Weekend Update 2/24/13

[up1950s]

[bc6]

This week I got some Kato undecorated F3 A&B units back from Kendall @ The Blue Caboose and was totally head over heels in delight the way the BN paint job turned out. The dullcoate version looks 20x better than the gloss version, cant wait to slap them on the Kato chassis soon.

[lock4244]

Over achieving as usual, I'm putting 100 FVM 33" wheels on 25 Bluford offset hoppers.

[Kisatchie]

I found out on the Prototype Railroads forum that Precision Masters' 4700 cu ft FMC 3-bay covered hoppers (built 1973+) are similar to Gunderson 4692 cu ft hoppers (built in 1971). Pictures I found show the main difference (to my eye) was two less ribs per side. So I got out my Xacto chisel blade and removed the offending ribs on 5 cars. Woo hoo.

Say it again, Dee!


Hmm... I guess that
makes Kiz a modeler...

[davidgray1974]

Ok seriously....that face is going to haunt me the rest of the night.

[CBQ Fan]

Ok seriously....that face is going to haunt me the rest of the night.

I second that.  If my kids come down one more time I am going to have to show them the picture to scare them back to bed.

[Puddington]

Me too David... yesh !

Well; it's been Canadian Slab Side hopper week here; actually; it's been plain ol' hopper week.... For those that have not subjected themselves to the Gooderham Slab Side thread, here's the first CPR slab side...



I did her in the "as delivered" livery and, as is painfully obvious, she's been in either cement or limestone service for a wee bit O' time.... The proto pic's are in the Gooderham thread.



A few railfans couaght her at night.....  ... Gino Vanelli was wrong "Black cars (do not) look better in the shade...."

.... and lest you think Puddy can live by CPR slab side's alone, this Exactrail Mil Rd grain hopper got weathered; somewhat like a pic in the Morning Sun guide..... she's joined a few Mil Rd PS 4000's....



They look very similar from the side; size notwithstanding but the roof gives the 4000's away...

A second slab side in almost done and will be posted unless the Maker's Mark bottle appears later..........

[Catt]

Over on Big Blue (The Gauge) forum they are having a "Get off your duff competion" this is to get members to working on a unfinished project or start and finish (as much as you can in the alotted time frame),or just finish something up.

I have already finished my Z layout project so I thought I would do another one.Since I am a modern day modeler one of the requirements on modern railroads are the reflective stripes running from one end of the car or loco so my new GOMD challenge to me is to see how many cars I can get done before the challenge ends which is the reason for this posting.After four days I have ten cars done for a totalmso far of 120 decals.I am also replacing plastic wheels with metal though it is not part of the challenge.





One thing I've discovered is that the yellow decals do not show well on light grey or tan cars.

[hegstad1]

1948 Chevy Tow truck from a Showcase Miniatures kit. 

[Philip H]

1948 Chevy Tow truck from a Showcase Miniatures kit. 

Plus 100 internets for this one!  Well done.

[up1950s]

You'll know him , and what he is into .

[up1950s]

Well; it's been Canadian Slab Side hopper week here; actually; it's been plain ol' hopper week.... For those that have not subjected themselves to the Gooderham Slab Side thread, here's the first CPR slab side...

That hopper is awesome , and done weathered great . Somebody ought to sell them RTR in various schemes . Too bad they didn't ship slab bacon in them . Lends itself to billboard paint jobs .

[eric220]

Pud, that hopper is awesome, and is an impressive duplication of the prototype. Well done!

I've been working on my camera car this week. I finally committed CAA and solder to the project and installed the camera in the BF-16. I also installed a switch to disengage the battery on the camera while not in use.

[mark dance]

Nice work on the camera loco Eric...it certainly adds a different dimension to running trains.

Most of my hobby time this week was spent preparing for the first C&W Ops session in nearly 9 months (!).  It went well with Gary Hinshaw doing a fine job as rookie dispatcher - ably assisted by Rene Gourley of Proto:87 fame - assuring that traffic made it across the line.  About 75% of movements are run as extras so many clearances and orders were written...and only one pusher set ended up on wrong side of the hill .

The new car forwarding mechanisms were tested and the industry loading parameters need to be adjusted ...especially the Kraft switcher and Slocan jobs.  The high car volume of >350 cars moved did test Nelson yard fully and it stood up well...but I wouldn't want to assign less than two yard crews to it.

What modeling time I had went into initial scenery around Slocan bridge on the swing gate.





I have to admit it was a treat watching the many long trains running across the new bridge at scale speed as the operators went between Nelson and Castlegar.

Have a great weekend everyone...

md

[BCR 570]

Nice work on the slab side hopper, Pud, and also nicely photographed.

In keeping with National Slab Side Hopper week I built six cars.  The last step will be to install some scratchbuilt tackboards and they will then be ready for paint:




Here they are on a test run up the helix:




Tim