Weekend Update 4/17/16

[peteski]

I agree with whoever said the lawns on those adjacent houses should look different. Whether color, height of grass, dead spots, a worn pathway (which seems would be on the house nearest the tracks). Unless your anti-blight ordinances are REALLY strictly enforced....

Maybe they are using the same landscaper? 

[chuck geiger]

Chuck:  While I've been in Wenatchee many times, I won't claim to be familiar with all of the industries.  That said, I don't remember ever seeing a grain elevator there.  Lots of concrete fruit warehouses, making almost a solid wall along the tracks, but Wenatchee was never a big grain or livestock town.  On the other hand, there MAY have been one, so if you have any evidence of it, I stand corrected. 

Appleyard did handle a lot of wheat, in boxcars, until the Mansfield Branch was finally abandoned.  The ancient rail on that branch was never replaced, and 50 ton boxcars were the heaviest grain cars allowed.  Some of the rail was recycled from the original GN mainline construction in the 1890s.

Build the warehouses to scale, and the railroad at eye level, and you might not need a backdrop, other than the sky.

Are you going to model the live steam/diesel Wenatchee River Railway in the park along the Columbia?  I managed to ride their train in 2003, and was a little surprised to see that they had a model of pne of D&RGW's long narrow gauge stock cars. lettered WRR 5963.  The surprise was that my narrow gauge also has a model of that same car, WRRY 5963.  I was tempted to ask if I could temporarily stick a Y on theirs for a photo, but thought better of it.

Great ideas...

[Iain]

I was in Raleigh, NC this weekend for the Norfolk Southern Historical Society meeting.

Started out hanging out with friends of mine from Raleigh:




Friday, we chased NS E25 from Fuquay-Varina along the original NS Fayetteville branch to Fayetteville.  I shot film (black and white) and some digital.  Our first stop, I only shot film, but I did shoot digital of the train coming over the Cape Fear in Lillington.





Caught the street running in Fayetteville:



Finally, coming into the yard:



Brian and Jay:



Also caught the Aberdeen and Rockfish GP7, almost looking like the day it was delivered new to A&R:



Southern pulpwood flat, still hanging on.  Notice the tree:



The clouds went away for the trip back.  Here, we see the train crossing Carvers Creek behind the former Kelly Springfield plant.  The overpass is the future I295 into Bragg:



Bunnlevel:



The train had this interesting looking car in the consist:



Coming back up into Fuquay:



After that is when we went by to see the FM:



Also in the same facility is where NS 375 is being restored:



Our last stop before supper was the former NS Duncan freight depot, now a gas station:



The next day, we had our business meeting, and then the group went by the caboose.  Bill McDonald was a conductor on the original NS; this was the first time he'd been in one of these cabooses in years:



Bill and Mike, both original NS employees::



To end the day on Saturday, we went to Bonsal, where the New Hope Valley hosted a ride as a fundraiser for the restoration project.  An old friend of mine is there, and I had to get a shot:



Also of interest on the property is an NS tool car:



And an NS caboose:



I rode in the caboose:



Which would probably interest @davefoxx




The New Hope Valley RR runs on several miles of the former NS Durham branch, which was abandoned after the Southern takeover as they already had their own line into Durham.

[basementcalling]

Great ideas...

Chuck, Bill Edgar designed a layout featuring Wenatchee that he never finished, but proto photos and a plan were published in NSR a few years back. I forget what year, but a search of their back issues would be productive. One month featured proto photos of key scenic elements along the line, including many parts of the town, and the next issue was the trackplan.

[up1950s]

That Rockfish #308 caboose above was repainted with the old lettering masked . The result is what looks like a decal film . Prototype for a undesirable modeling effect that haunts decalers .

[jmlaboda - RIP]

If you look closely you can see the supports that were laid over the V-shaped floor to convert the car to a bulkhead flat.  Seem a lot of conversion of these cars after pulpwood had stopped being used for paper making... NS has made tie gondolas out of a number of them while others were converted to bulkhead flats, like the car Iain shot and long log cars with cradles being fastened to the V-flooring.  Non-SOU conversions included some former RF&P cars I saw far from home in Arkansas with steel coil cradles added to the V-floor with bulkheads cut down, still carrying the full RF&P lettering... these were in captive service between steel makers in Armorel, Ar., just wish I had more film to shoot the cars.

For modelers of things more modern there are other uses that the pulpwood cars that are available could be used for, including the top parts of cut-down bulkheads being used as fencing around a rail scrap yard, like the one in Roanoke, Va.  What with a little creativity there are other uses that easily can be modeled.

[Chris333]

Was this an old pulpwood car?

[wcfn100]

If you look closely you can see the supports that were laid over the V-shaped floor to convert the car to a bulkhead flat. 

I see a car that still has the 'v' floor. 

Jason.

[jmlaboda - RIP]

Was this an old pulpwood car?

No.  It was a purpose built bulkhead flat.  The giveaway for former pulpwood cars is the shape of the bulkheads which were tapered to a point and then straight down towards the bottom of the bulkhead.  Fully tapered bulkhead ends were extremely rare on pulpwood cars, I suspect because of the force of the pulpwood pressing against the bulkheads during movement of the cars.

I see a car that still has the 'v' floor. 

.

Yep.  By rebuilding the entire floor of the cars flat it would add way too much weight because of the added steel that would be necessary.  While I have not looked into the gondola conversions NS has done using former pulpwood cars I would suspect that even in them the V-flooring remains intact.

[eja]

I see a car that still has the 'v' floor. 

Jason.

Sorry that photo is so dark I can't see anything except the safety vest on the worker walking  beside it the car 

[nkalanaga]

Chuck:  The last time I was in Wenatchee was 2008.  Do they still have the Skookum Indian sign on Wenatchee Avenue, with the animated eyes?

[wcfn100]

Sorry that photo is so dark I can't see anything except the safety vest on the worker walking  beside it the car 

Try this. 



Jason

[eja]

Much mo better ..... thx

[Blazeman]

Is that a bush or sapling growing on the end of the car, or simply some branches from passing through overgrown vegetation?

[chuck geiger]

Yep it's still there - Not very PC! 
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/45/b6/99/45b699397706ff03bff63a3d1d61e15d.jpg