Weekend Update 11/5/17

[fcnrwy23]

The "Badger Express"

      There are not too many passenger trains, running on the FCN.
The "Northern Charters" Excursion train and...


The FCN' Biz train...


were the only ones, until last year when I started to run the "Varsity".  Which was a pair of Kato Smooth-side coaches, that I had on hand.
The idea for the Varsity came from the "football game day" trains that run in Iowa.

Ref:
The Hawkeye Express, began operating in September 2006.
The Hawkeye Express is primarily used to move fans between Historic Kinnick Stadium and satellite parking areas during Iowa Hawkeye home football games.

Well, earlier this year, the "Varsity" was upgraded to Kato Smooth-Side Dome cars.  This past week, I finally got to painting the train set.



Colors are REEFER White and CABOOSE Red. The decals are homemade on my inkjet printer.
The first two car are stock Domes, while the third car is a modified Observation with a Dome roof and section added..

Now, just have to decide what the paint scheme will be, to finish the power (an Atlas B32-8PHW, from parts) for the Badger Express...

Jerry G.

[bbussey]

I had a leftover bridge beam that made a perfect load for the G33 gon. The Bethlehem sign is copied from signs seen in the PRR gon book.

Looks like class G26 to me.    Sweet! 

[mark dance]

More shingling...3 of the 4 main roof panels on the Nelson station are done but not glued down.  I am figuring out then test fitting the dormer and bay roofs as I go.





Once complete the entire roof will be faded and weathered.

have a great weekend!

md

[ednadolski]

Yes excellent job on the hand rails.

Impressive work indeed!   

Ed

[svedblen]

Weathered a truck today. The finished truck to the right, and for comparison an original Atlas truck (with P48 profile) wheels to the left.

[tehachapifan]

Wow, that looks spot-on, svedblen!

[nickelplate759]

Jerry G. - I like your free-lanced dome-observation cars.  I especially like that you not only added the dome, but also modified the window pattern appropriately.  Nicely done!

[chicken45]

I've been working on this ESM caboose. I'm leaving PRR for Conrail. That, or I'm in Ed K's indentured service.

[nkalanaga]

"That looks like it would exceed loading limits  eh?"

It looks tall, but within clearances, to me, but then, I model 1974 BN, and most western roads had good clearances.  Even if it is a little tall, the railroad can probably find a usable routing, and it will give the dispatcher something to worry about.

[OldEastRR]

Yikes ... this new TRW Gallery thing is as fun as using PhotoBucket ... move, shift, label, copy, designate, THEN you can use your picture in a post. Whee. No more dashing off a quick post & photo. I lovechange...
When I have an extra 15 minutes to spare I'll load a few more pix of this factory I made by major re-working of one of those Model Power kits that had shared walls with most other MP kits. I really managed to get the old grimy weathering look, the photo washes out the griminess, it's darker than shown here.

[nkalanaga]

Since I've posted several times about adventures with Tichy custom decals, here are a few of the cars I've done with them.  All of  these were done from photos, and as a complete car, with multiple cars on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet.  The ACI labels are from Highball, and the road name, herald, and reflector panels on the black hopper are from MicroScale.



The MT flatcar is fairly close to the early BN bulkhead flats, but the factory lettering was too modern, and for a newer car.  So, I stripped the car and painted it with Tamaya Park Green.  It had previously been lowered, by removing the ends of the underframe, building new bolsters, and body mounting 1025s.  The trucks are MDC, with the top raised ring removed, and MT 36 inch wheels.  The stirrups were replaced because the originals had broken over the years.  This isn't a new car by any means.  In fact, the underframe says "Kadee".

The boxcars are more or less stock, with the Ch-P car being an IM 12-panel kit, and the MRS my last undecorated Con-Cor car from the early years of N scale.  Surprisingly, it is very close to the prototype, with the biggest visible difference being the short ladders on the right side of the CC ends, where the prototype has grabs.  The Canadian Freight Car Gallery has a picture of the prototype, which was being used as a shed when it was taken.  Here's a link to their index page:
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/displayrailway.pl?o=mrs
I was a little surprised to find it, as there was a discussion a few years back on whether there was a prototype for  the CC boxcar, with it's slightly odd combination of details.

The Ch-P car was much simpler, and is based on a photo taken in Canada, so the car had to go through the US at least once in the early 60s.  The plant where I work ships parts to Chihuahua, so having a car from their railroad seemed like a good idea.  The hardest part was the "Hecho en Mexico" logo, because the early oval version used by Ch-P apparently isn't online.  This took most of my limited artistic abilities, and a lot of MS Paint tricks, to patch together.

The GN hoppers are stock KD undecorated kits, again predating the KD/MT split, and have been in a box since the early 80s.  The red one is Scalecoat CB&Q red, and the "BSB" is Model Master "Panzer Gray", as the original car was definitely NOT black in the 1974 photo, although that was its original color.  The black background on  the red hoppers herald is Sharpie, drawn with a circle template.  Much simpler than masking, and while I have printed backgrounds, two layers of Tichy printing would be too thick even for me.  That circle template dates to the mid 70s, so one can see that I tend to keep using old technology...  The KD/MT hoppers aren't correct for GN 2-bay hoppers, but I doubt that true GN cars will ever be made.  The lettering had to be adapted to the slightly shorter cars, but generally fit well, other than not aligning properly with rivet strips.

The black lub/repack patches are also Sharpie, while the various paint patches on the black hopper are thinned craft paints.

Most of the lettering was done with standard fonts, in either Excel or directly in Paint, except for the GN "slant serif" road name.  That's a photo from the instruction sheet from a 1960s Walthers HO decal set, which had various sizes and spacings of GN road names.  I literally took a picture of it - taped the sheet to a porch post, and photographed it, then edited it in Paint to N scale size.

The photos were taken outside, with a piece of ME flextrak spiked to a board, on a larger board, on top of a stack of concrete blocks, with a chunk of Kentucky sandstone for a background.  It also held the larger board down, counterbalancing the camera at the other end, so everything stayed steady.  Very sophisticated!   

[Joetrain59]

"I've been working on this ESM caboose."     Damn, I forgot I even had one! Had started to build it, then it was time to move again. Have to dig it out, and get back to work on it.
 Joe D

[nscaleSPF2]

This will also be my first attempt at painting with handrails already installed on a model.

This should not be an issue, Russ.  Assuming that you will be using an airbrush, apply the paint using many very light coats.  If you do it right, the first couple of coats will be almost invisible.  It takes about 7 or 8 coats, on a job like this.  Looking forward to seeing your results.

[Philip H]

"I've been working on this ESM caboose."     Damn, I forgot I even had one! Had started to build it, then it was time to move again. Have to dig it out, and get back to work on it.
 Joe D

I didn’t forget but I don’t know which box mine is in either. 

[tehachapifan]

This should not be an issue, Russ.  Assuming that you will be using an airbrush, apply the paint using many very light coats.  If you do it right, the first couple of coats will be almost invisible.  It takes about 7 or 8 coats, on a job like this.  Looking forward to seeing your results.

Thanks, Jim. Yes, I agree on the light coats. The grey went on yesterday and I'm happy with how it came out. My concern is mostly about the masking process for the red on the sills, which will be a little more time-consuming with handrails installed. More time applying masking means some tape will be stuck to fresh grey longer, increasing the chance of paint-lift. For that reason I let the grey dry overnight and I picked up some Tamiya masking tape in hopes that it will be nicer to the paint than regular making tape. Red goes on today....keeping fingers crossed!