Good morning from cloudy, cool and windy Northeast Ohio!
This is the thread where members of the forum can present their in progress models, finished models or shots of layouts, both new and old.
This is an IMRC 40' PS1 Boxcar kit, replaced the sill steps with metal A-Line sill steps, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and Black Paint and lettered with Mask Island Decals. The Rock Island purchased 100 of these cars in 1959 and had them outfitted with various number of belt rails for lading protection thus accounting for the DF2 markings on the car. This car was assigned to an industry on the PRR in Columbus, Ohio for loading.
This is one of the many tank cars built for the US Navy for the shipping of Helium to various locations for their lighter than air craft, they were later transfered to the US Dept of Mines for transporting Helium for various uses like NASA and research facilitites. The cars were extremely heavy due to the steel tubes used for storing the Helium, they had 100 ton trucks. The model was an old AHM one that I picked up, removed all the cast on grabs and replaced with metal grabs, also replaced the cast sill steps with A-line Steps. Replaced the roofwalk with a wood one from a 1937 AAR Boxcar kit. The trucks were a problem but I found a couple of old MDC ore car kits with the proper truck that I needed, plugged the holes from the old trucks and drilled new holes for the truck attachment. Painted the car with Scalecoat II UP Hopper Car Gray and lettered with Tichy Decals. I did these cars as the NASA Glenn facility here in Cleveland used to get a couple delivered every so ofter on the old B&O (now CSX) to a special siding with unloading piping.
Thanks for looking!
Rick Jesionowski
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!
Rick ..... Thank for stsrting Photo Fun ... Your RI 40's boxcar is outstanding. ALso, nice work upgrading the AHM helium car.
Here are older photos of my NP RS3's. They are Atlas "yellow box" models with Kato drives, and they are detailed and painted for Northern Pacific.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Thanks for starting off WPF Rick. I love the helium tank car. Great work!
Garry - Great photos as always.
Here is what I've been working on lately. I'm installing a Soundtraxx Tsunami in a Walther's SD70ACe. The Soundtraxx non-sound decoder that came in the loco was installed with the direction of travel wired back wards. I fixed that problem but the lighting was still wrong. I'm in the midst of installing the new decoder. Last steps are the ditch lights and the speaker, which will be a tight fit.
Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. Thanks to you WPF is always the best thread of the week.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Greetings! Rick, thanks for starting WPF.
Intermountain, HO Scale, PS 5277, ready for the spray booth.....
Terry
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
Rick: Thank you for starting us off this week. The lettering on the ROCK ISLAND car sure is striking. I also have always liked the helium cars. Not sure if I ever will have one, but they sure look great.
Garry: Those double headed RS3s are an unusual sight. I usually only see those operating as single units in pictures. Nice.
Allan: Looking at all that wire makes me not regret using straight DC power.
Terry: That is a handsome boxcar. I love the low-rider look with the deep side sills that nearly hide the trucks.
.
I have a new addition for my make-believe freight car fleet this week. This is a boxcar for the ATLANTIC MIDLAND & PACIFIC. The car is a Kadee PS1. This car was brand new in July 1954, so it has no weathering yet because it is only a few days old.
I messed up the background for the herald a bit, but as long as you don't magnify the image and look too closely, I doubt anyone will notice.
Please keep the photos and fun coming for the weekend.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Rick, I have the Kadee RTR version of that car, just really like the bold scheme. The helium car is a classic, I need to get my hands on one someday.
GARRY, Those Alcos are always in good taste.
Allan, I've been thinking about doing a couple of sound conversions myself.
Terry, Like Kevin, that lowrider look is great!
There's one bridge on the Tuscola Beltway and we laid track across it this week.
With a recent ops session, I moved enough cars to reach down into the depths of staging a bring up a train that was probably sent down there 6 months ago.
I've had the CCTV on at times so I've seen it via that. The motive power is reliable and it came right up the brief helix about 3 minutes to emerge into the light.
From there it's only a short run to the station.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hello, Folks
Another cold and rain/snow mixed weekend here in NE Ohio, as always seems to be the case on St. Patrick's day!
Thanks for getting us started, Rick. What a strange coincidence that you show your helium car. Just this week I dug mine out. I was going to use it as stationary tanks at an oxygen facility on my layout and just recently decided it was too nice not to run it in regular service! I'm sure I'll never find one in brass at anything close to an affordable price and I don't plan to spend the effort on, was it an Ambroid kit?
Helium_tube by Edmund, on Flickr
I just finished up on the running gear, then I'll do the stirrups. Not too sure about scraping off the grab irons... a repaint is definitely in the works.
Have you seen the photos of these cars at the Barriger Library on FLickr in the ACF album? Excellent source for detail views. Several more photos are there, too.
4368003 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
4368007 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
In my former job, one of my duties was filling hydrogen tube trailers, the same type of 22" diameter cylinders. That's why I'd like to have a few more of these cars on my layout.
GEfaceAN_0009 by Edmund, on Flickr
We had a testing facility here, too. Every five years the tubes had to be removed and tested for wall thickness and pressure. We tested them to 3,600 PSI.
I put together a pair of old Proto 2000 Mather stock cars. Great kits but tedious work.
Mather_stock_2 by Edmund, on Flickr
I also found time to make a load of timbers for this Nickel Plate flat car.
NKP_FLat-1945 by Edmund, on Flickr
Great stuff, everybody! The weekend is young yet. On to more great contributions
Cheers, Ed
Rick, Thanks the opening the WPF. Your helium car and the stories behind it are the 'right stuff'. Rare to see a blimp in the sky, but always a treat.
Ed, Assuming those cylinder tests were hydro?
Thanks to all the contributors and Happy Saint Patricks Day weekend, regards, Peter
Took a break from my modeling all morning to look at everyone else's work.
Great looking stuff guys! I always did love this thread..... Keep em coming TF
HO-VeloEd, Assuming those cylinder tests were hydro?
Hi, Peter
It was a hydrostatic test but with the additional measure of having the cylinder inside a well where the displacement of the surrounding water measured any expansion of the cylinder while under pressure.
Here are some of the "tubes" after testing. Small cylinders were oven-baked to dry them out but these got a circulating flow of nitrogen.
GE Hydrogen Tubes by Edmund, on Flickr
Primarily we made gases for lamp filling but our surplus hydrogen and oxygen was sold off to other industrial users. We would ship boxcars full of gas cylinders but I was never aware of any of the cylinder rail cars at the plant... but they "could" have in my imaginary scenario.
More neat stuff on helium cars here. A good look at the special clasp brake 100 ton trucks in the "Scrapping" photos, too.
https://www.amarillorailmuseum.com/helium-car
Some good things to look at here guys.
Here's some tunnel portals made out of foam. They are scribed with a ballpoint pen and finished with paint washes.
Before
After
Brick with sailor courses.
Random Stone.
And kind of a crazy set where three tracks come in one way and 3 out the other way separated. The left leg on the large one is shorter because the track is higher on that side.
More photos please. TF
Track fiddlerre's some tunnel portals made out of foam.
Russell
They look good, youtuber MarklinofSweden has a way to slice foam thinner. He has made similar things. I'm not sure thinner is any advantage at all for a portal, but he has made arched support structures, where it could be.
His painting of those structures might be of interest to you.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Thanks Russell and thanks Henry for the video, it was of interest to me. Quite the Craftsman, I picked up some things.
TF
Thanks for all the compliments and other musings on the Helium Tank Cars.
Ed, I got most of my information from Tony Thompsons Blog and the reference materail he linked to.
http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/04/helium-cars-part-1.html
My car was the Yellow Shell Oil car before I repainted it, I have one of the SP cars like yours Ed that I will be painting silver with the US Mines lettering.
The Brass car was the Major Built car which was somewhat different than the ACF cars that the AHM model was pattered after, and yes I did not want to shape all the cylinders that would be required to build the Ambroid car.
Peter, I live just north of Akron and I see the Goodyear blimps all the time, of course now they are made with a rigid frame like a diragable.
Gary, nice looking Alcos and a great picture, but they should be long hood first as god intended.
Kevin, nice looking car, and a helium tank car would fit your layouts time period.
Alan, like Kevin, doing DC, I don't like all the wiring needed for DCC.
Terry, a little inspiration for you:
hahahaha, nice one Rick! Funny how your inspirational 2nd pic is a striking resemblance of the prototype I plan on using (it's an ex-SM). Yesterday, I laid down a coat of gray primer. Once cured, I'll add some "pre-shading".
Thanks, Terry
dti406Kevin, nice looking car, and a helium tank car would fit your layouts time period.
How were helium cars operated? Were they just mixed in with regular freight trains, or did they require idler cars, etc?
Kevin,
The links to Terry Thompson's blog provide a lot of info on this. Helium was declared a strategic material and became a government monopoly when it looked like airships (blimps and dirigibles) might be the wave of the future in air travel. Helium was collected, stored, and distributed by the Navy and the cars were used to move it from Texas, the primary production fields, to the coasts where the airships operated.
Eventually, the government let the monopoly status slip and the trade became privatized. Thompson's blog posts aren't clear on this, but I think most of these cars went out of service after privatization and were scrapped. That's also when a lot of the traffic moved to trucks, which may have been a factor, too, in the decline in the RR cars' use.
The cars were heavy, but required no spacer cars AFAIK because helium is a "noble gas" and doesn't react with other substances. It won't catch fire or explode, although it is under high pressure.
Nice pictures everyone. I'm very busy at work, so I'm not getting much done. I did manage to add power pick-ups on my Climax, and added sound while I was at it. I managed to hide the speaker under the wood pile in the tender... Runs like a champ! Have a great week everyone.
Simon
climax B cc by on Flickr" alt="" />
https://northcountrytrains.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/workin-on-the-railroad-weekend-update/
I have done some scenery this weekend. I started with the far corner.
I 3D printed some HO scale oil drums. they cost 5 cents each and took 4 minutes to print. You can download the file here. They are way to big, I scaled them down in Autodesk Fusion 360.
The Rouses Point yard switcher would like to have some scenery to switch in, I’m getting there.
The southbound Adirondack overtakes RW-1 in Plattsburgh.
Some great contributions this week!
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
Those printed drums look good. Did you print them yourself or have a jobber do it for you?
I need a few more of these "Toxic Waste Drums" for this freight car project. These were cast in resin about 20 years ago by Fortress Figures, and I just cannot find another pack.
I might need to resort to printing them.
HarrisonThey are way to big, I scaled them down in Autodesk Fusion 360.
We used some "overpack" drums that were larger than the standard UN drum. They were sized so you could put a leaking 55 gallon drum inside these drums and take them to the hazmat processor.
For standard (HO) steel drums I like the Tichy ones as you can use them without the lids and they are molded in very thin wall thickness
Regards, Ed
SeeYou190 Those printed drums look good. Did you print them yourself or have a jobber do it for you? . I need a few more of these "Toxic Waste Drums" for this freight car project. These were cast in resin about 20 years ago by Fortress Figures, and I just cannot find another pack. . . I might need to resort to printing them. . -Kevin .
My robotics team has a printer. Beware about 3D printing, you can see the lines in the models and it can't do presise things. use low infill, and position your models so you don't have to have supporting. Large objects can cost well over $30. I am considering printing parts for a Jordan Spreader. 3D printing train parts can be a good hobby-in-hobby.
mlehman Kevin, The links to Terry Thompson's blog provide a lot of info on this. Helium was declared a strategic material and became a government monopoly when it looked like airships (blimps and dirigibles) might be the wave of the future in air travel. Helium was collected, stored, and distributed by the Navy and the cars were used to move it from Texas, the primary production fields, to the coasts where the airships operated. Eventually, the government let the monopoly status slip and the trade became privatized. Thompson's blog posts aren't clear on this, but I think most of these cars went out of service after privatization and were scrapped. That's also when a lot of the traffic moved to trucks, which may have been a factor, too, in the decline in the RR cars' use. The cars were heavy, but required no spacer cars AFAIK because helium is a "noble gas" and doesn't react with other substances. It won't catch fire or explode, although it is under high pressure.
Through an article in the NY Times, the monopoly ended in 1996 and once the loan to accumulate the helium was paid off then it would be sold at market rates. Because of this there is now a helium shortage.
After the monopoly ended the last railroad cars were laid up in 1998, so they were in service and used mainly at NASA facilites in the last years.
In the blog that I noted there are further links which included a handout for the ATSF convention of 2007 which had a lot of information on the use, production and reporting marks used on these cars during their lifetime.
dti406Through an article in the NY Times, the monopoly ended in 1996 and once the loan to accumulate the helium was paid off then it would be sold at market rates. Because of this there is now a helium shortage. After the monopoly ended the last railroad cars were laid up in 1998, so they were in service and used mainly at NASA facilites in the last years.
Rick,
What's not clear to me was whether the cars ever were prvatized or went out of use with the government-owned reporting marks. I suspect much of the distribution shifted to trucks before the end, with only the older, high volume customers like NASA and Air Force still being served by rail.
RR_Mel's mention of Holloman AFB is a good example of such large scale use. Those stratospheric-capable balloons used huge amounts of helium. Interestingly, their development was tied to something called the MOGUL program, a system designed to detect nuclear blasts by trying to maintain a audio sensor package at a fixed altitiude (around 45,000 feet IIRC). The problem is that balloons tend to want to go up or down, not stay in the same place. One of the early test flights in this program crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and, well, the rest is history - sort of. The secrecy surrounding the program was, as is said now, "above Top Secret" and this lack of comment sparked the speculation that this had something to do with UFOs. You can still run your helium cars into the siding to unload, but the Busch (?) UFO kit is not prototypical...
mlehman dti406 Through an article in the NY Times, the monopoly ended in 1996 and once the loan to accumulate the helium was paid off then it would be sold at market rates. Because of this there is now a helium shortage. After the monopoly ended the last railroad cars were laid up in 1998, so they were in service and used mainly at NASA facilites in the last years. Rick, What's not clear to me was whether the cars ever were prvatized or went out of use with the government-owned reporting marks. I suspect much of the distribution shifted to trucks before the end, with only the older, high volume customers like NASA and Air Force still being served by rail. RR_Mel's mention of Holloman AFB is a good example of such large scale use. Those stratospheric-capable balloons used huge amounts of helium. Interestingly, their development was tied to something called the MOGUL program, a system designed to detect nuclear blasts by trying to maintain a audio sensor package at a fixed altitiude (around 45,000 feet IIRC). The problem is that balloons tend to want to go up or down, not stay in the same place. One of the early test flights in this program crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and, well, the rest is history - sort of. The secrecy surrounding the program was, as is said now, "above Top Secret" and this lack of comment sparked the speculation that this had something to do with UFOs. You can still run your helium cars into the siding to unload, but the Busch (?) UFO kit is not prototypical...
dti406 Through an article in the NY Times, the monopoly ended in 1996 and once the loan to accumulate the helium was paid off then it would be sold at market rates. Because of this there is now a helium shortage. After the monopoly ended the last railroad cars were laid up in 1998, so they were in service and used mainly at NASA facilites in the last years.
Cars were never privatized, always under the US Dept of Mines until scrapped or put in a museum.
mlehman RR_Mel's mention of Holloman AFB is a good example of such large scale use. Those stratospheric-capable balloons used huge amounts of helium. Interestingly, their development was tied to something called the MOGUL program, a system designed to detect nuclear blasts by trying to maintain a audio sensor package at a fixed altitiude (around 45,000 feet IIRC). The problem is that balloons tend to want to go up or down, not stay in the same place. One of the early test flights in this program crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and, well, the rest is history - sort of. The secrecy surrounding the program was, as is said now, "above Top Secret" and this lack of comment sparked the speculation that this had something to do with UFOs. You can still run your helium cars into the siding to unload, but the Busch (?) UFO kit is not prototypical...