Weekend Update 5/6/12

[up1950s]

 
UP 5037 progress
 

 

[bbussey]

A past blast - modified RC auto rack with new etched stainless steel mesh screens, Portec RAVE doors, ladders and roof to match a car I photographed at Oak Island yard in Newark NJ.

[flight2000]

Ummm, Bryan ol' buddy, ol' pal.  Any chance you have extras of those doors laying around that you'd be interested in selling?  I have 27 of the RC cars and really hate seeing the same doors when there are so many others out there.  I just don't have the patience (or know how) to etch parts.  Maybe that'l change in a few years, but who knows.

I finished abusing another 86' boxcar this week.  Also had a gent that wanted some Procor 33K tankers done for him (4 total, 2 in each color).

Brian

Side A:


Side B:


Procor

[unittrain]

Awesome autorack and hi-cube boxcar! I would like IM to do the Southern scheme on those autoracks which the same style of lettering as the N&W, I think only Con-Cor had done that scheme.

[PAL_Houston]

I don't have anything meaningful to contribute this week.

I have been too busy trying to get my post-count up .

REgards,
Paul

[Vince Gortner]

Hi, I'm a recent transplant from the Atlas forums and happy to see that the railwire forum is a little more...  relaxed.  Very cool.   I'm working on an HCD sized scenery experiment layout as an apartment dweller at present.  It's a good exercise for me as my other past basement sized layouts all came to a screeching halt at the scenery phase of development.  I enjoyed design, benchwork, tracklaying, wiring, and running trains through the resulting barren pink foam landscape left when there were no more left brain activities to complete.  The scenery stuff is (was)(still is, mostly) beyond my non-artist mental capacity. So, inspired by Dave Vollmer's HCD sized layout and Ed Kapuscinski's theory of "reducing the cost of failure" I bought a pile of foam and figured how bad could it be?  This layout is 36"x80" with a roundy-round of superelevated Kato Unitrack.  I wanted to learn how to do rolling, grassy midwest scenery on one side and a Colorado canyon on the other side...  not a plausible, coherent layout - it's seriously a scenery experiment on my kitchen island countertop.  and I'm really enjoying it!

So, as I introduce myself to the railwire, here's a few photos of progress over the last few months:

Planning stage - notice the similarity to Mike Danneman's Rio Grande layout at this point -



Green foam stage -



Slight improvement -





And an actual train or two....



[

Some scenery progress!   Happy to be aboard railwire...  thanks for having me.

Vince

[bbussey]

Ummm, Bryan ol' buddy, ol' pal.  Any chance you have extras of those doors laying around that you'd be interested in selling?  I have 27 of the RC cars and really hate seeing the same doors when there are so many others out there.  I just don't have the patience (or know how) to etch parts.  Maybe that'l change in a few years, but who knows.

I'm not sure, I'll have to check.  I etched a bunch of different styles around the time I scratchbuilt the Santa Fe W&K enclosed tri-level a few years ago, for the exact reason you mentioned.  By changing the doors and the occasional roof, it breaks up the uniformity of these extremely well-designed models.

It would be easy enough to get more etched though.  I still have the artwork.

[bbussey]

Awesome autorack and hi-cube boxcar! I would like IM to do the Southern scheme on those autoracks which the same style of lettering as the N&W, I think only Con-Cor had done that scheme.

Southern may not have had bi-levels decorated in that scheme, if they had bi-levels at all.  That probably is why RC never released them, as they tried to release all the big roads on the model in as many schemes as they could find.

[BCRail_FSJ]

Putting in some overtime at work and looking at the snow falling outside.  (Yes.. . snow in May).   Hopefully back to working on the layout soon.

[Roger Holmes]

Vince-  Very nice apartment size layout.  You sell yourself short on your scenery skills!

I built several apartment layouts at various phases of life and incorporated the last one into my current basement layout.

Welcome to the Railwire, Vince.

[eric220]

I finally got the shell to turn a C628 mechanism into an E44!



Lots of work left to do, but you get the idea.  More details in the E33, E44, EF-3 Electrics in FUD (Shapeways) thread.

[flight2000]

I'm not sure, I'll have to check.  I etched a bunch of different styles around the time I scratchbuilt the Santa Fe W&K enclosed tri-level a few years ago, for the exact reason you mentioned.  By changing the doors and the occasional roof, it breaks up the uniformity of these extremely well-designed models.

It would be easy enough to get more etched though.  I still have the artwork.

That would be great if you have some left over and even better if you have the time and willingness to run some more.  I'd be interested in a few of each design you have available.

Thanks,
Brian

[BCR 570]

Putting in some overtime at work and looking at the snow falling outside.  (Yes.. . snow in May).   Hopefully back to working on the layout soon.

Thats odd - I was in Calgary a few weeks ago and recall sitting outside in the sun to have lunch with a friend in our T-shirts . . . 


I spent this week fixing a horrendous mistake made during the installation of my roadbed.  As I began thinking about drilling the holes for the turnout throw wires, I realized that I had inadvertently located the east switch at Tremblay directly above a shelving bracket and cross-member.  This would, of course, eliminate any chance of actuating the turnout from below.  There was nothing I could do but rip up the roadbed and move the turnout along to clear the cross-member and bracket underneath.

Here is the resulting mess after lifting off the track sections (which fortunately were not yet installed permamnently) and ripping up the roadbed:




And here is the scene after re-installing the roadbed and adjusting the track sections to fit:




All is well again (except possibly my reputation).  With grading activities now complete, it was time to clear the siding and run the work train with bulldozers and diesel fuel down the helix:




I can now focus on painting and weathering the track sections, attaching feeder wires, drilling holes for feeder wires and turnout throw rods, and installing superelevation.  I will then be able to commence permanent tracklaying.

Welcome to all those joining us from the Atlas forum - we look forward to seeing your contributions here.


Tim

[mark dance]

That RPM'd E44 is cool.  It gives me hope that someone will actually tackle an S4 that can be mounted over a modern switcher mechanism!

This week I made up and planted a couple of hundred trees and completed some of the rockwork and preliminary scenery in the Slocan Valley.

The Slocan switcher at Crescent Valley...





...and further up the sub at Lemon Creek.







have a great weekend everyone.

md

[Iain]

I ran some stuff down at the local club layout.  I need to crack down and finish weathering everything.
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