Weekend Update 3/13/22

[AlbertSpor]

Nate,
Nice looking cars.
Which Microscale decals did you use?
Thanks
Albert

[altohorn25]

Nate,
Nice looking cars.
Which Microscale decals did you use?
Thanks
Albert

The Microscale decals are the yellow stripes - set #71116 - 1" and 2" Width Yellow Stripes

The "Louisville & Nashville" and car names are from www.greatdecals.com (I got them from Ebay).

[TiogaTracks]

Nice job again, Nate.  Getting those stripes straight isn’t easy!

I continued with various rolling stock rehabs.  This K-Line G-scale billboard reefer got metal wheels and a swap to Lionel Large Scale couplers (I can’t get more Aristo knuckles, so I run Lionels on passenger equipment).  This involved using a drill as an improvised router to fit a slot for the centering “spring”.

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Then, rattle can weathering.  I had a weathering job go very bad last year, and I’m kind of timidly returning to it.  This wheel grime trick worked great!

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All ready to roll!

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Before & After:
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Now that weathering is fresh in my head and I have the couplers I needed from the reefer, time to dive into an old flatcar.  Can I turn out 2 cars in a day?

Edit: I wonder how long it’s been since a K-Line product was in the Weekend Update?

Edit 2: Yep, I can complete another car or two.  I present a stack of foobie PRR flats, showing Aristocraft After, Aristocraft Before, and USA Trains “this thing would be ancient by 1944, so weather the heck out of it!”.

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-Steven

[Mike C]

Mike:  Yes, although the town's "history" is more complicated than one might think.  J.R.R Tolkien didn't invent the name Moria.  He said he chose the name, years before writing his famous books, after hearing it in a poem.  Also, there's a town in Greece named Moria, which has been there for centuries, and one in South Africa, about which I know nothing.  Since Tolkien was born in South Africa, that might also have influenced him.

In any case, my claim is that the town was named in the late 1800s, probably by a Greek prospector.  Many of his Hobbit surnames came from the Lexington/Georgetown Kentucky area, and can still be found there today.  He got those from a student he met at college, and liked them enough to use them.  So why not place names from Montana? 

You'll find other Middle Earth names on my railroad, but again, every one has a logical explanation, so those who aren't Tolkien fans won't find them unusual.

  I never knew the history behind the names , never had time to read much beyond Hobbit and LOTR .   Might have to go back and dig further . Thanks ! Mike

[davefoxx]

My first ditch light installation, using SMDs to replace the dim factory lights.  I’ll probably redo the headlight, too.



DFF

[R L Smith]

A week or so ago I installed decoders in an ancient set of Micro-Trains' FT units that were never out of the box until a couple of months ago. Here they are next to a set of IM FT's that have been the workhorse locomotives for the last 10 years or so of layouts.

Gotta blacken the trip pin of course, and I note that the IM units are closer-coupled than the MT pair. That may - or may not - bother me...

Ron

[davefoxx]

@R L Smith,

If it does start to bother you, fab up a shorter drawbar out of styrene, and you can get the MTL FTs closer.  If it helps, the prototype was likely drawbarred between the A-unit and the B-unit anyway.

DFF

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  My research into the names mostly involved seeing if there were places named Moria in the real world.  The bit about the poem showed up on a website, which I just happened to be reading.

[AlbertSpor]

Nate
Thanks for the answer on the microscale decals for the L&N passenger cars.
The cars look great, as do all of the passenger cars that you have been doing.
Thanks again
Albert

[chuck geiger]

Got a lot done in three days, full report coming.

[Kentuckian]

Completed the track wiring and control panel for the micro layout.

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Additional details in layout engineering thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=53511.msg737156#msg737156

[mmagliaro]

The Sinclair station in Moria, Montana.
...
....

Love this!  Did this one have a statue of a dinosaur in the parking lot like some of them do?  Maybe find a kid's plastic
set of dinosaurs and paint the apatosaurus green (yes, I know about the whole "no such brontosaurus" thing... oy)

[nkalanaga]

I have no idea if the Lincoln Sinclair did, or does, as I don't remember seeing it the only time I was in Lincoln.  Mine doesn't, but if I happen to find a dino the right size, I'd like to.

There's a Sinclair dinosaur at the top of the hill as you enter Wall, SD from the east, right next to I-90.  One of the big, near life size, ones.  Depending on exactly how the camera is angled, it sometimes shows in the SD traffic camera.

[peteski]

That is one deserted Interstate highway on Dec 16, 2020 at 8:11 am. Where is everybody?!  Were they all afraid of the dino? 

[Missaberoad]

Its South Dakota Pete...
That is everybody!