Weekend Update 10/6/13

[John]

A rare chance to get some modeling done  .. but I've put my furlough to good use ..

[R L Smith]

Lots of great work again this week!

So a few weeks ago, I ordered two wig-wag grade crossing signals that were noted on another thread. I stared at the package for awhile (no, it didn't assemble itself no matter how much I willed it to) and finally gave it a shot last weekend.  I struggled mightily with this little kit; I've rarely worked with metal.  After several mis-steps, I was trying to clamp the upper bracket to the mast when the bracket flew out of the tweezers at somewhere near the speed of sound.  I heard it hit the wall next to my workbench, and after 10 minutes of looking hi and low for the piece, I gave up.

Fast forward to this afternoon, folding the laundry with the better half.  I found the bracket, firmly epoxied to the bottom of the sock I had been wearing.   






Maybe I'll take up garden railroading...

[HuskerN]

here's my latest bull hauler:



HuskerN
www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com
www.shapeways.com/shops/NScaleAddict

[nkalanaga]

Dave:  If you don't shorten the ladders on that EL boxcar, and I'm with you on it being a hassle, don't forget the little yellow and black "NO RUNNING BOARD" stencils at the bottom of the side ladders.  MicroScales dimensional data sets have them, and the FRA will get you if you leave them off!

[C855B]

... Fast forward to this afternoon, folding the laundry with the better half.  I found the bracket, firmly epoxied to the bottom of the sock I had been wearing.  ...

Outstanding. 

[eja]

I found a errant coupler spring from a Kato Amtrak car !   The small part gods are with us this weekend!   Yea

[mmagliaro]

I spent several hours working out mechanical bugs in my 4-6-2 project.  Mostly, I had to give up on a fully operational
front coupler.  The rear of the coupler box interferes with the swing of the pilot truck.  So now it is functional in that
it can couple to other cars manually (lift/drop in), but not "operational" in that you can't just pick/uncouple or use magnematic
uncoupling on it.

To close the loop on a several-months-old topic related to this on balancing and weighting, I started with this engine
balanced over the center driver.   It weighed about 68g.  I added only 8g over the rear driver area and the increase
in performance was enormous.  (You'll see in the video)

So... IT'S ALIVE, and now on to the detailing!

[timwatson]

I went to the Bixby Oklahoma (outside Tulsa) train show and saw a pretty excellent portable n scale layout. The builder's name was Steve (if you know him or the layout please give me his last name). The Tulsa NMRA guys helped him put it together. It really was well built and engineered. It folded in the middle and had legs underneath. If you wanted to make a portable layout this form factor was pretty sweet.



Here is a teaser pic and there are a few more in the Flickr set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nscalerail/sets/72157636253959303/

[MichaelWinicki]

Thanks for sharing that Tim!

That portable layout is pretty slick!

Props to the guy that built it.

[timwatson]

I spent several hours working out mechanical bugs in my 4-6-2 project.  Mostly, I had to give up on a fully operational
front coupler.  The rear of the coupler box interferes with the swing of the pilot truck.  So now it is functional in that
it can couple to other cars manually (lift/drop in), but not "operational" in that you can't just pick/uncouple or use magnematic
uncoupling on it.

Yeesh Max another excellent locomotive. Great work man.

[Dave V]

Dave:  If you don't shorten the ladders on that EL boxcar, and I'm with you on it being a hassle, don't forget the little yellow and black "NO RUNNING BOARD" stencils at the bottom of the side ladders.  MicroScales dimensional data sets have them, and the FRA will get you if you leave them off!

I have 'em.  Hopefully it won't change the appearance from the prototype too much.  With a paint date of '72, I assume that's when the roofwalk was removed.

[johnhale]

This weekend was spent A. Helping (I use that term loosely) Ed K. with his new benchwork (made with real wood!), and B. Wrapping up my new oNeTrak module of the Waste Management trash transfer facility in Jessup, MD just in time for the NMRA C&P Junction, MER Convention next weekend in Rockville, MD (http://mer.nmra.org/MERConv/MERConv.html).

[arbomambo]

Hello all...
was, finally, able to put the paint on the roof of this one...Pollyscale Steam Power black thinned with alcohol (pity Pollyscale is 'no more')...apart from black decal clestory 'windows' ...I'll declare this one done until I figure on adding cut levers.
I'm pleased with the way this one turned out, but will, probably, base the next 4 of these on a MT donor coach...will be easier to model the underframe more accurately.
Thanks for looking,
~Bruce

[nkalanaga]

Dave:  The smallest "No running board" stencils are small enough that a little weathering can almost make them disappear, so unless you're modeling a newly painted car, you should be good.

As far as I can tell, from looking at GN boxcar pictures, any car repainted after the roofwalks were banned had them removed, so you're probably right about 72, unless it had been repainted between 66(?) and 72, and was then re-repainted.  The GN had a lot of cars with roofwalks at the BN merger in 1970, but all of the Big Sky Blue cars I can find pictures of had them removed.  BSB came into use in 1967.  Quite a few of the BSB cars still had high brakewheels, though, and the warning stencils.  Usually only the B end ladders were left full height, but it's a lot easier to leave all of them in a decorated model...

[craigolio1]

Lots of great work again this week!

So a few weeks ago, I ordered two wig-wag grade crossing signals that were noted on another thread. I stared at the package for awhile (no, it didn't assemble itself no matter how much I willed it to) and finally gave it a shot last weekend.  I struggled mightily with this little kit; I've rarely worked with metal.  After several mis-steps, I was trying to clamp the upper bracket to the mast when the bracket flew out of the tweezers at somewhere near the speed of sound.  I heard it hit the wall next to my workbench, and after 10 minutes of looking hi and low for the piece, I gave up.

Fast forward to this afternoon, folding the laundry with the better half.  I found the bracket, firmly epoxied to the bottom of the sock I had been wearing.   






Maybe I'll take up garden railroading...

Thanks for the laugh.  I had one of those days today and you made me smile.  I wish I had time for trains right now.