Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Really good work Jabear!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Bear,
That's positively bearific! And Happy Halloween
Here's hoping everyone gets treats
WPF is great because it's open to just about anything. Sometimes, like Ja Bear, we show our best work. Other times, we just show our work. I'm kinda proud of this one.
Don't laugh, that FT runs great now. I do need to get some paint on that baling wire, though
In projects started, I made a fair start on the hay barn for the Hesperus stockyards. It's important because they make a lot of hay around there and folks on along the narrowgauge up in the mountains buy it to feed their mules, horses, etc. Straw, too, for bedding and mud control. You can even ship it in stock cars, which are usually underutilized and available. This is how far the crew got by quitting time.
The battens are individually cut and applied, which gives a nice random look. There will be a dock on the rail side. Dingy, peeling white paint and a tin roof is probably next. And we'll get that foundation leveled up.
Ran a nice doubleheader with C-19s #3 and #4 up to Eureka and Animas Forks earlier in the week.
And we'll close with an image snapped from the marketing dept's helicopter, which was getting some pics to promote the 2015 San Juan Zephyr schedule. The Zephyr is sitting in Silverton while everyone gets lunch.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Good morning everyone on All Hallowed Eve!!
Bear, that ferry looks great, still can't get over the size of those stacks!
Mike, some of the in progress pictures are as informative as the finalized model!
Got some cars done this week, and here they are.
Bowser N5c Cabin Car kit with an added Cal-Scale Trainphone Antenna kit and ECW Caboose Windows. Painted with Scalecoat II PRR Freightcar Red and Black, then lettered with Champ Decals. The Ann Arbor leased one hundred of these 1958CF Covered Hoppers of various parentage from Chicago Freight Car for use in Casting Sand Service from Yuma, MI to the Ford Casting Plant in Brook Park (Cleveland), OH. Cars could have the solid or the open sides. This is the 3rd Car I have done and this one has the solid side, added airlines and A-Line Sill Steps to the model, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. Walthers giant Plastic Pellet Covered Hopper Kit, installed all the metal grabs, then painted with a mixture of Scalecoat II MofW Gray/Black and lettered with Oddballs Decals. (Hard to find a decal for these cars.) Thanks for looking! Rick J
Bowser N5c Cabin Car kit with an added Cal-Scale Trainphone Antenna kit and ECW Caboose Windows. Painted with Scalecoat II PRR Freightcar Red and Black, then lettered with Champ Decals.
The Ann Arbor leased one hundred of these 1958CF Covered Hoppers of various parentage from Chicago Freight Car for use in Casting Sand Service from Yuma, MI to the Ford Casting Plant in Brook Park (Cleveland), OH. Cars could have the solid or the open sides. This is the 3rd Car I have done and this one has the solid side, added airlines and A-Line Sill Steps to the model, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. Walthers giant Plastic Pellet Covered Hopper Kit, installed all the metal grabs, then painted with a mixture of Scalecoat II MofW Gray/Black and lettered with Oddballs Decals. (Hard to find a decal for these cars.) Thanks for looking! Rick J
The Ann Arbor leased one hundred of these 1958CF Covered Hoppers of various parentage from Chicago Freight Car for use in Casting Sand Service from Yuma, MI to the Ford Casting Plant in Brook Park (Cleveland), OH. Cars could have the solid or the open sides. This is the 3rd Car I have done and this one has the solid side, added airlines and A-Line Sill Steps to the model, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals.
Walthers giant Plastic Pellet Covered Hopper Kit, installed all the metal grabs, then painted with a mixture of Scalecoat II MofW Gray/Black and lettered with Oddballs Decals. (Hard to find a decal for these cars.) Thanks for looking! Rick J
Walthers giant Plastic Pellet Covered Hopper Kit, installed all the metal grabs, then painted with a mixture of Scalecoat II MofW Gray/Black and lettered with Oddballs Decals. (Hard to find a decal for these cars.)
Thanks for looking!
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Happy Halloween.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Happy Halloween everybody!
Bear, Those smoke stacks look great.
Mike, Nice shots of the narrow guage as always.
Rick, love the rolling stock, especially the N5c cabin car.
Well, work continues at Horseshoe Curve. I replaced the cloud paper backdrop, which was splatttered with plaster and what not. I replaced it by painting the backdrop blue.
Also been planting trees and installing rock formations.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Trick or Treat
Bear ... Nice work on your ferry project.
Mike L... Bailing wire? ... There must be more to the story. ... Nice layout photos
again.
Rick ... I like the Pennsy cabin car and the AA covered hopper.
Mr. B ..... Boo !
GP9 ... Tha is a scary PRR keystone
I showed this scene last week with a gas electirc car. Here it is with the GE 44T performing hauling a box car on the branch line.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Mr. B,
Love the annual appearance of the Grim Railfan...
Heartland Division CB&QMike L... Bailing wire? ... There must be more to the story. ... Nice layout photos again.
Rick, GP9_Man and Garry,
Thanks for the comments
Garry,
Yeah, there is, in the DCC and Electronics Forum: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/239484.aspx
Here is my rock cut that I have been working on for my N scale layout:
Having only been a model railroader for about five years and this being my first layout, this is the first scenery that I have ever attempted. I still have trees, vines, different shrubs, reinstalling the track and then adding ballast to go yet (plus a little more dry brushing on the rocks). But I am pretty happy with my work thus far.
Have a great weekend all and Happy Halloween!
Regards,
Don.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
Great rocks, Don
Nice work from everyone, esp. the Halloween themes. A GP7 doing a little switching.
Bear your ferry is looking good.
Mike great photos as usual.
dti406, Love the little Pennsy cabin car.
GP-9 Man, Great Keystone!
Garry it is still a great scene.
Don your work looks good to me.
Grampy another great photo.
I have been slowly adding to my Amtrak consist for the past few months. Below are a couple of ConCor Superliner cars which are recent additions and a few photos of some of the modifications I made to the cars.
SuperlinerDiner.
SuperlinerSleeper32067.
To both cars, I installed new body mounted Kadee's with draft gear boxes and replaced the 'push-pin' truck mounts with #6 brass screws. I installed wound wire pickups on the axles of each truck. I soldered a power lead to each pick-up and routed the lead through a small hole in the car body.
On the interior of the car I added a few ounces of weight and soldered six split tape type LEDs to the leads. I put the LEDs on the interior roof and fixed them in place with cellophane tape as the original adhesive isn't very tacky.
Here is a photo of the car with the lights on in the dark. Sorry for the quality of the image.
Both cars received the same treatment and are welcome additions to my Amtrak consist. The youngest grandson loves them.
Still some things to do. Fabricate and install an interior on the upper deck and put in a few passengers but those things will have to wait for awhile.
In addition, I purchased a powered chassis for my dummy AMD-103 loco, but that will have to wait until next time.
Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. You always make WPF the best thread of the week.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Allan,
That's a pretty good pic, as it's hard to get the exposure right, even with things set to Auto. I try Manual settings sometimes and the camera is usually smarter than me. I know what you mean about needing to fill the interior after things are nicely lit.
On some of my tape light installs, I've been able to fix the segment in place so that the center LED shines down, but the two end segments tilt up a little at each end to spread the light out more down the aisle each way.
So much inspirational work presented here...well done all!
A busy day, but I did squeeze in time to finish the new barn, as well as gave it a the first pass of weathering.
Yeah, I know about the posts floating under the dock...
A Repeat of last week
TerryinTexas
See my Web Site Here
http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
Mike,
Thanks for the tip about tilting the lights. I'll give it a try. I'm not happy with the uneven light in the cars which is why I 'split' the light strip. Your idea sounds like a good fix.
Thanks again.
The day after Halloweening, unfortunately with leftover candy on the counter. How to solve that??
I'm enjoying the realistic scenes people are showing, an ultimate goal for me. Plus the techniques shown, such as hand built board & batten. I often don't contemplate scratch options.
Well, I got my first two buildings lit, both these with multiple 3-LED sections. I'm getting the knack of soldering the small wire to the small connection spots, and strengthening with an epoxy blob. These look "cooler" than in the photos. Still experimenting with paint colors, but these with gray/sand color floor and tan interior walls (over primer). I added Peco inspection pits to the engine house and really like the addition.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Thanks Bear, Your project is looking swell, and thanks to your countryman G.V. Hudson many may enjoy an extra hour of model railroading tomorrow.
Mike, "Tanks" for the curved stairway tip. Managed to fumble finger the caged ladder, oh the pain of it, but have another on the way from Tichy.
Thanks to all, Peter
BRVRRMike, Thanks for the tip about tilting the lights. I'll give it a try. I'm not happy with the uneven light in the cars which is why I 'split' the light strip. Your idea sounds like a good fix.
Hi Allan,
Tilting may do the trick for you. For some cars it's all you need. Ultimately, I found that more LED segments running at a lower intensity gives the most easy to control lighting. Then all you do to adjust is vary the resistance. In fact, best results come when you have enough LEDs so that they start acting like tiny light fixtures, but that can get $$$ depending in your source for the segments.
I've been using some from Radio Shack, so not the cheapest. They do have a diffusser on each "LED" in the segments, so it appears tp be just one LED under most conditions. Stop it down with a lot of resistance and you find there are actually 3 tiny LEDs under each so that it appears to be like a tiny light fixture with 3 bulbs. I haven't really done anything visually with this effect, which would work best if the 3 unit segment was separated into the individual units so it could look like an overhead lamp, but it really helps to spread the light to have more of the segments running at lower intensity. If you doubled up the segments in your Superliner, it'll be much more evenly spread.
Paul,
I like it
BTW, I'm used scale 2x3 boards for my battens on the barn.
HO-VeloMike, "Tanks" for the curved stairway tip. Managed to fumble finger the caged ladder, oh the pain of it, but have another on the way from Tichy.
Peter,
That came out great. I think your experience was like mine, as I remember fumbling through the first one, then the second one was much easier. That's another good reason why some projects you just do, learn from, then do over in much better shape. IMO avoiding the Paralysis of Perfection is the key to learning new skills in model building. Whatever you come up with is either worth the experience -- or worth taking pictures of! You can't lose.
Well done all, great stuff!
Well I was able to get in a good few hours around the layout last evening when the kids went to bed...tuckered out after all the trick or treating no doubt...LOL! That, coupled with be being an early riser meant that I was able to reinstall the track, add and secure the ballast (not my favorite part of the hobby but with a beverage and good music it can actually be quite relaxing), add some more shrubs, vines, and place some trees. This was the scene yesterday morning:
This is the scene as it sits now:
As you can see I am going for an early fall seasonal time frame for my N scale layout. It's my favorite season with so many rich and vibrant colors to choose from. So far I am quite pleased.
Keep up the good work and excellent posts all!
Don
Don,
You got those fall colors just about right, looks great. They're often depicted as rather garish, which works with having a few trees like that, but just doesn't look right for a whole forest.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
Beautiful work, Zak
Hi, Everybody!
Did you set your clocks back? (those who participate in the time-honored tradition, that is)
There seems to be a predominance of Pennsy Tuscan here! Rick J, GPman with his freight—ening pumpkin!
Mike, I see the bailing wire... how much chewing gum is in those trucks?
Well, my employer seems to think that after 36 years and 3 months that my services are [temporarily] no longer needed and I'm laid off (they call it a "time out") kinder gentler, yippee! Actually, I volunteered to go and save one of the younger guys' jobs... SO I can work on TRAINS! There's actually a slight dusting of SNOW outside here in NE Ohio! Good time to be workin' on the layout!
Finally, I dusted off the old Paasche and got to work on some brass P-Company stock that has been collecting dust for the last year or two! First up is a P-30a troop sleeper that I stole from Ebay!
Here she is when it arrived on the property...
Then to the paint shop...
Lots of Tuscan here... and this is only half the job!
And — finally...
Looking good! Next steps... decals and real glass in the windows, then a bit of matte finish to tone down the gloss.
This is my first attempt with Scalecoat I paint. The cleanup is a bit of a pain but the results are fantastic! In this case I wanted a glossy surface for the decal work and Scalecoat came through beautifully. No primer. Just cleaned and etched the brass in vinegar, then a distilled water rinse and a blow-dry with heat, then shoot the paint! A 1 hour roast in a 160° oven, too. (sounds easy, in reality there was a bit more than that... but I was doing eight cars all together).
Here's a link to some PRR troop sleepers for reference.
http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11158055
Great photos! Great thread! November is Model Railroading Month!
Ed
As usual another great WPF. JaBear this is going to be a great ferry, can't wait to see the whole port scene.
This parc is the latest addition to the club layout
Jack W.
Gidday All, a Happy Halloween to all of you who celebrate it. Well a little more progress on the ferry. Looking forward to the Really Good Stuff, Have a Great One fflokes, Cheers, the Bear.
Congratulations for your nice ferry, I'm impatient to see the whole finished project, look great. ( I have post one more pics of my ferry on your individual post)
Unfortunately, there are some months I didn't have show progress of my Nscale Maclau River RR WPF, don't have much time and taste to play whith trains this time, but...
But I'm starting to work on a future village on the line and this village is also the place where my double main (Hills section) change direction, one is going to "Cincinati" (staging) and the other direction still follow the peddler route through mines and village.
I am looking for some track arragements, including this one whith the bidirectionnal double line and some turnouts to offer place of industry in the village.
Most of the turnouts are Fastrack handbuild and some are Peco 55 included in the proposal track schematic
Following my habit, I build the turnouts in mass production; a few days hard work whith cutting rail, shape them, solder them and check them, this succeed in 18 turnouts build in 2 and a half day.
Ed, Jack, and Marc,
Great pics!
Ed,
I never knew Pennsy had it's own version of the troop sleeper. No, no chewing gum in the FT truck. Seemed good to go with just baling wire.
Mike, is your hay barn constructed from scale timber?
Most of it is 1/16" basswood sheet, with 1/32" sheet for the roof. I used scale 2x3 lumber to make the battens. For bracing and the visible posts, I used 3/32" square sticks (equivalent to an 8x8), along with some scale 2x8 for bracing on the dock.