Weekend Update 2015/09/06

[dougnelson]

Nice work Doug, particularly like the weathering.
Didn't the great Pennsy ever wash their cabooses, err, cabin cars? 
Otto
PS: nice meeting you in Sacto

Hi Otto:  cabin cars were probably never washed except when shopped for work.
Doug.

[bnsfdash8]

Loaded up the layout and took it to my new house. The house has a basement so I plan on expanding the layout a little bit since I now have the room to do so.

[wcfn100]

I got my new under frame parts from shape ways.  I had done these a little hastily when they were offering free shipping so I missed a few issues when trying to copy the Kadee HO one.





First thing I missed was that the Athearn car has a smaller door so the two big middle braces should be closer together.  The second thing is the the floor of the N scale car sits much farther up into the shell so the big cross supports don't stick out underneath the car the way they should which is half the reason to do this in the first place.

I can't assess the coupler yet because the piece is warped pretty good.I need to get a piece of square tube to hold the floor straight.  The over all height is pretty good but that was just dumb luck.  I need to change a bunch of stuff, but at least I have some points reference.

Jason

[chicken45]

@dougnelson That's amazing. I have some questions:

Got any pics of there the trainphone enters the cupola?
How did you do the grab irons on the car sides? Did you shave the old ones off? I never did that because I feared they'd still be visible.
What'd you use for the smoke jack?

Great job! Wow!

[dougnelson]

@dougnelson That's amazing. I have some questions:

Got any pics of there the trainphone enters the cupola?
How did you do the grab irons on the car sides? Did you shave the old ones off? I never did that because I feared they'd still be visible.
What'd you use for the smoke jack?

Great job! Wow!

Hi Josh:

Thanks for the comments.  The antenna wires exit the conduit and both enter the front of the cupola (opposite side from the smokejack side).  See the photo below.  I soldered a micro wire to the end of the brass wire conduit.  The grabirons are just brass wire, the cast-on ones are so small I do not bother to remove them.  The smokejack is a Microtrains wood caboose smokejack. 

[nkalanaga]

Jason:  Even with the issues you listed it looks good. 

Did you see the article in the September RMC about Southern's PS boxcars?  They had a Hydroframe-60 underframe, rather then the -40 on your model, but the plans may be of use.

[chicken45]

Hi Josh:

Thanks for the comments.  The antenna wires exit the conduit and both enter the front of the cupola (opposite side from the smokejack side).  See the photo below.  I soldered a micro wire to the end of the brass wire conduit.  The grabirons are just brass wire, the cast-on ones are so small I do not bother to remove them.  The smokejack is a Microtrains wood caboose smokejack. 

I meant on you model. I'd love to see how you did the trainphone on you model. How did you do that little support in the middle of the grab iron? Did you attach another small piece of brass?

[wcfn100]

Jason:  Even with the issues you listed it looks good. 

Did you see the article in the September RMC about Southern's PS boxcars?  They had a Hydroframe-60 underframe, rather then the -40 on your model, but the plans may be of use.

Thanks for the heads up.  Went and got the magazine this morning.

Jason

[dougnelson]

I meant on you model. I'd love to see how you did the trainphone on you model. How did you do that little support in the middle of the grab iron? Did you attach another small piece of brass?

Hi Josh:
Ah, on the model.  But I thought you only modeled from the prototype?   Here is a better photo of the Trainphone antenna.  Sorry, but I ignored the center support on the grab iron.  I guess is could be soldered on if you wanted to do it.

[chicken45]

Hi Josh:
Ah, on the model.  But I thought you only modeled from the prototype?   Here is a better photo of the Trainphone antenna.  Sorry, but I ignored the center support on the grab iron.  I guess is could be soldered on if you wanted to do it.

Damn that's beautiful. Using the smaller wire is a great touch.
In this pic, it looks like there was a center support. Maybe it was just a paint shaving or something.

[dougnelson]

Damn that's beautiful. Using the smaller wire is a great touch.
In this pic, it looks like there was a center support. Maybe it was just a paint shaving or something.

Josh- that's actually the cast-on bracket.  Perhaps I should give it some yellow paint.

[arbomambo]

Because I have only two weeks before the next show, AND because I want to make some of these modules halfway presentable, I used yesterday as a 'skyboard painting' day...I had already roller brushed my mix of sky blue on the plywood skyboards.

 

I used an  existing skyboard to mark where I wanted the horizon the start...I had previously used my Sweetie's craft acrylics to paint these (Evergreen green)...so that was the first order of business-to paint the distant horizon across all of the 9' of modules...

 



 



 

then I broke out the airbrush and mixed a 50/50 mix of acrylic white to thinner....I didn't even bother with the dual action internal mix airbrush, and just used my cheap Paasche single action external mix  ($25.00 at Hobby Lobby) and airbrushed clouds...I did my best to represent distant clouds by making them small, closer to the horizon, getting larger and further 'up' on the skyboard, to represent closer clouds...

 



 



 

I stippled the green acrylic craft paint to represent different foliage...effective for background scenery...here are pics of the skyboards reattached (they're easily attached and removed with T-nuts)...showing the effect. We love using skyboards as they help set and focus the scene when properly done.

 

 



 



 

[BruceG]

I visited Steamtown NHS, and rode behind NKP 765 from Scranton PA to East Stroudsburg PA.  I took some videos, but don't have them in a file format I can post.  We stayed at the magnificant Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel

[BruceG]

Can someone tell me why two of my attachments display rotated 90 degrees?  They looked OK in the attachment block.

Thanks.

[Chris333]

You probably took those photos with a cell phone. They are known to rotate like that.