Weekend Update 1/30/11

[up1950s]

Whatcha got ?

[up1950s]

More progress on UP 1242 .


 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I brought home my new Zephyr and PR3. Forgot I need to get a Loconet cable though. Hopefully this week for that.

Also grabbed the MTL CR B63B box. It's nice, and comes with the new wheels (thank goodness). AND the new Bachmann cylindrical. I'm impressed for a $8 car. Now if they'd only do more roadnames than ATSF I'd be set. And one last thing... a pair of the Atlas MMID SD24s for $59.99. I wanted them when they were announced, but not full price wanted them. At $60, I felt better about pulling the trigger.

They'll look good pulling a train of interchange covered hoppers into Windsor Street Yard in York.

[Dave V]

In an effort to make my layout more prototypical, I've renamed some of the locations from fictional PRR-like names to the scenes they were inspired by.

"East Mifflin" is now Spruce Creek.  I don't know if Spruce Creek ever had a passenger shelter, but the adjacent bridge and tunnel scream Spruce Creek.



Spruce Tower used to be of the gingerbread style, but at some point ended up entombed in Insulbrick.  Here it is, sans Insulbrick, renamed from "M Tower."



PA Route 45 ducks under a stone arch bridge at Spruce Creek on my layout just as in real life.



"Lewisport" is now Lewistown.  Now, I know the station is not the iconic Lewistown Junction depot.  This will give me the impetus to finally break down and scratchbuild it.



And "Lew" tower is now, obviously, Lewis Tower.  The model itself is wrong, but works for now.



The end!

[Rossford Yard]

Ran trains with my five year old grandson and two year old granddaughter.  Thats all I got so far but it was fun!

[wcfn100]

After much back and forth between gluing the rail or solding, I went with solding.  In this case, the primary reason was the tie plates.  I wasn't seeing much future in gluing the tie plates and the rails without a huge mess or great difficulty lining everything up.  Soldering allowed me to just slip the tie plates under the rail - done.






So much for eyeballing the centering of the track.  I swear it looked good when I was doing it.  Oh, well, for the majority of the camera angles it shouldn't show.

I also decided on a ballast mix for this test.



I don't know where the non-gray bits came from, I either contaminated it or it comes this way from WS.  This, by the way is the reject pile from when I sifted. If you haven't seen the difference, it shows in this picture:



From left to right: WS Fine from the can, some cheap sifter I don't remember anything about, and the acceptable pile.    Hopefully there will be a resale market for just the large 'fine' pieces.  TT ballast anyone?

Getting to the spray booth is proving to be a daunting task, but with some luck, this will be the week.

On a modeling note, I was excited for the Atlas release of the FDDM&S rebuilt boxcar.  I had drawn the decal for this car when Atlas first released the model, and I have one painted up ready to go.  Unfortunately, I have recently found out the car is about a foot too short and has the wrong roof.  :-\   I got time to figure this out.


Jason

[Zox]

Hopefully there will be a resale market for just the large 'fine' pieces.  TT ballast anyone?

If Woodland Scenics ballast is really walnut shells as they say, I wonder if it would be possible to run the coarser pieces through a pepper grinder to reduce them?

I feel an experiment coming on...

[sirenwerks]

I have to ask Jason, what's the ratio of acceptable to resale? Also, there's a Ft.DDM&S decal sheet available. It's touted for its loco set but also includes a boxcar set. I haven't had a chance to study the fine details, but I think the set will work for a double door Walthers OB car, for tannery service, and standard boxcars too. Of course, I may be wrong and, like you, I'll be buying the Atlas cars when they arrive.

Bryan B.

[S Class]

Stuff has been done however it is very late evening here, the temperature still high and I am in one of those moods so I'll post a detailed update of this week in modeling after work tomorrow.

[John]

Whatcha got ?

A cold and a sore back 

[John]

If Woodland Scenics ballast is really walnut shells as they say, I wonder if it would be possible to run the coarser pieces through a pepper grinder to reduce them?

I feel an experiment coming on...

What a great idea ..  let us know ..

[Puddington]

"How to Complicate a Wheels of Time 70' Baggage Car".....


Ok; so the Canadian Pacific had 100's of 70' "turtle" roof baggage express cars.... they ran for almost 70 years; so "yes", I have to have some.

The WOT 70' harriman roof car is close... now; a "normal" human would splash on the paint and decals, call it a "close enough" and move on, but not the old Puddy...nope...he's going to modify it....

I will accept that the doors are 3 feet further apart than the prototype but I want to modify the following:

CPR style doors....yesh !
Add the windows...these suckers are thick !
CPR style roof and vents
Stand alone grabs and ladders
Diaphrams, correct brake wheel etc....

The doors are a pain in the you know what... CPR had this goofy "checkerboard" door; you'll see in a second, so I had to scrap the door detail off the WOT door; remove the windows and then recreate with small strip styrene the doors.... not fun and a "blinding" experience....

Here's where we are so far....and the doors are correct, the photo of the prototype is just the "other side" of the car....



A long way to go on this one.....

[seusscaboose]

Worked on some scenery friday night


and Saturday a friend stopped by and ran a 45 car coal drag up the hill to Glen Arden Mine.

and a few more...
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gpVPaih3QvDd58_w5P7p1w?feat=directlink


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4GzemcxuxJn7kVBZtA25BQ?feat=directlink


http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/smYqrghWo17DAGZZU1_Hqg?feat=directlink


Today work continues on wiring up turnouts and tidying things up and working on an NTRAK module.

[SecretWeapon]

[wcfn100]

If Woodland Scenics ballast is really walnut shells as they say, I wonder if it would be possible to run the coarser pieces through a pepper grinder to reduce them?

I have a couple ideas about trying to grind down the larger pieces.  I'd be interested in anything you try.  

I have to ask Jason, what's the ratio of acceptable to resale? Also, there's a Ft.DDM&S decal sheet available. It's touted for its loco set but also includes a boxcar set. I haven't had a chance to study the fine details, but I think the set will work for a double door Walthers OB car, for tannery service, and standard boxcars too. Of course, I may be wrong and, like you, I'll be buying the Atlas cars when they arrive.

I think the ratio was 1:2 but I'd have to search for an old post here to confirm. edit: My old post said 2:1, but that doesn't resonate with what I just did.

I know about the decal sheet, but I've only seen them used in HO. I have concerns about how they scaled them down to N.  I may get one sheet to check it out and to paint up a 70 tonner.

There may be issues with the Walther's car since it has a different number of braces/panels, there's also the end auto doors and the fact that the proto roof is round not flat.  I know it put a halt to my DCI version.  And I don't know where you heard about tannery service, but AFAIK, those 50' cars were in tire service out of Des Moines (at least in the 60's)

Jason