Welcome to another exciting installment of weekend Photo Fun! The weather has been playing havoc in much of the world but we have calm seas here for showing our model photos.
Don't be bashful, let's see what you've been working on OR don't hesitate to dig into the archives and post a photo of your layout or models from days gone by.
This project kind of sneaked up on me. I was looking at some "head-end" equipment recently and was dismayed that none of them had car numbers, many of the cars still had shiny, chrome wheel faces and, yes, I even added some grab irons to a few.
Here are some lined up for their first coat of Dullcote:
Head-End by Edmund, on Flickr
You can see some places where I've dabbed some Future Floor Finish to give a glossy surface for the decal to "snuggle" into.
Here are the results after some airbrushed Dullcote and a little "road dust" applied as the first step in weathering.
Head-End_Dusty by Edmund, on Flickr
On a few I even painted white in the little frames that hold the destination cards. Neat little detail
PRR_B60b-detail by Edmund, on Flickr
I have more irons in the fire this weekend and I'll get the photos uploaded toot sweet!
Lets hope for a good turnout this weekend! Things have been a tad sluggish in these forums lately.
Cheers, Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning from mostly sunny and warm Northeast Ohio!
Thanks for starting us out Ed, did a lot of work on those cars, I still have a number to build, paint and decal, but after adding the grab irons to one of those PRR baggage cars, I dread doing the next one.
Bear, good toon and some nice work on those covered hoppers, can't wait to see the finished product.
Two new cars this week!
After getting the load installed, I decided to complete another New Haven Depressed Center Flat, painted with Scalecoat II Black and Tamiya Brown paints then lettered with Champ Decals. I also used A-line Sill steps in place of the plastic ones and added grabs at the end of the car. Used for transporting small to medium size transformers from a GE plant in Connecticut. Now I have to find a load for this car.
Athearn PC&F RBL kit, painted with Scalecoat II Wabash Blue and lettered with Oddball's decals. ART was founded by the MP & Wabash (Both Jay Gould RR's) to supply RBL's and RP's for the perishable traffic from the growing areas to the cities and competed with PFE, BREX, etc for this traffic.
Pair of Athearn SD45's with a general freight including some recently finished cars on the Strongsville club layout.
Kevin, to answer your question I added a few drops of NP Scalecoat II Green paint to the silver for that Anderson's Car. The cars were painted silver, but the Alfalfa dust from that surrounded the Maumee elevator gave the cars a green tinge that I wanted to have, each car was different so what I added each time was different.
Thanks to all that commented last week on my pictures, and I especially liked Garry's bridge picture again.
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!
Ed .... Thanks for starting Weekend Photo Fun. Good work with weathering head end cars. I recall trains in Chicago Union Station in the 1960's and the PRR head end crs were always very dirty.
Bear .... Your hopper project looks good. LOL at the Bear Toon.
Rick ... Great looking depressed center flat car, boxcar, and SD45's.
Currently, I am running the SD24's with a dynamometer car .
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
GMPullman, love the work on those head-end cars, the weathering looks excellent.
JaBear, digging the hoppers and with those weights, I imagine they'll track well and stay in a train without issues.
dti406, digging the flatcar and MODX boxcar.
Heartland Div. Love the SD24s and the Dynamometer car, the backdrop looks perfect for that scene.
I did some more work on my Wrisley Papers kit, I'll post pics tonight.
Alvie
Thanks for this weekend's photo start, Ed. Great looking weathering on the cars.
Bear, nice looking open hoppers. When you retire, watching paint dry is one of the day's most exciting events.
Rick, more nice work. I expecially like the Wabash blue ART boxcar.
Garry, nice looking scene. You have almost perfectly blended the layout with the background in that scene. It's impossible to tell where the background begins.
I have not done much layout work for several weeks. Summer things get in the way. Even when I don't post photos, I love looking at everyone else's work.
I have a small problem area near the tracks that has been empty for a long time. I decided to put in a couple of small trackside structures. These have taken a lot longer than necessary, but my heart's just not in making them. It's become a chore.
York1 John
Well, I have been absent again. I haven't been doing much on the railroad, but a good friend from "upstate" (read downstate) NY came up to visit and filmed a video "vlog" including my layout.
https://youtu.be/rfVczmX9-UA
Have a great weekend folks!
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
A Beartoon right off the bat! Thanks, Bear!
Say, are those melted Hershey's Kisses in your nice looking hoppers?
I really like the depressed-center flat, Rick. I've been reading about the GE transformer loads hauled by the New Haven. I wonder if it is the Pittsfield plant? I made up a sign for a couple of my GE transformer loads:
Harshaw_coal-tar-tank-b by Edmund, on Flickr
I used the Kibri transformer kit. Artitec makes a nice one, too, if you can find it. Both more of a European style but, what'cha gonna do?
I like that shade of Wabash blue on your RBL.
And your Chinese Red, too, Garry I have a Nickel Plate dynamometer that I should run more often.
Thanks Alvie
I hope you find inspiration soon, John. Summer time is not all that conducive to model RR fun when there's chores to be done.
I'll watch the video after dinner, Harrison
Here's another Paint & Decal job I got done just last night:
Harshaw_coal-tar-tank by Edmund, on Flickr
Here she is just after the first coat of gloss over the decals,
Harshaw_coal-tar-tank-shiny by Edmund, on Flickr
I was glad these forty-year old decals held up. They're hard to find!
Here's the car in basic black which it wore for about two years:
JnL_20k-tank2 by Edmund, on Flickr
These cars were used between plants in the Pittsburgh area for hauling coal tar.
Still plenty of time for more great photos. Anybody see Jimmy Braum lately?
Ed: The work you have done on the head-end cars looks like a remarkable improvement. They all looked good before, and now they look even better.
Bear: The hoppers are moving along faster than any model railroading project I have going on right now. I can't wait to see the final results.
Rick: Thank you for sharing the information on the green tint. I did not know the commodity hauled would tint the silver paint. It looked great. I like the depressed center flat car this week. I need to add some of those corner up-pointing grab irons to mine.
Garry: Your dynamometer car is something I need to add to my SGRR fleet just for pictures like that. Lambert imported a very nice one that I have had an eye out for. The picture is wonderful.
John: Your efforts, though a chore, look good, and I'll be they will fill that empty spot quite nicely.
Harrison: Glad to see your layout featured in the video. I am sure you will get back to building it. I heard Northern Winters are good for model railroading.
Ed: (again): The J&L 20,000 gallon tank car looks fantastic.
I hope to visit again on Sunday with something appropriate to share this week.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190Ed: (again): The J&L 20,000 gallon tank car looks fantastic.
Thank you, Kevin (and others)
I did come across a good builder's photo, finally:
Tank_JnL-1020 by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
SeeYou190 Harrison: Glad to see your layout featured in the video. I am sure you will get back to building it. I heard Northern Winters are good for model railroading.
In a way, yes, but as of now I don't have a summer job, and I have a recurring winter job that pays $20/hour. That does come with a cost, though, as it can be very labor-intensive.
Thanks for the kind comments everyone, I do believe I'll start working on the staging yard today.
Ed, Thanks for gettin' the WPF rolling with an array of appealing equipment and the fine results of an airbrush/numbering fest'.
Survey says!
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers, have a good weekend, regards, Peter
John York 1, Alvie, Ed, Kevin, and anyone I missed...... Thanks for commenting on my picture. The photo was taken of hte most narrow section of the layout (18") . I had fun blending backdrop into foreground scenery.
Ed ... I like the tank car.
Harrison .... Thanks for sharing a video.
Peter .... I like the surveyor scene.
Peter: Great picture of the survey crew. One Summer I worked as a teen on a survey crew measuring the distance between the telescope guy and the spear guy. I had to shout the distance back to a guy that took notes. I would suppose lasers or something do the measuring now.
- - - - - - - - - -
I made it back from the train show in DeLand. What fun for the weekend.
There was a pretty good crowd at the event.
I was mesmerized by this live steam beauty outside. What a gorgeous locomotive.
A real highlight was seeing the Orlando N-Trak club's N scale sectional layout again. They used the quarantine time to finish and touch-up the entire layout. I compared some pictures of it I took today to pictures I took three years ago. It was a good layout before, now it is incredible.
I will be sharing pictures in Show Me Something as the topic allows.
There was not a lot of HO scale material at the show. It was mostly G Scale, Lionel, and "Railroadania" collectables.
I did get a pretty good haul though.
That is all for me to share this weekend.
Excellent pictures by everyone. Well done.
Unfortunately I am busy at the moment to name all.
Kevin The real GNR Number 1 is a Stirling Single designed by Patrick Stirling for the Great Northern Railway.
A film of her running.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I did some more work on Wrisley Papers recently. The large gray wooden building stands on its own now! This is probably the most satisfying building kit I've ever done and it's my first "craftsman" kit. The open window space on the brick building will be covered with a shed. I do have the missing window though and I will add it soon.
This building and fixing up a brass Precision Scale Boston and Maine T1b 2-8-4 are my main model railroading projects right now. One pic from fixing up the 2-8-4 is below. I had taken off drive-rods, main rods, and some valve gear parts to drop the middle two drivers and regauge them (to narrow) using an NWSL Puller.
That’s a fine looking tank car, Ed, is that the F&C kit?
While I have a few of the F&C kits on the shelf along with a few "Butterdish" milk reefers and B&O baggage cars I cheated and bought a pair of the NWSL brass cars:
NWSL_20K by Edmund, on Flickr
Reasonably well detailed for an early '70s model. I did adapt Kadee Andrews trucks to her, though.
Kadee_509-Andrews by Edmund, on Flickr
I had to counter-bore the bolsters a bit for the shoulder screws to fit properly. All in the name of fun
Thanks for all the great contributions, folks! Ed
Great stuff from everyone this week.
Thought I would share a MILW local moving refridgerator cars into the Borden Cheese siding in Plymouth.
Scott Sonntag
Two ore cars have now been painted a basic paint. Weathering later. and the caboose now has wheels. All I did for the HOe layout.
I did more on the ITLA building by adding the windows after paint and weather. I did build the modular piece (also from ITLA) to add to the building sitting in the background. Still needs weathering to match. Most of the time spend here so I can get it added on to get that finished. Which should be reasonable completed next week
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
Thanksto everyone that has contributed this week. I love this thread and look forward to it every week.
David: Thanks for the video of the nifty 4-2-2 running.
Bear: The hopper tops look good.
Alvie: The Wrisley building looks like it will be amazing when it is completed.
Ed: I have never countersunk a Kadee truck for the supplied shoulder screw. I have drilled and tapped the brass train cars for 2-56 and used a standard screw. It is not easy, but so far I have not broken anything.
Scott: The pictures of the RS1 at work are all nice. Thanks for posting them.
Shane: The ore cars and buildings are looking quite good.
I hope I did not miss anyone. See you all next week.
SeeYou190Ed: I have never countersunk a Kadee truck for the supplied shoulder screw.
As it turned out, Kevin, I had to use different screws afterall. The coupler height was a good .040 low so I used a brass washer to gain the height. I don't like stacking too many red or gray Kadee washers. I keep a good assortment of brass washers for the task.
Rather than countersink, I used an endmill that has a flat cutting face to bore a flat-bottomed seat in the bolster. I may even decide to go with archbar trucks which is shown in the builder's photo above. Amazing but there were 100 ton archbar trucks.
THANKS to everyone for participating this weekend! Great stuff Ed