Weekend Update 2014/09/07

[VonRyan]

That reflects flecks of real coal . Looks tasty too . Gonna build the rest of the coal mine scene ? If it matches this it will be museum quality .

It's not coal. It's a crushed roofing slate. It's an iPhone 5 photo so the camera does all kinds of funky things to it.
It's a representation of the 2' gauge track in the many slate mines in Northern Wales.

[Mark W]

More fun with the Blade Train for me!  Expecting 6 more flats to arrive to add 4 more blades, giving me a 12 blade train.  That's just 1/3rd of the full 36 blade train I'd like to run at the first public Free-moNebraska set up! Realistically, I'll probably only make an 18 count train though. 

[delamaize]

I'm starting to put together a "close enough" model of the first steam excursion my daughter and I rode in Germany. no one makes a one of these locomotives, it was a smaller production locomotive, and their was only like 20-30 made. so i found a 0-6-0 that is a little smaller, but close. the rest of the consist, I was able to find some damn near dead ringer stand ins. the big challenge is going to be either locating a tiny diesel/hydrolic switcher to bring up the rear, or scratch build one. either or, I'm thinking I'll do it as a dummy.
Here is a few pictures of the prototype.
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and a few from the auctions of what I have thus far:
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I don't have any pictures of the stuff on my own layout yet, and I'm still waiting for the 5 wagon group to get here from Spain. As for the locomotive, I don't have any pictures. I'll try to get some tomorrow, when I get home from work.

[carlso]

Mark,

that blade train is way cool, nice work. One question for you. Do the saddles for the pointed tips rotate on the floor of the railcar or are they fixed?

OOPs, I had not seen your other posting. Sorry, my bad

[peteski]

the big challenge is going to be either locating a tiny diesel/hydrolic switcher to bring up the rear, or scratch build one. either or, I'm thinking I'll do it as a dummy.
Here is a few pictures of the prototype.
(Attachment Link)

That diesel look very close to the tiny diesels available from Minitrix and Arnold.
They are pricey (for a tiny model) but nice.



http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Arnold/2115.aspx



http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Trix/12287.aspx

Arnold (back in the 80s) made also another version of the tiny KOF shunter. It looked slightly different than either of the ones above.

BTW, do you have any side views of the steam loco (or know that class it is)?  There might be a model available that is close.  The range of European N scale steam is quite extensive (I wish we had a fraction of that kind of selection available for US steam models).

[Scottl]

Mark, I love the blade train, it will look awesome when you get all of it put together for shows.

I demolished part of my layout and rebuilt the benchwork in anticipation of installing the Cisco bridge.  A day of chaos moving things around and building, but the stage is almost set.

[Baronjutter]

Demolished the poorly built/planned lower level of my layout in this corner to make room for shelves and a desk I built over the week.

[delamaize]

That diesel look very close to the tiny diesels available from Minitrix and Arnold.
They are pricey (for a tiny model) but nice.



http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Arnold/2115.aspx



http://www.reynaulds.com/products/Trix/12287.aspx

Arnold (back in the 80s) made also another version of the tiny KOF shunter. It looked slightly different than either of the ones above.

BTW, do you have any side views of the steam loco (or know that class it is)?  There might be a model available that is close.  The range of European N scale steam is quite extensive (I wish we had a fraction of that kind of selection available for US steam models).

Not sure about the class, but here is a few more shots.

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and one of the drive on that diesel.
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and the website (in German) for the museum that owns the lok.
http://www.museumsbahn-losheim.de/

If their is a closer class, or a dead ringer,I'll probably pick it up, but I'll probably still keep the little bugger I already picked up also. It's a great little runner, and I have fallen in love with it. I'll get some pictures tomorrow hopefully. Although, a decoder is going to be a super challenge, I'm going to find the absolute smallest decoder I can find. One saving grace is I don't need any lighting circuit, the loco doesn't have lights at all.

EDIT: Just read some of their site, they lost the baggage car and a coach to arson in 2012.

[wcfn100]

I was able to track down a Moloco Trains 50' RBL kit and subsequently been crying ever since wondering why N scale can't have nice things.

Now to figure out how best to shink this down..


Jason

[chicken45]

Went to Ed's today to play with some trains in his yard. Also posed Lemosteam's B8a for some glamor shots.
Yes, we know this little guy likely never left the yard.

[Mark W]

Mark,

that blade train is way cool, nice work. One question for you. Do the saddles for the pointed tips rotate on the floor of the railcar or are they fixed?

OOPs, I had not seen your other posting. Sorry, my bad

They are fixed, but the design allow the blade to rotate within the fix sling.  Another thing I haven't mentioned, since the blades are White Strong and Flexible, they are... well really flexible!  They actually do flex a little on tight curves, just like the prototype!  The slings being plastic can also bend slightly out as well, not prototypical, but allows some tolerance for tight curves.  As long as there is enough side clearance, you shouldn't have any problems with the blades adjusting in the mounts, that's what they're supposed to do.

[Puddington]

Worked some decaling this week; added a couple of cars to the fleet:



With a large commercial bakery planned for the layout you can't have too many flour carrying Airslide. Decaled this guy and will now weather it according to a couple of pictures I found.





Some years ago I spent some time creating a brace of custom PC 50' cars, a mixture of ex NYC and PRR X64A's (or, close to anyways) and then painted, decaled and weathered them. I started one more and put it aside - wel; it got finished this week. Here is the car with a freind before weathering and then side by side with a buddy after getting the treatment.



I'm also working on a Geoff Gooderham ex Silk car express boxcar. next is the kinda crappy job of glazing it before a light weather is applied.

[seusscaboose]

Ran 1:160 Tuscan E8's while literally standing in the shadow of the prototype in central PA.
It was a slobber knocker.

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  Are you going to be doing any switching with your German train, or will it be a fixed consist?  If it's fixed, you might be able to put the decoder in the tank car.  If you can find flexible enough wires they can be disguised as air hoses, especially since most European trains I've seen pictures of seem to have a pair, one on each side of the coupler.  You'd still need four wires, but glue two together on each side and you'd have the two hoses.

[chicken45]

Ran 1:160 Tuscan E8's while literally standing in the shadow of the prototype in central PA.
It was a slobber knocker.

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!