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Post by stevef45 on May 9, 2015 22:33:57 GMT -8
Never started a photo fun. I'll have more stuff to post tomorrow. While waiting for more parts to come in and eventually a athearn sd40-2 that i need i started assembling what I can to build these future beasts. Fort Worth and Western Railroad SD40M-2 2024. This model will be the first to built as I had the SD45 drive and I got the shell from a member on here.  Shell on the drive, nose will be chopped Sunday night, Cannon cab will be assembled also.  81" Nose marked for its cuts for the nose light.  This is the second one I will build. I have the 116" nose kit from Cannon ready. Just need the SD40-2 to start it. I love the look of the snoot nose on a regular SD40-2. I know I could get a fast forty athearn sd40--2 but they are going for way more then i want to spend, plus there's no fun if yout not cutting stuff up and assembling new parts for it.   Lastly the decals.  and my RCPE accessory decals came too. Couldn't finish those RCPE SD40-2's without these.  |
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Post by fr8kar on May 10, 2015 0:28:39 GMT -8
Finally got an hour of modeling in this weekend. I just got my call so after this post it's out the door and back on the rails again. I made a new double hung window for my current MP caboose project out of 0.005" styrene sheet. I imagined the window made of several layers of thin sheet laminated to make a square plug I could install in the carbody. I drew it up in AutoCAD and printed directly to the sheet styrene. My first attempt failed when the Tamiya cement proved to be too strong for the thin plastic. So I copied the parts a few times in the drawing and printed it on another sheet:  Here is a view of the window assembled (with Testors MEK this time) and installed:  This completes the body work on this caboose. The underframe and steps are next. The other day a package from the MP Historical Society was waiting for me when I got home. Here are the Bluford Shops cabooses the MPHS commissioned with two numbers exclusive to this run. By the way, the colors look good on these; it's my lighting that's the problem.       I installed the axle driven generator that comes with each kit and ditched the Kadee couplers for Sergent Type E. I also shaved the firecracker antenna off and installed a brass Details West firecracker antenna in its place. Otherwise, this is how the models look right out of the box. These cabooses are available through the society's website and a limited amount are currently on ebay, so if you missed out on previous runs of Bluford Shops Mopac cabooses this is a good opportunity to get them. |
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Post by dti406 on May 10, 2015 6:27:57 GMT -8
Steve, how could you ruin a perfectly good HI-Hood Shell that us NW and SRR modelers would die for! Ryan nice work on the caboose, and those Bluford cabooses look great, I just got my Athearn SP Caboose and was amazed at the detail, better than some of my brass cabooses. Finally got some more cars done this week!  Atlas 17,600 Gal Corn Syrup Tank Car Kit, Painted with Scalecoat II Black and lettered with Islington Station Products decals.  Atlas Thrall 4750CF Covered Hopper Kit, new Plano Roofwalk and Crossover Platforms, painted with 50-50 mixture of Floquil Signal Red and Reefer Yellow paint, then lettered with Herald King Decals.  Atlas ACF 4650CF Post 71 Covered Hopper Kit, painted with Scalecoat II Reefer Orange and Black paint, lettered with Oddballs Decals. Thanks for Looking! Rick J |
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Post by mlehman on May 10, 2015 7:50:52 GMT -8
Steve, Ryan, and Rick, Nice work! And those Bluford Shops cabooses are to die for...almost enough to get me to model the MP, but if I can ever afford one, maybe a coal runthrough on my standard gauge. It'd be a handy model to have for being out in public around here, as this is MP country...well, C&EI really, but close enuff depending on your era. Track was laid and the first trains have run to Snowden and back...it's only a couple of miles, so passenger trains turn at Crater Lake and back to Snowden.  Meanwhile, back at the junction in Tefft, the turntable project went from hole to whole.  Mabel's general Store was relocated to where the section bunkhouse used to be (which was moved to a new neighborhood on the "wrong" side of the tracks in Black Cat Junction.)  And the turntable roughed in. The bridge is made of wood blocks and one of the big phat Radio Shack 1/4" phono plugs (274-1539, if you can still find any) that make it easy to make a strong mount. The side "girders" are various hacked kit leftovers. Waiting on the turnout leading to it to arrive to lay track.  The pit was made by peeling back the scenery, which exposed about 3/4" of depth. Not much. I used a piece of sheet plastic to fill the hole after adding some more wood to get an even elevation; then bonding a similar shape of AL flashing over that, followed by a round piece of flashing slightly larger than the pit diameter. All were bonded together with 3M 77. Note the hole in the middle that clears the 274-0255 1/4" jack. After bridge was plugged in, then build-up of the pit wall and there you go, a cheap TT for about $15 in materials. |
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Post by fr8kar on May 10, 2015 10:44:03 GMT -8
I grew up between the Mopac/Katy joint line and the Cotton Belt's Fort Worth Sub so it was natural for me to gravitate toward modeling those roads. But I didn't seriously take the plunge on the Mopac until Rail Yard' SBW caboose came out and on Cotton Belt until the Genesis cab came out. With proper cabooses the rest is easy.
I have a Rail Yard caboose that's not finished. It has some warped parts that I've never been able to get completely straightened. I was going to just live with the problems and finish it up and I got close, but then the Bluford Shops cabs were announced. They aren't as nice in some aspects as the Rail Yard models, but the three I have don't have any warped parts. If that sounds like a less than enthusiastic endorsement, let me come right out and say these models are outstanding and I am extremely satisfied with them. The Rail Yard kits were just on another level, kind of like Tangent kits are.
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Post by fr8kar on May 10, 2015 10:55:38 GMT -8
Steve, see that KCS unit behind the SD45? Make sure you start acquiring a ton of sand cars while you work on the diesels. KCS brings a loaded sand train to Fort Worth from Wylie via Metro Junction and the FWWR takes it toward Dublin. It's typically set up 2+2 and it's very common to see one or more CP units on it. If KCS can't get it all the way to the FWWR, we take it to them.
Another common commodity is bagged granulated sugar in FXE and Railbox 50' boxcars which I assume is for the bottling plant in Dublin. We handle those cars from Houston to Fort Worth and they get transferred to Hodge Yard by a midnight yard job.
FWWR operates the former Cotton Belt Fort Worth Sub between Carrollton (north of Dallas) and Fort Worth and the former Santa Fe Dublin Sub (nee Fort Worth & Rio Grande) between Fort Worth and Brownwood. It's some of my favorite railroading in Texas.
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Post by icrr3067 on May 10, 2015 15:22:49 GMT -8
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Post by D Bradley on May 10, 2015 16:11:09 GMT -8
Heres a pic of my KCS 70ACe with the added PTC Antennas.  ![]() And here's another shot of some of my KCS 40s  |
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Post by mlehman on May 10, 2015 16:59:02 GMT -8
Ryan, I've also got a bit of a soft spot for the Cotton Belt. We lived next to what I believe was the San Antonio-Houston line right outside of the north side of Randolph AFB when I was a kid. The road name has sold me more than a few cars. The stars aligned and the lighting was on sale, so got lights up above Snowden as I extended them from Crater Lake this afternoon. Now it's not nearly so gloomy back in there.    Also got the bridge for the new turntable at Tefft painted.  |
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Post by fr8kar on May 10, 2015 17:47:41 GMT -8
And here's another shot of some of my KCS 40s I sure do miss the white KCS units. If you can post more photos of these older EMDs, then by all means, please do. |
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Post by fiend540 on May 10, 2015 18:01:01 GMT -8
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Post by D Bradley on May 10, 2015 18:03:57 GMT -8
And here's another shot of some of my KCS 40s I sure do miss the white KCS units. If you can post more photos of these older EMDs, then by all means, please do. I will do bro and thanks |
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Post by brotherlove on May 10, 2015 19:52:01 GMT -8
Finished some GM&O Roodhouse cabs this week. Enjoyed everyone's post today, good stuff! 
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2015 21:19:10 GMT -8
Ryan, I've also got a bit of a soft spot for the Cotton Belt. We lived next to what I believe was the San Antonio-Houston line right outside of the north side of Randolph AFB when I was a kid. The road name has sold me more than a few cars. Cotton Belt did not run to San Antonio, Houston, or anywhere between. |
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Post by Christian on May 12, 2015 0:06:20 GMT -8
Ryan, I've also got a bit of a soft spot for the Cotton Belt. We lived next to what I believe was the San Antonio-Houston line right outside of the north side of Randolph AFB when I was a kid. The road name has sold me more than a few cars. Cotton Belt did not run to San Antonio, Houston, or anywhere between. No, but the locomotives and cabeese sure did. And regularly haunted the route from San Antonio and Corpus Cristi. One would think that Cotton Belt was there unless armed with a railroad map. |
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Post by mlehman on May 12, 2015 6:19:38 GMT -8
Christian, Thanks, I suspect a more helpful or thoughtful answer like yours wouldn't be too much of a stretch for most people, but some folks just hang around to prove they know it all.  Thus the beauties of Ignore... I was 9 years old, so only reporting what I saw, which as you say was a lot of Cotton Belt. I suspect the line was simply SP and there was about the thickness of a sheet of corporate paper's difference between the two by then anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2015 8:24:47 GMT -8
Christian, Thanks, I suspect a more helpful or thoughtful answer like yours wouldn't be too much of a stretch for most people, but some folks just hang around to prove they know it all. Thus the beauties of Ignore... I was 9 years old, so only reporting what I saw, which as you say was a lot of Cotton Belt. I suspect the line was simply SP and there was about the thickness of a sheet of corporate paper's difference between the two by then anyway. Yes it was SP. And there was much more than a "thickness of a sheet of corporate paper's difference" between the two railroads. |
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Post by gevohogger on May 13, 2015 3:49:20 GMT -8
Call me crazy, but I would have let it go at "We lived next to what I believe was the San Antonio-Houston line right outside of the north side of Randolph AFB when I was a kid."
Works for me.
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Post by mlehman on May 13, 2015 7:20:19 GMT -8
gevohogger,
Thanks, I appreciate the comment. I actually don't mind correction at all. In part, that's why I couched my comment in tentative terms and Christian, in the spirit of those who appreciate cultivating respectful discussion, helped set me straight.
Being just wrong is dull and boring...and doesn't add anything useful to a discussion, that's all I'll say. Knowing why I'm wrong is actually useful. Memory is a funny thing, especially from a half-century ago. It should be tested for accuracy. On the other hand, its faults and failings are part of the human condition, as are people who don't get on well with others as the default mode.
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Post by fr8kar on May 13, 2015 9:34:34 GMT -8
I think the adage that, "it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness" applies here. While rail historians and employees might understand the differences between SSW and SP, most railfans see nearly identical locomotives with only the names and initials differing. It's easy to assume that there may only be a minor difference between the two companies, especially since the equipment of each company was more or less able to roam freely and operate on each others' roads.
Fort Worth was the end of the line for Cotton Belt's Fort Worth Subdivision and Southern Pacific's Fort Worth Branch, with the end of the line of each within eyesight of the other. However, I can't find any evidence that the two worked together, as far as employees are concerned, or transferred cars or equipment between each other. I'm certainly no rail historian and just a bit more than a casual fan of the Cotton Belt Fort Worth Subdivision, which makes me a fan of most things SP and Cotton Belt since it seems nearly everything showed up here at one time or another.
Locally I've seen how employees of the constituent roads of BNSF interact with each other. The Fort Worth & Denver was a separate road from the BN (legally, anyway, but many of those folks identify as Denver Road employees) up to the end of 1982. Frisco joined the BN in late 1980, and though the railroad's equipment was quickly assimilated into the green and black, there remains a strong identity with Frisco for those employees, owing somewhat to the strong union agreements that protect employees operating on that property. The former Burlington-Rock Island came under the control of FWD when Rock Island ceased operations in 1980 and BN in 1982. To this day there is little overlap between that group and the Frisco and FWD groups. Many of the young employees from those days are still around now and each group operates under different agreements. Some don't even operate on the same properties. To anyone watching trains at North Yard in Fort Worth in the early 80s, it was all BN all the time. But the workforce and the traffic represented three separate groups.
Whether a similar situation was at play with the Cotton Belt and SP, I don't know. But until I started working in the midst of all these groups I didn't appreciate how a corporate identity can stand the test of time or how loyal a group of employees can be to a company and to each other.
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Post by mlehman on May 14, 2015 11:47:42 GMT -8
Ryan, Thanks for the insights. The SP/Cotton Belt arrangement was a very different thing than the way we tend to think of mergers nowadays. In railroading, so often the big gobbled up the small and that seemed to be the end of it, at least officially, which is a lot like today. As you point out, that's hardly the case for employees. For my pre-RR-interested mind, I simply found it interesting that one owned the other, but there was a distinct identity that was preserved. As I learned more about RRs, I found this tended to be rare, but did happen in some case for various legal reasons or because of arcane financing deals. At least the vestige of the old had to persist. Then I eventually learned that the Cotton Belt went further east than Texas -- which as Christian pointed out might seem like it would all be Cotton Belt territory, but it's a really big state. I just never had much reason to figure out how far west it came -- officially. Of course, all that is pretty heady stuff when you're 8. People often have the strongest memory of visual things, even when they have all the references needed to verify the accuracy of what they really saw. One more reminder of just how badly inaccurate eye-witness testimony can be, contrary to what you see on TV. All I really know about those days is that there sure was a lot of Cotton Belt stuff floating around Texas and why is it all painted like SP?  |
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Post by stevef45 on May 14, 2015 20:05:00 GMT -8
Got the factory highhood off and cannon cab and 81" nose assembled. Will assemble the subbase tonight. I wish I had removed the paint already. It limits the amount of work I am able to do tonight.  |
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Thus the beauties of Ignore...