Weekend Update 6/10/12

[wm3798]

Riding the rails to Carolina as we speak...  Looking forward to a possible side trip to Spencer Shops museum, and a visit to a layout or two while I'm down here for a Habitat conference.  Film at 11!

Lee

[mplsjct]

Depending upon the radius of your pike the trucks may not swing far enough due to the coupler box.

Also the narrow-treaded wheels the gons come with may prove to be problematic.  I ended up replacing mine with MT lo-pros.

I had an issue with mine derailing through a Peco code 55 double slip turnout, I switched out the wheels with wide tread FVMs, and all is well now.

This is really the only issue I have come across since switching over to metal wheels, it's probably more an issue with the turnout than the wheels themselves.

[davidgray1974]

Completely painted the mountain and I've begun adding additional highlights and shadows as needed using various mediums.  (Powders, paint, washes)  Also started adding some greenery to begin blending both sides together.  Still a long way to go before I will begin working on adding trees and more undergrowth.  Here are some before and after pics of the right side of the mountain.  I will most likely post more pics this weekend since work is still in progress.

Before


After

[Chris333]

Well I painted it weathered it and then stripped it and started all over.



It is a Nn3 14T JDC Plymouth (similar to the East Broad Top's M-4) drawn by me then etched in brass by PPD and powered by a Searails Power Max chassis.

[MichaelWinicki]

I had an issue with mine derailing through a Peco code 55 double slip turnout, I switched out the wheels with wide tread FVMs, and all is well now.

This is really the only issue I have come across since switching over to metal wheels, it's probably more an issue with the turnout than the wheels themselves.

They had issues with my Atlas code 55 too... And honestly my derailments are few and far between.

As soon as I started having problems, I started checking the wheel-gauge and there were a number of them that were slightly narrow.  You combine the narrow wheel-tread with being slightly narrow and... bad things man... bad things.

[MichaelWinicki]

Very nice David Gray!

[DKS]

Very nice David Gray!

+1

An exceptional transformation, followed by exceptional progress. Keep it up!

Incidentally, I tend to be track agnostic, but there are those who look down their probosces at Unitrack. Yours looks to be well on its way to being a layout that should so thoroughly distract their attention from the track that they may not even notice...!

[C855B]

My weekend report is we "discovered" a new-to-me LHS today, Chuck's Depot in Marion, IL. Well... not all that "L" but at 65 miles away it is the closest. Huge stock of N (and HO), owner is the classic "retired guy", but in this case he sold his career house and custom-built a combination home, store and layout quarters modeled after a large station. We had a good chat, he showed us the HO layout, roughly 20x65 in the basement. Should be nice after the scenery is better fleshed-out, but it has the usual HO problem of spaghetti bowl design.

I stocked-up on several recent MTL releases I had overlooked.

[Packer]

Nothing really worth posting pics for. I bought and modified some junk-drawer bachmann cylindrical hoppers to run worth a crap for club running

As far as my loco projects, The Fs are still soaking, the GP5 and GP38Xs (sorry conrail guys) are waiting on parts.

Doorless auto rack decorated for Rio-Grande.  Simple removal of doors, painting the interior white, changing the reporting marks to TTNX and an appropriate car number, and beefing-up the TRAILER TRAIN markings with MicroScale decals.

I love it!!! I saw a bunch of these things growing up in texas without the end doors. Do you have a write-up on how you did it? Maybe I can kind of "convert" what you did to HO (for my beat-up walthers rack)

[BCRail_FSJ]

Got one half of the classification yard tracks down and powered and Fort St John....

[NARmike]

Well, I finally managed to get a wee bit of modelling done today!
Now I at least have one truck ready to haul some grain into the Peace River U.G.G.

The farmer that owns this one knows how to take care of equipment because it still looks pretty good for a '54 running around in '79! (might need to weather/distress the cab a bit more)





It started life as a mini-metals  IHC R-190 with a van box.
I cut off the box (to be used later on an F-350), lengthened the wheelbase and added a willmodels 16' box.

Paint is artist acrylics with an ink/alcohol wash and the grain is paint with a touch of chalk powder for effect.
A bit of rust and dust to reduce the shine and there you have it.

Mike Maisonneuve
Modeling the Northern Alberta Railways' Peace River subdivision in N scale.
http://nscalenar.blogspot.ca/

[superturbine]

After being unable to attend the hobby for the last 5 months (birth of our daughter), I have finally accomplished something.

The first of the class


Here is one of many I am building for the space alien, Ping-Pong extraordinaire Kirk Reddie, Mr EF1

[jmlaboda - RIP]

"Looking forward to a possible side trip to Spencer Shops museum..."

Perfect time... Tennessee Valley RR Museum's SOU Consol. 630 is there, running excursions this weekend for employees and I believe the public next weekend...

[bbussey]

... I saw a bunch of these things growing up in texas without the end doors. Do you have a write-up on how you did it? Maybe I can kind of "convert" what you did to HO (for my beat-up walthers rack)

It's simple.  Just remove the end doors, paint the interior and change the reporting marks to TTNX.  This is the easiest auto rack modification I've done.

[VonRyan]

Well I painted it weathered it and then stripped it and started all over.



It is a Nn3 14T JDC Plymouth (similar to the East Broad Top's M-4) drawn by me then etched in brass by PPD and powered by a Searails Power Max chassis.

Looking good! the trackwork looks excellent. How do you make your N.G. switches? Do you use premade, a template or a jig?

-Cody F.