Show us your Blue Boxes!

[doctorwayne]

Once again, thanks for the kind words.

John , that is indeed a re-railer on the NW2.  The loco is what Athearn at the time called an SW1500, although it was closer to an SW7, I think.  I followed an article in MR that showed how to alter the hood to make it more like the earlier NW2, and I added some details and a very large can motor - I measured the inside width of the hood, but neglected to take into account the "draught angle" that resulted in the opening becoming narrower higher up.  This resulted in a lot of work with a mill file to allow the motor to fit.  It also got Ernst gear sets and Tomar pick-up shoes, plus a GSB cab interior. 

In the photo shown, it's sitting alongside Creechan's Fine Fuels, a free-lanced and mostly scratchbuilt coal dealer's yard.  I wanted to de-emphasise the height of the grade separation for the mainline tracks through the station at the rear, which resulted in elevated storage bins under the dump track - I don't know how prototypical it is, but it seems a logical option afforded by the height. 

I used Central Valley lattice-work columns and Evergreen structural shapes, plus lots of strip styrene.  The unseen back side is mostly .060" sheet styrene, and includes an almost unseen (and therefore un-detailed) garage/barn for delivery vehicles.  Sheathing is mostly Campbell corrugated sheets over a structural framework.  The removeable roof is built-up, with trusses supporting furring strips to which the corrugated sheets were attached with contact cement.

 

Here's a view from Liberty St., looking through the gate:

 

...and an overhead view, courtesy of Secord Air Services:

 

 

 

The scale house:

 

...and a seldom seen view of the garage/barn and rear of the office building, at left:

 

Here's the sales office, as seen from the street:

 

jwhitten

Wayne, how many locos does your layout roster?

 

 

The layout is meant to represent two different railroads, with one owning a part interest in the other.  A third road, not modelled, controls both, and supplies most of the "home road" rolling stock, along with the occasional locomotive.  Currently, its only loco active on the layout is this modified Bachmann USRA Light Mountain (designated a Mohawk):

 

The larger of the modelled roads currently uses four Bachmann Consolidations as their main power:

These are supplemented by a pair of Moguls, this ex-B&M B-15, a re-motored brass import:

 

...and a more modern sister from IHC (due to eventually be re-motored):

 

Under (re-)construction is this John English Pacific, a very smooth runner, still with its original open-frame motor.  Here's what it looked like when last active:

 

...and in its current state:

 

The other modelled road uses four re-worked Athearn USRA Light Mikes:

 

They'll eventually be joined by a pair of modified Bachmann 4-6-0s, currently undergoing a fairly major re-build (I'll probably substitute USRA-style cabs for the one shown, to keep a "family" look to this road's locos):

 

They also use this doodlebug (known as "The Bee" for both its colour scheme and the sound as it buzzes into town) for passenger service:

 

It started life as a Rivarossi combine, with detail parts from just about everybody.  Power is through the front truck only, from an Athearn F7, and it's mounted on part of the F7's original frame.  A can motor from Mashimi provides the "oomph"  (she'll pull 8 or 9 freight cars up any of the line's 2.5% grades), with power pick-up from both trucks.  

 

It also has a partially-detailed interior, although current ridership appears  to be somewhat low :

 

Because there'll eventually be a modelled interchange with the CNR, there are a couple of CN locos in service and used as-needed anywhere on the layout.   These include this re-worked Proto USRA 0-8-0, which will eventually become the local switcher for the town where the interchange will be located:

 

...and this brass H-6 Ten Wheeler, long one of my favourite CNR locos.  I picked it up fairly cheaply because it came without a box, but a few minor repairs and a new paint job got it into service quickly.  Not as powerful as the ex-B&M loco, but useful on short freights or mixed trains.  I use it anywhere on the layout.

 

I also have another three Bachmann Consolidations, two of which will become CNR N-2-bs, and the third a DW&P N-2-a, along with another Athearn Mike, likely to also become a CN loco.  There's also a Cary USRA boiler on Mantua 2-8-2 running gear, likely to become an Erie Northshore loco, and a Bachmann USRA 2-6-6-2 currently awaiting new gears from NWSL - the latter one will likely become a transfer loco, assigned to yet another free lanced road.

I also currently operate an interchange with my favourite prototype railroad, the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo.  However, I own no steam locos for this road.  While a passable TH&B Consolidation can be constructed using the Bachmann loco as a starting point, I plan to scratchbuilt a more accurate version on a mechanism which I have on-hand.  This road also owned the only two Canadian Berkshires, but they're too heavy for the branch I'm modelling - the Bachmann Berk would've made a suitable stand-in, with some modifications and a smaller tender.  I may also do a TH&B B-2s, a fairly burly 0-6-0 which was their most numerous locomotive. 

So, in summary, 14 active locos, including the Bee, and 11 yet to be built. 

Because I generally operate solo, using DC control, this is many more locos than would actually be needed, as I don't run more than a single train at any one time - there may be several locomotives on that train, but usually not more than two or three.  However, operations are sequential, so there will be several trains at various places along the line - one operating and the others "in the hole" or yet to be dispatched, and all requiring locomotives.

Sorry to have strayed somewhat from the "Blue Box" topic, although Athearn  is represented in the motive power.

 

Wayne

 

[ChadLRyan]

DoctorWayne,

Your work looks great! Thanks for the comment on the CPR red, I plan to fade the deeper one with a mix to make it look used & sunburnt, a little more. Watching IC&E they never had anything 'new' in CP colors (well perhaps not until the merger) Also I will be patching it to be an IC&E unit)

Thanks agian!

[jwhitten]

Forty Niner

I can't imagine 4 feet at one time.............

Mark

 

We had over three feet here in the Northern Virginia area last year. It was not fun to shovel. And my mailbox was a casualty. Got run over by the mailman *and* the snowplow. The only *good* thing about the snow is that it kept the mailbox from falling over for another month :-)

 

John

 

 

[jwhitten]

doctorwayne

 

Wayne

 

Wayne, how many locos does your layout roster?

 

John

[jwhitten]

 

doctorwayne

A re-motored and modified NW2:

 

Hope I haven't made you regret asking.

Wayne

 

Wayne, that is a fabulous model, very nicely done! What is the yellow thing hanging down by the fuel tank, a re-railer? Also, where is the model posed on your layout? That is a very interesting background. Is that the coal seller's facility?

 

I will also note that generally when you post (or reply) the only thing people really regret, is not asking for more...

 

John

[steemtrayn]

Athearn CNJ Train Master

[G Paine]

After looking at what others have added, I decided to open a few boxes and get out some more Athearn blue boxes that I had not photographed previously. All of these cars started as undecorated kits.

Bunker Hill and Eastern is my freelanced '50s railroad. The brown car is in the original steam era colors. After WWII, BHE started repainting their rolling stock blue, but kept the original RR Roman lettering. By the mid 50s, managment wanted a more modern scheme, so the blue with white door colors with Gothic lettering was tried.

A B&M heavyweight baggage car and 2 MEC cabooses. The caboose with boxcar red sides and red ends represents MEC steam era colors. The wide vision caboose shows MEC colors that starting to appear around 1955. The older caboose is an old Roundhouse truss rod caboose kit, but now that is almost Athearn isn't it?

The 2 BAR flatcars have a Jaeger pipe load. The Monsanto tank car was done with an old Walthers decal set

A couple of more modern cars

A number of railroad clubs also used blue box cars with custom runs as club cars.

Eastern Maine Model Railroad Club has done a number of runs of BAR jade green wood chip cars. These are kitbashed from 40' boxcars and are still available from time to time. The ECC America covered hopper was used to deliver kaolin clay to Maine paper mills.

2 cars done by Salisbury Point Railroad Historical Society. MTC is Mystic Terminal RR a B&M subsidary. The tank car is a chemical tank that B&M converted to diesel fuel service in the 1980s

Finaly, here is the reason that blue boxes were popular for so many years. I recently picked up a couple of these kits in their original boxes; note the price. Any idea how old these may be??

[doctorwayne]

Good-lookin' locos, Chad.  I'm certainly no expert on CPRail, but I'm pretty sure they used at least two different "reds" on their diesels.  Your 6075 looks pretty close to the version they're using nowadays, while 5683 looks closer to the original CPRail red

Bob, are those MDC/Roundhouse cars now considered part of the Blue Box line?  They're very similar in construction to Athearn cars and they did, for a time, use a predominantly blue box.     I have some of the same cars, although mine have been downgraded to work train service:

 

 

 

...and I also re-did this 36' reefer as a Tool & Supply car:

 

Also of similar construction were the Train Miniature (later Train Miniature of Illinois, and currently part of the Walthers line) cars.  Unfortunately, Walthers doesn't offer the complete line-up.

A couple of re-worked TM plugdoor boxcars:

 

 

An ARA steel boxcar:

 

A single sheathed boxcar:

 

 

Stockcar:

 

TM also offered a pretty good version of Pennsy's X-29 boxcar (still offered by Walthers).  With a little work, it can be made into an even more accurate model:

 

...and also kitbashed into an X-28 automobile car:

 

TM also offered a double sheathed wood boxcar, although it was a low-height car like all of their other "house" cars.  I re-worked three of them into passable renditions of the USRA double sheathed car by simply scribing the original sidesills to match the existing "sheathing", then adding a new sill of strip styrene below that.  I also changed the ends, doors and underframe:

 

The plug door boxcar referred to earlier was similar to this reefer, minus the roof hatches, of course:

 

The tack board to the left of the door made these cars candidates for door-and-a-half or double door conversions, as the removal of the tackboard didn't have to be too neat if the area was to be covered by a door,    although I did do a couple with an over-width single door and left the tackboard in place:

 

 

Wayne

[UncBob]

 

 

 

http://bandb3536.com/meo/meopass/overlanda.jpg

 

 

 

[ChadLRyan]

Wow, Great Work Here!!!!  

I'm Humbled, I won't name names, but Geez , the awesome creativity & execution!

  Here are two HO BB Shells, one was 'Chad- Accessorized'  [Upper one], & the other left stock. This was before I was intoduced into prototype modeleing, but, I tried to match the "look" -a sort of ProtoType attempt..
Although I now have the slant'y DitchLights in stock, & other than the 4 window Cannon cab, & wrong red paint (which will be faded with light over coats), it may turn out to be a nice model, sometime?!?!!?!!????
I kinda have fun looking at, & attempting to fix & correct 'earlier' modeling efforts, & this is really one of the earliest examples of them... 
In retrospect, seeing old CP units in IC&E consists, it told a tale of things to come, as I always believed they were 'in cahoots' & so it came to be..
Hey, we all start modelling somewhere!!  Right?

[zgardner18]

This one started out as a UP Athearn BB Dash-9 but then I painted it up faded BNSF Style.

Here are a few more that I have but they are factory painted. 

I have a few more that are not ready.  Mostly SD40-2 units that I am custom painting.  I also have a lot of cars too but the engines are more exciting to look at.

[Forty Niner]

Wayne, As always, beautiful layout photos and layout as well...........

And...........I have a good friend who lives just south of Chatham, told me yesterday that Chatham had about 4 feet of the white stuff and that London had close to 6 feet of it!!! He also said that strangely they received almost nothing at his place, must have been a very unusal snow storm in more ways that one.

Gads, if we ever had 4 feet of snow dropped on the ground here in Central Missouri at one time they could just collect the bodies after the thaw as I'm sure power would be the first to go.

Mark

I can't imagine 4 feet at one time.............

Mark

[doctorwayne]

Some really nice work being shown here.

 

Mister Mike and Mark, thank you both for the very kind words. 

 

farrellaa

Wayne,

Your work is really top notch and well photographed. One question, who mows the grass in the turntable pit? I like that idea and may copy it on mine. I have been unsure of how to finish the tt pit and now I know. Keep the photos coming.

Bob

 

Thanks Bob.     My story is that the pit gets sprayed with weed killer every year, but, of course, the weeds always grow back.    I should really install a couple of catch basin grates, too:  the pit, like the nearby shop buildings and the coaling tower, has piped-in steam from a nearby steam/power plant, so my LPBs don't need to shovel snow out of the pit in the winter.  Keeps the shops warm and the coal doesn't freeze in the tower, either.   (Guess I should also install the overhead distribution pipes.    My free-lanced railroad is set in southwestern Ontario, some areas of which recently received over four feet of snow.)

The power plant is just around the corner, to the left, below:

 

Wayne

 

[G Paine]

I have lots of Athearn BBs; some dating from the 60s when I started model railroading. Here are a few, all are ones that I have painted and decalled:

This is the B&M slug set; 2 GP-40-2s BM 300 & 301 with a GP9 slug between. The slug set were road diesels and were a railfan favorite for many years

A closeup of the slug, kitbashed from a dummy BB GP-9

2 tank cars MEC 715 and UTLX 85302

A caboose kitbashed from a 40' box and a wide vision caboose to match a photo I have of MEC 646

A big hook 250 ton crane and crane tender

A 50' box CR 146248, a PC paintout representing a car from when Conrail was new; an old Walthers decal set

GP7 BM 1715 in a simplified bicentennial paint job

2 MEC passengers cars, and one diner; the F3 is Stewart

Turtle Creek Central 40' box

Omaha Western 40' box

[THayman]

I have two BB P42DCs, both of which were Amtrak units that I stripped and painted as VIA Rail units:

 

I also have an SW7, and used the chassis from a U-boat for another project. I also have a baggage car and 3 coaches from the old BB streamlined 72' cars, that I have painted up in my freelanced passenger railroad's livery. Don't have any photos though. Strangely enough, I don't have any BB freight cars, since I'm primarily a passenger modeller.

[BRAKIE]

Why not?

[trainnut1250]

Re-detailed Banana Reefer in the background.  I got rid of most of the BB stuff years ago with the exception of a few favorite cars.

[Packer]

Mostly weathered BBs. My one bash is RTR with BB parts. My BB locos are still waiting for detail parts.

[ChadLRyan]

Please tell me if this counts, as I treat the newer RTR just the same as BB Locos, just not as many grab irons..  This may be a review, I posted it recently in WPF.

This is an HO Athearn (newer Y&B box) CN GP40, I still consider it a (BB-with grab irons) with it's big filament bulb & flat spring pickups.  The purpose of this model is to show a few things;
Standard out of the box build I apply to a BB loco.
Wanted a Canadian machine with snow sheilds & tractor type ditchlights.
I left it unpainted for now, to show to non-train people what goes into 'minting out' a standard locomotive.
I have a few details to add, may do more with the fuel tank ends, add the trainline hoses, & the air deflectors on the cab windows.   Ask if you want a parts list.

  

[TexasSP]

I've got to hand it to you guys who can turn a cheap little BB into such works of art, and functional to boot!  Very nice work to all who posted and thanks for sharing.

[fiatfan]

A while back I assembled most all of my assembled BB's for a family photo.  The GN jade green was my first ever HO purchase.  The UP right next to was my only attempt at paint and decals.  Not shown are another 18 still in the boxes.

For motive power I have one BB bash.  It's based on a CN "SWeep" which is a GP9 body with an SW1200RS frame and cab.

 

Tom

[aloco]

[mikelhh]

I only have the two GP-9s

 

[farrellaa]

Wayne,

Your work is really top notch and well photographed. One question, who mows the grass in the turntable pit? I like that idea and may copy it on mine. I have been unsure of how to finish the tt pit and now I know. Keep the photos coming.

Bob

[gmcrail]

A pair of BB F-7s:  Detailed both, drawbar coupled, B-unit has power (P1K F3B) pickup from both.

 

 

Pardon the screwdriver handle - this was originally taken for an inventory pic.

[Forty Niner]

DRWAYNE, Everytime I see some of your pics I am very impressed with your work, very tastefuly done and very nice workmanship.

MR is missing the boat by not having your layout featured in one of their issues. My suggestion to them would be that they get moving before someone else decides your layout deserves a feature spread.

One word----------------BEEEUTEEEFULLLL!

Mark

[Mister Mikado]

Ain't nothin' wrong with a BB judging from these fine photos. Only goes to show ya, Athearn BBs will live forever. Long live 'em all! Great layout and cars, Wayne! No regrets from me and post some more...

[nik .n]

I only have 1 so far, a SD40-2 with a BLI shell:

Buuuuut, I am expecting a BB PA-1 AB set in EL colors soon.

[doctorwayne]

A re-motored and modified NW2:

 

Same Athearn switcher, re-done as SW1200RS, and also re-motored:

 

Re-motor (with two Mashima can motors) U-36-C:

 

Old Athearn geep, one of two re-motored and detailed to match two specific protoypes:

 

Some re-worked Athearn freight cars:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Athearn Pullman, shortened and re-built as a wood-sided baggage car:

 

Another re-built Pullman:

 

Observation car, shortened and converted to a business car:

 

Modified Athearn USRA Mikado:

 

Re-worked Athearn caboose:

 

Hope I haven't made you regret asking.

 

Wayne

 

 

[CP5415]

OOPS!