Weekend Update 12/15/24

[shark_jj]

Scott, those are truly outstanding photographs.  The scenery work you have done, the appearance of moving water, the depth of field in the photos, the last time I was this impressed with photos of N Scale was some of Rich Yourstone's work many years ago.  Great job!

[dieselfan1]

This week I managed to get in some railfanning in Jasper National Park.  Climbed up on the ridge above the CN line at Park Gate on a sunny spring morning and caught some of the parade of trains.





We then drove down the long bumpy road to Devona and the bridges across the Snake Indian River where we caught the Hinton local heading east from Jasper with empties for the mills.

Spectacular

[Jesse6669]

I've been dialing in the new 3D printer on a Z scale gondola.  The I&O handles a lot of gondolas (most filled with iron briquettes/aka pig iron) and I need a bunch.  This one is pattered after the Reading/Conrail GR52A.  I am trying something else new on this, the side panels have been "distressed" by manipulating the side panels in Meshmixer.  Really this needs a coat of primer, and possibly sanding to see if it worked or is too subtle.   



I also installed the back-boards and modules on the shelf brackets-- voila!  The East Norwood modular Z scale layout benchwork with my work space underneath.  There will be lighting; I have some LED strip lights with adjustable temperature.  Not sure if I'll do it "lightbox" style attached to the back-board or just mount the strip lights along higher valence-type structure.



 

[apudelek]

Made some small progress this weekend on a good decal project.

I took an extra Kato PRR 10-6 sleeper that I had bought several years ago and re-lettered it for the Norfolk & Western's "Hampden-Sydney College," in PRR Tuscan.  This car will be part of my consist for PRR #3, the Penn Texas.  The N&W pooled several 10-6's with the PRR for a sleeper to be dropped from #3 at Columbus, OH.  However, it had a peculiar routing after Columbus and did not return on the eastbound Penn Texas (#4) for New York.  Instead, this sleeper normally ended up on several other subsequent trains, heading for Cincinnati, Chicago, Norfolk, and then finally returning to NY Penn on PRR #108.  Hats off to Jerry Britton for phenomenal research on PRR #3/4 and the Columbus sleeper routing.  While "Hampden-Sydney College" is a Budd build and the Kato car is PS, I preferred this name over Sussex County and decided to ignore what I felt was a minor anachronism.

For the non-SPF's here, the Penn Texas was one of the Pennsy's services from NY Penn to St. Louis, with several through sleepers to points in Texas and Oklahoma via the Missouri Pacific's Eagle and the MKT/Frisco on the Texas Special.  Sleepers in the MoPac Eagle scheme and in the red/silver of the Texas Special were standard in this consist, so it was a very colorful train with a lot of interesting history.

Definitely felt good to make some progress after several months of hobby inactivity other than research!

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[TrainCat2]

New tool in the workshop to produce kits, layout buildings and more RC aircraft to build.

Doing setup, testing and calibration checks

[Mark5]

Made some small progress this weekend on a good decal project.

I took an extra Kato PRR 10-6 sleeper that I had bought several years ago and re-lettered it for the Norfolk & Western's "Hampden-Sydney College," in PRR Tuscan.  This car will be part of my consist for PRR #3, the Penn Texas.  The N&W pooled several 10-6's with the PRR for a sleeper to be dropped from #3 at Columbus, OH.  However, it had a peculiar routing after Columbus and did not return on the eastbound Penn Texas (#4) for New York.  Instead, this sleeper normally ended up on several other subsequent trains, heading for Cincinnati, Chicago, Norfolk, and then finally returning to NY Penn on PRR #108.  Hats off to Jerry Britton for phenomenal research on PRR #3/4 and the Columbus sleeper routing.  While "Hampden-Sydney College" is a Budd build and the Kato car is PS, I preferred this name over Sussex County and decided to ignore what I felt was a minor anachronism.

Yeah, Hampden Sydney College should be one of the 20 Budd sleepers that N&W had. Looks nice though (the color photos of these that I have appear to be N&W red with the extra PRR style stripe, but close enough!). N&W had three of the Pullman 10-6s for pool service: Buchanan County, McDowell County, and Sussex County.

Sometimes these cars traveled North from Roanoke to NY via Hagerstown.

Mark

[apudelek]

Yeah, Hampden Sydney College should be one of the 20 Budd sleepers that N&W had. Looks nice though (the color photos of these that I have appear to be N&W red with the extra PRR style stripe, but close enough!). N&W had three of the Pullman 10-6s for pool service: Buchanan County, McDowell County, and Sussex County.

Sometimes these cars traveled North from Roanoke to NY via Hagerstown.

Mark

Thanks for the further info there, Mark.  It was a bit confusing trying to research which N&W cars had PRR tuscan vs N&W red in the pool... I finally gave up and made a decision.  Perhaps I rename it for one of the correct Counties at a much later date... My reasoning was that a college name may stand out more versus PRR's 13 DBR sleepers, which you probably know were also named for counties.  I also have 2 of the RSM L&N 10-6s for the Cincinnati Limited and I would like to do the RF&P pool 10-6 in tuscan if I find another loose Kato PRR 10-6.

Who says varnish is boring???

[up1950s]

New tool in the workshop to produce kits, layout buildings and more RC aircraft to build.

Doing setup, testing and calibration checks



And it comes with its own brake reservoir!

[Point353]

I’ve discovered that a pair of Rapido FL9s won’t pull my 30-car RBB&B circus consist.

Do you have all three of the Atlas NH FM TrainMaster locos and, if so, have you tried them with the circus train?

[GonzoCRFan]

I've been dialing in the new 3D printer on a Z scale gondola.  The I&O handles a lot of gondolas (most filled with iron briquettes/aka pig iron) and I need a bunch.  This one is pattered after the Reading/Conrail GR52A.  I am trying something else new on this, the side panels have been "distressed" by manipulating the side panels in Meshmixer.  Really this needs a coat of primer, and possibly sanding to see if it worked or is too subtle.   

Nice! If those were embiggened to N scale I would gladly pay up for a dozen or so...

[SAH]

Way back in the '90s, our very own @SAH wrote an article in N Scale magazine about improving the looks of Atlas' airslide covered hopper.

Wow - Ancient history time.     Replace the ladders with GMM and the grabs with PB wire and it looks even better.  But yes, the Athearn model is much better in every way.  I think all my Atlas upgrades are gone.

For grins I pulled out the N Scale mags with some of my other upgrades.  We've come a long way baby!  Thanks for nudging my trip down memory lane Aaron.

[cec209]

Last weekend at Trees & Trains in Lorain, Ohio with my partner Pauline.

[robert3985]

A little more progress on my scratch-built track projects this week.  After installing the stock rails for the turnout last week, I got the same done for my crossover this week:



Tim

@BCR 570 - Tim, I also build my turnouts using paper templates, but, I tape them to my workbench (or work-board), then tape my PCB ties down too so they don't move around.  I know some guys glue their PCB ties to the template, but I don't like having paper on the bottom of my ties that I would be compelled to remove.  I think that having the ties basically immobile contributes a lot to the precision I want for my turnouts, but I don't want my ties mounted on paper rather than being glued securely to my cork roadbed.

Here's how I use my templates using tape to secure both the template and the PCB ties so both are securely attached to my workbench.

Photo (1) - First, cutting the paper template and taping it down. Note that there's enough space between the tape strips so that the PCB ties rest on the template, NOT on the tape:


Photo (2) - Second, taping down my PCB turnout ties to the workbench top with the paper template underneath...


I use my stock of old Rail Craft Code55 flex on my layout, so I slide the plastic ties off of the flex, and slide them on to my multiple turnout constructions before soldering the rails to my PCB ties.  This improves the track appearance and also keeps the rails properly gauged.

Photo (3) - Plastic ties slid on to areas of my multiple turnout construction before soldering the rails to the PCB ties...


I also use PCB ties at the headblocks (where the throwbar is) to reinforce the rails in this area...I don't want the stock rails to move when the throwbar gets positioned.  I also place reinforcing PCB ties on either side of my gaps I'll cut after I'm done with soldering rails to ties so that the gap-ends remain securely positioned.

Just some ways of doing things that I've settled on since I started building my own turnouts back in the 80's...maybe they'll be useful to you.

Hand-building turnouts is one of the most enjoyable parts of model railroading for me...so, have FUN!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[BCR 570]

Hi Robert:

Thank you for providing your experience and insight; much appreciated.  I am fairly new to this, especially with respect to building track without fixtures.  It is going fairly well so far.

I am not concerned about paper on the underside of the PCB ties; it can be quickly sanded off once the trackwork is freed from the plywood work platform.  I went with the plywood bases for now because I needed these to be mobile for our monthly modelling nights and because my workbench is currently home to several different projects.  I will be attaching strips of .010" x .060" styrene to the underside of the PCB ties to match the depth of the wood ties which I will be adding later.

I like the idea of using PCB ties for the head block ties as I have noticed that the trackwork is a little weak in that area, so I will likely take up that suggestion.  The use of plastic ties for gauging is also interesting.  I have a set of Trifecta track gauges which I am using at present.


Tim

[spr1955]

I used double sided tape to hold down the copper ties on top of the paper template.





And the finished product.