Weekend Update - 2/21/2010

[Iain]

I wrote a check for another truck to get me by until I can get the old one running again.

[Denver Road Doug]

Worked on two "lipstick on a pig" projects.  First, a before and after of an old Atlas hopper that I'm gonna modify (along with 13 of it's cousins) for a rock train.





And a couple of Herzog ballast hoppers almost ready for the paint shop.  The color should look like the already painted weight shown.

[Philip H]

Looks like you had plenty of fuel for the creative process, there, Phil!

Lee

Indeed, though that box made its Railwire debut carrying Vitamin Y to your fine establishment on a prior occassion.  Once and thusly emptied, it needed another proud task.

[wm3798]

Don't ya just love recycling!?! ;D

[justTRAINcRaZy]

I'm really tired from trying NOT to do anything for the last week. I cleaned the layout room last week in preparation for the NC NScale Rail Run this past weekend and tried hard not to mess everything up.

The Rail Run went very well. We filled all the operator slots and included 2 people from Utah, 1 each from Idaho and Georgia along with some "local" NC operators.

On my layout yesterday, we ran 45 of the 53 trains scheduled before some had to leave to catch flights out. I think there will be a full write-up in a future OPSig newsletter.

Now I have 2 weeks to do some work before the next scheduled session.

KB

[Philip H]

Sound slike you were busy.  For us wimpy Non-OPSig members, are there pics or video?

[Philip H]

Don't ya just love recycling!?! ;D

Indeed I do!

[justTRAINcRaZy]

I did take a couple of pics, have not taken then off the camera yet. Am hoping some of the others will send me some of what they took. Will post as I get them.

[wm3798]

Speaking of recycling... the foam I'm using on my little expansion had served for several years as a coffin I used for my Halloween display in the front yard... I had cut that tidy angle as part of the lid!



That's my niece being a dead mime.  (the only good mime!)

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Worked on two "lipstick on a pig" projects.  First, a before and after of an old Atlas hopper that I'm gonna modify (along with 13 of it's cousins) for a rock train.

Tell me more, I'm planning on doing something very similar.

I'm planning on just hacking off the "peaks" like you did. Any ideas on better hopper doors though?

[Denver Road Doug]

Ed, I'm trying not to get too overzealous with the "rock hoppers" simply because the tooling is so crude and I figure we'll eventually get some nice Greenville cars.  First, I stripped them using "Purple Power" but be careful that stuff is wicked.  Then, I just filed off the peaks, ground down the internal "brace" on the inside of the ends so that the inside of the end would be flush. (if not about 18 scale inches thick!)  I also filed down the stirrups, only because some were already broken and it is easily within my skills to drill a few holes and add the BLMA versions. (which may trick the eye into thinking these look a little better...maybe?)  I will also replace the brakewheel with something better....maybe MTL since I already have a couple of them laying around.  Outside of that, painting/decalling, and adding trucks/couplers with 36" FVM wheels, that's really all I got.

I figure I'll post a pic once I get one ready for primer and see if anyone has any "quick and dirty" suggestions. (outside of putting them out of their misery with a sledgehammer)

[Hiroe]

Here's what i was working on this weekend over at Cherry Valley:


We needed some functional streetlights for a section of the layout, but none of the commercially-available ones were all that great. So i built my own:
   


They're made up with 1206-package surface-mound LEDs, shown here soldered to .032 and .020 bronze wire for the upper and lower arms. Each of these little things is like 1mm square, so they're a bit fiddly.
   


Put a droplet of superglue on the end to represent the 'fixture housing', then paint the top and sides black when the glue dries.
   



Is this a stick-up?


No, It's a Science Experiment!
   
   
 

--Drew

[tom mann]

great job, Drew!  Who makes the DeLorean?

[DKS]

Nice job! I applied a very similar technique, except at 1:450--

http://1-450.blogspot.com/2009/06/small-thing.html

[Ian MacMillan]

That's some handsome station . The mortar coloring looks great  and done so neatly , what method did you use ? As far as interior detail , would a big transparency of a station innards work , don't know where to find one though . Could be back lit .

Thanks, the mortar coloring is a wash of India ink.

I'm still trying to work on ways for the interior walls...this station will be at eye height so you can see right into it, so I want to do at least something inside.