Weekend Update 4/10/22

[nkalanaga]

Another couple pictures from my layout, this time of Loudwater Grain Growers Elevator #2, in Jefferson.  Elevator #3 is the one in Gerti, Elevator #1 is at Silver City, off the layout.





This one is based on the early 1980s appearance of the Dakota Mill and Grain elevator on Wall, SD.  According to Google Maps, the prototype has changed dramatically in the last ten years, with most of the older structures gone.  Here is a 2009 picture, from the driveway, across from Wall Drug's parking lot.  Even this has changed from the 1980s, but the old elevators are still there.  The bin on the far left replaced the covered hopper unloading elevator in the blue building.


Mine is almost entirely scratchbuilt, much of it in the 1990s, although the actual modern elevators and the small round bin were replaced with Rix kits when I built this layout.  I'd rather have it straight, like the prototype, but the corner was the only practical place to put it!

The old elevator is Evergreen styrene, using 0.02 inch scribed siding as corrugated aluminum, with the layers scribed in.  The other buildings are also styrene, typical N scale construction methods.

The two modern bins next to the old elevator are cardboard tubes, from label rolls at work.  Good heavy tubes, not like toilet paper or paper towels.  They're covered with scribed and "pounce-wheeled" paper siding for metal sheets.

The large round bin is the pressed paper center tube from a roll of microfiche film, also from work.  The foundation is one end cap, also pressed paper, which has a raised center area that fits in the roll.  In the fiche processor, the two end caps were mounted in brackets, and the tube turned on them.  I pried the raised center portion loose for the top, and built the top on that, so it fits the bin, but can be removed if needed.

The railcar unloading elevator, is an original part of the model, from the early 90s, with the addition of GMM safety cage ladders.  Other GMM ladders and walkways can also be found, mostly on the Rix elevators.

Tubing is a mix of Evergreen styrene and K&S aluminum, depending on what was handy at the time.

The office and truck shed are between the old portion and the large bin, not visible, but modeled.  The truck dump is barely visible sticking out on the left.  It can be raised, if one wants to dump a truck, but that requires crawling under the layout and pushing up on the lift rod!

The yellow grain augur is a very basic model, based on one that sat along a local highway for years.

The Quonset Hut is Narvi Welding and Fabricating, a one-piece resin casting of unknown origin, with garage doors made from two MT boxcar doors and some styrene strips.

[danoh]

Making more turnouts for the shelf layout I have in mind..... (Fast-tracks, not using any of the big expensive jigs....)

(Worked at Hookers for a couple of summers on the paint crew. I did all the sand-blasting for them.)

[Bendtracker1]

I killed a bug today.

~Dale Gribble

[mu26aeh]

Boy, I'll tell ya what.  Can't believe someone let their Bug sit out and rust like that.  They probably do the same thing to their propane grill.  Only difference is i could probably sell them a new propane grill and propane acessories down at Strickland Propane.

~ Hank Hill

[nkalanaga]

Morbid thought, but maybe the owner died, and the heirs weren't interested in it?

[Chris333]

Nobody wants your dinosaur gas.

[Jim Starbuck]

I finished the GP20 tonight.
It’s an out of production Skytop Models shell on an Atlas GP9 mech.

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[CBQ Fan]

Randgust

"This finishes up one project - re-powering my ABBA set of Katos with new mechanisms under the old shells."

How did AT&SF number their ABBA sets? I have a set down under and I would like to put the number boards on but the numbers supplied don't make sense. Did the B units have numbers?

TIA.

David

Typically they had the road number with a suffix of LABC
Such as:
300L
300A
300B
300C


L stood for Lead.

I would go to Kato for some reference on how they numbered their many releases.

http://www.qstation.org/

[altohorn25]

Here's a video of the L&N cars that I posted yesterday.  The locomotives are detailed Life-Like shells mounted on Kato mechanisms with Digitrax DCC decoders added.  The cars are a mix of Wheels of Time, Micro Trains, and Kato.  The WOT baggage car is stock; all other cars were detailed, painted, and decaled.  All MT cars have Z scale 905 couplers and Eastern Seaboard Models 36" metal low profile wheels installed.  Looking forward to getting Lowell Smith's cars to add to the consist.

[randgust]

Randgust

"This finishes up one project - re-powering my ABBA set of Katos with new mechanisms under the old shells."

How did AT&SF number their ABBA sets? I have a set down under and I would like to put the number boards on but the numbers supplied don't make sense. Did the B units have numbers?

TIA.

David

OK, Santa Fe was a little wierd as it was a holdover from the practice of selling ABBA or similar sets as a single 'locomotive'.   So as sold, they had the same number, with a suffix.  Santa Fe used LABC.   First unit was L, B-units were A and B, end unit was C.    Lead unit would be 347 with a small 'L' on the sill, 347 in the board.   B units had a very small number on the edge of the sill, so small it's hardly visible and I never bother to decal.  Trailing unit is 347C, and the "C" is actually in the number board.

The preserved unit at the Sacramento Railway Museum is 347C.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/133554/

If you look really close, right above the coupler, you can spot the "L" on the stripe in this shot.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/588021/

You need a magnifying glass to spot it, but this is 327A, on the red stripe.  Almost invisible.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/348038/

[Cajonpassfan]

Typically they had the road number with a suffix of LABC
Such as:
300L
300A
300B
300C


L stood for Lead.

I would go to Kato for some reference on how they numbered their many releases.

http://www.qstation.org/

Well, true, but the practice changed over time.

If one models the earlier diesel era when Santa Fe units were run in pure, classic, dedicated  sets (i.e 26LABC four unit set, or 300LAB three unit set as delivered) there was no need to put letter suffixes on the number boards.
Only after ATSF started splitting and combining the sets in the mid fifties did it become necessary to distinguish the cab units with a suffix to avoid dispatching errors. By then, the F units also received multiple modifications and upgrades (grabs, ladders etc.). Just a bit of trivia while on the subject...
Fun stuff, Otto

[eja]

Didn't the "single locomotive" scheme come about to prevent the union from insisting each unit a separate loco and therefore it should have a separate crew ?

[altohorn25]

Didn't the "single locomotive" scheme come about to prevent the union from insisting each unit a separate loco and therefore it should have a separate crew ?

Yes - that's why a bunch of the first FT units were delivered as A-B-B-B sets; so there was no opportunity for the unions to question using a second crew in the other A unit's cab.  In later years, individual A units were purchased to get the normal A-B-B-A sets that we're accustomed to.

Nate

[SirTainly]

Picked up this module the week, from a fellow Snake Bend member.

[John]

Spent some time recharging the batteries ..