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Post by mlehman on Nov 9, 2014 7:04:04 GMT -8
I'm obviously just having fun here with this...  If TOFC is good enough for the Tweetsie, it's good enough for the Rio Grande  Plus, you gotta keep up with the times to run a railroad efficiently. With the cruddy mountain roads, it just makes sense to put your traffic on the tried-and-true rails.  The Durango lift is by means of the overhead crane. At the Silverton end, there is simply a ramp to handle the half-dozen or so trailers a week to miners and merchants.  The TOFC flats are Athearn BB 40' flats narrowed by a foot and retrucked, with some added parts from Walthers kits. I also worked on steam this week, rebuilding wipers, adding weight (K-36 #480 has almost 3 ounces added, #476 got 1.5 oz), and tuning up. After 20+ years, I've finally achieved my goal of running reasonable length trains (11 to 13 cars) over the 2.5% grade of the Silverton Branch with a single steam loco. This also involved taking some excess weight from a few cars and doing some swapping and adjusting of trucks to get every car as free rolling as possible.  In other news... Ground was broken this week on a new business block on Red Mountain.  And I added several more LED light strips as fill lighting to really make things bright.  I hope everyone else had a great week and enjoyed at least some time at the workbench or on the layout.  |
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Post by fr8kar on Nov 9, 2014 8:13:26 GMT -8
Wow, those trailers absolutely dwarf the boxcars! Nice work, Mike. Here are a couple covered hopper projects I've gotten a little farther along. First, this is an Intermountain kit that I built and added tack boards and a Plano roofwalk to, along with some upgraded trucks and Sergent couplers. I couldn't find decals to match the reporting marks and numbers, so I made my own:  Next is the early PS 4740 I built from a Tangent kit, but now it finally has its roofwalk and is ready for some weathering before adding the final details:  Finally, here is one of the signature cars I have wanted to model since I took a photo of the prototype some 23 years ago. www.pbase.com/mecrharris/image/55519208My photo of the prototype is very poorly lit and is taken from a bad angle, but the distinctive weathering and late 4740 features are prominent enough I simply had to model it. The late production PS 4740 features a bolster/jack pad combination like the PS 4750, which I modeled with some modified Tangent jack pads and sheet styrene. Of course, I could have gone all out and modeled this using one of my undecorated Tangent kits, but I had a hard time finding similar prototypes so I knew I would have to wing some of the detailing. Since I had this Athearn RTR 4740 laying around from before I bought the pile of Tangent kits and I wanted to use it, this seemed like the appropriate project. Obviously the Athearn model is outclassed by the spectacular Tangent model, but I decided to see if I could dress it up using as much of the original tooling as possible (basically the same approach as Donnell's F7 models). I had to replace the brake wheel with a Kadee part, the draft gear with Moloco parts and the blobs that were the crossover platforms got replaced by some photoetch, but pretty much everything else is the original kit. Here it is after a couple rounds of weathering applied:  Next up are a handful of Accurail ACF 4600s and if I get the time and motivation, an Athearn ACF 5250 in the GN jade green scheme, which will be a major rebuild project. |
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Post by dti406 on Nov 9, 2014 8:42:12 GMT -8
This weeks finished work!  The N&W after they took over the Wabash sold the Panel Side Hoppers that "The Andersons" used to ship grain between their elevators in Maumee, OH to the export elevators in Toledo, OH. After the sale "The Andersons" added an extension on top of the car and a canvas cover to protect the grain from the elements. The extension allowed the car to haul it's maximum weight versus the cubic capacity. Although the instructions called for silver paint, I remember these cars passing behind my house in Toledo and they were definately green. I used Model Master Aluminum Enamel paint with a few drops of MM Green to just tint the Aluminum Paint; car was lettered with the Tichy (F&C) Decals that came with the Tichy Kit. (Just 9 more of these puppies to build now.)  I originally purchased these decals years ago for the the Walther's PS 4427CF car, but I applied them to the ExactRail kit that I built, even though ER brought these out in RTR. Car built per instructions, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Oddballs Decals.  Atlas Post 71 ACF 4650CF Covered Hopper Kit, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered wtih Oddballs Decals.  The second Anderson's car in progress, here is the Brake Gear and Piping that I assembled in the limited space in the B end of the car. Need to add the doors and assorted detail parts and this car will be done. Thanks for looking! Rick J |
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Post by mlehman on Nov 9, 2014 14:05:12 GMT -8
Wow, those trailers absolutely dwarf the boxcars! Nice work, Mike. SNIP Thanks! At first I thought...Nah. Then I thought some more and realized my layout concept practically requires adoption of more modern methods and equipment where feasible and practical. Sorta like Brooman's Utah Belt being always up to date. In my case, it's to just ONE date somewhen vaguely between 1970 and 1979 -- that's a lot easier to fake my way through I agree that the bulk of the trailers, given how puny they are as trailers, really helps define how small the narrowgauge equipment was. I just wasn't sure it would look right. After all, the Tweetsie has a weird low-boy arrangement for their TOFC cars. I really didn't want to go there. Beautiful job on the BN LO. Incredible detail. Rich, I really like that old Anderson car and meant to compliment you on explaining in simple terms when and how they were used. I knew they were for grain, but had never heard the rest of the story. The tarp came out well. Is that from the kit or something you came up with? I'm always looking for new tarp tips. Right now, my hobos need some tents with winter coming on down in the jungle by the tracks near Hesperus. |
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Post by dti406 on Nov 9, 2014 14:20:53 GMT -8
[quote author=" mlehman" source="/post/48732/thread" Rich, I really like that old Anderson car and meant to compliment you on explaining in simple terms when and how they were used. I knew they were for grain, but had never heard the rest of the story. The tarp came out well. Is that from the kit or something you came up with? I'm always looking for new tarp tips. Right now, my hobos need some tents with winter coming on down in the jungle by the tracks near Hesperus. [/quote] I really can't take credit for the tarp, it goes to Steve Funaro of F&C who did the casting with the extension and tarp for Tichy along with the decal, all I had to do was install 4 grabs and paint the extension and tarp. Rick J |
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Post by theengineshed on Nov 9, 2014 14:41:45 GMT -8
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Post by Spikre on Nov 9, 2014 14:45:14 GMT -8
 Mike, for some reason the pics by Rick and RC come in eventually, but Yours only slightly come in,then look like a flat Lego sheet. any ideas on this problem ? Rick and RC, nice looking cars this week. Spikre 
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Nov 9, 2014 14:58:12 GMT -8
Nice work everyone, I really enjoyed the wide angle shots. I've been amazed at the quality of panoramic photos that you can get from an iPhone, too.
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Post by mlehman on Nov 9, 2014 15:49:33 GMT -8
Mike, for some reason the pics by Rick and RC come in eventually, but Yours only slightly come in,then look like a flat Lego sheet. any ideas on this problem ? Rick and RC, nice looking cars this week. Spikre Spikre, They're just big fat pics and you probably have a tiny little pipe to sip them from is my first guess. But I've been getting that from time to time as Firefox sucks up all the memory on XP. Is that a possibility or are you running something less ancient than I am for your OS? If you are running FF, try right clicking the image, then choose View Image and it may pop up for you. |
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Post by mlehman on Nov 9, 2014 15:55:00 GMT -8
[quote author=" mlehman" source="/post/48732/thread" Rich, I really like that old Anderson car and meant to compliment you on explaining in simple terms when and how they were used. I knew they were for grain, but had never heard the rest of the story. The tarp came out well. Is that from the kit or something you came up with? I'm always looking for new tarp tips. Right now, my hobos need some tents with winter coming on down in the jungle by the tracks near Hesperus. I really can't take credit for the tarp, it goes to Steve Funaro of F&C who did the casting with the extension and tarp for Tichy along with the decal, all I had to do was install 4 grabs and paint the extension and tarp. Rick J[/quote] Rick (what was I thinking Rich? I've seen too many leaves today...), OK, that probably does make for a slick build. Doesn't help the hobos, so guess I'll have to find them something else like a Goodwill tent or a Salvation Army sleeping bag.  |
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Post by stevef45 on Nov 10, 2014 0:02:33 GMT -8
I had drawn out the window placement and door placement just to get a rough idea on where cuts will need to be made. Well the next day i broke out the micro drill and started making small holes....after one window i said F this and just used my exacto and twisted it in making larger holes all over. Made it so much easier then drilling. Before cutting out windows.  I know it looks crude, but it will get all cleaned up and smoothed out. I have tamiya white putty on the angled gap and all the seams to smooth it out. I'll be squaring up the windows tomorrow.    and the prototype for reference. I'll be working on the roof portion this week also. Will figure out the lighting.  |
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Post by bdhicks on Nov 10, 2014 0:11:03 GMT -8
I finally finished withe the decals and lights on my smurf unit, and the club got some new scenery in.  Looks like the handrails got a little bent in transit, though. |
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Post by fr8kar on Nov 10, 2014 4:57:37 GMT -8
Nice work, Brian. Your work is always so clean. The lights look great. We used to have 2048 around here for awhile. The blue and white kind of grew on me after awhile, even though the actual locomotive was pretty much a piece of worn out junk. Seeing it coupled to black and orange geeps and gensets always made me think of the Flying Colors of Braniff. I always liked how the Braniff Flying Colors paint scheme was basically the same, but the color combinations could vary: airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/keyword/braniff%20international;boeing%20727/It would be neat to see a railroad try something like this. |
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Post by Spikre on Nov 10, 2014 11:20:20 GMT -8
Mike, the pics just came in here,nice looking,but is that Pennsy trailer lost,or hijacked ? in the 30s or 40s there was a road in Texas that found it cheaper to pay Per Deim on a fleet of Pennsy gondolas rather than buy their own,so there is a precident for capturing foreign road cars/equipment. while that question thread was being typed,the pics from Engineshed came in fine,just took awhile. today the Proto Pic by Steve45 has the Lego look to it,but the other model pics by Steve45 came in ......? HAL knows no bounds !! Spikre
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Post by fr8kar on Nov 11, 2014 4:51:41 GMT -8
"I'm sorry, Spikre. I'm afraid I can't do that."
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Post by catt on Nov 12, 2014 12:42:26 GMT -8
Shore River 20001 making a delivery from New Jersey on it's maiden voyage fresh from the Shore River shops with a fresh coat of white paint on Nov.12,2014.Sestination is a factory in Wyoming, MI.  |
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Post by stevef45 on Nov 12, 2014 19:39:06 GMT -8
Spent a few more hours cleaning up the shack for my aqua train. Got the window openings cleaned up, sanded the putty down on all the seems. I may have to put in a brace on the inside to keep it from sucking in if thats even what to call it. It keeps narrowing by the angled part.  I'll be working on the decking hopefully in the next few days/nights to get the wood ready. Any tips to staining the wood? Can I use regular acryllic paints thinned with water? Worked on adding brake lines to the reservoir and valve thingy. I wish i could've found brass wire, nobody had any. SS wire is a pita!   I'll be adding the brake piping underneath eventually. I want to add all the brake riggin but dont know where to start with it. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Paint is almost near!!! |
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Plus, you gotta keep up with the times to run a railroad efficiently. With the cruddy mountain roads, it just makes sense to put your traffic on the tried-and-true rails. 
