Weekend Update 11/7/21

[BCR 570]

My Hawker Siddeley and Railwest woodchip cars are now in the home stretch.  This weekend I am effecting minor repairs, mounting trucks, and installing air hoses.

Mounting the trucks:




Installing air hoses:




After final paint touch-ups this coming week, these will be ready for service when the layout is back up and running again.


Tim

[Erik W]

A slow start to my D&RGW HOn3 Jordan Spreader OU (mostly because the weather here in Colorado has been unseasonable mild and warm ).  I got the frame built and trued, a bit of an inexact science when dealing with wood and white metal castings, some of which were cast with the sides of the molds offset, so needed a lot of filing to fix.  The mounting point for the trucks and couplers is literally just a block of wood.  It will require modification for the coupler pockets once I get the trucks sorted out, and do the mental exercise to figure out the correct height of the couplers.  While waiting on everything for the trucks (see below) I jumped ahead and started working on the structure on the spreader deck.





I hadn't realized that the trucks on the spreader were not the standard D&RGW 3'7" wheel base with 26" wheels, but larger standard gauge sized 5'3" wheel base arch bar frames with 33" wheels with a narrow gauge bolster.  See a side by side comparison of the two in this photo with a flanger.  So, I ordered Tichy Train Group standard gauge arch bar trucks, and special ordered fine scale 30" HOn3 wheels on a pointed axle from Northwest Short Line . . . at $24 for 4!  Once the wheels arrive, I'll shorten the bolsters and build the trucks, which will then give me the height of the car, and I can figure out the coupler height from there.


The Tichy trucks came with delrin 33" wheels.  The metal wheel is a Northwest Short Line HOn3 26" wheel for comparison.




Erik

[randgust]

It's pure coincidence, but I just finished up a custom build of my Whitcomb 65-ton kit for a individual that wanted a model of the WWII era Whitcombs sent to Europe to run there during and following the African and European invasions.

It's kind of a forgotten achievement, but the 65-ton Whitcombs left Rochelle en masse, and some of they stayed in England, the Netherlands, and Italy post-war.   They were the 'diesel that did it' a long way from home in tight clearances, necessitating that sloped, low cab.



There are a couple of 'whaaa?' features here, yes, those are buffers, and yes, those are (by request) Rapido couplers to match all the other European equipment he has.   If you do a little research you'll see SN #1308 has a nice shot in Africa, and another was the first locomotive to enter Rome when Axis forces were driven out. 

There are so loved in other places that the Lehigh Cement one was exported back to the Netherlands as part of a veterans memorial for WWII.  Here, the survivors that are still running are down to a very, very few, as the Buda 300hp engines were pretty much run until they failed.

EDIT:  Found the video: 

The oddball design of these had some great military features, by the way.   The radiators were inboard to the cab, where they couldn't as easily be shot out.   And they were dual-engined, completely paired - two radiators, two generators, two engines - so that you literally could blow one end of it off and it could still run, at least in theory.  Putting the radiators by the cab would not be as good an idea in domestic service, as these were everywhere when they came back in War Surplus as industrial units.

There was a big batch of them that were on the dock in Baltimore at VE day, and Whitcomb apparently bought them back and converted that batch to the wider walkways and vertical cab sides for a little more room for the US buyers.  So you'll see the war-surplus slope sides, straight sides, and then the raised cab versions also used in various post-war configurations.

[craigolio1]

It's pure coincidence, but I just finished up a custom build of my Whitcomb 65-ton kit for a individual that wanted a model of the WWII era Whitcombs sent to Europe to run there during and following the African and European invasions.

It's kind of a forgotten achievement, but the 65-ton Whitcombs left Rochelle en masse, and some of they stayed in England, the Netherlands, and Italy post-war.   They were the 'diesel that did it' a long way from home in tight clearances, necessitating that sloped, low cab.



There are a couple of 'whaaa?' features here, yes, those are buffers, and yes, those are (by request) Rapido couplers to match all the other European equipment he has.   If you do a little research you'll see SN #1308 was the first locomotive to enter Rome when Axis forces were driven out.

There are so loved in other places that the Lehigh Cement one was exported back to the Netherlands as part of a veterans memorial for WWII.  Here, the survivors that are still running are down to a very, very few, as the Buda 300hp engines were pretty much run until they failed.

The oddball design of these had some great military features, by the way.   The radiators were inboard to the cab, where they couldn't as easily be shot out.   And they were dual-engined, completely paired - two radiators, two generators, two engines - so that you literally could blow one end of it off and it could still run, at least in theory.  Putting the radiators by the cab would not be as good an idea in domestic service, as these were everywhere when they came back in War Surplus as industrial units.

Wow what a neat little bit of history! Thanks for sharing all of that detail.

[Chris333]

Randy, check out these whitcombs:
https://rrmuseumpa.andornot.com/media/Images/BLWneg/BLWneg-14600-14699/BLWneg-14663-03-cat.jpg?maxheight=1000&maxwidth=1000&watermark=wmk

And still have this uploaded:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fH1cGKaRCFRUB2nu9

[randgust]

I have the second shot in my collection - I think that's a shot of the Baltimore docks on all the ones that never made it to Europe by VE day.

But that first one, that's a hoot.  I thinks that's pure creative camo.   If you're under air attack, or even ground attack, and can't figure out which one is the locomotive, well, that's a pretty good tactic.   There's center-cabs under there somewhere, so it was probably Africa.

BTW, when I was out to the Colorado Railroad Museum (Golden) I did some research in the Bob Richardson library, and was stunned to find photos of him while he was in the service of the USATC in Syria.   You could spot some Whitcombs in the background of some shots.  I was looking for something else entirely, as before he went into the service he photobombed many local logging railroads in PA.

[Chris333]

That shot is from the Erie official photos. If I remember right it is one of their yards just west of Jersey City. Same thing though, ready to be shipped out.

EDIT:  Whitcombs headed to Europe Croxton yard Secaucus NJ

[brokemoto]

a long way from home in tight clearances, necessitating that sloped, low cab.

  (emphasis mine)



Nice job on the Whitcomb.

Does the emphasised also explain the different cab that was on the RS-1s/RSD-1s that went to Persia and Russia during that war (copies of which the Russians were building into the 1980s(?) )?

[randgust]

Yeah, anytime you see either an abnormally low cab or a sloped cab, you can pretty much conclude there's some military history there on a design that was intended to possibly go overseas and operate under European clearances.

It's not only diesels, it's steam, and sometimes, well, it just gets near-ugly as the cab gets pushed down.

https://www.ageofsteamroundhouse.org/army-2-8-0-no-612/

Texas State Railroad's 2-8-0 #300 (aka SPL 28) is also ex-military, WWI, but very similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Pine_Lumber_Co._28

But of all the wartime designs I've seen, I think the Whitcomb is the coolest, between both the sloped cab and the sloped sides.   That tight clearance came in handy when one of the very few operational survivors was the 'rescue' unit for the NYCTA subway lines, and is preserved and semi-operational at the Kingston Trolley Museum.  NYCTA kept her in good shape well beyond a normal service life.    She's still operational in May of 2021, if you love old stuff you have to see this.    Note that she runs just fine with one prime mover.

The only other one I'm aware of that's fairly original and quasi-operational is up on the WK&S, the "L&NE 602" and it's been a while since it's run.  There's video out there, but nothing recent.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

  (emphasis mine)



Nice job on the Whitcomb.

Does the emphasised also explain the different cab that was on the RS-1s/RSD-1s that went to Persia and Russia during that war (copies of which the Russians were building into the 1980s(?) )?

Yep.

Like the Alco RSD1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RSD-1

[bman]

The only other one I'm aware of that's fairly original and quasi-operational is up on the WK&S, the "L&NE 602" and it's been a while since it's run.  There's video out there, but nothing recent.

You probably already know this but the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway had one and still may do. I haven't been there in over 8 years. It was in the shop building when I was a member there. I didn't get around to asking it's status there were other things going on at the  time. I did get photos of it but lost them over the years so I cannot tell you how original it is.

[cv_acr]

My Hawker Siddeley and Railwest woodchip cars are now in the home stretch.

These are awesome.

[wm3798]

Too late for last week?  Or too early for this week?  @Lemosteam was able to doctor up my feeble attempt to modify a classic Trix Decapod with a vintage Camden and Amboy resin kit.  It arrived in the mail Friday, and got through the paint shop on Monday.

Here it is as delivered with some black paint added to the tender frame.


Next we see her with some added jewelry and ready for the paint booth.


And finally with a base coat of DGLE.  Just waiting for the lettering to arrive.  It runs beautifully and pulls like a Hippo should. 

[davefoxx]

And finally with a base coat of DGLE.  Just waiting for the lettering to arrive.  It runs beautifully and pulls like a Hippo should.

Nice job, Lee!  One recommendation (since I know you're capable of doing it), can you either turn those monster flanges down and/or paint the wheels?  Those wheels take away from the work you've done so far.

Hope this helps,
DFF

[wm3798]

I don't mind the shiny wheels and side rods, it works with my retro ethos.  However, I'm planning to do some airbrush weathering to make it a little bit more of a model.  No plans to turn down the flanges, though.  The Trix drive is pretty bulletproof... as long as you don't take it apart...  Lots of tiny bits and pieces, so either disassembly to do the turning, or to clean up after turning them in place is a non starter.

I've done an HO steamer using the test track method... that is, pinning the coupler and spinning the drivers on a test track while dusting on the weathering, hopefully it will work out on this one.  The advantage to it is that since the wheels are spinning, you get coverage on the whole wheel (without shadows from the siderods) plus the treads are rubbing on the rail, so they sort of self-clean while you airbrush.  As I said, it worked in HO... not sure how this will go.

Lee