Weekend Update 7/6/25

[CR4100]

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=59763.0;attach=65287;image

@Ed Kapuscinski

Tell us more about that ex-RDG box car immediately behind the power. I love the oversized D&H logo on the side.

[arbomambo]

Hurrying to get projects cleared from the modeling bench as the world-record National T-TRAK Layout in Chattanooga next July-August will take up a lot of Denise and my free time.
One of these projects is Southern Railway’s “Big John” hoppers from Baldylox designs. I want this car for my North Carolina Transportation Museum freight consist (Denise gifted me a NCTM special run ScaleTrains GP30, number 2601, for our anniversary this last May).
  The Baldylox Designs Big Johns are well engineered prints with a large amount of well-engineered and well placed support sprues to ensure full, complete, and sturdy prints. They come 2 to an order, and are available in 2 iterations- the first production run with centered roofwalk and smaller, outside round roof hatches, and the later version with centered longitudinal trough-style hatches and outside perimeter roofwalk. This is the style preserved and running at the North Carolina Transportation Museum (Spencer Shops). I have no info as to whether these later manufactured Big John’s (1962-65) were built with these longitudinal trough hatches or were modified later.
  Separation from the myriad of support sprues is a breeze with presicion sprue nippers and cleanup is very easy, with a minimum of sanding required. The prints come in 2 parts, full body and underframe; these parts fit together flawlessly. I sourced brake wheels from a spare Gold Medal Models photoetch sprue.
After separating and cleaning the prints, I added weight to the underframes and glued them to the car bodies. I primed them with Mr Surfacer 1000, then sprayed them with Tamiya JN gray laquer, then, after that had dried and cured, gave them a coat of Tamiya Clear (Gloss).
I also received the excellent decal sheet from Baldylox designs. The decals settle well with the use of Mr Mark Fit decal softener… I haven’t had to break out the Walthers Solvaset with this one.
When both cars are fully lettered and cleaned, I’ll give them another coat of Tamiya Clear before a coat of AMMO one shot primer clear flat coat before some light weathering.
More pics are available at my Coastal Alabama T-TRAK Facebook group page.

[davefoxx]

I added two Scale Sound Systems speakers in separate enclosures to each of my HO scale Rapido E8s yesterday.  Big difference and much improvement, especially to this Amtrak unit (Phase I scheme) that had a speaker enclosure from the factory that was much smaller than the stock enclosure in my other E8 (Amtrak Phase II scheme).



DFF

[Jesse6669]

After a doing a bunch of work on the East Norwood layout lately I wanted to complete some rolling stock projects;  I finished up the Conrail (ex-RDG) N-20 caboose and also painted one of the H21a hoppers.  This model (Z scale) is 100% 3D printed including windows and trucks.  The Conrail Blue is a mixture of Tamiya paints and I'm pretty happy with it.  I do need to paint the replacement window frame with a bit of silver/light gray..



I received a book of photos I made for prototype reference on the East Norwood layout--this was from Mpix and I'm quite happy with the results.  The pages have a nice matte finish and are sharp with accurate color.  It's 11 pages with photos printed on both sides of the page.  You can do various formats like multiple photos on a page or "centerfold" with a single photo of facing pages -- it was about $45 but they do sales all the time.  As I'm getting closer to doing scenery I wanted this handy and much easier than working off of a laptop.



I also did some designs and test printing of details for the Norwood locomotive shops, here's a D77 traction motor on 48x48 pallet.  I have a heavy duty forklift loosely based on a Toyota model coming. 


 

[GaryHinshaw]

As Tim noted above, we traded ops sessions earlier this week: I hosted Monday evening and he did on Wed evening.  My session had 3 N scale veterans over to test out the N-Possible couplers and my sense was that the couplers performed very well for everyone.   My session started with a bull session on the patio to introduce the couplers:



[Obligatory mad scientist shot.]   The crew was John Walter, Tim Horton (@BCR 570), and Michael Batten (@Dayliner):



[How did that SW1 get there?]  A better shot of Michael being encicled by his train:



With a relatively small crew, I got to operate a bit myself.  Here I am assisting Michael delivering a cut of hoppers to the cement plant (to be):



Finally, imagine the crew's surprise when they round the curve in the Loop to find a giant staring them down: 



During Tim's session, I had enough time between jobs to fan a bit.  Here is a work train crossing the magnificent Peace River(?) bridge on Tim's layout:



A really fun week!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

@Ed Kapuscinski

Tell us more about that ex-RDG box car immediately behind the power. I love the oversized D&H logo on the side.

Lol, everyone loves that car! I wish I could take credit for it. I actually got it like that off a table at the Altoona show last year.
It's not accurate for that car, but the guy took inspiration from this one: https://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=738044
I'm not kicking it out of bed for eating crackers though.

[dougnelson]

PRR Weirton Junction tower by HD Custom Design. Nice kit. Builds well. ALso almost identical to CORK tower in Lancaster.

https://hdcustomdesign.shop/products/weirton-junction-signal-house-wv

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Just some railfanning for me this week. PR&W had to lease some power from Conrail to finish their chores...

[delamaize]

[snip]
So, that's it folks. After 16 years working on this layout, I literally have no more buildings left to build! 
[/Snip]

-Mark

Wow, It doesn't feel like 16 years! I remember when you started this adventre, after finishing "Shay Stadium"

[u18b]

Got some modeling time in with the holiday.

Rebuilding a Little Joe for someone.

Ajin did a terrible job on the mechanism- it is full of design flaws, so rebuilding is a must if you want to run it.
As I fully document here:  https://u18b.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LitJOErepairMANUAL.pdf

However, the Kato motors I used in the old rebuild are getting hard to find.  Kato no longer uses them.
So I knew I needed to find a new way.

This is it.   Hand crafted motor mount pieces holding two coreless motors with bigger flywheels and Kato u-joints.
Wow.... does this run sweet.   Smooth and quiet.
Took a lot of hours to develop this new drive train.  But the next one will go faster.

Next will be adding sound.

[Jim Starbuck]

Got some modeling time in with the holiday.

Rebuilding a Little Joe for someone.

Ajin did a terrible job on the mechanism- it is full of design flaws, so rebuilding is a must if you want to run it.
As I fully document here:  https://u18b.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LitJOErepairMANUAL.pdf

However, the Kato motors I used in the old rebuild are getting hard to find.  Kato no longer uses them.
So I knew I needed to find a new way.

This is it.   Hand crafted motor mount pieces holding two coreless motors with bigger flywheels and Kato u-joints.
Wow.... does this run sweet.   Smooth and quiet.
Took a lot of hours to develop this new drive train.  But the next one will go faster.

Next will be adding sound.

Nice work Ron!
I’m a firm believer in those coreless motors.

[coosvalley]

I finally broke my 4 year "no modeling streak" with this :


Hopefully I can continue with this momentum.

[spookshow]

Wow, It doesn't feel like 16 years! I remember when you started this adventure, after finishing "Shay Stadium"

I know, right? It's been quite a journey. When I go back and re-read my early blog entries it's like they were written by someone else.

-Mark

[N Scale Train Boy]

Looks like a great weekend for everyone. Still too new on the forum to be allowed to post pictures yet (I'll get there, don't worry!) but I spent the weekend doing decal design and prep work mostly. I now have prepped for printing decals for a pair of PS-1 50' boxes, a pair of PS 5344 Per Diems, a GP7, and a GP9 for my freelance, as well as a set for an HO Thrall 2743 gondola I'll be decaling for a friend who has a freelance set in '05.

I also spent some time trying (and being somewhat unsuccessful) to make my 1x6 switching layout run better. It was built kinda poorly almost 10 years ago now, and its been a struggle to get it to run well ever since, but I'm hoping that if I can get these Caboose Industries ground throws that provide frog power to work, I might just be able to get the layout to a point that I'm happy enough to finish scenery.

[GaryHinshaw]

I've been in LA this weekend visiting my daughter and son-in-law.  No time for Tehachapi on this trip, but I did manage to squeeze in a few train-related themes: first was a trip to the Original Whistle Stop in Pasadena (in business since 1951!) where I picked up my first-ever Amtrak purchase:



Every now and then the Coast Starlight detours over Tehachapi, so this will make an occasional appearance on TBC.  In the evening we visited a nearby pizza place that features locally sourced ingredients, including wheat from the Tehachapi Grain Project:



It was delicious!    We also managed to squeeze in a ball game at Dodger Stadium, where I dressed appropriately: