Weekend Photo FUN 23-26 October 2015.

["JaBear"]

Gidday All, well I have a three day weekend, its Labour Weekend here down under, so it would be rude not to invite you to join in, in a spiritual sense that is.

I was down at the club, Wednesday night, and one of the chaps was showing off this beast. (too much yellow for my taste!! )

 

Looking forward to the really Good Stuff,

Have a Great One fflokes,

Cheers, the Bear.

[C&O Fan]

Your club has a nice looking layout Bear~!

 

Here's a couple of videos I made showing how I operate my layout


Operations 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DjDxc5Kqm4

Operations 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3si-Mu0gR7w


Rather than using Car Cards I use an Operations Scenario

 Which is a written script of train movements that includes
the order in which they run
 locations with departure and arrival times and route instructions

At the start of a session the guest looks at the written script and chooses a train to operate
then takes his turn and  follows the script

They can operate multiple trains during the session once their first choice is completed

The script is 4 pages long and covers about 2 hours of operations for 4 operators



See the brief sample below:

8:00 AM        The 3 car passenger train leaves the Thurmond depot via the west bound main and proceeds to Mt Hope stopping at the water tower to take on water prior to arriving

 

8:00 AM The Doodlebug leaves the station at Mt Hope and proceeds to Glenn Jean via the Loup Creek Branch stopping to pick up passengers

 

 

8:10   GP 7 consist #5910 on the power plant siding takes the reefers and caboose and proceeds to Thurmond Via the eastbound Main occupying the passing siding

 

[Guy Papillon]

Thank you Bear for starting that thread again. I agree with you. Way too much yellow in this scene. I much prefer to have just  little bit of it applied on green or black background.

Here is a Atlas Classic Alco S-2 that I received yesterday. With DCC and sound, it is a pleasure to run.

It will be hard to concentrate on layout building this weekend.

Have a nice long weekend down there.

[dti406]

Good morning Bear and Terry from Foggy and Cool Northeast Ohio!

As Terry said, nice looking club layout, and Terry I did the same thing when I worked up an operating scheme for the club I belonged to up in Anchorage, AK.

Managed to get some cars done this week!

I managed to finish the sixth car in the series of Tichy Anderson's quasi covered hoppers this week, normally I would say I have 4 to go, but I acquired another one so I still have 5 to finish.  Car painted with Model Master's Aluminum Paint with a tint of Green Paint and Reading Green on the Extension.  Decals were included with the kit.

Con-Cor 60' Greenville Auto Parts Car, kit built without any modifications as the MP cars were the short (41') wheelbase. Car was assigned to the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline to the Monroe Bumper Plant for Ford. Car Painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and Floquil Platinum Mist Paints and lettered with Oddballs Decals.

Another 60' Greenville Boxcar Kit, but this time I removed the rivit detail and changed the wheelbase to 46' to match the ACF Cars acquired by the SP for Ford Service in the Milpitas Pool.  Car painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and lettered with Herald King and Walther's Decals.

Thanks for looking!

Rick Jesionowski

[RDG Casey]

More playing with a new camera.

[mlehman]

Bear,

Labour Day greetings to you and your fellow workers!

Great stuff Terry, Guy, Rick and RDG Casey

Our intrepid photographer caught some standard gauge action with the HP Zephyr and the La Sal Flyer at Durango this week.

Up on the narrowgauge at Crater Lake, Extra 95 East was seen rolling raw poles headed for the treatment facility on Alamosa.

I converted several cars leftover from my teen years to narrowgauge. The first was a bobber caboose which began life as a AHM model. I pulled the superstructure off and rebuilt it without the cupola. The hand-painted lettering is quaint now, but will probably keep it.

It was a very simple conversion. Just pull the plastic half-axles off, cut off enough to allow them to be pushed into HOn3 gauge, then reassemble.

Next was an old MDC Overton combine, similarly hand-painted, which I added a cupola to serve as a mixed train caboose.

I used a bandsaw to slice the body on either side of the doors to the end platform, sanded smooth, then rejoined to narrow the body while adjusting the frame similarly. I sanded the top of the shell to get the overall height down. I cut the rails that hold the roof down and then reattached to fit the narrowed shell, then sanded the roof edge along the sides to narrow it overall. The difference is subtle, but helps it fit better and can be seen in comparison to a coach that I'm now working on to basically the same end.

 

 

[tcwright973]

Rick - I'm asking about this because I don't know the answer. What jumped out at me on the Anderson's hopper was the reporting mark being on the right side of the car body. I never thought about it before, but I don't recall ever seeing a reporting mark that wasn't on the left side. Now I'm wondering if there is a rule for reporting mark placements, ot is it discretionary. By the way, You do amazing work.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Bear .... Thanks for starting Weekend Photo Fun with the UP U50.

TX Terry .... Your operations are well organized. Nice videos. 

Guy .. I think the Atlas S2 is one of the best models available in HO.

Rick J ... The Anderson hopper and the 60' auto parts cars look great.

Casey... Glad you are playing with the camera so we can see the beautiful camelback this week.

Mike L .... A new life for old HO. Good idea. 

-----------

Work in Progress ...... 

I continue to work on a rural scene for the back corner of my layout extension. I am working on scenery which includes rock strata which is between two track levels of the layout. There is still more work remaining with scenery. 

Buildings left to right .... Scratchbuillt grain elevator and trackside shed. Office building I made for this scene from an old Suydam metal kit. Two Walthers stockyard kist connected together. Shed made from an old Campbell kit. I made the Campbell shed many years ago and it was once on previous layout. 

[dti406]

Tom,

There are a lot of railroads and private owners that flip flopped the Reporting Marks and capacities, most notably the Wabash and NYC.  The Andersons was one of the few Covered Hopper owners that did this.  Also the fact the these cars only went from Toledo to Maumee on the old Wabash line and were never interchanged left it has something that did not matter in the scheme of things.

A few other examples of the flipped reporting marks!

Rick J

[GP-9_Man11786]

The weekend is off to a great start. 

Bear, love the U50.

Guy, Your S2 looks great.

Rick, Awesome rolling stock, as always.

RDG Casey, Your camelback looks terrific and I love how the field beside the tracks came out.

Mike, Love the dual-gauge action.

Garry, your stock yard scene is coming along nicely.

This week, I finally got Horseshoe Curve into enough of a state of completion that I feel I can move on Gallitzin.

Here's the Curve:

And here is the nascent Gallitzin:

It will look a lot like San Francisco only without the bay and the cable cars.

I'm also adding an industrial area to give my locals something to do:

[tcwright973]

Rick - Oh great, now I have something else to look out for when I'm railfanning. Seriously, thanks the examples & the explaination.

[howmus]

Ah.........  The Weekend and Weekend Photo Fun again!

I have gotten a bit more done on the girder bridge I am building.  This will end up holding a curved track (about 28" radius) so this is a bit more complex than the other girder bridge I built last year.  I have started to assemble the first of the two sections of the bridge.  Next I will add the stringers between the Road Beams I installed today.  Just waiting on advise from an old friend and expert on such things.  I am using his basic plans for girder bridges in building this but there will have to be somne modifications to accomplish what I need to do.

73

[G Paine]

A couple of pictures of other volunteer work on the Boothbay Railway Village layout. The horse farm near the future farm vollage on the HOn30 narrrow gauge

And the farm village volunteer fire station, scratch built by volunteer Bob Bennett.

All I did was take the pictures

[hon30critter]

Great work everyone!

For those of you who have been following the McKeen Motor Car project, I regret to announce that it is on hold until further notice. Scott Wright of Solidesigns who is doing the decals is in hospital suffering from complications due to botched surgery. He says he will likely be another couple of months before he is out.

I choose to continue to support him so I'm not cancelling the order.

Dave

[HO-Velo]

Bear,  Thanks for the WPF kick-off and wishing you a good holiday weekend.  Living near the UP mainline, (former SP) I do miss seeing all those "Bloody Noses".

Had a bit-o-fun getting into the Halloween spirit while remembering the old Saturday night "Creature Features".

Thanks to all and regards, Peter

 

[BRVRR]

Bear - Thanks for starting off WPF. Thats and impressive UP locomotive.

Terry - I like your operations system. Simple and easy to follow.

Guy - Nice little loco.

Rick - Good looking rolling stock as usual.

Casey - Nice little steamer and photos.

MikeL - I like the recycled cars. Memories.

Gary - Your elevator and stock yard scenes are coming along. Thats the elevator you showcased a few weeks ago I think.

GP 9Man - Horseshoe curve looks good. I'm looking forward to seeing Gallitzin when you are finished with it.

Howmus - Looking good. Are you going to curve your bridge in sections?

G Paine - The horse farm and village look good.

Dave - Sorry to hear about your friend. I was/am looking forward to seeing your finished model.

Peter - LOL.

Doing a little switching on the BRVRR:

The S3 is a Proto2000 Model. The hoppers are Athearn BB kits.

Keep the photos and ideas coming guys. Thanks to you WPF is always the best thread of the week.

 

[howmus]

BRVRR

Howmus - Looking good. Are you going to curve your bridge in sections?

Thank you sir!  Yep, that is pretty much the only way it was done.  Either the bridge had to be short enough and wide enough to handle the curve or the bridge was built in sections that are set at an angle to each other.  This one will have two sections.  Basically two girder bridges connected to each other.  I have made all four girders, and I am now assembling the rest of the first bridge section.

Here is today's accomplishments...  Installed the stringers, bracing, and the knee braces.

Another angle...  Starting to look like a steel girder bridge, it is.

73

[hon30critter]

Just to end the weekend on a negative note, I managed to drop the second mahogany boat while it was covered in wet paint. Of course the floor was dirty, but that was a minor problem. I had gotten all smart in my head and had decided to load the hull with lead strips so that the combined flat car and boat would meet NMRA suggested weight. Normally you would expect a little plastic boat to bounce and not suffer much damage, but oh no, that doesn't work when you have about 1.5 oz of lead inside. I had supposedly glued the lead in place but it broke loose when the boat hit the floor. It managed to crack the surface of the deck in one spot, and it managed to break the joint between the deck and the hull in about four places......

I had to strip it to get the debris out of the paint and then I had to apply about 2 gallons (well not quite, but plenty anyhow) of CA to mend all the fractures. Then sand, then fill the small defects in the joints, then sand again, and now here I am back in exactly the same spot I was in 2 days ago.

Dropping the boat could have been easily avoided. I had it mounted on a skewer glued into a flat piece of wood. Problem was I had drilled the hole in the bottom of the boat a little too big so the boat was a bit loose on the skewer. Of course I managed to knock the whole thing over and off flew the boat. I had told myself several times to glue the skewer into the hull. Now it is!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Dave

["JaBear"]

Gudday  All,

Terry and Rick, I should remember this is Weekend Photo Fun before I start foaming at the mouth but I am sad to say that the club layout, apart from the four corners I built, laid the track and hooked up the wiring, 2 ½ years ago, is not the clubs. Having also made jigs for the “standard” modules and templates for the ends only two members have utilised them, privately, and what you see is their work. At least the club has the use of the modules but unfortunately there are members who bemoan that the club does not have its own modules but are not prepared to do anything about it! I t is part of the dilemma I face regarding rejoining the club, others need to show some initiative, I’m too old to hold their hands again! 

Now that I’ve had my grump, I always enjoy a visit to Thurmond and its environs Terry.

Nothing like a new addition to the fleet Guy, especially if it’s a pleasure to run.

Just keep playing with that camera RDGCasey, while the NZR had some “wide” fire box locomotives to allow them to steam on lignite, I find those “Wooten” fire box locos fascinating.

Nice work, as per usual on those cars Rick, you mentioned acquiring another Tichy hopper kit, I picked up a Tichy 52’6” GSC undecorated flat car at a train show on Saturday and upon getting it home was surprised how few parts the kit contained, not that I’m complaining.

Good to see a use for the sentimental favourites Mike.

Those backdrops give that scene a sense of large expanses Garry, very nice.

It’s a pleasure to follow your progress GP-9man.

That’s an inspirational scratchbuild there Howmus.

Likewise with the Boothbay additions George, I live in hope that enough of the local club members will get similarly enthused one day!!

The creature from the Black Lagoon certainly bought a smile to my face Peter.

Always good to see action on the Black River Valley Allan.

Dave, Dave, Dave, what can I say??? Have a largish stiff  on me.

Thanks again everyone,

Cheers, the Bear.

[mlehman]

At least the club has the use of the modules but unfortunately there are members who bemoan that the club does not have its own modules but are not prepared to do anything about it! I t is part of the dilemma I face regarding rejoining the club, others need to show some initiative, I’m too old to hold their hands again!Angry Sigh

Ah, been there and done that, Bear. I feel your pain. It's frustrating to hear people complain not enough is being done, when it's you and couple of other folks doing most of the work. Even worse is when they complain they would've done it differently if it was them doing it...

Sure, like that would ever happen...

Yeah, I'm too old for that any longer myself. Fortunately, not model RR related in my case, but it's what I do now in my free time instead of essentially unappreciated work on something else that was at one time dear to my heart.

Thanks for your kind comments and to everyone's else for theirs.