Weekend Update 9/30/2012

[up1950s]

 
UP 819 progress
 

 

[Cajonpassfan]

Richie, that FEF-1 is amazing! All that add-on detail, WOW!
Can you explain what you're doing with the axle wraps? Is that for better tracking?
Nice work, Otto K.

[mark dance]

That steamer is beautiful.  When does it hit the paint shop Richie?

Speaking of paint shops, I continued experimenting with weathering techniques this week and weathered another 20 cars trying my hand at cars in a range of colours/tints from white to black







and from barely there weathering to heavy use.



I also got up the guts to try locos and weathered 5 units.  Like the cars I used prototype pictures for these units as a guideline.







Have a great weekend everyone...

md

[C855B]

My "update"... on Wednesday I was interviewed for two hours about my "train collection" by a reporter from the local newspaper. Apparently involvement with the railroad display at the area history museum has generated interest. The reporter was surprisingly knowledgeable in her own right; I mentioned my objective was to model scenes from Nebraska to Los Angeles, and her instant response was "Oh, you're modeling the UP." And she said "U P", too. I was floored.

[up1950s]

Cajonpassfan  , mine is ho-hum at best , but thanks just the same . I have more tender details yet to add so I would think a few weeks or so . I dislike the markers from Precision Scale , and Walther's don't list them anymore , so I am ordering 1 & 1.5 mm copper beads , balls , balled pins , and ball chain to see if I can make a better dummy loco marker light of scale size . The less degree of difficulty and steps is the goal . This effort could slow up the painting , but to finally solve the problem for this and other locos is worth it .

[wazzou]

Here is one of 6 Micro-trains flatcars that I have modified to represent the NP's 52' straight sill flatcars. 
I lowered the cars, removed the brake-wheel and associated piping and chain and put a brake-wheel on a staff at the B end. 
I also have also added a steel center sill to the frame with gussets. 

[up1950s]

My "update"... on Wednesday I was interviewed for two hours about my "train collection" by a reporter from the local newspaper. Apparently involvement with the railroad display at the area history museum has generated interest. The reporter was surprisingly knowledgeable in her own right; I mentioned my objective was to model scenes from Nebraska to Los Angeles, and her instant response was "Oh, you're modeling the UP." And she said "U P", too. I was floored.

But was she hot !

[Kisatchie]

But was she hot !

Hmm... not as hot as I am.
Turn the air conditioner
on, Kiz...

[C855B]

But was she hot !

Maybe in her day, but certainly not now. Close to 80, she is the newspaper publisher's widow, and keeps active by reporting travel and human interest stories. Very interesting, amazingly well traveled, knew details about trains and railroads that would knock your socks off. We spent about two hours in a very engaged conversation.

[Bendtracker1]

Mark,
Those tankers are looking real sharp!

[eric220]

This was a heavy week for me.  We lost one of the Gandy Dancers last week, and his funeral was on Tuesday.  Somewhat fitting, as Tuesday is our usual work night.

On the railroad, I've been running different locomotives and cars around the upper level.  A couple of things are becoming apparent.  First, I need to get the frogs on my mainline turnouts powered.  Second, there's going to be a lot of work getting the myriad of different rolling stock ready for prime time.  I'm actually quite thrilled that the vast majority of it runs perfectly well right out of the box.  There are plenty of pieces that need to be tweaked, however.  Everything from pizza cutters to trip pins to weight.  Oh well, wouldn't want to run out of things to do.

On the photo-worthy front, I hosted the NScale.net leased tank locomotive.  Here she is getting dead-headed into the yard.

[Dave V]

I need to get the frogs on my mainline turnouts powered.

Absolutely on the powered frogs.

Neat pic, BTW!

[Mark W]

Finally got my hands on the actual print of the Dry Bulk Trailer.  Definitely my favorite printed model yet. 

[bc6]

Nothing new here layout wise but Ive got a new trio of locos. I dnt have to many small locos so I got a GP15-1 and an F3B unit to sipce things up a bit. The SD40-2 is a loco made from the original mech & a shell won off ebay.

[BCR 570]

At Mile 16.25 of the Dawson Creek Subdivision the tracks pass over the Hart Highway (Highway 97) on a concrete rigid frame ballasted deck span built in 1957.  The bridge measures 142 feet in length and stands 22 feet high.  I was last up there in July 2009:




I plan to try and fit in a model of the highway overpass on the curve leading from the east switch at Sundance to the Pine River bridge.  This week I received a rapid-prototyped model of the overpass, which is a scale model altered to accommodate my 18 inch radius curve at that location:




After some minor cleanup, painting and weathering, it will be installed on the layout and tracklaying on the lower deck can then continue.


Meanwhile, work continues on my turnout test bed.  This past week saw completion of the track sections, which now be painted and weathered prior to installation:




Finally, the recent arrival of a custom decal sheet allowed me to complete the decaling of five MOW cars:




The final steps for these models include painting minor details, weathering and final seal coat, and installation of trucks.


Tim