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Post by Christian on May 11, 2020 2:43:34 GMT -8
Whoa, guys! Wha-happened to Sunday? Yeah, I know all the days are blending, but this is the greatest ongoing thread in all of railroad modeling history! So, I got out my camera. No, not very productive compared to lots of you guys, but I did get a bit done on my Econo-Stack. When last we visited this model I was moaning about wirework. I hate it, but made a bit of a break on this model and finished this side of platform C. Nine sides to go! The next photo is a closer view of the pipe joints. Photos suck - you see all sorts of things that you don't really want to see. In this case, the improvised pipe joints were really clunky. So I got out my sprue nippers and clipped off the corners. Not great, but enough better to do all of them. And, yes, better to the eye for me. Photo One - Overview of C platform side.  Photo Two - detail of side showing clunky joints.  Photo Three - detail of improved clunky joints.  |
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Post by fr8kar on May 11, 2020 3:10:20 GMT -8
Looks great so far, Christian. It's five models in one, so it takes time to power through. This progress ought to be encouraging, though. Sunday, Monday, who knows any more. Traffic volumes on the railroad have been really depressed lately and our yards are looking very empty these days. These times have brought people into the yard from the road and it's sent some people from the yard home to wait it out. I am on the very edge of being forced to work the road so my schedule is constantly changing. But yesterday I saw more trains and railcars in one day than I've seen in a week, so who knows what's next. Maybe just a blip, maybe just a logjam somewhere hitting us locally. I weathered a few more cars this week and I hope to take on even more. At this point I'm just trying to make them look not new, so nothing spectacular. Most of these I just want to blend into the train.    I'm modeling a Coors distributor so I have a bunch of these beer cars. I love this UP scheme so I'm trying to keep it clean but make it look used. In other words, "not new." I might go after the underframe with another round of brake dust.   |
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Post by Christian on May 11, 2020 4:08:34 GMT -8
I weathered a few more cars this week and I hope to take on even more. At this point I'm just trying to make them look not new, so nothing spectacular. Most of these I just want to blend into the train. Oh yeah. Bright blue, bright green, bright yellow, and super bright red will blend right in!  Every time someone offers a super bright red Santa Fe it takes a hitch of mules to keep my wallet closed. |
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Post by timvanmersbergen on May 11, 2020 5:08:18 GMT -8
I blocked another load of tractors, Deere 5020s this time. Actually they are 5010s but the difference to the 5020 which was in production when I model in 1969 are mostly internal so they are a good stand in. The OTTX flat, which I previously showed the deck, is lightly weathered for 1969. I omitted chains to make the load removable. Depending on the session and where cars are at, this load could also appear on a Tangent 60' GSC flat.
Other than that just detail work and a couple projects not far enough along to photograph. Tim VanMersbergen
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on May 11, 2020 5:41:29 GMT -8
Good work all!, Ryan the subtle toning down of the cars you've done is so much more appealing than full on rust buckets so many do. Christian,lots of work in those stack cars, paint will do wonders when you get to that point. Tim, nice herd of Deere. |
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Post by ChessieFan1978 on May 11, 2020 5:47:15 GMT -8
That Santa Fe car looks sweet, just the right amount of weathering. AWESOME !!! Looks great so far, Christian. It's five models in one, so it takes time to power through. This progress ought to be encouraging, though. Sunday, Monday, who knows any more. Traffic volumes on the railroad have been really depressed lately and our yards are looking very empty these days. These times have brought people into the yard from the road and it's sent some people from the yard home to wait it out. I am on the very edge of being forced to work the road so my schedule is constantly changing. But yesterday I saw more trains and railcars in one day than I've seen in a week, so who knows what's next. Maybe just a blip, maybe just a logjam somewhere hitting us locally. I weathered a few more cars this week and I hope to take on even more. At this point I'm just trying to make them look not new, so nothing spectacular. Most of these I just want to blend into the train. I'm modeling a Coors distributor so I have a bunch of these beer cars. I love this UP scheme so I'm trying to keep it clean but make it look used. In other words, "not new." I might go after the underframe with another round of brake dust. |
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Post by drsvelte on May 11, 2020 7:01:34 GMT -8
That Santa Fe car looks sweet, just the right amount of weathering. AWESOME !!! Looks great so far, Christian. It's five models in one, so it takes time to power through. This progress ought to be encouraging, though. Sunday, Monday, who knows any more. Traffic volumes on the railroad have been really depressed lately and our yards are looking very empty these days. These times have brought people into the yard from the road and it's sent some people from the yard home to wait it out. I am on the very edge of being forced to work the road so my schedule is constantly changing. But yesterday I saw more trains and railcars in one day than I've seen in a week, so who knows what's next. Maybe just a blip, maybe just a logjam somewhere hitting us locally. I weathered a few more cars this week and I hope to take on even more. At this point I'm just trying to make them look not new, so nothing spectacular. Most of these I just want to blend into the train. I'm modeling a Coors distributor so I have a bunch of these beer cars. I love this UP scheme so I'm trying to keep it clean but make it look used. In other words, "not new." I might go after the underframe with another round of brake dust. Hmm, not seeing any of reading5300's images? |
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Post by riogrande on May 11, 2020 7:12:56 GMT -8
Every time someone offers a super bright red Santa Fe it takes a hitch of mules to keep my wallet closed. The hitch of mules haven't been very succesful keeping me away from bright red Santa Fe box cars. I bought one-each of the Moloco red late '77/78 Bx94 and Bx97 repaint boxcars, and even the mineral brown. And the ExactRail waffle, and the BLMA/Atlas beer and wine box cars. Pretty! |
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Post by slowfreight on May 11, 2020 9:40:09 GMT -8
Every time someone offers a super bright red Santa Fe it takes a hitch of mules to keep my wallet closed. The hitch of mules haven't been very succesful keeping me away from bright red Santa Fe box cars. I bought one-each of the Moloco red late '77/78 Bx94 and Bx97 repaint boxcars, and even the mineral brown. And the ExactRail waffle, and the BLMA/Atlas beer and wine box cars. Pretty! Yeah, I wasn't far behind you that way. I'm a sucker for big red Santa Fe and big green BN. |
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Post by riogrande on May 11, 2020 10:12:01 GMT -8
The BN green is a favorite of mine also. So much so that I kind-of impulse bought some that I later discovered were too knew for my time period; in many cases because they were boxcars acquired at later dates and repainted in BN green. I am back from my short trip via long drive to middle Iowa. I stayed in a hotel in Osceola, which just happened to be across from the east-west BNSF mainline, formerly the "Burlington Route" I believe. In past years I boarded the San Francisco Zephyr there west to California as a teenager (1970's) and in 1983 road the early Amtrak Superliner CZ from Chicago to Osceola to spend Christmas with my parents and my paternal Grandmother. That 1983 trip was scheduled to arrive Christmas eve, but due to the extreme cold, the train was limited to 45 MPH for fear of breaking a rail, so we arrived around 1 am Christmas morning. My parents had driven east from California and their car would not start. So they took the battery of the old 1963 Ford Galaxy to get it running to make it to the Osceola train station to pick us up. If I recall, the high in Chicago was -10 and the low was -25, and there was a wind chill on top of that pushing it to -75ish. Now my grandmother and my father and some aunts and uncles are mostly all gone; only 2 children from a total of 10 are left now. But since I was in town for my fathers funeral (after making it to 90 years of age in March), I went out the evening before to watch the west-bound Amtrak California Zephyr pass. I took a couple photo's of the tracks while waiting for the Zephyr and caught a sun-set facing west. It was somehow fitting of the sunset of my fathers life, a retired US Air Force Lt. Colonel, veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars.  And facing east, waiting for for the approaching Amtrak California Zephyr.  I did barely catch it in a video but need to figure out how to upload it - I was standing a bit too close for a good view and it was moving pretty fast. So, no progress on the layout past couple of weeks; a pause to remember a fallen veteran who received an honor guard from the US Air Force and 3 volley rifle salute with taps. Many memories. |
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Post by fr8kar on May 11, 2020 14:51:06 GMT -8
Thanks guys. I get a lot out of the photos Ron Hawkins has posted to rrpicturearchives.net and railcarphotos.com over the years: The photos of the prototypes for the double plug door cars were taken before my era, but there weren't many people documenting these cars in the 80s. But generally speaking many of the cars have a similar look to them. For my modeling purposes there are times when rustbuckets are OK, but they are rare. I just like all the colors too much to beat them down. But what do I know? I also loved the Flying Colors of Braniff. |
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Post by dti406 on May 11, 2020 16:16:47 GMT -8
Got some cars done this week: _(edited)_IMG_0763.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) Branchline 40' AAR Boxcar Kit with 7' Door, removed the rivits as the prototype was a welded side car, added A-line Sill Steps instead of the plastic ones. Car was painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and lettered with Smokebox Graphics decals. Car was used in general service on the Ann Arbor. _IMG_0764.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) Tangent Bethlehem Steel built gondola kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar red and lettered with mostly Champ Decals, and some others from various decal sets I had in stock. Car was originally built for the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania in 1944 and was purchase along with 699 others by the Wabash in 1962. This car was assigned to the DT&I at Flat Rock, MI and was probably in auto frame or coil steel service. _IMG_0383.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) 3 Athearn GP9's with a mixed freight running on the Strongsville Club layout last year. Thanks for looking! Rick Jesionowski |
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Post by onequiknova on May 11, 2020 16:38:59 GMT -8
It's been a LONG time since I've worked on something besides vehicles. I got the urge to build a pair of BN GP39E's a couple weeks ago and started gathering parts. I started with the easy one. The other will be an ex Southern high nose that had the cab and nose replaced with a standard Spartan cab and low nose. Nothing special going on here yet, except maybe the front number boards. They were modified during the rebuild so they hinged open from the outside to make bulb replace easier. There is still a pile of detail parts to open, and the clean air room needs rebuilt.   |
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Post by ChessieFan1978 on May 11, 2020 16:51:07 GMT -8
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2020 17:34:56 GMT -8
It's been a LONG time since I've worked on something besides vehicles. I got the urge to build a pair of BN GP39E's a couple weeks ago and started gathering parts. I started with the easy one. The other will be an ex Southern high nose that had the cab and nose replaced with a standard Spartan cab and low nose. Nothing special going on here yet, except maybe the front number boards. They were modified during the rebuild so they hinged open from the outside to make bulb replace easier. There is still a pile of detail parts to open, and the clean air room needs rebuilt. What road number is this model going to be? And how did you achieve the number board build? |
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Post by onequiknova on May 11, 2020 17:43:53 GMT -8
What road number is this model going to be? And how did you achieve the number board build? It'll be BN 2757. The number boards were made by milling a shallow pocket into a piece of styrene, and glued to the body after shaving the existing gaskets off. From what I can tell, there were no gaskets on the new number boards. The hinges are just bits of styrene and photo etched nut/bolt/washers.  |
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Post by grahamline on May 11, 2020 18:47:38 GMT -8
More modeling here than in a whole pile of magazines. I don't recognize the cab awnings on the GP30. Is that a part that's still available?
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Post by onequiknova on May 11, 2020 18:53:04 GMT -8
More modeling here than in a whole pile of magazines. I don't recognize the cab awnings on the GP30. Is that a part that's still available? Details West #365. They're my go to sunshade. Maybe not as detailed as Cannon parts, but very durable. |
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2020 20:06:30 GMT -8
What road number is this model going to be? And how did you achieve the number board build? It'll be BN 2757. The number boards were made by milling a shallow pocket into a piece of styrene, and glued to the body after shaving the existing gaskets off. From what I can tell, there were no gaskets on the new number boards. The hinges are just bits of styrene and photo etched nut/bolt/washers. Makes me wish I had a milling machine. That's nicely done. Looking forward to seeing this one finished. Does anybody make the "One giant step for safety" stickers that were applied on the step wells? |
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Post by grahamline on May 11, 2020 21:25:28 GMT -8
More modeling here than in a whole pile of magazines. I don't recognize the cab awnings on the GP30. Is that a part that's still available? Details West #365. They're my go to sunshade. Maybe not as detailed as Cannon parts, but very durable. Thanks for the information. Store shelves and catalog pages aren't as informative as in days gone by. |
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Post by stevewagner on May 12, 2020 7:33:13 GMT -8
Some beautiful modelbuilding here, as usual.
And Jim, wonderful photos from your recent time in Iowa!
Many thanks to you all.
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Post by riogrande on May 12, 2020 10:27:18 GMT -8
Thanks Steve. I'm kind of a crap photographer and don't even have a decent digicam but the sunset (especially) seemed to come out nice as a "grab" photo. I camped that spot for the zephyr but was unprepared when it came up fast and just caught the first engine when the video started recording.
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Post by rockisland652 on May 12, 2020 11:03:26 GMT -8
What road number is this model going to be? And how did you achieve the number board build? It'll be BN 2757. The number boards were made by milling a shallow pocket into a piece of styrene, and glued to the body after shaving the existing gaskets off. From what I can tell, there were no gaskets on the new number boards. The hinges are just bits of styrene and photo etched nut/bolt/washers. The gaskets are behind the plates. These provide both easy access to the bulbs and a better water seal. Welcome back. |
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Post by onequiknova on May 12, 2020 14:32:40 GMT -8
Makes me wish I had a milling machine. That's nicely done. Looking forward to seeing this one finished. Does anybody make the "One giant step for safety" stickers that were applied on the step wells? Thanks. It comes in real handy. The sticker looks to be on Microscale 87-716 "Burlington Northern diesel data". |
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Post by packer on May 12, 2020 23:51:36 GMT -8
Tim, how did you make the tractor load removable? I have a weakness for SP cars. I have around a couple dozen SP cars. But then I have 2 SP GP38–2s for some reason (guess pool or transfer power?). I of course have to have a lot of BN cars. I do like the ATSF, UP, and NP boxcar schemes, but I can never find them. Anyways, I did some stuff: Atlas ACF flat with some details west hitches: don’t know why atlas didn’t include 2 ACF hitches on these cars. Still need to plug the holes.  Recently got a Genesis GP39-2 with a loksound select and a high base speaker and ran it about 5 feet at the club before an auto reverser malfunctioned and fried a wire. Luckily the damage isn’t too bad. Guess I could say a maintenance person got angry or a hooligan with a bat got on board and make it look like a dent.   I’m almost done with the detailing and stuff on the atlas U30B, just have to paint the gyralight housing and surrounding area. The GP9 needs the area where the brake stand was repainted and redecaled. I’ve already drilled the holes for the grab iron on the geep (Athearn missed some and didn’t move the break stand). I’ve got tru-color BN green and decals for them already (and have had for a while. Just apprehensive about this. I got some junk to practice on, just hoping a harbor freight airbrush and painting outside in Florida (no good area in house to put one) can yield good results.  Dug through my stash for some stuff to get rid of (turns out I have an Atlas GP39-2 2705 as well) found this. No I didn’t do it (I’ve never actually painted and decaled anything) I got it through a chain of friends and it’s sat in its box for years. I ran it on DC for a bit. Runs well. Just soo out of place with everything else I have being a 90s experimental locomotive and me modeling 78-82.  |
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Post by Colin 't Hart on May 13, 2020 1:32:08 GMT -8
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Post by fr8kar on May 13, 2020 3:11:01 GMT -8
Yes sir! I had to shorten the line between the handle and the vent to avoid fouling the top ladder rung, but otherwise it is a drop-in (drop-on?) fit on the Atlas boxcars. |
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Post by riogrande on May 13, 2020 3:23:55 GMT -8
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platec
Full Member
The object of nostalgia is further away than it appears
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Post by platec on May 13, 2020 4:24:35 GMT -8
If I recall correctly, the Atlas RBL's are a little low in height, which could explain why you had to shorten up the vents.
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Post by timvanmersbergen on May 13, 2020 5:16:01 GMT -8
Tim, how did you make the tractor load removable? I glued the wood blocking to the tractor wheels with canopy cement. A small bit of cement on the axles keeps the wheels from turning. Each tractor is a single blocked unit that sits on the flatcar
It is a compromise between operation and appearance that I find acceptable.
Tim VanMersbergen
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