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What are you working on now ?

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  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Morristown, NJ
  • 808 posts
Posted by nealknows on Friday, April 16, 2021 6:27 PM

Working on the Walthers Modern Lumber Transload kit...

https://www.walthers.com/modern-lumber-transload-kit

It happens to be a nice looking kit. However, it's made for code 83 track, not code 100. Looks like a little shim work will make this fit on the tracks just fine. I like the look...

Neal

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  • 575 posts
Posted by alfadawg01 on Friday, April 16, 2021 6:03 PM
Current project is two HO scale Conrail X72 boxcars. Started with two Life-Like Evans 50' boxcars from Toys-R-Us. Modified the underframes to achieve the correct height and add cushioned underframe coupler boxes. Currently waiting for the new paint to dry and loose it's odor before applying Champ decals.

Bill

http://www.wjwcreative.com
http://www.soundcloud.com/wjwilcox

"Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and annoys the pig"

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Friday, April 16, 2021 5:29 PM

I'm working on coverting or modifying some passengers cars...some into different types and some into baggage and other head-end car types. I'll also be including at least three scratchbuilt postal cars, and a few fairly extreme changes for some Rivarossi coaches, which will become wooden baggage cars...this involves 17 or 18 cars, and will finish my passenger car modelling, 

A few scratchbuilt freight cars may follow, or I might instead do steam locomotives.  I have ten of those, six to detail to represent six different prototypes.
There are also two brass locos that will get scratchbuilt tender bodies, as the stock ones are incorrect for the locos being represented. 
Of the remaining two, one is a simple upgrade of an old John English Pacific, while the other will be a scratchbuild of another particular prototype.

The start of the passenger car stuff can be seen HERE, but this particular "Challenge" will run to June 1st.

Wayne

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • 472 posts
Posted by Graham Line on Friday, April 16, 2021 5:15 PM

What? Are these posts about actual model railroading projects?  Did I stumble into the wrong forum?

On the workbench now are a set of Walthers Canadian bulkhead flats that are gaining weight using "Liquid Gravity."  Tried to find the company that once produced custom weight sets for freight cars, but they are not to be found.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Friday, April 16, 2021 5:08 PM

Trying to recover from weekend back surgery.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Friday, April 16, 2021 4:39 PM

You guys still have ambition.  I'm just working on my first cold beer of the day.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • From: Potomac Yard
  • 2,767 posts
Posted by NittanyLion on Friday, April 16, 2021 4:03 PM

My basement. 

The inspector is coming to sign off on the gas line we had put in for the kitchen, which we decided to do while there's no ceiling in the basement. Once that's good and done, I can get back to work on the renovation.

The demo is 99 percent of the way there. I still have about 20 old nails from the furring strips to remove. After that, the new circuit for the sump pump can go in and I can decommission and remove old circuit. There's also so remaining wiring left behind in chunks to pull out. In some places, there is wire stapled to a joist, but neither end connects to anything any more. Have to pull all that out. 

  • Member since
    September 2014
  • From: 10,430’ (3,179 m)
  • 2,311 posts
Posted by jjdamnit on Friday, April 16, 2021 1:06 PM

Hello All,

My modeling "season" is backward!

I am busiest with my work in the winter and have more free time in the summer.

To answer the question: EVERYTHING!

  • Rework the spiral trestle (helix) from the upper unloading platform to the mainline below
  • Re-motoring four GP-40s
  • Re-lettering a GP-30-B for the BS&P R.R.
  • Finish the installation of new trucks and wheels on over a dozen Tyco 34-foot operating hoppers
  • Installing the trucks and couplers on a scratch built Gunderson Well Car along with the load of an oversized load of replacement conveyor belt for the coal mine
  • Making the cribbing support for three flatcar loads:
    • Water pump, crusher head, and generators
    • Water diverging piping
    • Two spans of 64- and 48-foot girder bridge sections
  • Final details on the kitbashed Northern Light & Power building
  • Upgrading the bridge over the mainline from the coal unloading platform

"That's All Folks!"

Hope this helps.

"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"

Moderator
  • Member since
    June 2003
  • From: Northeast OH
  • 17,249 posts
Posted by tstage on Friday, April 16, 2021 12:25 PM

Adding a firebox LED to a brass 2-6-6-2 Mallet to mimic an open firebox during shoveling.

I soldered two 1206 warm-white SMD LEDs in parallel:

These will backlight the firebox to mimic flicker.  To let the light through the firebox I drilled #80 holes in the brass backhead:

 

The LEDs received a double coat of 2:1 Tamiya X-26 clear orange & X-20A thinner.  I tested it on a single 1206 SMD LED with a 1.5K resistor wired to a test Loksound 5 decoder and it emits a very similar hue of orange-yellow from color prototype footage I've been able to find on the internet of an open firebox in a steamer.

As you can see the firebox door is closed on the model.  However, the tiny holes in the firebox should emit enough light through into the cab area to give the impression that the firebox is being open from time-to-time.

In order to mount the double LED to the backside of the backhead and center it over the drilled holes, I've had to mount the LED inside a 0.10 x 0.25" OD piece of styrene tubing.  I'll use carpet tape to mount the tubing to the backhead.  Once installed, I'll button everything up and setup the installed Loksound 5 decoder in the 2-6-6-2 Mallet boiler for firebox flicker.

After that it's figuring out how to best add a front headlight to the Mallet.  A Mallet is trickier in that regard because the front set of drivers and headlight are a separate unit from the rear drivers, which are fixed to the frame.  That means that the wires running from the decoder to the front headlight need to be "disconnect-able" in order to remove the boiler from the frame.

It was challenging enough to fit two speakers AND the decoder inside the brass boiler so that it would clear both gear towers and the large can motor.  The front headlight may prove to be even a bigger challenge.

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Friday, April 16, 2021 11:34 AM

I left a few projects out when I packed away my train stuff 14 months ago.

I only have two left... I need to get this house work done!

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Friday, April 16, 2021 11:34 AM

I haven't done a single thing related to the hobby since late February.  Too many other things going on, and I like to have a clear slate of days before I return to fix something that needs it, or to embark on another chunk of the layout's completion.  I miss running my trains, but my rule is I don't turn a wheel unless I'm in the train room working to advance the layout's development. 

Between cleaning up the winter's mess, erecting a greenhouse kit whose instructions predict a typical completion time of '140 minutes' [.. LaughLaughLaugh Dunce ..], planting a gajillion seeds in flats, pulling weeds, spraying dormant sprays on apples, pruning shrubs and trees, hauling garden waste bags to the curb, painting our living room and arranging carpet replacement,  ..oy.  Oh, and we had our youngest visit for two weeks with her new infant son.  She has been cooped up since March last year, delivered in June, and then returned to new-mother bliss and being cooped up again.  She needed a break, and my wife needed to see them, so we bit the bullet.

No trains, not for another two or three weeks.  Maybe after taxes. 

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 2,505 posts
Posted by caldreamer on Friday, April 16, 2021 11:29 AM

Kitbashing an ore bridge for my steel mill. Since I am in N scale I am using parts from the Walthers HO scale ore bridge and scratch building the other needed parts from my N scale parts box.  It will be seven inches tall (93'4") tall and eight inches (106'8") wide.

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Friday, April 16, 2021 11:22 AM

I need to prime and paint a backdrop and re-lay some track that I am not happy with.  I don't feel like doing either.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • 6,526 posts
Posted by RR_Mel on Friday, April 16, 2021 11:11 AM

I guess my days of working on big projects are a thing of the past.  I'm stuck at my computer/workbench working on small stuff.

I’m currently working on a Mel kitbash lounge car.  I started out with a Athearn Heavyweight diner and a couple of donor shells.  I cut out the smaller windows and added more large windows and now working on the frame.

I picked up a pair of new factory reject Athearn Diner car shells for $8 and pretty well chopped one up for this kitbach.




I plan on using the Athearn floor for the interior floor to keep the head room in proportion.



I’m going to fill the hole in the floor with #8 Birdshot for a bit of added weight.


 

Mel

 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: west coast
  • 7,667 posts
What are you working on now ?
Posted by rrebell on Friday, April 16, 2021 9:38 AM

Being bored and not wanting to start a large project I have been finishing up little projects like loads ect. I also fixed a facia problem where there was a seam next to my computer chair that was knocked quite often and was backed at the top with only foam. I dug out a little space behind it and clamped a small peice of very hard wood I had around with wood glue as adhesive, worked great and now started to do nessisary touchup to ground cover etc. So what are you doing, big or small?

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