Weekend Update 3/19/17

[C855B]

OK, what is that thing in the opening picture?  A battery powered loco?  Some kind of slug without its power unit?  An electric for very low wires, with the pantograph missing?

Gareth beat me to it while I was off looking for a picture of it or its brother. I've heard them referred to as "bricks", given their color and status as inert locomotives.

We see a brick through here a few times a year. Here's a frame capture from the railcam in August 2015:

[peteski]

Funny that the first thng that came to my mind when I saw that "thing" in the opening photo was "swayback horse". And even funnier is that it has a horse head logo.

[MK]

Riche, now if thing can be fed some compressed air from a tank car it pulls, that would be an awesome track cleaner car! 

[John]

This is awesome    .. and exactly he type of work that  RW should be focusing on 

A project I have been working on since Christmas or so is a freelanced Snowblower . I has a scratch built Allison J33 centrifugal flow Jet that was the first jet motor commercially sold in the USA and used on the P80/T33 and some others including early cruse missiles . When in the Navy at NAS Barbers Point in the mid 60's we had 3 T33's for pilots to get there kicks in . So I wanted to make a Snow Blower with a J33 . The odd thing is GE was pumping out an axial flow J35 at about the same time , and even the NYC early Jet Snow Blower used the J35 which is a thinner , more stove pipe design .
I have loads more work to do . It is powered . Things are loose in this set of shots .

[thomasjmdavis]

I used a diamond block pad (sold as a knife sharpener) to grind these areas perfectly smooth...

DOH!  Why didn't I think of that?  I've had one of those in my toolbox for the last 30 years (or something like that).  But still good timing, as I am starting a layout as soon as I can get the basement dressed up a bit....

[Iain]

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Yesterday, I put the vacuum pump back together.  This is a Worthington simplex air pump, very like those mounted on many locomotives.


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Of course, the doing of the thing was a bit messy.

[bnsfdash8]

Some more of NS 34, for those interested.

[eja]

Some more of NS 34, for those interested.

OK what, exactly,  is NS 34 ?

[Kisatchie]

OK what, exactly,  is NS 34 ?

Here you go:

http://trn.trains.com/railroads/ask-trains/2009/05/ask-trains-from-may-2009

You'll have to scroll down about halfway.


Hmm... I thought it was
just a locomotive...

[Cajonpassfan]

Running at Bayrails 2017. Awesome experience and some awesome layouts.
The highlight so far, and there were many, was visiting and running on Jack Burgess' amazing Yosemite Valley. It's even better in real life than in the many published photos, and Jack is a gracious host.
Otto K.

[SandyEggoJake]

Yes Ed it does work ,

I think he means does the JET work!  Hmmm... add some kind of blower, a ton of weight and an Aztec roller, and you would have one hell of self propelled track cleaning car.

[SSW7771]

Not much from me, just a little more progress on the NW Industrial Park Layout. 

[craigolio1]

A project I have been working on since Christmas or so is a freelanced Snowblower . I has a scratch built Allison J33 centrifugal flow Jet that was the first jet motor commercially sold in the USA and used on the P80/T33 and some others including early cruse missiles . When in the Navy at NAS Barbers Point in the mid 60's we had 3 T33's for pilots to get there kicks in . So I wanted to make a Snow Blower with a J33 . The odd thing is GE was pumping out an axial flow J35 at about the same time , and even the NYC early Jet Snow Blower used the J35 which is a thinner , more stove pipe design .
I have loads more work to do . It is powered . Things are loose in this set of shots .

That is so cool.

[eja]

Here you go:

http://trn.trains.com/railroads/ask-trains/2009/05/ask-trains-from-may-2009


You'll have to scroll down about halfway.

Thanks Kis   .... and Dee

[chessie system fan]

I've started a new project. 

N scale has enormous potential for railfanning.  It's the perfect balance between detail and size.   However, most people have smaller layouts or narrow shelves so they can only do tight photo angles.  But that's not what real life is like.   In real life the trains are minuscule little snakes slithering through vast swaths of nature.  I've always loved railroad pictures where the trains are dwarfed by landscapes.  I seldom see model photos like that.  And I can't say I've seen any large scenes that didn't involve mountains.  I've always wanted to do something incredibly large--like the Royal Gorge in T to scale (and that's only about six feet tall.  Very doable.) or B&O across the Indiana plains in about 10x6 ft of just flat nothing (not so easily doable). 

So that's the philosophy.  Now that I have a fairly large bachelor pad that's not permanent enough to justify a layout, plus a new camera(!),  I thought I'd act on my ideological convictions.   

Last week I stumbled upon this photograph and immediately noticed it's potential.  I'm a scenery novice with practically no experience.  I think I can do kudzu though!  I'm also from the deep south and even though it's not western PA where I model it still fits with my SAL interests.



Southbound at Emerson by Patrick Phelan, on Flickr

I cobbled together a copy with my stash of free Styrofoam from work.  It's about 6 ft. by 2.5 ft.   That's still smaller than the real life, of course, but I still have to be able to transport this thing.

Here's a mockup.



I dragged out my B&O standard plans book and found that slopes are a 1:1.5 ratio.  So much hacking and slathered plaster later and I've got this:



And here it is with the opposite slope mocked up.



I experimented with a different angle and immediately regretted only doing one side of the slope.



So I mocked up something to add to that side.




I'm barely into this but I've got a few thoughts so far:

1.  I think I made the slope too large.  I'll beef up the other area to compensate.

2.  Focus stacking software is imperative for what I want.

3.  It's dawning on me that the "three foot rule"  might actually apply here.  I've never had to deal with it before lol.  Some things will matter though, such as ride height, weathering, and coupler size.