Weekend Photo Fun 21-23 November 2014.

["JaBear"]

Gidday All, Last WPF I razzed, in particular, Mr. DuPrey over his acquisition of his passenger cars and subsequent fine photo of them in action and as this Bear finds it very difficult to apolligiz apelloguys say sorry, I feel that an explanation is warranted.

You may recall that I attended the local clubs open day several weekends back, and amongst the attendees was the former owner of the LHS who sold out and moved towns. At the time I helped him out by looking after the store occasionally on weekends, and it was good to see him again and “chew the fat”. He still dabbles in the 2^nd hand market and had a sales table on which were several freight cars that had been repainted just with red oxide and therefore not that desirable to the average punter that caught my eye. After a brief and friendly haggle I became the proud owner.

As I got them for a very good price, and as my wife had previously purchased for me some 2^nd hand Athearn BB passenger cars, I then inquired about the 2 older Rivarossi passenger cars he had for sale and tentatively agreed on a price, where upon He whipped out from under the table another three cars exclaiming “You can’t break up a set”. After much friendly banter, “how can four identical cars constitute a set??!!” and “I’ve already done you a favour taking those cheapy freight cars off your hands”, and more haggling I ended up owning 5 passenger cars, with another car with some missing wheel sets, thrown in for luck.

On my way home I started thinking about all the good stuff I’ve seen on the forum regarding improving passenger cars and got quite enthusiastic, but had to sternly remind myself that I had enough projects already on the go, and so put them at the back of a drawer for future fun.

 

However seeing Heartland Garrys Sleeper/Lounge and Diner/Parlour cars, and then BN Garys passenger cars rekindled the flame and being weak of spirit I took out my annoyance and frustration at my own failings (the great ease that I allow myself to get sidetracked), on those who are undeserving. 

However I have resisted the urge and have continued with some more of my ferries superstructure.

Looking forward to the Really Good Stuff,

Have a Great One ffolkes,

Cheers, the Bear.

[mlehman]

 Bear,

Sounds like you got a deal there. They're even Pullmans. Quite frankly, they're older Pullmans that would probably look pretty good decorating that ferry BTW.

Modest Bear also didn't mention a non-modeling, prototype project where he helped my very considerably today with a sharp eye. It's all too much to to go into detail here, but if you like mysteries, secrets, and heavy duty flat cars, you'll enjoy this thread: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/240122.aspx?page=1

But how about some pics?

Speaking of secrets, I managed to sneak a camera into the Dove Creek Plant while there on other business and got a picture a a large expansion in rail capacity on one spur from 4 cars to 8 cars.

As I sat there, a test train backed in...

Keeping it mysterious, here's a night scene pic of a project I was inspire to do by Jim Gore's efforts at making adobe dwellings in O scale that was in the December MR, IIRC.

Look for write-up on building them and lots more pics appearing in the forum here shortly. Here's what it looks like in daytime, without any details or scenic work.

The Oriental Refinery in Durango got a new drum warehouse this week. The siding is Northeastern Scale.

The Durango roundhouse is a busy place these days.

I'm also looking forward to what others have been up to. Please join us.

[hon30critter]

Bear:

Nice catch! Gotta grab them when you see them. I just found a Roundhouse Galloping Goose 3 in 1 kit on eBay! Rare as hen's teeth! I gotta have it! I just bid an ubsurd amount for it!

Mike:

Great scenes (as usual of course!)

My caboose fleet is coming along nicely. Yesterday I got the Streamlined Backshop power pickups. They fit quit nicely once you realize that the used Athearn BB cabooses that I am using for a base can be quite deformed by previous owners using the wrong glue to stick them together. Don't ask questions - that would only start me to rant! Suffice it to say that I had to use a really big pair of pliers to bend a couple of the the chassis back into shape.

Here are the progress pics:

Keep alive circuits attached to the frames:

 

Side view. I decided to order custom decals for the Algoma Eastern RR because these hacks were so far off of anything that Canadian Pacific ever ran that I couldn't justify the CP decals. I still wanted to mimic the CP 50s paint scheme. The Algoma Eastern went defunct in the mid 30s but I am using poetic license. You know the rules... "Its my railroad and I will.....". The cabeese still have to be numbered and some of the smaller decals are still on order:

 

Corner view showing the red ends. This is the first time I have painted a multiple colour scheme. I still have to paint all the grab irons yellow. OH joy!:

 

I'm having a lot of fun with this project.

Custom Algoma Eastern decals are by Highball Graphics.

Dave

[Burlington Northern #24]

I dunno about your failings Bear, what you accomplish is simply beyond the capable scope of my own skills. I've thrown in the towel on a stubborn SP&S caboose kit simply because I lack the time and patiences for it, that and the 'boose was off the rails by 1964 so it's irrelevant now maybe some day I'll revisit it. 

As for the car's you got, those look like mighty fine cars to repaint and gussy up in a fancy pinstripe scheme, a couple details here and there and you've got a winner of a passenger train. 

Three new units joined the fleet on tuesday, finally got the decoders into them today. These three will bounce back and forth between passenger and freight service. 

one of two purchases from the show, I really like this scheme on NP cabeese.

the other purchase

and a car I've had for some time but never got MTL trucks for

[hon30critter]

Gary:

The newly DCC'd locomotives look really good! However, I'm a little bit concerned about the avalanche of stuff that is about to fall down upon them from behind!

Sorry, just kidding. My workshop looks pretty much the same.

Nice freight cars and caboose too.

Dave

[dti406]

Good morning Bear, Mike, Dave and Jerry, nice start to the weekend.  Unfortuneately the pipline to finished cars have sprung a leak, so I am forced to use some old stuff this week.

RS-32 and F7's leading a NYC Mixed Freight on the Strongsville Club Layout.

Pennsy N1s with a coal drage just being released at the junction with the 20th Century in the background.

Pennsy coal drag hauled by a couple of GP9's passing a NYC freight hauled by 3 GP40's.

Thanks for looking!

Rick J

 

[GP-9_Man11786]

Bear, those smokestacks came out nicely.

Mike, You're adobe structures look very good. I also love the night scenes.

Dave, Your cabeese are looking good.

Gary, You're certainly amassing a nice roster.

Rick, I gotta love that PRR N1. Your layout looks great.

This week, I've been focusing my efforts on Kittanning Point station. Now the real Kittaning Point station looked nothing like this Atlas station; it was a beautiful stone structure. It was also on the opposite side of the tracks. However, it was also torn town well before 1956. So yeah, a little creative license on my part.

And speaking of creative license, the reason you're seing N&W 611 on the PRR main line is, that I also have a fleet of modern Norfolk Southern equipment I like to run. Since the real 611 is currently being restored to operating condition for NS's 21st Century Steam program, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to have it pulling excursions around Horseshoe Curve. Hopefully that does indeed happen in real life.

[Jimmy_Braum]

I am as sucker for Pennsy stUff,so I love it. As do I with passenger cars. So here's my stuff. First off. Say hello to A " realistic what if" a former Wisconsin central sd45, repainted into wheeling and lake Erie. 

Second, a project still ongoing- Wheeling And lake Erie business car 1990 see top of post. 

Finally, a couple of crew cars being built. 

 

 

[peahrens]

Happy weekend, all.  I'm enjoying the examples you show as usual.  What variety of ideas!  Bear, your passenger car acquisitions look like an eventual fun project.  I'll add a few photos of my re-painted Athearn heavyweight train as it got some attention this week.  I found a chassis needed for the 7th car at last week's local show and added new wheelsets and couplers.  Added four pennies (better than a nickle, actually) to each to up the rather light weight somewhat (I excluded the original weights and used lead shot in the chassis well for the first weighting).  The 7th car needs diaphragms that are on the way.  And while at it, the observation car end got the handrails changed to "polished brass", plus a fellow catching some fresh air showed up (one of 16 people painted this week).

I'm trying to improve depth of field, but I think my Canon G12 may be limiting, as it seems to be limited to f/8. Tinkering with ISO does not seem to get past the f/8 limit.  Not at all sure I want to go to a SLR as in general I don't want a larger camera for travel.  Is there a compact, quality camera that goes to f/16 (or f/32)?

 

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Great work everybody !

Paul. My camera only goes to F8. I could improve depth of field in photos with a more expensive camera, but so far, that is not in my budget.

As of yesterday my 2 Atlas SD24's have Sountraxx Tsunami decoders. I am very happy with the results. Here is an older photo of the two SD24's leading a train onto the bridge. 

[Motley]

The SP Daylight leaving Cheyenne on route west to San Francisco.

[G Paine]

A friend and former BNSF employee sent me this link to the Friends of BNSF website that shows the layout of retired BNSF conductor Charlie Krampitz who lives in Texas

https://www.friendsofbnsf.com/content/bnsf-employee-charlie-krampitz-displays-lifelong-love-railroading-amazing-model-train-layout

There is some nice work here

[Burlington Northern #24]

Thanks GP9 and Critter, It had been some time since I actually counted my locos(I usually only run a handful of them at any given time) well it was a bit of a shock today when I counted out 25 locomotives, with two more on pre order(and Paid for SP&S #800 and #801 both F3A's), and another two I'd like to get(GN GP9's with T.T.'s).

 

 

[Grampys Trains]

Nice stuff from everyone. Just a yard shot.

[hon30critter]

GP-9_Man11786:

Thanks.

Tonight I spent a couple of hours soldering up some of the connections after the power pick up trucks were installed. I discovered that the Streamlined Backshop wheel contacts don't fit on all trucks. In order to use the contacts the trucks have to have a short raised column where they attach to the bolster. Some trucks do, some don't. I am short three trucks with the necessary raised column. The caboose trucks that I need are made by Tichy. I have ordered more but now I have to await their arrival.

I am also waiting for glazing kits and screen door/window kits from American Model Builders. These cabooses will be used in northern Ontario - read BUG TERRITORY! It just wouldn't be fair to my conductors to not have screens. By the way, has anybody modelled HO scale mosquitos? My brother in law worked on track maintenance crews in northern Ontario for a couple of summers when he was in university. The bugs were so thick that they couldn't work during the day. Everything was done after the bugs settled down at night. Glad I chose other summer jobs!

Dave

[C&O Fan]

I shot this video during my open house as i was demonstrating one of my wow steam decoders and their great slowspeed performance

Out of all my visitors suprisingly none had heard of a TCS Wow decoder but all loved it

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8wXWbYzLw

 

[engineerkyle]

I love the adobe at the top of this thread... inspiring!

[P&Slocal]

hon30critter, I used to go Spring bear hunting and walleye fishing in Northern Ontario. Definately bug territory the last week of May/first week of June. I never saw so many mosquitos in my life! It was horrible to sit in a stand and watch thousands of them crawling all over you and the buzzing in your ears was unbearable. I ended up going into Timmins and buying a beekeepers hat with netting to keep them away from my ears and neck. Although the skeeters were bad, the black flies were even worse. That fat guy everyone has on their layout looks like he could have been attacked by black flies!  I have never seen HO scale mosquitos and I think HO scale black flies might even be harder to find!

 

[BRVRR]

Great stuff again this week guys. Keep it up!

Here is one from the BRVRR archives:

The Black River yard and shops.

Keep the photos and ideas coming people. You make WPF the best thread of the week.

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice stuff, guys!

I just finished making a 1/24th scale replica of my wife's 104-year-old grandmother, to ride in the back of my scratch-built railbus:

After sculpting the figure, I decided to make a mold and cast it in resin so I could make duplicates to use elsewhere, or to replace this one if ever got damaged. I have the step-by-step on making the two part mold and casting the figure on my website:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Figures.html

 

 

 

[hon30critter]

Ray:

I love the railbus. Well done.

Grandma looks pretty spry too!

Dave

[howmus]

What a geat start for the weekend folks!  Superb work being shown as always.  Ray, you have the most interesting outdoor layout I have seen.  Makes me want to mortgage the house and redo my backyard!  Nice railbus sir!

I have finally found a bit of time to work on a few items on the SLOW.  The Dairy now has two stairways leading to the dooways, and a bumperboard along the front of the loading dock.  I will need to do sopme touchup to the stone wall as I see there are a few places that the white glue must have oozed out and sealed the stone.  No problem just one more thing to do.

I also got the PC ties going up the fill to the small bridge painted to look like ties.  i start with Roof Brown, and then finish with Grimy Black.  They blend in pretty well when finished.  In this photo you can tell where the PC ties are because the rail hasn't been "rusted" yet.  You can see the solder spots reflect in tyhe photo.

But down in the yard with the rail painted and details in place, I think you may have a bit more trouble finding the PC Ties...  I can only find one in the photo.  There is about 10.

Just waiting for ballast to be added now.

73

[HO-Velo]

Bear,  Thanks for the WPF start up.  Nice to see you're making way on the car ferry project.

Ray, Fabulous work, your figures are way cool!

Thanks to all, regards, Peter