Weekend Update 8/15/2010

[Ian MacMillan]

Finished the TrainCat Pennsy gon.  Slightly modified and decorated as a straight G22.

Ugh Bryan! That track really takes my eye away from that car! :

[seusscaboose]

Mr. Deer was interupted by Mr. Cricket.


Then some Ma & Pa stuff was spotted


on another note, this week I begin discussions with a few folks from the local NMRA SIG on implementing Operations in Ye' Ol' Basement Empire.  I will be curious what they have to say (to compare it to the wisdom shared here).  Stay Tuned.

EP">>

[daniel_leavitt2000]

So much great work I don't know where to begin.

Pud,
Great work on the GHQ car. I wish it was my era, I would get a few. What did you use for the brickwork on the meat packing plant? I want to paint up a few modular buildings but need help getting a good brick/mortar color.

Rich,
Love this engine you been working on.

Craig,
Congrats on the move. I never seen Pete before, its good to finally put a face to someone I have read about so much. Will these details be plastic, metal or etched? Looking forward to the new car but I have a sinking feeling it will be a transition era car this time.

Bryan,
The Gon looks good. How much does it weigh?

Tim,
I really like the layout of the cables. Very neat, clean and logical. The club I belong to has a lot of wiring issues, and looking under the layout looks like an ATT sub station blew up.

[mark dance]

It was a busy week model rail wise...

On Tuesday the Columbia & Western hosted a visit from similarly-minded BC-based rail ops types to test the pusher service.  I would like to add pushers up both sides of the grade to the summit and therefore Tuesday was a trial run to see how practical it was for a crew and to assure it wouldn't result in too-many derailments.  Well, after pushing about 8 of the 20+ car trains up the 2.4% grade we had our fair share of cars hit the ties but the consensus was to add the helpers to the operating schedule.  The prototype ceased helper operations upon dieselization so I need an excuse to do so.  I have come up with a reasonable scenario to reinstate them for Eastbound freights however I still need to come up with the rationale for the longer and more scenic Westbound helper ops...

Later in the week I commenced work on the backdrop behind the snowy Farron summit area.  The backdrop is about 16' long and I have about 5 days total to complete it if I am to stay on schedule for a train show in November, thus I needed methods which would represent heavy snow-covered pines in overcast weather which were reasonably rapid and scalable.  The photo below is for the 3' section behind Porcupine Creek fill just to the East of Farron.  H Liner and Caboose are the work of Jeff Briggs of Victoria BC. 



Finally I also had time to cast in place a 200' retaining wall along Pup creek.  I used a mold I made many years ago from many WS retaining wall segments.  The top and bottom of the wall need to be cleaned up so this is definitely a “before” scene but hopefully you get a taste of what the “after” scene will look like with freights and their pushers snaking up the creek on their way to the summit.


md

[Puddington]

Pud: Great work on the GHQ car. I wish it was my era, I would get a few. What did you use for the brickwork on the meat packing plant? I want to paint up a few modular buildings but need help getting a good brick/mortar color

Believe it or not it's Dapol brick paper; I use it for background buildings and it's kick butt....easy to work with; cheap and look great; even in close ups................

Hope that helps.

[up1950s]

mark dance  , you painted that frosty gorge ? Fantastic .

[SAH]

All the track is down on the Black River section.  Filled the gaps in the scenery base and then painted it 'cause I was tired of looking at the pink foam.  It's coming along.  Won't get much done for the next couple of weeks unfortunately.

Steve

[BCR 570]

Well done Mark - you have accomplished a lot since Tuesday's session.

Tim

[sizemore]

Below is my crude attempt at making a tool for bending the skirts on brass car sides. I couldnt get both pieces of brass hot enough to bleed the joints using a conventional soldering iron. I switched to a butane type torch much like a plumber soldering copper again not hot enough. I'll have to rethink the tool.



The S.

[Dave Schneider]

As I model 1973 ish time frame I thought the white tank top was fitting...hehehehehe

Nice work everybody.

When I think of the 70s I think of halter tops....so much riding on that one knot!

Best wishes, Dave

[bbussey]

Ugh Bryan! That track really takes my eye away from that car! :

Heh!  Twenty-year-old module I pulled out instead of photographing the car on a white backdrop.  If the Amoskeag Northern was closer to me, I'd shoot there. 

[GaryHinshaw]

Been doing a lot of home maintenance recently, but I did manage to find time to screw around with body mount couplers (posted elsewhere).   I also lowered the ride height on half of an MT Ortner hopper (hope you can tell which half):



[still mostly disassembled].  Aside from the absurd ride height, these are really nice cars. 

[GaryHinshaw]

And, we've got SIX new locomotive detail parts to announce in the coming weeks...

Man, I can't wait!  I see he's talked his separated-at-birth twin brother into doing promos for him now:



;D

[James Costello]

Man, I can't wait!  I see he's talked his separated-at-birth twin brother into doing promos for him now:

Post of the day  ;D

Nice work on the Ortners too Gary.

[DKS]

Nothing for me. Most of last week was spent replacing my PC.