Sunday Photo Fun - 3/19/23

[tom]

Hey I'll start! A Penn Central GP9 on a local waiting for clearance to get on the main. Walthers undecorated Proto GP9. Painted with a mix of <Modelflex Gloss Black and Engine Black and then lettered with Microscale decals.

[fr8kar]

I finally got started on this project yesterday after months of trying to eke out a little modeling time. The idea is to convert an Athearn Gunderson Maxi III to the earlier Maxi II by modifying the A and B units. The modification is pretty straightforward: remove four feet from each end of the A and B units making them capable of carrying only two 20' containers or one 40' container in the lower position. So today I got the modifications done but I'll have to wait another day to repaint and letter the car. It will be painted in almost the same scheme; the difference being the addition of the large "DOUBLE STACK 125 SERVICE" slogan on the D well and the lack of large "48" decals.

Before:




After:

[danpik]

Two of the latest that put me to 100

[cemr5396]

Added a new locomotive to the fleet this week, my Bowser SD30C-ECO arrived at the LHS. Another absolutely gorgeous model from Bowser, the pictures don't do it justice.

I got a DC model and added a Tsunami 2 decoder with the 12-710-G3 sounds, and milled the chassis weight to make room for an Athearn dual cube speaker to pair up with it.

A pair of Kadee 118 couplers and a couple paint touch ups on the MU hoses was all that was needed to finish up this model.

[TBird1958]

Making doors for an Atlas 60' ACF single door boxcar from Evergreen...........



Here I'm trimming the roller track supports to a uniform length with the help of a piece of brass.



This is just laying on the car side.



After a quick shot of paint, it needs to be a little darker with more red.

[tom]

Very good work on the Cotton Belt car. The new door and door tracks are prototypical plus gets rid of those oversize Atlas door tracks.

Just finished adding speed modulators to one of my Atlas U28C sideframes. These modulators are from Details West with 0.125 wire for the cables. Before adding the modulators I first scrubbed the sideframes with Bar Keepers Helper. Photos shows the slight rough finish which helps paint adhesion on engineered plastic surfaces.

[onequiknova]

 Nice work this week guys.  

 Here is a project my 10 year old son and I have been working on this winter. It started with an undecorated BB model gifted to my son by a friend. We repowered the model with a BLI motor I had laying around from a left over E unit project, and installed an old Tsunami 1 decoder with a keep alive in the cab. I helped him with some of the more fiddley stuff when needed, like drilling holes, masking straight lines and decaling the stripes. He was not comfortable with the dual action airbrush, so I fixed up one of my old Badger 150 brushes for him to use. we weathered it last night with some basic enamel washes and weathering powders. Next time I'm printing decals, I'll make some number boards for it.

[ncrc5315]

That's really cool!

[Funnelfan]

For the past month or more I've been slowly transforming a BLI Light Mikado into UP #2537 that currently resides in a park in Walla Walla, WA. I got a great deal on the locomotive on E-bay and the model is already fairly close to the prototype, one of 20 that UP acquired for service on the Oregon Short Line. Most UP 2-8-2's are of their own design, but these 20 USRA types were acquired second hand.
There are a number of detail changes that need to be made to more closely match the prototype. And there are some things I cannot change as it will affect operation. For instance the water pipes from the tender to the injectors hangs well below the firebox and would interfere with the swing of the trailing truck. So I will be forced to leave those pipes on the side of the firebox.
Among the changes I made so far include;

On the Locomotive;
. Change out the headlight for a Cal-Scale Pyle type #190-205. Required drilling the brass casting and reworking the lens and headlight mount of the original model to fit the brass part and still be operable using the LED light in the smoke box. Used a cordless drill like a lathe to turn down the original lens to fit.

. Reposition the whistle.

. Raise the forward part of the walkways and removed ladders, and add drop steps (precision scale part). Walkways had to be narrowed and brass supports added.

. Fill in slots in the steam pipes to the cylinders with some .040" styrene to fill gap where walkways were. Requires a 1/8" half round cutout to fit the gap properly.

. Add pilot pedstals and a bar across front of pilot (not shown).

. Modifiy air pipes under the walkways on both sides.

. Add pipes to the front of the main reservoirs.

. Add train indicator boards next to smoke stack (Precision Scale Part).

. Replace the smokestack with a large "Sweeney Stack" (in the future, will probably have to design and 3D print one)

On the Tender.
. Move rear ladder to the engineer's side of the tender.

. Replace the large flat water fill hatch with a smaller raised hatch (Cal-Scale #190-233)

. Add rear headlight (Cal-Scale #190-205)

. Add tool box to frame on the conductor's side (Cal-Scale #190-295)

[hudsonyard]

monthly sessions on a large club layout means you spend a week or two a month with all your car cards and paperwork scattered about the layout. i find getting everything in order for the next session and the general staging process to be a quite relaxing activity, provided its "after hours" on an off night.

[timvanmersbergen]

UP GP30s were common run-through power in 1969 on the Illinois Central Iowa Division so I was excited to get my new Scale Trains units weathered and placed in service.  Weathered with a mix of Tamiya washes and airbrush.



While not new, another member of the fleet returned.  My Athearn Genesis repower components showed up last week so I was able to get this SD40 back into active service as well.

Tim VanMersbergen

[michaele]

What brand are the green diamond IC locomotives?

[timvanmersbergen]

Mar 21, 2023 5:51:57 GMT -8 michaele said:

What brand are the green diamond IC locomotives?

Athearn Genesis GP9s.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Mar 19, 2023 7:37:04 GMT -8 fr8kar said:

I finally got started on this project yesterday after months of trying to eke out a little modeling time. The idea is to convert an Athearn Gunderson Maxi III to the earlier Maxi II by modifying the A and B units. The modification is pretty straightforward: remove four feet from each end of the A and B units making them capable of carrying only two 20' containers or one 40' container in the lower position. So today I got the modifications done but I'll have to wait another day to repaint and letter the car. It will be painted in almost the same scheme; the difference being the addition of the large "DOUBLE STACK 125 SERVICE" slogan on the D well and the lack of large "48" decals.

Your workmanship is so neat you hardly need more than a bit of typical weathering to cover the slight surgical scar. Nicely done.

[riogrande]

Mar 19, 2023 7:37:04 GMT -8 fr8kar said:

I finally got started on this project yesterday after months of trying to eke out a little modeling time. The idea is to convert an Athearn Gunderson Maxi III to the earlier Maxi II by modifying the A and B units. The modification is pretty straightforward: remove four feet from each end of the A and B units making them capable of carrying only two 20' containers or one 40' container in the lower position. So today I got the modifications done but I'll have to wait another day to repaint and letter the car. It will be painted in almost the same scheme; the difference being the addition of the large "DOUBLE STACK 125 SERVICE" slogan on the D well and the lack of large "48" decals.

Before:




After:

I believe I have that set, Athearn kit red SP "early" Maxi. What wheels did you use?

[fr8kar]

Mar 21, 2023 16:42:21 GMT -8 riogrande said:

I believe I have that set, Athearn kit red SP "early" Maxi. What wheels did you use?

This is just the Athearn RTR car, so whatever it came with. I think the difference between early and late has to do with the number series and the style of "Southern Pacific" lettering on the sides.