CN Yellowhead Division

[Scottl]

Thanks guys!

I have shifted gears to working on trains again.  I still have a bunch of used freight cars I picked up in 2021 that needed to be refinished into more appropriate paint schemes.  I wanted a cut of cement cars for the Hinton local so I stripped and refinished seven covered hoppers.  I also tryed out some Sunyscopa decal paper on my laser printer for the decals and I am very pleased with how thin and easy to work with it is.  There is apparently extra thin film available as well, but this is what was possible from Amazon and without a massive shipping charge from S. Korea.

[Scottl]

Finally fired up the 3D printer to try it out.  I'm pretty happy with the results from my first prints so I progressed to a model of one of several intermodal well cars I want.  First up, 40' Thrall stand alone car.  I scaled it from a 48' Walthers car and modified to make it more realistic.  There are several variants of these, some chopped from 48' and some seemingly new with a different floor design, so I'll do a few in each for my fleet.  After that, the 40' Thrall five-unit will be next.  Ultimately, I want to do the NSC 40' cars to match the beautiful JTT 53' models.

This print shows many artifacts and I'm still learning the ropes, but the walkways print nicely and the body is good too.  The rail posts and walkways had almost no support so it is a miracle they did as well as they did. I think the body will need to be supported with brass strips on the inside to keep it from warping and the lower container will need some extra weight, but I think this will serve nicely.  I'll keep refining it but enjoying the process.

[James Costello]

Finally fired up the 3D printer to try it out.  I'm pretty happy with the results from my first prints so I progressed to a model of one of several intermodal well cars I want.  First up, 40' Thrall stand alone car.  I scaled it from a 48' Walthers car and modified to make it more realistic. 

FWIW Scott, considering these are based on the Thrall / Walthers models, skip the walkways etc and go straight to the Gold Metal Models etch brass kits while you can. I know Gary has gotten great looking results with his walkways, but I'd be saving myself the grief on this model.

[Scottl]

That is my back up plan.  The walkways (based on shapes from Gary's projects) print very well.  The railing, not so much, but it is early days.  If need be, I can always etch my own from stainless as well.

[Scottl]

Next version seems to support the prospect of the walkways printing well.  These are paper thin and have a tread pattern made from holes.  They printed with next to no supports.  However, the end railings are not cooperating at all so I am trying to print them separately. 

I'm honestly suprised how well the walkways print, very encouraging.  And with resin that is 2-years out of date

[Scottl]

Let a few trains loose today and found a few new railfanning spots.

[dieselfan1]

The more I see this layout the more I like it.
I'm building a large Z Scale layout with a modern CN theme. Unit trains of coalporters, double stacks and tank cars is what I plan on running with an occasional mixed freight. I can't wait to start running trains.

[Scottl]

Thanks!  It is great to run long modern trains that are possible with N and Z scales.  I can have trains with up to 30 cars and a pair of locomotives based on my yard and passing siding lengths.  The real kicker though is that scenery can be much larger than the trains which has a strong visual impact. 

I think there is a lot of bias in the MR community about 'operations' that centers around the way railroads used to run.  There is not much of that in modern railroading so this is where the scale of N or Z really shines IMO.  My layout is very simple in terms of track plan but offers lots of the operational possibilities that I want.

[Scottl]

A week of running trains, trying to work out the kinks after nearly 8 months of not running while I did scenery.  My Rapido Dash-8 needs some kind of power solution as it is not operable but the Scale Trains, Kato and FVM locomotives all run great. 

Slowly replacing the old Ebay trees with the 500+ I spun up myself but still many 100s to go.  Also working out what my trains are and how I can generate some kind of operations out of things.  Most of operations will be running mainline trains and using Devona siding as a foil. 

I plan two locals that will offer some switching of blocks of cars into mainline manifest trains.  The first will be the Hinton local that will involve lumber and paper products from the two mills.  I'll add some chemical cars into the mix as well.  The second local will serve Valemont BC and will be lumber and cement loads.

With this I think I can have a modest operating session of 2-3 people for a few hours, or I can run it lone wolf if I want too.

Other than that, mostly just discovering photo angles and finding scenery defects that need attention.

[Scottl]

Exhausted my supply of homebrew trees (1100+ so far) replacing the ebay specials but I'll need probably 400+ more to do a full replacement of the trees in the Park Gate scene.  It sounds worse than it is- I can churn them out at around 2 minutes each and it is good work in front of a TV during a game or some mindless sitcom. 

My 3D printed well cars are waiting for GMM etches to find their way here via Montana but I did discover a source for plastic ladders that are near-ideal.  The Kato Maxi parts are finely molded and separate parts.  I can print the walkways with good success but the ladders were hopeless- this is a real solution and will help me with other cars I plan to make.

A few shots with the new trees and other trains.

[basementcalling]

Exhausted my supply of homebrew trees (1100+ so far) replacing the ebay specials but I'll need probably 400+ more to do a full replacement of the trees in the Park Gate scene.  It sounds worse than it is- I can churn them out at around 2 minutes each and it is good work in front of a TV during a game or some mindless sitcom. 

My 3D printed well cars are waiting for GMM etches to find their way here via Montana but I did discover a source for plastic ladders that are near-ideal.  The Kato Maxi parts are finely molded and separate parts.  I can print the walkways with good success but the ladders were hopeless- this is a real solution and will help me with other cars I plan to make.

A few shots with the new trees and other trains.

That's your best photo of the layout yet. Perfectly proportioned.

Are you planning on adding larger trees, or does this area of Canada grow em small?

[Scottl]

Thanks!  I'm really happy with how that scene turned out.

It is a dry, cold climate so things don't grow very large.  The tallest trees on the layout are behind the bridge and are about 3.5-4.0", so up to ~50' scale.  I am sure there are a few trees that height along the prototype but most are 40' or less.  I have avoided tall trees in the foreground that would block the scene, but otherwise using the tallest trees sparingly.

The trees on the slopes are mostly 1.5" or 15-20' scaled.  I'm purposely scaling those down a bit to force perspective. 

[eja]

What are you doing with all the trees you replaced?

[Scottl]

I have a ziploc bag with about 800 in it.  I was going to sell it for a song if you are interested.

[eja]

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