HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District 1938-1945

[Dave V]

Dave,

Actually I was just being a wise a$$, hence the troll face.  They do offer them for code 70 if you ever get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back on the burner 
http://www.pdc.ca/rr/catalog/product/ho-code-70-joint-bars/10

Oh and I sure would be interested if you did a thread on the DCC installs.

Scott

Oh, I know you were trolling...but I figured the other guys would jump on it too!  Actually I'm preparing to do a 2019 HOn3 Annual layout feature that's due mid-August so I have a long list of must-dos before I start shooting.

And...  you don't want to follow my lead on DCC installs.  Trust me.   

[Hawghead]

Your layout is going to be in the 2019 HOn3 Annual?  Congratulations!!!, well deserved.  And as to the DCC install, if you've done one, your one up on me.  I'm sure that there are several people here who'd like to see it done.

Scott

[Dave V]

About two months ago I scored a beautifully finished Precision Scale brass D&RGW short caboose painted as Rio Grande Southern 0403. It came without couplers or window glazing and it had a tiny bit of damage to the paint and weathering but overall looked really, really good. However, with its original PSC brass trucks, it rolled as smoothly as a sandpaper brick. I added Kadee 713 couplers and then today I got around to adding the window glazing. The trucks were a challenge. All attempts to turn the PSC trucks into anything other than sleds failed...so I added Blackstone 3'7" D&RGW-style caboose trucks with new bolster washers and screws. Since the new screws were too thin for the bolster holes, I CA-glued some styrene panels on the inside of the body to receive the screws...and it worked! It's now the most free-rolling caboose I own. You can see a little of the white Aleene's Tacky Glue I use to affix the clear styrene window "glass"...it dries clear.



"I have a caboose fetish," he said, with a wink that was as awkward as it was creepy.

My six HOn3 cabooses (cabeese?). Front row, left to right: MRGS kit for RGS 0404 I painted as early 40s, Erie Limited I painted as RGS 0402 early 40s, Erie Limited I painted as RGS 0400 early 40s, Precision Scale painted by someone unknown as RGS 0403, late 30s/early 40s. Back row, left to right: Blackstone D&RGW long caboose factory painted 0505 Flying Rio Grande (I need to weather this), and unknown brass D&RG short caboose I painted as Silverton Northern 1005.



Picked up an already-built HOn3 Rail Line boxcar from Wiseman Model Services painted for a freelanced road... Repainted it and lettered using Laballe decals. I know the original 3000-series lettering doesn't belong on an as-rebuilt 3000-series boxcar, but I wanted something that'd roll nicely and look good behind my Silverton Northern #100 locomotive.



Lastly, I enjoy sometimes just walking around the layout and seeing scenes worth photographing.  Then it's fun to come up with a story:

"A cut of empties waits at Rico for a Second District train to pick up. Meanwhile #20—with an as-yet undetermined mechanical problem—sticks her nose out of the Rico enginehouse. And of course the Goose is late again..."

[Dave V]

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about extending the Rico stock pen spur out into the open basement and connecting it to a re-creation of Furlow’s San Juan Central.

[Hawghead]

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about extending the Rico stock pen spur out into the open basement and connecting it to a re-creation of Furlow’s San Juan Central.

Dave has a real SJC fetish  .  Honestly I don't think anyone, who when they decided to do an HOn3 layout, hasn't given serious consideration to the SJC.  But if you're going to extend the layout why not do some of the second district and get some of that "negative space" you were talking about when designing the current layout.  The second district is much more open and flat but still has some great modeling possibilities. Oh Oh The Montezuma Lumber Company!  Oh Oh,  The Boston Coal Company at Perins!  There was a balloon track there so you could still have continuous running.

Scott 

[Dave V]

Dave has a real SJC fetish  .  Honestly I don't think anyone, who when they decided to do an HOn3 layout, hasn't given serious consideration to the SJC.  But if you're going to extend the layout why not do some of the second district and get some of that "negative space" you were talking about when designing the current layout.  The second district is much more open and flat but still has some great modeling possibilities. Oh Oh The Montezuma Lumber Company!  Oh Oh,  The Boston Coal Company at Perins!  There was a balloon track there so you could still have continuous running.

Scott

For now I don’t have permission to expand, LOL. And you’re right, the RIGHT thing to do would be to get down to Dolores and McPhee.   But there’s a part of me that wants to freelance a little too!

[Hawghead]

But there’s a part of me that wants to freelance a little too!

You go girl, get your groove on.  As far as permission, just show her who's boss!  Get down on hand and knee and beg.  Oh and don't be afraid to cry a little.   

Scott

[John]

   But there’s a part of me that wants to freelance a little too!

Hmmmm ... HOn3 K4s   

[CRL]

You go girl, get your groove on.  As far as permission, just show her who's boss!  Get down on hand and knee and beg.  Oh and don't be afraid to cry a little.   

Scott

Begging never hurts, and frankly, is quite manly when done correctly (assuming you don’t need help getting up off your knees - that becomes quite pitiful).

[Hawghead]

Dave,

I've gone back through the thread and may have missed it, but could you tell me the height of your benchwork please.  (Floor to top of the rail)

Thanks,
Scott

[Dave V]

Dave,

I've gone back through the thread and may have missed it, but could you tell me the height of your benchwork please.  (Floor to top of the rail)

Thanks,
Scott

To the railhead is about 50.5".

[Hawghead]

To the railhead is about 50.5".

Dave,

Thanks, I'm trying to get an idea of how much lumber I need to get.  Hoping to start with Rico soon.

Scott

[Dave V]

RGS update time!

Started planting sagebrush around Ridgway and Placerville using a product for war dioramas called "Deadland Tufts" by The Army Painter.  They're spot-on colorwise and closer to the right texture as I've found or been able to do myself...



Finished the "Quality Store" at Ophir, bringing me a step closer to finishing the most unfinished part of the layout:



Built a Model Railroad General Store D&RGW long baggage car kit.  It's mostly laser-cut micro-ply and it's a fantastic kit!



I took a MicroTrains ( @Shipsure ) C&S steel-underframed gondola lettered for the Whit Pass & Yukon and converted it to RGS work gon 0620.  There are precious few photos of the real 0620...the last being taken near Durango in the 1930s...and she was rebuilt from a truss-rod boom car so the body style is all wrong.  That said I lettered her to match and she looks really good, breaking up the monotony of the two ubiquitous D&RGW gondola designs.



Here she is in consist at Placerville:



Then I finished the cosmetic restoration of RGS #20, an Erie Limited brass model I picked up cheap with a terrible weathering and paint job.  She has some lingering mechanical issues I'm working on but for now, she looks like she should again...sometime in the mid-1940s.



RGS #20 had a unique herald in the 1940s not used on any other locomotive.  The sunrise herald for 20 had thinner, sans-serif lettering.  Thinfilm is the only company I know that offers this unique herald in HO.  I spoke with the crew restoring 20 at the Colorado Railroad Museum (all the mechanical work was finished at Strasburg, PA this past Spring) and they said they had a stencil that matches this unique 1940s style.  Previously the Museum had used an incorrect version of the sunrise herald on the 20...it was the same one they'd used on caboose 0404 and loco #74 which is longer, thicker, and has serifs.  TL;DR, I used the correct, unique, thinner, and sans serif sunrise herald for #20.



Then I decided after she'd shat the bed some two months or more ago that K-27 #462 needed some love.  Thanks to Facebook I was able to obtain a replacement Tsunami K-27 board at no cost (a gentleman was upgrading his Blackstone fleet to Tsunami 2).  You can see on the old board on the left that a component in the upper right seems partially melted.  This is from where I assume the magic factory smoke escaped, rendering her a roundhouse queen for the past two months.  Anyway, quickest drop-in replacement I've ever done:



So no #462 is back in service, sporting a Tweetsie whistle for schnitzengiggles.



Lastly...can you imagine getting stopped at the crossing for a train that runs twice a week?

[davefoxx]

So no #462 is back in service, sporting a Tweetsie whistle for schnitzengiggles.

Hell, yeah!   Gonna need video/audio.  Sweet Tweetsie music to my ears!  If Blackstone were ever to do ET&WNC ten wheelers in HOn3, I’d be in big trouble.

DFF

[peteski]

Then I decided after she'd shat the bed some two months or more ago that K-27 #462 needed some love.  Thanks to Facebook I was able to obtain a replacement Tsunami K-27 board at no cost (a gentleman was upgrading his Blackstone fleet to Tsunami 2).  You can see on the old board on the left that a component in the upper right seems partially melted.  This is from where I assume the magic factory smoke escaped, rendering her a roundhouse queen for the past two months.  Anyway, quickest drop-in replacement I've ever done:

Layout is looking really good.

That burned out component is most likely half of the H-bridge (the circuit that supplies power to the motor). The other similar component on the opposite side of the board is the other half.  If the smoked chip can be identified, replacing it would likely make the decoder functional again.