Weekend Update 5/13/12

[Vince Gortner]

Been waiting to see Amtrak 156 on the point of the CZ....  and today was the day!   Train #5 just east of Eola yard on a nice sunny day...

[up1950s]

Finally finished a Baconrail car.  Thanks again David for the decals.  Plan on doing a couple other cars and maybe a trailer later.



For all you new Atlas folks, there are photos from others you can check out.

Were you running to the bathroom when you took this shot ?

[NARmike]

Well modelling has been on hold for the past couple weeks as we have been house hunting and working on a new home for the NAR Peace River subdivision. If all goes well I'll have 5 acres to put it on by this time tomorrow. The possibilities are quite dynamic and I'm now in the process of doing the "viability studies" on building a 2 story, 36' x48' garage/workshop with 3/4 of the upper level dedicated to my trains  (the other 1/4 for the wife's studio... which really helped with the initial presentation of the idea). If your gonna dream... dream BIG!

I'll probably be pretty quiet for the next while with realtors, lawyers and salesmen keeping me busy... but I'll keep you posted on the acquisition of the new Right of Way when I can.

Really nice to see your layout, Chris. It looks great.
Tim, you've outdone yourself, again, with the MOW equipment.

Mike Maisonneuve

http://nscalenar.blogspot.ca/

[spookshow]

I've been working on a model of the machine shop at the SunRich grain elevator complex in Hope, MN.



Still a ways to go yet -



Cheers,
-Mark

[SAH]

I've been doing some decal work the last two weeks.  Finally finished a batch, fired up the air brush and applied the flat finish.  Here they are drying on the car line.



As I was ordering some parts and things from MicroMark last week some nefarious force overcame me and I added a Bachmann 70T switcher to my cart.  (Internet shopping is too damn easy  ) It arrived Saturday.  It said "decoder installed, address 3", so I plunked it down and dialed it in.  It ran.  I backed it up to a string of 9 cars, all weighted and couplers body mounted.  The recco from B'mann said "run for 3-4 minutes in each direction at 1/2 speed during initial operation", so I did.  That little sucker just walked away with those cars, all the way to the other end of the layout with no problems.  Pure joy.  Of course , it didn't take 3-4 minutes on my little setup.  So I pushed the cars back to the other end at 1/2 speed.  Crossed the train over from the main to the passing track and back to see what would happen.  Beautiful.  No derailments, stalls or other miscues of any kind.  I'm impressed with this little locomotive.  And I'm quite certain I could not have done as well with truck mounted couplers and by chance weighting.
Steve

[davidgray1974]

Got tired of looking at just a bare mountain, so I decided to start adding some vegetation.  Figure I will work in sections until I complete the mountain, then work on the base of the mountain and river. 

[SAH]

Got tired of looking at just a bare mountain . . . . .

Thinking of the first time you posted David . . . . Wow.  The difference it stunning.  It looks better and better each week.  Great progress. 

[Scottl]

David, that scene looks fantastic.  I particularly like the second photograph.   

[PGE_Modeller]

Almost 20 years ago, The BC Rail Historical & Technical Society (later to become the PGE-BCR Sig) published an article by myself in Issue 10 of "The CARIBOO" on the Pacific Great Eastern's home-built plywood cabooses that included HO scale drawings of the first five cars (1811 - 1815) of a thirty-car series.  Recently, a friend in Oklahoma commissioned Paul Burkitt-Gray to prepare 3D renderings based on my drawings for Rapid Prototyping by Shapeways in both HO and N scales.  I received two of the N scale cars a couple of weeks ago.



Based on Bryan Bussey's comments in the thread on the 3D printed "E33, E44, EF-3 Electrics in FUD (Shapeways)" about the use of Bestine rubber cement thinner (N-Heptane) to remove the wax from the Shapeways models, I ordered some from an art supply store in Ontario as I was unable to find any in the Vancouver area.  It arrived here on the West Coast on Friday and one of the cabooses spent yesterday soaking in the stuff.  The as-delivered components shown at the Right of the photo are the caboose body with end platforms attached, the floor/underframe/interior, and a sprue containing the hand holds, end sills, end handrails and ladders.  The ones shown are for series 1816 - 1840 which have two pairs of high-sill windows on the opposite side and have the stove and smokejack close to the cupola.  The partially assembled caboose on the Left shows a series 1811 - 1815 car after a 24-hour soaking in Bestine.  As it arrived, the smokejack was bent and attempts to straighten it resulted in it being broken off.  It will be replaced by one fabricated from brass tube.  Now comes the fun of smoothing out the step-wise construction of the radial roof followed by the apllication of closer to scale wire hand holds and railings.  As I model 1952, the box on the underframe representing the AB brake control valve will need to be replaced with a K-type cylinder and reservoir from the InterMountain USRA composite gondola - the finest N-scale K-type brake set-up I have seen.

Cheers,
Greg Kennelly
Burnaby, BC

[avel]

Finished my layout table. Setup a yard with some Unitrack, spent time switching, making up trains as I went. Used the loop as East/West staging. I really need to finish the two closet doors and have them end to end for a permanent yard about 10' long. That's where its at for me. So here are some pictures.






And a video of an Atlas O scale GP60 SP work in progress.

[NARmike]

Got tired of looking at just a bare mountain, so I decided to start adding some vegetation.  Figure I will work in sections until I complete the mountain, then work on the base of the mountain and river. 

David, I keep going back to your photos of that scene. Fantastic... and now with vegitation!

[nkalanaga]

Avel:  Looking at that ??? in the middle of your layout my first thought was that you were modeling Tokio, Washington.  They have an agrochemical business there with two huge tanks, at least 100 ft in diameter each, and about the same height, that dwarf the tank cars on their siding.  They aren't quite as big as that ???, but the general impression is the same...  It sits out in the middle of fields and vacant land, visible from I-90 east of Ritzville, but there's nothing else close to it.

[Lemosteam]

David, that scene looks fantastic.  I particularly like the second photograph.   

+1  Fantastic.  The second shot really caught my eye too!

[Lemosteam]

Avel:  Looking at that ??? in the middle of your layout my first thought was that you were modeling Tokio, Washington.  They have an agrochemical business there with two huge tanks, at least 100 ft in diameter each, and about the same height, that dwarf the tank cars on their siding.  They aren't quite as big as that ???, but the general impression is the same...  It sits out in the middle of fields and vacant land, visible from I-90 east of Ritzville, but there's nothing else close to it.

I was thinking it was a modern pro basketball arena, until I saw the electrical cord.  Looking good so far Avel!

[jmlaboda - RIP]

"The only direct Amtrak route I can find between Philadelphia and Chicago is the Cardinal."

Does the Lake Shore Limited not offer a better and more timely way of getting to Chicago?  I believe that if it doesn't go through Philly at least taking a train to connect with it would be the way to go.  And if you wait to make your trip long enough you could also be one of the first to travel First Class in a true Pullman car...