Re: Weekend Update 7/12/26

[up1950s]

https://railfan.com/norfolk-western-611-gets-patriotic-makeover-for-summer-of-steam/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXhsL-LldtH/

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https://www.facebook.com/railfanmag/posts/beautiful-paint-job-from-wheeling-lake-erie-railway-to-help-celebrate-250-years-/1219495096855697/

https://www.facebook.com/railfanmag/posts/the-slow-trickle-of-locomotives-being-painted-to-celebrate-the-250th-anniversary/1388556499949555/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWBOg8SglLc/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVbuHOwlbuo/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=DYYJhra7K-E

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaQrAHEiRka/

https://blog.ianclark.com/photography/railroad-photography/a-visit-to-the-east-broad-top-railroad/

[nickelplate759]

My model of NKP baggage-mail #832 finally has the correct trucks thanks to @Lemosteam, who now sells 3d-printed 2-4-2 trucks!



Decals from NKPH&TS.  Microtrains painted/unlettered kit.  ESMC 36" wheels, Keystone Details 2-4-2 trucks.

[BCR 570]

Yes those Pullman trucks are most welcome; I have installed them on my current official car build.

I wanted to darken the colour of my scenic base a bit so added some Raw Umber.  I also painted the bottom of what will be the marsh scene:






I also received twelve new boxcars from Atlas this week.  These are the new run of PS-1 cars with eight-foot doors.  They will replace my veteran Micro-Trains boxcars which have seven foot doors.  These will be a closer representation of the PGE/BCR's 4100 series cars:




I also finished ballasting the display tracks for our 7DPNR-NMRA show table, and applied the signage:




These will be used for educational purposes at shows to illustrate the different scales, represented with a series of CN 40' boxcars in O, S, HO and N scales:




and a series of BCR 53' boxcars in #1 Gauge, O, HO , N and Z scales:




Tim

[nkalanaga]

I suspect there will be real, full-size steam locos 250 years from now.  After all, we still have working examples pre-steam transportation.  They'll probably burn some type of renewable fuel, but steam locos have burned almost anything flammable, so that wouldn't be a big change.

And I suspect that some of the Swiss narrow gauge lines, such as the RhB, will still be running their heritage electrics.

[John]

I also finished ballasting the display tracks for our 7DPNR-NMRA show table, and applied the signage:




These will be used for educational purposes at shows to illustrate the different scales, represented with a series of CN 40' boxcars in O, S, HO and N scales:




and a series of BCR 53' boxcars in #1 Gauge, O, HO , N and Z scales:




Tim

Your display table setup is outstanding - it shows the differences in scale really well .. kudos

[John]

A few years ago, I started modeling the Maryland Midland, a short line in Maryland operating from a CSX interchange at Emory Grove Md, to it's western terminus at Highfield Md.  The railroad is headquartered in Union Bridge Md.   Some years ago, MMID built a new headquarters, next to the old Western Maryland Railroad station on Main Street.   



My plan was to build it out of styrene, but the amount of windows and shapes made it a daunting task .. after an attempt using scribe and snap methods, I decided to 3D print instead.  Some time with Google Earth and Tinkercad produced an acceptable model that captures the basic dimensions



My first plan was to print the walls as sections and assemble them into the final model, but that didn't work out how I wanted.   I've had OK results printing structures as large assemblies, but like to use styrene for the roof pieces.  In this case, I didn't do that, instead I incorporated the roof as part of the print, mainly due to gazebo roof on the end ..

Each iteration of this structure in the images below takes about 3 1/2 hours to print on my Photon Mono .. I went through 3 rounds of test prints, before I got to a  "good enough" build .. There are some flaws, but since none of my projects are contest models and I don't produce them for sale, we move on ..

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I still have more work to do.  The "porch" will be a separate assembly.  Railings, steps, and stairs will be 3D, the roof and decking probably styrene .. laser cut shingles for the roof

[Dave V]

It's been all about T-TRAK for me lately... Started a scenery-only single just to keep the momentum going:



Tested the track loop after finally building an end cap module. Note the signals going through their paces (that's also a newest-run BLI PRR M1a...those things can pull!)...

And here's my overall model railroading update video for July:

[dem34]

Found an old Minitrix Switcher at work that ran shockingly well. Naturally I've always wanted a B6 and decided to make a quick model of one out if it. Starting with stripping the thick old paint off. And then I decided if I'm doing that I might as well mill off some of the weird non prototypical molded on pipework.



Followed by adding on some scratch built details

Kept going within reason, and tweaked the insides. Added an LED headlight, an extra pickup on the center driver, and wired in a LokPilot Nano with an Iowa Scaled Engineering Run-N-Smooth to let the thing run on modern layouts. At this point I decided to make the model specifically PRR 5244. Being the last rostered Pennsy steam locomotive it had some things that were a bit odd going on that debatably make it easier to kitbash. Such as lacking marker lights but adding adding a brake stand to the pilot. I found a good mix for DGLE with Tamiya paints and applied it, Titanium Silver added to the smokebox.


Then added Decals and some appropriate weathering. In photos the smokebox was barely different from the boiler in color owing to the amount of accumulated soot. Overall it runs ok. The location of the wiring trunk sort of limits it to 11" radius and above but that's mostly okay. The small keep alive however combined with Back EMF of the Lokpilot while not making it perfect at low speeds it does cruise nicely with a small string of 40' cars which is what I was going for as the 5244 mostly ran in rural NJ as the local power for the Union Transportation railroad.

[John]

I'm not a steam guy, but that's impressive ..

[delamaize]

....I found a good mix for DGLE with Tamiya paints....

I'd be interested in your formula to get your DGLE, as I will need to paint my I1SA eventually....

[dem34]

I'd be interested in your formula to get your DGLE, as I will need to paint my I1SA eventually....

It was 8 Parts XF-1 to 2 part XF-70 then thinned with Iso. It matched decently with a Bachmann K4 but still recommend tweaking as my bottle of XF-1 was fairly old.

[GaryHinshaw]

I've been working on my cement hopper fleet:



Details here.

[Scottl]

I pulled out some O scale kits from storage and was underwhelmed with some of the castings.  They vaguely look like the intended item, but we can do much better now.

I designed a detailed Snow duplex steam pump and printed some a 25 micron layer thickness.  Pretty happy with them.  The commercial casting is basically garbage.

[Sumner]

Had a T-Shirt made for Ed, Dottie and myself.

Sumner

[Dave V]

Coming back for seconds...

Finished the module. This is the way to build a layout, I'm tellin' ya. Doing it at a workbench one chunk at a time.

All of my modules (so far) have a 1" high hill that starts 8 inches from the rear of the module so they can be connected in any order. The two modules making up Huntingdon and the end cap representing Harrisburg will be the exceptions (though the far ends of Huntingdon will still have the hills and foliage to blend). For me, one of the biggest things that I focus on is scenic texture.



It's back in the layout this evening...sticking out like a sore thumb!