Living the dream.
Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new fun filled weekend!
This week my share is a restoration project for the new train room.
-All Photographs by Kevin Parson
I have owned a perfect hobby workshop desk for about twenty years. I paid a premium for a high quality maple work surface, and then I ruined it with a very poor finish job.
I did not know what I was doing, and I was looking for a short-cut to get it done. I chose to use a product called "Poly-Shades" from Minwax that was supposed to be like stain and polyurethane in one.
Even with the bad finish, this desk served me well for the past two decades, but it was time to refinish it properly.
The desk is already disassembled, so it was easy to just set it up on sawhorses and strip off the old Minwax Polyshades finish.
The stripper worked very well, and the old finish came off with only about three hours of work.
I cleaned it with the recommended After Wash product, and it looked better than I thought it ever would again. With the terrible finish removed it looked like the awesome piece of wood I had wanted.
Then I sanded, and I sanded, and I sanded some more. The final sanding was with 320 grit on a random orbital sander, and the whole thing was as smooth as glass when I was done. An old woodworker told me there was never such a thing as too much time spent sanding. All the time I spent sanding on this project was well worth the effort I put into it.
I treated the wooden desk top with pre-stain wood conditioner. I opted for a stain called "Aged Barrel" from Behr. This is a gray stain, and I wanted the wood to have its natural beauty, but also look weathered and aged.
When I applied the stain I became very nervous. It looked more like gray paint than a wood stain when it was brushed on.
Fortunately when I sponged the stain after ten minutes, it gave just exactly the right abount of gray into the wood. I was so relieved at this point.
I brushed on 4 coats of satin finish polyurethane over the next four days. I sanded in between each coat with #0000 steel wool.
The final result is simply amazing. It turned out exactly like I wanted.
Hopefully this desk top will be seen in many photos and videos over the next couple of decades.
I am looking forward to seeing everyone's photographs this weekend. This thread can always be counted on to be the best of the week.
-Kevin
Beautiful work on the desktop, Kevin. I don't know how even your old one stayed as nice as it did. My workbenches, desktops, get battle-scarred up in no time.
Don't know if I'll get in any layout time this weekend. Dan
Thanks for kicking off the first week of November WPF, Kevin. I do like the improvement you made on your rock-maple bench top. I did one a while back in tung oil that turned out pretty well. You'll be happy with your great results.
A few weeks ago I picked up a pair of Rapido's Nickel Plate Alco PAs. This has me reevaluating some of my Nickel Plate passenger roster. The interiors of my old Walthers cars needed attention:
NKP Coach2 1950 P-S by Edmund, on Flickr
Individually masking off those antimacassars was time consuming but, I think, worthwhile. I've got two more to tackle :
NKP Coach 1950 P-S by Edmund, on Flickr
Nickel Plate had framed prints of scenes along the line on the bulkheads, that will be next, then figures, lighting, window shades and we're all set. These cars pre-date the "plated Finish" Walthers now offers. I hope they re-run them with the plating.
On to more great weekend photos!!!
Cheers, Ed
Thanks for starting WPF, Kevin. Great work on the bench top. Well done.
Ed - Excellent work on the interior of the car. It is good to 'get inside' of them and individualise them.
A couple of days ago I bought two vehicles to make little scenes. Whilst at the model store I saw a BRS van with Huddersfield markings. Ideal for a Leeds based layout.
All three were shiny 'n' new looking. Out came the make-up powders Dawn gave me. Now they look (hopefully) as if they have been on the road a few weeks.
IMG_2479 by David Harrison, on Flickr
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning from partly sunny and mild Northeast Ohio!
Thanks for starting us out Kevin, your workbench looks great, I am using and old solid core door from an old construction project our company had. That way I don't feel bad when drilling holes in it, but it is heavy and solid.
Ed, nice work on the interiors, that is something I have never done and I may or may not get to it in the future.
David, good weathering on your vehicles, subtle and not over done like most weathering projects I see.
This weeks projects completed!
First up is a Proto 2000 Northeast Caboose, in the early 60's the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline acquired 3 ex-Lehigh Valley cabooses. I had to do #127 as the other two had porthole end windows. Painted the car with Scalecoat II ATSF Red and Black paints and Floquil BNSF yellow paint then lettered with Herald King Decals.
Next another Front Range 40' Boxcar kit, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red #2 and lettered with various Champ Decal sets. When the NYC started the Pacemaker Service, they could not repaint the cars from one lot fast enough and pressed a bunch of cars from Lot 773 into service by adding the Pacemaker slogan to the car. This is the second car to go with my fleet of Pacemaker Boxcars.
Last week I wanted to try out my Tangent G41a Coil Cars, so I took a pair of Athearn GP9's and some other freight cars to the Strongsville Club 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 starting another weekend of layout pictures. Your workbench top looks great. I'm not sure how you can work at Home Depot, re-do your house, spend time visiting your family, and still find time to do projects like this. I'm tired just thinking about it.
Ed, nice work on the passenger car interior. Your work reminds me of the neat scenes from Mel's passenger car interiors.
David, nice find on the trucks. Your weathering is just right.
Rick, as usual, your work on the caboose and boxcar is excellent.
I have not had much time lately for the layout. What little time I have is spent on this bridge. As usual, some of the angles were difficult for me. I thought I was finished with a section, but when I stepped back, I could see that several parts were not fitting correctly. I had to cut out several beams, re-cut some others, and glue them in. Finally, everything seemed to fit and look correct.
I added some lights, which I will like, but I'm not sure they are worth the effort. The wires are hidden pretty well in the beams. I think once it's painted, the wires will be nearly invisible.
Installing the bridge will give me a chance to reroute one section of track that I have not liked. My most difficult work with bridges is getting the installation to exactly match the track height on the approaches. I end up cutting some parts and adding shims under some bridge supports. I will be glad to have it finished.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
York1 John
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good evening folks, before heading to Syracuse for the show tomorrow, I thought I'd post a video of my newest acquisition.
https://youtu.be/Klv89ggGr2Q
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
This was another ebay find. This one needed almost no work . brake wheels, new paint, thats it.There are lots of these little brss mantua cabeese on ebay right no. most needed work. I got one and it is being stripped. details to add. market lights. Needs the brass pieces straightened out. but it does need solder work. We shall see what happenes.
SHane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Good morning
Thankyou for your continued dedication hosting WPF Kevin. Always appreciated.
Great job restoring your bench top from disaster. I also learned the hard way about maple blotching without pre-stain conditioner and some Minwax products are decent while others not so much. Your end results certainly turned out beautiful.
Really admire your fine tuned attention to detail Ed. Seen some of your other work on passenger car Interiors over the years here. The work you do is second to none.
Superb weathering job on the trucks David. These will fit in like a glove on your impressive street and industrial scenes on your layout.
Love that Caboose Rick! Always enjoy seeing your beautiful work on your freight cars.
Another success on Bridge #2 John. That bridge design is killer! Looks excellent without them, but I'm curious if you're planning to put X's in-between the the upper cross members?
What a score Harrison. 301 looks quite realistic with the tasteful weathering job as it's not over or under done, ...Perfect. Liked seeing how your layout is progressing, ...Sweet! The locomotives of my childhood hold a special place in my heart as well. Those would be the Green Machines in the old neighborhood of the past.
Great little brass Caboose Shane. Always loved Cabeese with character and that find of yours certainly has it! Looking forward to a follow-up after you straighten the railings, add the brake wheels and new paint as you mentioned.
Thanks for all the great stuff here gentlemen. The weekend's young so keep-em coming if you would please. Even old accomplishments are fun to see again
TF
You know, It's no wonder none of these bridges ever get painted. In a sense it's a good thing as there's always something else found that needs to be done before they're ready for paint.
Bridge #3 didn't have any bearing plates or shoes on top of the bent supports. Thought that might be important.
Found out the cavity of C-channel is tapered with a slight angle. Had to place masking tape jigs and those itty bitty pieces were driving me nuts
It's like micro surgery. Sometimes N scale modeling can be a real treat
The idea was to make troughs so the bridge is removable like the other bridges as well as adding the bearing plates. The bridge ends will get regular shoes when the abutments are done.
All that for that If you zoom in you can see those fine morsels. Those bearing plates were even smaller than the recessed C-channel caps but look more cosmetically correct with them added, they may have been worth the effort.
If a track-cam is ever acquired one day, the bridge will look unfinished underneath. Can't have that! The other thing is the bearing plates are quite vulnerable as they have very little contact with the bridge. Going to have to go to work and put some 275 I-beams under there.
Thanks for looking
Your bridges look great, TF! You will have a real maze of railroads running on that layout. It will be neat to see several trains running on the different bridges.
Track fiddlerAnother success on Bridge #2 John. That bridge design is killer! Looks excellent without them, but I'm curious if you're planning to put X's in-between the the upper cross members?
Yes, that is the next part of the project. I wanted to make sure I had everything on the interior of the structure done before I added those delicate cross pieces.
Track fiddlerIt's like micro surgery. Sometimes N scale modeling can be a real treat
That's for sure! Quite a few times working on things, I've had second thoughts about picking N over HO!
That is some stunning work there Kevin!
A bit of a different contribution from me, a Walthers Mack Semi. I have always enjoyed these kits Walthers used to offer and am dissappointed that these were discontinued. I cleaned up the casting then painted it with Pollyscale paint. The windows I "blacked" out then completed the job with several coats of Glosscote.
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
Kevin, Thanks for opening the WPF. That's a smart lookin' bench top.
If Ed and Rick would provide a link as to where they get all that grand modeling energy, I'd sure like to order some.
David, Like the looks of those vehicles, are they vintage as to their actual time of manufacture?
John, I have a feeling that the lights on your sharp bridge will be well worth the extra effort.
Lovin' it, Bear, I recall the doilies on my grandma's ez chairs, "A little dab'll do ya'"
Ahh, another 'Cecil B De-Harrison' offering.
Shane, A quaint little caboose. I've a couple Mantua 'Heavy Weights' flat cars that I like using as idlers.
Those bents are lookin' good TF
Don, Nothing like seeing a nice 'Mac Bulldog'.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Have a good weekend. Regards, Peter
HO-Velo David, Like the looks of those vehicles, are they vintage as to their actual time of manufacture?
Hi Peter.
They are brand new out of their boxes.
The two little ones are made by Oxford. The red BRS one is by EFE and is apparently rather rare to find? Not that I care about that, it fits correctly to my area modelled and timeframe.
Love the scene you posted. Ever so clever. Well done.
The beast that needs a tender. It also needs a bell and a reverser. the pilot is a little bent in and the little plastic piece the draw br is screwed into broke in shipping. All fixble. and despritely needs paint. yje tarnish is that bad. The wheel treads are in almot new condition. just a tad sign of wear not sure if it runs. but it will be rewired anyway plus this one has one of those tubes connecting motor to gear box. That most likely needs replacing as well.
Shane
I had my very first full-up operating session on the 25th of October.
Everyone said they had a good time. Even though trackwork isn't complete, enough is done to have a good session.
One thing I'm learning though - if I want to run trains on my own layout, I have to do it AFTER a session. I'm too busy running around helping (yeah, right!) folks during the session to be able to do anything else!
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Great bus scene Peter. Mad Dude has my support. The complex to the right looks almost exactly like the apartments I lived in California, pinstriping cars way back when.
Cheers to your Mammoth layout Mark. Looks like a really fun basement as it appears to be coming along quite well.
Thanks for your kind words John. Put a smile on my face
Lots of great pictures this weekend everyone.
This last week the weather was gorgeous out so I got a chance to spray paint the trunks of 50-60 prospective trees. Next step is hairspray and foliage in fall colors.
Also finished painting an old Atlas classic GP-7 in CNW colors and stripes. Added the torpedo tube air tanks and winterization hatch. Waiting for decals to arrive.
Lastly, found a couple of older CNW wood box cars in a USRA scheme with 'U.S' on the sides on the cars. Painted out the US, painted the trucks and wheels and will be weathering them heavily.
Scott Sonntag
so here is the mantua brass caboose minus paint and soldered back together. ic currently has been primed and the first coat of a dark green.
I found i had a frame and trucks from a BLI hudson tender and a sheel from an oil tender of rivarossi build. most likely from the cab foeward. it fit this frame well slight over hang solved with .60 angle makes itt look built that way. plus it looks like it was build for this 2-10-4. needs lots of work. yet
gmpullman NKP Coach2 1950 P-S by Edmund, on Flickr Individually masking off those antimacassars was time consuming but, I think, worthwhile. I've got two more to tackle :
It might be easier to do the antimacassars with decal trim film rather than masking and painting them.
Mark Vinski
Thank you to everyone that contributed to Weekend Photo Fun over the weekend.
Dan: Thank you for the comments on the refinished desk top. The secrect to keeping it in OK shape is to always have a cutting mat on the surface. It still got beat up a bit.
Ed: The passenger car interior os looking good, and I learned a new word (that I will not remember).
David: The weathering on the little trucks looks very good. The two little trucks are really great.
Rick: What is in the coffee cup on your workbench? I really lilke the lettering scheme on the DT&I caboose. Great work as always.
John: I have always been a non-stop worker/mover. Model railroading is just part of it. You should see me get ready for a wargaming convention or CosPlay event. Your bridge is really a magnificent model.
Bear: My wife would completely agree with you about the finish on the work bench top. She does not like things old and weathered looking. She says that must be why I love her more every year as she ages and weathers herself. Thank you for the toon.
Harrison: I watched the video of your new locomotive. I think the weathering looks good. It is great to see your layout as it somes along.
Shane: Who manufactured the first caboose you posted, the one without the cupola?
Fiddler: Thank you for the compliment on the work bench top. I am oh-so-happy with the end results. I cannot wait to use it again. Your work on those N scale bridges is remarkable.
Don: Thank you for the kind comment about my work bench top. You did a great job with the solid-cast mack truck. It looks ready to go to work.
Peter: I love the "What Me Worry" bus poster.
Shane: That is a beast of a Berkshire. Do you know the prototype? Oops, I saw it is actually a 2-10-4.
Mark: A full operating session must have been quite a milestone. Congratualations on the event.
Scott: Good work on the model trees. Your scenes look very good, and so do those boxcars.
I will see you all next week!
kevin, the best I can find it is a cliff lines kit. The 2-10-4 is most likely based on the t&p 600 series. OST likely 610 But with no box or anything, not sure who even made it
shane
SeeYou190 Rick: What is in the coffee cup on your workbench? I really lilke the lettering scheme on the DT&I caboose. Great work as always. cupola? Shane: That is a beast of a Berkshire. Do you know the prototype? Oops, I saw it is actually a 2-10-4. -Kevin
Rick: What is in the coffee cup on your workbench? I really lilke the lettering scheme on the DT&I caboose. Great work as always. cupola?
Kevin, that is a boxcar in the coffee cup, I use that cup with a wad of tissue at the bottom to protect the end detail on cars when I decal the ends. By the way that is not a DT&I (Detroit, Toledo & Ironton) caboose but a D&TSL (Detroit & Toledo Shoreline) caboose.
Regards the 2-10-4, it is the T&P Texas after which the Texas types were named, I believe without being able to find my Brown Book, that it is and old LMB model from the early sixties, but I don't know the actual Japanese maker.
Thanks Rick
That at least tells me who mde it since there is no makers mark. Question, is thre a preferable motor replacement for those LMB models? I havent checked this to see if it even works.
NVSRR Thanks Rick That at least tells me who mde it since there is no makers mark. Question, is thre a preferable motor replacement for those LMB models? I havent checked this to see if it even works. Shane
According to the Repower and Regear group on groups.io one of the relacements is the Minebea SE15H which can be found on E-bay for a good price.
I know the weekend is over but I'm back here with a video from the Syracuse show which occurred on the weekend.
https://youtu.be/Cuznf-B0U7c
Harrison, Thanks a bunch for a great tour via your lens and narration.
Regards, Peter
HarrisonSyracuse show...
Were any of the display layouts 2 rail O Gauge? A couple of them looked bigger than HO, but maybe it was just the close-up angle.