Sunday Photo Fun 23JUL23

[michaele]

This arrived from Germany on Thursday. It is an ÖBB Rh 1142-684. This is the sister locomotive to my 683 road number. I bought this because I had the motor fail in the 683 and it has taken over a year to get the replacement motor from Roco. Ironically, I was notified that the new motor has shipped on the same day this replacement arrived. I didn't think I would ever see a new motor for 683 so I bought a replacement for it.

Now with two, I have enough ÖBB locomotives to go around for the Austrian consists I have. I might also consist the two for longer freight service.

These locomotives were manufactured from 1963 to 1977. They were initially 1042's. Some of the later builds were rebuilt into 1142's and set up for push-pull service in the 90s. They can be found in push-pull service on the City Shuttle (as this one is) between Vienna, Linz, and Salzberg. They are also still used in freight service. 


Top speed is 93 MPH and operate on 15kV@16.7 Hz. Weight is around 83 tons.



Roco #73611. Wonderful Zimo sound and operating characteristics, and many applied parts.

[12bridge]

About all I got done this week was to make a few pallets of locomotive batteries.  

[packer]

I re-redetailed this trio of GP38-2s. I originally backdated them to mid-80s (by adding details west sunshades with KV model wind deflectors), but then decided more late-70s. This involved removing the two MU receptacles on the pilots and painting the one on the deck green, then adding an all-weather window but leaving the sundshade track on one side (although there are photos of them with both an all-weather window and a sunshade).


However I noticed later the testor's flat black I used isn't that great of a match to the finish on the Athearn model, might be more of a satin. I *may* redo the pilots as there is some casting marks from the factory and to get a better paint match). I think I have to remove the moddle fuel fill on these as well for late-70s.


Finished up these cars, may revisit the roofs on them though. The MILW refer was my first try with enamels.


Finally found decals for this car's door. I grabbed a set from the southern historical society and it had everything. Now to weather this a lil (I should get nicer trucks, but not sure what this had)


Also picked up a few of these. They're nice, but wish the lighting was brighter. Also for some reason on two of them, the truck screws were over-tightened, a lot. As in the posts for the bolster broke and the truck couldn't turn tight. So that was fun.

[loco8107]

Jul 23, 2023 8:55:40 GMT -8 packer said:

I re-redetailed this trio of GP38-2s. I originally backdated them to mid-80s (by adding details west sunshades with KV model wind deflectors), but then decided more late-70s. This involved removing the two MU receptacles on the pilots and painting the one on the deck green, then adding an all-weather window but leaving the sundshade track on one side (although there are photos of them with both an all-weather window and a sunshade).


However I noticed later the testor's flat black I used isn't that great of a match to the finish on the Athearn model, might be more of a satin. I *may* redo the pilots as there is some casting marks from the factory and to get a better paint match). I think I have to remove the moddle fuel fill on these as well for late-70s.


Finished up these cars, may revisit the roofs on them though. The MILW refer was my first try with enamels.


Finally found decals for this car's door. I grabbed a set from the southern historical society and it had everything. Now to weather this a lil (I should get nicer trucks, but not sure what this had)


Also picked up a few of these. They're nice, but wish the lighting was brighter. Also for some reason on two of them, the truck screws were over-tightened, a lot. As in the posts for the bolster broke and the truck couldn't turn tight. So that was fun.

Looks great!

[TBird1958]

The Intermountain 50' PS-1, the PITA that just keeps on giving............I did finish up the ends of this car, went ahead and gave it a coat gloss as well.

Here's a shot from Morning Sun's Pullman Standard book of the specific cut bar arrangement I was trying to recreate.




I can't find any in service shots of the prototype, just the Pullman Standard builders pics which did bring something else to my attention, the model's upper paint line isn't correct and the roof in the prototype shot appears to be a color other than black......... The perils of model making.

[drsvelte]

Well, speaking of coupler cut bars, here is an odd submission to Photo Fun….


I had a couple sets of Moloco shelf-style levers that I wanted to get primed then painted this morning before the daily 100° blast comes along about noon. I carried them out to my paint booth in the garage in a little container “so I wouldn’t lose track of them.” I sprayed them with primer, set them aside and went back in the house to cool-off and to watch the Tour for a while. About an hour later came back out to finish up the paint on the levers as well as a few other parts. I did the levers first and put them on a paper towel on a table near my booth. I finished some other painting, took another short break inside the house, and then came back to clean up the work area. There were a bunch of paper towels that were dirtied by paint/thinner, a few used plastic pipettes, an empty Tamiya paint bottle, a used mask, and my paint-spattered latex gloves; I put that stuff on the table to throw in the trash when I was done. OK, so now I pick up that pile of stuff, throw it in the trash can, and go back to get my painted stuff. Hey, where are those cut levers??? Realizing that I had just stupidly deposited them here,





I about freaked out!

I laid out all the contents and went through the stuff piece by piece. But only one lonely lever turned up. With hope nearly gone, I checked the floor all the way back to the booth. Wahoo! Three tiny pieces were on the floor under the table. Miraculously, none were mortally wounded.





Lesson Learned: Next time put the little objects back in the little cup “so I wouldn’t lose track of them.”

[nsfantodd]

Jul 23, 2023 10:47:08 GMT -8 TBird1958 said:

The Intermountain 50' PS-1, the PITA that just keeps on giving............I did finish up the ends of this car, went ahead and gave it a coat gloss as well.

Here's a shot from Morning Sun's Pullman Standard book of the specific cut bar arrangement I was trying to recreate.




I can't find any in service shots of the prototype, just the Pullman Standard builders pics which did bring something else to my attention, the model's upper paint line isn't correct and the roof in the prototype shot appears to be a color other than black......... The perils of model making.

Wow, what a crazy cut lever set up. Great job replicating it!

[riogrande]

Beauty Mark! I have always liked the Volclay light blue boxcars. Back when I worked as a geologist, some of the drillers used volclay to mix with the drilling mud to keep the borehole caked and open.

[cemr5396]

This weekend, I picked up my new Prairie Shadows TrentonWorks 5250 hoppers. These are very nice cars for a first attempt from a company that has been in the 'custom run' game for a long time but has never made a car of their own before (at least not in HO. I think they might have done a couple in N already). After looking them over to check for issues (had to change a Kadee 158 on one car that was non operable) I started getting them ready to add to my grain fleet.


First up was plain grey FURX 850396 - you can never have too many plain Janes. All this car needed was to add the reflector stripes to update it to my era and then I gave it a couple coats of Tamiya Flat.




Next up was Prairie Malt Co. (PMLX) 1006. I have actually photographed this car in real life so the choice of which road number to get was an obvious one. Again, stripes and a flat coat.




Last but certainly not least, SMW 850770. This is another car I have seen in real life. The model came out of the box with an NS patch job and some nicely done ghost lettering coming through the patch over the original reporting marks. To match the car's current appearance, I patched over the NS lettering and applied the new lettering directly on top of the original reporting marks, leaving them partially visible underneath - just like the real thing. I then changed the lettering on the ends of the car, applied reflective stripes, and gave the car a flat coat just like the others.



All in all I am extremely pleased with these cars, and am looking forward to getting the CN ones, which were delayed. There is also a second run coming, so interested to see what other road names get done.


While I was working on those cars, I decided to dig out a few more cars from my 'grain cars' storage box and give them a refresh as well. 
First up, FURX 840632. This is a Walthers Mainline NSC 5150. I had completed the sides some time ago, adding new patches and lettering as an improvement from the somewhat lackluster lettering the car had from the factory. I just had not gotten around to redoing the end reporting marks, so I did those and then gave the car a flat coat.




Another car I had completed some time ago was this Athearn Trinity 5161. I don't remember what it was lettered for originally but I redid it all. It just needed to be flat coated.

[dti406]

A little late today, what with going back to work and some meetings this week I did not get things done as usual. I also thanks to going back to work did not post last week again, so you get two batches of pictures.

First, another Branchline 50' Boxcar Kit, this one to match some of the rebuilt cars in NYC Lot 965B where a number of old 50' boxcars were rebuilt sans roofwalk and other changes. I used the Branchline kit, with the 4/4 ends and made a 50' Murphy Panel roof from two 40' left over roofs from other kits, lowered the ladders and removed the running boards. Car was painted with Floquil PC Green and lettered with Highball Graphics decals.



Next up a Proto 2000 Greenville Gon kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black and lettered with K4 Decals.



I also worked on building some loads for cars this week, here is an American Model Builders load installed on a NYC flat I had done ealier.



I also built a couple of more Bowser prepainted hopper cars to increase the fleet for my coal trains. I did dull coat the cars when I was done to get rid of the shine.



Last Saturday I took over my Rock Island GP35 and U25B units with a bunch of cars to excercise them on the Strongsville Club Layout.




A Walter's 4427CF Covered Hopper kit as a standin for a Bethlehem 4462CF car. I took one look at the bookshelf grabs and ladders and replaced them with wire grabs and ladders left over from Intermountain kits. Also added air lines for the brake gear and a Plano Running Board. Car was painted with Scalecoat II UP Covered Hopper Gray and lettered with Prime Mover Decals.



Walters 89' Intermodal Flat painted with Scalecoat II Reefer Orange and lettered with Herald King Decals. Trailers are modified Athearn Blue Box 40' Trailers painted silver and lettered with Highball Graphics decals.



Also installed some State Tool and Die ingot molds in some gons that the prototype used to move the molds from the rolling facility to the steel mill after use.



A pair of Scaletrains C39-8's with an intermodal train running on the Strongsville Club layout.



Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

[trainboyy]

I have four Athearn RTR gondolas in the works, and they're going to get all the superdetailing I want to give them. New top cord, adding an uncoupling lever (just bracket for now), new end plate, new jacking pad soon, brass stirrups, new brakewheel and brake platform, etc.
My question is, what is a good draft gear for the Athearn railgon? The ones that come stock..well, they suck! Just two uninteresting, inaccurate rectangles. The real railgons have draft gear with an upside-down trapezoid shape.
I know someone here has the answer... maybe Dave Olson?

[drolsen]

Double tapping my reply on the MFCL: I’d recommend Moloco’s standard non-cushioned draft gear:


DG-0414 STD. NON-CUSHIONED DRAFT GEAR

They work great with Kadees. You’ll need to figure out how you want to secure them, since they normally mount with screws. For something like a gon, I’ll sometimes glue the draft gear in place and use styrene rod or sprue to secure it, installed through the rear mounting hole, so I can slice it off flush with the interior floor of the gondola and blend it in.

Here are some additional detail shots of a Thrall gon if you need them.

GONX 310685

Hope that helps!

Dave

[fr8kar]

A day late, but I don't get much time to build models lately so here's what I did today:






This is a 3D printed model of a Nippon-Fruehauf standard height reefer container with a ThermoKing reefer. The container, chassis, ThermoKing genset and fuel tank are my design as is the decal artwork (printed by PDC). I have a few more of these Dole containers-on-chassis in the works along with a bunch of other containers, but this is what I got done on my "weekend" today. It's not much but it's progress.

[Funnelfan]

Jul 23, 2023 10:47:08 GMT -8 TBird1958 said:

The Intermountain 50' PS-1, the PITA that just keeps on giving............I did finish up the ends of this car, went ahead and gave it a coat gloss as well.

Here's a shot from Morning Sun's Pullman Standard book of the specific cut bar arrangement I was trying to recreate.


What kind of Rube Goldberg contraption is that!?!?!? Must have been a early attempt to deal with cushion couple pockets, but wayyyy overly complicated! Probably didn't last a year or two.