Weekend Update 10/28/12

[Dave V]

It's alive!!! The signal runs through all 3 aspects as operated by a photocell between the rails where the cabin car (caboose) is. once the train clears the photocell, a timer keeps each aspect at 10 seconds until clear.

[C855B]

Gorgeous. Huge improvement, Dave. I'll bet you're excited about, yet dreading replacing all the NJIs.

[SD452XR]

I'm working on decalling 5 Kato U30C's for the Milwaukee Road. Will post pics when I get all five done. Maybe by next weekend. 

Steve

[skytop35]

Finally stuffed this auto rack. Maybe someday I'll get around to lowering the car and super detailing it but for now it's good to go.



And so it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg, I made a RTV mold and cast the cars for the lower levels of the rack. The top level has the nicely detailed originals. While it was cheaper, it does take a lot of time to paint the autos.



Left to right: Original CMW 1967 Ford; my painted resin copy; unpainted resin copy fresh out of the mold.

[PGE-N°2]

Finally stuffed this auto rack. Maybe someday I'll get around to lowering the car and super detailing it but for now it's good to go.



And so it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg, I made a RTV mold and cast the cars for the lower levels of the rack. The top level has the nicely detailed originals. While it was cheaper, it does take a lot of time to paint the autos.



Left to right: Original CMW 1967 Ford; my painted resin copy; unpainted resin copy fresh out of the mold.

It looks good to me. I'm eventually going to want a few nice auto racks like that, for modelling a Milwaukee Road XL Special.

[wm3798]

Do you have any operation issues with all that weight on the upper deck?  Does look good, but can it run that way?  The only thing I would suggest is that most times cars were shipped with the wheel covers in the trunk.  Paint those wheels black, and maybe put some window stickers (bits of white decal?) on them, and you'll have something.
Lee

[sirenwerks]

suggest is that most times cars were shipped with the wheel covers in the trunk.  Paint those wheels black, and maybe put some window stickers (bits of white decal?) on them, and you'll have something.
Lee

Was the price sticker law in effect in 1967?  EDIT - Yes, it was. The Moroney Sticker law went into effect in January 1959.  Jeez, it was passed in '58! Why can't we have laws that go into effect that quick anymore?

[BCR 570]

Removed a portion of benchwork top to make way for the Highway 97 overpass and road below:




Next step is to install support blocks for the bridge.  Also painted and weathered the track sections for my turnout test bed currently under construction:




Tim

[davidgray1974]

Gorgeous. Huge improvement, Dave. I'll bet you're excited about, yet dreading replacing all the NJIs.

+1 Looks fantastic!

[Carolina Northern]

Before Kato made us a Wye, I built this one out of a couple of curves, some Clover House ties and some body putty.
It's worked well, but this weekend, I replaced it with a Kato wye to get the powered switch. I never got around to working out a way to power this one and the pre-made just got too easy.

[davidgray1974]

Making slow progress, but progress none the less.  Added some Silfor Summer and Spring 4mm grass to the scene to give a bit of height and color difference.  Also added more bushes to the front and back of the scene.  Lastly, I finally got around to putting some coal on the tracks to help dirty up the scene just a bit.  Still plan on hitting it some more tomorrow but since I hadn't put a progress shot in the last few weeks, figured I would post one up this evening.  Need to build my new coal mine kit so I can get rid of the stand in.  By the way, thanks to everyone for all the great comments and suggestions.  Please keep them coming.








And a couple shots with these great looking Bluford coal hoppers



Thanks for looking!

David

Update - added a few more bushes today to the foreground.

[PGE-N°2]

The problem started when I put it in place at the back of Cascade and all the white, mock-up, "temporary" structures in front of it just looked even more out of place.  So I did something I said I would never do: I started to pretty up the mock-ups with paint.  I coud feel myself starting down the slippery slope to these mock ups effectively becoming permanent.  Oh well. 

I ended up painting the mock ups at Cascade

Mark, I hope you aren't expecting any sympathy for taking this dangerous step  . I have to say that if those are just mockups, the photos definitely make them look far ahead of some completed modelling I have seen, and definitely more appealing than the majority of out of the box structure models.

[skytop35]

Do you have any operation issues with all that weight on the upper deck?  Does look good, but can it run that way?  The only thing I would suggest is that most times cars were shipped with the wheel covers in the trunk.  Paint those wheels black, and maybe put some window stickers (bits of white decal?) on them, and you'll have something.
Lee

Lee,

Don't know as I just finished it today and haven't run it in a train yet. I don't expect any as I don't think 4 cars is all that much weight. We shall see.

Good to know about the wheel covers.

[Dave V]

Davidgray,

That is looking really nice!  I have to say, I've seen a lot of attempts to weather and ballast Unitrack, but yours is fantastic.  The spilled coal effect is very convincing.

[bc6]

I havent had much to contribute in the past couple of weeks, but recently Ive decided to switch roadnames. Ive gone from Conrail/CSX to BN/AT&SF pre merger. Below is a pic of mainly newly acquired motive power with more Santa Fe equipment arriving shortly. Nice work from everyone, I love the weekend thread.