Weekend Update - 5/31/2009

[John]

Another weekend is almost over. What did you accomplish?

[Puddington]

...you mean other than typing stuff about the TLT boxcar....? 

Another of Geoff Gooderham's wonderful resin shells has joined the PVR - CPR passenger ranks - this time it's a well known sight to Canadian railfans of the 1940's to 1980's, the 4700 series Canadian Pacific Railway baggage car......



Gooderham's shell is awesome - it has all the little details in the doors and ends; the shell was in great shape and took little filling and sanding. Lot's of grabs and ladders were accomplished by making jigs that had all .010 wire in place in about two hours of work.

Primed and painted; I used Black Cat decals and CDS transfers to complete the car. Light weathering to the car was added and windows were doen with both clear styrene and Krystal Kleer.... American Limited diaphrams; MT lo pro wheels; trucks and couplers and there you have it....

The car fits beautifully on any CPR passenger train from the "Dominion" to a local passenger consist with a coach and parlor car..... Mr. Gooderham's shell is a fantastic representation of a classic CPR head end car. A fun project indeed.....

[dclyde]

We've begun upgrading a 2' NTrak module to be used by BANTRAK.  This link is to the before pictures.

http://trains.davidclyde.com/ariverrunsthruit.htm

We'll post more pictures as we move the project along.

Dave

[Bob Bufkin]

Put down some more permanent track.  Tried something I've never done before.  I faded a boxcar.  Had a couple Reading cars and here's the result.  Original on right, faded and slightly weathered car on left.

[up1950s]

Another 8 60 lbs bags of concrete put down yesterday . Thats about 1500 lbs in a month and it looks like almost nothing was done  , and more to come .

BLCO 220-234
 

 

[mmyers]

Dave,
I guess you will be needing a wiring harness?

For me not much in the way of railroading. Moved my daughter to her new home in Roanoke and never made it down-town this trip. Passed right by "The Railyard" on Williamson Rd. a couple of times though. Next trip.
Continued closing up the 50 year old business.
Completed week three of the new "gov'mt job"

Did pick up the second GG1 and decoder. Only to find out that the Brunswick's came in the next day. Guess I gotta keep working.

Martin

[davefoxx]

While causing further procrastination on an appellate brief that I'm drafting this weekend, I took a quick picture of the newest addition to my fleet: an Atlas GP38-2 in L&N colors.  While this may seem like an odd purchase for me, these units were seen in Richmond, Virginia when the Seaboard System merger occurred (if not before that during the SCL/Family Lines era).  What sealed the deal for me was that MBK placed the locomotive on sale for $49.99, so I couldn't resist.

If time will allow, I may attempt to correct a few errors on the model.  For one, the L&N GP38-2s had the smaller fuel tank with a bit of daylight between it and the trucks, so I will consider looking into making this modification, even if it requires removing a small portion of the frame (i.e., weight).  For now, I think that I will have to live with the headlight being in the wrong place, though, because I do not want to destroy the factory finish by moving the headlight down to the nose.  I will, however, make this the first candidate on my layout to go through the weathering shop.  When I can find the time to begin this project, I may document and start a thread for anyone interested.



Since our tastes in favorite roads somewhat parallel, I am sure that this will intrigue "envirodude," who also enjoys running Seaboard System motive power.   

Dave Foxx

[Caleb Austin]

Since our tastes in favorite roads somewhat parallel, I am sure that this will intrigue "envirodude," who also enjoys running Seaboard System motive power.   

Dave Foxx

Eh? Whats this? Seaboard?


Nice stuff there, the L&N is yet another one of my modeling temptations.

Besides photo shopping backgrounds behind Seaboard units, I added guard rails to my bridge:


And plopped down this clump O' trees.

[Dupesy]

I actually can say I did something this weekend.  Went to Charles Ro, mainly to get the latest copy of the B&M Bulletin.  A $10 magazine purchase turned into almost $200 when I found they had Walthers 0-8-0s on sale (in B&M no less) and the Athearn Overland B&M passenger cars.  While they're not quite accurate for B&M passenger equipment, they'll do for now.  I dusted off my pink foam loop, and was disappointed to find the Model Power 2-6-0 would only pull two passenger cars, and the 4-4-0 wouldn't pull any at all.  In fact, a Walthers RS2 would only move 3 aroud the loop reliably, 4 cars caused it to slip.  I found some Fox Valley wheelsets laying around, and they fit the Athearn trucks perfectly.  And what a difference!  The 4-4-0 will pull 4 (with a little slipping occasionally) and the 2-6-0 will now pull all five with no difficulty at all. 

[up1950s]

Perfect track weathering and guard rails on that bridge envirodude .

[cv_acr]

I did a little modelling this weekend too, been a little while. Mostly consisted of adding ACI plates and consolidated stencils (aka "lube plates") to a few boxcars, and renumbered a couple of them using CDS transfers. (Using a dry transfer on the end of a boxcar is a PITA)

[sirenwerks]

I've been inventorying all the contemporary rolling stock & locos I need to sell now that I've decided to switch to the WP in the early 70s.

[Dave V]

I've started stockpiling supplies in preparation for extending the Juniata Division eastward!  I'm planning a 24" wide door to create an L-shape, with a stub-ended yard.  The working plan includes 2 staging tracks, 4 bowl tracks, a caboose track, 2 pit tracks, and a 3-track shop.  This yard will be crossed by a highway bridge and is inspired by places like Enola and Morrisville.  In keeping with the "almost right PA-sounding" naming convention on my layout, the yard is tentatively named "Morristown, PA."

I just received the folding table legs for the yard extension and am amassing Atlas code 55 track.  I've also started working on the structures.  I'd had a Walthers "Modulars 3-in-1" kit lying around, and thought it might make a decent yard office/locker building.



I added some extra details like scratchbuilt downspouts and an old heating oil tank from an Atlas station kit.  The roof is covered with Woodland Scenics cinders.  I plan to add interchangeable signage, one in Pennsy style for when it's 1956 and a nice, gaudy blue sign for Conrail in 1980.  I just haven't figured out that part yet, but I want it to go over the large porch roof.



The structure almost cries out for a raised concrete foundation, except that it's rather tall as it is.  It's a good 25% taller than my two-story Walthers freight station.  So I think I'll leave it as-is.

[wendell camp]

Getting close to the fun stuff I have the ceiling and one wall sheet rocked Wendell

[skytop35]

I haven't been modeling much since the NHL playoffs started. However today was a nice sunny day with no wind here in the windy city (and no Stanley Cup game until tonight) so I took out my camera to try my hand at photography in the great outdoors. I was lucky and caught the Flambeau 400 right outside my backyard gate!



It was fun trying something new. I really like the way models come alive in natural sunlight. Will have to play with this idea more the next chance I get. Here's another photo.