Weekend Update 5/1/22

[spookshow]

I have always admired your drive for accurately (as realistically possible) model the 1:1 world.

Thanks, Peteski. We OCD types have to stick together 

-Mark

[peteski]

Thanks, Peteski. We OCD types have to stick together 

-Mark

Absolutely!   

[nkalanaga]

For the amount of trouble, maybe make the barrels from a wooden dowel, with paper lids, and wrap the whole thing in a piece of printed paper?  Put the seam in the back on the layout, and it might be easier than decaling.

(Should "decaling", "the application of decals", have one "L" or two?  Firefox says both ways are misspelled.)

[Sokramiketes]

3D printed kits for the ATSF mail container cars showed up for sale through eBay recently. I had a go at a couple.

Not bad. Printing is great with great surface finish. There are a couple oddities with the design choices, but unless you’re familiar with the prototype they look great.

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[OldEastRR]

Completed the express car conversion window patches with 0.010" styrene cut to fit.

Here's my NH version from the MTL  car: (in the old paint scheme)

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/29/2970-020522201345.jpeg[/img]

I used JB Weld epoxy to fill the window holes. put plastic on the outside of the car walls and tape down a stiff piece of styrene or cardboard to keep the plastic wrap flat and tight, Then mix  up the JB epoxy and fill in the windows from the inside. Do only one side at a time and let the epoxy set up hard before doing the other. Strip the stuff off the outside walls when the epoxy is hard.

For the door use a plain piece of sheet styrene. I made mine a little bigger than the opening so I could glue it in (the door is inset). For the window, use the glass from the smallest side windows (at the left end of the car in the picture)  as your square door window. Cutoff a single widow, use it to mark and cut out the square hole in the door.

Don't forget the driprail above the door  and  the  small tag board slot next to it (both made of thin styrene strip). Also cover the windows in the end doors.

My model has almost the same trucks as your proto picture. The Allied full Cushions went byebye in the'50s. If you want trucks like mine they're modified MTL BX Express trucks -- I shortened the extended tongue holding the coupler box. This is because I wanted truck mounts. If you go with body mounts, you can just cut off the coupler extension on the truck.

[apudelek]

@OldEastRR sounds like we had fairly similar ideas.  I thought about doing the epoxy or some kind of putty to plug the windows, but I went with the styrene backed with more styrene as an alternative...  Hoping that it has a nice appearance at the end result.

I picked up a pair of those MTL BX Express trucks at Des Plaines on Friday, so I'm already on top of that.  I'm going with a McGinnis scheme for mine, I did a bit of eyeballing/measurements and figured out the rough size of the monogram; turns out the size is close to a pair that's on the MicroScale NH Caboose decal set, so I'm going with those.  It might not be exact, but it's close enough for me and hopefully it'll turn out well.

Thanks for the reminder about the tag board... That's a 2 min addition for an important detail to the car's operation.

[Pomperaugrr]

I didn't get any modeling time Saturday or Sunday this weekend, but I did spend about 3 hours doing some more scenery along the fascia in the Canaan, CT area after work last evening.

This is an initial layer of scenery over the base paint and ground foam. I still need to add more weeds and bushes. I try to keep foreground scenery low, in front of industries and turnouts to allow operators to reach in to the scenes. Areas across the tracks, moving back, away from the fascia still need a lot of scenery work, which I will do next.

All of the industries will be the last to get detailed and weathered.
 
(1st looking south, 2nd looking north)
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[chuck geiger]

I watch the videos and read the posts here, this is undoubtedly one of the best layouts on our forum. 

[tehachapifan]

I watch the videos and read the posts here, this is undoubtedly one of the best layouts on our forum.

Yes, that looks spectacular!

[svedblen]

Stunning!

[davefoxx]

The U.S. semiquincentennial (250^th anniversary) is in 2026.  I wonder if the railroads will paint any motive power as cool as they did in the 1970s for the bicentennial:



DFF

Why yes, yes they did. 

Future DFF