Weekend Update 7/5/2009

[John]

Well, another week. Hope everyone in the U.S. had a good 4th of July Holiday. While it has been a tough week with the news that Gregg passed, life does go on. I finished installing the block detectors on the upper level of the layout, and started working on a JMRI panel.

[up1950s]

Beaver Logging Co 165-167 wood chip/block side door gondola's .

[Scott Lupia]

I finally managed to finish my Harlem Transfer 44 tonner. I added the usual details. Not many as usual, though, as Bachmann has done most of the work for me. The Digitrax decoder I installed really makes this thing crawl.

Unfortunately, I lost a good pet and old friend this morning. She would have loved kicking this 44 tonner around the floor when I wasn't looking.

Scott

[BCR 570]

I have just joined and this is my first post.  

Scott:  Very nice 44 tonner.  May I ask who makes those figures?

The layout lighting for the upper and lower decks along the north wall of my layout room has been installed and tested.  This includes the new helix canopy (nearest the camera) which was able to accommodate a set of 31" light bars.  The top canopies are on the left and the upper deck benchwork is on the right, all upside down of course:



I hope to be able to bring these five sections home and re-hang them this week.


I have also completed several new trailer models.  First up is a grocery trailer for the Scott National Ltd. warehouse at Dawson Creek.  I went for the plain Jane look - this is a Micro-Trains 40 foot van painted white with just a number, and a good dose of weathering to simulate the accumulation of dirt on the dusty northern roads.  Here it is spotted outside Scott's:




I used Microscale decals for the lights and reflectors:




I wanted a highway tractor/trailer which suggested British Columbia and nothing says it as strongly as Van-Kam Freightways Ltd.  This is a Herpa tractor and TH Models 40 foot Can-Car van trailer with custom decals:






I had a spare Micro-Trains 45 foot van trailer lying around and decided to do a slightly more modern Van-Kam rig for my intermodal diorama.  The tractor comes from Atlas:




Once again I used the Microscale placard holders, lights and reflectors.  I also segmented the rear decal to give the appearance of being behind the door rods:




Thanks for looking,

Tim

[skytop35]

Heavyweights have been a hot topic lately and I just happen to be working on a couple for commuter service. This ex-sleeper needed a roof with A/C vents so I modified the roof from the observation car and made some crude resin castings. This was my first attempt at a large two part mold and it was a fun learning experience. Still need to add hand grabs and window glass/shades but I'm slowly getting there.

[Scott Lupia]

Thanks guys, the figures are labelle figures.

scott

[asciibaron]

i looked at my layout/mess - does that count

[Caleb Austin]

Not any progress on the layout this week. To busy being on summer vacation. :

I did manage to make this this pic...

[Guilford Guy]

Experimenting with B&W photography...

[central.vermont]

I think you should stick with color!!!  ;D

Jon

[Chris333]

My 44T puttering around doing laps.

[Guilford Guy]

I think you should stick with color!!!  ;D

Jon

Unless you can provide proof that the world was actually colorful before Kodachrome, I will maintain my beliefs! ;D

[NS-CRE]

On Friday, one of my dedicated crew members came over and helped solder feeders to yard and industrial tracks on Version Two of my Charleston, Roanoke & Eastern Railway.  After the work was done, we had some fun and experimented with running a loaded coal train with pushers over the railroad, including the 2.5% grade over the Alleghenies.

I have built with Atlas Code 55 flex and turnouts (#7 and #10 on the mainline).  The 24-car coal train came straight out of the storage box from Version One (built with Code 80 trackage) and thus had Micro Trains trucks, couplers, and "pizza cutters."  All of the cars were all Atlas three-bay hoppers with extra weight (about 1.5 ounces per car) to force the use of pushers on the previous version of the railroad.  I'm happy to report that we had no issues running with pizza cutters on the Code 55.  Yes, there was a little clicking if we listened REALLY closely but the trio of Atlas SD60's made more noise than the cars did.  We were also running at an appropriately slow speed for mountain railroading.

Although the plan is to convert everything to low profile metal wheelsets, I was happy to see that we will be able to successfully operate in the short-term without converting everything.  After all the horror stories I've read, it was a pleasant surprise and relief that everything ran just fine as it was.  That may not be everyone's experience, but it certainly was for my 150 feet of mainline (so far).

Marcus
www.kntower.com

[chuck geiger]

Not any progress on the layout this week. To busy being on summer vacation. :

I did manage to make this this pic...

Nice work...lovin' the progress, video last weekend was great.

[James Costello]

Got the train room cleaned up, put all my uni books away and cleared off the work bench.

I was meaning to re-start work on the SD70Ms, but got distracted by some domestic containers  :