Weekend Update 7/17/16

[nkalanaga]

Kiz:  Tchefuncte is pronounced the way I would expect.  That, for Louisiana, is a rare event!

[MichaelWinicki]

[bbussey]

Been working on converting the first of four Rapido PBLWs to the 8500 series with smoker lounges. As it turns out, five of the 8200 series were converted to have smoker lounges, and, as it happens, two of the five numbers are included in Rapido's initial New Haven offerings. And on top of that, Black Knight 8250, one of the five, lost its oversized roof vents over the lounge after being painted black and red. So minimal exterior body work is required to the stock Rapido car to convert it. I still need a roof a/c access hatch, but that is on the way.

In the mean time, I've started converting the interior. I milled off five rows of seats and built the new lounge area, and have started painting the interior. Just waiting for the right color tan for the lounge seats and dark Persian blue for the coach seats to arrive from Amazon to finish it off. Because I am darkening the interior, I painted both the interior body walls and the bottom of the Easy Peasy light board (which is the de facto ceiling) off white to match the prototype. With the lighter walls and darker interior, it also helps in both toning down and better diffusing the light.

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I'm thinking also of adding the round mirrors on the bulkhead walls, since I think they would be visible. Might have to add some people as well. Hoping to have this complete by next weekend.

[mu26aeh]

@R L Smith and myself visited @Ed Kapuscinski and Windsor St Yard today.  My Gettysburg units pulled the yard duty of sorting out the A/D tracks.  I managed a couple of shots while Ron used his Lackawanna SD70ACe to pull the coal drag.

Gettysburg # 105/107 sorting out cars for Elkhart Yard.
Gettysburg switching Windsor St Yard by Adam Henry, on Flickr

With switching duties complete, they await their next job.
Gettysburg Units rest by Adam Henry, on Flickr

After the cars were sorted, Ed brought a road train in to swap some cars from the yard. 

Train has already dropped cars in the A/D track (with centerbeam), and has hooked onto cars destined for Selkirk.
Conrail yard job by Adam Henry, on Flickr

With train back together, crews have done their brake test and are preparing to continue on their run.
Conrail getting ready to head out of yard by Adam Henry, on Flickr

Ron and I had an enjoyable time and look forward to future visits as progress continues.

[bnsfdash8]

I've always liked the look of the dual control stand GP38s that PRSL had and at least one made it to NS (before they rebuilt it) so I've been wanting to model one. I probably could've just kit bashed one but drawing one is a bit easier and less time consuming.

[chuck geiger]

With my wife working on the weekends, I have a lot of TT (Train Time). I came across a budget brand
of scenery supplies a few years ago at Hobby Lobby (Made by Woodland Scenics) specifically for school
dioramas. called SCENEARAMA. I pained a few pins dark gray and glued pieces of their dark foliage
clusters to them to represent evergreen undergrowth which exists almost everywhere.

[chuck geiger]

DFF is right the color pencil is our friend:

[NYNE]

I just got home from a week in NYC to find a box of New Haven Osgood Bradleys waiting for me. They look just like I remember them expect for one thing -- they're clean. When I used to wait at Canton Junction for my father to come home from work I remember these things being filthy. In fact, I didn't know the green ones were green until I was an adult and read an article about them in a model railroad magazine. I thought they were just a simplified black paint job.

I am back on the road, so I packed them back in their boxes and they will have to wait for a better debut at some future date. I have to say I have been waiting for these cars since, well, since they actually ran on the rails behind GP-9s.

[BCR 570]

Weeds shipped to Ed, signage up and talus in.

Chuck:  Lovely scene; well done.

Ed:  Nice looking yard; even has a BCR boxcar in it!

Tim

[OldEastRR]

Been working on converting the first of four Rapido PBLWs to the 8500 series with smoker lounges. As it turns out, five of the 8200 series were converted to have smoker lounges, and, as it happens, two of the five numbers are included in Rapido's initial New Haven offerings. And on top of that, Black Knight 8250, one of the five, lost its oversized roof vents over the lounge after being painted black and red. So minimal exterior body work is required to the stock Rapido car to convert it. I still need a roof a/c access hatch, but that is on the way.

In the mean time, I've started converting the interior. I milled off five rows of seats and built the new lounge area, and have started painting the interior. Just waiting for the right color tan for the lounge seats and dark Persian blue for the coach seats to arrive from Amazon to finish it off. Because I am darkening the interior, I painted both the interior body walls and the bottom of the Easy Peasy light board (which is the de facto ceiling) off white to match the prototype. With the lighter walls and darker interior, it also helps in both toning down and better diffusing the light.

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

I'm thinking also of adding the round mirrors on the bulkhead walls, since I think they would be visible. Might have to add some people as well. Hoping to have this complete by next weekend.

What do you have as smoking seats in there now?

[BCR 570]

The last few weeks have seen considerable progress on my layout, and last night a milestone of sorts was reached with completion of track-laying and wiring for the main line between Chetwynd and Dawson Creek.  I had hoped to reach this goal by July 15 and am pleased to have made it.

The wiring under Sundance included connecting feeders to bus wiring for the Sundance power district, and forwarding of the bus wires for future power districts at Chetwynd and Hulcross (south staging).  This wiring runs alongside the previously completed wiring for Septimus.  Here is a sample of what that all looks like:




In a similar fashion, the wiring under Tremblay included connecting feeders to bus wiring for the Tremblay power district, and forwarding of the bus wires for future power districts at Kiskatinaw and Dawson Creek.  Here is a sample:




The wiring work under Tremblay necessitated removal of the Pine River bridge.  Fortunately it was engineered to be easily removed for just such a purpose:




Meanwhile, the tracklaying continued east from Tremblay with a long sweeping 18" radius curve toward the Kiskatinaw River.  The Fairmont speeder in the photograph is just inside the new power district boundary:




The railway crosses the Kiskatinaw River on a 150' deck Howe truss span with frame trestle approaches at either end.  My temporary span has been in place for some time so it was a simple matter of connecting to it:




After the river crossing, the tracks swing through an S-curve and approach the yard at Dawson Creek.  This is looking east toward the end of steel; in the distance is the lumber mill at Dawson Creek.  Down on the lower level you can see the end of steel just beyond the west switch at Sundance, and in the distance the same for Septimus:




The wiring under Kiskatinaw included feeder to bus wiring for Kiskatinaw, and forwarding of the bus wires for Dawson Creek:




The first train to negotiate the new trackage was Work Extra 584.  Here the RS-10 is pushing its train around the curve toward the bridge:




and across the bridge, becoming the first train to cross the Kiskatinaw River:




and returning from the end of steel toward the bridge:




That's all for now; my track and wiring gangs are now on holiday!


Tim

[wm3798]

After laying dormant for many months, the key to success is to program 5 locomotives for the consist, with the hopes that 3 of them keep running.  (I learned that from early Conrail)

Enjoyed some running on seusscaboose's newly expanded Mile Post One layout with the usual suspects last night.


Fidel Castro joined us and sipped a$$-water while working helper service.


RockGP40, Brian Carhart worked the yard at Bellevue


...and we all wondered what happened to Phil...


Especially Tim, who wept openly most of the night.


For me, it was fun to return to "home rails" running the Laurel Valley coal extra around the "Beast"...


...Visiting with an old friend,


... and bumping some hoppers up from the mine tipple through the switchback at Thomas.

Things ran nicely through the new work, and we all had a pleasant evening.  Sorry we missed you, Phil.  Hopefully we can catch up with you again before you head south...

Lee

[bbussey]

What do you have as smoking seats in there now?

Rapid prototype parts based on the stock seats.

[chuck geiger]

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[coosvalley]

This week I worked on this roundhouse, and finished up this GP-38...More info in my layout engineering thread...











More info here:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=39184.0