Hello again, and I wish a very Happy Weekend to everyone.
I have not been posting anything about my ongoing house remodel for a couple of weeks. It has come to a standstill for a bit. I am done with all the interior projects I had going. The next step for the interior is the new master bedroom.
Before I start that, I want to get the outside painted, and working on prep and hiring someone to do the painting has become a time consuming chore. I need to get this done before the rainy season begins.
I think I have someone hired now, but it will be at least three weeks before it is completed.
Anyway... this leaves a little time for trains!
I finished this project this week. One cute little 40 foot long T.O.F.C. flat car with one of those nifty Classic Metal Works trailers.
OK... we are out of the gate and off to the weekend.
Please join in and share your photos. Lets all have some fun this weekend!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Kevin It looks great.
Thanks for starting us of on what is, for many of us, a blustery March weekend, Kevin! I like your TOFC flat. I was working on a some of mine a few weeks ago. I'll have to get photos soon. Looking forward to the Rapido PRR F30 cars in the near future.
I haven't spent as much time in the train room as I'd have liked but I did make some progress on the signal bridge I started two weeks ago. I temporarily set it in place and tested the red LEDs:
Signal_DB by Edmund, on Flickr
I may put one more mast on the other side for the main track. I really don't care for fussing with those delicate magnet wires
I'll use 2 or perhaps 3 Signal Animators from Logic Rail. Setting up a signal bridge like this can get a little steep. What you see here will run about $175
All in fun, though!
Let's see some more great contributions
Cheers, Ed
Thanks for starting us of Kevin
Great looking T.O.F.C flat.
Ed Good to see you started with red. Safety first.
Two of my young grandchildren bought me some flowers for my birthday. I have been busy planting (some) of them.
At the 'Coach & Horses Inn'
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Kevin- Thanks for starting the week out right with that great looking flat car and trailer! They both look great!
Ed- Nice signal bridge! The red lights look fantastic. And if the wires are anything like the ones from my walthers crossing signals, I totally get what your saying. Trying to get them in the correct holes, while upside down under the layout made me want to give up a few times.
David- I like the flowers a lot! Really brightens up the scene. Good thing that dog turned the other way before doing his buisness.
This week I have 2 new additions (and the final for now until the pre ordered GP9 from proto comes in in june)
To start off I found a smoking deal on this rivet counter BNSF SD40-2. After receiving a NS dash 9 instead of this one and going through the return process, after 3 weeks I finally got the right one. Well worth the wait! This thing sounds awesome! The keep alive is a nice feature as well.
And this early birthday present to myself, Genesis Milwaukee road F7
Keep up the good posts!
My project. I've been trying to print out HO scale figures in PLA.
Kevin: That looks great
Ed. Im on break at work, so just glancing but who made the mast?
David: very nice period feeling.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Good morning everyone.
Kevin, thanks for another good start for the WPF. Your decal work on your cars is always the best. Good luck with the continuing house work.
Ed, the signal tower looks good. I'm with you about the wires. Working with the tiny magnet wires is not easy.
David, another great scene from England. The dogs and horses look good! Lots of great details. Just one dog lifting his leg before the hunt? Your close-up photography is also good.
Ringo, while your SD-40 is nice, I'm really a fan of E and F units. Video of that F starting up, light moving, and pulling out is nice!
This week I haven't worked on anything, but here is a picture of my gas station. I finally added some N Scale people to the layout. The people I bought don't have much detail, but if you not closer than about 2 or 3 feet, you can't tell:
It's early Friday morning (except for David!) so we have time for a lot of good photos.
York1 John
Jimmy, I think I was writing my post when you posted. Nice work on the figures. I don't understand the abbreviation. (I'm old.) Are you making these with a 3D printer?
Jimmy- nice work on the 3D printed figures!
John- Love that gas station! Very lifelike scene! Well except for the gas prices lol. Is the Ice machine hand made?
Great work everyone!
I've finished assembling my 3 Flexi-Flo hoppers this week, and after some clean up, paint comes next.
Going to be real nice up here this week end, so I'll set up my air brush out side.
The detailing kits I used are from Plano.
I learned that I need better quality needle nose pliers to do the intricate bending that some of these pieces need before they are installed.
Have a great weekend!
Mike.
My You Tube
Good morning from sunny and cold Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, thanks for starting us out another nice looking car.
Ed, good looking signal tower, we have signals at the club, luckily somebody else does that intracant work.
David, thanks for your great looking scene, a lot of work went into it.
Ringo, your engines and cars look good,, keep up the good work.
John, love that gas station scene very realistic!
I managed to get some work done this week.
Bowser 100 Ton Hopper Car kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black and lettered with Herald King Decals. The PRR after building 16000 H39 70Ton Hoppers, 5 years later starting bulding 100 Ton Hoppers and built a few thousand before the PC days. The yellow ball indicates that the car was in unit train service.
IMRC 50' PS1 Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II B&M Blue and Black Paints, then lettered with Highball Graphics decals. A few weeks ago I did the modernized version of this car with its new paint scheme, this time with the as delivered paint scheme.
I recently got a deal on some undecorated Arrowhead Models H39 Hopper car kits, so here are all the pieces in the box that I have started working on. I will show some in progress pictures as I try to build the first of these kits.
A pair of Bowser GMDD SD40-2's with a fleet of Canadian Grain Hoppers that I built at the club layout.
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!
Ringo58John- Love that gas station! Very lifelike scene! Well except for the gas prices lol. Is the Ice machine hand made?
Thanks!
I made a styrene box, copied an image from online, sized it down to fit, and glued the image to the plastic.
I have to admit that being new to the hobby, I didn't think of how to do it.
That's the best thing about this forum. Someone showed me how to do that. I don't remember who, but they even did it with the gas pumps. I had already done the pumps, or I would have done the same and they would have looked better.
Good morning everyone. This edition of weekend photo fun is certainly off to a very good start.
Ed: Great work on the signal tower project. I have only used signals to indicate turnout position and such, never for train control. However, even if not use prototypically they do add a lot to a layout.
David: Thank you for sharing another of the great looking scenes on your beautiful layout.
Ringo: For some reason I cannot see your pictures. When this glitch corrects itself I will be back.
Jimmy: Figure Painting! That is one of my favorite pastimes. Did you print those?
John: Your scene with the filling station sure looks great. The area lighting beneath the canopy is very effective.
Mike: Your finished Flexi-Flow hopper car is incerdible. You should be very proud of those results.
Rick: That Arrowhead hopper car looks like an amazing kit. It sure looks like a fun project.
The figures are printed with PLA filament. Theres at least two different types of 3D printers readily available,Filament and Resin.
I printed this on a filament one, and pla is a type. Yup, I've got skin color coming in today from airbrush supply.
Everybody: ........... Excellent work !
....
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Great stuff as usual everyone. Taking a little different view this week. Below are pictures of a project that I started over 40 years ago.
In 1978 MR published a story about the a railroad you can model, the Green Bay & Western. The east end of the GBW is the Lake Michigan carferry dock in Kewaunee WI. They published the plans for the GTW City of Milwaukee which is the typical carferry built in the 1920s and 1930s. Being 16 I thought that I wanted to make a model so I found a 1/2 inch piece of plywood for the base, corrugated and shirt cardboard for the sides and superstructure, a piece of old paneling for the main deck and wire, dowels and small pieces of wood for everything else. Not too bad for a 16 year old with no resources. It's built to scale and has the 4 tracks that were typical of the Lake Michigan boats.
Found it again at my fathers house about 5 years ago and brought it home to see what could be done. Finally getting back to it.
Scott Sonntag
Lakeshore Sub Great stuff as usual everyone. Taking a little different view this week. Below are pictures of a project that I started over 40 years ago. In 1978 MR published a story about the a railroad you can model, the Green Bay & Western. The east end of the GBW is the Lake Michigan carferry dock in Kewaunee WI. They published the plans for the GTW City of Milwaukee which is the typical carferry built in the 1920s and 1930s. Being 16 I thought that I wanted to make a model so I found a 1/2 inch piece of plywood for the base, corrugated and shirt cardboard for the sides and superstructure, a piece of old paneling for the main deck and wire, dowels and small pieces of wood for everything else. Not too bad for a 16 year old with no resources. It's built to scale and has the 4 tracks that were typical of the Lake Michigan boats. Found it again at my fathers house about 5 years ago and brought it home to see what could be done. Finally getting back to it. Scott Sonntag
That is a very impressive build! Love taking old pieces of wood and cardboard and making such an awesome build out of it.
Rick and Mike, good looking freight!
I recieved my Oxford Rails Dean Goods (and railgun) from across the pond early this week. No photos of the railgun although it's very nicely detailed! The little 0-6-0 is a very smooth runner and the sound is very different from what I'm used to in terms of the whistle and the lack of bell and headlight (lamps, rather).
I do enjoy how OO gauge manufacturers approach their market. Lots and lots of steam locos available, prices are not extravegent, detail is fantastic (and the little bags of extra detail you can fit is a great idea), and the plastic coal loads are often removable in the newer offerings allowing you to fit real coal or something similar.
I don't recall the last time I saw a steam locomotive over here with such a detailed cab that wasn't custom work. Granted, not all locomotives in OO have such detail or is painted up.
The cab definitely needs a crew though. I've also removed the plastic coal as it looks a little too fake and it will get fitted with some real coal, and it needs a little weathering for service on the western front. This will only the first of many OO steam locomotives to add to the collection I think!
The Backshops - A blog dedicated to modeling projects
I made 3 videos
Hi, Folks
Jimmy_BraumEd. Im on break at work, so just glancing but who made the mast?
I had to do some digging, I bought them years ago, but discovered they are made by NJI:
https://njisignals.com/collections/ho-signals/products/1303?variant=3736452292
Originally had three-lead bi-color LEDs in them but trying to get the yellow color was nearly impossible so I removed those LEDs and replaced them with the tiny 3 color ones from Evan Designs. The Evan product has very nice color representation.
https://evandesigns.com/collections/hobby-leds/products/signal-led-red-yellow-green
And the controlling circuitry are from Logic Rail:
https://www.logicrailtech.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16322&cat=0
SeeYou190Ed: Great work on the signal tower project. I have only used signals to indicate turnout position and such, never for train control. However, even if not use prototypically they do add a lot to a layout.
Thank you, Kevin
I've talked to some modelers that want a full CTC or ABS system and my position is that this is really impractical, at least in my estimation. At least half the signals I would need in a truly realistic traffic control system would be impossible to see, as in facing away from the operator.
This is why I like the Signal Animator mentioned above. It is customizable enough to give pretty realistic indications. They can be tied into track turnout positions and I use override switches so the signal will not display clear if the direction of travel is opposite to the signal display.
EMD_Demo by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_9501_F3 by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_8577 by Edmund, on Flickr
Great stuff this weekend, folks!
Jimmy: Thank you for the additional information about your 3D printed figures.
Garry: Great to see you back! Thank you for sharing another wonderful picture of your layout.
Scott: Wow! That is an amazing project. It is wonderful that you still have it. I don't have very many things from my youth, and nothing like that. Thank you for sharing it.
Micktropolis: That is a wonderful little model. You are right about the backhead, the detail is incredible. With so little of a roof, it makes it better that is can be seen so easily.
GN24: Thanks for sharing the videos.
Ed: Thanks for the information on how you use the signals. My dream house layout was supposed to have a CTC system, and I even had a 7 by 8 room for the CTC panel. It was only ever used as a big closet for storage.
Kevin, Thanks for starting the WPF, nice TOFC, those old trailers are neat, the gingerbread gives them a sorta art-deco flair.
David, Great classic hunting scene.
John, Seen thru the eyes of an 'ex-pump jockey' I especially enjoy your gas station and the lighting really sets the scene.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers, Happy Spring, regards, Peter
Great stuff everybody. Great photos and awsome projects. Thanks to all.
Nothing photogenic from the BRVRR this week, so here is one from the archives: Santa Fe FP-45, #5941, was the first twelve-wheeled diesel I purchased for the Black River Valley Railroad.
Keep the photos and ideas coming. Thanks to all of you, WPF is always the best thread of the week.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
I am slowly converting my locomotive fleet to sound decoders. This afternoon I installed Soundtraxx decoders in a couple of Genesis F7A's. Here's a photo of them.
Kevin, thanks for the kickoff. I am enjoying everyone's contributions as usual. The variety of items is interesting in itself.
I have all the rolling stock I need but make the mistake of looking at EBay several times a week. Kit building being a favorite, I procured this Trains Miniature 25T crane and tender car kit (one box). I was not familiar with these kits. They are pretty basic, with a few shortcomings, but I like the way they turned out nonetheless. Pretty cheap entertainment at $14 plus shipping. Having done two Athearn crane kits plus this one, I'm obviously procrastinating on tackling the Tichy that I have in a box. Maybe next up?
20210321_162207 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20210321_162028 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Here's this afternoon's project, a cobbled-togther pipe load for an ancient Athearn 40' flatcar. Brass and aluminum tubing on stained railroad tie wood strips. The white stuff is the Elmer's glue that hasn't dried yet.
2021-03-21_01_Flatcar-pipe-load by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr
Bill
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"
The load of Chevelles is almost ready. Factory ran out of wheels for the last 5 cars
Peter: Thank you for sharing that beautiful picture of your BN Hopper.
Allan: Your ATSF FP45 is a fine looking locomotive.
JDVass: Those are fine looking F unit models.
Paul: The Train Miniature crane model is one of my favorites. It is more of a construction crane than a wreck crane, and I like that. The Tichy crane is quite a kit.
Bill: Thank you for sharing the progress on that nice-looking flat car load.
Pike62: Your automobile load for the open auto racks is looking great! I can't wait to see it finished.
I hope I did not miss anyone. I will see you all next weekend.
Be safe.