Weekend Update 3/1/26

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Did you stop in at the Red Caboose?

No time. Arrived. Cocktails. Walked to the concert venue (LPR on Bleecker Street to see Steven Kellogg with a surprise Adam Duritz appearance), walked back, then brunch with a friend before motoring home.

I swear, you spend at least a dollar a minute while you're in Manhattan. I love visiting but I don't know how folks live there.

[jpwisc]

Got some detail work done today.
@Jim Starbuck helped me with some nice Ingersoll-Rand decals to finish off my compressor.
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Then I got the exhaust and mirrors on my WC fuel truck
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Lastly, I made a scrap copper load for my White Pine layout. It felt like a good way to use up these extra MicroTrains springs
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[PiperguyUMD]

WM 1105 has FINALLY joined the active roster! For the life of me I could not get the headlight or tender light to work correctly. I built 3 additional headlights (which I blew testing), and assembled/disassembled probably 30 times before I realized that the pre soldered resistors on the LEDs were on the wrong lead . So now that that's straightened out, we're in the clear. I'll need to do a little touch up from all of that handling and of course weathering, but this build is DONE!

I'll post more glamour shots, once I touch up the paint.

[apudelek]

Had a fantastic but busy week for both work and hobbies.

I spent 3 days in Louisiana taking a manned-model shiphandling course for work and got to drive these around a pond and practice various maneuvers and dockings.  Lots of fun and very useful skills being practiced!  Thought you all might be interested in seeing these 1:25th scale models of 300-meter ships, with scaled-down engines and rudders to make them handle like the 1:1 monsters.
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After I got home, I finished a few more passenger car projects.

First up was a Kato ATSF Dorm-Lounge that I have modified to approximate a Southern Railway Crescent Series 1-2 Buffet-Lounge, named "Crescent Harbor."  K4 Decals and Tamiya spray were used for the mid-50s SOU scheme (no black roof or heralds).  I filled in a window on both sides, sanded off a section of lower corrugation, and added some styrene to make the buffet service doors. The train phone antenna was from the Kato Parts store (20th Century Limited antenna) and was trimmed and painted silver to better match the SOU prototype.  Holes were drilled in the roof of the car (I used a marked piece of tape as a guide) and small adjustments to the holes were made to center the antenna prior to gluing.  This one is not an exact prototype, and certainly not perfect, but I'm very proud with how it turned out and it's a big confidence boost!  As an aside, "Crescent Harbor" is still around and owned by the Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society and Museum in Tennessee .
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Next is a Kato ATSF 4-4-2 that I repainted and decaled to represent a Southern 14-4 Valley Series sleeper, named "Roanoke Valley."  Tamiya spray and K4 Decals used here.
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Finally is a repainted Kato ATSF 4-4-2 sleeper to look like a New Haven 6-4-6 Beach-Series sleeper, named "Ocean Beach."  Herald plates were styrene, decals were Microscale, and paint was Tamiya spray.
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[garethashenden]

Got some major work done on one of my two paper mills, more in the Ashuelot Branch thread.

[nickelplate759]

@apudelek , which Tamiya color do you use for stainless steel?

[apudelek]

@apudelek , which Tamiya color do you use for stainless steel?

@nickelplate759 I used Tamiya Silver Leaf for the cars, and Gloss Aluminum for the antenna.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

WM 1105 has FINALLY joined the active roster! For the life of me I could not get the headlight or tender light to work correctly. I built 3 additional headlights (which I blew testing), and assembled/disassembled probably 30 times before I realized that the pre soldered resistors on the LEDs were on the wrong lead . So now that that's straightened out, we're in the clear. I'll need to do a little touch up from all of that handling and of course weathering, but this build is DONE!

Hhahaha, I'm possibly dealing with that same issue with my Strasburg 89. I hadn't thought about the lead thing!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Had a fantastic but busy week for both work and hobbies.

I spent 3 days in Louisiana taking a manned-model shiphandling course for work and got to drive these around a pond and practice various maneuvers and dockings.  Lots of fun and very useful skills being practiced!  Thought you all might be interested in seeing these 1:25th scale models of 300-meter ships, with scaled-down engines and rudders to make them handle like the 1:1 monsters.

That's so cool! I've seen videos about those and thought it was an awesome thing. I can't believe I now know someone who's used em.

[peteski]

I built 3 additional headlights (which I blew testing), and assembled/disassembled probably 30 times before I realized that the pre soldered resistors on the LEDs were on the wrong lead .

Well, there is no wrong way to connect LED and resistor in series, but if you used to the resistor being on lets say the positive side of the LED then yes, if you depend that as a polarity indicator it can cause a problem Sounds like you learned  this lesson the hard way.  .

[Jesse6669]

Made good progress on the Zumbiel Packaging factory.  Coming up with a satisfactory concrete color took a couple hours but I'm happy with it.  The structure still needs windows, weathering, some ducts/rooftop stuff, adding the truck dock and dust collection system but it's coming along.  I'll post more about it in the dedicated thread.  I've also been working on printing some 45' dry vans like the one pictured and I did get a tiny bit of ballasting done (the siding to Weir Frog and Dana Mfg/Rumpke Recycling).

[tehachapifan]

....Lastly, I made a scrap copper load for my White Pine layout. It felt like a good way to use up these extra MicroTrains springs
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How do you end up with extra springs?? I usually end up launching several into LEO and then, when I'm down to the last one, it's like I'm handling plutonium while sweating bullets.

[jpwisc]

How do you end up with extra springs?? I usually end up launching several into LEO and then, when I'm down to the last one, it's like I'm handling plutonium while sweating bullets.

I replaced all my couplers with NPossibles!

[spookshow]

Recently, I got my hands on a Bachmann Light Mountain, first series from 2003, without illusions. @spookshow has rated this engine as a really bad puller with a terrible grade "C" ... But I absolutely wanted an NY Ontario & Western steam engine, and it wasn't expensive.

I took the model with me on my short "spring break" away from my printers, along with a hodgepodge of cars that I currently work on in 3D.
Surprise, I had to put all those eight cars on the test track, and the Light Mountain still valiantly pulled her train on the Kato 315 mm radius. A typical Bachmann syndrome: large quality disparities within the same series

This was a well known problem with that 2003 release (IE, not a "one here and one there" type of thing). But it was theoretically fixable, and unless you bought NOS it sounds like you found one that got fixed somewhere along the line.

-Mark

[apudelek]

That's so cool! I've seen videos about those and thought it was an awesome thing. I can't believe I now know someone who's used em.

@Ed Kapuscinski thanks a lot!  We talk a lot in the hobby with operations about fast clocks... Well with these being scaled down, time, and therefore speeds, are at a 5:1 fast clock essentially.  So everything happens 5 times as fast, which means your commands have to be 5 times as quick as well.  Plus it means that 1 Knot of speed is essentially 5 Knots of scale speed.  Which can be pretty darn fast for docking a ship, for perspective's sake.  It also means that 7 Knots of wind is also gale force!  Which makes things a bit tricky at times, but it's good practice.  I think the best part of the class was reinforcing fast "thought-to-speech" orders because you have to be quick to think about what you need to do and then quickly telling the helmsman to do.  Very applicable and quite enjoyable.