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Some freight cars for a 1940s Pennsy layout

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Posted by jon grant on Sunday, November 14, 2010 7:05 PM

As the train rounds the curve to depart the developing scenic area, I get a chance to model my new hat for the weekend, and bring an end to a hectic 3-week modelling period.

Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Sunday, November 14, 2010 6:50 PM

Some general shots of the Plywood Pennsy layout


The hand-made turnouts have Pennsy-specific detailling parts. View shows the B&O branch crossing the Pennsy main 

Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Sunday, November 14, 2010 6:31 PM

Some shots of the river crossings. The double track bridge is the Pennsy main and the single bridgeis the B&O branch

Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Sunday, November 14, 2010 6:17 PM

Plenty of cabooses in evidence on the day

The show that I have been furiously building freight cars for, finally happened this weekend.

We only used my freight cars for the whole weekend, John Wright providing the passenger stock and Pennsy locos. This made packing up on Sunday afternoon a whole lot easier, not having to worry about who owned what freight car.

Here are some photos. First up - the fiddle yard.(The old chap in some of the photos is called Alan - he's 82 and came over from Toronto for the show. What a guy)

Jon

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Posted by pike-62 on Friday, November 12, 2010 5:49 AM

Here is a good caboose candidate for that era.

 

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Posted by NeO6874 on Thursday, November 11, 2010 3:16 PM

only thing you're missing is a caboose... otherwise, very convincing train you have there Jon Big SmileThumbs Up

-Dan

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Posted by jon grant on Thursday, November 11, 2010 3:00 PM


Finally, some overall shots of the 1940s tank train


End (for now)


Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Thursday, November 11, 2010 2:44 PM

Thanks lads

The tank cars are the last of the freight cars to be done before the Tyneside Show at the weekend. I haven't had to do too much work on these other than to re-fit a few couplers.

I have decided to leave the broken plastic handrails as they are, as they would take too much time to replace with brass wire and brass handrail stanchions from Precision Scale (I have 4 packs waiting in the wings)


Jon

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Posted by rrinker on Thursday, November 11, 2010 8:53 AM

Brilliant.

Now, if there is a Kodachrome effect - those photos WOULD be prototype photos taken in the 40's.

                         --Randy

 


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Posted by NeO6874 on Thursday, November 11, 2010 7:52 AM

to quote one Wayne Campbell:

BowI'm not worthy!Bow

-Dan

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 8:05 PM

I also had a bit of time to add some weathering to a Proto 2000 NKP Berkshire, although I haven't had time to get the front light working yet


Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 7:46 PM

....


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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 7:33 PM

Now for the individual cars

......

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 7:16 PM

I've been working on weathering some coal hoppers from Accurail, Proto2000 and Tichy, and making some removable coal loads out of real crushed coal - nothing else looks the same as the real stuff.

Here are some photos of the whole train of recent additions


Next, the individual cars

Jon

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Posted by jon grant on Monday, November 8, 2010 4:34 PM

rrinker

 You mean that little blurb in the instructions that says for certain roads, cut the side sills like so?                                    --Randy 

That's the one. It's amazing what can be found out by actually reading the instructionsSmile, Wink & Grin

SOU is one of them that gets the cuts.

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Posted by rrinker on Monday, November 8, 2010 4:27 PM

 You mean that little blurb in the instructions that says for certain roads, cut the side sills like so? My very first one I sort of butchered, figures I'd pick a road that needed the sills cut. I got better after that. Not all roads get the cuts though.

                                   --Randy

 


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Posted by jon grant on Monday, November 8, 2010 3:37 PM

Now for some 50ft boxcars. These are all Proto 2000, but notice the difference in the side sill cutouts between the two Southern cars. This will be corrected now that I've spotted it. I only bought thekit of the open-door model yesterday and followed the instructions properly, this time.


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Posted by jon grant on Monday, November 8, 2010 3:17 PM

Thanks for the information FTB. I'm struggling for time before the show this weekend andI doubt I'd have time to do anything about it anyway.

 

Moving on, some war emergency 50ft flat cars from Proto 2000 and an Athearn 40ft flat.


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Posted by FreightTrainBlues on Friday, November 5, 2010 4:35 AM

Just read the fine print! (on the car sides - LOL)

I'd also be wary of that MDT reefer (gothic 'MDT'), Monon covered hopper (fancy colored lettering) and Atlantic East coast (colored large-ish logo) : please do report back on their latest shop dates if you have time.

A really nice bunch of cars, otherwise. If there was to be another PRR car I would think an X-29 the most likely to pop up. A B&O wagon-top would be icing on the cake (but not with the large B&O lettering!!!) as would a rib-sided MILW car.

To firmly place your train in the 40's, consider two companies that were gone early 50's: the Wheeling and Lake Erie (into NKP) and the Pere Marquette (into C&O). Would be curious to hear of other roads.


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Posted by jon grant on Thursday, November 4, 2010 8:22 PM

FreightTrainBlues

Beautiful - but if you really want to split hairs, for a '40's train I would leave out the DL&W car with the large so-called billboard "LACKAWANNA" lettering, it's post-'55. ...Not too sure about that Wabash 'Follow the Flag' either. Okay I'm probably just jealous : ) Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for that snippet of info, I'll get onto it and report back.

One of my 1960 Wabash cars has a flag inside a heart. Maybe the Flag could be late 40s (fingers crossed)

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Posted by FreightTrainBlues on Thursday, November 4, 2010 7:38 PM

Beautiful - but if you really want to split hairs, for a '40's train I would leave out the DL&W car with the large so-called billboard "LACKAWANNA" lettering, it's post-'55. See the versions side by side in the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society shop: http://erielackhs.org/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=15&Itemid=6&TreeId=9

Not too sure about that Wabash 'Follow the Flag' either. Okay I'm probably just jealous : ) Keep up the good work.

 


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Posted by NeO6874 on Thursday, November 4, 2010 9:55 AM

brilliant work, sir.

Hope to get things looking that goo... waitaminute... those are prototype shots Stick out tongue

-Dan

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 9:05 PM

Finally for tonight, another 3 boxcars


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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 8:54 PM

Three covered hoppers - 2 ECW and one Bowser


Jon

 

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Posted by jon grant on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 8:40 PM

I've been working on a few more freight cars tonight, starting with a few reefers from Cannonball, Trix and C&BT.


2 sides of the same car


Jon

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Posted by edkowal on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 11:55 AM

jon grant

Hi all

I've spent the last couple of weeks speed-modelling and weathering a batch of my unused freight cars to help provide sufficient rolling stock for a Pennsy layout - Westmoreland Junction - which is due out at Tyneside (UK) show in a couple of weeks....

 Jon

Hi Jon:

As has been mentioned by others, great work.  I buy some of the British magazines at a local hobby shop here in Buffalo NY ( Miami of the North to you New Worlders) & have found that the work done by those in Britain and the continent is generally very much better than what we see in the American general circulation magazines such as Model Railroader.

Granted, what you see published tends to be the cream of the crop, but it's also the case with websites which you can visit, too.  I believe it has to do with the smaller sizes of what each modeller (British spelling) tries to work on.  Whereas we on this side of the Atlantic try to fill a basement, you on the other side tend to work on a diorama sized section of a larger whole.  That and the techniques manuals are better, as well.  At least in _my_ not so humble opinion.

So ends the lecture.  There WILL be homework & an exam at the end of the week.  Hope you all were paying attention.

-Ed K

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Posted by NeO6874 on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 11:35 AM

I didn't take the photo, it's one I liberated from the internet (though the 4070 isn't in much better shape than what you see there).

-Dan

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Posted by cudaken on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 6:03 AM

 Ever time I look at the layout I am amazed by the details Jon. I like the first set of box cars with the rounded edges the best. Never seen any like them before.

         Ken

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Posted by jon grant on Monday, November 1, 2010 8:34 PM

Last boxcars of this train.


Plenty more boxcars to go...

Jon

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