Weekend Update 1/4/26

[up1950s]

https://lowellsmith.net/product/national-park-lines-locomotive-2026-dcc-sound-smoke-version/

https://hudsonvalleycountry.com/mta-proposed-changes-2026/

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[mu26aeh]

Added another unit the the repurposed fleet of the Reading & Lehigh.  This started out as a painted/unlettered BLI T-1

[chuck geiger]

So I always wanted Kate's Colonial from Atlas and it's going to be the house next to the garage. Q-Hut needs some work around the sides, Got
to carried away, nipping it and need to build a brick support/small wall around the sides.

[craigolio1]

I’ve started experiment with ground cover for the understory in my Malahat forest.





I also started a build thread for the Malahat project.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=60495.0

I wonder if a moderator could help me out. I put the build thread in the scratch building section. Could you please move it to the Layout section?

Thanks.

Craig.

[arx nakanishi]

Happy New Year to all!
I'm still sticking around the Cisco mercantile. Let me share with you another cut from my N-scale Cisco, Utah diorama.

I'm using full-color tape-LED to light up the horizon/wall, so it's easy to arrange the day/dusk/night. But the effect you see with your eyes isn't what you get using an iPhone; it needs several trials.

Thanks for watching every time!

Hiroshi Nakanishi/Boxcar Red Collection
https://riogrande.blog.jp/

[nkalanaga]

Chuck:  I've seen Quonset Huts on block walls over head-high.  Basically a block building using the hut as a roof.

[u18b]

Briefly paused the SD50S project...

To work on U18Bs.

They start out as casting from about 25 years ago.....




Here is one I built a long time ago...  but the units in the 1888-1899 series had the tiny fuel tanks.   Aaron was gracious to draw and print me one.   I can't had the metal behind it because this is a powered locomotive, but the tank looks better.   Now I need to paint it.




I then took a U18B and added some handrails to it.  The rails are for an Atlas U23B and so I had to adapt them for this model by shortening them and splicing them.









Aaron has convinced me to add sound to this one day.

[brokemoto]

Had some time this past week, so I finished some caboose bashes:





I wanted a smaller caboose, so I cut down an Arnold wood caboose.  The cut down version is on the left  I let the original trucks on it as opposed to the one on the right, where I swapped out the original for B-mann arch bars.






I just made the one on the left a little more interesting with some safety lettering.  The one on the left is the Athearn version of the MDC on the right.









Despite their being crude, Father Nature put out castings of equipemnt that could not be had anywhere else.  The first one is my version of a Father Nature drover caboose.  The second is a cleaned up Father Nature casting.  It is a few years old, so the lettering is a bit beat-up..  For comparison, the untouched Father Nature casting is on an MDC chassis.







This is a transfer caboose made of a B-mann nineteenth century flat and a chopped up B-mann nineteenth century coach.  The end and other railings came from a lot of IM parts that I bought on FeePay.  I bought it to get the FT shells but so far, I have had more use for the rialings and pipings for the covered hoppers(?).  The flat car lost its truss rods, so I had to fashion some from pieces of styrene and bread closer wire.  The turnbuckle is the plastic sheathing cut down.  It is on MT arch bar trucks.

[jpwisc]

I was able to finish up a little more of my backlog tonight.
CP 8757 because I had an undec ES44 and decals (yeah, I know the body isn’t quite right, but it was fun to make)
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DRGW 3011 for a friend’s layout
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[BCR 570]

I took a break from track painting during the week after Christmas, and worked on my civil track projects.  I prepared the linear motors for installation by centering the carriage and installing the throw wires:




I then fed the throw wires through the throw bars and secured the motors to the underside of the project boards:






After connecting 12 volt power and testing them back and forth successfully, I sank the throw wires down to just above the throw bars and cut off the excess wire below.


I also assembled a cardboard mock-up of the 31st Street Overpass for my Marine Drive diorama, as a pilot model for working out dimensions and preparing drawings.  The bridge has been modified since originally built so there are some differences between the prototype photographs and my model:






Back to track painting this coming week.

Tim

[timwatson]

Hey all I wanted to post about a tool I have talked about over the last year or so. I only got it completed over the holidays and wanted the crew here to be the first to test things out. I enjoy creating tools to make hobbyist lives more simple. This year I am releasing a full-featured web tool that will allow hobbyists to create 3d models of gears for 3d printing. I have been creating mechanisms for 3d printed locomotives for years now and the single biggest unlock for others to do the same is the creation of the gearing systems. Using this web tool will hopefully enable that for others. It’s kind of alpha/almost beta right now but the gears are solid and I am working with them in my designs just like anyone else would so I feel good about the output. Please lend me hand in testing it out if you have a need and let me know how it goes.

https://serialhobby.ist/gear-generator

(Cross posted in 3d printing as well)

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[daniel_leavitt2000]

Briefly paused the SD50S project...

To work on U18Bs.

They start out as casting from about 25 years ago.....




Here is one I built a long time ago...  but the units in the 1888-1899 series had the tiny fuel tanks.   Aaron was gracious to draw and print me one.   I can't had the metal behind it because this is a powered locomotive, but the tank looks better.   Now I need to paint it.




I then took a U18B and added some handrails to it.  The rails are for an Atlas U23B and so I had to adapt them for this model by shortening them and splicing them.









Aaron has convinced me to add sound to this one day.

I really want to build the Providence and Worcester U18B, but I was never able to get the Atlas U23B shell and handrails. These are one of my absolute favorite engines.

[InterurbanModels]

On the workbench, the virtual and the material one, there are several Cincinnati built curved side cars in several scales and paint schemes

[Scottl]

We don't need no stinkin' DPM kits 

Finished test prints of main street Jasper.  All were AI generated from street photos.  Not perfect, but placeholders that will work well for laying out the street.

[PiperguyUMD]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Train time at the in-laws has been limited, but effective. I launched more than a few parts into oblivion while my nieces were enthusiastically pursuing their own arts and crafts at the kitchen table!

With a successful print of the boiler shell, I’ve been able to add details. Bell and Whistle are from Miniatures by Eric, Cross compound air compressor and dynamo are from Bachmann, stanchions are from GMM, and piping brackets are from Max. Everything else is bent to order wire. Next stop is a warm bath followed by a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000.

Still need to add the drifter valves to the fireman’s side cylinders. Once that’s done, I’ll have to do a little back and forth with primer and sanding to blend the two parts together. Once that’s done, the chassis will be complete. As it is, it will pull 5 cars around my T-Trak loop, but there is plenty of room to add weight in the boiler. Shooting for about 15 cars, but 10 would be great.

Here's a few pre-primer glamour shots