Well no photos for me this week. I have been on vacation. I did however luck out and get to operate a train at the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley. A good friend of mine just hit 3000 hours of service there and they have a special train dedicated to those volunteers. My friend was kind enough to let me run the train for him as he wasn't feeling too well.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
Ed,
Like the fog effects. You're doing it the right way.
The wrong way is to use dry ice. Not a good idea in a confined space. When I was first out of high school, worked at the base commissary overseas. The Army delivered our frozen food and often top-iced those loads with dry ice blocks to hold the cold between the truck being loaded and picked up for movement to the stores. Since we were close to the storage facility, we often received nearly whole 5 lb blocks of frozen CO2. Then the fun ensued, as we'd fill the produce sinks full of hot water and drop a couple of blocks in to fog the back of the store.
By then I'd acquired a kickin' stereo and was living in the maid's room quarters in the basement of our apartment block because it was pretty crowded in the 3 BR apt. our 4-kid family was issued. Decided I wanted some special effects there, too. Blocks of dry ice in a small room? A really bad idea. Ended up with a bad headache before I realized I could end up dead...!
Dry ice into the dumpster.
Don't try this at home.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Ed:
The fog effect is really neat!
We were in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago when the fog rolled in. I thought it was a very interesting thing to see but the locals weren't so enthusiastic.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Instead of finishing my 10,000 gallon tank car kit from Tichy, I decided to take a car I weathered with my airbrush months back and clean up some stuff on the car. I took a look at it and thought that I had overdone it and I decided to do something about it so I wouldn't be as annoyed with the weathering I had originally done. Of course, the very first thing to do was to look for source images, which I should have done when I had weathered it previously.
Anyways, here is the car as I had originally weathered it. Compared to the source images I had printed, I didn't think it was very close:
When I "cleaned up" the car, I used some cotton swabs dipped in windex to clean up the panels and some of the rivets on the car sides. I did a little bit on the door and car ends too, but I made sure not to remove all of it since a lot of dirt can end up on those places. I didn't seal the car with a clear coat, so it was a fairly easy process to remove the previous weathering. Here is the car I as of yesterday:
Once I was finished and had added/retouched some grime and dust on the car ends and along the bottom edge of the car itself, I thought the car looked much more realistic compared to when I first weathered it. The next thing I need to do is to get some styrene rods, plug the holes on the roof and paint the roof silver (and weather that, too!) to match the photos I used. Oh, and some dullcote thru my airbrush will finish off the car. These are the images I looked off of to so I could get an idea of how GN's Big Sky Blue boxcars weathered over time (these are both 1973 photos)
Check out my work here:
http://rmd-painting.weebly.com/
hon30critterThey are not proportioned quite right but what the heck.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
hon30critterWe were in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago when the fog rolled in.
Dave,
That reminds me of when my parents took the family to Cape Cod for the first time, I was about 8 years old. My impression was... we drove thirteen hours for THIS? The fog was so thick visibility was about 100 feet!
Mike,
I remember helping mechanics in trying to remove a bearing race using liquid nitrogen to shrink the bearing — in an enclosed room with limited ventilation! It is easy to forget how dangerous a colorless, odorless gas can be!
Bear, Doing the fog this way is much more effective than trying to alter the picture in Photoshop. The "blooms" around the streetlights and signals are what really look neat... Thanks!
Tom, thanks for the kudos! It is fun to share the results.
Thanks all for a great Weekend Photo Fun!
Ed
Still working on that one car Rick? Cheers, the Bear.
Bear,
Not just one car, working on decaling 2-60' Boxcars, 1-50' Boxcar, 1-ACF Cylindrical Covered Hopper and a Milk Car.
Also constructing 1-50' PC&F RBL, 1-40' Modernized Boxcar, the 5th Andersons converted hopper car along with a detailed GP40-2 and some other projects in the mid construction phase.
Rick J
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!
dti406Not just one car, working on decaling ... Also constructing
Sounds like my workbench, 3 buildings, 4 or 5 DCC and light installations, 2 or 3 vehicles, etc etc
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
dti406Not just one car, working on decaling 2-60' Boxcars, 1-50' Boxcar, 1-ACF Cylindrical Covered Hopper and a Milk Car. Also constructing 1-50' PC&F RBL, 1-40' Modernized Boxcar, the 5th Andersons converted hopper car along with a detailed GP40-2 and some other projects in the mid construction phase.