Weekend Update 1/17/16

[mu26aeh]

Nothing from my layout this weekend, yet, but I was able to get a couple shots of my latest HO purchase working a local during an ops session last night.

Here we see #5301 after it has run around its train to finishing switching cars.  This job has facing and trailing points so you need to work the train from both directions.  The crew was astounded to see such a beast for this job as its usual power is a GP35.

20160116_192033 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

After the job was done, we caught the crew at the fuel island in the yard.

20160116_201039 by Adam Henry, on Flickr
20160116_201018 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

[bbeegle]

BCR 570 who made those trailers ? look good. Brian

[eric220]

Greetings from Amtrak train 5!



Headed home from a weekend in Reno. All this snow in the Sierras is a welcome sight indeed! I actually got to experience first hand an interesting weather phenomenon: the rain shadow. We watched storms that had been dumping precipitation since the west coast crest the mountains west of Reno, still snowing like crazy, dissipate into clear blue skies. Amazing what a little change in elevation can do to an airmass!

On the railroading front, we rode behind these in both directions:



Trains 5 and 6 in the opposing directions were also equipped with the new baggage cars. Nice to see 'em in the wild!

[randgust]

This is a pure diversion from anything else I've done.

Just finished my N Scale Kits Warren Circus Flatcar kit, which is a little different from the MT flat.   I've always been intrigued by the Warren, as it was built three miles away from where I live.   But doing circus cars in N - the right ones - has been relatively impossible until lately.   The real fun started when I discovered that a major circus owner that lived here in town only a block away from me - J. Augustus Jones - was the first owner of the operation and steel cars and took seven of them on the road with the "Cole Bros. World Toured Circus" in 1916.    He continued to own the circus until he was kicked by a horse inside a stock car and later died of his injuries in 1918.     This has been fun, if difficult, to research.   I ended up having to make my own decals as in this era it was not "Cole Bros. Circus".



The N Scale Kits has a nice laser-cut wood deck, too:



I'll repaint and reletter the wagons after I get my first batch of MT's and see what those look like.

On November 19th and 20th, 1916, this circus played Winslow and Flagstaff.   It really was quite a large show under his management.   The house he built looks like a circus owner - lots of gingerbread and scrollwork that looks just like a circus wagon, even today.

It still astounds me that 70' steel flats were out there in 1916.   The great-granddaddy of every intermodal car today.   And no welds, either, you never saw so many rivets in your life as are on these.

[wazzou]

Randy, were the flatcars unpainted metal or just painted silver?

[randgust]

Finding color information on that era is next to impossible except for advertising poster artwork.   I found a couple shots from the 20's that confirmed the cars were light-colored with darker lettering and the 'red' was a Cole standard.  They may even have been yellow, but the 'standard' flatcar color from Warren Car was silver, so I went with that.   The wagons were definitely red then though with white lettering.  As the car is cast pewter, I used automotive silver paint to get a good smooth finish and bond properly.

If you're researching stuff, I found the Circus World Museum online collection is amazing, and there's also a ton of stuff out on Ebay.

[BCR 570]

BCR 570 who made those trailers ? look good. Brian

Brian:

The flatdeck trailer kits were produced by Briggs Models and are available from Central Hobbies in Vancouver.  There is a 2 x 40' dual axle kit and a 2 x 45' tridem axle kit.


Tim

[mu26aeh]

I did some landscaping today on the Hanover Sub.  Couple more pictures in the layout thread.

20160117_174348 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

[Puddington]

Sam and I got the lake front at Nichols corner ready for the Woodland Scenics water product....

The A frame cottage and boulder strewn beach screams interior of British Columbia....

The power on today's consist is a Action Red SD40.... Our A frame owner was out on the lake fishin so his brother caught a quick instamatic grab..



The owner of the A frame never fishes without a camera... he caught some hoppers passing by....



The end of the consist kinda gives you a "I AM CANADIAN" feeling..... like from a beer commercial....



This is an overall view of the corner..... water later this week.... I hope!

[Scottl]

That is pretty great Puddy.

[peteski]

On the railroading front, we rode behind these in both directions:



Trains 5 and 6 in the opposing directions were also equipped with the new baggage cars. Nice to see 'em in the wild!

Interesting paint scheme on a new car. Looks like a mix of Phase III with the thin red pinstripe from the later phases.  It would be nice to see more new cars with Ph III style red/white/blue stripes.

[johnb]

Just doing some weathering with acrylic paint washes and a ultra fine tipped sharpie...my flash on my phone hides the fade....
 I shot the floor with Krylon camouflage ultra flat brown and the trucks with Velspar blindfold…





The colors of acrylic paints used were a mix of brown and terracotta for the fade, terracotta for the patch and pavement for the roof….

[basementcalling]

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Worked on conveyors, tank placements, and better photo lighting.

Also added a gravel roof to a new building. Pics of that tomorrow.

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Tried relocating the by products processing (Walthers refinery bashed) area. Not happy with how it uses space.

[jmlaboda]

Interesting paint scheme on a new car. Looks like a mix of Phase III with the thin red pinstripe from the later phases.  It would be nice to see more new cars with Ph III style red/white/blue stripes.

That Scotchlite sill stripe is simply a safety feature, common to many passenger cars these days.  Its suppose to make passenger cars a bit more visible at crossings.

The "Amtrak America" branding is only going on the new Viewliners, though the old Viewliners are suppose to be renamed into the new River-series, as announced early last year.  So far I have only found one car that has received its new River name, AMTK 62014 Croton River, has received its new name... not sure how much of a priority it is to actually name any of the others.  They are using the darker blue than what isfound on the Phase V paint scheme, making them stand out a bit more...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ottomatic77/23594445945

[SP-Wolf]

Finished my SP sand house





Thanks,
Wolf