Weekend Update 2/10/19

[dmidkiff]

Doug, your handrails are exquisite, but I'm particularly taken by your ballast🙀
What are you using, if I may ask?
Otto K.

Thank you Otto.

The ballast is crusher fines from the local landscape yard, $2 bucks for 5 gallons! I sift it using old geotechnical sieves, I believe this ballast is minus 40, plus 50, I’ll have to double check. After I sieve it, I wash it with the hose in a 100 sieve so all the super fine dust comes off, I’m left with great rock. I also cut the roadbed right to tie ends and try to get a natural profile.

Doug

[rodsup9000]

Getting closer to paint on my California Northern SD9. Finished up the main handrails this weekend, just need the four little stanchions in the step wells. I also got the frame back from milling for the kitbashed fuel tank. The unit runs, but I found out the newer Atlas trucks do not contact the worm gears on the older Atlas/Kato chassis, but that’s an easy fix. Enjoy the photos!

Thanks to @rodsup9000 for the frame milling, everything fits very well.

Doug

 Happy I was able to help.

[davefoxx]

The rails are certainly way higher than they should be...  There were miles of 40 pound rail still in place at abandonment in 1952.  Most of the First District was 57 pound rail.  But rail height doesn't really bug me as long as the rail profile is correct (unlike N scale code 80).

@Dave V,

I like how the rails on your HO layout are smaller than the rails on your former N scale layout.    Lookin' awesome, sir.

DFF

[Cajonpassfan]

Thank you Otto.

The ballast is crusher fines from the local landscape yard, $2 bucks for 5 gallons! I sift it using old geotechnical sieves, I believe this ballast is minus 40, plus 50, I’ll have to double check. After I sieve it, I wash it with the hose in a 100 sieve so all the super fine dust comes off, I’m left with great rock. I also cut the roadbed right to tie ends and try to get a natural profile.

Doug

Thanks Doug,
that salt and pepper mix really looks good!
Just make sure you don't blow your trains budget on ballast
Otto

[Lemosteam]

Thanks Doug,
that salt and pepper mix really looks good!
Just make sure you don't blow your trains budget on ballast
Otto

More Peppa than salt but yeah!  Looks really great!   @dmidkiff , Where can one find these geotechnical sieves?

[Point353]

Where can one find these geotechnical sieves?

Where else but Amazon.com?
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Mesh+Lab+Standard+Test+Sieve

[Roger Holmes]

I know that we're all abuzz about our brush with the MR celebrity bump, but this one is for Jason at Rapido, who I know also drops by on occasion. 


More progress on my bus for the school play...

What show?  The hotrod motor you showed a few weeks back looked like it would be for "Greased Lightning" in Grease but I don't remember a bus in Grease.  Judging from some of the set decorations it could be Hairspray.

[peteski]

Damn Chris. That is hot. I guess I should step up the effort on my pair.

Did you leave the traction tire?

Since spare wheelsets are not available I suspect that he left the running gear as-is. Unless he stocked up on wheelsets during the short time they were available (which is what I did).

[dmidkiff]

More Peppa than salt but yeah!  Looks really great!   @dmidkiff , Where can one find these geotechnical sieves?

Yes, definitely more pepper. These fines were grey when I bought them and most of the lighter color was due to dust. The rock is generally the dark grey.

I got my sieves by contacting a local geotechnical firm that I work with. They had some extras that were used and didn’t meet ASTM standards anymore and gave them to me.

Doug

[wm3798]

What show?  The hotrod motor you showed a few weeks back looked like it would be for "Greased Lightning" in Grease but I don't remember a bus in Grease.  Judging from some of the set decorations it could be Hairspray.

It's "All Shook Up" a musical that incorporates classic Elvis tunes from the 50s.  At the end of Act I our romantic lead boards a Greyhound to head off to the service.  I haven't seen it yet, but I think it's more "Bye Bye Birdie" than "Grease"...

And just to keep up with you Joneses, I also finished painting my model of a model, a classic Rivarossi  Pacific, mimicking the B&O paint scheme they dreamed up to entice teenage modelers such as myself (back in the 70s when I was a teenager )



I took a couple of liberties to improve on the original.  I painted the front face of the cab blue, the firebox a gunmetal/blackened silver, and the top of the cab is brown (the original scheme was gray on the roof).  If I had bought one when I was 13, I would have done the same thing because those things always bothered me!

Working on the art for the lettering decals next.
Lee

[Roger Holmes]

Duh, All Shook UP. I should have gotten that since I played drums for it for 8 nights. In defense of my Grease guess I've played at least 4 separate productions totaling about 30 performances. Grease, Chicago and Joseph I could play in my sleep I've played them so many times--but still three of my favorites.

All Shook Up was a very fun show.  The book is a little lame but you can't miss with a dozen+ Elvis classics.  It drew very well for our local community theater.  IIRC about 12,000 over 8 nights.

Good luck and break a rail!

Now back to model railroad content.  I've been cranking out buildings lately but despite my best intentions I haven't uploaded any photos yet.

[Lemosteam]

Where else but Amazon.com?
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Mesh+Lab+Standard+Test+Sieve

Well now we know what those round samples from that screen supplier are extras for!

Thank you for the link!