Weekend Update 2/7/21

[altohorn25]

The summer of 1952 on the LaCrosse division of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.Paul, and Pacific.  The first section of the Royal American Shows carnival train is making it's annual journey from Milwaukee, WI to St. Paul, MN for the two state fairs. 

Power for today is a Broadway Limited USRA 2-8-2 class L3 Mikado.   Most of the rolling stock is by Micro Trains with a couple of detailed Rivarossi cars mixed in.  The equipment on the flats is a combination of factory painted and custom painted units.  The stock car is an old JNJ kit.  Custom decals on some of the cars are by Circus City Decals.

[haasmarc]

Bryan gave me a description of a coal truck scale, so I changed it from a steel sheet to this:

It was a rectangular concrete pit, rimmed in steel.  I want to say it was +/- 8' wide and about 16' long.
The scale held planks that went side to side, with closely spaced 4x12's that had the 12" face, facing up.

Bryan

[Cajonpassfan]

That BLI Mike sure pulls well...nice work on the train Nate!
Otto

[davefoxx]

While I had the decal supplies out last night, I also finished Seaboard Central No. 1700.  I reapplied the gulls on the long hood, because I had to remove the first attempt when I couldn’t weather around the logos.  They’re supposed to look fresh, as if this former BN unit was quickly thrown into service by the SC before getting completely painted.  I also laid down a second layer of decals to make the white more opaque on the logos and reporting marks.



Now, off to see if I can come up with a picture to make MR’s Trackside Photos.

DFF

[Bob]

Two more shots of recently completed scenes, this time using stacking software.  Photo 1 is looking west from Duffields, with the recently completed commuter platform on the left and the abandoned farm silo in the distance.  Photo 2 looks across the mainline where you can see the Shendandoah Junction interchange track, the old B&O depot at Duffields in the distance, and my first water feature (a pond) with a rowboat tied to the dock.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[wazzou]

Bryan gave me a description of a coal truck scale, so I changed it from a steel sheet to this:

That's it.  Great job.

[Curtis Kyger]

I've been making a bunch of Fast Tracks turnouts but this is my first crossing.  It's a 14 degree N-Scale code 55:

[NtheBasement]

Terraforming and ballasting done, started on the greenery.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[nkalanaga]

Curtis:  Nice looking crossing! 

Bryan:  That scale looks a lot like the ones at grain elevators in eastern Washington in the 70s.  If I remember right, most of them were closer to 9 feet wide, but trucks were also narrower back when your coal dealer was new.

[wazzou]

Bryan:  That scale looks a lot like the ones at grain elevators in eastern Washington in the 70s.  If I remember right, most of them were closer to 9 feet wide, but trucks were also narrower back when your coal dealer was new.

It's actually Marc's model.  I just helped him with some measurements and a description of its construction.

[peteski]

I love your circus train Nate!  Well done!

[wm3798]

Thanks for the link to Elijah McCoy, Richie.  Very informative.  Experiencing the problems of being an oiler, it points up the idea that necessity is indeed the mother of invention!

Running these old Arnold steam engines, though, one can't wonder if the self-lubricator couldn't be scaled down to 1:160!

Lee

[PiperguyUMD]

I'm a glutton for punishment... I bought one of those chisels that is supposed to remove details with out damaging the surrounding surface to remove the number boards on two WM RS2s I'm working on. That took all of 30 seconds, so I look around for other stuff to use it on and spied my FA2. So now I'm eyeball deep in adding wire grab irons. Pretty happy with it, now I'm eyeing the one I completed a few years ago thinking that it will need an upgrade too! Sounds like a sure-fire way to get all these features if Atlas ever releases an updated FA2!

[garethashenden]

I'm a glutton for punishment... I bought one of those chisels that is supposed to remove details with out damaging the surrounding surface to remove the number boards on two WM RS2s I'm working on. That took all of 30 seconds, so I look around for other stuff to use it on and spied my FA2. So now I'm eyeball deep in adding wire grab irons. Pretty happy with it, now I'm eyeing the one I completed a few years ago thinking that it will need an upgrade too! Sounds like a sure-fire way to get all these features if Atlas ever releases an updated FA2!

That looks great! I think I need one of those chisels. Which one is it?

[Caleb Austin]

I've been working on some ballast and ground cover on my layout. Slowly tying to together all the scenic loose ends. Pretty soon it will be time to add underbrush and remake the tree that my cat destroyed last month haha.