Canadian prototypes are numerous; there are variations on the headlight; Canadian models had the lights on the lower nose; while US counterparts had high mounted lights. The car body filters were quickly changed to a "quad" pattern that made the MLW units very distinctive; the bell was engineer side mounted on the body; the horns were brought to the front, center of the cab; and later moved "a mid ships".... and the most obvious spotting feature was the split duel fuel tanks.....

Life Like's model didn't cut it.....but what to do ?

On a trip to Montreal I came across a small conversion kit by "Transport 2000"; the same guy who does the nifty plows and Jordans in my photo gallary. The kit had a few resin parts.... a starting place for a "closer to prototype" C 424.....

Here's a link to the "protptype"  4219....http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cp/cp4219ajf.jpg

Here's the model.......



This dirty bird is one of the second delivery of the 424 (the first being a one unit order from Alco itself.)and has many of the aforementioned features; the quad car body filters are "cut into" the frame. The split fuel tanks are a modification to the Life Like casting. The headlight change; bell and other parts are all brass... only the rear of the unit is un altered; the MLW units didn't have the tapered flair at the end..... just didn't want to cut into the model anymore than I had.....



All the normal details have been applied like MU's; handrails have been painted; weathering a plenty applied and various parts added.... all in all a somewhat reasonable replica of the CP Rail MLW unit......



The units look fine; albeit they don't pull great - but a couple of these units lashed up would be a fine addition to the active roster and would bring that Alco-MLW "dirty-grimy-smokey feel" to the Puddington Valley sub.......

[John]

Ian .. what you make the ware house out of?  Styrene?

[Catt]

Nothing to brag about unless actually making progress on the home layout counts,Still nothing photo worthy tho.

[Dave V]

I managed to update my signature block...

[kiwi_al]

I managed to rearrange an NW2 to be more like an EMC SC,...................... so not finished!!! ;D ;D



I'm in the middle of modifying the mechanism. A lot of work left to do!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wow, I have been slacking! Awesome stuff everyone.

Ian, is that the cell tower by the brick building? I'd think it'd be in that big grassy field instead.

[Chris333]

Few weeks ago out of nowhere I decided to get a Z scale layout together.




and now

[James Costello]

Got the airbrush out and started painting the SD70Ms. Had a few dramas along the way and I'm not happy with the results, so I'll probably strip them and start again.  :'(
I'll need some advice, so look for photos in another thread.

Ian and Chris, nice work on your layouts!

[GaryHinshaw]

Oh great, I get to follow Chris...   That warehouse scene looks great Ian!

I've been taking advantage of the housing slump to refurbish some centerbeams.  Specifically, I hit the Red Caboose moving sale a few months ago and picked up some of the open-panel and single-panel flats that had become somewhat scarce in the shops:



The only problem with them is that they are slightly foobic: first, the wheelbase is too short and the ride height is too high, as this before & after comparison shows:



(My lowering of the ride height stopped at the line between minor and major surgery.)  Also, the end bulkhead detail is not quite right, with the top flange being the most noticeable error (it's correct for the opera window flats though), so I shaved it off and added a grab iron:




I also managed to get another batch of containers finished off with door detail, some weathering, and magnets (for stacking).  Here's a mix of finished and stock models:



Finally, I took a trip to Pittsburgh this week to drop my son off at college and on the way back a spent a day following the NS line from Pittsburgh to Altoona.  That was fun.

[GaryHinshaw]

Got the airbrush out and started painting the SD70Ms. Had a few dramas along the way and I'm not happy with the results, so I'll probably strip them and start again.  :'(

I feel your pain.  I had the same thing happen with a pair of ARMN reefers I was detailing.  The final white coat came out looking like s&!t, so now they're sitting in a drawer waiting for my enthusiasm to return.   >  But it will some day -- yours too.