Weekend Update 4/22/12

[up1950s]

 
UP 2-10-2 5037 progress
 

 

[MichaelWinicki]

[mark dance]

I spent time this week finishing the ballasting and ground cover at South Slocan Junction.  Here is Extra 4080 East stopping for orders at South Slocan [SU].







I also modified about 1/2 the line poles I am going to need for the Kootenay River scene.  I modified Atlas 12xsingle-conductor poles to 13xdouble-conductor poles which means adding 14 little tiny insulators per pole.  Finishing the line poles will complete the scene and, next to the tracks, I find line poles are the strongest visual leading lines through scenes so having poles that match their prototypes is visually important.

Have a great weekend everyone.

md

[Iain]

Today's activities included railfanning on the trip from Fayettenam to Virginia Beach.  Stops included Rocky Mount, where I spied a northbound CSX freight with a bunch of brand spanking new coil cars with a build date of last month.  From there, travel was to Edenton, and photographing of the abandond original NS yard there just north of where the Albemarle Sound trestel started.  North of Edenton, Elizabeth City was targeted, with photos being grabbed of the original NS depot there as well as an ex C&NW diner.  The depot has been turned into a Mexican restaurant, while the diner is a bar.

Tomorrow's activities will include the annual NSHS get-together.  All of y'all in this area, things are scheduled as follows:
   
Welcome!
The original Norfolk & Southern Railway that ran from Norfolk, VA to Charlotte, NC with various branches (Aberdeen, Asheboro, Beaufort, Belhaven, Carthage, Columbia, Durham, Ellerbe, Fayetteville, Goldsboro (A&EC), Jackson Springs, Lee Creek, Oriental, Snow Hill (A&EC), Suffolk and Virginia Beach, VA). It was merged into the Southern Railway system on Jan. 1st, 1974.

For those of you looking for information about the now present Norfolk Southern Corporation, they can be found here: http://www.nscorp.com/
Note to people searching for Employee Records/Retirement Records/Family Genealogy:
NSHS does not have any Norfolk Southern Railway employee records. It is recommended that you contact the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, which you can contact at 844 North Rush, Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 751-4500, or on the web at The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board: http://www.rrb.gov/
Norfolk & Southern Historical Society News
Next N & S Historical Society Annual Meeting will be held in the Virginia Beach, VA area for 2012.
See below for more information
March 1, 2012
Norfolk Southern celebrates colorful heritage with historic paint schemes

We are greatly thankful for Norfolk Southern Corporation's decision to paint one of their new units in an original Norfolk Southern red Baldwin
paint scheme. We are thankful for our member's contribution and help towards this project.
"Norfolk Southern Railway (SR, EMD) (not to be confused with today’s Norfolk Southern) was a line serving southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina, chartered in 1883 and acquired by Southern Railway in 1974."
Here is an artist's rendering of the unit. Click on it for a larger version.

For more information, please read the news release:
http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/News%20Releases/2012/ns_heritage.html
February 10, 2012
N & S Historical Society Annual Meeting in Fort Story, VA April 21st, 2012

Schedule April 21st, 2012:

9:00 A.M. Gather at Cape Henry Lighthouse Visitor Center on Fort Story
Note: There is an $8 Entrance Fee.

9:00 A.M. - Noon
1. Annual business meeting at St. Theressa Church
2. Slide show by Dale Dicont at St. Theressa Church
3. Walking tour of Old Cape Henry Lighthouse, St. Teressa Church and the N & S Depot.

12:30 P.M. – 2:00 P.M.
1. Lunch on NRHS Tidewater Chapter Car at Little Creek Yard (Ferry Rd.)
Note: This will be a box chicken lunch from Bojangle’s – cost $7.00.
2. Program by members of the Tidewater Chapter NRHS re: N & S and operations at Little Creek Yard.

2:30 P.M. – 3:30 P.M.
1. Meet at Newtown Road Station. Ride the The Tide to the end of the line and return.

4:30 P.M.
1. Meet at the Railroad Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth for a tour conducted by members of the NRHS Tidewater Chapter.


As an aside, the reason for riding Norfolk's new light rail is because it mostly runs on the roadbed of the original Norfolk Southern's Beach Division.

[Bob Bufkin]

A lot of those new CSX coil cars showed up on trains in MD today.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Built a 16"x10' staging yard module in 6 days for the Silicon Valley Free-moN setup at the Hiller Aviation Museum show last week.
 Got 4 of the 7 future tracks in (LHS had only a few #7 turnouts) and wired so the group could run multiple long trains through the layout.
 Fun stuff!
 


Behind the staging yard is (left to right): Steve Williams' Lockhart, TX module, my Sonoma Shoofly module, and Dave Falkenburg's Alviso module.
 16-year-old Alvin (operating the staging yard) is currently building a cool runaround & industry module himself (when he's not distracted by running trains )
 
And the video:
 

Thanks for looking & have a groovy weekend!

[diezmon]

Hmm, technically pre-weekend by a day, but I got this done finally





Haven't had a chance to try it out yet.. too busy grassinating my real lawn.

[eric220]

These actually should have been posted last week, but better late than never!

Cork was laid to the end of the cookie-cutter.



And with the Gandy Dancers' help, I got track almost as far before the caulk ran out.







More caulk has been secured, and more gandy dancing is scheduled for this week, so hopefully I will have more to contribute next week.

[VonRyan]

I plan to install some Sprat & Winkle auto-couplings on my UK rolling stock tomorrow as well as possibly get some wiring work done on the panel for my UK Themed N-Trak module, the name of which is Cromwick Hill (still trying to get a-hold of some BR Western Region station-sign style placards for the Panel, the front of the module, and its storage box). I'll see what i can do as to photographs of the installation process with the S&Ws but it may be a bit tricky. -Cody F.

[Packer]

Dave, your link is busted.

Back from a hiatus... Kinda went through the "teenager" phase (you know; chasing girls, cars, etc.) kinda late, then left after a few months...

Some recent stuff:

Saved a wild Puppy. She's really friendly, but has a passion for jumping on counters and taking stuff. The other day she hoped up and stole my breakfast bagel.


My new GP15-1. I love this loco, just wish I had a programming track booster (Soundtrax Tsunami) to MU it to my GP38-2.



Bunch of trainset Bachmann cabooses. Turns out they are farily accurate CB&Q NE-12s.


The dreaded Front Range/Mckean Centerbeam. I have a CP one already done (didn't have to add decals), and a MILW not pictured. Still aprehensive about decals.



Experimenting with a new base coat for fading. Thinned Rustoleum flat white. Takes a few days to fully cure, but seems to work okay.

[Dave V]

I added a boiler house and smoke stack to the American Viscose Corp factory in Lewistown, PA, using Walthers modulars and the smoke stack from a Northern Power and Light.

Used to look like this:



Now it looks like this:







Although it's nowhere near the size of the real plant in Lewistown, at least mine now suggests a bit more sprawl and industry.

Updated my blog: http://thevollmerfamily.com/Pennsy/2012/04/industrial-revolution/

[Puddington]

Didn't accomplish much this week as I've been commuting back and forth to Toronto to see my mom who's been hospitalized....did manage to get a couple of NP cars weathered..

One a couple of combo door cars....



A ex N&W wagon top 50' that the NP picked up....



I used a photo in the NP Morning Sun Colour Guide as a reference and then, after seeing the model and thinking it looked over done I thinned the white streaking to this level....

[BCR 570]

Back from a six day school band trip to California, which included my bi-annual ride on the Disneyland Railroad:




and a two day trip to Calgary for Supertraon 2012:




I visited fellow Railwire member Andy Thomas' Fort St. John Subdivision layout, which has seen significant progress since last year.  it is always fun to visit another layout which represents the same prototype as yourself but in a different locale and era.  We also visited the local hobby shop Trains And Such and enjoyed dinner with Tim Anderson of Ngineering.  The show is fabulous:  a soccer stadium full of model trains including manufacturers, retailers, layouts, clinics, and most importantly for the future of our hobby, an interactive zone for children where thay can actually touch and run the trains.  Notable vendors included Athearn (but no N Scale!), North American Railcar, N-Scale magazine, Osborn Models, Prairie Shadows, Rapido Trains and Soundtraxx to name a few.  I came away with an Athearn NAR boxcar, a Kaslo Shops BCR caboose kit, an Oxford die-cast open Land Rover, and some very promising scenery materials from Mountain Pacific Scenics.  The weather was spectacular and the weekend was topped off with a visit to Grant Eastman's splendid SAR layout, where I got to run a 48 car sulphur train.

After two weeks on the road I am looking forward to getting back to work on the Dawson Creek Subdivision.

[Puddington]

Any announcements, kinda announements, hints, rumours or other such stuff from the show Tim.../ How's Prairie Shadow's Pt Charles project faring ?

[Iain]