This is the weekend thread where modelers can show their completed models, work under construction and layout pictures new and old.
Let's have a lot of participation this weekend!
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!
Good morning from cloudy, mild and wet Northeast Ohio!
Here are this week's completed projects.
First an Atlas 5077CF FMC Boxcar kit, painted with Floquil MEC Harvest Yellow and Scalecoat II Silver and Matte Black paints then lettered with Highball Graphics decals. First thing I did was replace the Accubreak couplers with Kadee Whisker couplers after modifying the coupler box. This car participated in the IPD 1970's boxcar boom as old 40' cars neared retirement and railroads were unable to finance the purchase of new cars.
Next, a highly modified Con-Cor (Ex-AHM) covered hopper car, I removed the heavy cast on ladders and grabs and replaced them with ladders left over from IMRC PS1 boxcar kits and wire grabs where appropriate. Also replaced the running board with a Plano replacement designed for this car. Car was in various services on the Rock Island including grain, potash, soda ash etc.
Last weekend I took my Athearn DT&I GP40-2's and a raft of my cars used in the Campbell Soup business out of Napoleon, OH and ran them on the Strongsville Club Layout. You can see some of my more recent builds in the first few cars behind the engines.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks for starting this weeks WPF, Rick.
Love the boxcar and hopper. Well done.
Myself.
Two purchases.
Two wagons bought from Medway Queen Preservation Society of which I support.
IMG_2825 by David Harrison, on Flickr
Visiting my local model shop I purchased a building.
IMG_2826 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
Rick, Thanks for rolling out the WPF with more fine rolling stock, with winter nearby the soup train sounds and looks good.
Dave, The Boars Head appears to be a fitting addition to your layout. Reminds me of the Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel, Calif., once owned by Clint Eastwood.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Have a good weekend. Regards, Peter
Rick, thank you for starting this week's WPF thread. Your new freight cars look very well made.
David, that pub looks like a fine addition for your layout.
Peter, your street scene looks great, it's very atmospheric.
As for me, I've recently finished adding scenery to the interchange tracks on my layout. These were originally just done up as staging, and it felt a bit incomplete:
With this done, the layout scenery finally feels complete. I was also able to add some standard gauge track at the back, which is a feature I've wanted since I started this layout.
Now, I've started adding some details:
(Yes, the dog and the duck are pets.)
With the diesel locomotive now parked on its own spur, this freed up one of the turntable tracks. I also moved my 2-6-2 no. 1 to the display cabinet, as it's one of my earlier scratchbuilds which I wasn't 100% happy with.
This left two empty spaces around the turntable, which I filled with two Bachmann Climax locomotives. They were some of the first locomotives I bought when I got into On30, but their power pickup wasn't reliable and one of the motors was shorting out.
After fixing the motor and upgrading the electronics, they run reliably and smoothly. They've now got Tsunami 2 decoders, with KA-4 keepalive modules.
I replaced the cab on no. 1 with a wood kit, and fixed up the front and rear pilots.
With that, I put them into service on my layout. These are some of my favourite-looking models, and it’s good to have them running again.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
Thanks for starting out WPF this week, Rick. Nice work everyone. LOVE the wigwag, Peter. Is it static or operational?
Continuing to make progress on my wooden QCM PRR 50' auto boxcar. This past week I cut and added all the under ribbing, the entire braking system, the bolster & rib end plates, and the side mounting supports. I also added grid lines to the roof to help align and achieve even spacing for the roof ribbing. I'll post a few photos after I get home this evening.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Picking things up where I left off last weekend...
The under ribbing took some time to cut, shape, notch, and align properly:
Here is the brake sytem added to the undercarriage and a close up of the piping:
It would have been helpful had the assembly instructions stated to pre-drill the holes in the air cylinder, triple valve, and air reservoir before installing them. Some of the drilling I did in place; some I had to remove the part to do it properly. I also didn't care for the green pre-painted wire that came with the kit so I used my own phospor-bronze wire for all the piping.
Below is the 29/64" (or 0.453125", for the machining nerds) grid line spacing for the roof ribbing, which I hope to complete this weekend:
As I glue down the individual rib strips to the roof, I'll use Tamiya masking tape to help keep them aligned. Any variance in alignment will become very noticeable so I want to get this right.
On the ordering front, my Tangent 50-ton ASF A-3 plain bearing trucks arrived yesterday and will look really sharp supporting the boxcar underneath:
This is the first time using Tangent trucks and I noticed that the truck mounting holes are somewhat oversized - i.e. compared to trucks from Proto 2000 and Accurail; 0.02" larger, in fact. I contacted Tangent to get their recommendation and they suggested (and sell) wide head 2-56 pan screws.
Because the bolsters are wood rather than plastic, I'm leaning towards a tapping screw with coarser threads (for a better hold) vs machining screws, which will be more apt to strip out because of their higher thread count. The other option is to go with a machining screw and use a pocketed nut or threaded spacer. This is what I did on my wood NYC 61' well-hole flat car project, which I still need to finish up.
After the trucks and roof detailing are installed, the side (doors, tracks, and grab irons) and end details (ajax & brake wheel) can then get installed. Once all that's done, the shell can be primed & painted then lettered. That will most likely have to wait until next year when weather & temps are more conducive.
Thanks for starting off this Fall Colors Weekend Photo Fun thread, Rick.
Great contributions from everyone as usual!
I continued on 'upgrading' some of my Walthers '48 Century cars that have been sitting in a storage drawer for years. I've come to the conclusion that these cars will probably never be rerun in my lifetime so I may as well get busy with the ones I have.
One target was the Atlantic Shore which was the lounge car that included the barber, shower, secretary and telephone facilities. To properly do this car required full disassembly:
Century_Lounge Atlantic Shore-Exploded by Edmund, on Flickr
That made painting the interior and applying a gloss coat to the side sheets much easier.
Century_Lounge Atlantic Shore-B by Edmund, on Flickr
Not quite up to Mel's talents but I made a couple of smoking stands and table lamps, too.
Shore Barber_Shower by Edmund, on Flickr
Venitian blinds from Plano make a nice visual touch:
Century_Lounge Atlantic Shore by Edmund, on Flickr
Century_Lounge Atlantic Shore-A by Edmund, on Flickr
Century_Lounge Atlantic Shore patrons by Edmund, on Flickr
I tried using Testor's Glosscote but didn't like the results so gave some Alclad2 gloss lacquer a try and really had good results with that.
Century_4-4-2 Bridge by Edmund, on Flickr
I'm glad to finally getting the car names properly applied
Century_Waiting lady by Edmund, on Flickr
I was fortunate enough to have a few sheckels left over in my budget that I treated myself to my first Iwata airbrush. Looking forward to giving it a trial run soon.
Iwata HP-CS by Edmund, on Flickr
Plenty of weekend remaining, folks! Keep those photos coming —
Cheers, Ed
No pictures yet but currently on the 3d printer is a GM6C. it will be done in the morning. Lots of assembly required. Havent gotten to anything else
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
I really like the interior painting and details, Ed.
Well, I decided to wait on installing the roof ribbing and ordered some Plastruct 3/64" Tee styrene strips from my LHS rather than use the wood tee strips that came with the kit. It won't be in until Wednesday or Thursday but I think it will look better.
I did find round head #2 x 1/4" wood screws at my local Ace hardware and installed the Tangent 50-ton A-3 trucks to the underside of the boxcar:
The Tangent trucks both look good and roll very nicely. And, with the boxcar resting on the trucks rather than the underframe, I can work on installing the roof ribbing w/o fear of dislodging any of the brake system piping.
I also cut a ~1/32" wide strip from 0.005" brass sheeting and added brackets to the brake lines in strategic spots. It's not in the assembly instructions but it's added insurance that the brake piping will stay in place. I like the look of it, too.
tstage Well, I decided to wait on installing the roof ribbing and ordered some Plastruct 3/64" Tee styrene strips from my LHS rather than use the wood tee strips that came with the kit. It won't be in until Wednesday or Thursday but I think it will look better. I did find round head #2 x 1/4" wood screws at my local Ace hardware and installed the Tangent 50-ton A-3 trucks to the underside of the boxcar: The Tangent trucks both look good and roll very nicely. And, with the boxcar resting on the trucks rather than the underframe, I can work on installing the roof ribbing w/o fear of dislodging any of the brake system piping. I also cut a ~1/32" wide strip from 0.005" brass sheeting and added brackets to the brake lines in strategic spots. It's not in the assembly instructions but it's added insurance that the brake piping will stay in place. I like the look of it, too. Tom
Great pics everyone. Ed, I'm sure Mel would have been (is?) impressed by your work.
I advanced in my scenery work this week, but it's too soon to share anything worth looking at. Here is a pic from another corner of the layout.
IMG_20230630_225605 on Flickr
Simon
Liking all the WPF contributions.
Thanks tbdanny, always good to see your work and layout.
Tom, Nice brake piping, admire your skill and patients in getting all those tiny connections and bends just right. The Showcase Miniatures wig-wag is static. The Santa Fe crossing near the natatorium I frequented in Point Richmond, Ca. as a teen was protected by wig-wag signals. Today the crossing is BNSF and protected by crossing arms, though the old restored wig-wags are still there for posterity and operated on special occasions.
Ed, Bet you're gonna' like the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS, I find mine to be a trouble-free precision brush that's fun to use.
Simon, I miss Mel, he was most definitely one of the good ones.
Thanks and regards, Peter
HO-VeloRick, Thanks for rolling out the WPF with more fine rolling stock, with winter nearby the soup train sounds and looks good. Dave, The Boars Head appears to be a fitting addition to your layout. Reminds me of the Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel, Calif., once owned by Clint Eastwood. Thanks to all the contributors and viewers. Have a good weekend. Regards, Peter
Wow Peter! I am in awe of your detail work! First, how cool is a wig-wag crossing signal? Building interiors, interior AND exterior lighting, gas meter and trash cans under the stairs, a motorcycle parked exactly where a building occupant would park it, nicely modeled sidewalks, curbs and streets including a very realistic grade crossing, even Mr. Big with his floozy heading for his Caddy following an evening in the Card Room. But what really grabbed me was the Fiat Dino parked in the foreground! Super cool!
Hornblower
This weeks Offering...
Dan
hornblowerFiat Dino parked in the foreground
Hornblower, Thanks for taking the time to express finding joy in my modeling and photo efforts, much appreciated. Part of the fun in composing a scene is bringing a story to mind, a concoction of media and real-life experiences, and in that respect our thoughts seem to run parallel. Wasn't sure about the Dino placement, but the car's color, form and stance just looked right; perhaps a well-off collector in search of that rare and elusive comic book.
Thanks again and regards, Peter