Weekend Update 10/14/18

[davefoxx]

The first freight car has been delivered to the new furniture warehouse on the branch line of my layout.  So new, in fact, that the builder hasn't even installed the windows, doors, or the roof yet! 



More on the Seaboard Central 3.0 thread in the Layout Engineering Forum.

DFF

[mark dance]

I'm homing in on weathering that I'm happy with.

That weathering looks great Daniel!  How did you paint the rust blisters?
md

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Cars were hit with several fade coats. The  I stippled Dark Umber artist acrylic from a stiff brush after blotting most of the paint off. I then used a "dark grease wash" which is a combination of artists acrylics, Microscale flat and Tamiya thinner. It has the same basic properties as Ed's Vodka technique.

I also use a rust wash and grime wash where needed. Again, these are a mix of artists acrylics, Microscale flat, Tamiya thinner and zinc (mixing) white.

The cars look better in person. I'll add a few professional photos when the project is done.

[Angus Shops]

Red letter day on the new layout! I laid the first actual track; 16 sticks of Atlas code 50 representing the first 5 feet of the 8 track west staging yard. This is the lower level staging of my 'nolix' track plan and access will be limited as construction proceeds, so this needed to be done before too much more progress is made in the areas above the staging. Minimum staging track length will be 8 feet. Most of the heavy bench work carpentry work is also complete, with the exception of backdrops and front fascia on a portion of the upper deck and some super robust carpentry that needs to be completed where the the currently continuous roadbed is cut for a couple of bridge locations. I'm pleased with the progress.

Mark, the Nelson shop is outstanding. Is there any selective compression, or is it full size? Either way it's an amazing structure for N scale.

Geoff

[daniel_leavitt2000]

More projects:

I got tired of waiting for Athearn to make an Airslide in Conrail and painted some myself. Decals are custom made using railroad specific fonts.



Weathering is about half done. These cars have fade sprayed and a grease-oil wash applied. They need some chalks to blend everything together. The ends still need some work.

Also worked through some caboose projects.
N5K


This started out as a LL ATSF caboose with the copula cut down and Walthers caboose bays added. The LL model is better than the Atlas for these conversions for two reasons. First, the rivet detail is much smaller and second, the copula is a separate part making this a fairly easy conversion.

Lots of work needs to be done, but it is well on its way.



Conrail N7D class. Basic weathering is done. The roof is in process of getting "environmental fallout" surface rust. This starts with a few rust washes then powdered chalks. I still need to clean up the windows a bit.




Classic N4 has seen better days. The once proud Conrail paint has long since given way to rust. I still need to lower this car and add metal wheels and final powdered chalks to blend the roof a little better.


Another N4 with lighter weathering. This one has been lowered and metal wheels added. It really makes a difference. Wire grabs will replace the molded on parts.

I know there is some dust and even a little dog hair on the models. I walk to work with these in a small pistol case in my backpack.  Once back home they will be washed properly before work starts again.

[mark dance]

Red letter day on the new layout! I laid the first actual track; 16 sticks of Atlas code 50 representing the first 5 feet of the 8 track west staging yard. This is the lower level staging of my 'nolix' track plan and access will be limited as construction proceeds, so this needed to be done before too much more progress is made in the areas above the staging. Minimum staging track length will be 8 feet. Most of the heavy bench work carpentry work is also complete, with the exception of backdrops and front fascia on a portion of the upper deck and some super robust carpentry that needs to be completed where the the currently continuous roadbed is cut for a couple of bridge locations. I'm pleased with the progress.

Mark, the Nelson shop is outstanding. Is there any selective compression, or is it full size? Either way it's an amazing structure for N scale.

Geoff

Congratulations on the milestone Geoff!  Have you posted a track plan of you design anywhere?  I would be interested in seeing it...

As to the Nelson shops, yes they are quite compressed.  Most notably the heavy shop is a single track as opposed to two tracks with a third, isolated track between them and a the stores building is much smaller to fit between the yards A/D tracks and RIP yard.  The building heights are 1:1, and lengths about 75%, but it is the width of the heavy shop and stores building where the sq footage is compressed the most.

Have a great week...

md

[chicken45]

More projects:

I got tired of waiting for Athearn to make an Airslide in Conrail and painted some myself. Decals are custom made using railroad specific fonts.



Weathering is about half done. These cars have fade sprayed and a grease-oil wash applied. They need some chalks to blend everything together. The ends still need some work.

Also worked through some caboose projects.
N5K


This started out as a LL ATSF caboose with the copula cut down and Walthers caboose bays added. The LL model is better than the Atlas for these conversions for two reasons. First, the rivet detail is much smaller and second, the copula is a separate part making this a fairly easy conversion.

Lots of work needs to be done, but it is well on its way.



Conrail N7D class. Basic weathering is done. The roof is in process of getting "environmental fallout" surface rust. This starts with a few rust washes then powdered chalks. I still need to clean up the windows a bit.




Classic N4 has seen better days. The once proud Conrail paint has long since given way to rust. I still need to lower this car and add metal wheels and final powdered chalks to blend the roof a little better.


Another N4 with lighter weathering. This one has been lowered and metal wheels added. It really makes a difference. Wire grabs will replace the molded on parts.

I know there is some dust and even a little dog hair on the models. I walk to work with these in a small pistol case in my backpack.  Once back home they will be washed properly before work starts again.

@daniel_leavitt2000 I really like how fine those "rust strokes" are. The small fines one look pretty realistic to me and I MUST know how you made them! The larger ones also look good. Without looking at a proto photo, I would suggest adding "depth" to those larger rust spots by darkening the centers and lightening the edges. It's as easy as adding a dab of raw umber in the center, and slobbing on a more orange in spots.  @VonRyan pointed out on a hopper I did a few years ago that my rust spots were large and looked all one color. He was right. I darkened the center and lightened up the edges and it made it look a lot better:


It was also cool using oil paints that I got some actual texture by stippling the paint.


When I was making that caboose for @Ed Kapuscinski, I wish I did more of a fade on the blue. To me, parts of it looked strange where the paint looked "too new and clean" to have the level of rust and weathering I applied to it.

[trainforfun]

This week's project... no, let me rephrase that... a task that has taken over my MRR life for the past two months has been our club's quarter-scale crossbuck, an attention-getter for train shows. Overall it's been showing its age for a while, but the electronics gave up the ghost at the last show, and I foolishly stepped up to the task of fixing it. Of course, that turned into a complete rebuild and repaint, no good deed goes unpunished.

A pile o' parts after disassembly, awaiting rewiring, cleaning and/or repainting:



Delivered this afternoon to our show venue for this weekend's event:

Beautifull job !!!

[up1950s]

I can see that cross buck selling well if sold as a kit and advertised in all the RR mags and Harriet Carter , etc .

[JMaurer1]

Yes, need more data about crossbuck. Mostly PVC pipe but what are the light holders? Micro Scale crossbuck sign? I need one of these (or should it be two)!

[Jesse6669]

Worked on a few 1:450 scale projects this past week, the two "biggies" are the GG1 and proof of concept/test with roadbed/tie strips and code 40 rail. 

I test painted up the GG1 initial body using some CMR/Netzlof decals they kindly resized to T-scale.  I had to hand brush the 3 to make an 8 to keep the number series accurate, 4800's (so one end is not quite a perfect .  It's only a prototype and needs a few subtle revisions, the final model will have pantographs.  Window glass is Krystal Klear.  I've been using decal film as well for glass, might try that on the other side and compare.   Mechanism is under development, but I can likely make a dummy version and power the passenger cars to push the big motor around even though not very prototypical. 
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

The test track bed is just giving me a little bit of trouble;  My process uses two-sided 3M foam mounting tape (.5 in wide, cut to 3mm strips).  Ballast rock size is just a bit too large, but workable (especially to the naked eye) but the fine bits of mica or granite or schist or whateaver are making some trouble.  I'm trying to mute them with dullcote and chalks.  I may try some of the Woodland Scenics fine (or some other very fine ballast) to see if it has the same "sparkley" bits.   In any case, it's a vast improvement over the commercial flex and sectional track. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

I also printed up a Santa Fe intermodal decal set for a 45' van (same scheme was used on the 40' too, from what I can find).  These are simply one single decal for the whole side (about 1.5" long).   Parked it on the bit of test track.  Looks like the tractor had a leak in it's fuel tank! 

 

[C855B]

Yes, need more data about crossbuck. Mostly PVC pipe but what are the light holders? Micro Scale crossbuck sign? I need one of these (or should it be two)!

The crossbuck was a rebuild of the 20-year-old original, so I don't have all of the how-to details of especially the signage. But I can point everyone in the right direction.

The base is a plastic Christmas tree base with the top cut to fit a 4" PVC shower drain. You can see the 4" to 1-1/2" reducer for the mast, which looks surprisingly good. There is a fabricated bayonet-style mount to separate the mast from the base for transport, but I wouldn't have done it that way. Most of the other Schedule 40 PVC components are obvious except the light housings. Originally they were 4" pipe caps center-drilled for 3/4" pipe, the crosspiece is 1" with reducing tees for the 3/4" nipples to fit the 4" pipe caps. The original pipe caps were too small for the semi-trailer lights (bought from superbrightleds.com), so I rummaged through Menard's plumbing department and found half-round stack caps (Menard's SKU 6896205) that resembled the Griswold-style crossing flasher lamp housings. I center-drilled these similarly to the originals, using a "socket saver" bit to get the correct 3/4" OD for Sched 40.

Mounting the lights to the caps was tricky. There were at least a half-dozen tries for something to screw the lights into. The final version was fabricated brackets from 1/2"x1/2" aluminum channel (L-channel would have worked, too), and, as luck would have it, the three screw locations on the lights matched corresponding screw points on the stack caps.

The targets and visors are cut from black 1/16" craft store foam sheet. The original had black styrene for this, it was fragile and we were constantly having to re-glue things. The black foam may not be perfectly flat, but it can take the transport handling. The visors were glued to the rim of the lamps with contact cement (which worked fine with the craft foam, much to my surprise. Contact cement will instantly dissolve pink foam). I think 1/16" black styrene would be better for something that isn't being moved around a lot.

Base is painted a Rustoleum gray, the mast is Rustoleum metallic "bright" silver. I wanted to match the original hammertone silver to cut a week off the process, but the new paint is so much better.

Signs are old-school engraved plastic laminate, the type that uses a router to expose the contrasting under-layer. Used to be common for desk name plates. They are custom, and unmodified from the original. If I had to do them from scratch, the first place I'd try would be a local trophy shop.

The lights have two circuits, taillight dim, and brake light SUPER bright. The bright circuit draws about 350mA, and lights up the entire room. And then some. The taillight circuit is just right, and draws the 10-15mA mentioned previously. Works great with the Circuitron model railroad flasher. For fixed use, I'd power it with a 12VDC wall wart.

[peteski]

The lights have two circuits, taillight dim, and brake light SUPER bright. The bright circuit draws about 350mA, and lights up the entire room. And then some. The taillight circuit is just right, and draws the 10-15mA mentioned previously. Works great with the Circuitron model railroad flasher. For fixed use, I'd power it with a 12VDC wall wart.

Can you provide the specific manufacturer and part # for the lights?

[C855B]

Can you provide the specific manufacturer and part # for the lights?

Just this: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/truck-lights-lamps/round-led-truck-and-trailer-lights-w-built-in-reflectorized-flange-5-12-led-braketurntail-lights-w-24-high-flux-leds-3-pin-connector/1913/

No other branding on the packaging, no instructions. But that's not necessarily a show-stopper, flange-type taillights have standardized dimensions. My task boiled down to finding the best-looking ones for the project.

[alhoop]

Can you provide the specific manufacturer and part # for the lights?

I'm surprised just like you , Peteski - but check this expert's answer to essentially
the same question:

'I went to the warehouse and took a look at the Bargman Triple Tail Light, part # 47-85-002 and part # 47-84-610.'

 

Each of the light housings for the LED lights has 16 LEDs. So each of these assemblies has 32 LEDs. With high illumination this assembly would have a draw around .26 amps and at low illumination that draw would be about .02 amps. Since you are replacing the incandescent fixtures on your fifth wheel, these will certainly not draw much and would be brighter than the lights you have.

Al