Weekend Update 3/20/22

[up1950s]

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/06/old-milwaukee-road-railroad-boxcars.html

https://www.trains.com/mrr/how-to/prototype-railroads/model-a-boxcar-storage-scene/

http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2015/11/carrying-grain-in-boxcars.html

https://www.pinterest.com/jasoncox979/rail-cars/

https://thenarch.com/products/trackside-series-box-car-storage-kit-n

https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Boxcar

https://conrailphotos.thecrhs.org/galleries/mow-boxcars

http://crcyc.railfan.net/mow/storage/mwstorage.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/cfg33u/landlocked_switcher_and_boxcar_behind_a_liquor/

[RockGp40]

We put a roll up door on an old ATSF boxcar in our transload yard on the Maryland & Delaware RR. I'll try to get a picture next time I'm in the area.

[Dave V]

Finished the Raggs to Riches [sic] kit for the Placerville RGS freight warehouse, replacing an inexpensive Walthers plastic stand-in.

[mu26aeh]

Got an upgraded Lowes Pros account this week and you get 20% off your first purchase (up to $100 discount), so I figured out how many more studs I need to finish drywalling the basement.  Rounded out the balance with a bundle of insulation.  Now I just need time to work in the basement again



Also, now comes the hard part, tearing down version 2.0.  But I've done it before, but hopefully won't do it again

[nkalanaga]

This week from me, beautiful downtown Moria, MT, from the depot parking lot.  I have a straight-on photo that shows the buildings better, but we'll start with this one.

[davefoxx]

Last weekend, I figured out how to do focus stacking with pictures from an iPhone and Helicon Focus on my MacBook.  Without even knowing any tricks or tips about how to best process the pictures into the final product, I can already turn this:



 . . . into this:



DFF

[bbussey]

More RBB&B payloads completed.  Finished the last two water trucks and the Mack LJ canvas truck.







The cannonball truck is complete except for the front grill and advertising medallion, which will be applied when they arrive from etching.  Tough to get a good iPhone photo due to the bright silver finish on the truck and the flatcar.  This will be the 35th payload completed out of the needed 69 pieces, so I've crossed over the halfway point.



Also chocked the four completed flatcars, which will help keep the payloads in place without goo or glue or cement. I will continue to chock as cars become fully loaded.

[bbussey]

Last weekend, I figured out how to do focus stacking with pictures from an iPhone and Helicon Focus on my MacBook.  Without even knowing any tricks or tips about how to best process the pictures into the final product, I can already turn this:



 . . . into this:



DFF

Dave, one trick I learned with iPhones is that you get worms-eye perspective if you take portraits upside-down or landscape with the touch-button to the left, with the camera resting on the tracks or next to the right-of-way if the scene is too far from the fascia and a tripod and secured with wood blocks or steel weights.  Either orientation will put the camera at about ½" above the rail top.  I've also switched to an app that focus-brackets without having to do so manually, called CameraPixels.  You can bracket as few as 5 pics and as many as 50 if I remember correctly.  Then you'll really be amazed with with Helicon Focus can do.

[johnb]

[davefoxx]

Dave, one trick I learned with iPhones is that you get worms-eye perspective if you take portraits upside-down or landscape with the touch-button to the left, with the camera resting on the tracks or next to the right-of-way if the scene is too far from the fascia and a tripod and secured with wood blocks or steel weights.  Either orientation will put the camera at about ½" above the rail top.  I've also switched to an app that focus-brackets without having to do so manually, called CameraPixels.  You can bracket as few as 5 pics and as many as 50 if I remember correctly.  Then you'll really be amazed with with Helicon Focus can do.

Bryan,

Thanks for the tips!  I am using CameraPixels, so I’m happy to hear that comes with your recommendation.  For the picture above, I took 20 pictures, and, because I don’t understand the minimum and maximum settings, I left those at 0% and 100%, respectively.  I ended up throwing out 7 pictures where the focus was too close and nothing was crisp in the photo.

What a great idea to put the phone upside down, because the difference in the perspective of your picture versus mine is dramatic.

Thanks,
DFF

[craigolio1]

More RBB&B payloads completed.  Finished the last two water trucks and the Mack LJ canvas truck.







The cannonball truck is complete except for the front grill and advertising medallion, which will be applied when they arrive from etching.  Tough to get a good iPhone photo due to the bright silver finish on the truck and the flatcar.  This will be the 35th payload completed out of the needed 69 pieces, so I've crossed over the halfway point.



Also chocked the four completed flatcars, which will help keep the payloads in place without goo or glue or cement. I will continue to chock as cars become fully loaded.

This train is outstanding. I’m building a train right now which has a consist of unique cars and loads…. But nothing near the lengths you are going to build this one… so I understand the effort that’s going into it. Well done. It’s awesome! 

Craig

[Kentuckian]

The cannonball truck is complete except for the front grill and advertising medallion, which will be applied when they arrive from etching.  Tough to get a good iPhone photo due to the bright silver finish on the truck and the flatcar.  This will be the 35th payload completed out of the needed 69 pieces, so I've crossed over the halfway point.

Really enjoy seeing your excellent vehicle modeling. Webb Wilder’s “Human Cannonball” is going through my head for some reason!

[altohorn25]

Painting some more L&N heavyweight passenger cars.  Two single window coaches and two sleepers.

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[bbussey]

This train is outstanding. I’m building a train right now which has a consist of unique cars and loads…. But nothing near the lengths you are going to build this one… so I understand the effort that’s going into it. Well done. It’s awesome! 

Thanks. To be honest, if I had realized what I was getting into, I wouldn’t have started it.  Or I would have chosen a less-famous circus instead of the most famous one.  The only commercially available models in the project are six MTL flatcars, six MTL wagons and one CMW vehicle as is; and another seven MTL flatcars repainted.  The observation is lightly kitbashed and the first Mack B canvas truck is 50% kitbashed. Everything else has been scratchbuilt — 3D-printed parts, styrene shapes, brass/stainless etchings and wire. With the exception of the laundry car which will be kitbashed from an MTL heavyweight PWC, all remaining equipment will be fully or mostly scratchbuilt. I’m in some online circus equipment groups, and the HO modelers also have to kitbash and scratchbuild most of it even with far more components and models commercially available.

The main advantage to choosing the RBB&B consist is that the various equipment assignments and load arrangements across the decades are well-documented, from the early 1930s to the end.

[BCR 570]

Excellent work Bryan! 

I am now at work on the next sections of layout to be re-hung.  The Pine River bridge section suffered damage to the track leading from the bridge to the helix, so it has to be removed and replaced.  To create an identical replacement, I removed the track with its trackbed and sub-roadbed intact so that I could trace it:




The damage to the donna conna was repaired with drywall mud and sanded smooth:




I assembled a new sub-roadbed and added the trackbed and super-elevation, cut a new piece of track and attached feeder wires:




The new track was then positioned in place but left lose for minor adjustments once the helix is added again:




Nice to have this job done.  I have not done much modelling of late so as to focus on getting the layout back together again, but at a recent monthly modeling night I started on a pair of work coaches based on former Milwaukee Road bunk coaches.  I elected to make my own underframes and floors as all of the underframe boxes, etc. have to come off, and also to correct some inaccuracies in the model's underframe.  My parts were patterned on the Fox Valley Models underframe and floor, and designed to accommodate the Fox Valley trucks, steps and weight:










In work service, the cars I am modeling had greatly altered window arrangements, and one of them had the fluted sides, so my next step is to try and remove the model sides leaving the ends and roof intact, so I can add my own sides.


Tim