Hi, we are building a family layout of the Burlington Northern in N but my son wants to have the Wisconsin Central as an interchange RR. My question is as there is very limited stock in N of the WC we are going to have to resort to painting and decaling locos ourself. The WC has a broad yellow/gold band the length of its locos and the Microscale decals have this as a decal on their decal sheet so which is the best way to attack this problem
1) apply the decal band then apply another decal "WISCONSIN CENTRAL" on top of the gold band I have never placed a decal on decal before, will I apply the band then use something like dullcote to seal it then appy the "WISCONSIN CENTRAL" decal on top?
2) paint the loco yellow/gold then just mask where the gold band should be and appy the "WISCONSIN CENTRAL" decal
3) or tell him to model the Illinois Central?
Shaun
You can certainly apply a decal on top of another decal, however, the first one must be completely settled in using Microscale's Microsol (or any other brand). All air bubbles must be popped etc. In other words, the first decal must be ready to seal and only then apply the second decal, then seal both with dullcote. You can seal the first decal with a glosscote not dullcote, (never apply decals to a flat coated surface), but it really isn't neccessary and really just adds an additional un-needed paint coat.
You could also mask and paint both colors, (the colors are available from both Polyscale and Modelflex).
Prime the model with a light grey, then apply the cream color, mask off the stripe and finish with the maroon. Apply a coat of gloss, add the decals, seal with dullcote.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
shaun
atlas makes or made a gp 40? in WC paint I have 2 of these and i believe atlas or
micro train made WC box cars,atlas also made a couple of styles of hoppers
not to promote any hobby shops but sommerfelds in buttler wisc. has always
treated me well. good luck ! you might want to check the atlas sight for the gp's
jshack
You may feel like modeling the IC, but that opens up another set of challenges:
1) The Green Diamond herald White on Black diesels? The U of I brown/orange passenger fleet?
2) The Orange/White IC/ICG?
3) The Chicago Central inherited the IC green diamond herald & a motley fleet of black & ICG units?
4) The new style IC?
5) Any CN/IC units
Come to think of it, black is an easy color to paint, & any era white letters will look good.
With the old IC running from Chicago west to Galena & Iowa, & another branch from Freeport into Madison Wisconsin, you may want to have a pair of rebuilt IC GP's on your layout. Gives another roadname to have fun with!
If you do this region, be sure to have a cheese factory, a dairy, & lots of corn to feed the cows.
Dan
Hi and thanks to all who replied, Ive found the Atlas Geeps but none of the US retailers here in the UK have them so it's a case of finding hobby shops in the US ( I have delt with Caboose Hobbies & First Hobby but they don't have them all the other retailers I used many years ago seem to have gone out of business
I am probably going to go with the paint and mask technique as I can easily get the right paints here in the UK (The WC bought the freight sector of British Railways many years ago and use the same paint scheme & colours as the WC)
Last question there was a mention of a dairy/cheese factory, do these industries rely on rail transportation? I am following the MR articles/book "Modeling the BN in N" which is 9'x10' and I have a space of 12'x24' so I am looking to expand the layout and looking for idea. I haven't seen models of dairies etc just seems to be a large emphasis on coal, lumber & paper in the modeling press.
Many thanks again sorry to have gone on a bit but we are trying to model an area 4000 miles from where we live. It's already taken 3 months to decide on a scale and prototype,
whywaites wrote: Last question there was a mention of a dairy/cheese factory, do these industries rely on rail transportation? I am following the MR articles/book "Modeling the BN in N" which is 9'x10' and I have a space of 12'x24' so I am looking to expand the layout and looking for idea. I haven't seen models of dairies etc just seems to be a large emphasis on coal, lumber & paper in the modeling press.
Shaun;
Take a look:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3298
Keep in mind a lot of WC's business has been interchange/transfer traffic - moving freightcars from one railroad to another - so a lot of their trains would have mostly cars from other railroads. Here in the Twin Cities I've seen WC trains a lot, I would guess none had more than 5-10% WC cars at most. But that's just what I remember, never really did a count.
So, how many WC cars do you need to model a WC interchange?? Not many, a couple of WC engines and a couple WC cars should do it.
wjstix wrote: Keep in mind a lot of WC's business has been interchange/transfer traffic - moving freightcars from one railroad to another - so a lot of their trains would have mostly cars from other railroads. Here in the Twin Cities I've seen WC trains a lot, I would guess none had more than 5-10% WC cars at most. But that's just what I remember, never really did a count. So, how many WC cars do you need to model a WC interchange?? Not many, a couple of WC engines and a couple WC cars should do it.
My experience was a little different.
My parents lived in Gladstone, MI which was a WC division point and there were quite a few WC cars passing through that yard. (I have a good pic of an ex-ATSF SD entering the yard from the south.)
I live in Chicago and driving along the Eisenhower Expwy, the CN (ex-WC) runs down to interchange with UP(?). The trains on that line were/are alomost 100% WC (with CN engines now).
I have 2 N-scale Kato WC SD-45s, but I bought them quite a few years ago - don't know what the used market looks like.
emdgp92 wrote:Most WC diesels got the burgundy/yellow scheme. However, some were still running around in their previous colors...an ex-ATSF or BN SD45 wouldn't be too out of place :)
I've found some very useful pictures at Railpictures.net and it looks as if anything goes. I do fancy the idea of a dairy though.
wjstix wrote:One good thing is you should be able to find the correct maroon and yellow paint in the U.K., though I suppose it will be labelled "EWS" not "WC".
Hi, yeah the paint is everywhere here in abundance. I did hear that they wanted "WISCONSIN CENTRAL" on the stock over here when WC first bought up the 3 freight sectors.
Trynnallen wrote:The Madison Hobby Stop, Madison WI has two of them sitting in thier engine case as of this weekend.
The trouble is some shops don't like to ship intl so I am limited to some of the larger discount mail order firms or pay UK prices.
Green County Wis was my grandparent's home. Very big dairy & cheese production. When you eat "Pizza cheese" it could have come from there.
Farms grow the corn & grain to feed the cows. Herds of 100+ cows make tons of milk. Some of it goes into the dairy milk pool to be trucked into the city as fresh milk.
Other dairies process the milk into cheese. Usually, one factory will make one type,from cheddar to swiss to other kinds. Many factories swap cheese so they have a variety to sell in their little store. I had the most fun going back to the cooler where the wheels are stored (making wheel swiss). Get the owner to cut a hunk out of a big wheel. Still other factories process the milk into other products, from yogurt to ice cream, to cream for your coffee, cream for your dessert, etc.
Swiss Colony is a mailorder cheesmaker that takes in orders & ships packages by rail to anywhere in the world. This time of year, they may have trainloads of trailers with parcels onboard!
Hi thanks for the contact info I would rather support a LHS over a mail order Co.