Welcome to Weekend Photo Fun
April 17, 2020 through April 19, 2020
All Are Welcome!
Here is an opportunity to showcase any recent project or layout progress.
Please feel free to post any model railroad related photos here — past or present. This is a place to share photos of your layout, equipment or current project.
I have been late-to-the-party for Weekend Photo Fun the past few weeks. I have been doing a lot of work on my house remodel phase 2. The dumpster is leaving today, so the rush-to-beat-the-deadline work should be over and I can try to relax a bit.
This week I am sharing a new boxcar. This one is decorated for the CASCADE NORTHERN. It is a fifity foot Life Like Proto 2000 Automobile Boxcar. Paint was a mixture of Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and Reefer Orange. The decals were custom printed by Donald Manlick. I added A-Line stirrup steps and Kadee trucks and couplers.
Please keep the Weekend Photo Fun shares coming. I love this thread every week.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
As always, Nice job Kevin.
Oh, it is no longer Friday's Eve! It is after High Noon on a Thursday..... Thanks for opening WPF.
I've never seen a Cascade Northern before and would like to know more about them.....It looks really cool. Great job.
I will be sure to catch up with you guys later this weekend.
TF
Thank you for kicking off this edition of WPF, Kevin. You have some real treasures in your collection of rolling stock
This week I took delivery of a shiny-new Nickel Plate caboose
NKP_caboose-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
I had been contemplating the acquisition of an unpainted model of the same car when this factory painted model became available for only a slightly higher cost.
NKP_caboose-end by Edmund, on Flickr
Given that the paint work and decal job would be pretty time-consuming, I gladly paid the difference.
NKP_switcher by Edmund, on Flickr
On to more great contributions, fellows!
Regards, Ed
Good morning from cold and snowy Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, nice looking car, but they are sill steps and not stirrups!!
Ed, great looking caboose, I have about 3 of those to paint sometime, the major problem being the decals, with that little window none of them fit, as a matter of fact the first painted run of those cabooses left the letter r out of the word service, Overland must have had a special decal made to fit that space.
Mel, good work, I have no skills when it comes to electronics and wiring.
Completed projects this week.
IMWX 1937 AAR Boxcar Kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and lettered with my last set of Mark Vaughns Wabash Decals. The NJI&I stood for New Jersey, Indiana and Illinois a railroad started by the Singer Sewing Machine Co. to connect the 11 miles between their plant and the Wabash. The name stemed from the locations of the Singer Co. plant locations. Line was eventually sold to the Wabash and also serviced the Studebaker plant in South Bend.
Proto 2000 Greenville Gondola Kit, painted with Scalecoat II Black Paint and lettered with Oddballs Decals. Wondered why a Greenville car had a Pullman Standard Manufactures Plaque on it, but found out PS built the car using Greenville's plans.
Hallmark Wabash Brass Caboose, Painted with Scalecoat Red/Silver/Black paints and lettered with Mark Vaughns Decals. The cabooses were built at the Wabash's Decatur shops or by International Car Corp. and were used by the Wabash, Ann Arbor, Manistique and Lake Superior, and eventually the DT&I.
Got my Rapido Ann Arbor FA-2's, can't wait for the club to open up again to try them out.
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 strting Phto Fun. You boxcar looks great.
Mel ... I'm amazed at your work. It must be very tedius I like the results.
Ed ... The NKP caboose looks terrific.
Rick ..... I like the Wabash boxcar and caboose. The Frisco gon is very nice. The FA-2's are impressive.
.........
I'll show you the process I used to make my road crossing . The road is not a public road, and therefore, it will not need striping and signals or gates. I found some cheap crossbucks in my junk drawer, and used them. Eventiually, I might replace them with better ones.
First picture: I glued wood pieces in place.
Second picture: I filled in low areas with plaster and cork roadbed. Also, I made the road surface pieces by cutting cardboard to the shapes needed.
Third picture : ... I used a thick layer of construction adhesive to hold each of the road sufaces in place. I pressed them down with a flat board while the adhesive hardened. The thickness of the adhesive adds filler under the roadway.
Fourth picture: .... I painted over the plaster with raw umber acrylic paint. I painted the road surface with thinned gray latex paint.
Fifth picture: ...... I began staining the wood and weathering the road with acrylic paints. I also applied some some scenery next to the road.
Sixth picture. .... I added joint lines to the road. I weathered it. I installed my cheap crossbucks and added more scenery.
That's my road crossing. It definately was a low budget project.
The road leads to my TOFC ramp facility which I just completed. I will show that in my next post.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
For my second post, I will show you the TOFC (piggyback) ramp and team track I have been making. It fills in an area next to my coal mine. Both the TOFC ramp and the mine need more work to add details and more scenery.
First picture: This shows my small TOFC ramp and team track. I did not save enough space to incliude all I wanted to do, but this will provide some operating activity.
Second picture ..... This shows the parking area can be lifted up. There is a cabinet knob for lifting which I hide inside a small building. The board is only to hold it up while I take a photo, and I do not otherwise need it.
Third picture ..... The plywood piece is completely removed. I can stand in the middle of this area so I can reach items needing work.
Fourth photo .... This shows the road going to the TOFC ramp. You can see the mine on the upper level.
This is what I have been doing during "social distancing" .... Ballasting track took much of the time, too.
Thanks for the new WPF, Kevin. Cascade Northern looks great. What is the stone arch by the track?
When you're retired, every day is the weekend.
Garry, great job on the roadway. I love the weathering and lines in the last picture.
Rick and Ed, great job on the cabooses. I don't have a single caboose on my layout yet, even though they are my favorite.
Mel, I always amazed at your great detail work. Your headlights look just right.
I just finished putting some landscaping and some N scale people at a small shop-garage loading some pipe. I still have to add a sign of some kind. I also found some N scale pickups! I've been looking for a while, and found some modern pickups from Atlas.
Favorite forum thread each week!
York1 John
Garry, Nice work, that is going to be a great looking and operating unit of your railroad. I hope the wood road crossing elements are lower than the rail, one of our club members did some crossing like that and the wood was too high and lifted the wheels off the track losing conductivtiy and the engnines stalled out.
John York 1. Thanks for commenting about my roadway.
Rick ... Thank you also. My wood pieces are below rail height. The boards between rails are actually lower than they should be, and that allows extra clearance in case of low hanging Kadee trip pins.
Boiler Man ... It is nice to see your post in Photo Fun.
Interesting offerings this week again, thanks to all.
I spent a fair part of yesterday and today building the Walthers HO tank truck loading rack. All that is left is to expand the gravel road to surround it and perhaps add a light black wash weathering touch.
IMG_7142 (2) by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Great stuff as always. I haven't had much of a chance to work on mine this week- Waiting for a once in a lifetime prototype train movement, so here's some photos I've taken of my layout
WE 305 sits in the Early fall sunlight, neard the yard office at Rook yard in Greentree PA.
I got out the drone to get an overhead shot of the yard.
(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 Evening
I have looked at everything going on here and everything looks great!
I would rather individually compliment you but it's been a really long day and I'll probably get to that later this weekend
I got to tell you, I keep learning from you guys through these years. Using a pen on foam is a bad idea and more than one of you did tell me so. Luckily I found out Kilz does not eat foam.
The blue ink which I have no idea why used was extremely unforgiving and kept bleeding through everything.
Last week's WPF, blue ink one on top.
Todays progress. Sealed with Kilz re-base coated and used Ed's tinted drywall compound trick for brick mortar. Buff is the color with a dry brush of raw umber mixed with thunder Gray.
I'm not completely satisfied yet, there is a few more steps as steam engines do smoke.
Great work again.
Thanks Kevin for starting us off. I love to see the stuff you do - it's always inspiring.
Ed - the temptation is to say nice caboose but that somehow sounds rude. It's quite the flashy paint job for a crummy, no?
Mel - the lights look great. I have a 1:1 W900 Aerodyne that I just love. Looking forward to seeing the finished rig.
Rick - nicely detailed rolling stock as usual.
Garry - the road and TOFC area is really going to be a great addition. I love the road especially the way it is all detailed and weathered.
John - that's a nice scene. The lighting adds a lot.
Paul - If you did the whole loading rack in a day - I'm impressed. Whose storage tank kit is that to the left?
TF - I had the same issue with some walls I did with pen on foam. I guess my ink wasn't as heavy as yours since I got the marks to stop bleeding after the second or third coat. Kilz is a good idea. What was the trick with the mortar lines?
Not much to report on my end. I started to put in some streets and keep moving the bulidings around to see if I can make it look better.
paving 4 by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr
paving 1 by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr
The gaps are for sidewalks. I will work the asphalt and paint it then add some lines before adding all the sidewalk. J.R.
GMTRacing Paul - If you did the whole loading rack in a day - I'm impressed. Whose storage tank kit is that to the left?
J.R. - The loading rack took the better part of 2 days. First day was the base, which took awhile as you have to glue together a bunch of small pipe sections. The second day was the platform, railings & roof. I found that my old Testors yellow spray paint was defunct but happily had a can of Krylon (perfect for painting GTO carb springs), but that took several hours to dry to a handling state.
The large gas storage tank is mine, of course! It was a Model Power kit. There are several on EBay. The Shell logo provided was a large paper sign, so what you see was my first inkjet printed decal.
Today I am to build 2 more tank car loading racks to make a triple length rack. I think that will enhance that small yard.
Paul ..... I like your fuel facility.
Jimmy ....... Your W&LE layout is looking good.
TF ..... The tunnel portals are looking good.
JR ......... Your city scene is looking fantastic so far. .... Thanks for commenting on my photos.
GMTRacing TF - I had the same issue with some walls I did with pen on foam. I guess my ink wasn't as heavy as yours since I got the marks to stop bleeding after the second or third coat. Kilz is a good idea. What was the trick with the mortar lines?
Hi J.R.
It was a year or two ago, I think it was Ed but it may have been Wayne. Anyway, he posted a picture of an old red brick warehouse that looked very realistic and convincing. He went on to describe how he smeared drywall compound in the brick joints and carefully wiped it off so the plaster stayed in the joints.
It looked really good and I always have wanted to try it. I took about a golf ball size of plaster and put one small drop of raw Umber and one small drop of olive drab green in the mix. Then I did the same technique smearing it around with my fingers and then carefully wiping the areas off with a damp paper towel.
I think the color turned out pretty good as cement has just a hint of green to it from the lime content.
Your town is coming along nicely. Looks like a good start on the roads, looking great J.R. What did you use for your asphalt?
Kevin, Thanks for the WPF start-up. I like your handsome double door and the added stirrup steps and chalk markings. Still find it amazing that new automobiles were shipped in boxcars.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers, have a good weekend and take care, Peter
Wow, Peter. That could pass for real. Your stuff is always such a treat.
TF - I had some of the old AMI roadbed in O gauge left over from another project. It is sort of like a more ridgid Dum Dum and self adheres fairly well. I've used it for the same thing before and it is "good enough" worked a bit with some WS asphalt paint with more black powdered poster paint mixed in on it. J.R.
Allow me to lower the bar back down after Peter's contribution! This was my solution to a problem decal (from another thread). Anyway, at least it's something to share!IMG_4818 by Michael, on Flickr
Have a great weekend guys!
Mike
Wow. Some real great posts on here. Great job everyone!
My little project this week, in between essential employee w*^k hours, is the start of freight truck weathering. I install cheap plastic wheel sets, and airbrush a custom mixed dark chocolate brown that I make using a few craft store acrylic colors, and lots of airbrush medium. The results, look something like this -
Freight trucks after base coat. by Richard W, on Flickr" alt="Weathered base coat" width="500" height="275" />
This color serves as a base color for me, with the bearing caps getting a very light dusting of a blue color, metal wheel sets with a custom dirty rust color, and a tiny bit of rust dusted onto the springs. I plan on doing a splatter coat of a lighter "dirt" brown just for some texture afterwards.
Thats all I have this week. Let's get back to some better modeling pictures.
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.
Peter .... Excellent ! .... Your photo is fabulous !
Mike (Water Level) .... That is a good idea for fixing a decal screw up.
Ricky .... Nice work painting the trucks.
Not much for projects this week. Installed some weeds and added a welder's tent to the pipeline. I did decide I wanted it to show welding going on. Now all I need to make is a welding machine to put in the back of the pickup truck.
20200413_203859
If you click on link it will show the video of welder in action.
It was a nice quick ardiuno project.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
Renegade1cIf you click on link it will show the video of welder in action. It was a nice quick ardiuno project.
Nice work. Learning to use arduinos is one of my goals for this year.
ricktrains4824This color serves as a base color for me, with the bearing caps getting a very light dusting of a blue color, metal wheel sets with a custom dirty rust color, and a tiny bit of rust dusted onto the springs.
Different paint, but that's about what I do. Virutual Railfan has a video about a big transformer on a depressed flatcar, that goes off screen. They then focus on the the remaining tank cars, trucks and wheels, which have a lot of orange rust.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
An addition from yesterday & today's efforts...expanding a Walthers tank car loading rack. The single rack was built years back and I decided it would be more fitting if triple in size, so here it is. It needs some people, but the people paint shop has been idle for years. Perhaps that will get some priority in the next few weeks.
20200419_115352 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
20200419_183316 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Getting lost in all the great WPF contributions is very enjoyable and calming, just what the doctor ordered. Btw, thanks for the nice comments.
Have a good remainder of the weekend, thanks and regards, Peter
You know, ... I could complement each and everyone of you as I have done in the past but I don't think it's necessary. Every week I see everyone's individual craftsmanship that you all have here.
That's what I like about this thread. Everyone's individualism and how you all do things. I learn!
Although, ... I must say Peter, you flipped me right outside the door. Not only your modeling but your photography and your lighting which I know a lot about from my brother who is a professional photographer.
Everything sure looks great here everyone!