Sunday Photo Fun 9/4/22

[Christian]

Come on guys! SPF has been a part of not only this forum, but also part of the original Atlas Forum since the turn of the century. Its where you show what you are up too this week. Model building, prototype photos, layouts, just out of the box, foobies, Lionel, American Flyer, and oldies.

I built this boxcar in 1980. It is an EBT boxcar lettered for my private name, circa 1940, HOn3 layout. Trucks, couplers, ladders, stirrups, door latch, and brake wheel are the purchased parts. The "box" is made of 3/16" Plexiglas cut on a table saw. It is sheeted with Plastruct ABS sheet. The ribs and other parts are also ABS from Plastruct. The rivets are made the old fashioned way; a blunt sewing needle punching ABS sheet and spaced with a scale ruler and an eye that was pretty good at that age! Many more inches than needed were punched. The best were cut and placed on the model. Paint is Polly S applied with a Binks Wren airbrush. Decals are Champion. (Remember Polly S paint?) (Remember Binks Wren airbrushes?) (Remember Champion Decals?)

Trucks are Vulcan by Rio Grande Miniatures which closed shop about 2020. Couplers are Kadee (before Micro-Trains) "N Scale" couplers. Ladders are Central Valley, Door latches, brake wheel and stirrups are Details Associates.

This is one of three that I built at the same time. 

[Christian]

Speaking of American Flyer. My friend Linn, circa 1957, had this and the train that goes with it. I was sooooo jealous that I boxed up all my trains and turned to AMT model cars for a few years.

All the bash/smash of Rapido's PA reminded me of how far we've come in the hobby. But, back in 1957 a pair of these leading a lighted passenger train was about the most romantic thing I'd ever seen. (I discovered girls a couple of years later.)

[Funnelfan]

The first time I saw one of these cars back in the early 1990's, I was in shock! I thought some crane operator had loaded the trailer wrong with it spanning between cars. Luckily another "Long Runner" car was in the train so that I could see that it intended to be loaded that way. I've made models of these cars since then and learned some lessons on what needs to be done to make them reliable. I custom painted a pair of Athearn 85' flatcars for the first one, and later sold that car and painted a pair of Walthers 89' BSC flatcars. Sold that along with most of my HO stuff during a brief switch to N scale years ago. Anyways I was recently working on fixing up some old Bowser Schneider National 53' Platewall trailers, and realized I should modify them for "Long Runner" service. This involves making the forward axle so that it can slide laterally and narrowing the axle holders so there is room for the axle to slide. Also need to make sure to use the raised trailer stand. If you don't, the trailer tends to walk off the flatcar on curves. I also replaced the kingpin with some brass .032" wire that is about a 1/4" long to make for a secure pivot point.
Now I've had this set of Athearn BSC (Bethlehem Steel Car Co) F98F "long runner" flatcars for a few years now, but I never took the time to do the work to place them in service. This mostly involves painting the wheels, adding a 10k resistor to each car for signal detection, installing kadee couplers. Now since I will be taking the cars to and from the club, a drawbar is really impractical, I installed two Kadee shelf couplers with the pins cut off. If someone has a idea for a easily detachable drawbar, I'm all ears.
These Athearn cars are fantastic, and have the proper widened deck where the trailer wheels needed to twist as the cars go around curves. The sliding axle alleviated the need to widen the deck on the Walthers cars previously. I don't think I will be weathering the cars, and only slightly if I do. They were brand new near the end of my modeling era.
Feeling the need to run a SP PCX train soon.

[loco8107]

Sept 5, 2022 1:21:38 GMT -8 Christian said:

Come on guys! SPF has been a part of not only this forum, but also part of the original Atlas Forum since the turn of the century. Its where you show what you are up too this week. Model building, prototype photos, layouts, just out of the box, foobies, Lionel, American Flyer, and oldies.

I built this boxcar in 1980. It is an EBT boxcar lettered for my private name, circa 1940, HOn3 layout. Trucks, couplers, ladders, stirrups, door latch, and brake wheel are the purchased parts. The "box" is made of 3/16" Plexiglas cut on a table saw. It is sheeted with Plastruct ABS sheet. The ribs and other parts are also ABS from Plastruct. The rivets are made the old fashioned way; a blunt sewing needle punching ABS sheet and spaced with a scale ruler and an eye that was pretty good at that age! Many more inches than needed were punched. The best were cut and placed on the model. Paint is Polly S applied with a Binks Wren airbrush. Decals are Champion. (Remember Polly S paint?) (Remember Binks Wren airbrushes?) (Remember Champion Decals?)

Trucks are Vulcan by Rio Grande Miniatures which closed shop about 2020. Couplers are Kadee (before Micro-Trains) "N Scale" couplers. Ladders are Central Valley, Door latches, brake wheel and stirrups are Details Associates.

This is one of three that I built at the same time. 

Nice work everyone who posted so far! I’ve noticed this Sunday photo thread isn’t what it used to be but I believe there’s plenty of factors as to why without pinpointing a single reason. I too look forward to seeing the weekly pics. Definitely my favorite thread. Lots of great work being done.

[nsc39d8]

I still use a Binks Wren airbrush. Actually have the A and B for projects.

Like that boxcar!

[fr8kar]

It's a holiday weekend for most people so I'm sure that has impacted the participation. For some people. For me it's just another day that ends in Y so that means I'm going to work again.

This Fruehauf open top trailer is coming along. I've had to make some revisions to the CAD file to correct a few things, so this first draft model isn't exactly accurate, but it's good enough practice some painting and weathering. I've also replaced the wheels and tires on the Brekina Peterbilt with some 3D printed versions, but I just got them painted today so it'll be awhile before that thing is finished.

I don't know if these ragtop trailers were used to haul potatoes or not, but I'm wondering if it might be appropriate for Frito-Lay service. When I was a kid my mom worked at the plant so I got to see the hydraulic dumper that tips the whole truck and trailer up into the air so the potatoes roll out the back. Pretty cool!

[dti406]

The shops continue to put out new cars.

First is an Eastern Car Works General Steel Castings Depressed Center Flat Car, painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Champ Decals. The New Haven had numerous cars like this servicing the small GE Transformer plant in Massachusets.



Next up is a Front Range 1944 AAR Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red #2 and lettered with a couple of different sets of Champ Decals. In 1946 the NYC started its Pacemaker Freight Service to try and recapture lcl freight service from trucks. The took the cars from Lot 737B and repainted them in the Bright Red and Gray paint along with outfitting them with Symington High Speed trucks (not roller bearing). But while the cars were being repainted and refitted, the NYC took 200 cars from Lot 773B and temporarily added the Pacemaker Freight Service logo to them.



Here is an Atlas C-425 and a Stewart U25B hauling a New Haven mixed freight along with one of the Depressed Center Flatcar with load.



Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Masterful work everyone! Great memories.

[Christian]

Sept 5, 2022 11:05:52 GMT -8 fr8kar said:

I don't know if these ragtop trailers were used to haul potatoes or not, but I'm wondering if it might be appropriate for Frito-Lay service. When I was a kid my mom worked at the plant so I got to see the hydraulic dumper that tips the whole truck and trailer up into the air so the potatoes roll out the back. Pretty cool!

Once upon a time I wanted to model a Frito-Lay plant. Here's a photo of a truck on the dumper. The second photo shows the barricade that prevents the truck from rolling and the gate built into that barricade to control the potato dump. I accumulated some of the buildings from the Walthers ethanol plant to cobble together a modern factory. Islington Station Products had Frito decals for the Intermountain covered hoppers that carried corn for Fritos. Ah well. Now I just eat Lays chips. The low sodium ones.

[sd40dash2]

Sept 5, 2022 1:21:38 GMT -8 Christian said:

Come on guys! SPF has been a part of not only this forum, but also part of the original Atlas Forum since the turn of the century. Its where you show what you are up too this week.

Lately we are seeing more new subjective, standalone threads than ever before. SPF appears to be a more communal area. So I would suspect that for some individuals, posting to SPF goes against their apparent desire to have the photos and discussion here be focused solely on them and their projects/interests.

[drsvelte]

It seems like a “throwback” photo Sunday so in keeping with that theme here are a couple of my McKean Models 100-ton triple hoppers.


When McKean Models introduced their 100-ton triple hoppers 40-plus years ago(!), I rejoiced! Wait…What? Well, at the time, I was modeling the PRR and N&W and there simply were no mass-produced plastic kits of 100-ton triples available. So, when they hit the market, I hustled my way to English’s Model Railroad Supply and bought a few of both the 12 and 15-panel versions plus some Herald King decals. Below is a photo of a N&W hopper I did oh-so-very-long ago.







In retrospect, there are a number of modeling faux pas that I committed back then that are obvious to me now. The McKean models are generally considered representative of the Greenville Steel Company hoppers and differ in several structural respects (length, slope sheet angle, panel widths, etc) from the actual H-12 hoppers that the N&W built in-house at Roanoke. Also, I blundered in my decaling: the H-12 class hoppers were constructed starting in 1974 (not 1971) and the car number 120001 is from an earlier H-11 series as was the capacity data.


So, in an effort to seek some redemption from the prototype modeler gods, I recently retrieved an undecorated 12-panel McKean and looked for prototype. The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie acquired a number of Greenville’s around 1978. I’ve always liked the black and yellow billboard-scheme that the P&LE applied in its later years. So….













Scalecoat II paint; Microscale decals; Kadee ASF 100-ton trucks, couplers, and airhoses.  Of course, its nowhere near Tangent et al. level of quality, but its a fun, throwback build.

[tom]

Finished weathering another PRR H39 for my Penn Central railroad. Car started off as a Bowser/Stewart 12-panel hopper that I removed all of the cast on grabirons and replaced them with .0125 wire. I also replaced the Bowser trucks with Tahoe 70-ton ASF trucks, KD #178 couplers, Tichy stirrups and a Kadee brake wheel. I lettered with a number of my decal sets and PCRRHS sets. Finally I weather it with Pan Pastels and an airbrush. The load is shaped foam painted gloss black.



These updated hoppers from 30-year molds still look good coupled up with the latest releases.

[thejadefog]

Some of the local towns have annual fall fairs and farm shows and a few have model building displays and competitions. There are a few hot rods, dioramas and lots of Legos from the younger crowd. So a few years back I set up an 11 x 17" scene of a UFO landing site using a Pegasus UFO kit an old MDC USAF boxcar and some bric-a brac from 40 years of building every type of model kit manufactured.







After the contests in which it was entered, I took it to the LHS which had a nice oak and glass display cabinet for showcasing models. Locally the armor guys did the finest diorama work, but there was room for this thing too.

Sadly a fire consumed the contents of the LHS including this little gem...

[wagnersteve]

Thanks to thejadefrog for posting this! I'm sorry to hear about what happened to his fine diorama.

I've enjoyed seeing such unusual things as partly revealed dinosaur skeletons on some modelers' layouts or at train shows. I always thought John Allen's use of a stegosaurus as power for switching cars was a little far-fetched, but I have a pair of elephans (proabably from Preiser or Walthers), one of whom has his head properly lowered to allow him to be posed pushing a circus wagon, for instance.