Hello everyone who came to share and stare! Hope you had a great week and stayed at a moderate temperature in these times of environmental excesses. Generally a great time to stay safe indoors working on the railroad.
Here's a pic of 2-6-0 #7 sporting her new front coupler. It's kinda squeezed on there, but it works.
Rebuilding this loco and converting it to DCC has been a very satisfying project. It's not over yet, I'm sure there will be more, Sound, for instance. Maybe. For now I have rugged pulling power and reliability.
I created a lot of video today of it touring the layout. It just keeps going. The first 5 videos from this are the last 5 videos in the main thread right now.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/274018.aspx
I used my gyro-stabilizer to make them easy to watch That's also come a long way in the last 10 days. Here's a few more pics worth sharing.
Shorty at the Station
Closeup of that ugly but useful coupler:
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks for getting our first February WPF thread started, Mike! I like that "No Nonsense" air reservoir on old No. 7! Front couplers have been a real challenge for me on almost all steam locos. Glad you are making progress!
I've spent a few nights in the layout (basement) and with temps at minus eight yesterday I was not too bad at about 65. The one consolation I kept telling myself was that all the heat from the basement eventually worked its way upstairs so wasn't too much energy wasted
Here's the project of the week. Glad to get back into scenery work after a long absense:
Burger_house2 by Edmund, on Flickr
This is only the early stages, of course. Lots more to do.
I even managed to assemble a trio of Proto, Mather box cars.
BurgerCrossing_xm by Edmund, on Flickr
and I made a little, timber base for the watch box at the crossing:
Burger_Crossing_A by Edmund, on Flickr
I'll blame Kevin for this one
A few weeks ago he asked me about my PRR NDa cabin car. I dug out a kit that I had for a Pennsy ND bobber which also prompted me to watch for one on Ebay!
Wouldn't 'ya know... one came up and no one else bid on it. So I had to adopt it!
PRR_ND-1-19b by Edmund, on Flickr
Another neat thing is that it was originally sold by Don Thomas from right here in my neck of the woods!
PRR_ND-1-19 by Edmund, on Flickr
A reciept inside showed that this caboose traveled more between dealers than it ever did on the Pennsy! From Ohio, to Connecticut, to Kentucky, to California, and finally — back to Chardon, Ohio!
What a history!
On to more great Stuff, folks...
Cheers, Ed
Mike: Thank you for getting us going this week. Front steamer couplers are a challenge for sure. I added one to the front of a brass Mikado, and ended up building a whole new pilot. That would not be an option for your beautiful ten wheeler.
Ed: Sorry about making you buy that wonderful caboose model. It sure does look good. I like the way you can get them with either 4 wheel drive or eight wheel drive. Mine are unpowered.
.
I have another one of the Proto 2000 Mather Boxcars completed this week. The Blue River Line now has two freight cars for my layout.
Keep the good stuff coming. Sorry for the lack of response from me last weekend. My finger injury made it very difficult to type.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good morning from cold and snowy Northeast Ohio! Slid into work this morning after the bone chilling cold the last two days.
Mike, thanks for starting us out, and yes front couplers on steamers can be a real challenge, especially if you want to use them for switching way freights.
Ed, great find, I think I made my first purchase on E-Bay from Don Thomas.
Kevin, nice job, the wood horizontal sides makes for easier decaling.
Worked on some more kits this last week, still have not got my painting area set up yet, and I was not going out to the garage and paint in this weather!
A pair of covered hoppers that I completed, will attach the roofwalk to the larger one after it is painted and decaled as I want to leave it in its galvanized state. These will both be for the same railroad, but vastly different paint schemes.
Atlas FMC 5077CF Boxcar Kit.
Exactrail 4427CF PS Covered Hopper kit, have the weights installed, bulkheads, frames, and slack adjusters installed.
Another shot of my SD45's with a mixed covered hopper train of PC, PRR and NYC cars.
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!
Mike- very nice steamer.
Ed- that corner is looking good!
Kevin- I don't know how you turn out those boxcars weekly!
Rick- nice looking cars.
I moved the Rouses Point yard ladder farther south for increased car capasity.
Georgia Pacific can now ship by both trucks and trains.
Me and my friend are working on "kitbashing" a F7 by fitting a Bachman shell onto a Kato drive and installing DCC.
And I installed a "facia" made out of matboard, town names and track diograms coming soon.
Keep the photos coming,
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
dti406Ed, great find, I think I made my first purchase on E-Bay from Don Thomas.
I think Don is semi-retired (finally!). When I was building my layout I was visiting Don & Friends every Monday night at his basement layout/salesroom. Little-by-little the hobby business changed and folks like him were pretty much squeezed out of the picture.
Don would get you just about any item available at only a small markup. A very reputable person to deal with.
Great contributions, everybody!
Carry On, Ed
Good stuff this week all. Here's my project.
Making another theatre end OCS car
(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).
Jimmy_Braum Good stuff this week all. Here's my project. Making another theatre end OCS car
Jimmy, I would love to see more details on this project. I would like an OCS car for my railroad as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Neal
nealknows Jimmy_Braum Good stuff this week all. Here's my project. Making another theatre end OCS car Jimmy, I would love to see more details on this project. I would like an OCS car for my railroad as well. Thanks for sharing! Neal
I agree! Nice work, Jimmy. I've had the parts on my shelf to try to put together a Conrail OCS including a theater car. I found some parts from this outfit:
http://trainstationproducts.com/
They have a #494 car end with roll down door housing (but you could scratch it fairly easily.
Thanks for showing that, Jimmy.
I toured the BNSF shops in Topeka and checked out several of their theater cars there:
P1130066 by Edmund, on Flickr
P1130063 by Edmund, on Flickr
Neat stuff
Regards, Ed
OK, the guy back in the corner has another dumb question:
Is this for an acual theater screen, as in watching movies type thing? or is this just a big picture window so you can sit and watch where you've been, I dunno! I'm asking!
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewiOK, the guy back in the corner has another dumb question: Is this for an acual theater screen, as in watching movies type thing? or is this just a big picture window so you can sit and watch where you've been, I dunno! I'm asking! Mike.
I'm the guy next to Mike and have the same question. I'm not at all familiar with theater cars.
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
mbinsewi or is this just a big picture window so you can sit and watch where you've been,
Refer to my interior photo above. Theater-style seating, large view of the scenery (although my photo was taken inside the car shop).
The railroad invites shippers and potential business clients to ride along and observe their facilities. They are also used for railroad executives to show the stockholders (Mr. Buffett) all the wonderful things along the line such as physical plant improvements and potential industrial sites.
In reality these cars are not a new idea. There used to be inspection locomotives where, in essence, a wood passenger car has been kit-bashed onto a locomotive! Can you imagine sitting in a three-piece suit straddled alongside a steam boiler on an August afternoon?
PLE_Insp-23 by Edmund, on Flickr
Here's a runby and back-up move of the old Conrail OCS:
You can see the "dignitaries" in the rearward-facing seats. This is more comfortable than riding the steam locomotive or the open platform of the business car.
Think these "theater" cars are a new idea? How about 1891—
PRR_Wood-inspection by Edmund, on Flickr
Historically, theater cars have been all about watching where you've been.
Nowadays, given the ubiquitous nature of LCD projectors and Powerpoint, I would not be at all surprised to see in-car screens either built into the door or as a separate roll-down. It's just too inviting to have that readily available, do the briefing of what's coming up (or maybe what's going to be behind?) in Powerpoint, then roll 'em up and go.
Then there's virtual reality. Imagine coming up to a junction or other area of track that is slated for revision, then projecting the planned revisions on the glass so that this would shadow the changes so they could be seen in realtime as the car passes through. No one has probably done that, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out some railroad's IT guy or gal was working on such a thing right now.
I suspect that theater cars will manage to stay relevant for those lines big enough to afford them.
Wow Mike! What a thought!
Thanks Ed for the lesson on theater cars, and I figured the OCS means Office Car Special? So much to learn, I'll go take my seat in the back row.
So, my paint stripping continues for my Custom Passenger Train, something I've wanted to do since, uhm..forever?
As you can see, I'm using the Athearn F7 A/B set for power, and the Athearn 72' passenger cars for the consist.
Paint stripping continues, more soaking as I write.
And another current project is finishing some spine cars, another old project, the decals arrived in the mail, so I can finish details, DulCoat, and weather.
And of course, a fleet of spine cars needs to have a load, so I'm working on trailers that I have collected.
More to finish and then DulCoat and weathering.
Keep the photos coming! Everybodies work looks great!
I have built a theatre car before, my Wheeling and Lake Erie 1990. I'll post a photo of the current car as soon as the paint is dry on it. As others have said, a theatre car is also called an Inspection car. they can be used for either possible customers, rr officials, track inspectors, or even used for employee specials. the arangement the interior varies from company to company. For example, the BNSF car above showed step seating, but my Wheeling car has stepped seating without the stepped windows.
Got it! A "theater car" is a track or ROW inspection car. I knew about the "inspection" locomotives, but the term "theater car" is new to me. Strange...you could get an even closer look on a hand car!
Great pic's,projects,and info this week!Thanks,all.
I'm not a fan of green boilers,but sometimes a deal is too good to pass up:
Three of my engines came with green boilers(486 was also green,once),finally got around to repainting the last one(453)this week:
Have a good weekend!
Mike
Thanks to all who are participating this weekend..... Great stuff !
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
middlemanI'm not a fan of green boilers
Actually, green was a standard loco color for Baldwins arround 1900. Boothbay Railway Village painted our recently restored 0-4-0T SDW #2 in the as delivered (1895) color. This photo was taken at the Springfield show weekend before last
https://www.facebook.com/AmherstRail.org/photos/a.10150103143809443/10157120950454443/?type=3&theater
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Mike, Thanks for the WPF start-up and appealing views.
Thanks to all the contributors and Happy Ground Hog Day, regards, Peter
Middleman Mike, I've sent you a PM.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Bear: PM received and reply sent.
This just arrived in the mail today! I took it out of the box, and it is in A1+ pristine condition! Perfect from one end to the other as far as I can see, and it runs beautifully.
I now have a USRA Heavy Mountain on the roster.
It looks like the trailing truck from a NYC J3A will fit under the firebox, so I might convert it to a Northern.
gmpullmanFront couplers have been a real challenge for me on almost all steam locos. Glad you are making progress!
Ed,Kevin, Rick and everyone else who expressed an interest in my front coupler.
What I typically do is analyze how the old draft gear will come off first. As Kevin discovered, a pilot can be a fragile thing. Trying to solder on a pilot, because of the undelying mass and the delicate details, things can turn pear-shaped quickly. I turned to trusty old epoxy for attaching things. I typically take a rectangular piece of tubing and cut one side off big enough to set the coupler into. I use a screw and tap a hole to attach the couplers however it sits best according to the gauge.
The end with the remianing fully boxed section that wasn't cut out needs to somehow fit in place of the original draft gear. Epoxy will hold it well if prepped properly. And you can vary which coupler you use to help with fitting things. I used a M-T N-scale coupler, narrower draft gear but usually mates OK with the 714. You can use a 714 to couple with HO #5 Kadees.
Watch so that the thing you couple with has its uncoupler "hose" so that it goes under the cowcatcher or the coupler must be spaced forward to at least acccomodate that when it's coupled.
Thanks to everyone for their contributions and comments!
A great WPF here guys. Too many contributors to mention individually. Thanks to all.
Here is an "in-your-face' photo of a Santa Fe F7A/B lash-up with a mixed freight rounding the curve at the west end of the BRVRR layout.
Keep the photos and ideas coming everyone. 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/
Rico, Colorado; September 1941. War is raging in Europe, North Africa, and China, while the Imperial Japanese Navy prepares for what it hopes is a decisive blow against the US 7th Fleet at Pearl Harbor. For now, though, life in this mining town goes on much as it has for the last 48 years following the big Silver Panic of 1893. The afternoon calm is shattered by the shrieking whistle of RGS 40 bringing a southbound freight into town.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Wow, great pics everyone!
My humble contribution illustrates what I have been doing these past few weeks. I finally layed the last strip of track to close the loop of my around-the-room shelf layout. The bridge was the last piece to install - I made it removable based on advice read here (doc Wayne...). Lost a lot of time running engines to test the track. I also worked on my MDC ten wheeler. I installed NWSL gears, and what difference that made to improve its performance! Took a bit of tinkering as I ordered the wrong set of gears . They fit after a bit of filing... Runs like a champ now.
Have a great Sunday. Simon.
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Another great weekend.
Thanks for the posts. This is my favorite thread. Like a fly on the wall I am when I haven't done anything on my layout lately.
Always appreciated and always enjoyed is seeing what everyone else is doing.
Thanks TF