Weekend Update 11/6/16

[Carolina Northern]

Roger,

Is that a holy cow in the third picture? or a holy bull?
How about the dead woman in the street?

[mu26aeh]

Had an open house tour today, only 6 visitors to the CSX Hanover Sub   

So after dinner, I visited Dave Trone's West Penn Railroad with some friends.  He runs live loads on his coal drags, with operating load outs and a rotary dumper, all using air pressure to run the system.  Coal is ground up walnut shells.  This is an HO scale layout, floor to about a 12-14' ceiling, multi level mushroom design layout boasting an amazing 28 SCALE MILES OF TRACK !!! Bottom two are videos, click on them to open in Flickr and play.

20161105_174957 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

20161105_183230 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

20161105_180752 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

[Roger Holmes]

Roger,

Is that a holy cow in the third picture? or a holy bull?
How about the dead woman in the street?

Th Holy Cow has been on the layout for a long time and is of several replicas of the actual "Chicago Cows" from the street exhibition.  The Cubs blue body had holes through it and giant Harry Caray glasses.  The body in the street was a woman who fainted during the 10th inning Wednesday night! (Actually I knocked her over trying to get the cell phone in for the close-up and thought she would be out of the frame--but I'm sticking to my original story.)  I probably should have had a dead billy goat instead.

No bull--Cubs win!

[OldEastRR]

When the stainless steel fluted cars began arriving on the New Haven from Pullman-Standard at the end of WWII, the diners were delayed. So the railroad refurbished a dozen of the deluxe heavyweight diners and repainted many of them imitation aluminum to match the new 8600s. Some received the Hunter green windowband. They all received roller bearing trucks. The cars remained in service after the fluted diners were delivered, and about half of them stayed active into the early 1960s. One was repainted in New Image. The two I modeled (Louisburg Square and The Statesman) were still active in 1956. I also modeled these two because their configurations are different. The Statesman originally had a bar and fewer tables, while the kitchen windows and hallway-side door are located differently from those on Louisburg Square.

Where'd you get 6-wheel RB trucks? Or will this and other questions be answered in an upcoming article in a mag?

[OldEastRR]

Bryan, those diners are amazing, well done!

As for me, no modeling was done this week as I was out on assignment in Sacramento. Got to go visit Railroad Hobbies and picked up a bunch of Arizona rock & mineral ballast (which I can never seem to find in Canadian hobby shops). Fun fact, having 8 bags of crushed stone in your carry on is enough to make TSA twitchy. They ended up opening and sampling EACH bag of ballast. Good thing I was at the airport early... 

They probably suspected you were from I-rock. 

[bbussey]

Where'd you get 6-wheel RB trucks? Or will this and other questions be answered in an upcoming article in a mag?

Des Plaines six-wheel RB trucks (originally commissioned from American Limited I think), slightly modified.

No article this time. It would be too extensive and the perception (from the magazines' standpoint) is that no one would attempt it. And, I didn't take adequate pictures along the way. But I might summarize the concepts used in an Observations editorial for NSR in a 2017 issue.

[SP-Wolf]

F7 6332



Thanks,
Wolf

[chuck geiger]

#1604 on the head of the Grain Local between Rock Island and Trinidad, WA,

[NYNE]

SO NICE!

The diners are complete other than clear-coating to protect the decals. I didn't get that done this week because the airbrush needed a thorough cleaning. @peteski is helping me with a circuit modification on the Rapido PBLW light boards to reduce the intensity. The PBLW interiors are much darker, especially when painted in the prototypical schemes, and the lighting of course is calibrated for them. The white tablecloths in the dining room and the ice mint green paint in the hallways turns the diner interior into a supernova. Aside from that minor correctable detail, I'm happy with the results. These are the most intensive scratchbuilt models I've ever done. The EP-3 electric will surpass them when I get it finished next year.

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[BruceG]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
I received this Pennsy N5c from an ebay purchase.  I'm really pleased with it.  It's from a Gloorcraft etched brass kit with the GMM train phone antenna applied.  The level of detail is amazing, and the modeling IMO is superb.  A few tiny imperfections and light weathering give it an authenticity as a well used cabin car.  One concern: was there ever a prototype with the smokestack on the model.  All I've ever seen is the "a-shaped" stack mounted on the cupola, as on the Bowser version.  I'll keep it as is in any event, rather than take a chance on ruining such an excellent model.

[Ntrainz1]

Trains are running again


Bob.

[Cajonpassfan]

F7 6332

Thanks,
Wolf

Nice work, Wolf, I've always had a thing for the black widow scheme. Classy.
Where did you get he plow?
Otto K.

[mmagliaro]

The diners are complete other than clear-coating to protect the decals. I didn't get that done this week because the airbrush needed a thorough cleaning. @peteski is helping me with a circuit modification on the Rapido PBLW light boards to reduce the intensity. The PBLW interiors are much darker, especially when painted in the prototypical schemes, and the lighting of course is calibrated for them. The white tablecloths in the dining room and the ice mint green paint in the hallways turns the diner interior into a supernova. Aside from that minor correctable detail, I'm happy with the results. These are the most intensive scratchbuilt models I've ever done. The EP-3 electric will surpass them when I get it finished next year.

The diners look terrific!   I hope that you and Peteski post something about the mods to the Rapido light boards.
Are you using the battery-powered ones from Rapido or something else?    I did a very simplistic mod to mine, soldering in
a small dropping resistor across a gap I cut in the board.  But if Peteski is involved, I bet you have something more sophisticated cooking.

[SP-Wolf]

Nice work, Wolf, I've always had a thing for the black widow scheme. Classy.
Where did you get he plow?
Otto K.

Thanks Otto,

The plow is/was from Sunrise Enterprises. I detailed and painted these locomotive about 15 or so years ago.

Wolf

[Dave V]

We follow a double-headed mixed freight (bridge traffic between the AT&SF at Colorado Springs and the D&RG at Glencastle) the unfinished N scale Colorado Midland.

Also did a little scenery work: