Weekend Update - 4/19/2009

[John]

With nice weather on the east coast, I got nothing done railroad wise. What have you been up to.

[Bob Bufkin]

Your right about the weather.  No modeling.  Did finally go to Point of Rocks yesteday and took some photos.  If weather holds today may do some more railfanning.

[up1950s]

[Dave V]

I'm displaying my layout at a train show in Omaha next weekend so I took advantage of a rainy day yesterday to:

- Patch, sand, and repaint the fascia (semi-gloss black this time instead of flat black - resists scuffs and fingerprints better)
- Test, clean, & lube all my Pennsy engines
- Inventory my "A Team" rolling stock (the most trouble-free & best detailed to go to the show)
- Resurface the river
- Various foliage patching
- Clean the rails

Also picked up a pair of foobies (but pretty close)...  An Atlas X54 and a MT G31D gon.  Both are slated to be dullcoted/weathered.

[diezmon]

I got my FL4 decoder hooked up to my shelf layout.  I'll use that to control the lights in my buildings etc..

otherwise, I've been raking.. yehaww..

[wm3798]

The economy may be down everywhere else, but up in the attic, things must be booming.  84 Lumber and the Farmers Co-op are jammed with inbound loads, so things must be rockin' in Ohiopyle.







All the while, WM-6 rolled around the layout playing cat and mouse with the switching crew...



Once the hard work was done, I kicked back with cold beverage, dimmed the lights to "dusk mode", and listened to some Glenn Miller while two trains looped around the layout.  Sheer delight.

Lee

[Puddington]

Very nice work Richie... another signature piece of work... and Lee; I concur on the evening's activity however it was a little Stan Kenton here; followed by early Harry James.......

Before my right side went on the "fritz" I began work on numerous projects - got to be 20 or so in various stages of completion. I have found that I am going back to these; seeing which ones have activities that I can do with my current limitations and then trying to work on those....One I started was a trailer that I wanted to paint and decal for a "non existant" company in the Valley; I like "foobie" trucking companies and industries; it expands the layout without building anything.....



Don't ask me what Tompkins does; don't ask me why they have UP colours and don't ask me where they are located... don't have a bloody clue...LOL

I also had begun the first of a number of Geoff Gooderham resin cast Canadian Pacific cars. These are available from Central Hobbies in Vancouver and are very accurate castings of CPR tuscan and gold coaches, sleepers, baggage and RPO's.

The express car I began was a converted "silk car". In the 1920's and 30's express trains ran with first priority across Canada from Vancouver to New York City with valuable cargo's of raw silk for the fashion industry.

Specifically made boxcars were used and when the end of the silk train era came, the CPR converted many to express use on their passenger trains.



The resin shell is very good - very few imperfections and next to no bubbles. After cleaning the shell I filled in any surface issues with Tamyara putty; sanded it and then primed it. I used 0.010 wire for grabs in the pre drilled holes and then airbrushed a combination of CP tuscan and PRR tuscan to get the older, more weathered colour.

The trucks are excellent - they are resin cast with MT lo pro's and are very prototypical for the cars. MT body mounted couplers were added.

The windows are Krystal Kleer - I weathered the car lightly and added some grime to the bottom and underside.



The car is a signature piece of the Dominion and many other CPR trains - Gooderhams resin shell is excellent - the detail is very good and the ease of use (even when finishing the thing darn near left handed) is wonderful.

This unique car makes my "Dominion" consist far more prototypical..... I am really looking forward to working on the coaches and sleepers.... and may get the jam to try to start one regardless of the #$#@#!@ right side !

[up1950s]

Very nice work Richie... another signature piece of work... and Lee; I concur on the evening's activity however it was a little Stan Kenton here; followed by early Harry James.......

Before my right side went on the "fritz" I began work on numerous projects - got to be 20 or so in various stages of completion. I have found that I am going back to these; seeing which ones have activities that I can do with my current limitations and then trying to work on those....One I started was a trailer that I wanted to paint and decal for a "non existant" company in the Valley; I like "foobie" trucking companies and industries; it expands the layout without building anything.....



Don't ask me what Tompkins does; don't ask me why they have UP colours and don't ask me where they are located... don't have a bloody clue...LOL

Thanks but you're the guy with the signature stuff . Trailers with unique paint jobs would sell well . You could make some cool cash if you sold copies of that .

[3rdrail]

For my preliminary report on the Dapol "Terrier" 0-6-0T, see:

http://therailwire.net/smf/index.php/topic,17941.msg158179.html#msg158179

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I went to go visit the family in Philly, and TODAY had the most Philadelphia thing possible: a Cheesesteak on a soft pretzel.

[SecretWeapon]

[Wlal13again]

I went to go visit the family in Philly, and TODAY had the most Philadelphia thing possible: a Cheesesteak on a soft pretzel.

If it had a Tastykake Krimpet on top it be more Philadelphia...

[sizemore]

I played 1:1 wargames versus with my reenacting unit versus our german counterparts using 222's (armoured scout cars) and a couple suds (halftracks).

Then I went hunting on Pennsylvania backroads (driving home), my front driverside fender found a unobservant wild turkey. Turkey 1 - Truck 0.

So nothing this weekend unless you count my wallet being railroaded tomorrow by some bodyshop.

T

[cv_acr]

Last night was an operating session at my club, the first in a long while due to construction and trackwork replacement.

I held down the yardmaster position at Sudbury, which remained pretty busy all day. I only had one switch crew working for me, and Sudbury really needs two. So I did a little switching myself as well, and got some help during the afternoon portion of the session from one of the guys who had been on road duty in order to get local industries switched and catch up a little on classification.

In the preceding about 10 minutes prior to the photo below, two locals arrived in quick succession; to save space and switching time later, both set off their cars into the same track. One terminated with the engines running back to the diesel shops, the other lifted another track to head back out (you can see it waiting to depart in the background). In the meantime, an extra departed out of the yard to clear out a huge overflow of westbound cars, and meanwhile a pair of yard switchers were moving around.


(Don't mind the CN rebuilt GP9 in the photo, April is traditionally our "Junk night" session, where you can bring any engines you want without regard to prototype accuracy. Several CN engines made an appearance this year. As a side note, those first three insulated-heated boxcars are loaded with beer.)

Shortly after the photo was taken, a passenger arrived and the local in the yard departed, and a little while later another freight departed east/southbound for Toronto. (Eastbound out of the yard to the junction with the Parry Sound subdivision at Romford where it turns south for Toronto). Below that Toronto-bound freight departs the yard. The Conrail power is actually justifiable, and often used as backup power for this train in our sessions. CP would often borrow power laying over from the Buffalo-Hamilton joint TH&B/PC "Kinnear" for shorter distance runs. Toronto-Sudbury & return is just pushing that range. CP would also borrow engines from GO (Toronto commuter service) on weekends.

[Caleb Austin]

More scenery...