Weekend Update 8/23/20

[amato1969]

@bdennis I am loving your building flats!  The colors and textures look great!

  Frank

[reinhardtjh]

While the N scale stuff in your photos is nice, the coolest thing in those photos is that vintage Mac with a 3.5" floppy slot on the front!  That is a museum piece!

I remember (sometime in the mid-'90s?) I had a chance to play with one of those.  While it had a monochrome display, the GUI was light-years ahead of the contemporary MS Windows (3.0?), with the 16 color EGA display I was using at that time.  Or was it 8 color? Hmm . . . . I also seem to recall the Flying Toasters screen saver.

The Mac SE was B/W.  8-bit greyscale actually.  256 colors as long as they were some shade of grey.   My first Mac I bought in 1987 was a Mac SE with two floppy drives (later called a Mac SE FDFD as compared to Cameron's FDHD wich had a 10 or 20MB hard drive in the second slot).

[u18b]

Nice... I just picked this up for $55

Not happy with the decal job. I may try and repaint it. (Attachment Link)

Nice.  And a great price!
(and hopefully your gears aren't cracked- amazingly, mine are good so far).

That brass model is a Conrail prototype all the way, so I had to make some modifications to make it non-Conrail.

And mine was in BAD shape after almost 30 years.  If you're going to repaint it, you might as well check all the soldering joints.  I had to reinforce most of mine with extra solder.

[randgust]

Late arrival.   Customer project for a repaint/decal of a Kato undec shell plus a full custom wire handrail program.   Those rear handrails on the NW2 are pretty unique.

[u18b]

Ron what do you use for sandblasting, such as gun and media used?
I want to purchase a setup so I can sand blast some brass I have and would prefer this method over a chemical removal method.

TIA, Jon

Jon,

Like anything in life, it takes an investment to get started.

I use an air eraser by Harbor Freight.  (I've also owned one by Pasche)
https://www.harborfreight.com/air-eraseretching-kit-69277.html

I blast with 220 grit aluminum oxide.  I've been using white, but the next batch I buy will be brown.  I buy it in bulk- like 25-35 pounds at a time.  Lasts for years.  I could NEVER get baking soda to work well.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=aluminum+oxide+blast+220&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=aluminum+oxide+powder+220

The challenge for me is air.  I live on the Gulf Coast and the humidity is often at 80%.  So using dry air is a must.  It tried my air brushing compressor which has a moisture trap built in as well as another in the hose - and I still got wet after an extended sandblasting session (very disappointing).  In all fairness, I probably need to eliminate the water in the trap halfway through if I use it again.

My best solution is bottled Nitrogen.  Hard to get started financially, but it works best.  I started out with a widow who gave me two bottles of Oxygen her husband had used (I guess they didn't have to be returned to anyone).  I then took them to my friendly air gas folks and traded those two O2 bottles for Nitrogen (NEVER airbrush with pure O2).    You "own" the bottle.  When empty, you take it to the air gas place and swap it out for a filled bottle.  My cost is around 12 bucks a bottle.

I keep two 40 lb Nitrogen bottles.  Had to build a special regulator setup since the gas is at about 2,000 pounds pressure.  I had to get it from there to my airbrush.  I move a lot, and my current town does not have a gas supplier- have to go about 45 min away.  So I may price getting a 3rd bottle.

[peteski]

The Mac SE was B/W.  8-bit greyscale actually.  256 colors as long as they were some shade of grey.   My first Mac I bought in 1987 was a Mac SE with two floppy drives (later called a Mac SE FDFD as compared to Cameron's FDHD wich had a 10 or 20MB hard drive in the second slot).

Yes, this is  going way back.  Long time ago.  The more I think about it, it was in the late '80s that I played on that Mac.  I remember colorless display - it could have easily been grayscale.  I was just so impressed with the overall look and feel of its GUI compared to the MS Windows.  And floppy drive had a power-eject feature. That was cool too.  I was also surprised with a single-button mouse, but that didn't hinder any functionality.

[DKS]

[bdennis]

@bdennis I am loving your building flats!  The colors and textures look great!

  Frank

Frank, I picked them up from a friend that had them on his layout. I think they are from http://www.kingmill.com/. They no longer make them.

[u18b]

Thank you again for your wonderful work.

But your work will not be complete until you can make the powered dog sled that Randgust advertised years ago in an epic Atlas forum post.

[mu26aeh]

Frank, I picked them up from a friend that had them on his layout. I think they are from http://www.kingmill.com/. They no longer make them.

Would these make an acceptable substitute ?  I remember seeing them as I browsed evil inlet site before

https://www.ebay.com/sch/pghtrainfanatic/m.html?item=303545707921&hash=item46acbbed91%3Ag%3ABkIAAOSw-DRc-Cc8&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

[bdennis]

Would these make an acceptable substitute ?  I remember seeing them as I browsed evil inlet site before

https://www.ebay.com/sch/pghtrainfanatic/m.html?item=303545707921&hash=item46acbbed91%3Ag%3ABkIAAOSw-DRc-Cc8&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

I think so..
See here - https://pghtrainfanatic.com/n-scale-building-flats.html#/

[Mike Madonna]

Mike Madonna,

Thanks for the tender info. I am using the tender casting that Jason sent with the boiler. It doesn't look long enough to me but try to find a B'mann vandy today. I'll just have to super detail it. here is an image of my first test fit and with the doghouse just sitting on top of tender.


After looking at this image again I guess it is long enough.

Stay well,
Carl

Carl,

Doghouse looks pretty good. BTW, that is a 160-C tender casting, so you sir are "good to go"!!!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Would these make an acceptable substitute ?  I remember seeing them as I browsed evil inlet site before

https://www.ebay.com/sch/pghtrainfanatic/m.html?item=303545707921&hash=item46acbbed91%3Ag%3ABkIAAOSw-DRc-Cc8&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Damn, this one is cool: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOVIE-THEATER-G-Scale-Scratch-Built-Building-Flat-Front-w-LEDs/293304750456?hash=item444a535178:g:YxIAAOSwXkNabUHN

It's a shame they omitted the REALLY tasty burger place (Clark Burger) that's attached to it.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

More work in Bridesburg this weekend.

Built the Ferko String Band building continuing my streak of converting old timey windows into modern ones.



And made some progress on my tire dump.


More details in the engineering thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=46861.msg677790#new

[nkalanaga]

sd45elect2000:  Thank you! 

I thought it must be one of the "new" shortlines of the last 40 years, since I last lived near a railroad.  Not so!  It's been around for since the 1800s, but apparently hasn't had any interchange cars in the last 60 years.