Weekend Update 4/22/12

[BCRail_FSJ]

I had an action packed weekend showing Tim my layout progress and taking in the Calgary Supertrain show.   So much fun in fact that I went for a second helping of Supertrain this morning.  Came away with some Kaslo BC Rail boxcar and Caboose kits, some etched switch stand details and today...after some sale bin digging.. a couple of those venerable Atlas 33,000 gallon tank cars in ACFX plain black.  These had been virtually impossible to find in that colour scheme until today. 

[Puddington]

Those Kaslo kits are da bomb....nice score !

[BCR 570]

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

Pud:

Not too much to report.  North American Railcar had the painted pre-production samples of the rotary gondolas on display but we already know about those.  I did meet and chat with the fellow from Praririe Shadows and he explained that progress on the caboose at the factory has been painfully slow.  It has been held up along with a number of Rapido and TLT models.  He did say that if the caboose is successful he has an interest in doing Canadian Freight cars in N Scale.  The scenery materials from Mountain Pacific Scenics were very promising - he had a nice range of very natural looking foliage colours which are available in various sizes down to Extra Fine which is essential for N Scale trees.  I brought several bags home to try out.  Central Hobbies had a new resin kit from Geoff Gooderham which might interest you - a CPR A series heavyweight diner.

a couple of those venerable Atlas 33,000 gallon tank cars in ACFX plan black.  These had been virtually impossible to find in that colour scheme until today. 

Andy:

Good find!  I was looking out for those for you all day Saturday but didnt see any.  I have a photograph of one at Chetwynd in 2002 which was either going north to or coming south from your locale.


Tim

[Dave V]

Another one for me...

[ednadolski]

After moving to a new house, I've finally gotten my spray booth set up again.  Still have a huge basement finishing project in front of me, and a couple of other things, but hopefully I'll be able to get a bit of time for a little background project or two.

Ed

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I did probably 12sqft of scenery on the NKP yesterday, but forgot to take pics.

Eric?

[jsoflo]

Its been a really long time, but I finally got back to work. I have been working on the curved module and the yard lead for the southern end of my CP Rail D&H Division, representing the Philadelphia area in winter. I have been stalled out on the backdrop to the yard lead, where I split the single track into two lanes, with one leading into the intermodal dockside loading area. This is (in real life) an industrial wetland looking out on the Delaware River and across the river to Camden, NJ. I had put down snow, tall grass (browned for winter), leafless locust trees, and winter brush, and now I am finished with the backdrop effect I sought:









Have a good one!

[Smike]

jsoflo you nailed those scenes with the backdrop. I think the key was not making the stuff in the horizon too large. Really gives a sense of distance looking across the river.

[wm3798]

I did about 4 square feet of scenery at Eric's... 

Also fooled around a little with my layout...  See more in the Engineering Reports section.


Lee

[NARmike]

Hi all; new member here. This forum came highly recommended from Tim H. and Andy T. who I ran into at Supertrain in Calgary. I model the Northern Alberta Railways, Peace River Subdivision, circa 1979. I'm using a sectional approach to the layout as I would like to display it in the future (I'm a little remote here in Drayton Valley, AB with no fellow modellers nearby). My current goal is to have, at least, my Peace River crossing and approaches completed by 2016, as that will be the 100th anniversary of the rails reaching that point. I'm still in the benchwork stage and have not done much since the New Year but I'm hoping a little guilt from you guys will help prod me along. I'll put in a link below to my blog so you can see what I've got so far.

It's nice to see all the high quality modellers on here... and lots of Canadian content too! I'm a big fan of Tim and Andy's work as well as Mark Dance and other Canadian RPM guys, so I hope to learn much from you.

Something I can add to the forum is that I spoke with Jeff from Prairie Shadows as well as Matt from Rapido at Supertrain about the Pte. St. Charles van and they both indicated that we should see the model in mid-2013, if all goes well. I have 2 of these reserved for myself. Jeff also informed me of a special run he is getting done of Atlas GP-9s in NAR livery. He'll be doing 3 road numbers with the names (the NAR named all their engines in 1979 for their 50th anniversary) and we should see them by late this summer.

That's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll have an update for you all next weekend!

Mike Maisonneuve
http://nscalenar.blogspot.ca/

[VonRyan]

So it is obvious that everyone got a lot done over the weekend. I didn't manage to take any significant photographs of my installing Sprat & Winkle Autocouplings, seeing as how they are pesky little buggers and bending them to shape is quite a task, but Micro-Trains couplers don't look good on English rolling stock, and trying to use prototypical Three-Link couplings in 2mm scale is not something for anyone except a watchmaker. For those unfamiliar with Sprat & Winkle Autocouplings, the place they can be found, and the only place other than the site to order from, is http://www.modelsignals.com/
I've come up with a way to get some photographs of the various steps of the installation process, I'll also see about either linking to the instruction pdf or just photographing the sections in relation to the photos so as to give a clear "picture" as to what it is i'm doing.
-Cody F.

[BCR 570]

Mike:

Welcome aboard!  It was great to meet you and I know that Railwire members will enjoy seeing your work.  I didnt know about the NAR GP9s; I would probably have to break down and order one of those.  I did pick up one of the Athearn NAR boxcars on Saturday; they are two years outside my chosen era but if you dont tell anyone, neither will I . . .

Looking forward to your first picture posts,

Tim

[Puddington]

That's good news about the CN van Mike, thanks...welcome to the Railwire; lot's of great talent here......and I might have to break down for a NAR geep...damned if I know how I'll work it in but that's never stopped me before.....

[mcjaco]

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 )

Anyone that runs Cal Northern stuff is cool in my book!

Haven't done any modeling.  Wife gave birth to the twins last week, and it's been one sleepless night after another.

[Philip H]

Work has been slow the last two weeks - we had the teenagers here for Spring Break from their mom's; my mom cam in for a week of grandkid therapy, and my brother and sister in law joined us from New York for a weekend in there somewhere.

All that said, the paint shop managed to crank out a few items:





I also got the Grass Blaster properly labeled:



@MCJACO - congrats on the twins!!!!!  I have a total of four (that happens when you get married twice) and I'll be running a sleep deficit for years to come.  Good thing is, while they are little, they can sleep in the Pac N Play or their car seat on the floor of the train room while you work.