Weekeend Update 8-30-2009

[AlkemScaleModels]

Lee,

Whose camera did you use for your shots at Bernie's?  Don't tell me that my camera has met Bernie and witnessed some of his incredible work, but I haven't yet!

Dave

Dave,

Not only are you welcome to visit, I'll put you too work. I am looking for freight car kit building volunteers. Unfortunately, the C&O modules are in my storage loft, but we might be able to get 'em down for a C&O modeler.


What Lee didn't show is the "great" backdrop debate. I am trying to decide how to proceed with the remaining 60 feet of back drop. Hand paint or make computer prints on vinyl. I'll be posting the latest photos on my blog later http://usmrr.blogspot.com. 

[tehachapifan]

Love the street running Russ!  Is that based on Sebastopol?

Yes! This section was heavily inspired by Sebastopol, CA, when it still had street-running back in the 80's. ;D

Can you tell me how you modeled the roads?

I like to use "Smooth-It" from Woodland Scenics for the pavement itself. I try to add enough "Asphalt Top Coat" in when I'm mixing it with water (a departure from the directions) so that it is pre-colored and I don't have to paint it afterwards. I prefer this to just painting the surface after it dries so that the color isn't easily rubbed off with track cleaning, etc, and you end up with a white spot. This time I didn't add enough pigment and it came out too light, so I ended up painting the surface after all with a couple of washes of the Asphalt Top Coat (I don't typically use it full-strength except for some patches here and there).

I also use plastic strips to build forms for the roadway. I use forms that come out a little lower than the height of the railheads so theres a slight crown for drainage. I then use a spackle knife to screed the Smooth-It between the railheads and the forms. It may take several passes with the spackle knife, a scap piece os styrene and even my fingers to render a reasonably-smooth pavement surface.

I clear the flangeways first with an old set of before the Smooth-It set up. Then I carefully clean it up with a tiny screwdriver and a scrap piece of sheet styrene on end that was the thickness I want. Once dry but not completely cured, I'll start test-running locomotives to look for trouble spots (which there will be). I'll then work on clearing the flangeway more in that area with the tiny screwdriver, the sheet stryrene on end, or even an occasional fingernail.

I find that Smooth-It is an exceptional product for this application and it does not shrink or crack like joint compound can. It also comes out a little softer when dry than Fix-All (what I used to use) so it's more quiet when trains roll by and it's easier to work on a flangeway if you find a trouble spot after it cures.

Russ

[davefoxx]

Dave,

Not only are you welcome to visit, I'll put you too work. I am looking for freight car kit building volunteers. Unfortunately, the C&O modules are in my storage loft, but we might be able to get 'em down for a C&O modeler.

Wow, Bernie!  Thanks for the invitation.  I will definitely take you up on that opportunity.  Now, tell me more about this volunteer work of freight car kit building.  Since I no longer have a layout to work on, I'm jonesing to do something, anything, that I could post on SNFF.

Dave

[AlkemScaleModels]

Dave,

Not only are you welcome to visit, I'll put you too work. I am looking for freight car kit building volunteers. Unfortunately, the C&O modules are in my storage loft, but we might be able to get 'em down for a C&O modeler.

Wow, Bernie!  Thanks for the invitation.  I will definitely take you up on that opportunity.  Now, tell me more about this volunteer work of freight car kit building.  Since I no longer have a layout to work on, I'm jonesing to do something, anything, that I could post on SNFF.

Dave

All the freight cars for the O Scale layout have to be built from kits, including the trucks. I have developed two kits so far, a box car and a flat car.  They are laser cut. I am looking for some folks interested in building some to "kick start" the process. Lee has "volunteered"  to do some.  I still need to do an instruction sheet and get the outside parts on hand, then I'll be ready to farm some out. 

I'll take care of the painting and lettering.   If you are interested please PM.

I am committed to an op session next spring. I expect that I'll need about 40 cars for the ops session, with perhaps 60 as the fleet total. I have 5 cars down do far. They take about 6 - 8 hours  to build each.

[Hiroe]

Wow, looking good so far.

Bernie, I'd be up for trying my hand at one each of the boxes and flats. Likely they'll get 'test run' over at Cherry Valley, which you're welcome to stop by at. (Actually, anyone who wants to is welcome; we normally meet Tuesday evenings at around 6:30pm. Merchantville NJ for idea of distance, PM me for directions. I have keys for private showings too, if Tuesdays are no good.)

This weekend, i finished up the installation of new pickups, decoder, and switch/relays for catenary operation in Kermit's MP54's:





The switch chooses between 2-rail and catenary running. The relays allow the unit to choose the proper return rail when running on cat, and can change rails fast enough to compensate for running around the automatic reversing loops.

Naturally, i had to give them a few "test runs" when i was finished:




$deity i can't wait to get started on stringing wire.

--Drew

[BCR 570]

Lee:

Love the bumper sticker!

Tim

[wm3798]

Eep!  Which one?

[N_DaveS]

OK, most of the work was done the previous weekend but I only managed to get the photos taken this week. The benchwork is basically finished, and I scribbled a bit about it here: http://p4500.blogspot.com/2009/08/layout-update-6-actual-visible-progress.html

Getting the FA/B set has given me more impetus to get some track down so I can run them!

Dave

[lock4244]

Looks good Pud. Too bad Hobbycraft said one thing and did another with the C424. They claimed they'd be accurate to the Canadian prototypes, then just painted the US model for Cdn roads. Then said they'd correct them and get it right on the second release, then just painted the US models again! I'd love an accurate MLW C424, but there's alot of work in getting them right... like the headlights you've mentioned, but also the rearend of the CP units (except 4200/8300) with the sharp edge instead of the boxy number boards. And the fuel tanks need work and it seems you did a very credible job on that... what's the secret behind that, Pud? Alot of filing?

[bicknell]

I spent the weekend installing some photographic backdrops on my NTrak modules.



I really like the finished product, I think they work particularly well for photos you want to post online.



I made a video about the installation, take a look over at my blog, www.realityreduced.com

[AlkemScaleModels]

I spent the weekend installing some photographic backdrops on my NTrak modules.

That stone viaduct high on the hill reminds me of the Scottish Railway that Julia Bradury covers in her railway walks DVD. The name escapes me right now though.

[wm3798]

There's also an old abandoned stone arch down along 81, I think around Harrisonburg or someplace, that was once on the B&O's Shenandoah Valley line...  If I recall correctly, you can see it from the highway on the west side.

Add some paint and weathering to that bridge and you'll have a very nice scene there, Leo.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Leo's actually doing something really cool there by using the "mountain line" as the primary scenic focus. I've seen a number of modules that do that, or at least give it a really good treatment, and I've always liked the approach. It allows for pass-through "display running" down below and still lets you have a single track main.

It's actually the approach I took with my onetrak adapter module about 7 years ago.


In that photo, it's holding the wrong onetrak module, but I think it conveys the direction I was going quite well.

[Puddington]

Looks good Pud. Too bad Hobbycraft said one thing and did another with the C424. They claimed they'd be accurate to the Canadian prototypes, then just painted the US model for Cdn roads. Then said they'd correct them and get it right on the second release, then just painted the US models again! I'd love an accurate MLW C424, but there's alot of work in getting them right... like the headlights you've mentioned, but also the rearend of the CP units (except 4200/8300) with the sharp edge instead of the boxy number boards. And the fuel tanks need work and it seems you did a very credible job on that... what's the secret behind that, Pud? Alot of filing?

Thanks - Yes; it is seriously disappointing to see that Hobby Craft just slapped the paint on - there is a serious amount of work if one wants to get really prototypically close. The move of the head light to the lower nose is simple (I never bother to move the lamp, as I don't really care, but it's not that hard if you want to mill the frame) but that leaves a flat section between the number boards. CPR roadnumbers 4201 to 4232 had the flat section - models after that had a pointed peak that would be a real challenge to recreate.

The car body filters (which were not standard on all models and were gradually brought in on the phase 1 models) and the fuel tank modification came for a nifty little kit from a Quebec based outfit called "Train Collection 2000" available at Dorval's Hobby Junction (a very, very good n scale shop near Trudeau airport) These guys make plows and Jordans as well and they are great. The parts were resin casts and only needed some minor cleaning - I have tried to make fuel tanks before and it's a pain - although it can be done.

The rear modifications would be "filling, filling, filling"....I looked long and hard at ir and the way they built the shell, I'd have had a real hard time matching the prototype and maintaining the correct lines - a better modeler could attempt it....

The modifications I made capture many of the Canadian prototype's spotting features and that's an improvement over the Hobby Craft offering.... now if someone could correct the fuel tanks on the True Line RS 10's and 18's.... that's got me buffalo'd............

[SirTainly]

Taking advantage of the long weekend, I finally got back to doing some railroad modelling (makes a change from working weekend for no extra money! ). I revisited one of the BCOL woodchip cars that I bought when I was in Vancouver, and substituted the cast weight, which looked rough, for a piece of steel (a repair plate). This has the advantage of adding weight, slightly less then the supplied white metal one, but also straightens out the warped plastic chassis. Since the steel isn't quite long enough I levelled out the floor with filler and pieces of styrene, and then added bracing made from plastic strip.