Weekend Update 1/1/12

[BCRail_FSJ]

Finished installing and painting the upper deck benchwork modudes, thereby meeting  my goal of getting all the heavy construction done by year's end.

http://nscalefortstjohnsub.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/upper-deck-benchwork-completed/

[BCR 570]

I am enjoying the Canadian content this week!

Andy - congratuations on joining the upper deck club.  The new benchwork looks great.  What are your plans for the front of the helix?  It appears as though you do not intend to place a scene above it.  Will you be running into Fort St. John Yard by April?


Tim

[PGE_Modeller]

No modelling to report, but I can now prepare to transfer the "hobby shop" that I have had in storage boxes - EVERY N-scaler has a reasonably well-stocked hobby shop in his basement, doesn't he? - onto the 35 feet of under-layout shelf space freed up by transporting a century worth of model railroad magazines to the recycling depot!  78 years of "Model Railroader" (don't ask how I came to have duplicates of five full years) and 20 years of "N Scale" have been replaced by a 3-DVD set and 4 CDs and a couple of years of "NMRA Bulletin"/"Scale Rails"/"NMRA Magazine" were simply tossed.

Linda figures that the $280 I spent on the DVDs and CDs is the best hobby expenditure I have ever made!  The search featrue on the MR DVD set is awesome. 

I can only hope that Carstens will do something similar with "The Model Craftsman", "Model Railroad Craftsman" - yes the magazine was published under that title for three issues (May, June & July 1949) - and "Railroad Model Craftsman" so I can get rid of another 75 years worth of paper copies.  Also have to figure out how I am going to deal with "Mainline Modeler" and "N Scale Railroading".  TrainLife has, at least partially, solved the problem with regard to "Model Railroading", "Prototype Modeler" and "RailModel Journal" but downloading one page at a time and converting the JPEGs to PDFs is painfully slow.

Cheers,
Greg Kennelly
Burnaby, BC

[MichaelWinicki]

Linda figures that the $280 I spent on the DVDs and CDs is the best hobby expenditure I have ever made!  The search featrue on the MR DVD set is awesome. 

I found the same.

Simply a brilliant investment.

[BCRail_FSJ]

I am enjoying the Canadian content this week!

Andy - congratuations on joining the upper deck club.  The new benchwork looks great.  What are your plans for the front of the helix?  It appears as though you do not intend to place a scene above it.  Will you be running into Fort St. John Yard by April?


Tim

For simplicity and easy access I decided to keep the helix completely separate from the scenic sections.   I will be screening it off with some form of hinged access panels at some point.   I might have the temporary powered mainline along the whole upper deck by April (I have to paint all that backdrop first!).   I reckon it will take a little longer to get the entire yard and all the sidings in and powered properly. 

[jmlaboda - RIP]

"EVERY N-scaler has a reasonably well-stocked hobby shop in his basement, doesn't he?"

I take a lot of medicine but I WANT WHAT HE'S ON!!!

Have done a little work on two MT observation cars that are to become business cars but nothing to show picture wise as of yet.

[chuck geiger]

I am enjoying the Canadian content this week!

Andy - congratuations on joining the upper deck club.  The new benchwork looks great.  What are your plans for the front of the helix?  It appears as though you do not intend to place a scene above it.  Will you be running into Fort St. John Yard by April?


Tim

As an ex-broadcaster we all use to trip over the CRTC requiring Canadian radio to air a certain percentage
of Canadian artists and content. In fact Bob and Doug on SCTV was born as a joke on the rule. We are
enforcing the same policy here.

The sketch was conceived when SCTV moved to the CBC television network. Due to the difference in the amount of time allocated for commercials, each episode to be broadcast on that network was two minutes longer than those syndicated to the United States. The CBC network heads asked the show's producers to add specifically and identifiably Canadian content for those two minutes. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas thought that this was a ridiculous request, since the show had been taped in Canada, with a mostly Canadian cast and crew, for two years.[2] The request inspired them to create a parody that would incorporate every aspect of the humorous stereotype of Canadians.[3]

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Beauty, eh!
Anyone for a game of Beer Hunter?
(just watch for the mouse in the bottle, eh!)
(wait, you have to use cans, you hoser)
(just gimmie a jelly)

Would be cool to have a string of Elsinor Brewery reefers, though 

[flight2000]

EVERY N-scaler has a reasonably well-stocked hobby shop in his basement, doesn't he?

Also have to figure out how I am going to deal with "Mainline Modeler" and "N Scale Railroading".

Cheers,
Greg Kennelly
Burnaby, BC

Yes to number one (see below)...although I could still be a little more organized. 

And I say we start bombarding Kirk with requests to follow N Scale Magazines lead.

Brian

This is a primitively "stitched" image:

[daniel_leavitt2000]

You know, I have a partially finished portion of the basement, and its FILLED with jewel boxes, magazines and what-knot. There was this hobby shop in Rutland, MA that was quite literally run from a guy's basement.

Part of the current layout project is to find a home for some of this stuff while I try and figure out what to do with the flooding problem in the rest of the basement.

[MichaelT]

Nothing N scale this week/weekend but....

I got the rest of my large scale modern equipment sold/traded off, and in looking for something totally unrelated, found a Bachmann large scale 8 wheel long caboose kit in the shed. That went into the work area with the two flat car kits and the stock car kit that I have ready to put together and get into the inventory. I've decided to fully stick with narrow gauge railroading in large scale, and the era will be turn of the century up to around 1932; ten wheelers, Porters, Indy Moguls, and an LGB Stainz that is going to get a new scratch built "Ruby" cab will be the locomotive roster for the railroad.

Happy New Year everyone!

[bbussey]

One of the advantages of being a manufacturer and a modeler is that when you tool a new model, you get components during the proofing process along the way.  You also get some leftover parts from the production runs.  Both of those scenarios allow you to experiment in the modeling arena, and in this case, I've been looking to see if it's possible to adapt the X58 cushioned underframe to other models that should have a cushioned underframe.  I first tried with the MTL 50' PS-1.  It would work, but the MTL carbody has to be raised on the ESM underframe by .010" to .015" or so.  My next try was with the Life-Like X72, and that looked promising.  The underframe had to be shortened by about .020" at either end, which was slightly tricky due to the integrated draft gear.  But it really improved the look of the car:



I know Dave Vollmer unsuccessfully tried to remove the lettering, which appears to be atomically seared into the paint.  But I think carefully sanding it off might work.  I want to replace the reporting marks, capacity data and dimensional data.  The consolidated stencil I can decal over.  The stock brakewheel will be replaced with an MTL Minor brakewheel.

The detail on the body of this car isn't bad.  It might be worth exploring if a quantity of the bodies can be acquired from Walthers to paint/print prototypically and fit with the ESM X58 underbody and MTL brakewheels.  The only clunky details are the stirrups, but with top-notch painting/printing they won't be noticeable.

I also picked up one of the Athearn GSC repaints for Pennsy.  For some reason, I never bought one of the earlier Pennsy runs.  This one is fitted with their new metal wheels, yet incorrectly has roller-bearing trucks.  Too bad, the wheels look nice.  But I had to change to Atlas friction-bearing frames, and then the wheels were too loose so I used FVMs.  I body-mounted MTL 1015s and test fit the ESM/Railwire deck.  I still have to add styrene end sills to fill the gap between the coupler pocket and the sides, and touch up the paint from sanding the #00-90 screws flat.



I never was a fan of the paint color Athearn used for the Pennsy cars, which probably is why I never picked one up.  I'll have to figure it out now, or come close, in order to touch up the model.

[Dave V]

Bryan,

Wouldn't sanding also remove the weld lines on the car?  I found that even stripping with alcohol and paint stripper I eventually began wearing off the weld lines before the lettering even started to yield.

Eventually I gave up after I turned the car body to goo and just added extra decals and weathering to the other one you sent me.



However, I'm absolutely floored by how much better your X72 looks with the extended draft gear.  Would you consider offering some sort of retro-fit kit of some sort?

[Frank Amato]

I caught some dirty Snowbirds leading Mercury-1 out of Jersey:



I was tempted to apply some more grime but I was afraid to overdo it.  I was trying for the nasty state these units showed by the mid-70s (primer showing thru and all).

Oh and I have to add some more trees on the camera side of the bridge!

  Frank

[bbussey]

Dave,

Yeah, whoever did the custom printing for Bev-Bel in the later years really used some inks impervious to normal stripping chemicals.

I will sand vertically with thin standing sticks and very fine sandpaper, just over the lettering, to see how much I can remove without disturbing the paint too much.  I'll be weathering them anyway, so some paint damage won't be as critical for me.

Just as I did in the past with the Riva Rossi tanks and the AHM Flexi Flo hoppers, I've started researching what the status is of the Evans boxcar tooling.  Sandka Kan did the tooling 30 years ago, but I don't know who owns it currently.  Depending upon how it shakes out, I'll explore re-issuing the model, but upgraded with X58 components and prototypical paint schemes.  There are at least four roads that had them, and multiple schemes for two of the roads, so that might justify a short run or two.  First step is to see if the tooling in intact, then if just the body can be run, and then see if my tooling can be modified economically so that the underframe will fit inside the Evans body.

I hadn't anticipated how well the X58 underframe would integrate into existing models.  While it's too late for this initial run (the plastic parts were injection-molded two months ago and the models are being assembled now), I can include on my RFQ for the second release a price quote for built/painted underframes with BLMA trucks and MTL couplers installed.  There wouldn't be a minimum since it simply would be an extension of the normal production run.  If the cost extrapolates out to a reasonable MSRP, then it's a possibility.  Maybe it can be simplified by just selling them as a pair - one Hydro-Cushion and one Keystone - in the box.  Then it's one stock number and less hassle.