Weekend Update - June 17, 2007

[3rdrail]

Happy Fathers Day to those of us who are fathers! What did y'all do railroad-wise this past week. Anyone lucky enough to get a rail-related Fathers Day gift?

[Powersteamguy1790]

I recently finished turning a generic Kato Mikado into a Southern Ms-4 Mikado using the GHQ detail kit. 

This is the upper level of the JJJ&E with the town of San Marino in the background. There is a ESU Lok-Sound decoder in the tender along with a Lok-Sound speaker.




Stay cool and run steam......

[3rdrail]

Welcome back to The Railwire Bob (Powersteamguy1790), it's been a while. 

[Powersteamguy1790]

Welcome back to The Railwire Bob (Powersteamguy1790), it's been a while. 

Thanks Greg:

It's nice to be back on RailWire.


Stay cool and run steam......

[Chris333]

Old models, but brand new photos:

[wm3798]

The layout looks great, Chris! 

Update on the peninsula scenery:
I had the better part of Saturday to fool around in the train room, and this is what I got accomplished. 


It's a little crowded, but there's plenty of ops, and when the full layout is built, I can spread out the scenes a lot more.  You can see the scenic divider in the middle.

Here's the coal mine branch more or less in place...

In the temporary arrangement, the branch on the far right is a short line to a coal tipple. In the permanent design, that will close a loop to allow continuous running for display purposes on the Thomas Sub.  The track leaves the mainline in the upper left corner of the frame, coming in from the left.

Here you can see the branch more or less in its entirety.  It hugs the scenic divider, then splits into two tracks at the tipple.

I've seen photos of the coal tipple at Fairmont, WV, which is in the midst of a developed area. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! The scene is part of the temporary scenery, so it's purpose is more operational than anything else...

I hate that building, but for an interim source of coal traffic, it'll have to do!

Here is another "railfanning" spot that is part of the new work...



This should turn into a good spot for photos...

More on the town side next time.  Stay tuned, Same Bat Channel!
Lee

[dclyde]

Saturday I converted a couple dozen freight cars to MicroTrains trucks/couplers.  They were also weighed and balanced before they hit the old layout.

Sunday I installed DZ123s into a pair of Atlas SD-9s.

Between that, my granddaughters second birthday on Saturday and Fathers Day on Sunday, I've been rather busy this weekend.

Dave

[pnolan48]

This is a 185-foot long 450-ton coastal freighter that plied the waters off Australia and New Zealand. It's not quite done yet in terms of detailing and finish paint, but I've been sitting on it so long, I decided to post anyway. It's kind of a neat little ship. I found two drawings on the web, and guessed at the rest.



Here's the bow. The ship actually looks like it's going backwards, with a very tapered stern. It's a wooden hull. I much prefer wood hulls. Once you get the hang of it, they're pretty easy to shape. I use sanding disks and drums on a radial arm saw. It probably take less than 30 minutes. Makes a royal mess with sawdust.



Here's the stern. I've got to touch up the paint throughout, and re-attach some details that fell off when I turn the ship upside down to blow dust off. The boom rigging is 2-lb monofiliament, which I painted black. It worked, much to my surprise! It represents about 0.8 inch cable--still a little thick. The larger cable is thread. I knocked off the pulley blocks while rigging it. It was impossible for me to get the monofiliament through the blocks. I'll have to try another method next time.

[John]

Spent the day at the B&O museum ..

Picked up a copy of The Old Main Line - Part 4 Hancock to Cumberland by Blue Ridge Productions ..

http://users.erols.com/ttrogers/index8.html

These are great videos .. about $30 each ..

[wcfn100]

I worked on a MT depressed center flat this week.  The car was lowered, new couplers added and some lp wheels.  It also gave me a chance to try the AIM powders.



I also dressed up a MT generator load to go with it.




Neither are finished yet.  Hopefully I'll get the weathering completed and start on the blocking and tie downs this week.

(I don't know if these are showing up or not, I'm having problems with Picassa)

Jason

[nscalesteve]

I was working on four different DM&E (Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern) SD40-2 the last two weeks. first one I will "show off"  is the #6359 (ex. MILW #193) based on a new run Kato SD40-2 with a short fueltank (Atlas SD35) and a shorter nose from an older run SD40-2 with a handbrake racket instead of a wheel. painted and decaled (with Microscale #60-820 - which you need two sets for one engine because of a major bug on it  >), detailed with BLMA and GMM parts.






(oohps, what is this gap for...?)



(#6366, #6200 and #6201 will follow...)

[SquirrelHollow]

Great work guys.

Lee...  Is that a price tag on the bottom of your truss bridge?

[wm3798]

Why yes it is!  Good catch.  It's the Minnie Pearl Memorial Bridge... ;D

Lee

[Zox]

It's not worth taking pictures of, but I've got a "push-to-start" circuit breadboarded together for the NCM Project (http://horailroad.com/ncm/). With a little luck, I'll be able to get a permanent version put together during this week and turned over for installation in the layout.

The circuit's nothing fancy. The NCM layout has a stop block on it. When the "Push to Run Train" button is pressed, the circuit will keep the stop block "live" for a few seconds--long enough for the locomotive to get out of it. Then it'll turn off, so the train will stop again after it's made one lap. It basically consists of a 555 timer IC, a relay, and a few resistors and capacitors.

No great shakes for someone who's into that sort of stuff, but given my track record with analog electronics, I'm just happy I didn't let the smoke out...

[biker_ray_pa]

I love checking out everyone's progress, great stuff! I've done the same as last week and the six weeks prior to that:  nothing.  :'(  An RS-1 shoved two boxcars into the brickworks siding back in April, and not a wheel has turned since.

I think I've been experiencing some MRR burnout, but seeing the great stuff here every week helps to bring back the spirit, for sure. Maybe it's just because it's summer and golf time and RC airplane time and motorcycle time, but it just hasn't been train time lately.  :'(

Anybody else fighting dormancy?


Ray