Weekend Update - 9/6/2009

[John]

Hope everyone is having a good Labor Day ..

I have been busy getting the upper level of the layout roughed in .. trying to fit in some industries and switching areas for the crew to operate on.

This week, my focus has been on a saw mill .. standard Walthers kit ..





There is room on the freight lead for 3 - 4 Centerbeams ..

[Bob Bufkin]

Wife got home Friday and I haven't had much time to do much modeling.  Did received 2 IM 4-4-2 passenger cars in PRR paint.  These are their newer releases and are really nice cars.  I compared them with Kato's 4-4-2's from their Broadway set. 

Here's the IM car:



Here's the Kato car:



The IM paint is slightly lighter than the Kato but does have the added grabirons and diaframes which are nice additions over the Kato car.  the IM cars are the prewar wars (notice the small windows) as compared to the Kato cars which are postwar.  Think they will be a nice addition to making up other PRR name trains.

[tom mann]

I worked more on my track.  I started to tone down the ballast with a wash of AIM Grimy Black.  This works well, since it is black chalk in alcohol, it doesn't look like the ballast is encased in paint.

[wm3798]

You need some N scale beer cans and a shopping cart...

Lee

[Dave V]

Started work on a Walthers grain elevator for a charity raffle N scale layout a bunch of us are building at the Air Force Weather Agency.  The proceeds will go to a charity that assists children and families of deployed Airmen during the holidays.

The kit was donated by Walthers (very nice of them!) but I find it goes together like water and gasoline.  Let's just say I'm glad I have a decent stock of putty and fine sandpaper.

My plan is to write an article on our charity layout.

In the meantime, I've been fighting some pretty rough gastrointestinal issues...  I may or may not be needing surgery again, depending on how the tests come back.  The good news is I'm losing weight pretty quickly!

[altohorn25]

That track looks amazing!

Nate

[altohorn25]

Got my new MILW H16-44's in the mail yesterday.  Got them a little dirty and changed the numbers on them.  Click on the pics to make them bigger.

Nate

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[Puddington]

A Big Sky Blue GP 7 made an appearance ....







She's only missing a fire cracker and then I'll call her complete...

A few "Puddy Foobies" were also seen around the layout...



Horton Music and Sound is the highest end musical instruments and sound system company in the entire interior of B.C..... so I say anyway. The owner; a well know vice principal and teacher; N scale modeler extrordinare; Canucks fan and musician has splurged on a new trailer to pick up and deliver those new piano's; drum kits; bass fiddles and, of course "state of the art" Quadraphonic sound systems, with the custom 8 track players installed.... pity he could only afford an old Ford cab unit to haul them....






The trailer is a Puddy original - the Ford 9000 cab unit was an old "Burt Industries" resin casting I got at a swap meet for .50 and put a few hours of filling, sanding and painting into... a unique unit that fit's the 1970's to a "T".....



Northwoods Lumber and Venner is another foobie for the PVR; a "somewhere up there in da North" supplier; this car works well with a string of CN (yuck) and other lumber and paper boxcars......
 
 

[John]

I also took my rolling stock out of the storage boxes to add them into a car cards database .. I now have the entire upper level just about full of boxcars, and still have a hundred or so cars stashed away ... sigh ...

[flight2000]

I worked more on my track.  I started to tone down the ballast with a wash of AIM Grimy Black.  This works well, since it is black chalk in alcohol, it doesn't look like the ballast is encased in paint.

Tom,
Did you use a static applicator for the grass?  Please tell since you've already shown.... 

Nice job!!!
Brian

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all, great photos so far this week (like always).

My contribution for this week is three photos taken back in March 2009
on Jim Berling's beautifully scenicked N scale layout, up in the
Seattle area.

The shots were taken on the portion of Jim's layout that was just
featured on pages 32 and 33 in the July/August 2009 issue of
N Scale Railroading magazine (the Kirk Reddie publication).








The GP7B is a Des Plaines kit:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=40783


The FM H12-44 #565 is the same engine that is featured at the following URLs:

http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing/Santa_Fe_FM_H12-44_Zebra_Stripe.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing/Richmond_Controls_EZ26_Install_Minitrix_FM_H12-44_page1.html

Special thanks to Jim for hosting me, and special thanks to Walt Huston
for arranging to have me come over while I was on a business trip up there.

[DKS]

I just planted some trees.

[wm3798]

Spent some more time tinkering around with track plans, and also accomplished a few small tasks...

Started with installing a decoder and directional lighting in Phil H's ancient and venerable A1G GP30...


She got some trim paint, a little weathering on the grilles, and her flanges trimmed for c-55.  For an old warhorse, she runs pretty well.

I also started adding end reporting marks to some of my growing fleet of 70t. hoppers.  



I've renumbered a bunch of them, and last time I had some decals made for me, I got some of the end marks done, which is a real time saver over hand lettering everything with itty bitty numbers...

Lee

[oakcreekco]

Well, no pics and nothing overly exciting, but thanks to Chuck's quick shipping, my latest Bluford Shops and a bulk pack of MTL 1036's arrived for the weekend.

I'm starting to put on the MTL's on the Blufords..........................and I'll need more of both the trucks.........and autoparts cars

Thanks again for the usual great service Chuck, and that ramp helped unload those trucks ;D

[Zox]

Doing an archaeological dig in my basement, trying to find my hot-wire cutter...more news later, if any.