Weekend Update 6/15/25

[up1950s]

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/strasburg-rail-roads-circa-1903-camelback-locomotive-headed-to-ohio-after-sale-to-railroad-museum/article_a4803a82-d359-11ea-bf34-57e6c65549ec.html

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https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Reading_1187#goog_rewarded

https://www.deviantart.com/rlkitterman/art/Reading-1187-at-Age-of-Steam-IMG-0246-858806210

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https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=d8cc6752d7fc5bba&q=Strassberg+camelback&udm=7&fbs=AIIjpHxCtmkhHKu27CW9pNYJlh4RoZZ_y8scaivnpjp3a9aEstvyzM9WArA0Q4B52rAVe2RXX6ebsxCChMuwC880ui2cKB6Ul8vnLgo-UvXsT8b2eYdHQ0DfKkZDNdpQNP-w6nrg2lTry2xD1nif0CBQ9hYQ9tel7YS1YEDDC0Qp18jOTqcibGgkooxHsTsI9ejxXNLsx37fvfdZ9Uk-hsVBTLBPqJhxl9kH-rpWh5hRo4CYTHAShyc&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0iu62k8qNAxWMN2IAHSRXPFoQtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:f54b7abf,vid:7pmRy0KkCRg,st:0

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=d8cc6752d7fc5bba&q=Strassberg+camelback&udm=7&fbs=AIIjpHxCtmkhHKu27CW9pNYJlh4RoZZ_y8scaivnpjp3a9aEstvyzM9WArA0Q4B52rAVe2RXX6ebsxCChMuwC880ui2cKB6Ul8vnLgo-UvXsT8b2eYdHQ0DfKkZDNdpQNP-w6nrg2lTry2xD1nif0CBQ9hYQ9tel7YS1YEDDC0Qp18jOTqcibGgkooxHsTsI9ejxXNLsx37fvfdZ9Uk-hsVBTLBPqJhxl9kH-rpWh5hRo4CYTHAShyc&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0iu62k8qNAxWMN2IAHSRXPFoQtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:ac7c466b,vid:EdNSyO5dc34,st:0

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=d8cc6752d7fc5bba&q=Strassberg+camelback&udm=7&fbs=AIIjpHxCtmkhHKu27CW9pNYJlh4RoZZ_y8scaivnpjp3a9aEstvyzM9WArA0Q4B52rAVe2RXX6ebsxCChMuwC880ui2cKB6Ul8vnLgo-UvXsT8b2eYdHQ0DfKkZDNdpQNP-w6nrg2lTry2xD1nif0CBQ9hYQ9tel7YS1YEDDC0Qp18jOTqcibGgkooxHsTsI9ejxXNLsx37fvfdZ9Uk-hsVBTLBPqJhxl9kH-rpWh5hRo4CYTHAShyc&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0iu62k8qNAxWMN2IAHSRXPFoQtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=1920&bih=911&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:dbf13727,vid:i-1Ymq7syUg,st:0

[John]

A work in progress --- combination 3D print and styrene - still a lot to do -- this will be a close enough 3 foot model

[davefoxx]

Haha!  @John ruined the Weekend Update, because nobody wants to follow that with something that would now seem subpar. 🤣

DFF

[John]

If you look closely, there are a lot of flaws.  Definately 3 foot model. Not in the same league as others who share work here. 

[davefoxx]

Often times, @John,  there’s nothing wrong with a good three foot model.  I like it.  Kudzos!

This is all that I’ve got this week.  I added a Scale Sound Systems speaker to the GP40-2 mother.  The Geep put up a good fight, but I won . . . on Friday the 13th.  😜



More on The Carolina Sandhills Lines thread in the Layout Engineering forum.

DFF

[InterurbanModels]

Bringing out an N scale micro-layout to a model train expo in a Paris suburb. As you can see: it's just delusion (but it works)

[Jim Starbuck]

I did a little more tweaking on the SDL39s and made a short clip on the glorified test loop.

[up1950s]

Often times, @John,  there’s nothing wrong with a good three foot model.  I like it.  Kudzos!

This is all that I’ve got this week.  I added a Scale Sound Systems speaker to the GP40-2 mother.  The Geep put up a good fight, but I won . . . on Friday the 13th.  😜



More on The Carolina Sandhills Lines thread in the Layout Engineering forum.

DFF

What a very acre rich realistic shot . One might think that's easy because of no buildings . That one person is wrong .

[delamaize]

No new modeling this week, still traveling with my daughter. We are in germany now. Currently in Saarbrücken waiting for our train to Köln.
I have been able to do some train watching though.
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Paris est
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Bad picture of another TGV from our TGV (upside down for some reason.)
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DB EMU heading for Kaiserslautern from Saarbrücken

[NorthWestGN]

I was able to get the cork roadbed and track down on my staging yard extension which I widened by about 4” to allow a strip of industries down the middle. The idea is to have these function as two different areas, Nelson BC on the curved northbound trackage, and Washington state on the straight, southbound trackage. The outer tracks are the through tracks and the inner tracks will give me more industries to serve.






Brent

[Sumner]

High Bridge Part 6 ....

Continuing on with the ‘High Bridge’ design, printing and assembly and finally coming to an end.

 

Above are the three towers for the trestle. All designed with non-commercial Fusion and printed with a $200 AnyCubic Photon M resin printer.

 

I want it to be fairly easy to remove the trestle and the supporting towers from the layout when needed, like now when I need to finish the scenery by them. The first two towers sit on and are pinned to the footers under them. The footers stay in place and those two towers sit on the footers and are located by them.

This last tower only has two legs. It pins to the footers under it but with no horizontal stability would fall over. Two locators were designed and glued to the top of the tower. The tower is held in place and the trestle lowered onto it. The locators then wrap around the bottom of one of the trestle’s cross-members and keep the tower from moving horizontally (see next two images).


 

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The trestle and supporting towers lift off in a minute that that will slow down some when the tracks are put into place. Will paint the towers and continue on with the foam board scenery next.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

Sumner

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Worked on some scenery over the past 2 nights. Had to do another round of ballast due to replacing a couple of turnouts and I have to say, I will never build a layout with Unitrack again. No matter how careful I am ballasting those damn turnouts, I'll always mess them up.



Really like how this scene is coming out so far.



Also installed the most important accessory to the layout. No more "where did my coffee go?"

[C855B]

No more "where did my coffee go?"

That's not coffee. Rule G?

[Cory Rothlisberger]

That's not coffee. Rule G?

Rule G? Never heard of it…

[altohorn25]

Quite a few years ago, my buddy Bill Denton posted some photos of a Life-Like 2-8-4 Berkshire in CNW livery that he weathered up for a client.  While the Van Swearingin Berkshire shell of the Life-Like model is not the same prototype as the CNW 2-8-4 class J4 (the Life-Like model is based on the C&O and Nickle Plate prototypes), it looks good enough and runs good enough that I wanted one for my CNW time freights.

Fast foward about 10 years, and I finally pulled the trigger this weekend.

I found an undecorated model on everyone's favorite auction site for a reasonable price and went to work.  I applied decals by Circus City Decals, added coal to the tender, wired in a Digitrax DZ126T decoder, and weathered it up.  I also improved the pulling power of the locomotive by adding additional weight in the boiler shell and removing some of the electrical pickups from one of the tender trucks (even by removing those pickups, the loco can crawl through all of my trackwork).  Here are a few photos of the prototype locomotive and the finished model:

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I also wanted a somewhat protoypical caboose to go with the locomotive, so I found a cheap Micro Trains wood side caboose with straight cupola and went to work.  I stripped it, repainted (caboose red - Modelmaster, flat black - Tamiya), added Circus City Decals, swapped out the trucks with Bachmann old time passenger car trucks, added Kato low profile wheels, and changed the couplers to Micro Trains Z scale 905's.  I also added the MT window glass kit.  While not exactly like the prototype photo, it is close.

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Even though neither is exactly prototypical, I'm pleased with the results.  It pulls a 20 car train around my Milwaukee Road LaCrosse Division with no issues.

Here's a quick video of it before I weathered it: