Well I'm starting it off a bit early this week. BTW yesterday was my 19th B-day.
This week I got 3 Alcos. The first Alcos I have.
Got them for 10 bucks each, and they run and look good. Of course these units will have to go to the paint shop to get their pilots, walkways, steps and handrails painted right, and the stripes on the back are going to go (unless that's actually right, some units are like that on the BN)
To fix the number issue (they are all 4258) I'm just going to paint over part of the 8 to get a 9 and a 6; since I don't have decals.
I'm also getting DCC and LEDs into these units.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
TrainManTy wrote:Well, he said it was going to be early... Plus maybe if we start early it won't go as late into the week like it has lately.
Well, never though of it that way. But I guess it works out in theory. Besides, it's close enough for me. (I don't have work tommow, and today is the last day of school for the week, so tomorrow is like my saturday)
I did some work on the layout this week. I had a 'S' curve right up front that's been giving me some trouble periodically with some Genesis cars. So I ripped it out and put in a new stretch of EZ-Track to replace it.
Here the new piece of plywood that will support the track is already in place.
In this photo, I laid the new section on top of the old one to give you a good idea of what I'm doing.
Here I've got the new section in place on top of pieces of white beadboard.
The old rail joiners didn't want to come out so I clamped the rails in place and soldered them to the existing rails. The job was spot-on. The rails are in perfect alignment.
jeffrey-wimberly wrote:Usually we wait until the weekend to start this.
Ha Ha! You don't get to start it this week. He beat you to it LOL. Next week it will be Wednesday and you'll miss that one too
I have been working on several projects at once. This is what I have accomplished so far. The post office car is being built like the one in the sept mr issue.
I also completed this MDC/Roundhouse 2 truck shay. It was a complete basket case. I disassembled it and rebuilt it. To my dismay it was missing the rear drive shaft to the truck and the motor drive t was split and it was missin all of its driveshafts. So this one will be a dummy display at the museum when I get to building a layout.
Not sure what this is but it looked cool and it was free. So I built a chasis out of styrene and put freight trucks under it like it is in for restoration. It will get a heavy rust job like it has just been brought in or something.
I have also stripped the paint off my bachman gp-40 and added grab irons, new brass horn, antenna. I think I will also add a plow, rotating beacon, mu hoses, and I will bend new handrails out of wire instead of that cheap plastic. I also stripped the paint on my athern gp-9 and added antenna, horns, rotating beacon, and gps antenna. I think this one will also get a plow but I haven't decided yet.
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
Of course, this thread should run into monday, cause it's labor day here in the U.S.
Happy b-day Packer! and good lookin locos, gotta love alcos.
Jeff, good work on that straight spot.
I might get some pictures for ya'll l8r this weekend. The only loco I've got that still has it's shell is my GP35, the other Geeps and h-15-44 are down for painting. And it's not my best work. Sorry for my dark pictures last week, my desklap had burnt out and it was night, so my only illumination was my ceiling fan bulb. They should be filled w/ light this weekend.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
"Rust, whats not to love?"
Looking forward to those cars Robby.
to DJ.
Grampy,
Once again, I have to say it.
You are a fantastic modeler. Your scenery, track, and rolling stock are all perfectly executed. I especially like the weathering; many folks overdo it with an airbrush; you have not. Dead-on.
I happened upon your photo page. All of it, shear inspiration.
Thanks!
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Uh...weekend huh?...don't I wish! Anyway, good to see all the pictures. Grampy, great work.
Maybe I can get around to a picture on here before the weekend is over.
Driline wrote: jeffrey-wimberly wrote:Usually we wait until the weekend to start this.Ha Ha! You don't get to start it this week. He beat you to it LOL. Next week it will be Wednesday and you'll miss that one too
OK Driline - you can have next Wed, but I wan't the following Tues!!
Although I'm still on "convalescent leave," I'm feeling fine. I'm grateful to the stringent fitness requirements of the service for keeping me in shape such that something like an appendectomy is more a minor nuisance than anything else. I'm chompin' at the bit to go back to work, but in the meantime, I've been modeling like crazy!
Up first is an Atlas N scale Penn Central SD35 I've converted to a Conrail paint-out:
Before:
The desired result (from Fallen Flags):
After some paint, a Sunrise Enterprises cab signal box (thanks, Ed K!), weathering with acrylics and chalk powders, lotsa Dullcote, decals, and more Dullcote, the result:
One thing I tried to replicate was, as evidenced by hundreds of photos of similar ex-Penn Central Conrail locos, that they often slapped what must have been cheap black paint over the Penn Central Scotchlite logos and lettering. In short order, that lettering showed through on almost every engine as that cheap paint peeled away. The "CR" stencils were another early Conrail cost-saver; they're the "C" and "R" from the "CENTRAL" portion of the Penn Central roadname stencils.
In light of the completion of climate control installation in my 3 car Las Vegas garage, meaning that construction can finally begin on the 22x35ft ARR Anchorage Subdivision, here's my first of hopefully many contributions to WPF:
A celebratory photo of the 17 locomotives that'll soon finally have some real mainline track to get out and stretch their legs on!
Hi everyone,
Great pictures in here, I've been watching many many times . You guys give me a lot of inspirations.
Here is my diorama in HO Scale, were taken against the actual sky........still got no idea about weathering all new cars yet...
Love you're work Dave and I'm glad to hear the recoup is in full swing. I'm a big fan of the PRR > PC > CR myself so I really dig what you're doing now especially. I'll have to post a pic of a PC GP-9 I painted from a undec shell. I think it came out pretty good, (how hard is it to screw up black?) LOL and I want to keep it as PC, but I need to finish some details on it and take a crack at weathering. I'll post it later this weekend, or maybe later today if I can get the wifey to run down and take a few shots for me.
Grampy, what can I say, super completely inspiring, especially to us newbies. I'm gonna have to start buring these pics to a CD cause my thumb drive is filling fast.
Thanks for the great pics, please keep them coming, I have a long way to go.
Well, this isn't much to look at, but I'm excited non the less! Here is my new bench work waiting for the backdrop to be installed. I'm also waiting for my turnouts to arrive before I can start setting out track. This bench work was a little more involved than my old 'sacred sheet'. I hope you guys don't mind progress shots. Otherwise I'll have to wait until sometime next year to post!
I likey!!!
I like that you painted your benchwork too, looks much much better than just the plain wood. Good job, keep us updated eh?
In Conrail's first months, there was little to no standardization with respect to paint jobs. One oddity that many don't realize is that many 50 foot boxcars that were transfered to Conrail on Merger Day in April 1976 were painted by Conrail in Penn Central Green.
I had messed up a weathering job on an N scale 50 foot Micro Trains Penn Central boxcar and subsequently purchased a new one. That one ended up coming out well enough:
The prototype (from Penn Central Online):
But I still had the messed-up 50-footer. What to do with it? Chuck it? Naw... Never throw a car away! Checking out the Fallen Flags website, I found these among several photos of Conrail green boxcars from the very early CR years (1976-80):
So I stripped and re-painted the 50-footer with PolyScale Penn Central green. I added Microscale decals and ACI labels. The dimensional data isn't correct (these letters are about 0.5 mm high; I once tried to cut them out one-by-one to do a PRR X31A properly, and while it looked okay by the time I did one side of the car I was burned out) and the font's not quite there, but overall it both captures the feel of an early and lesser known Conrail prototype and keeps a $15 boxcar out of the trashcan!
Oh, yeah, and for you large scale people (HO and up!), here's an idea of why I use an Optivisor when I do this:
Here's an area of my layout that I've been working on. Southern's 6547, an H16-44 made by Atlas, leads the local of late afternoon.
Jarrell
Wow! What a great start to the weekend! The Reading coal train, the CR repaint, all the others and soooooooooooo many Alaska RR locos that I thought I was going loco! I think next wekend may be the first time I get to post a picture on the WPF thread that does not feature plywood and sheetrock screws. In fact, I hope the pics have some nice sky blue in them, but just what else gets included is a little cloudy at this point in time. :)
Keep up the good work everyone and happy modeling over the weekend! Jamie
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PAcker!
Enjoy it all you can!
(Oh, to be 19 again! )
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
This is my latest weathered job. A rusty Railbox. I added Cal-Scale airhoses, hand made cut-levers.
Dave, glad to hear you're recovering. Your last photo brought to mind something about N scale... And I thought the wires I have to solder in a DCC install in HO were small! Getting them in N scale must be a nightmare!
So far I've cut it out, painted it, and sceneced the pond-bed. Now I'm just waiting for the paint to dry. (I'm using it as an adhesive for the dirt and stuff on the pond-bed, along with later my usual glue-water mix.)