WPF 2/19-2/21

[fiatfan]

 Thank you all for your kind words. 

George, I will try that tip the next time I paint something.  This was my first ever engine build.  I may strip and repaint it.

BTW, the decals are actually pushing 50 years old.  I bought them when I was in high school which was '60-'64.

Again, thanks everyone.

 

Tom

[dragenrider]

Well done!  It's the paint job that make the engine believable.  That's a great looking kitbash!  

[BRVRR]

You guys have outdone yourselves again this week. Really outstanding modeling and photography.

I think I'm out of my league altogether.

I did manage to post some video on my coal train on YouTube. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUu9QqJNj8g

It is only about a minute long, but it does show one of my favorite lash-ups.

Keep the good stuff coming guys.

[wm3798]

Good looking stuff this week.

I spent some more quality time out shivering in the garage, but it wasn't too bad today, actually...  Got the extension built that will complete the connection between the helix and Elkins.  I apologize for the quality of the pictures.... new camera... haven't read the manual yet.

Here it is in progress this morning.

By 6 p.m, I had this together...



Then tunnel portal is the top of the helix.


Here's Elkins.  I gotta read the manual on the camera to see if it can do any better than this...

and here's a look at the whole assembly.  Elkins is on the right, the helix is on the left.


This is the last piece I can install on the wall before moving the work bench.  That will set in motion a massive chain of events that will ultimately lead to the completion of the plan I posted the other day elsewhere in these pages.

Lee

[mountaingoatgreg]

Ok I got bored and finished another car..

 

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Tom (fiatfan) ... Thanks for sharing your loco conversion Neat looking loco! Also, now I know how to fit a decoder in an SW unit.

[PA&ERR]

1.  Use a good quality tape and make sure it's snug against the surface when masking off areas for painting.

Tom,

Here is a neat trick I learned a few years back about masking...

Spray your first color. After it dries do your masking. Once your masking is done, spray along the edges of the mask with the first color again and let it dry.

Now, spray your second color!

Works like a charm!

-George

 

 

[fiatfan]

 Well, I got it done, such as it is.  Here's my "sweep" switching a car into Puppy's Pet Products.

Lessons learned:

1.  Use a good quality tape and make sure it's snug against the surface when masking off areas for painting.

2.  Paint is not a hole filler.

3.  Accu Flex #16-601 is not flat.  It dries to a nice gloss which would make a nice surface for applying decals.

4.  I wish I would have known about step 3 before I  put the decals on.

5.  Do NOT use 40 year old decals.  They have turned yellow.  Buy some new ones!

6.  Do not blow on decals while they are still wet with solvaset.  They will disappear at hypersonic speeds.

7.  Don't rush the painting.  Take time to follow the steps above.

8.  Using Pearls Drops or other gritty tooth paste really does smooth out an Athearn drive.  It also leaves the drive train minty fresh.

 

Tom

[stilson4283]

PA&ERR

Marc_Magnus

stilson4283

The first rail is now installed on my layout, two switches built only about 11 more to go. I hope to have a complete loop of track to start running on in the next week.

Hi,

You say "two switches" are built....Did you handlay them or did you use ready to run turnouts?

Good weekend.

Marc

 

Just from the picture, it looks like both his switch(s) and the track is handlaid.

-George

They are all built from Fast track jigs, and the track is from central valley tie strips. I would consider that more handlaid light.

Chris

Lancaster, CA

[PA&ERR]

Marc_Magnus

stilson4283

The first rail is now installed on my layout, two switches built only about 11 more to go. I hope to have a complete loop of track to start running on in the next week.

Hi,

You say "two switches" are built....Did you handlay them or did you use ready to run turnouts?

Good weekend.

Marc

 

Just from the picture, it looks like both his switch(s) and the track is handlaid.

-George

[Marc_Magnus]

stilson4283

The first rail is now installed on my layout, two switches built only about 11 more to go. I hope to have a complete loop of track to start running on in the next week.

Hi,

You say "two switches" are built....Did you handlay them or did you use ready to run turnouts?

Good weekend.

Marc

[rclanger]

Driline

Here's a few pics of my scratchbuilt Ralston Purina plant using foam core and strip styrene. I have yet to add details. So this is just a plain canvas for now..

 

Very nice. Please post again when you have the details to your liking. Looking forward to seeing them.

[stilson4283]

The first rail is now installed on my layout, two switches built only about 11 more to go. I hope to have a complete loop of track to start running on in the next week.

Chris

Lancaster, CA

[BRVRR]

Great stuff again this week!  Keep them coming.

I've been doing some scenery on the BRVRR this week. It is one of the parts of model railroading that I don't like to do.

I decided to work on the back-lot of my engine house. Time to cover up the dirt colored paint that has been the ground cover for years.

The first step was putting down some small brown ballast and various shades of ground foam over the general area. Here the Elmer's is still pooling. The track grid at right is for spare wheel sets.

Here is the nearly finished scene. The crane and compressor are from a LifeLike Scene Masters grouping. I still have to letter and detail it. The shed/shop is a bashed portion of the house from a Bachmann Steam Whistle Freight Station. The wheels are old plastic sets painted rust brown.

The spare rails are parts from old pieces of flex track and the ties I made from scale square beechwood, cut to length and colored with a Sharpie. I don't remember where the truck came from. The figures are Woodland Scenics or Bachmann I think. Still a little work to do to dirty things up a little, but I'm pleased with it for now.

All work and no play make for a dull railroader, so I did operate a train or two. In keeping with some of the earlier shots I made up a coal train and shot a little video. If I have time, I'll post some of it on YouTube this weekend. In the mean-time here's a still of the locos as they pass near the Berea Tower.

Leading the lash-up is NYC GP-40, #3083, an Atlas model with a Soundtraxx DSD-101LC decoder. Next is NYC GP-40, #3075, an Athearn BB model with a Digitrax DH163 decoder and last, NYC GP-20, #6109, a Proto2000 loco with another DSD sound decoder. The lash-up works together pretty well and sounds great!

Keep the good stuff coming guys. I love this thread.

[fiatfan]

 A while back, I was browsing through Railroad Picture Archives.NET when I stumbled upon this creature.  It's called a "sweep."  It combines the chassis/cab of an SW1200 with the hood of a GP9.  Since the image is copyrighted, here's the link.

Canac 7103 "Sweep"

I decided I had to have one, right now.  Since I didn't have an SW1200 I substituted an SW1500 which I had purchased last summer simply because it was so inexpensive.  I also had a dummy GP9.  Here are the victi... er, uh, volunteers.



First I removed a portion of the front of the SW1500 and chopped the stacks off.  You'll see the reason in a moment.  I also cut off a portion of the hood from the GP9.



Here's the time-saving step.  The GP9 was an old Athearn wide body.  Without the stacks on the SW1500 I was able to slip the hood of the GP9 over the hood of the SW1500.  This saved me quite a bit of time since I didn't have to remove the hood of the SW1500.  It also maintained a great deal of structural integrity.





Then I notched out the hood on the GP9 to allow for the steps on the SW1500.



Next is where I made a mistake.  All of my trial fittings had been on the body only without the chassis installed.  Once I had the chassis installed, I discovered that I needed to mill off a small triangular portion of the frame to allow the body to fit.  If you do this project, you may want to cut the GP9 hood just a little longer.  On the other hand, cutting of portions of the frame only added about 5 minutes to the project.



Here's the completed project.  



Total time from the first picture to the last was 1 hour and 15 minutes.  It still needs to go to the paint shop, get handrails and couplers, and tune the chassis.  Obviously it's not complete yet and one could spend hours adding details, re-motoring, re-gearing, etc., but it was a fun and easy project.  One could also use a more accurately scaled hood for the GP9 and it really wouldn't add much time to the project.

Tom

[Marc_Magnus]

Hi from Belgium,

This is my contribution to this WPF.

I have published some pics of a broken old engine house in last  WPF.

This was a very old Arnold Rapido model, I construct in 1973 ( I am 50 now!) in Nscale.

 This engine house was a gift of my late so loved father for christmas.

It was my first attempt to detail and to try weathering techniques.

For some unknow reasons, this model was never used on any of my layouts.

It was stored in a scrap box in a very bad condition and some parts were destroyed or missing.

Because this model have so much memories for me, I restored it and rebuild it this week  in a decent condition.

Parts of the roof were rebuild, the clestory is repaired,news doors were constructed, new colors, a few details inside, new chimneys,  leds lighting and a new small shed on the side is also reconstructed.

Many new details were added; the glazing is full Micro Scale Krystal Clear.

As usual I added some scenery around the base so the model will become parts of the engine facility on my under construct yard.

The two first pics are the "before restored".

Good week end.

Marc

 

  

 

 

 

 

[zgardner18]

Driline

 Here's a few pics of my scratchbuilt Ralston Purina plant using foam core and strip styrene. I have yet to add details. So this is just a plain canvas for now...

 Okay what is up with those clouds?  Are they painted or photos because I really like them.

Here's is the only thing that I have done so far this weekend.  I put together this slideshow of all the random photos that I had on Photobucket.  This link is down in my signature.  Just click on the photo.  The slideshow moves pretty fast so I recommend stopping it and moving through it one by one.

[blownout cylinder]

Silver Pilot: Beautiful work there! Even the windows have real glass!

[Anonymous]

Driline

Here's a few pics of my scratchbuilt Ralston Purina plant using foam core and strip styrene. I have yet to add details. So this is just a plain canvas for now...

<snip>

 

Now THERE'S an example of a model railroad industry large enough to support rail service! 

[mountaingoatgreg]

All weathered and ready to ride the rails

 

 

And a custom painted Locomotive I did for a customer....

[Driline]

 Here's a few pics of my scratchbuilt Ralston Purina plant using foam core and strip styrene. I have yet to add details. So this is just a plain canvas for now...

[Driline]

 

Silver Pilot

Some SOO F3 weathered for a friend.

I love the paint fade. It looks so real. I want one.

[jecorbett]

Great work everyone. It's nice to get back online after a series of heavy snowstorms here in Ohio covered by internet satellite dish and knocked me off line for 10 days. I was able to get to the library computers but was given only an hour of time and that was just enough to catch up on banking, bill paying, and a few other pieces of business. I missed the last two WPFs and I'm too lazy to scroll through the archives. Earlier this week I rigged up a hair dry to two wooden poles that gave me a combined 12 foot length which was just enough to reach the satellite dish from the top of the ladder and melt enough ice and snow to get me back on line. Today we are getting our first significant melt. The last I heard, we might be getting another major storm around Sunday. The hair dry is still attached to the poles.

I am in the midst of a major scenic project, my first largely residential area using techniques from Lou Sassi's excellent book. It's been slow going but I'm finally making some headway and hope to have the area photo ready in a couple weeks. I know a lot of modelers post in-progress photos but for some reason, I like to have my scenes relatively complete before posting them. In the meantime, all these excellent photos are keeping me inspired.

[IVRW]

Great job everybody! Howmus, thats hard board by board construction, but it looks great, Robby, really nice shot, and Tyler, way to go on getting projects done, just to name a few.

Well, the family went down to Arizona last week, and so I didint get much done on my RR. Now hold it! That doesnt mean I was devoid of trains! Far from it!

First, we went to a Wild West attraction, and guess what was there? A Train

This is 'supposedly' a 1/3 construction of a loco from the 1860s

Then we went to downtown, and guess what was there? A Train

This was a huge railyard. Sorry for the quickly snapped photo.

Next, we went out to a National Park, and guess what was there? A Train

An old SP SD class, running a local (?) on an old branch (?).

Finally, we returned home, and guess what was there? A Train

I finally started ballasting again!

[RailfanS]

Motley

Jamie, what engine house is that you have? Is that the Walthers Cornerstone one?

 

I'm pretty sure it's a Walthers Cornerstone. I bought it at a show for about $5, already "built" but in rough shape (missing some windows, the orignal roof, ect.). I figured it would be better to buy a fixed-upper rather than the $40+ Walthers kit that I think it is.

 

[Motley]

RailfanS

Well here's my big accomplishment this week:

I finally had the time to realign the tracks and install the base of the car/ loco shops. As you can see the building still needs some work, but that can be done a little at a time. I can now move Loco's into and out of the shop under their own power.

Also here's a video I recorded today of my SD40-2 moving the MOW train out of the yard after the project was completed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti1BQ_A0jbU

 This video features rare footage of a CVS unit running long hood forward on the mainline.

Have a great weekend,

Jamie

 

Jamie, what engine house is that you have? Is that the Walthers Cornerstone one?

[Anonymous]

First up, a "good looking" photo from me because everything else is just progress shots.

LE-2 switching at night in West Canaan, NH.

I recently starting building a burned-out barn from Horst Meier's article in Model Railroader. Here's the materials.

A couple hours later, the wall frames and roof ends have been started. I bought way too little of the heavy square stripwood so my roof is going to be built of the skinny stuff. My barn is going to much more destroyed than the one in the article.

I also *finally* put sides on the Shaker Hill Road bridge in Enfield! They just need paint and weathering.

It could be a few weeks till these projects are done (IF they ever get done! ) but I'll be sure to post photos then!

 

[Robby P.]

  I see the "bar" is set higher each week.

  Here's a shot from me .

[RailfanS]

Well here's my big accomplishment this week:

I finally had the time to realign the tracks and install the base of the car/ loco shops. As you can see the building still needs some work, but that can be done a little at a time. I can now move Loco's into and out of the shop under their own power.

Also here's a video I recorded today of my SD40-2 moving the MOW train out of the yard after the project was completed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti1BQ_A0jbU

 This video features rare footage of a CVS unit running long hood forward on the mainline.

Have a great weekend,

Jamie