Sunday Photo Fun 11 August 2024

[Christian]

It looks like we skipped a month. Long hot summer and modeling should be a great break from the heat. But it isn't.

I dipped into my old models. This one has appeared before.

Yes, I know the license plate is wrong! It should be a blue Connecticut plate for 1985.

This Sperry is a composite of three and I used a number that seems to be unused. Custom Finishing on an Atlas Ford chassis with a lot of Plano and Lonestar parts. Plus some other bits. Lots of filing and void filling.

This is one I've thought about revising. I have the correct BLMA air conditioners in hand. The beacons are now available. And, I have Connecticut plate decals.

[ln1263]

Very nice truck Christian! If you wish to upgrade it, I think it will be an even better model!

[hudsonyard]

I've been re-organizing the shop room downstairs and I unearthed some cars that I had weathered in high school. I want to say i did this trainman car from a prototype picture, i'd like to think i'd be a bit more refined these days but for a 15 or 16 year old, not too bad i say.



I think i'll re-do the trucks and swap in nicer wheelsets and release it into the fleet.

[dti406]

Got some models done this week!

Intermountain 1937 AAR Modified kit, with a new side sill, 9' YSD all the side rivits removed to replicate the GM&O cars rebuilt into appliance carrying cars in 1963. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Oxide Red and Silver paints, then lettered with Dan Kohlbergs decals. I have the car assigned to the NYC at Evansville, IN across the river from Appliance Park in KY.



Quicky build of a Bev-Bel PRR 2 bay hopper, dullcoated to remove the shine built to add as a filler on some of my PRR coal drags.



Stewart 14 Panel Hopper car kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Herald King Decals, the DT&I hauled coal and coke from Southern Ohio to the steel making plants of Ford Motor and McClouth Steel in the Detroit area in these cars.



Last Saturday I took my Rapido FL9's to the club to run a typical passenger train of the New Haven on the Strongsville club layout. The McGinnis painted FL9's were one of the classier paint schemes applied to F Units.



Thanks for looking

Rick Jesionowski

[sd40dash2]

Great Sperry truck model, Christian!

To hold up so well to a modern camera, esp being such an old model, says something about your skill level.

Thanks for sharing.

[TBird1958]

Ford Fast Fun.....

[Christian]

Aug 11, 2024 13:54:14 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

To hold up so well to a modern camera, esp being such an old model

I looked at the EXIF data on one of the unphotoshopped images. I used my circa 2002 Sony DSC-F717 with a Carl Zeiss lens. A whopping 5 megapixel weird camera with a great lens. Currently I use my Pixel 2XL (2017) cell phone which has many more megapixels and uses stacking technology to give the appearance of a greater depth of field.

Most of the photos I post have been adjusted in Photoshop for white balance and size. These 2003 Sperry photos have had the joint between the base and the background blurred at the time of photography. Yesterday, I toyed with cloning a Connecticut license plate over the existing Illinois plate because I'm kinda embarrassed about that blunder. But I have this thing about posting a mostly honest photograph. I could fix all sorts of things on my models in Photoshop but I'm into model building, not digital image manipulation.

I say "photoshop" because everyone knows that program. I actually use Corel PHOTO-PAINT X5 circa 2010. Yep. I'm using rather old cameras and software because I'm comfortable with them. I have other cameras available, but they require thinking, planning, and setting up photos. That becomes more of a photography hobby than a hobby of building models of railway subjects.

[sd40dash2]

^ I like the way you think about your hobby goals. Agreed about cameras, photoshop etc, I think of those simply as TOOLS to advance the hobby.

[timvanmersbergen]

s digging through some basement boxes a few weeks ago and found a Proto CNW SW600 that I won at a CNWHS meet a number of years ago.  Seeing a need for a transfer locomotive from the former CGW yard in Dubuque, I decided to finish it for that service.  While the prototype rarely left Eau Claire, Wisconsin, I am using the old modeler's license to have it appear on my layout and put it to use.







Rick, nice job on the appliance car.  It makes a nice build and a unique car.  



Tim VanMersbergen

[dti406]

Aug 12, 2024 8:41:52 GMT -8 timvanmersbergen said:

Rick, nice job on the appliance car.  It makes a nice build and a unique car.  



Tim VanMersbergen

Tim,

It looks good because because I used your instructions.

Rick Jesionowski

[nsc39d8]

Been working on a SouthBound Model works kit of the ACF 2700 used by Chessie/CSX and DT&S.  This one is to be a DT&S 2600 series.
Greg did a good job on some parts but I had to dig deep to find some ends as his Etches didn't quite work out to my satisfaction.  Then 
I had to find some top covers and new outlet gates as the castings were huge.  Just forgot I didn't take a bottom photo.
Scratch built side ladders with brass stock and Tichy ladder rungs.  Not quite happy with it but I think I have made something out of this pig.

[jacksong1218]

Finished up one of the Intermountain OTTX 60ft flatcars over the weekend. I got 3 of these for cheap as they were all damaged in one way or another, this one was the most complete out of the 3. Wheelsets replaced with Exactrail .088 semi scale, handbrake "chain" replaced with some real 40 link per inch chain, hi tech air hoses installed, Inventive Models couplers, and the model was weathered. Still need to replace the broken off handbrake and then tackle the remaining 2. 

[Mr. Trainiac]

Aug 12, 2024 13:27:46 GMT -8 jacksong1218 said:

Finished up one of the Intermountain OTTX 60ft flatcars over the weekend. I got 3 of these for cheap as they were all damaged in one way or another, this one was the most complete out of the 3. Wheelsets replaced with Exactrail .088 semi scale, handbrake "chain" replaced with some real 40 link per inch chain, hi tech air hoses installed, Inventive Models couplers, and the model was weathered. Still need to replace the broken off handbrake and then tackle the remaining 2. 

If you really want to go crazy, this class of car should have a ratchet-style handbrake, not the vertical stemwinder that Intermountain used. www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3749182

I thought about doing it to mine, but couldn't bring myself to make the commitment. It would require modification to the tiedown and rub rails.

[jacksong1218]

Mr. Trainiac Thank you for the tip!! Not sure how I missed that when looking at some photos myself. One of my cars has all the B end hardware broken off of it, so I might try it on that. I seem to recall that part being on the Atlas / BLMA 89ft flats, I assume it’s the same type of side mount rachet brake that is used here.

Edit: I did some more research, and it looks like these cars were rebuilt around the 2005-2010 timeframe with the rachet style brakes. As built they had the round wheel brake that the model has.
See: www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1210430
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=242204

I model 1990-1994 so I think i’m good with the stock brake setup!

[ChessieFan1978]

Here are 5 of my MDC/Roundhouse Thrall Gondolas decorated in Peabody Coal Co. (I have 30) Apparently through some research Peabody Coal had 160 Greenville Car Co. High Side Gondolas (#'s 2001-2160). They also purchased 20 from Thrall (#'s 2161-2180). These cars operated from Peabody's SunnyHill Mine near New Lexington, Ohio to Consumer's Power Plant in Essexville, Michigan and Dow Chemical Co. in Midland. Occasionally they ran to Hutchins Power Station near Dayton, Ohio. Sure wish someone would make the Greenville Cars as Consol Coal also had them (GSCX).

PCCX 2180 by Matt Fisher, on Flickr



PCCX 2190 by Matt Fisher, on Flickr



PCCX 2169 by Matt Fisher, on Flickr



PCCX 2179 by Matt Fisher, on Flickr



PCCX 2170 by Matt Fisher, on Flickr

[drolsen]

Aug 12, 2024 16:40:33 GMT -8 Mr. Trainiac said:

If you really want to go crazy, this class of car should have a ratchet-style handbrake, not the vertical stemwinder that Intermountain used. www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3749182

I thought about doing it to mine, but couldn't bring myself to make the commitment. It would require modification to the tiedown and rub rails.

It depends on what time period you’re modeling. They were delivered with the vertical handbrake, so in the Trailer Train scheme shown on the model, it’s most likely correct. At some point, as they were patched with TTX markings or fully repainted, they received the side-mounted ratchet brake. They call added a short two-rung ladder above the ratchet brake that would have to be scratchbuilt from soldered brass, ideally.

On the retrofitted cars, you can see that the notch is still there at the end of the deck where the vertical brake wheel was originally located. Here’s an MTTX example from the same builder (Pullman-Standard), and you can also see the short ladder grab sticking up above the ratchet handbrake on the far side of the car):

drolsen.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2351271

If you really want to go crazy, the TTX example you linked to also has full length tie down chain tracks on the sides of the deck. The Intermountain model represents an earlier car that does not have the tracks extending all the way to the ends of the car (over the side stirrups) and also has gaps on the tracks over the stake pockets. Most of those cars had the gaps filled in later in their service lives to create continuous tracks running the length of the car. The recently re-released MTH / Fox Valley / ScaleTrains flatcar model represents a later car that was delivered with the continuous chain tracks.

Dave