Weekend Update 4/11/21

[ncbqguy]

Aron-
Received!  Will work on it early this week.
Charlie Vlk

[chuck geiger]

Rail stack.

[chessie system fan]

Received!  Will work on it early this week.

 

Here's another project I just finished.  I like my passel of old Rowa passenger cars but the trucks are terrible.  I also like Rapido's trucks, so I created an adapter to use them on my Rowa cars.  When it's time to finish my models I'll glue the adapter in the hole and the truck will screw in like usual.



I also have a lifetime supply of the correct screw size if anyone out there needs any spares.

[Frank Amato]

I finished lowering and weathering these two Fox Valley 5283s:



Here's a before-and-after (ugh focus fail):



  Frank

[Mark5]

I finished lowering and weathering these two Fox Valley 5283s:

Very nice Frank! How did you model the extended draft gear?

[freedj]

I modeled up a new gondola load and got some ground cover on the first bit of scenery.  I also picked over some dried sedum for tree armatures for this spot.  I modeled the load after this proto photo: https://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=121043

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[u18b]

Here's another project I just finished.  I like my passel of old Rowa passenger cars but the trucks are terrible.  I also like Rapido's trucks, so I created an adapter to use them on my Rowa cars.  When it's time to finish my models I'll glue the adapter in the hole and the truck will screw in like usual.



I also have a lifetime supply of the correct screw size if anyone out there needs any spares.

Dad's birthday is coming up.   

[u18b]

Aaron, I can't wait to see those passenger cars.

[u18b]

At last but not least, I couldn't be bothered to wait 30+ hours to test print my design ideas on a whole car.  Instead, I built a shorty car, which I shall dub the Archibald.  I know years ago Walthers did a shorty heavyweight observation in HO (named the Oscar?). That was my inspiration.  I'll eventually mount it on an old Rowa truck from the junk box. 



It's good I did this test because you can see I didn't support the bottom end well enough which caused it to droop. But printing the walls half a millimeter thick around the windows turned out well, which was the main reason for the test. The rest of the car is 1.5mm for support.

Once I work the kinks out I think I'll print a couple of these to take to shows. 

I think an ALCO  FLEA would pull it well.

[mmagliaro]

In the painfully obvious, "I should have done this sooner" department, I made my first FastTracks turnout.  This is a curved 22/18 that replaces the one Atlas curved turnout in my layout (which has been a plague since I bought it).

Man oh man... when a 4-8-4 can whip forwards and backwards through a curved turnout with a string of passenger cars, you know the people at FastTracks are doing something right.

There's really no magic to it at all.  I watched their 12-part video assembly instructions, just followed along, and built the turnout.  The jig and the instructions are superb.   The hardest part was ripping out the old turnout and prepping the surrounding trackwork and base layer to drop in the new one.  (Ballast is the only thing I haven't done yet).

[mmagliaro]

I have a question for the great modelers on TRW.

Having seen so many wonderful layouts here (during the planning stage, construction, detailing and JFRTM), I find myself wondering how you find the time?  Likewise I wonder how much time during a typical week (if there is such a thing) do you work on your layout?

This is from someone who thought he would have lot of time to work on the railroad after he retired, but now finds he still has as many uncompleted projects as he did in the pre-retirement days.

ed

I have always lived by the obvious, and oft-told advice: "do something every day, even if it's just 15 minutes".
Years and years of this have taught me that it is spot-on the thing that counts the most.  Sure, there are free evenings and marathon weekends when some kook is out in the garage working on a brass scratchbuilt engine for 7 hours straight, but MOST progress happens in those little 15-30 minute snippets of time. 

It ain't magic.  Don't ever tell yourself, "I've only got 20 minutes until dinner, why bother?"   Believe me, BOTHER.
Those bits of time add up to a lot of accomplishment over a year.

[narrowminded]

Very nice, Max!  And it's all nickel silver, too!

[Frank Amato]

How did you model the extended draft gear?

@Mark5 @freedj short answer is I harvested some Accumates from Atlas 100-ton trucks.  I don't love how the Accumates look, but I do love the way they work when switching 

For the draft gear, I cut down some Evergreen H-column, glued in a post, and added a .015 styrene lid.  I also replaced the "two-spring" trucks with "three-spring" Micro-Trains trucks (the metal Fox wheels fit fine).

I'll get some better pictures into a Weathering & Detailing thread.

  Frank

[MK]

It ain't magic.  Don't ever tell yourself, "I've only got 20 minutes until dinner, why bother?"   Believe me, BOTHER.
Those bits of time add up to a lot of accomplishment over a year.

Great words of wisdom and advice!

[Cajonpassfan]

...
It ain't magic.  Don't ever tell yourself, "I've only got 20 minutes until dinner, why bother?"   Believe me, BOTHER.
Those bits of time add up to a lot of accomplishment over a year.

Great advice, Max. I should print it and tape it on the trainroom door.
Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow....
Otto