Sunday Photo Fun Nov 17, 2024

[cf7]

This week, I started on another Campbell Scale Models wood kit, the Columbia Gazette Building. Should be done in a few days.





Got a little more work done on my 2 HOn30 switchers. I filled in the front of the cab around the hood, and body mounted the couplers. This week, I'll build the pilots and hopefully get them painted.



And lastly, a blast from the past. An IMWX boxcar That I narrowed a couple of doors and made it into a door and a half boxcar. This was a fun and quick build.

[dti406]

Good morning from cloudy and cool Northeast Ohio!

I managed to finish my CUT GP9 this week. In 1954 the Cleveland Union Terminal sent its electric locomotives to the NYC in New York City and replaced them with 4 GP9's and a number of SW9 switchers as the diesels did not violate the smoke abatement rules that governed in the steam era. My GP9 is almost stock Proto Unit except for the horns where I removed the 3 chime and installed two 2 chime horns. Engine was painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with a mixture of Microscale and Accucals decals.







I also finished a prepainted Proto GP20 but I moved the horn to the prototype location and added a Sinclair antenna.



Last weeks outing at the club I ran a Wabash train with a Kato GP35, Atlas C0424 and a Stewart U25B, followed by a raft of ART RBL's of which the Wabash was a part owner.



Rick Jesionowski

[onequiknova]

Here is another open autorack I've been working on, starting with the Accurail kit. To build the ACF low deck, F89UH flat car, I milled the sides from the Accurail flatcar, and built new sides from styrene. The bolsters were lowered and the trucks were replaced with Exactrail "low boy" trucks to lower the car. A new "split" center sill was built from styrene. The raised draft gear was made by mounting Moloco draft gear on top of the deck, then building around it with styrene.
Parts from the Accurail rack were modified into a later Paragon hinged deck rack.

[riogrande]

Wow, that will be a nice open rack!

[drsvelte]

That looks great! John, what tools or jigs do you use to cut all those tiny little angular pieces? Would drive me nuts!

[drsvelte]

A few years ago, I built a model of a Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Greenville 100-ton hopper using one of the old McKean 12-panel models. I liked the P&LE’s bold black and yellow billboard-style paint scheme so much, I decided to do another one! The prototype for this model was actually built by the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1980 as part of series #80500 – 81349 Lot 102-11 [Railmodel Journal, September 1996, p.43]. These hoppers were very similar to Bethlehem Steel’s 100-ton triple hopper; it’s conceivable that they may have been built from BSC-provided kits.






The Bowser Bethlehem 100-ton model has panel widths/spacings as well as full-height side ladders that closely match those of the C&O-built car. My build was pretty standard except the Bowser coupler box was replaced by ExactRail’s part and Kadee #158 couplers were used. Also added were coupler lift levers [Tangent #203], train line [Tangent #231] with bracket [Kadee #458], a “Modern” style brake wheel [Kadee #2025], and Bowser coal load.


The car was sprayed with Tamiya’s matte black and then a gloss coat was added prior to decaling. I decided to try K4’s decal set PLEH2 as it seemed to be specific to this series of P&LE hoppers. The results of this choice were mixed. On one hand, the detail set was complete and their application to the model was easy; they went on smoothly and settled down quickly without much need for Microscale’s Set or Sol. On the other hand, some of the smaller lettering (e.g., dimensional data) was blurred and not as finely rendered as other decals I have worked with. Most glaringly for me, the big P&LE logo lacked sufficient saturation or intensity. In my opinion, it just seemed way too light and didn’t pop like the prototype’s deep color.





Fortunately, I had some Microscale decals with the big logos. I applied these over the K4’s and the result, although not perfect, was a significant improvement.





I applied another Tamiya gloss coat over the decals and then a matte finish. I used AK Interactive pigments for some final weathering.

[onequiknova]

Nov 17, 2024 12:04:17 GMT -8 drsvelte said:

That looks great! John, what tools or jigs do you use to cut all those tiny little angular pieces? Would drive me nuts!

Thank you. I first cut out a bunch of squares on the Chopper, then I set up a stop on the Chopper and just eyeballed the angle. It got them close enough.

[simulatortrain]

CF7, I love those NG diesels!

I finally got up the nerve to weather my Russian decapod this week.

[loco8107]

Nov 17, 2024 4:26:28 GMT -8 cf7 said:

This week, I started on another Campbell Scale Models wood kit, the Columbia Gazette Building. Should be done in a few days.





Got a little more work done on my 2 HOn30 switchers. I filled in the front of the cab around the hood, and body mounted the couplers. This week, I'll build the pilots and hopefully get them painted.



And lastly, a blast from the past. An IMWX boxcar That I narrowed a couple of doors and made it into a door and a half boxcar. This was a fun and quick build.

Nothing like a real looking structure!

[tom]

Here is my Penn Central General American 4700 covered hopper. Car started as a Tangent undecorated kit and was painted Scalecoat PC green. Car was then decaled with an assortment of decals including K4, PCRRHS and Microscale. That panel on the side of car once had a NYC herald on it.

[cera2254]

Tom, wowsers that car is neat. I may have to add that to my list of projects!

[jacksong1218]

Great work by all this week!!

Finished up this Atlas CSX B23-7. Mostly stock minus the addition of the speed recorder and etched metal sunshades. Loksound 5, scalesoundsystems speaker and LED lighting rounds it out. 

[csxt8400]

Good stuff gentlemen. I have been somewhat off the modeling for a bit, maybe a month and change. But here was my last "in progress" photo I took.



Btw, love the McKees Rocks reweigh. After weathering the large billboard lettering kinda fades away from scrutiny, I'd say a nice hopper.

[ChessieFan1978]

Nov 18, 2024 5:21:08 GMT -8 tom said:

Here is my Penn Central General American 4700 covered hopper. Car started as a Tangent undecorated kit and was painted Scalecoat PC green. Car was then decaled with an assortment of decals including K4, PCRRHS and Microscale. That panel on the side of car once had a NYC herald on it.

Tom,

    Was the panel an add on or did it come with the car?

[tom]

Nov 18, 2024 17:48:34 GMT -8 ChessieFan1978 said:

Nov 18, 2024 5:21:08 GMT -8 tom said:

Here is my Penn Central General American 4700 covered hopper. Car started as a Tangent undecorated kit and was painted Scalecoat PC green. Car was then decaled with an assortment of decals including K4, PCRRHS and Microscale. That panel on the side of car once had a NYC herald on it.

Tom,

    Was the panel an add on or did it come with the car?

Yes the panels were included in the kit:



(from their website)

[Donnell Wells]

I know...I'm way late, but I just took this part off the printer today! It's a custom resin 3D printed plow designed to fit the Walthers Trainline F40PH pilot mounting holes.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Well done on the snow plow. Write up for the 3d forum?

[Donnell Wells]

Nov 21, 2024 6:10:02 GMT -8 kentuckysouthernrwy said:

Well done on the snow plow. Write up for the 3d forum?

That’s actually a good idea. I didn’t even think about it. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Donnell

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Nov 21, 2024 6:26:52 GMT -8 Donnell Wells said:

Nov 21, 2024 6:10:02 GMT -8 kentuckysouthernrwy said:

Well done on the snow plow. Write up for the 3d forum?

That’s actually a good idea. I didn’t even think about it. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Donnell

A good idea does slip out here once in awhile…