Weekend Update - 11-23-08

[3rdrail]

Another Sunday afternoon on The RailWire. Who's got anything to share from the past week? Photos appreciated, too.

[Puddington]

As we await the kick off the the Grey Cup game between Montreal and Calgary I'm running this week's latest finished project - the "GN Winnipeg Club".... ( Go Al's........... eat dem' Stamppeesssssssss raw !!!)



This is only the second brass side passenger car I have ever attempted - the first was NOT a success....this one was better....

Brass side cars are different - you have to kind of work backward - the frame; ends and roof have to be built first; painted first and the interior has to be inserted first... more about that in a minute.

The sides are good to work with - but time consuming. Layers are the way to go - paint a thin layer; wait and let dry; paint a layer... you get the idea. The sides took 6 days and that's only a two colour mask....Brass also likes dust - you need to wipe everything just before painting..

The sides; once finished can then be decaled; gloss coated and the you can put in windows and shades etc.... last are the grabs - whoever told me that brass is soft needs their head examined - I broke a few number 78 drill bits.... oh well....

The Amercian Limted Core Kit I had was missing the end spacers so we "Macgivered" some - adding the sides is easy but nerve wracking because you are working with two things that should never work together... CA adhesive and a finsihed, painted side.... one errant finger tip with a dab of CA on it and you have cause to use very colourful language.....trust me.

You really have to be sure you've done this project in the right order bacause if you discover you've missed something that requires getting back into the car you are about to have a really bad day... say a missing window shade; a missing end door or the desire to use a screw and nut to attach trucks..... you get the picture and NOW I do too............

The car weighs a "ton" and tracks very well. I used small self tapping screws to attach the trucks ( due to the situation described in the previous paragraph...) (MT's of course) and the car runs great - even better with the lo pro's.............



The "Winnipeg Club" was a Great Northern 8-2  Duplex Sleeper - Lounge/Club  car that was used exclusively (in the real world) on the GN Winnipeg Limited. It was a modifed Duplex sleeper (around the mid 1950's) - the end rooms and roomettes were removed and a club area and lounge were installed; a clever idea for a smaller; less populated route like the St. Paul - Winnipeg route. She had a sister called the "Manitoba Club".

I do not know if she ever made it into Big Sky Blue - I haven't been able to find a picture of her in Omaha Orange and Pullman Green let alone a BSB shot ! But in "my world" she has and she's coming west with the CPR to join up with the rest of her consist for the yearly Great Northern special the "Stampeder" (Seattle-Spokane- Calgary; via Puddington Valley) for the Calgary Stampede.....daily service during the July 2 week event !) (Ya, I know - it's a foobie named train but what the hey, it "could have/should have happened...LOL)

I enjoyed building her and have a few more GN brass side cars to add to the "Stampeder" - I have learned a lot.....

[wm3798]

Speaking of Great Northern...  I just wrapped up a decoder job for a fellow up in Minnesota, don'tchaknow... Well, he says so I hear ya install some of them decoders, is that right? and I says, well yah, I been known to solder a couple wires together here and there, and so he says well how about I send you a couple of engines, then? and I says well that sounds like it could keep me busy for a bit, yah? and he says yah. So next thing I know there's this knock on the door and wouldn'tcha know it? it's the post man and he wants me to sign for this box, yah see.  So I signs for it and when I open her up well right there is the same engines this feller up north told me he was going to send down, so I says to the wife, well whatdya know? And she says what's that, and I say well this fella from up north sent me these engines to work on for him, yah? and she says, yah, so why don't you go up to the train room so you can get those decoder rings put in, and I says they aren't decoder rings, they're just decoders, yah? and she says, yah whatever.
So anyways, I grind a few frames out in the shed, and sit down to wire some decoders and such and here's what I come up with...

First there's this RS-2 from Life Like, it takes a drop in, so I treat the guy right and don't charge him full price, then.


Then there's this pair of Life Like FA's.


And this little beauty, an Atlas torpedo tube Geep 7.


And we finished up replacing some boiler tubes and a crown sheet in this Union Pacific consolidation.  Not really, just put a decoder in just like all the others.

So I'm packing them up to send back up north here in the next day or so. 

Lee

[up1950s]

[Puddington]

Lee: .....replacing boiler tubes.? Interesting cottage industry...LOL I'm glad it's you grinding down $ 100.00 loco's, not me !!! Richie..........I actually was waiting for you to do exactly what you just did - given your work the last few months it "just had to happen"... nice job on a very small model..and I mean "small".....and you made two... 78 and 79.... yesh !

[DKS]

Well it may not look like much, but it's taken a week's worth of spare time to assemble this access panel. Most of the work went into the irregular edges along the right, which match the contours of rock molds. Once the rock molding is done, I can begin building the farm, starting with the barn and house seen in the photo. More about the farm is here: http://jamesriverbranch.net/project_24.htm

[TrainCat2]

I got the master finished for the first in my new Marine series, a 90ft River Barge. It will be a one piece casting with cast pewter cleats. Also started on the Towboat for the Barges. Should have some photos of that next week.

[delamaize]

Not much real modeling this weekend, got a 1st run Atlas VO-1000 fixed, running, and decoder installed. Most of the time was spent fixing my Daughter's Thomas the tank engine. Eletrical pickup has always been a issue, I finally had it and scratchbuilt a European-like boxcar (Or van for you britts) and used a pair of the Kato critter chassis unpowered trucks for pickups, removed the pickups from thomas all together, wow what a diffrence good pickups make.

Interior of "power car"

While I was at it, I decided to make another car for him, this one is a open gondola type car.

the faces are just print outs from the internet and applyed to wet paint.


Thomas is actually 1/150th so everything is bigger, but everything is in scale with thomas, so it all works out.

[NA Tower]

Then there's this pair of Life Like FA's.

Lee

Hey Lee

Who's lumber stacks are you using the mill in the background? They look excellent.

Thanx

Rob

[wazzou]

I really like how the headlight of that FA lights the track below the pilot Lee.  Did you leave your shoplight in there ;D

[RockGp40]

Speaking of Great Northern...  I just wrapped up a decoder job for a fellow up in Minnesota, don'tchaknow... Well, he says so I hear ya install some of them decoders, is that right? and I says, well yah, I been known to solder a couple wires together here and there, and so he says well how about I send you a couple of engines, then? and I says well that sounds like it could keep me busy for a bit, yah? and he says yah. So next thing I know there's this knock on the door and wouldn'tcha know it? it's the post man and he wants me to sign for this box, yah see.  So I signs for it and when I open her up well right there is the same engines this feller up north told me he was going to send down, so I says to the wife, well whatdya know? And she says what's that, and I say well this fella from up north sent me these engines to work on for him, yah? and she says, yah, so why don't you go up to the train room so you can get those decoder rings put in, and I says they aren't decoder rings, they're just decoders, yah? and she says, yah whatever.

Ahhh, you awanting to be quotin' dat movie Fargo, eh? Well, lesssee, I'm game. Are you one of da funny lookin' fellas in da reg'lar kinda way?    ;D

[Bob Bufkin]

Rock:

I thought he was doing his Palen routine. :

[wm3798]

The lumber stacks are all home made.  I took some basswood and a scale ruler and made 4x8x4 stacks of plywood, and 8', 10', 12', and 16' long stacks of 2x4's, 2x6's and so on.  I'm one of those nuts that uses the stuff in my junk box to build models instead of my credit card... Here's a slightly better look...


That's not a shop light... That's called "Ground Effects"... I bet you didn't know that J.C. Whitney has a whole section for old Alcos...

And Brian gets the prize... I did these models for that guy with the snow shovel and the parka! ;D

Lee

[diezmon]

And Brian gets the prize... I did these models for that guy with the snow shovel and the parka! ;D

hey, c'mon now.. there's no snow on the ground here yet!    ;D

[Scott Lupia]

Been a while since I posted anything new. Here is one. This is a Kato N-scale NW-2 which I painted and modified. I opened the cab doors and windows, added walkway railings and grab irons, spark arrestors, crew, firecracker antenna, cab awnings, canvas radiator cover and weathered it. The Digitrax decoder makes a difference in the performance of the engine. I did a few things beforehand and then added the decoder. It is extremely smooth at slow speeds for a Kato NW2. The NW2 is just nosing out from under the main and crossing Front Street.

Scott