Weekend Update 12/17/23

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Work continues on developing "downtown " Slate Fork, VA.



https://realisticmodelrailroading.net/forum/layouts/portable/102-southern-railway-s-slate-fork-branch-n

Where have you been hiding THIS?

[chuck geiger]

Where have you been hiding THIS?

My first thought where's Ed?

[altohorn25]

I picked up a Rapido Duplex Sleeper last week on Ebay for my Olympian Hiawatha. Milwaukee ran these for a short time on the Olympian Hiawatha (along with the Touralux Sleepers) before going to only using the "Lake" series Sleepers.

The Rapido car isn't an exact match for the Milwaukee version of the Pullman car (one issue is the square windows rather than ovals in the vestibule doors), but it works. The thing that bothered me the most was the Hiawatha emblem on one side of the car was on the wrong end....it should be on the vestibule end of the car on both sides of the car. Notice I said "was"......

I used a new #11 blade and scraped the factory decoration off. The Hiawatha emblem in the Microscale F unit set was exactly the right size. I applied the decal on the correct end of the car and gave the car a light coat of road grime. It blends in quite nicely with the Kato cars. Gives the train a little variety from those people who run the set right out of the box.

The revised car photos are the ones with the vestibule on the left side of the photos (factory finish is the side with the vestibule on the right).

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[R L Smith]

My local NMRA Division setup our HO modular layout in an empty store at the local mall; they donated the space to us. We've been open for two weekends now.  One of our younger members brought in an extensive G setup, including several Thomas trains that are a big it with the little ones. He also has a 2-6-0 that has a whistle that can be heard several storefronts down.  I contributed a loop of Kato Unitrack and a DC power pack.  (Turns out I only have a few locos that are still DC.) We've had N Scale, HO Scale and G Scale (?) trains running reliably throughout both weekends.  One of our members also brought in three T-Trak modules to display.

Generally well received. Personally I wish the modules had better scenery, but I have my own trials and tribulations in my train room and I'm in no position to work on these.  Maybe post-retirement, someday...












Ron

[signalmaintainer]

Where have you been hiding THIS?

Thanks, Ed. It's not really been hidden, I've just not posted much of it on the Railwire.

[nkalanaga]

Reese:  The repair looks good.  And, such repairs weren't uncommon.  Some elevators had the annoying habit of pushing cars with a front-end loader, and not always against the coupler or other solid location.  And, of course, the damage could easily be the result of "cornering" during switching.

[mu26aeh]

Benchwork and track planning have begun on the CSX Hanover Sub 3.0.  Great progress today



I'm off work this week, might get all the track work in place and some land forms roughed in

[Jesse6669]

Thankfully the damage was somewhat minor and I found most of the pieces. I ended up painting the repaired section fresh BN without any weathering.

Add a little rust and looks like typical damage to the end of a car! 

[Philip H]

Thanks, Ed. It's not really been hidden, I've just not posted much of it on the Railwire.

Please correct that error at your first convenience.

[bnsfdash8]

Some elevators had the annoying habit of pushing cars with a front-end loader, and not always against the coupler or other solid location.

I'll have to remember this for whenever I get the chance to build a layout. I have another hopper with a broken ladder and a front end loader that could make a fun scene.

[samusi01]

In a previous life, this car arrived after considerable delay (I forget where... Kansas somewhere perhaps?). At any rate, someone had gone to a good deal of trouble to re-do the bulk of the B end safety devices. We never did find out the back story, but whatever had happened seemed to involve some off-roading given damage to the gates and scuff marks showing where there had been straps around the car to re-rail it. It wasn't the only one of ours damaged in this incident; another car also had the DIY safety appliance work done to it.

[MK]

Finally was able to run my Kato N700S set that I got when I was in Japan at my club's T-Trak layout at a show over the weekend.  One of the member had a module with Tomix Japanese buildings on it.  Perfect match! 

Did 185 MPH in it when I was there.  Amazingly smooth ride even at that speed!

[nkalanaga]

Reese:  Back in the early 70s, one of the elevators on the BN(NP) north of Pasco had a tractor specifically modified for moving cars.  It had a large, heavy metal plate welded to the rear, at coupler height, with an equally stout chain, attached at one end to the tractor, and a piece of rebar welded to the other side for the hook on the chain.

To push a car, they backed up to it, and pushed with the plate, with the tractor in reverse.  The driver couldn't see very well, facing the wrong way, but he couldn't see past the car anyway, so it didn't matter.  He had a rear-view mirror, similar to the one on semis, and got hand signals from another worker.

To pull, they backed up until the plate was against the coupler, wrapped the chain around the coupler, and hooked it to the rebar.  Then, very slowly, moved the car.  Very slowly, because the only brakes were on the tractor, and they didn't want too much momentum. 

That would be another scene easy to model, just a tractor, some sheet styrene, and a piece of chain.  No need to attach it to a car, just park it along the siding.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks, Ed. It's not really been hidden, I've just not posted much of it on the Railwire.

Time to fix that my man. It's beautiful!

[signalmaintainer]

Time to fix that my man. It's beautiful!

Thank you very much.  I will make the effort to post updates here more often.