Weekend Update 8/16/26

[peteski]

That's just the poor lighting of course, but thanks.

Ah, ok. I was surprised to see pink color resin, but nevertheless the thin railings and walkways are quite impressive.

[ednadolski]

Test prints for the 10-pack fuel foiler end units.

(Attachment Link)

Looks good!  Which coupler pockets are those?

Ed

[SAH]

Progress continues on the West Spencer module.  More info here:  https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=61349.msg845777#msg845777

[chessie system fan]

Anyone that is interested, this is a link to the orginial. The Artist, FO43, asked that I give him credit for the model, and to not sell the design. I would say out of respect, if any of you are going to try to print your own, I would contact him through thingiverse and get permission.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7083891

I saw that shortly after he posted it to thingverse. And then I saw the roof...

[Dave V]

Round two for me...moar progress on my PRR Granville Bridge T-TRAK module. Still needs more trees, more detailing along the river banks, ballast, and resin. The bridge and track are not yet glued in place.



The trees on the hill to the left look a little unnatural, so I'll likely extend the underbrush down the hill and blend it better.

[delamaize]

I saw that shortly after he posted it to thingverse. And then I saw the roof...

Yeah, I noticed it also, I got some filing work to do, But overall, it's not too bad.

[jagged ben]

Looks good!  Which coupler pockets are those?

Ed

For now it's designed for MT 1025 innards.  Might change that later if I really hate the oversize knuckle.  But I don't have the time and money to convert all my stuff to N-Possibles so my goal for now is to get it working mechanically with the MTs. 

Ah, ok. I was surprised to see pink color resin, but nevertheless the thin railings and walkways are quite impressive.

Unfortunately I think the top grabs on the railings are too thin, I've already broken them all.  I'll probably have to make them thicker or maybe figure out how to make them a separate part that can be easily replaced.  But yeah, they printed really nicely, I continue to be impressed with what's possible with these machines.  The holes on the walkways also printed pretty well, to my surprise, although after curing I saw a lot of them were partially filled.  But hopefully it's that I just need to wash them more diligently.  Anyway I've got work to do to test the coupler pockets and the truck mountings and will have lots of chances to experiment with adjusting those details. 

[Mike Madonna]

Wrapping up a scracthbuilt freight house for the Lackawanna in Bath NY. The only photo I have is in a Morning Sun book (below) showing the south and west walls, so I "imagineered" the east and north walls and the interior. Because this will be front-and-center when visitors enter the layout room, I am detailing the interior.

This photo, dated 1970, is about 20 years after my modeling period:



On the exterior, the long walls have four types of siding and the end walls have five.




The interior walls consist of two types of siding. Some details are castings from an unknown kit, others are from scratch, such as tissue paper window shades.




I have some Woodland Scenics exterior lights to install over the doorways. (The green "room" in the office is the channel to feed the wires through the floor.) I will add a couple of figures, and do something about the staircase. It will get railings, but I'm not sure I'm keeping this item as it isn't very close to the prototype. It's a leftover from a Walthers kit.

Dang Ron!! Well done sir!!

[davefoxx]

With some MicroSol and decals already in hand, I did a thing and brought this Seaboard Air Line SDP35 into the 1970s, relettering and renumbering it, just like the prototype, from SAL No. 1114 . . .



to Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) No. 615:



More on The Carolina Sandhills Lines thread in the Layout Engineering forum.

DFF

[jpwisc]

I knocked out another custom boxcar for my White Pine layout. FVM car, painted up, Circus City decals. Eric Larson prototype photo for reference.
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[dougnelson]

I did get a test print from a buddy who was printing a 3D model I had downloaded and resized for my ATSF FastMail I'm building. I could not find a b60b kit for my consist, but I did find pictures of a weird long Pennsylvania boxcar. Did some research and found out that it was a X42, and they were not as common as the b60b on the fastmail, but they still made an appearance pretty often.

I found a good 3D model online that was scaled for HO, downloaded it, and contacted the artist to get clearance to scale it and have it printed for my needs, which he did. I sent the files to a buddy who does a lot of 3D printing, he had to do some tweaks, but this is the first print, which turned out pretty good. I'm going to go ahead and try to finish it out. And I may have him print me another. I need to figure out decisively which trucks belong under this car, the few pictures I have found look like BX Express trucks, and I have some micro trains ones laying around, so that's probably what it will get initially, unless I could find something that says otherwise.

Prototype:
(Attachment Link)

Here is my N scale PRR X42.  It was made by kitbashing two Intermountain 50' boxcar kits.  There were only 10 of these experimental cars built in 1950, used primarily for mail storage.  Not sure, but they could have shown up in the Fast Mail.  I used MTL BX express trucks.  Contact John Frantz of Mount Vernon Shops (https://www.mountvernonshops.com/) regarding decals.  Also see RMC February 2018 for a full write up for this car.  I won the RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award for it.  Also see The Keystone Modeler #94 Autumn 2015 for an article on modeling the X42.

[skytop35]

Doug,

I currently happen to be building an X42 based on your article. Thanks to the inspiration and guidance of your article, I'm almost finished. I've been wanting this car for some time and it was on my list to do for Skytop Models but never happened. I still need to add some grab irons before paint. Just wanted to let you know that some people do build projects based on published articles like yours, even if it is 8 years later! Thanks again.

Bill

[Frank Amato]

Awesome freight car modeling this week, thanks for sharing the "art of the possible" fellas!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Train show time at the Railroad Museum of PA.

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Funny thing about that last image. I actually had breakfast in that train station (https://www.theroastglenarm.com/) that morning on the way to the show. Despite the amazing rennovation job they've done, I have a feeling the place would've shaken itself to death if that train had showed up. What a way to go though.

[N Scale Train Boy]

Looks like all around a good weekend by all! I made some slight progress on my New Haven NE-3, getting the side walls attached to the base and cleaning up the roof line so the side and end walls meet up once I get those attached. I'm going to mock up some basic interiors and try a couple of methods of building/attaching the roof, to see if I can make it removable easily without compromising the car as a whole. If I cant, I'll probably leave the interior fairly basic.

I also spent some time trackside at the NHRHTA volunteer picnic out in the Mystic CT area, where I got photos of Acela Is and IIs, Northeast Regional trains, and a couple of CT rail trains including one of their Semiquincentennial cab cars. Unfortunately, those are all still on my camera, so I can't share them yet! Good work everyone, and wish I could've made it down to the show at the RRMPA, looks like you guys had a blast!