Weekend Update 8-10-2008

[John]

Another week has gone by .. lets see what you have been up to ..

[DKS]

Three steps forward, two steps back. The access panel for the town end of the layout had become very badly warped, which was giving me grief trying to make the building foundations--every one of them had to be shimmed differently. So, the little Frankenstein's Monster got tossed, and I tore out all of its supports, which had been trimmed to match the warping.





Then I ordered some warp-proof Gatorboard from Dick Blick.

Live and learn!

[up1950s]

Wow , is that grade as steep as it appears David ?

Diversion from my last 2 LIRR cars has slowed the progress somewhat , due to Picasa and My Pictures uploads , downloads , deletions of some old and additions of some brand new photos .

[DKS]

Wow , is that grade as steep as it appears John ?

It is pushing close to 4%. But it poses no problems running trains, and the loops will also be totally hidden when the layout is done.

/>
Oh, and I'm David... (insert winking thingy here)

[Ntrainz1]

Lowered and distressed collectable MT gondola




Bob.

[Catt]

Latest progress pic for the Z scale layout  ;D



The riverbed has been dug out ,the ballasted deck girder bridges are scratchbuilt as is the factory you can see in its construction phase.The siding on the other side needs to be reworked .

Power feeds are ATLAS code 55 terminal rail joiners and so far the train is pure MTL.

[SirTainly]

Finished this, but had a lot of trouble with the decals silvering. I think the paint surface must have been too rough, and even with Microsol I was fighting a lossing battle. Still it's a lesson learned for next time.

Simon

[ryourstone]

Been experimenting with building cat supports in N. This "prototype" K bridge was just made from Evergreen parts I had on hand, the final ones will be made from brass and much closer to scale. Flimsy styrene is somewhat oversize so it can support it's own weight. Also, I'll be using insulators much closer to scale size than these Sommerfeldt ones.

[wm3798]

There must be some GG-1's in your future, Rick...  They look great.  I bet Train Cat or BLMA is working on the same kind of project...  That G is creating it's own center of gravity, isn't it?  Maybe once the cat products are out, Atlas will finally do it's AEM-7 in N scale!!

Meanwhile, back at the Elkins Car Shops, the boys have been busy adding to the boxcar fleet...  I've found that a quick and cheap way to get boxcars is to buy floors and shells from the Atlas parts department.  For a couple of bucks, you get two shells a two floors, another 2 bucks gets you the weights you need, or you can just add your own if you have some laying around.  Since I'll be adding upgraded trucks and running boards to future ones, there's no point in paying retail for a finished car, when all I need are the main parts.  MicroScale's WM Boxcar set provides enough lettering for 4 cars, which I can now build and letter for about $6 each, before the brass details.


The first is representative of a 1969 car, freshly painted.  Note the cut off ladders and no roofwalk.


Modeled after a 1949 car. I'm going to replace the roofwalk with etched brass, I think. Weathered with acrylic craft paint washes.

The original Fast Freight logo can be seen fading through the newer speedlettering. Based on a car photo shown in Jack Browns WM Color Guide. I also tried to show the faded touch up paint that reveals the stencil pattern on the lettering, but I'm not real happy with the result. From normal viewing distance it looks fine, the camera can be soooo cruel!

Next is a bashed car to represent a series B-24 Pullman Standard car. 

I grafted a peaked roof from an Atlas Trainman car onto a Life Like 50' Evans car to get a reasonable representation of the B-24 series boxcar. The cushion underframe is represented by grafting MT draft gear onto Accumate roller bearing trucks. The main discrepancy is the underframe skirting should be trimmed back over the trucks for a "fish belly" effect. I may go back and do that. then again, I might not!

Finally, as I work toward hosting a "Steam Day" operation session, I resurrected a couple of ancient boxcars from the junk box.



Again, ordering new floors from the Atlas Parts Department, and adding Accumate trucks leftover from my hopper rebuilds, these old birds are ready to again fly behind my 2-8-0.  The great irony of these cars is they are among the first N scale rolling stock I ever owned.  So the models are actually as old as the prototypes they represent on my 1971-era layout!

Lee

[3rdrail]

Since I have never seen anyone else post a photo of these gorgeous cars, available from Athearn at the N scale convention, here they are:




Together:


The best part about these cars, for me, is that Supplee-Willis-Jones had milk bottling plants and milk pickup points all over the PRR in Pennsylvania including along the main line on the Middle Division. So, these cars are perfect for inclusion in a PRR local accomodation train! Colorful and prototypical, can it get any better?? 

Lee, nice job on those WM cars, but you need to do something about the shiny black plastic running boards on the Seaboard single sheathed car!!  :-[

[Dave V]

Okay, now I need to change my pants!!!

[up1950s]

Wow , is that grade as steep as it appears John ?

It is pushing close to 4%. But it poses no problems running trains, and the loops will also be totally hidden when the layout is done.

/>
Oh, and I'm David... (insert winking thingy here)

That runs smooth as a hell , very nice . Sorry about calling you a John .

[atsf_arizona]

SNFF 2008 08 10

For this week, I took some photos of a Key N scale brass PRR Q2 Duplex 4-4-6-4 model.

Incredible, the Korean Samhongsa workmanship and craftsmanship!

Have a look, go to the web page for more pictures:

http://home.comcast.net/~atsf_arizona/V2_Key_N_scale_PRR_Q-2_Duplex_4-4-6-4_6131.html




Have a good week, all!

 

[John]

I did sneak out of the house long enough to catch this

[img width= height=]http://lh5.ggpht.com/acsxfan1/SJ9k0z9KG8I/AAAAAAAAD7Y/j2s-_frLAmI/s800/IMG_4762.jpg[/img]

[skytop35]

I've been working on this Intermountain F-7. I stripped it down and repainted it for Chicago and North Western. It will help pull my Bi-Level Flambeau 400 when finished. Still a few details I want to add and it needs a light coat of weathering.