Weekend Update 12/4/22

[Roger Holmes]

Work continues on the Chicago Board of Trade building.  The building is topped with a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of Grain.  Since the aluminum Art Deco statue sits 600 above street level, it has no face.



I carved my model of the statue from 1/4 inch wide Evergreen strip styrene.  It is 1 1/4 inches tall from base to crown.  After I paint it silver I will cut it from the strip.

[craigolio1]

Work continues on the Chicago Board of Trade building.  The building is topped with a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of Grain.  Since the aluminum Art Deco statue sits 600 above street level, it has no face.



I carved my model of the statue from 1/4 inch wide Evergreen strip styrene.  It is 1 1/4 inches tall from base to crown.  After I paint it silver I will cut it from the strip.

That is so cool that you hand carved that from styrene.

Craig.

[thomasjmdavis]

Beautiful, @Roger Holmes !  That will be an impressive structure when you finish.  I'm hoping to find a good photo of the south side of the Board of Trade for the (whenever I get started) Dearborn station layout backdrop. 

I did make one step in the right direction this week, gave myself a lesson in the Graphic Image Manipulation Program (with the unfortunate acronym "GIMP"- a sort of poor man's photoshop that runs on Linux).  The result will be turned into some decals, once I have a building side to put them on.  Thanks to @Sokramiketes for the magazine ads that I was able to take the figures from.  They are very close to the ones used on the real sign.

Unfortunately, my waist size is 10" larger than when the last Super Chief pulled in to Dearborn Station, so I don't look as good in my Lee jeans now as I did then.  Which reminds me....I need to add a couple pair to my Christmas list.

[altohorn25]

Back in the early 1990, my parents bought me a few of the Con-Cor Christmas cars.  I never really did anything with them until I dug them out the other day and thought it would be nice to have a train to run during the holidays.  Con-Cor released 6 cars; one for each of their passenger cars that they produced:  baggage, coach, dome coach, diner, sleeper, and observation car.  Each car had a different year printed on it for the car number as well as part of a verse from a Christmas Carol (along with the correct music notated on the car.....kinda cool....).  I've picked up a few more cars to complete a 10 car consist off a popular auction site over the past few weeks:  1 baggage, 4 coaches, 1 dome coach, 1 diner, 2 sleepers, and 1 observation car.

I replaced the rapido couplers with unimates (some cars took the medium length and others took the long length in order to get them close but not too close).  They weren't tracking very well with the stock Con-Cor wheels, so I kept the stock trucks but replaced the wheels with the latest low profile wheels from Kato.  They fit in the truck frames perfectly and make the cars roll oh so nice.

Motive power:  I searched around to find some passenger power that had a paint job that would match the cars.  Life-Like Rock Island E8's are almost a perfect match for color.  The trick would be finding a set.  I drove over to Scale Model Supplies in St. Paul, MN this afternoon to look.  They have a large stock of out of production locomotives and I figured I might get lucky and find a set.  They had 4 of them in stock

I will swap out the mechanisms with Kato E7 internals for better running qualities, DCC drop in decoders, and low profile wheels.

While waiting for the new mechanisms to arrive, I've started to work on the shells:  Krystal Klear for the windows (the stock window glass won't fit under the Kato mechanisms), shimming the bodies to fit the Kato units, road numbers in the front numberboards, Gold Medal Models windshield wipers and rear view mirrors, lead unit pilot coupler cover, new couplers on the trailing unit, a bit of weathering around the exhaust, etc....

I've test fit the new bodies on the mechanisms that I've fitted on my L&N E8's.  I'm happy with the results so far.


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[Roger Holmes]

Thanks for the kind comments.  I started shaping with a Dremel tool, then an X-Acto with a number 11 blade and finally an emery board.  The head was a separate piece of Evergreen styrene that I grafted into a groove that I cut in the back.  The Art Deco fins are very fine Evergreen strip glued on edge.  I have seen the statue my whole life and had no idea that it was as detailed as it is.  It just looked like a silhouette against the sky.  Visible when approaching Union Station from the South.

I witnessed the former trading floor several times which was amazingly choreographed chaos.  Buying and selling commodities by shouting sales and purchases with a follow up on paper slips.  That's all gone now thanks to computers.

[peteski]

Work continues on the Chicago Board of Trade building.  The building is topped with a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of Grain.  Since the aluminum Art Deco statue sits 600 above street level, it has no face.

I carved my model of the statue from 1/4 inch wide Evergreen strip styrene.  It is 1 1/4 inches tall from base to crown.  After I paint it silver I will cut it from the strip.

Awesome job Roger!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

"Can't do THIS with an M3"

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[Cajonpassfan]

A nice op session today, with a small crew. Got to test my multiple radio cabs 👍
More on my LA Division layout thread....
Otto K.

[kiwi_al]

 

"Can't do THIS with an M3"

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But you can do  that in a Suzuki Swift     

[Ed Kapuscinski]

But you can do  that in a Suzuki Swift     

Yeah, but... Will it also get it there with a sub 5s 0-60 while massaging my butt? Lol

[garethashenden]

Yeah, but... Will it also get it there with a sub 5s 0-60 while massaging my butt? Lol

With enough time and money, yes!

[altohorn25]

Window glass installed, coupler cover installed, windshield wipers installed, headlight lenses installed, horns painted, front number decals installed in the numberboards, steps touched up......that's about all I can do until the mechanisms arrive.  Weathering will wait until then.

I ran out of black electrical tape to mask the inside of the cab; the light blead that you see in the last photo will go away once I do that.

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[jjb62556]

Nate, Were these locos the plastic or split frame Lifelike?

[altohorn25]

Nate, Were these locos the plastic or split frame Lifelike?

These two were both the plastic frame with the big weights over each truck.

[altohorn25]

Nate, Were these locos the plastic or split frame Lifelike?

The third unit I have is the later split frame version.  See attached photo.


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