Weekend Update 8/30/26

[up1950s]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJ2YIAsRGUS/

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https://www.123rf.com/photo_117572156_old-train-models-assembled-with-scrap-iron-and-steel-devices.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/modeltrains/comments/1qozl8b/notable_people_in_the_us_model_train_community/

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/dead-end-track?dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

https://www.facebook.com/TheTrueRailBrothers/videos/turn-the-volume-all-the-way-up-for-this-one-history-was-absolutely-made-on-the-g/999482029392966/

[Sumner]

I spent a few hours with Fusion and came up with this N scale model of a passenger shelter.  It was a RR one but could probably be used for a bus shelter or a shed.


 

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I printed parts separate and whole above to see what might be best with the Bambu A1 printer. Whole seemed to work even though it was a little bit of a job to remove the supports up inside the shelter.

 

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I beefed the deck up a little after this print and haven't made another one yet.

You can find the print files for this buildings on my thingiverse account ( HERE )

You can find a couple hundred other items that you can print on my website ( HERE )

Sumner

[davefoxx]

It’s purely coincidental, but it’s amazing to me that in the 250th anniversary year of the U.S. and on the same weekend as the celebration at the North Carolina Transportation Museum with all the semiquincentennial locomotives in town, I received an exhibit car from BLI, completing my SCL/ATSF/SLSF bicentennial train that ran from Richmond, California, to Richmond, Virginia, in late 1972.  Only fifty years late!



The prototype:



Thanks to Atlas, Walthers, and Broadway Limited Imports!  One of the reasons that I moved to HO scale almost ten years ago was when Atlas announced the U36B with DCC/sound and in bicentennial paint.  My favorite locomotive.  I never dreamed that I would have a model of the entire exhibit train, and I still cannot believe that these manufacturers offered these pieces for such a unique and relatively uncelebrated train.

DFF

[BCR 570]

My scenery work at Septimus continues with some backdrop experimentation.  I had a composite image from Google Earth printed at 135" long so I could position it on the backdrop to see what it would look like.

At this location we are looking east across the Pine River valley to the hills south of Taylor and Fort St. John:








I think that the hills need to be a bit lower yet.  My goal is to try and project this image so I can trace it and paint it.  I would then add painted trees closer to the right-of-way, and some model trees at either end where space permits.  The Aspens in the photos above would be an inch lower when planted, and they would be green for summer.


I also finished building the last two coaches for the museum train.  These are ex-American Freedom Train coaches purchased by the BC Government in 1977 and renamed ENDEAVOUR and BRITANNIA.  Since my last post a week or so ago I added American Limited diaphragms and Micro-Trains couplers:






I am also working on Consolidation 3716 to power the train.  This week's work included removal of the drivers to re-gauge the wheels.  All of the driving sets are too narrow against the NMRA gauge:




A Maxon wheel puller was used to move the drivers a little further apart:




So far I have successfully removed, re-gauged and re-installed driver sets #2, #3 and #4.  This is driver set #3 now matching the NMRA gauge:




Now comes the big challenge - removing driver set #1.


Tim

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Working on some new nonsense...

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[packers#1]

I took yesterday and Monday off work originally to go down to Charleston with my wife to see some people and go to the beach for the day, but she’s been fighting a nasty cold all week so we wound up staying home. However I’m keeping my days off in because I need a break! As such, I spent yesterday swapping in the #6 switch for the #8 on the fertilizer plant spur. With that cut in and wired I also laid out the road for Main Street and crossing the fertilizer plant lead. I added a slight curve to make sure there’s enough space for two plastics hoppers on the transload spot.





I took this photo before adding the curve to the road, but I think you can really see the vision here. I’m going to add a bit more foam to the front of the short shelf so I can model more of the road, in particular where the house driveway comes off. The idea here isn’t a “Main Street” per se but one of the side streets leading away from Main Street and downtown out to the country.

[haasmarc]

I'm working on an HO Flagstaff depot for a friends layout.  Still have a ways to go but it's getting there.

[Jesse6669]

Some excellent stuff this week.  Marc, that station is a real beauty, very impressive.  Ed, I think I have photos of 8097 somewhere.. number rang a bell.

I finished up this structure, a modified Archistories kit.  More details are in the Layout Engineering Report. 


It's meant to represent this building. 


I also picked up this mouse pad, which is an AI generated "pencil drawing" of a photo I took back in 1980 in Somerset, PA.  It's in keeping with some other Western Maryland art I've been working on, but that's a story for another day.
 

[Dave V]

Just about finished with my PRR Granville Bridge T-TRAK module. The Juniata River here is acrylic gloss medium (and not completely dry).



If you're wondering why the change is riverbed color from black to brown and why there isn't a deep pour of Woodland Scenics Realistic Water (as was the plan), I'll be writing that up in my layout engineering report. I've given WS Realistic Water a chance on four different layouts and had problems in every application. So, no more...gloss medium from now on!