Living the dream.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a shiny new weekend!
I have nothing new to share this weekend, but here is a picture of four of my custom roadnamed boxcars:
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
I am looking forward to seeing everyone's photographs.
-Kevin
Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, thanks for starting us out, nice looking flock of cars there!
I got a couple of cars done this week.
First a Front Range 1944AAR Double Door Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red #2 and lettered with Mask Island (with Hubert Mask's death will now be available from Highball Graphics Decals). Car was used in general service on the Rock Island.
Next up is the old McKeen 12 Panel Triple Hopper where I cut out 4 panels to make a Twin Hopper. Painted with Scalecoat II Black Paint and lettered with Mark Vaughn's decals. In 1964 to 1966 the NYC rebuilt old 50 Ton Twin Hoppers into 65 Ton Capacity Twin Hoppers. They did this as they did not have many 70 Ton Triple Hoppers that were in rebuildable shape and most of their 70 Ton Triples were recent acquisitions. There were close to 5,000 of these rebuilt hoppers in two lots for the NYC and P&E.
For comparison purpsoses here is the 65 Ton Twin with a 50 Ton Twin Hopper.
Pair of modified Atlas Alco RS-32's with a general freight on the Strongsville Club Layout.
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!
I made the maiden voyage around the 4x8 tonight!! The situation demanded a strawberry bannana Smooj to celebrate
I thought I'd give Railpro a try, and I really like it. Caveman simple to use. I may possibly have gotten a bit carried away with the layout wiring...
This stuff is all here because I was experimenting with things that I may or may not want to use on the next layout. The small power supplies are a -/gnd/+ setup for the tortoises. One large power supply is 15 volts for the uncoupling magnets. Each magnet has an adjustable timer module adjacent to it, controlled by a lit blue push button. The other one is 12 volts for electronics, signaling, structure lighting, etc. The quad outlet has a low-voltage powerpack/relay so I can have the entire layout controlled by a stop/start button with a few other emergency power off buttons. The relay board is latching for pushbutton tortoise control. The circuit board is for signalling. I used a DCC power supply and booster along with 2 electronic circuit breaker boards which work really well. By using a DCC power supply for the Railpro, I can plop down a DCC engine on the layout and it will work fine with no changes needed. It also allowed me to use the inexpensive eBay current sensing block occupancy detectors. Waaay overkill, just doing this stuff for testing.
My next educational project will be to build a few structure kits.
So far everything is working good. Model railroading is fun!
Rick: I like that combination door ROCK ISLAND box car. I only have one of those in my collection. It is a neat looking freight car. Interesting story about the NYC high capacity two bay open top hopper cars.
Sparky: That is quite a wiring job. I cannot believe how neat the installation is. It looks professional. I hope everything works perfectly for you. Thank you for stopping by and sharing the update. I look forward to more.
Thanks for the Last of August WPF sendoff, Kevin! Eight months disappeared somewhere! You have a great photo of an attractive scene there
Your rolling stock is extraordinary, Rick! Thanks for the background on the use and history of the cars, too.
Excellent job, Sparky. I remember my "golden spike" moment back in 1995 when I completed the loop and ran the first train Perfect wiring I might add. I brought home lots of that PVC wire duct from my former employer. They were getting rid of hundreds of feet of that stuff. Really handy under the layout!
I'm taking a break from the Rexall building. I want to place a dentist's office in one of the upper floors so I'll be scratchbuilding a chair, X-ray machine and white cabinets. Plus I'll have to find a dentist figure.
This week I treated myself to some new wheels!
Autos at the depot-2 by Edmund, on Flickr
I spotted them at MB Klein and I just happened to have enough reward points to get five vehicles for free
Autos at the depot by Edmund, on Flickr
These are Oxford Diecast and really look sharp for the price. I like the fact that they put the licence plates on for you.
Autos at the depot-Dodge by Edmund, on Flickr
Momma got a hot red Dodge
Autos at the depot-woody by Edmund, on Flickr
This '42 Chrysler Town & Country Woodie is pretty sharp, too.
Autos at the depot-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
That Buick Century is in Ranier Blue and Arctic White —
Speaking of Blue & White
NKP_181_Rapido by Edmund, on Flickr
More toys to play with this weekend!
Let's see more — Ed
Ed: Great score. I have many of the Oxford vehicles. A lot of people poo-poo them because of the non-chrome bumpers. I think they look better in photographs and appear less toy-like.
I went to the MTS website, and all but the '42 Suburban are sold out.
It looks like two or three of these are new body styles for Oxford. It is interesting that they made the Buick Wagon a 1954 instead of a 1955 like their previous Buick sedans.
There are a few notable differences between the 1954 and 1955 Buicks.
I believe Busch made the 1954 Buick previously, but not as a wagon. I think they only did a Coupe and Convertible.
Kevin, Thanks for getting the WPF rolling with a string of unique boxcars.
Sparky Rail, Like your layout and skillful work, looking forward to seeing those structures, you're right, too much fun.
Making a scrap iron load for a Tangent G43 gondola was a fun project, many fond memories unearthed while digging thru the ol' parts boxes and finding leftover pieces from the days of model building with my son and grandsons.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Have a good weekend. Regards, Peter
Hello everyone.
Kevin, thanks for starting us off.
Rick, great cars as usual.
Sparky, you will definitely be ready for all sorts of experimenting.
Ed, love the vehicles. Prices???? I coud use some of those.
Peter. Neat scrap load.
This past week I celebrated a birthay that ends in '0' so I treated myself a bit. Purchased a Bachman USRA mike with sound value decoder. The CNW never had a USRA mike so no one had one lettered appropriately so I had to get a different road name and settled on UP. Got it out of the box and it performs perfectly, the motor part of the decoded perform great. A few tweaks got the chuffs down to 4 per revolution and I was in business. Couldn't leave the paint scheme alone so with 8 hours I had remove the UP lettering and replaced with CNW logo on the tender.
The number on the locomotive even fits in the CNW 2-8-2 range so it will stay for now. Relettering and weathering will come later.
Scott Sonntag
Tis a fine lineup of pictures Gentlemen! I really like that woody. Although we never had one, our neighbors did.
My contribution for the week is a pair of GN boxcars I completed awhile back. The style is not exactly prototype for "God's RR", but the paint scheme is.
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
Lakeshore SubEd, love the vehicles. Prices???? I coud use some of those.
Hi Scott,
I bought mine from M.B. Klein, AKA ModelTrainStuff
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/brands/Oxford-Diecast/
When I ordered them on Monday 8/22 there were about 60 of each model in stock. Today that inventory has been pretty much depleted. You really have to check their site often as some items sell out within days, or even hours, of becoming available.
There may be other vendors. Google might help with that. I see some at Amazon but they are just a front for other sellers in this case.
Regards, Ed
Thanks Ed.
I will have to start watching. Quite reasonably prices also.
Scott
Peter: Your scrap loads are looking good. I have never built one all the way from scratch, but I do add pieces to cast loads so they do not all look the same.
Scott: Your new locomotive sure is a handsome fellow. As I am sure you know, USRA designs are my favorite. To my eye, they just look right, except for the mallets. I am glad you are happy with it.
Don: GREAT NORTHERN sure had a lot of colorful boxcars. I had a lot of them back when I was in N scale modelling 1968. Nice models.
See you all next week!