Happy Easter SPF 4/9/23
Apr 9, 2023 13:31:56 GMT -8
kentuckysouthernrwy, riogrande, and 22 more like this
Post by onequiknova on Apr 9, 2023 13:31:56 GMT -8
Now that the Easter Egg hunts are done and dinner has been eaten, I guess I'll get things rolling.
I've been working on more freight cars. My 10 year old son and I recently joined a local club, and I realized I have nothing for all the Rock Island locomotives I've built over the years to pull. Since I cant afford to buy an entire train of Tangent and Moloco cars all at once, I have been upgrading some cheaper cars to fill out a respectable train. We'll call these cars 80 percenters. They're not something I'll plop down on an RPM table, but they will hopefully blend in well with my high end cars.
First up is an ancient Branchline factory painted 50' PS-1. The cast on ladder rungs and grabs were replaced with Tichey grab irons and Plano ladders. Plano also provided the roof walk. I upgraded the B end with D/A, Kadee and scratch built parts. Draft gear is Moloco. I retained the factory paint, but added new reweigh stencils, ACI tags, lube plates, and some odds and ends that were missing.
Next up is a factory painted Atlas 2 bay PS-2 I picked up for $10 at a swap meet. Again, the cast on grabs and ladders were replaced with wire parts, the brakes were plumbed with brass wire, the hand brake parts were upgraded, the missing parts of the outlet gates were scratch built from styrene, and some basic brake rigging was applied. I also milled off the old draft gear boxes and tried out Smoky Mountains draft gear boxes. Of coarse I spent all this time preserving the factory lettering only to find out the font is way off. I'll either figure out how to remove the roadname and reporting marks, or just weather it to the point it wont matter. it needs a bit of weathering regardless to hide the paint mismatch.
Last up is a factory painted, diecast version of the Walther coil car. The cast on draft gear was milled off and replaced with Moloco parts. The walkways around the entire car, the stirrup steps, and cut bars are Plano parts. This will get a light weathering and perhaps a mismatched hood.
I've been working on more freight cars. My 10 year old son and I recently joined a local club, and I realized I have nothing for all the Rock Island locomotives I've built over the years to pull. Since I cant afford to buy an entire train of Tangent and Moloco cars all at once, I have been upgrading some cheaper cars to fill out a respectable train. We'll call these cars 80 percenters. They're not something I'll plop down on an RPM table, but they will hopefully blend in well with my high end cars.
First up is an ancient Branchline factory painted 50' PS-1. The cast on ladder rungs and grabs were replaced with Tichey grab irons and Plano ladders. Plano also provided the roof walk. I upgraded the B end with D/A, Kadee and scratch built parts. Draft gear is Moloco. I retained the factory paint, but added new reweigh stencils, ACI tags, lube plates, and some odds and ends that were missing.
Next up is a factory painted Atlas 2 bay PS-2 I picked up for $10 at a swap meet. Again, the cast on grabs and ladders were replaced with wire parts, the brakes were plumbed with brass wire, the hand brake parts were upgraded, the missing parts of the outlet gates were scratch built from styrene, and some basic brake rigging was applied. I also milled off the old draft gear boxes and tried out Smoky Mountains draft gear boxes. Of coarse I spent all this time preserving the factory lettering only to find out the font is way off. I'll either figure out how to remove the roadname and reporting marks, or just weather it to the point it wont matter. it needs a bit of weathering regardless to hide the paint mismatch.
Last up is a factory painted, diecast version of the Walther coil car. The cast on draft gear was milled off and replaced with Moloco parts. The walkways around the entire car, the stirrup steps, and cut bars are Plano parts. This will get a light weathering and perhaps a mismatched hood.
