Weekend Update 4/5/26

[up1950s]

https://www.chowhound.com/1713284/historic-washington-restaurant-fdr-train-car/

https://www.gbrx.com/railcars/tilt-flatcar/

https://www.americansteamrailroad.org/news-4-20-2015

https://www.railwayage.com/mw/metrolinx-takes-delivery-on-plasser-american-m-w-machines/

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https://pabucketlist.com/riding-the-northern-central-railway-in-york-county-pa/

[Jim Starbuck]

I’ve always had a thing for Whitcomb locomotives.
The 1929 90 ton (I’ve seen these referred to as 80 ton also) oil electric has been on my all time wish list for years. An attempted early scratchbuild was eventually abandoned after less than favorable results. With the recent acquisition of an Elegoo Mars I’ve been printing tons of stuff and I thought again about the 90 tonner but no file.
A Google search for AI generated 3D files from photos and away we go. My expectations weren’t high but what the heck.

Here’s the original photo of 9/23/1935 by Otto Perry.

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About 5 minutes into the AI studio produced this. I was astounded.

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Into Chitubox for some scale adjustments and some additional supports then on to the printer.
The results after a coat of primer.

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Next was a coat of rattle can Tamiya NATO black.  Adding some decals brought home a decent static model.

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I also played around with some photo effects of the painted model trying to replicate the original photo.

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This is now handed off to the “It would be even cooler if it ran” department which has a solid mechanism design worked out and all the components on hand.
It amazes me to think of wanting this model for years then in a matter of a few days it’s sitting on my bench. What a great time to be in N Scale!

[davefoxx]

“You’ll never see ‘CSX’ on the side of a locomotive,” they said, but then this sh!t started happening:



Sure, these railroads were still separate entities until 1986 when CSX Transportation was formed, but once their holding companies, Seaboard Coast Line Industries and Chessie System, Inc. were merged into CSX Corporation in 1980, the writing was on the wall.  They knew exactly what they were doing.

DFF

[BCR 570]

On this Easter weekend it seems appropriate that I am posting photographs of the layout's resurrection after eight months of track painting.  The various turnout and servo issues have been resolved now.  I removed the newspaper from the backdrops (except for Septimus where I will be commencing scenery work) and I returned all of the structure mock-ups to the layout:




After extensive track cleaning, vacuuming and locomotive wheel cleaning, it was time to run some test trains!  Engs 812 and 804 ran over the Fort St. John Subdivision from Chetwynd to Septimus:




Engs 567 and 574 ran from Chetwynd to Dawson Creek and return:




I also started on the business car build for my museum train (see separate thread here):

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=60937.0

These are the etched sides after assembling the three layers:




Tim

[BCR 570]

A couple more photographs showing the first run with cars over the FSJ Sub.  The four rear rotary gondolas are new acquisitions and are finished in the Procor wordmark scheme.  Departing Chetwynd:




Eng 812 lost its ditch lights a while ago which was traced to a failed LED; since repaired.  I have left the newspaper on the backdrop here as I hope to start on initial scenery and ballasting here soon, so more spraying is in order.  Arriving at Septimus:




Tim

[coosvalley]

This week I finished up #577. This engine and the 573 pictured with it have been on my workbench for over 5 years, and finally getting these finished hopefully means my "modeling slump" is behind me. I have 4 more nearly finished locos waiting for some parts, and finishing those will (mostly) clear up the workbench for new projects.

[ATSF_Ron]

@coosvalley, that is some nice detailing/weathering on those Geeps!!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Did some performance testing of @Bluford Craig  Auto parts cars on @DeltaBravo helix.

It made for a fun time.

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[crrcoal]

Hanging on by a thread 😮.  Some of those cars look like they want to string line so bad 

[CR4100]

Hanging on by a thread 😮.  Some of those cars look like they want to string line so bad 

At 0:47 you can see that the outer wheels of the car are lifted off the rails. Yikes!

[milw156]

Hanging on by a thread 😮.  Some of those cars look like they want to string line so bad 

Southern boxcar is really leaning into that turn!

[C855B]

At 0:47 you can see that the outer wheels of the car are lifted off the rails. Yikes!

Nearly every car was lifting. Only wheels I noticed solidly on the rail were the locos and the caboose.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yep. If was nuts.

But you know the craziest part?

It worked.

[basementcalling]

Southern boxcar is really leaning into that turn!

Southern boxcar is trying to simulate the look of superelevated track

[OldEastRR]

Well, we are talking PC/Conrail ...