Weekend Photo Fun, US Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-28, 2018

[mlehman]

Miss a couple of weeks and all sorts of people show up. Brakie, even! I should do this more often! Here's the latest from the Tin Cup and Telluride.

I finally gotsome tarpaper on the enginehouse, so it's a good thing the whole of Tin Cup has a roof over its head.

I also installed a caboose track off the turntable.

I've just been crazy busy with all sorts of other projects, I've had only a little time for railroading and even less for pics n' stuff. Been missing y'all, though. One of the projects has been enccouraging a younger modeler who's just really discovered the possibilities of the hobby.

[tbdanny]

That roundhouse looks pretty good.  What did you use for the tarpaper?

I've had a couple of weeks off myself, so I've been rather busy on the layout.  Last week, I was able to finish off the first of two consists for the Pebble River Mining Company:

The flatcar and outside-frame boxcar are kits, and the other boxcar is a repaint of one of the ones I had for the BVLC.  Turns out I had slightly too much rolling stock for the BVLC to run smoothly, so I repurposed one of the boxcars.

Just today, I've finished off the water tower I've been scratchbuilding.  The tank is formed from a pringles can, with paddle pop sticks on the outside.  A servo inside is controlled by an Arduino, which lowers and raises the spout:

[mlehman]

Hi tbdanny,

Thanks! I used tarpaper , since I have a whole roll of 1:1 sitting around

I was lucky enough to find about 50 BF or very nice cedar free at the curb down the street earlier, this week. Now I can plan the big mill I've always wanted on the T&T. It'll at least keep the squirrels from knocking my gons sitting in that spur onto the ground.

Your scenery is looking great, as I'm really getting the feeling of being in the rainy and cool Northwest just looking things over. Love that animated water spout, too! #28 looks quite business-like trundling through the yard.

Interestingly, my #28 came all the way from Australia to serve here.

I should've noted my posting was going to be interrupted by needing to put the cat to bed. he likes to climb up on the desk and insist on being cuddled. He's off in the chair in the crew lounge now, so I'll get back to my tale of another convert to the hobby.

Thomas ran into our Illinois Terminal Division (NMRA) table at the local train show back in April and looked up our website, then sent me a note that he'd like some help with a few decisions: what decoder for his new IC SD40-2? What kind of track to use? And more such questions. He even asked how much joining the NMRA cost. When I told him, his reaction was the roughly $75 membership dues (depending on region, etc) a year was quite reasonable compared to several other clubs he'd either considered joining or was a member of already, as they were all more expensive than that. Well, go figure, for all the gnashing of teeth about that very subject we often hear, that was such a measured assessment I knew we were probably going to get along. We talked some about his options and my prejudices in gear (because I think that's always worth mentioning if you are giving someone YOUR opinions) and he decided on a decoder for his recently acquired Athearn RTR IC 6135, a SD40-2 in what I've heard called the "deathstar" scheme.

I'll be the first to admit I know little about the IC despite it being a hometown road where I've lived for nearly half a century. Maybe if they took some of that IC orange and combined it with that baskc black it would catch more of my attention? Thomas has been paying attention to such things, though, and even has a interesting and doable first layout idea we're going to do some more planning in in the days ahead.

But frst we had to get his new Econami decoder into his Athearn. I've never done a diesel sound install, let alone a standard gauge install and my basic reaction was "There's so much room inside!"  In three hours over the last couple of nights, I walked him through the basics of a sound decoder install (as adapted from steam practice and my limited knowledge of diesel installs). Before he left tonight, the SD was making noise and had lights at both ends. We're getting back together next week to do the full programming fiddle with the equalizer, etc.

I decided to cheat a little and get her on the layout to stretch her legs, as well as see if I can get the ditch lights going. I can turn them on and off manually and get them to flash just sitting there when the horn blows. Now if I can figure out how to do that when shes mving, it'll really be impressive -- as well as saving a lot of wasted time which could be devoted to teaching him what I do know rather than puzzling over what I don't.

Anyway, I think that adequately explains what a IC SD40-2 is doing sitting in front of the depot in Durango...maybe.

[Jimmy_Braum]

Mike, that roundhouse does look great. Love how "different" your 28 is.

Tbdanny, your stuff is awesome. While I model the big modern road (well "big" being regional, and modern being 2010's with SD40-2 units being the power of choice), I love seeing the smaller stuff. It probsbly goes back to the Durango and Silverton being the first steam locomotives I saw in person. Then came the EBT, but the K28s and the K36 will always draw me in.  The same goes with the smaller locomotives, and smaller rolling stock. 

 

Well here's my update.  

The second girder has been attached, bracing is all in place and it's painted.  All I need now is for my rivet decal set to come in, and to weather it- the real one is fairly rusty. I also need to do the concrete footings. 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Mike L .... Nice looking large scale narrow guage turntable and engine house. ... #28 looks great .... The IC SD40-2 does look a little out of place, but I'm glad you explained. My friend here models IC. He was an IC engineer. 

TB Danny .... The water tower is impressive as well as your narrow guage freight cars.

Jimmy ..... The bridge looks great. ....

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Here are some SD's  

 

[SeeYou190]

Mike: Thank you for starting Weekend Photo Fun this week. Welcome back! The TIN CUP & TELLURIDE engine facitlity is great.

Danny: I love those little freight cars. they have tons of character.

Jimmy: Congratulations on the continuing progress on your bridge model.

Garry: I sure do love EMD SD 7s and 9s. I had quite a few when I was building in N scale, but only one in HO.

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Here is my latest. It is a forty foot boxcar lettered for IN-rail. I have had these decals for at least 15 years. I did not think they looked appropriate for 1954, but I finally decided to just go with it. I like how it turned out. The model is an Intermountain modified AAR boxcar.

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Keep the updates coming. I love Weekend Photo Fun!

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-Kevin

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[RR_Mel]

Hi Guys

 

I’m embarrassed to put pictures on WPF, all of your work is so much better than mine.

 

I did a bit of work on my heavy weight observation car this week and I’m almost ready to call it finished.

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

I had a bunch of unpainted figures and did my thing occupying the car, I have to be in a figure painting mode to paint them.  I decided to try making a table lamp for passengers that wanted to read.  I worked over a 5mm warm white LED to look like a lamp.  The first three or four didn’t make it but I finally got one that looked pretty good then made a second.

 

My picture taking capabilities need improving too.  The car looks much better than my pictures.  My daughter is a professional photographer and she and her husband are going to be visiting with us in October, she won’t be leaving until she has improved on my picture taking.

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[SeeYou190]

RR_Mel

I’m embarrassed to put pictures on WPF, all of your work is so much better than mine

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I wouldn't say that. I have never successfully installed an interior in a passenger car that was worth looking at.

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-Kevin

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[dti406]

Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio!

Finally able to access my Photobucket Account, and since I got nothing done this week, I submit and old photo from the archives.

Since it was a holiday weekend, I thought I would throw in one of my Bi-Centennial units, a DT&I GP38-2, which was I believe the only factory painted Bi-Centennial unit done.

I may post some in progress shots later this weekend on a couple of cars I am working on.

Mike, thanks for starting us out nice to see work still being completed as you go.

Garry, your CB&Q power always looks great, our club just had a CB&Q modeler join so I am learning more and more about the Q.

Jimmy, your bridge is coming along hope to see it done soon.

Mel, your doing stuff I would not dream of doing, keep it up.

TBDanny, those cars sure look different than cars I have seen before, but they do look good.

Kevin, Sure is a unique car, but since I went prototype years ago, I find free lance to not be my cup of tea.

See you all later!

Rick Jesionowski

[RDG Casey]

Reading E-5 0-8-0 with afreshly finished Reading Hershey cocoa bean car (F&C kit).

[mbinsewi]

Great work everybody!

I haven't taken any decent photos in a while, so will submit a picture from the archives.  A GLC dash 8 leads a freight.

Keep up the great work, guys.

Mel, I'm surprised you got so many people in your car with out cutting off legs and feet.  I have a few I had to cut off everything, with just the upper body on the seat. 

Mike.

[RR_Mel]

Mike

 

I use .020” sheet Styrene for my passenger car interiors as a sub floor and grind off the seats enough to make them look correct for the windows.  The seats then become the determining factor for leg chopping.  I try to get figures sitting lazily with legs stretched out a bit.  If you click on the picture (to enlarge it) you will see that there are several with out shoes, the standing girl in red is actually standing on the car floor not the Styrene floor and she is a shorty to begin with.

 

I rarely use standing males if their feet show because they don’t have any.  Females are normally shorter and look better too.

 

My real challenge will be my next project, my HW diner.  I bought chairs from Shapeways and populating that car won’t be easy.

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[trwroute]

Here is a photo of my freshly painted Atlas N GP7 on my under construction layout.  Funny part is, after I painted it, I've decided that I might not model the CNW.  Oh well...it'll look good patched into something else. 

[Renegade1c]

 

I have been working on the Refinery on the layout. Its about 75% complete. Above is an overall shot. Below is a tracklevel shot. I still have to finish one distillation column and the cooling towers (right hand side of the picture). I also need to finish the stare on the tanks so I can get them painted. 

 

Unfortunately what I don't have is an overall shot showing the entire Refinery. The loading racks are not shown in any of these shots. 

Here are some of the construction photos of the furnaces in the refinery.

 

 

 

As you can see, I started with a couple pieces of PVC pipe and went from there. Most of the pipe is actually copper wire since I have a bunch of 14 guage around for buss wiring on the layout. backdrops were done by printing off high resolution images and glueing them onto background. 

[peahrens]

Mike: Thanks for the kickoff this week.  Always look forward to WPF.

Renegade:  Crazy cool refinery.  I spent 36 years around them and chem plants so I I enjoy many of the details you have included.

I will humbly post a photo of 2 caboosesess that I completed.  The project was a diversion from my IHC Pacific makeover as I discovered I was clueless on effective airbrushing.  So with help from the Forum and videos I decided that these two cabeese would be the guinea pigs. 

I am reasonably pleased with the results, if you don't look too closely.  Hardest part was the gloss coat for the decaling with Model Master acryl gloss.  Not sure that it is all my problem as I was able to effectively spray the colors and flat. 

The forward question will be how to better address another freight car with upgrades such as separate grab irons, more detailed painting, windows, etc.  But this was a satisfying step of progress.

IMG_0513 (2) by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr

 

["JaBear"]

on Flickr

[G Paine]

RR_Mel

I did a bit of work on my heavy weight observation car this week and I’m almost ready to call it finished.

 

Did you make the seats or get them ready made? Also, is the room further to the front a drawing room sleeper?

We have a similar car at Boothbay, and it needs an interior

[Mister Mikado]

OMG Renegade, this is awesome work!!!  You deserve maximum accolades for all that fine detail and enormous effort.  The pipework is top notch, ingenious using copper wire.  I hope Steven Otte notices this, you deserve to appear in MR!

[RR_Mel]

George

 

Many years ago I bought a couple of IHC interiors.  I made molds of the seats and furniture for future use.  So the seats in my interiors are essentially IHC.  Through the years I’ve chopped up pretty much everything and made my own furniture for my interiors.  Each time I make a different piece I make a mold of the original for future use.

 

I did a Google search for heavy weight observation floor plan, there are quite a few.  I settled for this one.

 

 

I flipped the floor plan over to put the sleepers on the engineer’s side because my passenger trains run counter clockwise and that puts the sleeper windows on viewable side closest to the front of my layout.

 

I wired my heavy weight cars for my normal lighting.  I power all my passenger cars from a power car next to the tender, it powers all ten cars at 4 volts.  I hid the between car wiring and micro connectors in the diaphragms.

 

 

With this batch of heavy weight cars I made some changes.  I used 330Ω resistors in series with each wide angle LED.  I paralleled all 14 LEDs and went with a 2KΩ 25 turn trim pot in series from the 4 volt power source.  I glued the trim pot to the doorway so that I can easily adjust the lighting brightness of each car.  I run all of my LED lighting at very low current, the observation car looks best at 4.8ma.

 

 

All ten cars draw less than 50ma at 4 volts total.

 

I’m working on a heavy weigh post on my blog.

 

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2018/03/march-18-2018-sp-heavy-weights.html

 

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Mel .... I do not think you should be at all embarrased . Your work with interiors, figures, and lighting in the heavyweight passenger car is top quality. 

Kevin .... Nice boxcat, and thanks fo commenting on my photo. 

Rick ..... I like your DT&I locos, and thanks for your remarks on my photo . 

Casey .... I like the 0-8-0. 

Mike in SW WI .... Your lakeside scene is great. 

Chuck .... I like the CNW Geep. 

Renegade ... Your refinery is impressive. 

Paul ... nice UP cabooses. 

Bear .... LOL 

 

 

 

[HO-Velo]

Mike,  Thanks for the WPF start-up.  I admire your modeling and so too your generousity in a mentoring role.

Mel, Embarrassed, that's a lot of poppycock, your presence and contributions are truly inspiring and helpful.

Renegade1c,  That's a terrific refinery, ahh, I can almost detect the hydrocarbons, feel the super heat and hear the deafening roar of high pressure gas, "smells like....Victory."

Remembering and honoring the fallen.

Thanks to all the contributors, Happy Memorial Day and regards,  Peter

[C&O Fan]

Spent some time lighting some of my Cabese

 

[RR_Mel]

Everyone’s work this weekend looks great!  For me this is the best topic on the Forum.  I really like seeing the fabulous work you guys turn out.

 

This being a long weekend I decided to post my bout with my Diner, as I got a bit done on it I thought I would make a second post.

 

And yes Bear we’re still floating on a blue hand towel.  That helps prevents old clumsy Mel from screwing up, I still screw up but not as much.

 

This interior about did me in, painting and placing the figures in my Diner took a bit over six hours.  Ageing isn’t helping my painting skills.

 

 

Most of the figures are unpainted Preiser, a few are from China but all are 1:87 so there are some without feet.  The chairs are from Shapeways.

 

 

I still have to detail the tables and kitchen but that will have to wait a few days until I recuperate from this bout.

 

EDIT:

 

I still have a few figures ready to paint.

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[Jimmy_Braum]

C&O fan... may I ask how you wired that up? Did you use a truck with pickups prewired or did you do that from scratch? I've got a caboose I'm interested in lighting myself, as well as some cars.  I've got Micro LEDs and several dozen 1K resistors.

[C&O Fan]

For power pick up i used Pick up tabs made by locsound but yo can also use

KD brass springs With the wires soldered to them thenmglie those to the truck

I think i have a link to the assembly

[BRVRR]

Jimmy,

I'm not trying to steal your discussion but I have a short 'how to' on electrical pick-ups on my website. Here is a link if you are interested.

http://www.brvrr.com/How'd%20You%20Do%20That.html

Just scroll down to the NYC cabeese.

["JaBear"]

“Hats off to Mel!!”

Actually, a big thanks to everyone for sharing their really Good Stuff.

Cheers, the Bear.

[SeeYou190]

“Hats off to Mel!!”

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Absolutely. All my passenger cars look awful now!

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Actually, they looked awful before. I just cannot get excited about passenger car modelling or operations.

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-Kevin

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