Living the dream.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a long holiday weekend!
I have this one Independence Day themed train. I have a set of the N scale Bicentennial cars that Kadee released back in 1976. This was before the Micro-Trains split.
I custom painted the Kato E unit for my STRATTON AND GILLETTE.
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
That is an old photograph, I am not sure where I took it. It looks like it might be on my cardboard layout mock-up project.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone's photographs this weekend
-Kevin
Thanks for setting up the July WPF, Kevin. Thanks, also for sharing your photo of your colorful train.
This week I decided to add an access road to the tool shed I installed last week. I'm usually not too much of a stickler for such details but when there are vehicles in a yard there should at least be a way for them to get there.
Access_road-early by Edmund, on Flickr
I simply glued bits of rail between the working rails and filled in the rest with some Durham's Rock Hard putty.
This is after a preliminary brushing with India ink wash:
Access_road by Edmund, on Flickr
A little sprinkling of gravel and more tire ruts will soon follow.
The feed mill just got a new Coke machine, too!
Feed mill Coke machine1 by Edmund, on Flickr
I'll have to re-shoot this with a better camera since the illuminated sign gets washed out. Seems like I need a higher resistance on the LED, too. Looks good in person, though.
Feed mill Coke machine by Edmund, on Flickr
I promise, no funny business this week.
Regards, Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning from sunny and hot Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, thanks for starting us out, nice picture, made me think about changing the one I had picked for today.
Ed, nice modeling, we have had that quandry at the club, put in a new structure, but how do you get to it with no road, sometime you have to plan a lot of stuff out to get a scene to work properly, good job on your part.
Bear, thankfully, I was not the subject of a Bear Toon, great ideas on the toon.
I got a little work done this week.
First up is a Bowser 1958CF Covered Hopper kit, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray paint and lettered with an old Champ Decal set. I finally managed to find this decal set as it had been discontinued in the 60's for no apparent reason and seeing it was in red lettering and I have never seen a picture of a red lettered car I asked Jim Hediger if the decal set was legit. Here is his answer, in the late 50's the DT&I was going to change the lettering from black to red on the Covered Hoppers, so the paint shop started the conversion with the new Epoxy paint for the lettering, but they used the thinner from the old paint instead of Epoxy thinner and most of the lettering washed off the cars in about 6 months, so they went back to the black. (I had to have one in red paint for my fleet of cars.)
Next a Branchline 50' DD Boxcar kit, with A-Line sill steps in place of the kit's plastic ones. Painted with Scalecoat II Black paint and lettered with Great Decals decals. The NF&D was purchased from the Southern by the N&W and in the mid 60's moved excess NKP 50' Double Door boxcars to it's roster. They were originally painted boxcar red and in the mid 70's some were repainted black like the one I did.
Since it is July 4th weekend, I will submit my favorite Bi-Centennial Unit from 1976. And it is the only unit painted new by one of the loco builders as the rest were all painted by the railroad shops. Athearn EMD GP38-2 with an auto parts train.
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!
Kevin, Thanks for opening the WPF with a 4th train.
Allez! Allez! Le Tour starts today!
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Have a good 4th of July weekend. Regards, Peter
gmpullmanKevin, thanks also for sharing your photo of your colorful train.
That Kato EMD E Unit is the only "stock" N scale locomotive from my N scale days that I still have. The rest of the SGRR locomotive roster was given to my friends Ron, Randy, and Rick. Their layouts all interchanged with the ficticional SGRR after those equipment donations.
The Bicentennial locomotive was not finished yet, so was never gifted away. I finished it a couple of years later when I scored the complete set of Kadee bicentennial cars and had something for it to pull. Unfortunately, I had painted it already and used my standard antique white, so it does not match the pure white used on the Kadee cars.
I have purchased a new undecorated body for it, but in the past 20 years I have never felt the real inspiration to finally put some paint it.
Eventually...
Thanks for starting giving us another WPF, Kevin.
That's a neat bicentennial train. When you finally get your layout room setup and begin building, are you going to incorporate the N loco and cars in the HO layout somehow? I'm just asking because of last week's photos showing forced perspective with two different scales in the same layout. Sounded interesting.
Ed, your city scene is really nice. I like those guard rails you've installed. When I was planning my bridge, I thought about putting those in. Then I forgot completely. I think it would be difficult to add them to the finished bridge.
Bear, I wondered what Ed had in the sack with the x's on it. I didn't think of anything like Ed's treasure.
Rick, just about every week I can write the same thing to you: your work with paint and decals is outstanding!
Peter, another great scene of the bike race. I look forward to seeing more scenes.
What's better than a trip to Dairy Queen on a hot summer day. This was a kit my wife bought me for Christmas. It's in a box right now waiting to find a good place on the layout.
York1 John
SeeYou190The rest of the SGRR locomotive roster was given to my friends Ron, Randy, and Rick. Their layouts all interchanged with the ficticional SGRR after those equipment donations.
I just started thinking about this. All three of these guys had good sized home N scale layouts.
Ron had a layout about 30 by 30 that loosely represented Western railroading with the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific.
Randy had a 15 by 20 layout that represented the Norfolk Southern and some CSX.
Rick had a 20 by 20 layout that was based on the Seaboard System/Family Lines.
The Stratton And Gillette interchanged regularly with all of these. The SGRR must be a truly massive nationwide rail network.
Love the BearToon
Great contributions by all!
Here's a better photo of the Coke Machine after I upped the resistor to 2.2KΩ
Coke_Machine_crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Wow, that was a year ago already!
Thanks, everyone!
Cheers, Ed
Well, I had a nice thing all typed up, then it all went "poof".... Let's try this again....
Kevin - Nice painting job on the locomotive.
Ed - Nice access road, looks very good. I like the simple crossing style, perfect for many I've seen in a lot of locations. Very neat vending area too.
Bear - You never know, Ed might have borrowed the old X marking the spot thing from some pirate somewhere....
Rick - Nicely painted and lettered cars. Interesting back story on the red letters too.
Peter - Nice bike race scene. Hopefully Bear stays behind the line....
York John - Very nice DQ store. We have a local store that gives them a run for their moeny on ice cream though.
I did just a few little projects, first up is a Life-Like Thrall all-door box car I found really cheap, and converted to body mounted KD's and metal wheelsets.
Bennett Lumber rebuilt - Workbench part 2 by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
I spent time to make sure it was free rolling, and that the couplers are the correct height. For a cheap car and supplies on hand, I think it turned out "good enough" to play it's part hauling lumber.
I also did a couple of quick assemblies of two Accurail covered hoppers, and another Con-Cor Oil Creek & Titusville excursion coach I had found.
This weeks projects, Part 1 by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
This was an "in progress" shot, I have since finished the MR&T hopper car stirrups, break gear, and cross-over platforms. This picture aptly illustrates how "layout-sized" the Con-Cor car is. again, it "looks the part" well enough that it is a good stand in for me.
The Life-Like box car is a "tribute car" for my layout, as my Grandfather (Mom's side) was Arthur Bennett. (No relation to the lumber company to our knowledge.) And the OC&T car works as a "stand in" for the real excursion line south of me. I know have two, and can add in a different passenger car or two to fill in on my occasional excursion trains.
Everyone keep all the good pictures coming!
(And hopefully this posts this time!)
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
gmpullman Love the BearToon Great contributions by all! Here's a better photo of the Coke Machine after I upped the resistor to 2.2KΩ Coke_Machine_crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Great touch, Ed. It's little details like that which make the difference between a good model railroad scene and a great one. When the casual viewer takes it in, the scene seems so much more real without the viewer even realizing why.
I actually have that same vending machine in my man cave. I keep mostly bottled beer in it. I have to deposit 35 cents to get a beer but I'm paying myself when I do.
I'm not sure but I think that model vending machine is from the 1960s. A little too late for my 1956 era layout or I would be tempted to do something similar.
Seems appropriate for this weekend!
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
Happy and Safe 4th of July! Gotta run, so I'll pass on comments other than to note the generally exemplary work of all, but have been working on this newly-narrow-gauged Rapido GMD-1. While HOn3 is tight for this gear-box, it isn't really that hard to do and I'll post a build thread when I get a chance. This is my first Rapido loco and I'm impressed. I'll leave a pic and a short video.
It's equipped with a Tsu-II. Most settings are still default, so it'll sound better soon.
I get demerits of those front numberboards, but the back ones came out great, so will re-do the fronts.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I was just testing photo shots. this inst bad for an incomplete scene. Mostly hunting bay with some good finds at good deals.
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space