Weekend Update 9/13/20

[altohorn25]

Texas Special Coach/Buffet/Lounge #1300; car name Mirabeau B. Lamar.  Owned by the Katy.

Des Plaines Hobbies etched metal sides on an American Limited core kit.  Model Flex SP Scarlet and Milw Maroon; Krylon rattle can Dull Aluminum.  Decals by Circus City Decals.

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[peteski]

Late addition: a neon OPEN sign. The effect is extremely difficult to photograph—I'm almost embarrassed to show this video. It looks infinitely better in person--just ask @VonRyan who saw it run for the first time this morning.

Looks good, and the design is well done. Especially the old-school LED sequencer.  Lookign at your recent designs, you have serious love for slow-speed motors for all sorts of applications.   

I suspect that if you were to paint the red LEDs black before installing them, leaving only their tops unpainted, that would have minimized the light leaks.  If the front of the sign is removable, it might be possible to still just flood the red LED area with black paint, then scrape the paint off the tops of those LEDs. But of course, if you are happy with it, and since it looks good in-person, then there is nothing to do.

[DKS]

Looks good, and the design is well done. Especially the old-school LED sequencer.  Lookign at your recent designs, you have serious love for slow-speed motors for all sorts of applications.

No question.

I suspect that if you were to paint the red LEDs black before installing them, leaving only their tops unpainted, that would have minimized the light leaks.

I did exactly that. I just did not photograph it as one of the steps, but all of the LEDs are painted black with their faces cleaned off.

The problem is diffusion. No diffusion leaves pinpoint spots behind the letters, making them illegible. A bare minimum of diffusion at least gets the letters filled in, but then it leads to light leaks. And I believe the lack of a "happy medium" is due to the tiny size of the sign. All I could imagine doing to fix it is creating a completely separate, self-contained sign for each letter, and then one for the oval. Which would be a ridiculous amount of work. Maybe if I run out of stuff to do, I might try that someday... Until then, rest assured it does look much better in person.

[davefoxx]

With some experimentation with Micro Sol and tissue and some luck in finding decals that match, I started the relettering of former D&S GP38-2 No. 2002 into SCL No. 558, just as in real life.



More on the Seaboard Central 3.0 thread in the Layout Engineering forum.

DFF

[up1950s]

Anyone know how to use the JSTOR site?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43518384

I figured out how to log in.

Says they were converted by applying 7" wide tires. Couplers and headlights were removed.

I also says my photos were taken in Cleveland in 1925 and it lists a different photographer, but I got them from an Erie book that says there are in Youngstown.

EDIT: I just went through my photos. There is no way those photos are in Cleveland. The peak of the roundhouse behind the locos matched the Brier Hill round house in Youngstown. The arrangement in Cleveland wouldn't match the photos.

But what about flange mismatch ?

[DKS]

But what about flange mismatch ?

What about it? They were fitted with extra-wide tires to correct the gauge width, which amounted to 1.75" on each side.

[peteski]

No question.

I did exactly that. I just did not photograph it as one of the steps, but all of the LEDs are painted black with their faces cleaned off.

The problem is diffusion. No diffusion leaves pinpoint spots behind the letters, making them illegible. A bare minimum of diffusion at least gets the letters filled in, but then it leads to light leaks. And I believe the lack of a "happy medium" is due to the tiny size of the sign. All I could imagine doing to fix it is creating a completely separate, self-contained sign for each letter, and then one for the oval. Which would be a ridiculous amount of work. Maybe if I run out of stuff to do, I might try that someday... Until then, rest assured it does look much better in person.

Thanks for the explanation. I just checked your layout thread, and realized that there is a more detailed info about the sing that you posted here.   If I read that first, I would not have suggested what I did in this thread.

[mu26aeh]

Ah damn, I got Conrail all over me...

[fcnrwy23]

Updates on the FCN...  September, 2020 continued...
More decal work...

This is a Microscale set from early 2019....

Canadian Pacific Modern Boxcars..  It appears this set can do up to seven cars!!



....Just wish I could get some "Utah Belt" decals...  Well I thought about it after I posted that thread comment..   About four hours later... (Had to wait for the acrylic coat on the decal sheet to dry..)

My own Utah Belt Hi-Cube Box...



Did a good online search and looked through my collected articles on the road.  The "Arial" font was a good match, but I had to experiment on the slogan to get the right font sizes.  And the Logo took a little time to figure out in MS Paint.

Jerry G.

[randgust]

Finished this last week.  This was my 'reject' Atlas/Kato GP35 that got repowered and is now silent.

So I'd also repainted the shell in commemoration of our local road, 305 is now depowered and has become G&W road slug 301.

Floquil dark blue, BLMA drop grabs, my soldered wire handrails, Microscale decals.





Atlas has come a long way in handrails, but if you look at the 'out of the box' GP38 G&W 2000 (which ran with 305 a lot) they still look 'fat' to me and any unit I do still gets the wire handrail treatment.

[dnhouston]

Ah damn, I got Conrail all over me...

Nothing to do now but just cut off the hand 

[Wolf N Works]

Nothing to do now but just cut off the hand 

Might need to drink bleach and start disinfecting from the inside.

[chuck geiger]

Stumbled on this. https://www.digcomdesigns.net/

[dem34]

Did some of the scenery work on the part of the layout I know won't be changed much.



And I did some of the basic detailing on my GP30 project with some of my mail eventually finding its way home. Now waiting on some Sinclair antennas and miscellaneous warning labels. 

[MichaelWinicki]

Nothing to do now but just cut off the hand 

True.

Can't save it.


Conrail never saved anything.