Weekend Update 3/22/26

[up1950s]

https://evertrak.com/composite-ties-railroad-infrastructure/

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https://www.nscale.net/forum/nscale-net-general/general-rail-discussion/25509-fully-graffitied-railcars

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/1hfn1wf/this_funnylooking_train/

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/1hfn1wf/this_funnylooking_train/#lightbox

[pmpexpress]

Photographed in Bernburg, Germany, a Solvay Chemicals GmbH narrow gauge 75-Ton industrial electric locomotive with a string of hopper cars that are used to transport limestone from a company owned quarry to the firm’s soda factory.

With a 375-meter long tunnel and a bridge that crosses the Saale River, the single track 900 mm narrow gauge rail route (i.e., the Feldbahn des Sodawerkes Bernburg which is also known as the Sodabahn), is approximately 2 Kilometers long and is electrified at 600-volts.

[nkalanaga]

What kind of coupler is that?  It doesn't look quite like the North American knuckle couplers.  Soviet/Russian maybe?

[Kentuckian]

A wee bit of progress on the AC&I mini layout. There was a spot of dirty track in the tunnel that most of my locomotives would hang up on. The curve is too sharp to reach from the tunnel portals. I finally took an oscillating multitool and cut an access to it. This will be covered by a removable panel.



I will need to do some patching and painting too.

The moral of the story: Don’t build inaccessible track! I wanted to build this layout to learn lessons to apply to the big one.

I also had an experience this past week that I haven’t had in about 50 years: I opened a new HO scale engine. I could not resist the Walthers GP-7 in C&O without the dynamic brake and with sound. There is still a lot I want to do in N scale, but an HO scale switching layout may be in my future.

[davefoxx]

I installed Scale Sound Systems speakers in these Geeps this weekend, making for a nice upgrade.  The L&N GP38-2 is a recent Athearn Genesis purchase.  The SCL GP40 is about ten years old and was the second locomotive that I bought when I returned to HO scale in 2017.



The speaker swap for the Atlas GP40 was easy peasy, but I contacted Scale Sound Systems about receiving the wrong speaker and enclosure for the L&N Geep.  Customer service was quick to respond, considering I emailed them after hours on a Friday.  The service tech was kind in his response, too, explaining that I was trying to put the speaker enclosure in upside down.    I emailed my thanks and pointed out the obvious- that I am a doofus.  At least I probably gave them a good laugh this weekend.

DFF

[NorthWestGN]

I had some time to cut the lawns for the first time this year and painted and weathered a pair of ballast hoppers hoppers inside and out…




Brent

[Roger Holmes]

After months of negotiations the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation and the CTA finally embarked upon a project for two new subway entances in anticipation of Rapido's CTA subway car's arrival.

First, the Excavation.



The new subway entranced viewed from the street.



And viewed from the office tower across the street.



The second entrance will be installed after the laborers finish their break.  The etched brass and plastic kits are from Peco.

[Jesse6669]

I've been doing mostly track, structure, and scenery work lately so I decided to do a piece of rolling stock (of a sort).  This is a 45' trailer I originally designed in T scale that I just up-scaled and 3D printed in Z, so is missing rivet details but is close enough.  It'd decorated with CMR decals, and I faded and weathered with the airbrush.  Good for loads of scrap from Zumbiel headed to a recycler.


I also added the retaining wall along the Midland Sub.  There's a cap for it that is being printed.

[Lemosteam]

Current B6sb status.

Updated the chassis with some PB wire wheel wipes so 4x electrical pickup. Turns out the OEM pcb board screw hole is 00-90, so I added a nylon screw with thin nylon washers on each side and brass hex nuts to solder the wire to.



After this I scalloped the shell to clear the wires and avoid shorts. I also added another mount to the shell using the cylinder screw to solder a tube to. The shell has a smaller threaded tube and a screw thru the new smokestack. Also added a bracket and screw to attach to the back wall. Unfortunately, I had to replace the headlight after it broke whistle grinding inside the shell. After she ran around few laps alone with just the pb wire pickups, the chassis deserved her tender.



After wiring the Bachmann tender chassis trucks, I fashioned a drawbar, which pulled the tender nice and close to the locomotive. The OEM drawbar pin just drops into the front hole of the drawbar.





Next step was to wire the chassis to the locomotive, so I hardwired from the motor to the pB wires, drilled some holes on each side under the cab floor to meet in the center, just above the drawbar and one hole above the drawbar in the tender chassis to connect to the trucks.





Wired it up and drove her in for an hour. This motor is SMOOTH, but I could not get it to run backwards for some reason.

 

Turns out the screw I used to mount the back cab bracket, was contacting the motor flywheel in reverse due to the worm gear backlash. I ended up grinding a chamfer to clear the screw, and that solved the problem. She runs smooth in both directions now.

[InterurbanModels]

And still making more of the same

(No matching motive power available, a Fairbanks-Morse demonstrator must do the job)

[Sumner]

Just did the first print of the tender for the rotary snowplow. Some things to clean up and strengthen but overall pretty much what I was hoping for.







More images/info on Railwire here....

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=60724.msg838695#new

Sumner

[PGE_Modeller]

And still making more of the same

(No matching motive power available, a Fairbanks-Morse demonstrator must do the job)

Looking forward to receiving these.  Many thanks,
Greg

[chuck geiger]

Different brand tie stacks for this project. Less is more, open space = negative space. More on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/laspiedrasrailroad/

[wm3798]

Fleet building...


Tasty tasty fleet building.

A bargain basement find of 26 hoppers in various states of direpair, mostly exploded Accumate couplers and trucks knocked off due to poor packing and lots of jostling.  The good news is all the parts stayed in the box, so after a few fussy hours, I had all those Humpty Dumpties put back together.

Yay second hand market!
Lee

[basementcalling]

After months of negotiations the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation and the CTA finally embarked upon a project for two new subway entances in anticipation of Rapido's CTA subway car's arrival.

First, the Excavation.



The new subway entranced viewed from the street.



And viewed from the office tower across the street.



The second entrance will be installed after the laborers finish their break.  The etched brass and plastic kits are from Peco.

I know it's Chicago, not NYC, but that's a perfect spot for a hot dog cart vendor, Rodger. Maybe even one with a ghost inside like in Ghostbusters.